On Wednesday, September 21, Iran's state-run media announced that the two American hikers held in Iran, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were being released after more than two years in custody, just in time for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the UN the following day. Not coincidentally, the third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released a year ago just before Ahmadinejad's last UN speech.
Ahmadinejad brazenly claimed that both releases were "humanitarian" gestures. No surprise there. But it is shocking, not to mention shameful, that he is allowed to get away with it by the various media, that conducts interviews, exclusives and gives him extensive airtime to churn out his propaganda.
Perhaps the media should think about tagging its interviews with Ahmadinejad: "Iran's chief hostage-taker."
Reminiscent of the mid-1980s and early 1990s, when the Iranian regime earned and kept the title of the world's most active state-sponsor of terror, partly because of its involvement in hostage-taking in Lebanon. Local proxy groups brandishing Kalashnikovs would take Americans and Westerners hostage, and then Tehran, acting on a "humanitarian basis," would take the negotiating seat to get them released in exchange for the concessions Tehran needed.
The Iran-Contra fiasco during the Reagan administration evolved from the desire to arrange the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by pro-Tehran elements. In exchange, the erstwhile "moderates" among the ruling clerics of Iran asked for, and got, a few thousand TOW missiles and a terrorist label on Iran's main opposition movement.
That policy has since evolved into a new form of hostage-taking. Over the past few years, particularly under Ahmadinejad, we have seen many Americans who had traveled to Iran, including journalists like Roxana Saberi, arrested, declared spies, sentenced to prison, and then eventually released.
What Tehran accomplishes is to take American foreign policy hostage. As the hostages linger in jail, the United States is dissuaded from pursuing a tougher approach regarding Iran, and persuaded to delay sanctions and drag its feet on decisions that run counter to the interests of the Iranian regime. Ultimately, Tehran's rulers release the victims when it suits them, i.e. to coincide with Ahmadinejad's visit to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the entire region has been engulfed in uprisings. The world watches as the Arab Spring blossoms, and some of the mullahs' closest allies fall or totter in Libya and Syria. To distract attention from the forces for change in the region, and in particular in Iran, Ahmadinejad puts on his dog-and-pony show, making the release of the hostages the news of the day. Does anyone remember that the hikers should have never been arrested to begin with, much less used as human shields for Tehran's onslaught?
Ahmadinejad actions, however, cannot change the reality on the ground, where his regime is in deep trouble. At home, he struggles to deal with the internal infighting, even among the closest allies of Supreme Leader Khamenei, a moribund economy, and increased protests now spreading to ethnic areas. Over the past few weeks, anti-government demonstrations have been mounting in Western Azerbaijan Province, particularly in the city of Orumieh, where there is major discontent about the government's destructive inaction on measures to prevent the drying of Lake Orumieh.
Discontent is widespread in Iran, where this year several more anti-government protestors and political prisoners have been sentenced to death on the bogus charge of "mohareb," or waging war on God. Since January, the regime that Ahmadinejad presides over has killed a number of others for their association with the main organized opposition group and their participation in the 2009 uprising. Tehran has announced the hanging of over 450 people, including minors, some publicly.
In February, clashes between state security forces and hundreds of thousands of protesters wracked central Tehran. Security forces beat and fired tear gas at opposition supporters hoping to evoke an Egypt-like popular uprising.
As Ahmadinejad prepares to speak at the UN on Thursday, the media would do better to pay attention to the voices of change in Iran. Outside the UN, thousands of Iranian-Americans, many of them relatives of political prisoners in Iran or of those murdered by the Iranian regime, will stage a protest. Their message is to declare Ahmadinejad, once again, the representative of the most repressive regime in the region, and not the representative of the Iranian people.
This year, history will be made as the United Nations turns over Libya's seat to its democratic representatives. Isn't it time to do the same and turn over Iran's seat to the Iranian opposition?
Follow Alireza Jafarzadeh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/A_Jafarzadeh
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It is also notable that despite the English language and literature, Persian language is the same as when the literature was written centuries before
It should not be hard to comprehend that from the early age, the native feel intimacy with each other and sense attachments and that brothers with the same religion, culture, language, being part of one nation for many centuries separated by colonization scheme in 19th centaury embrace one another and seek help from now a neighbor?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan#History
The ruins of Madaen in the capital of Persian empire Tisfoon is next to Bagdad which incidentally is a Persian word
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia
Perceptive of these facts one should recognize Iranians are not the intruder in the region and they have cultural indestructible bond together and since Empires do not exist any more friendship brings influence and Iran's cultural influence could serve US purposes
no its not time and here's why
1) the libyan opposition overthrew the former regime through capturing all of libya and its capital city tripoli, now there are only small pockets of government supporters in tripoli.
the iranian 'opposition' (assuming that it is even an opposition according to the iranian people) has largely stopped fighting physically with the regime.
