As Iran's election crisis continues, hundreds if not thousands of prisoners remain in Iran's notorious Evin prison. Few of them have faces known to the outside world. Some of them may have protested in the streets. Others were in Mir Hussein Moussavi's inner circle. Still others had nothing to do with either the protests or the opposition. We know very little about all of these prisoners. We may not even know their names.
Bijan is one of the many prisoners who neither participated in the protests nor had any involvement with the opposition. In fact, he wasn't involved in party politics in any way. He is a self-made man, who built a solid reputation as one of the country's leading economic and political analysts as the founder and CEO of Iran's leading business consultancy, Atieh Bahar Consulting.
While the outside world knows Bijan best as a top-notch consultant drawing the attention of multinational and local firms to investment opportunities in the country, his many friends and closest colleagues will tell you about his humanitarian side. They will tell you that Bijan is the person they would go to whenever they need something and that he listens to problems patiently and offers the optimistic, uplifting outlook that has become his trademark, even if he has dozens of deadlines and other obligations to meet. Whatever the problem -- from low-income workers needing money to arrange a dowry for their daughters' wedding to reputable Iranian expat scholars looking to set up a free course on management in Tehran -- Bijan is the person everyone turns to. He plays a key role in enhancing the quality of education among school children in Iran as the executive director of a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides these youth with educational opportunities, particularly in information and Internet technology.
Bijan was also a dedicated environmentalist. Years ago, when I noticed that Bijan was a vegetarian, I asked him about it. He explained to me that during his university years he had once roughly calculated the amount of energy it would take if everyone in the world consumed meat, and had quickly realized that the global environment simply could not handle it, so he stopped eating meat.
A few days after the contentious presidential elections in Iran, Bijan took a short business trip to Austria and the U.K., where he spoke at chambers of commerce, advising companies to continue seeking business In Iran.
For some, such actions were apparently a crime so heinous that Bijan was arrested when he arrived at Tehran's airport on June 27. He was taken away by unidentified men to an undisclosed location without notice. To this day, his family does not know where he is, or on what grounds he was arrested. He wasn't even in the country when the post-election turmoil started.
A diabetic in dire need of his medicine and a strict diet, Bijan's health is now in danger. Undoubtedly, his wife and two school-age daughters fear for him more and more with every passing day.
With his German education and work experience as a management consultant in Europe, Bijan could have chosen a very comfortable life in the West. He chose instead to return to his country of birth to help improve it through his work in the private and not-for-profit sectors. An incurable optimist, he refused to believe that change could not come to Iran. But rather than seeking change through political means, Bijan stayed above politics and sought to improve the economic quality of life of ordinary Iranians through business opportunities and innovative management solutions.
For some, Bijan's choice of working in Iran made him suspect. His hopeful outlook on Iran's future didn't always mesh with political correctness in the West. But neither did it, evidently, win him any friends within the Iranian government.
As he lingers on in jail, not knowing his crime or whether he ever will be given an opportunity to defend himself, his wife and children in Tehran are anxiously waiting, hoping that news of their beloved Bijan will reach them.
They fear that Bijan won't get access to the medicine he needs, that he won't come be coming home any time soon. And they fear the world will forget about him because they never knew his face and never heard his story.
12:19 PM ET -- Khamenei overrules Ahmadinejad, fires his deputy.Ouch.
The Supreme Leader has ordered Ahmadinejad's first deputy to resign from Ahmadinejad's cabinet just days after his appointment, according to the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament. Deputy Speaker Aboutorabi said, "eliminating Mashaei from key positions and the first deputy position is a strategic decision by the regime. The Supreme Leader's opinion about the removal of the Mr. Rahim Mashaei from the position of president's first deputy has been submitted to the President in writing."
UPDATE: NIAC notes that Ahmadinejad's camp is fighting back:
That apparently did not stop Ahmadinejad's senior assistant from saying on a live TV program that "I have not seen a clear and convincing reason given by anyone to make [Mashaei's] appointment to the first deputy position impossible. Some say he has med mistakes in some of his statements. Well, everyone makes mistakes."
11:45 AM ET -- New demonstrations in Tehran. Reuters reports:
Iranian riot police detained dozens of pro-reform protesters in central Tehran on Tuesday, a witness said.
The witness said the protesters were chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government, including: "Ahmadinejad -- resign, resign" and "Death to the dictator."
The witness added: "Riot police are taking dozens of protesters into their cars and they are taking them away."
More details from the L.A. Times.
11:10 AM ET -- Guardian: Iran prisoner refuses to leave prison in protest. This is the first I've heard of Saeed Hajarian refusing to leave Evin prison, but it's a fascinating display of bravery if true.
Of all those dumped in Evin prison and other secret detention centres, the case of Hajarian does most to expose the regime's moral squalor and callousness. Long hailed as the intellectual mastermind of the reformist movement, he is today physically frail thanks to a failed assassination attempt nine years ago ordered, in all probability, by the same hardline zealots who plotted the recent election buffoonery.
Hajarian is confined to a wheelchair and able to speak only with great difficulty, having suffered severe spinal cord damage after being shot in the face by a fundamentalist who, though later convicted, hardly served any jail time. [...]
Hajarian's captors fear his brain. They are trying to force him to sign a confession owning up to plotting a "colourful" or velvet revolution that would have seen the Islamic republic toppled and replaced by a pro-western puppet government, the political bogeyman that keeps Khamenei and his acolytes awake at night. In return, he would be allowed to leave prison - thereby handing the regime a propaganda coup and sparing it the increasing embarrassment of imprisoning a man whom it is already responsible for reducing to a shell.
