New On The NYR Blog

The New York Review blog has two new posts up today, from Haleh Esfandiari, who writes about her tenure in Evin Prison in Tehran, and Ahmed Rashid, who delves into how exactly the U.S convinced Hamid Karzai to hold a run-off election. The Huffington Post has excerpts below.

Iran's Harshest Sentence for an Innocent Scholar, Haleh Esfandiari

For me Iran's sentencing this week of Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh to at least twelve years in prison--the harshest sentence so far passed down by the revolutionary court--is particularly fraught. In 2007, he and I were fellow prisoners in Tehran's Evin Prison. He was held in the men's section and I in the women's section of Ward 209, reserved for political prisoners held by Iran's Intelligence Ministry. We had been arrested within a day of each other, and we shared, in separate interrogation rooms, the same interrogators. He began to send me books; thanks to him I was able to escape the confines of my prison cell by reading the novels of Dostoevsky and Graham Greene.

Now, on October 20, Kian has been convicted, on the kind of fantastical charges beloved of Iran's revolutionary courts--everything from plotting a "velvet revolution" in Iran to espionage and undermining the credibility of the Islamic Republic. He was even charged with endangering the security of the state by belonging to a public email list, Gulf2000 (which posts news and commentary on the Middle East), run by Columbia University professor Gary Sick, who is falsely identified in the indictment as a CIA operative. Read More

How They Convinced Karzai, Ahmed Rashid

Everything that could possibly go wrong in Afghanistan has gone wrong over the past two months. The industrial-level rigging and manipulation of the August 20 election--largely by the government of President Hamid Karzai--could have dealt a death blow to international involvement in Afghanistan, as it entered its ninth year. Worse, it occurred just as the Taliban were ramping up their insurgency and Afghans were becoming even more disillusioned with their government than usual. So how did the US and its allies manage to convince Karzai this week to agree to a run-off election?

Last month the Independent Election Commission--an Afghan body appointed by Karzai himself--gave him 54.6 percent of the vote and his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, only 27.7 percent. But in view of widespread reports of fraud, Abdullah, Afghans, and the entire international community refused to accept this result until a UN appointed complaints body called the Electoral Complaints Commission had done a recount. Read More

Read more at the New York Review of Books Blog.

Comments

[ibsteve2u]

02:10 AM on 10/25/2009

The blog entry regarding how Karzai concludes with: "Karzai intensely dislikes the other White House players because they have hurt his ego by dishonorin­g him and criticizin­g him in public. Over such knowledge and niceties does the world turn and turn again."

That is, to me, is why the right is incapable of leading America.

The right is simply too greed-cent­ric. They believe that the only thing that really matters is wealth, and anything that you say or do can be smoothed over with a big wad of cash.

They don't - can't - grasp that honor and respect still have meaning to much of the world', because they are willing to discard honor to gain wealth, and feel that the mere possession of wealth merits them respect.

They can't understand that - in many parts of the world - when you first set out to purchase respect and loyalty, you have categorize­d yourself, and what loyalty and respect you receive you have not earned but are only renting.

That is why I believe that sending some of our most famously corrupt corporatio­ns into the nations that Bush, Cheney, & PNAC, LLP involved us in was such a mistake; they served only to reinforce an image that is a propaganda tool used against us:

The impression that the American people have no honor, no character, no ethics, and no morality; that we are only greed, embodied.

[KIVPossum]

04:46 AM on 10/26/2009

Good post. This is the core of many problems all over the world. Many people do not want to adopt our ideals because they see them executed by the worst of society.

[Khirad]

11:17 PM on 10/24/2009

Shortly after President Obama's speech in Cairo last June, Kian wrote, "Iranians might ponder Barack Obama's challenge to Iran to articulate ‘not what it is against, but what future it wants to build.' Each Iranian will wonder how much thought our rulers or our fellow countrymen have given to this critical question and why answers to it are so vague and so few."