2) the libyan 'opposition' was supported by a large segment (in fact a majority) of the libyan people, whereas the iranian opposition (which according to jafarzadeh are the mostly ex-iranian exile groups based outside iran) mostly has the support of the diaspora (who have different views and agendas/goals than the people in iran) and has little if any connection inside iran (libya opposition connection was underground but widespread)
Now, whether Moussavi, or other political figures in Iran, or some exiles deserve to represent the country is the second question that is up for debate. And Mr. Jafarzadeh, did not specify who should occupy that seat, as he couldn't and shouldn't.
There is no way to gauge the extent of support for each opposition group in Iran so long as there is no free elections, but the level of support abroad is usually a way to gauge it; though not definitively.
Just a thought.
that was not the basis for the libyan seat turnover, the basis was that that libyan tnc physically overthrew gaddafi in late august. if the basis was upon the question of legitimacy the seat would have been turned over back in february/march when gaddafi explicitly lost legitimacy according to most of the international community (according to libyans, he lost legitimacy to rule libya back in the 70s when he turned dictatorial).
if the seat turnover is based upon legitimacy, syria's seat at the UN would have been turned over to the SNC this month (despite the fact that it didnt physically overthrow the syrian regime. the fact that the iranian 'opposition' (by which i mean the one in exile) doesnt exert any influence nor does it control any part of iran makes them ineligible to take any seat from the current government governing iran.
it really isn't up for debate because its pretty clear who should spearhead the opposition. mousavi and karroubi have been the leaders of the opposition (green movement) in iran and if anybody is to replace them it will definitely be someone from inside - they have more first hand account and know the realities on the ground unlike the exiles such as the 'crown prince', the 'kdpi leader', or mr. jafarzedeh here (who mostly have knowledge about their countries from the limited videos and pictures and accounts from others - which would make almost anyone eligible for representing the country).
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2011/pn11107.htm
"Iran has started implementing a major subsidy reform by raising sharply the prices of energy and agricultural products in December 2010, removing close to US$60 billion dollars (about 15 percent of GDP) in annual product subsidies. The subsidy reform is expected to increase efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, improve income distribution, reduce poverty, and help Iran unlock its full growth potential.
Economic growth rebounded from the cyclical downturn in 2008/09 to reach 3.2 percent for the 2010/11, spurred by a recovery in agriculture production, and higher oil prices. Building upon their success in reducing inflation from 25.4 percent in 2008/09 to 12.4 percent in 2010/11, the Central Bank of Iran was able to contain inflation in the aftermath of the subsidy reform. As a result, consumer price inflation has only increased from 10.1 percent in December to 14.2 percent at end-May 2011."
All of this while being under "crippling sanctions". Not bad huh?
In the ignominious 5-year term of Ahmadinejad, Iran has collected close to $500 billion dollars in petro-dollars, more than the Shah picked up in his 27 years!!!How do you like them cookies?
And don’t try to whitewash the mismanagement of a corrupt and backward regime that has spent billions of dollars in wasteful pursuit of its nuclear ambition; destabilizing, and provocative in a region replete with unmanageable problems already, for the only purpose of exporting and expanding its fundamentalist and reactionary hegemony!!!
Didn’t you hear about your supreme leader holding the so-called “Islamic Awakening Conference” on Saturday September, 17th, where amongst a bunch of cohorts collected from different countries he said ” the objective of region’s uprisings is religious rule of people based on Unified Islamic Amah or community.”
And he never said a word about the bloodshed underway by Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his main partner in savagery.
CNGS
Mr. Jafarzadeh’s thoughtful column warns us of the dangers of being bamboozled by a nefarious character, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who does not represent the Iranian people, whose election stolen at the point of gun and murdering ( NEDA) and many others, as well thousands of Iranian protestors whose hopes, voices and aspirations for liberty and human rights were stifled by his mercenary thugs.
The audacity of the mullahs of Tehran is so obvious that a child can easily understand their timing of the releasing of the hostages, with a ransom of one million dollars paid by the Oman government. Two innocent young men who had set out to simply explore the area and had gotten lost, in the area near the Iranian border.
When one looks at the two hostages, you can clearly see that they have suffered a lot. And they were only in the prisons of the Iranian regime for two years, and their thugs not daring to torture them physically for fear that the US would make them pay dearly. But what about the thousands of Iranian prisoners in the dungeons of Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad for years under the worst inhumane conditions and savage tortures, and other forms of psychological and physical duress.
Let’s not fool ourselves and as the author points out do not allow the thug to enjoy the limelight for the stunt he and his cohorts have pulled off to distract the world from their terrorism and pursuit of the nuclear bomb.
CNGS
It will be popular with those Americans who feel it is their patriotic duty to cheer the demonisation and propaganda aimed at declared 'enemies', and those too ignorant or busy to see through the demonisation and propaganda, so it will make you popular with a lot of people.