But Hajarian - himself one of the principle founders and architects of the intelligence ministry in his younger days - has turned the tables by refusing to leave prison. He has refused to give any admission, even when his jailers tried to break his resolve by interrogating his wife and detaining - though later releasing - his son. Effectively, the prisoner is holding his captors hostage, forcing them to provide, and even administer, the treatment needed to keep him alive. His interrogator has been reduced to carrying out his daily physiotherapy sessions.
10:47 AM ET -- Women praying with men. I've received multiple images like this in recent days. The reader who sent this noted, "in Islam, women NEVER pray in front of men - in fact, they typically pray in a separate room and all mosques are segregated."
Iran's women breaking barriers again.
10:45 AM ET -- Iran blackout planned tonight. A reader notes, "It looks like opposition supporters are planning to create another blackout tonight in Iran at 9:00 pm to commemorate those killed in the past 30 days (including Neda) by turning on their irons and other electrical goods at the same time."
From another reader, "If this works it could create a lot of problems for the government because it could take days trying to start up the power plants again. It's been planned for weeks. It could really shake up the system even more."
10:42 AM ET -- Iran's tragic joke. Roger Cohen's latest in the Times:
Allow me to quote the British novelist Martin Amis, writing about Persia in The Guardian: "Iran is one of the most venerable civilizations on earth: it makes China look like an adolescent, and America look like a stripling."
Iranians, aware of that history, are a proud people. They do not take kindly to being played around with, nor to seeing their country turned into a laughing stock. They do not like the memory of an election campaign that now seems like pure theater, the expression of the sadistic whim of some puppeteer.
So the line I take away from the important Friday sermon of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the two-time former president who believes that the Islamic Republic's future lies in compromise rather than endless confrontation, is this one: "We shouldn't let our enemies laugh at us because we've imprisoned our own people."
There's been tragedy aplenty since June 12 -- dozens of killings, thousands of arrests, countless beatings of the innocent -- and I hope I belittle none of it when I say there's also been something laughable.
Iran's police chief is accusing opposition leaders of provoking instability, after they called for a referendum on the government's legitimacy.
The official IRNA news agency on Tuesday quoted Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam as saying those who do not abide by law are "liars" who seek to create discord by spreading doubt in the Islamic republic.
Iranian hardliners denounced on Tuesday a call by reformists for a referendum to resolve the deepening political crisis in the Islamic republic, branding it a Western plot to cause more "havoc."
The Association of Combatant Clerics, a reformist group led by former president Mohammad Khatami, on Monday urged a referendum to try to end the turmoil gripping Iran since the June 12 disputed presidential election.
"They have suggested yet another Western plot to raise havoc by proposing a referendum," said Hossein Shariatmadari, managing director of the hardline newspaper Kayhan who is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"The main idea of this plan is to trigger tension. Their proposal is illegal amd impractical," Shariatmadari wrote.
12:40 AM ET -- Popular American interest in Iran. Via reader Goli, a YouTube video posted by an American "grannie"... I mention it less for the content of the video than simply to note again how much the Green uprising has increased Americans' interest in Iran and changed how people view the country.
12:32 AM ET -- "Hard-Line Force Extends Grip Over a Splintered Iran." A wonderful piece of reporting by the New York Times exploring Iran's Revolutionary Guard (and an example, in the midst of the Twitter fascination, of the importance of good journalism).
It's worth reading the full story, but I'd like to highlight two pieces. First, on the extent of control over political and economic levers that the Guard now holds:
"It is not a theocracy anymore," said Rasool Nafisi, an expert in Iranian affairs and a co-author of an exhaustive study of the corps for the RAND Corporation. "It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system."
The corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate, with control of Iran's missile batteries, oversight of its nuclear program and a multibillion-dollar business empire reaching into nearly every sector of the economy. It runs laser eye-surgery clinics, manufactures cars, builds roads and bridges, develops gas and oil fields and controls black-market smuggling, experts say.
If you're interested in digging deeper into Iran, the study by Nafisi mentioned above is essential.
Point two, on the ideological roots of the current Guard leadership:
Within this bloc is a core of military elites who have displaced -- and at times clashed with -- the clerical revolutionaries who worked beside Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in founding the Islamic republic. They are the second generation of revolutionaries, ideologically united and contemptuous of first-generation clerics like former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and of reformers and those eager to engage with the West. The corps has even trained its own clerics.
In an essay describing the rise of the Revolutionary Guards phenomenon, Professor Sahimi drew a portrait of the new elite: leaders in their mid-50s who as young men joined the corps and fought two wars: one against Iraq in the 1980s and another to force out the Mujahedeen Khalq, which the United States considers a terrorist organization and which is now based in Iraq.
The corps then split into two groups. One believed that Iran needed a chance to develop politically and socially; the other, which emerged the victor, was intent on maintaining strict control. Mr. Nafisi said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was close to that second group.
Neocons invited to Congressional hearing on Iran. Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee announced that it was holding a hearing this Wednesday titled, "Iran: Recent Developments and Implications for U.S. Policy."
My initial thought was that the panel was decent but a bit disappointing, and lacking in progressive voices. Among the initial four witnesses announced were Patrick Clawson, a Bush administration supporter who repeatedly advocated that the U.S. use the threat of military strikes to shift policy in Iran, and Abbas Milani, whose 2004 op-ed arguing that President Bush should resist negotiations and publicly endorse democracy activists in Iran was distributed by the neocon outfit Project for a New American Century. (Milani has since shifted his position on the matter of negotiations.)
Suzanne Maloney, a Bush-era State Department official who notably worked against the administration's hawkish elements, is also invited to testify. So is Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment, who has generally done excellent work on Iran.