The New Hostage Crisis
By Karim Sadjadpour
http://www­.foreignpo­licy.com/a­rticles/20­09/10/23/t­he_new_hos­tage_crisi­s?page=ful­l

[ImissBush]

01:16 PM on 10/24/2009

cut off his allowance ?

[lazercat2008]

10:58 AM on 10/24/2009

How did they convince Karzai?

**$$ Ka Ching **

[larry278]

09:03 AM on 10/24/2009

Thank you for referring to the NYR Blog. It looks as if I will glance at it at least once a day. The HP enployee(s­) deserve credit for introducin­g HP users to the NYR Blog. Your search engine will be useful in finding it.
2 b effusive: using HP is a useful way for progressiv­es to stay informed.

[Kevins]

04:26 AM on 10/24/2009

Amazing gamesmansh­ip from the American administra­tion. Very, very clever--an­d quite hardball. Brilliant.

With great results.

[hernan1333]

11:31 PM on 10/23/2009

Did US government agree to buy drugs from this brother?

[moongal6]

01:44 AM on 10/24/2009

This is not the Reagan, Poppy Booosh, or BooooosW era. Get with the program.
That was then, this is now.

[HHarvey]

10:31 PM on 10/23/2009

I think he was convinced by our stipulatio­ns. He either agrees to the run off or we don't give him any more help.

[northstar11]

10:17 PM on 10/23/2009

listen hamid---ev­er heard of saddam hussein?

[DrToketee]

09:13 PM on 10/23/2009

How did Karzai get convinced?

Answer: gutless Zero-bama sic-ed his bulldog Rahm into him. Yep, our Prez did not have the courage to stand up before us and speak for himself and be held accountabl­e for it, he just let his bullies do it for him through the back channel. Got the desired result, but when is Obama gonna stop making speeches and start stating publically America's position?

[moongal6]

01:42 AM on 10/24/2009

Take another toke.

[JessWonderin]

10:37 PM on 10/24/2009

WHOA!!!

Don't blame demon weed for ignorance!­!!!! . . . more likely THIS one specialize­s in copious amounts of generic beer and home made pron

. . . . and wanna bet this "real Amerikken" thinks a DD214 is insecticid­e???

[Kevins]

04:24 AM on 10/24/2009

You must be kidding. If that's how they did it, it was brilliant politics--­and at the very least, the result is excellent.
Well done, Obama Administra­tion.

[DrToketee]

10:49 AM on 10/24/2009

So WHAT is Obama's position on Afganistan­, buddy?

Don't know, do you? But Rahm does. That's why our soldiers there and there families are fed up with the White House.

Obama says Dems think for themselves­. Starting thinkin'!

[moongal6]

08:36 PM on 10/23/2009

Our President is an excellent multi tasker.
He is taking care of business, just as he is supposed to. I guess we are not paying attention, or we are taking his work ethic for granted. Whatever the situation, I'm so glad he's on it.
It helps, to also have people working on this, such as John Kerry, Eikenberry­, and Rahm Emanuel.

[Brezzydee]

08:16 PM on 10/23/2009

I am always sure that President Obama (even when he says he is not involved) have say so on what is going on behind the scenes. His voice may not be in the forefront, but his words are being mimicked to the other party in tow.

I will continue to say, while the news media is fixated on healthcare­, will they or won't they get a package. President Obama is taking care of business. He will use whomever he need to, to get the job done. I like that in him. He can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[DrToketee]

10:45 AM on 10/24/2009

But he can't ASK or TELL at the same time, can he?

[Littlewords]

01:34 PM on 10/24/2009

That will change on his watch.

Remember, it's the GOP that gave this to Obama as an inheritanc­e they passed over with no less than eight full years to address and change the policy if it really mattered at all to them.

[lgervais]

07:19 PM on 10/23/2009

Its either your signature or your brains on this, what's is gonna be!

[sherbug]

06:28 PM on 10/23/2009

Now if we could just convince him to pick up the tab for his infrastruc­ture.

[Jaywalkker]

06:08 PM on 10/23/2009

Convince Karzai for a run-off?

With 4 words, "American Withdrawal from Kabul."