On Friday, I spoke with committee chairman Rep. Howard Berman's staff and suggested that they invite Trita Parsi, the superb analyst who heads the National Iranian American Council, to testify. I was told that Parsi would be considered but that it was late in the process to add witnesses.
But on Monday morning, the committee announced two new additions to the hearing, both aggressive neoconservatives whose Middle East analysis has proven detrimental. One is Orde F. Kittrie of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the other is Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. (These witnesses were chosen by Republican members of the committee.)
Rubin's addition, in particular, is rather stunning. His career work include aiding Doug Feith in the notorious Office of Special Plans to advance dubious intelligence that helped lead the U.S. into war in Iraq; repeatedly advocating for military action against Iran over the last several years; and, in June, laying out the case for why Ahmadinejad would be preferable to a "more soft-spoken and less defiant" president like Mousavi -- "it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger."
This panel really needs some balance. If you're interested in calling the committee and suggesting Trita Parsi (or someone else), you can reach them at (202) 225-5021. You can also call the offices of members of the committee -- here are a few:
-- Rep. Gary Ackerman (Chairman, Subcommittee On the Middle East and South Asia): 202-225-2601
-- Rep. Donald Payne: 202-225-3436
-- Rep. Brad Sherman: 202-225-5911
-- Rep. Bill Delahunt: 202-225-3111
-- Rep. Lynn Woolsey: 202-225-5161
-- Rep. Barbara Lee: 202-225-2661
-- Rep. Keith Ellison: 202-225-4755
Let me know if you hear anything back.
MONDAY JULY 20
6:38 PM ET -- Seemingly small audience turns up for Ahmadinejad in Mashad. Earlier today, I received a video with the attached caption, "This is how many people that came to see Ahmadinejad speech in Mashad."
I didn't post it at first. Though Ahmadinejad delivered his speech in Mashad on Thursday, the video in question was only uploaded today, and you can't actually make out Ahmadinejad's face in the video.
But reader Chas Danner was able to track down the original version of the video and indeed, it appears that this was actually from Mashad, during Ahmadijad's speech.
In some related developments, I missed noting this news over the weekend:
Mr. Rafsanjani traveled over the weekend to the northeastern city of Mashad to discuss the postelection political crisis with high-ranking Shiite clerics. The move was likely to fuel rumors that Mr. Rafsanjani is building clerical support for the opposition. Two of the clerics Mr. Rafsanjani was meeting have declined to congratulate Mr. Ahmadinejad on his victory and may already be sympathetic to the opposition's claims that the election was rigged for Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Rafsanjani's reception in Mashad contrasted strikingly with that of Mr. Ahmadinejad, who was snubbed by at least one top-ranking cleric during his own visit two days earlier.
6:24 PM ET -- Iran proposes frightening new Internet law.
Iran has passed a new internet law that experts fear will make information on internet users more readily available to the authorities.
Press TV, a news channel funded by the Iranian government, said on Monday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country's president, has issued an order for the implementation of the law.
According to Press TV, the cyber law would provide internet users with "more security", as internet service providers are required to save all data sent and received by their clients for at least three months.
But critics of the legislation say the stored data would enable the authorities to monitor internet users, including anonymous bloggers opposed to the regime in the Islamic republic.
A reader who sent that piece along noted this anecdote from Iran published by Foreign Policy magazine several days ago:
A trusted colleague - who is married to an Iranian-American and would thus prefer to stay anonymous - has told me of a very disturbing episode that happened to her friend, another Iranian-American, as she was flying to Iran last week. On passing through the immigration control at the airport in Tehran, she was asked by the officers if she has a Facebook account. When she said "no", the officers pulled up a laptop and searched for her name on Facebook. They found her account and noted down the names of her Facebook friends.
6:14 PM ET -- Bruno on Ahmadinejad. A comedic interlude...
1:51 PM ET -- Government-sanctioned killers. New video, date uncertain, from Iran.
1:41 PM ET -- Man reportedly tortured for information in Evin prison unable to answer their questions because he's deaf and mute.
1:38 PM ET -- Haute culture goes Green. Via the National Iranian American Council:
Green has never looked so good. Italian designer Guillermo Mariotto wore a Neda Alive shirt to honor Neda, who was killed during the Iranian election aftermath. Mariotto's attention to detail is quite admirable as every model on the catwalk wore a green ribbon on their wrist
1:24 PM ET -- Green scrolls in Paris. People at events held around the world have been signing their names to long green scrolls that declare, "Ahmadinejad is not Iran's president!" The plan is for those scrolls to be sent to Paris and, on Saturday July 25, they'll be attached together and displayed at the Eiffel Tower.
An activist with Whereismyvote.fr says that Paris has already received 87 such scrolls from around the world. "We're waiting for the next hundred or so to come during the next days," the group says. Pretty impressive.
UPDATE: Much more on Saturday's demonstrations.
Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureates, Iranian Poets and Artists Support July 25th Global Day of Action
Protests in Iran Continue - Global Activism Increasing
"We deplore the violence and crackdown on peaceful protesters, the increasing restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment of a growing number of civil leaders in Iran. " Archbishop Destmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1984
"If one country sincerely wants to support democracy in another country that is under dictatorial rule, the only thing to do is to support the freedom fighters who stand for the democratic institutions of that country. Done this way, the sapling of democracy will bear the flower of freedom." Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist, Nobel Peace Laureate, 2003
"The Iranian leadership is violating the country's own commitments to international human rights treaties, as well as contravening Iran's own laws." Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1976
"We call for the release of all political prisoners, the secession of violence against protesters, and respect for human rights and civil liberties in Iran." Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1997
The two most prominent living Iranian poets, Ismael Khoie, and Simin Behbahani, who lives in Tehran, have joined the Global Day of Action. Dariush, socially conscious singer and Iranian cultural icon, will perform at the Washington D.C. United4Iran rally.
In over 55 cities around the world solidarity rallies are planned in support of civil and human rights for the Iranian people and for an end to the violence. Check www.united4Iran.org for a full list of participating cities and supporting organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nobel Women's Initiative and Peacejam.
12:47 PM ET -- "Senior U.S. defense official": Israel attack on Iran would be destabilizing. From the Jerusalem Post::
Amid reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is heading to Israel next week for talks on Teheran's nuclear program, a senior US defense official has told The Jerusalem Post that an Israeli strike on Iran could be profoundly destabilizing and would affect US interests.
Israel needed to take its relationship with America into account in contemplating any such attack, he warned.
Gates, who last week described the Islamic republic's nuclear drive as the greatest current threat to global security, is set to spend six hours here next Monday, discussing the Iranian threat with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He will also visit Jordan, according to officials involved in planning the trip.
In his interview with the Post at the Pentagon, the senior US defense official also suggested that Syria might be ready to "fundamentally" reorient its position toward the United States, which would include restarting talks with Israel, at a time when Hamas and Hizbullah have been put "on the defensive" by Obama administration policies and events in Iran.
10:14 AM ET -- Photos of Neda's alleged killer. There are some floating around on blogs, but I'm going to hold off posting until there is better confirmation.
Update: Dr. Arash Hejazi, who was with Neda when she was shot, says he has confirmed the ID of the person who killed Neda. A photo of the alleged killer is here.
9:28 AM ET -- Mousavi: Release the prisoners.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated reformist candidate in Iran's presidential election, has demanded the release of scores of protesters detained following the poll, which he insists was rigged.
Speaking to the families of some of the activists and protesters held since the June 12 poll, Mousavi said that detaining people would not resolve the dispute over its outcome, reformist websites reported on Monday.
"Who believes these people, many of them prominent figures, would work with the foreigners and to endanger their country's interests?" he was quoted as saying.
"They should be immediately released."
9:27 AM ET -- Gates to Israel. "US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit Israel on 27 July for talks likely to focus on Iran's nuclear program and US-Israeli strategic ties, officials involved in planning the trip said on Sunday. 'We expect Iran to be the main issue. There is obviously a value in a show of Americans and Israelis closing ranks about Iran,' one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said about the visit, reports Reuters."
9:26 AM ET -- Iran and the West. The BBC begins a 3-part series.
7:58 AM ET -- Supreme Leader warns opposition to back down. Khamenei's first remarks since Rafsanjani's speech on Friday show him as recalcitrant as ever:
Iran's supreme leader told politicians Monday not to disturb the country's security in a strong warning to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on the government.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed "Iran's elite" and warned them to be cautious in the positions they take on the turmoil that has shaken the country since the disputed presidential election on June 12.
He said that hurting Iran's security was "the biggest vice," adding that "anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is."
Khamenei did not mention any names, but the comments reported on state radio were clearly directed at Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate who claims to have won the election, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric who on Friday criticized the leadership over the elections in a clear challenge to Khamenei.
7:56 AM ET -- Iran releases the last of nine British embassy staff, on bail.
7:55 AM ET -- 36 Army officers reportedly arrested over protest plans. The Guardian has a rather remarkable story.
The Iranian army has arrested 36 officers who planned to attend last week's Friday prayer sermon by former president Hashemi Rafsanjani in their military uniforms as an act of political defiance, according to Farsi-language websites.
The officers intended the gesture to show solidarity with the demonstrations against last month's presidential election result, which was won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but which has been clouded by allegations of mass fraud. [...]
The officers were rounded up on Friday morning by army intelligence agents who had caught wind of the plan. They are said to have been arrested at their homes and taken to an unknown location.
Peiknet, a Farsi website, said the officers had agreed the action at a weekly prayer meeting the night before at the Shah Abdolazim religious shrine in Shahr-e Rey, on Tehran's southern outskirts. "They decided to attend the Friday prayer in their military clothes as a sign of protest against the cruel massacre of people by the basij and revolutionary guards and to show their objection against this process and support for the people," the site said. It named 24 of the officers, who included two majors, four captains, eight lieutenants, six sergeants and four warrant officers.
7:52 AM ET -- Demonstrations on Sunday in Shiraz.
Several videos posted on social media sites showed what was billed as a protest by students at Ehsan University in Shiraz on Sunday. Scores of students are visible in the clips, which featured students demanding the release of political prisoners and singing songs from the 1979 revolution.
7:50 AM ET -- Al Jazeera: Iran's power struggle. A 23-minute mini-documentary broadcast this weekend:
7:45 AM ET -- Karrubi blasts "clear lies" of current government. Mehdi Karrubi, Iran's former parliament speaker and a reformist candidate in June's presidential election, has "blasted what he called the 'thoughtless and clear lies' of the country's security forces Sunday," referring to the government's claims that it hadn't attacked his supporters as "astonishing."
"How do they try to say that they do not confront people violently or to blame others? All of this took place in front of people's eyes," Karrubi told supporters, according to Aftab. "They kill the youth in front of people's eyes and then say that they didn't have firearms. As a member of this system, I am embarrassed of these thoughtless and clear lies."
There were reports Friday that Karrubi himself was roughed up by members of the Basij, the paramilitary force loyal to Iran's hardline leadership. CNN could not independently verify those reports at the time, but Karrubi said he was "assaulted" and that his turban was knocked off, according to Aftab.
7:37 AM ET -- Reformist former president calls for nationwide referendum.
Former president Mohammad Khatami has called for a nationwide referendum on the legitimacy of the government, saying Iranians have lost faith in their political leaders after last month's disputed election, according to reports posted Monday on several reformist Web sites. [...]
"Durability of order and continuation of the country's progress hinge on restoring public trust," Khatami, a popular reformist, said, according to the sites.
"From the start, we said there is a legal way to regain that trust. I openly say now that the solution to get out of the current crisis is holding a referendum."
Khatami, according to the Web sites, also accused hard-liners of undermining democracy and challenging the foundations of the Islamic republic when they chose to stand by the election results.
"We need to ask the people whether they are satisfied with the current situation? If a majority of the people are happy with this situation, we will submit (to their vote)," he said, referring to the referendum.
It is too early to say whether Khatami's call for a referendum would be adopted by authorities, but it constitutes the latest challenge to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader who has the last word on state matters. Khamenei has declared the results of the elections valid.
TEHRAN,Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, already at the center of a post-election crisis, came under criticism from his own hard-line supporters Sunday for appointing a...
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie to be the country's new first vice president, AFP reports. Mashaie came under fire in Iran...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed a new chief for the country's nuclear program, following the abrupt resignation of its veteran...
PARIS — Media monitor Reporters Without Borders says seven photographers and a cameraman have been detained in Iran, most of them over the past week....
A few years after the revolution, Monel fled the country after being beaten in a rally to protest the new regime's imposition of conservative clothing that forced women to don chadors.
Of the many criticisms levied against the international community's efforts to promote accountability, perhaps the most pervasive critique is a rather simple one -- the lack of consistency.
Powerful regime insiders have lost confidence in the Supreme Leader's ability to preserve what they had all built together. This domestic fault line has the potential to be devastating in its long term impact.
From one of many emails received post-elecion: "President Obama: Thank you for being mindful and not wanting to meddle... But why would we write our protest signs in English if we didn't want the West's help?"
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I hope dear Trita stops pushing for negociations between US and Iran now that the real face of the Islamic government of Iran has finally come out. The Islamic government has no regards for human life and dignity even people who are not against them such as Trita's friend. We need smart economic (gasoline, banking systems, etc) and political sanctions against IRI. By the way, we are only fooling ourselves if we think this regime CAN be reformed; I am advocating a general referendum under international observers for people of Iran to decided if they want this regime.
Suuuuure, isnt that what we did with saddam? then when he won with over 98% of the vote and bush didnt like it we invaded to "protect their freedom". WE dont need anything. The US government should stop meddling in that country.
Iranian Militias Marry, Rape Virgin Prisoners Before Executions
Members of Iran's Basij paramilitary force on parade in Tehran. A reputed militia member said prison guards in Iran marry and rape female virgins the night before their executions.
Members of Iran's feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new "wives" and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group said.
The anonymous militiaman told the Jerusalem Post that at age 18 he was "given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin, the former guard told the newspaper. So the government arranges "wedding" ceremonies to be conducted the night before executions, and prisoners are forced to have sexual intercourse with a guard.
Raped by her new "husband," a female prisoner is now fit to be put to death.
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," said the militiaman, who told the Jerusalem Post he had just been released from prison himself after freeing two teenagers rounded up during post-election protests.
Some of the prisoners in his care were drugged with sleeping pills to make them docile, as the girls in their custody always fought back, he said, fearing the night of the rape more deeply than their executions the following day.
Get a grip, pal! US military raped and sodomized young boys and girls in front of their parents (reported by sy hersh) where is your concern for them? NO WAR WITH IRAN! Your propaganda/public relations is not going to work!
Great! With fox news as a source! From the same news agency that led the charge for the US to go to war with iraq and afghanistan, 2 countries that never attacked us or had anything to do with 9/11.
This guy is an ahmed chalabi ripoff! Where is his concern for political prisoners in the US? Or even iraq for that matter? NO WAR WITH IRAN! WHat is so hard to understand about that? Ill bet he thinks that we will be welcomed as liberators when we invade and destroy Irans infrastructure too. Parsi would have been welcomed by bush administration officials, this is sad. It is a great example of public relations/propaganda, only people are getting sick and tired of it. This reminds of george hw bush who trotted out a little girl who "saw babies thrown on the floor and murdered" that one got us into the 1st gulf war, now the new administration through tacit approval is doing it again. NOT GONNA WORK THIS TIME!
When the leader of a country is absolutely determined to shoot himself in the foot, by ignoring the advice of all others, there is nothing to be done.
Except, move far enough away to avoid being hit by any potential ricochet.
I bear witness, as individual on this plane of consciousness, in this time, and in this place to the travails of my brother -- Bijan Khajehpour...and all the others who found and find evil, duplicity, illegitimacy, hypocrisy, unfairness, and cowardice as they made/make their way on their life’s journey of hopeful love rooted in a better vision...a better world.
Soon will be done -- the trouble of the world. The scales of cosmic justice (God) are weighing the many long and dark moments of failure of the aggregate to emerge from the raw knuckles of humanity.
...and they continued to think that they had more time; but fate knew different.
Press the case for love, for fairness, for the creative and nurturing human spirit to go out and engulf the world such that it is transformed. Time is indeed wasting, yet there is no published timetable for earned comeuppance. Everybody knows but nobody knows for sure. Balance is upset by shifting weight. It is likely to be the moment when the balance of aggregate evil is so great that the world will know self-correcting retribution for a self-defeating approach to this thing called life; or the world will know reward for pulling back from the magnetic abyss in a moment of aggregate clarity and sense of commonality that transcends differences of borders, regions, languages, religions, genders, and all the other divisive distractions that so impair an aggregate people.
Isnt this sad that Mr. Parsi is talking about keeping someone in prison indefinite, without trial,and could be left to rot in prison or worse, and he could be talking about united states not iran...How far in morally have we dropped..
Mr. Parsi, I have seen you on different news shows appearing as a political export. I had no idea that you also posses special ability in understanding national security and intelligence issues.
Ive heard the families of victims entered buildings in which there were hundreds of bodies piled. The official estimate is really low. The others are id'd with Polaroids and then stacked.
Dr. Parsi, what is this? Why are you writing about this guy? His background is extremely questionable and mentioning him here among heros facing guns and batons is really a cheap blow by you. I am revising my opinion of you based on what you have written here.
The previous post-comment has said it all. I cannot understand why you claim he is not a political person when he clearly is. Obviously you define 'political' a little differently than most people. Simply belonging to a political party is not the only requirement to be political. Personally I believe all Iranians are political, but thats a different discussion.
I believe that in your position you should not write about friends as this taints your impartiality and it does so very dramatically. This could hinder what we are trying to do and you will have contributed to it.
Dear TheJarter - thank you for your comments. I want to make sure that the outside world gets a chance to "know" the people who have been arrested. Naturally, it's easier for me to write about someone I know since i can tell a deeper story then. If I had information on the hundreds/thousands others that also have been arrested, and could get the readers to know them better, I would do so. But I don't know all of them, I only know a few of them, and I want to make sure that their stories are not forgotten.
Lemme explain the arcane details of Iranian exile politics to you. See, Trita Parsi is the head of the NIAC (National Iranian American Council) which is a non-partisan group. They oppose any US-Iran confontation, and favor engagement. Bijan was also of the same sort of thinking, and helped connect Iranians to the internet.
Other exiles want to see a confrontation of some sort -- any sort, whether military or sanctions. They want to see the regime forcibly toppled (and themselves in charge.) Many of these people are Monarchists, or members of the hated MEK terrorist group who are Islamist-Marxists. All of them of course proclaim loudly to be pro-Democracy and human rights, conveniently. But they lack legitimacy of their own and so see opportunities in events such as demonstrations in Iran to promote their own agenda. But they don't have much of an impact or relevance inside Iran, so they instead spit bile at the people like Parsi and Khajehpour abroad, accusing him of various supposed misdeeds.
I hope that Mr. Khajehpour and all the other political prisoners of Iran will be released soon and unharmed. As bad as it is for him, it is a million times worse for those prisoners who do not own companies, do not travel internationally, and do not have friends to write blogs about them. Those prisoners really have something to fear.
There needs to be a true democracy in Iran. No way around it. There is going to be many cases like this until that happens. And the more these cases are shown to the rest of the world the easier it is to justify more severe action against the repressive regime in Iran. I appreciate you putting this story out.
It's is a sad story that many prisoners similarly endure in many countries including the US. The question is why only a case in lran makes it to this news web? It is because of political reasons against lran that has been going on for sometime around here. It is because of lran's nuclear program. If it wan't for the nuclear program, this article wouldn't have made this news web.
I'm very sorry that your dear theocracy is getting such bad press simply because hundreds of thousands have risked their lives to protest a fraudulent election and a possible coup d'etat.
It is not about Iran. it is not about Ahmadinejad. It is all about Is_rael. It is not too difficult to see. If you just move your head out of sand, you would see it too.
I agree this is a shame. He is a great guy. But it also can't pretended he was completely apolitical or neutral. It is well known fact that Atieh Bahar is tied with Rafsanjani. In fact, it was Rafsanjani which sought the help and consultation of Bijan and the Namazi brothers to co-write Iran's foreign investment law under Khatami's time. Also the managing partner at Atieh Bahar, Siamak Namazi was a fellow at Wilson center and later CSIS (where board of trustees there include the likes of Kissinger and Brezinski). None of this is to suggest that those at Atieh are spies. They are not. Rather as economic consultants to foreign companies investing in Iran, they desire exactly that, foreign investment. But the problem is they wish Iran to be aligned with "global capital" and WTO and other institutions which are harmful to developing economies. In other words they are in the business of favoring foreign companies at expense of local interests and strenghening Iran's domestic industries. In countries like Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, and other places with strong social movements and anti-globalization tendencies, the people would consider this treasonous. The current global financial crisis and legitimacy crisis which capitalism is facing debunks any need for Iran to align with capitalist policies. Apparently they had it all right to begin with, unfortunately the westernized secular liberal elites of their country can't understand or appreciate this.
Well said. I just think this blog is a bit insulting. If the author had included a paragraph about his friend, Bijan, a successful businessman, within an overall blog about the variety of people this regime has a beef with and is imprisoning, I could have felt more empathy. Instead, the author tries to make me like the guy because he does not eat meat and he gives his low level employees loans. Chances are (I hope) this man is not being tortured or raped. This is an odd sort of favoritism on the part of Trita Parsi.
AR, it seems that no one country has the market cornered on self-interest. You cannot blame us as a species for this weakness. We have proven over and over that where it concerns self, humans will distort, misrepresent, and do anything that causes the outcome to be, well,...self-gratifying, self-enhancing (no matter the cost to others). I write this post after writing above one facet of my basic feelings on the general state of the human species. I did not know all you cite in your comment before I wrote and posted that comment. However, I stand on that statement. The man is my brother, as was Bush, and Nixon, and other charlatans, hypocrites, and selfishly inclined people of the American political past. They engaged in actions I did not agree with and therefore I labeled them -- a sick brother; ill -- but family nonetheless, and therefore worthy of compassion.
Fear has caused many to sellout self and country. Self-interest causes many to appear hypocritical. I do not know the man. However, I can get in touch with his skin, his nerve endings, his thoughts of his family, his memories, and his hopes and dreams. If he has a self-promoting agenda, I can separate that from false imprisonment. I can feel his terror as he misses his family while imprisoned, as he considers his suspended life...as time marches on beyond he walls of his confinement.
Apparently they had it all right to begin with, unfortunately the westernized secular liberal elites of their country can't understand or appreciate this.
---
So, you're under the impression the IRI is some sort of Shariati-esque regime? Khomeini even, still? That the hardline principalists don't have their fingers in dubious global deals, as well? Yeah, and the People's Republic of China is still Communist.
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I hope dear Trita stops pushing for negociations between US and Iran now that the real face of the Islamic government of Iran has finally come out. The Islamic government has no regards for human life and dignity even people who are not against them such as Trita's friend. We need smart economic (gasoline, banking systems, etc) and political sanctions against IRI. By the way, we are only fooling ourselves if we think this regime CAN be reformed; I am advocating a general referendum under international observers for people of Iran to decided if they want this regime.
Suuuuure, isnt that what we did with saddam? then when he won with over 98% of the vote and bush didnt like it we invaded to "protect their freedom". WE dont need anything. The US government should stop meddling in that country.
Iranian Militias Marry, Rape Virgin Prisoners Before Executions
Members of Iran's Basij paramilitary force on parade in Tehran. A reputed militia member said prison guards in Iran marry and rape female virgins the night before their executions.
Members of Iran's feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new "wives" and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group said.
The anonymous militiaman told the Jerusalem Post that at age 18 he was "given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin, the former guard told the newspaper. So the government arranges "wedding" ceremonies to be conducted the night before executions, and prisoners are forced to have sexual intercourse with a guard.
Raped by her new "husband," a female prisoner is now fit to be put to death.
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," said the militiaman, who told the Jerusalem Post he had just been released from prison himself after freeing two teenagers rounded up during post-election protests.
Some of the prisoners in his care were drugged with sleeping pills to make them docile, as the girls in their custody always fought back, he said, fearing the night of the rape more deeply than their executions the following day.
Get a grip, pal! US military raped and sodomized young boys and girls in front of their parents (reported by sy hersh) where is your concern for them? NO WAR WITH IRAN! Your propaganda/public relations is not going to work!
Iranian Militias Marry, Rape Virgin Prisoners Before Executions http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534116,00.html?test=latestnews
Great! With fox news as a source! From the same news agency that led the charge for the US to go to war with iraq and afghanistan, 2 countries that never attacked us or had anything to do with 9/11.
This guy is an ahmed chalabi ripoff! Where is his concern for political prisoners in the US? Or even iraq for that matter? NO WAR WITH IRAN! WHat is so hard to understand about that? Ill bet he thinks that we will be welcomed as liberators when we invade and destroy Irans infrastructure too. Parsi would have been welcomed by bush administration officials, this is sad. It is a great example of public relations/propaganda, only people are getting sick and tired of it. This reminds of george hw bush who trotted out a little girl who "saw babies thrown on the floor and murdered" that one got us into the 1st gulf war, now the new administration through tacit approval is doing it again. NOT GONNA WORK THIS TIME!
When the leader of a country is absolutely determined to shoot himself in the foot, by ignoring the advice of all others, there is nothing to be done.
Except, move far enough away to avoid being hit by any potential ricochet.
I bear witness, as individual on this plane of consciousness, in this time, and in this place to the travails of my brother -- Bijan Khajehpour...and all the others who found and find evil, duplicity, illegitimacy, hypocrisy, unfairness, and cowardice as they made/make their way on their life’s journey of hopeful love rooted in a better vision...a better world.
Soon will be done -- the trouble of the world. The scales of cosmic justice (God) are weighing the many long and dark moments of failure of the aggregate to emerge from the raw knuckles of humanity.
...and they continued to think that they had more time; but fate knew different.
Press the case for love, for fairness, for the creative and nurturing human spirit to go out and engulf the world such that it is transformed. Time is indeed wasting, yet there is no published timetable for earned comeuppance. Everybody knows but nobody knows for sure. Balance is upset by shifting weight. It is likely to be the moment when the balance of aggregate evil is so great that the world will know self-correcting retribution for a self-defeating approach to this thing called life; or the world will know reward for pulling back from the magnetic abyss in a moment of aggregate clarity and sense of commonality that transcends differences of borders, regions, languages, religions, genders, and all the other divisive distractions that so impair an aggregate people.
Peace unto the world as fostered by the people
Isnt this sad that Mr. Parsi is talking about keeping someone in prison indefinite, without trial,and could be left to rot in prison or worse, and he could be talking about united states not iran...How far in morally have we dropped..
Mr. Parsi, I have seen you on different news shows appearing as a political export. I had no idea that you also posses special ability in understanding national security and intelligence issues.
Ive heard the families of victims entered buildings in which there were hundreds of bodies piled. The official estimate is really low. The others are id'd with Polaroids and then stacked.
Dr. Parsi, what is this? Why are you writing about this guy? His background is extremely questionable and mentioning him here among heros facing guns and batons is really a cheap blow by you. I am revising my opinion of you based on what you have written here.
The previous post-comment has said it all. I cannot understand why you claim he is not a political person when he clearly is. Obviously you define 'political' a little differently than most people. Simply belonging to a political party is not the only requirement to be political. Personally I believe all Iranians are political, but thats a different discussion.
I believe that in your position you should not write about friends as this taints your impartiality and it does so very dramatically. This could hinder what we are trying to do and you will have contributed to it.
Dear TheJarter - thank you for your comments. I want to make sure that the outside world gets a chance to "know" the people who have been arrested. Naturally, it's easier for me to write about someone I know since i can tell a deeper story then. If I had information on the hundreds/thousands others that also have been arrested, and could get the readers to know them better, I would do so. But I don't know all of them, I only know a few of them, and I want to make sure that their stories are not forgotten.
But thank you for writing and for your concern.
/trita
what exactly is questionable about his background?
Lemme explain the arcane details of Iranian exile politics to you. See, Trita Parsi is the head of the NIAC (National Iranian American Council) which is a non-partisan group. They oppose any US-Iran confontation, and favor engagement. Bijan was also of the same sort of thinking, and helped connect Iranians to the internet.
Other exiles want to see a confrontation of some sort -- any sort, whether military or sanctions. They want to see the regime forcibly toppled (and themselves in charge.) Many of these people are Monarchists, or members of the hated MEK terrorist group who are Islamist-Marxists. All of them of course proclaim loudly to be pro-Democracy and human rights, conveniently. But they lack legitimacy of their own and so see opportunities in events such as demonstrations in Iran to promote their own agenda. But they don't have much of an impact or relevance inside Iran, so they instead spit bile at the people like Parsi and Khajehpour abroad, accusing him of various supposed misdeeds.
I hope that Mr. Khajehpour and all the other political prisoners of Iran will be released soon and unharmed. As bad as it is for him, it is a million times worse for those prisoners who do not own companies, do not travel internationally, and do not have friends to write blogs about them. Those prisoners really have something to fear.
There needs to be a true democracy in Iran. No way around it. There is going to be many cases like this until that happens. And the more these cases are shown to the rest of the world the easier it is to justify more severe action against the repressive regime in Iran. I appreciate you putting this story out.
It's is a sad story that many prisoners similarly endure in many countries including the US. The question is why only a case in lran makes it to this news web? It is because of political reasons against lran that has been going on for sometime around here. It is because of lran's nuclear program. If it wan't for the nuclear program, this article wouldn't have made this news web.
I'm very sorry that your dear theocracy is getting such bad press simply because hundreds of thousands have risked their lives to protest a fraudulent election and a possible coup d'etat.
It is not about Iran. it is not about Ahmadinejad. It is all about Is_rael. It is not too difficult to see. If you just move your head out of sand, you would see it too.
Headline today in 'world' at H_P:
"Israeli Settlers Set Fire To Palestinian Fields, Stone Cars During Rampage"
Are we invading Israel?
I agree this is a shame. He is a great guy. But it also can't pretended he was completely apolitical or neutral. It is well known fact that Atieh Bahar is tied with Rafsanjani. In fact, it was Rafsanjani which sought the help and consultation of Bijan and the Namazi brothers to co-write Iran's foreign investment law under Khatami's time. Also the managing partner at Atieh Bahar, Siamak Namazi was a fellow at Wilson center and later CSIS (where board of trustees there include the likes of Kissinger and Brezinski). None of this is to suggest that those at Atieh are spies. They are not. Rather as economic consultants to foreign companies investing in Iran, they desire exactly that, foreign investment. But the problem is they wish Iran to be aligned with "global capital" and WTO and other institutions which are harmful to developing economies. In other words they are in the business of favoring foreign companies at expense of local interests and strenghening Iran's domestic industries. In countries like Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, and other places with strong social movements and anti-globalization tendencies, the people would consider this treasonous. The current global financial crisis and legitimacy crisis which capitalism is facing debunks any need for Iran to align with capitalist policies. Apparently they had it all right to begin with, unfortunately the westernized secular liberal elites of their country can't understand or appreciate this.
Well said. I just think this blog is a bit insulting. If the author had included a paragraph about his friend, Bijan, a successful businessman, within an overall blog about the variety of people this regime has a beef with and is imprisoning, I could have felt more empathy. Instead, the author tries to make me like the guy because he does not eat meat and he gives his low level employees loans. Chances are (I hope) this man is not being tortured or raped. This is an odd sort of favoritism on the part of Trita Parsi.
smart and informative comment Alan..thanks
AR, it seems that no one country has the market cornered on self-interest. You cannot blame us as a species for this weakness. We have proven over and over that where it concerns self, humans will distort, misrepresent, and do anything that causes the outcome to be, well,...self-gratifying, self-enhancing (no matter the cost to others). I write this post after writing above one facet of my basic feelings on the general state of the human species. I did not know all you cite in your comment before I wrote and posted that comment. However, I stand on that statement. The man is my brother, as was Bush, and Nixon, and other charlatans, hypocrites, and selfishly inclined people of the American political past. They engaged in actions I did not agree with and therefore I labeled them -- a sick brother; ill -- but family nonetheless, and therefore worthy of compassion.
Fear has caused many to sellout self and country. Self-interest causes many to appear hypocritical. I do not know the man. However, I can get in touch with his skin, his nerve endings, his thoughts of his family, his memories, and his hopes and dreams. If he has a self-promoting agenda, I can separate that from false imprisonment. I can feel his terror as he misses his family while imprisoned, as he considers his suspended life...as time marches on beyond he walls of his confinement.
Apparently they had it all right to begin with, unfortunately the westernized secular liberal elites of their country can't understand or appreciate this.
---
So, you're under the impression the IRI is some sort of Shariati-esque regime? Khomeini even, still? That the hardline principalists don't have their fingers in dubious global deals, as well? Yeah, and the People's Republic of China is still Communist.
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