Roxanna Saberi, an independent journalist with duel American-Iranian citizenship, was recently convicted in an Iranian court of espionage and sentenced to a lengthy prison term. Recently, none other than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinajahd has encouraged the convicted reporter be given a full and fair defense in the course of her appeal.Ahmadinajahd's concerns and stated recommendations probably have to do not so much with the expressed concerns of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton as they do with the up-coming election which pits him against a former President who favors improved relations with Washington.
There has been a crackdown on dissent in Iran as the country prepares for a presidential election June 12 that pits Ahmadinejad against former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who favors better ties with the U.S. At least five editors and writers are imprisoned in Iran, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
In noting that Saberi, also a former Miss North Dakota and Miss America finalist, is not the only reporter being held in Iran on charges of spying and espionage, the report nevertheless fails to note others likewise imprisoned. One of these is an American graduate student who was in Iran writing a thesis on the Iranian Women's Movement, in addition to a former FBI agent allegedly abducted from an island near the coast of Iran who was involved in an investigation into cigarette smuggling.
Nevertheless, despite the other alleged detainees, and the widespread reported abuse of women and minorities in Iran, to say nothing of the conflicting reports as to Miss Saberi's health and general well-being in the course of this ordeal, this might be a possible glimmer of hope for some change leading to a potential thawing in the three-decades long difficulties in American-Iranian relations.
Still, even if this particular case presents the best possible outcome, it is obviously going to be, as they say, a long, hard slog toward complete normalization of relations, assuming that ever does come about.
11 comments:
Delara Darabi will be executed today in Iran. She doesn't have notoreity.
Since when does Ren care about executions?
His system kills in the millions not single digits.
Iran is feeling the pressure and a deal will be made.
Ren-
Thanks for the info, I'll Tweat that if I can find a good link somewhere.
Beak-
I don't think Iran's mullahs care about pressure, at least not as much as Ahmadinajahd cares about his prospects for re-election. The average Iranian would like to see a move towards normalization of relations with the US, which he is all too aware of.
Still, I wouldn't bet the farm on Saberi's prospects. It's possible, that's all.
Ren-
The woman you mentioned was seventeen years old and confessed to robbery and murder of her father's female cousin. She's toast. Even if the boyfriend actually did it, she was still probably a willing accomplice in everything. Even if they don't execute her she'll probably spend the rest of her life in an Iranian prison, or a good large portion of it. I feel for her to an extent, but there are others for whom time is better devoted to helping. People that are actually innocent of any crime at all, for example.
She was not seven, she was seventeen, old enough to know not to commit such crimes. I admit I hope they show her some leniency, but I'm not going to go out of my way over it. She was just a dumb bitch that let her boyfriend lead her by the nose. Just because it happened in Iran doesn't mean she's being persecuted. Stupidity has ruined more lives than actual criminality. It's not necessarily deserving of sympathy when it comes to murder.
Pagan
Iran knows who is holding back Israel. The pressure is greater than you presume.
Beak-
Israel has nothing to do with this issue. If the Iranian's stubborn refusal to back away from nuclear development isn't enough to make the Israelis cut loose on them, the fate of this one lone woman, an Iranian as well as American citizen, is not going to move them to action.
Iran might well let Saberi go, as a goodwill gesture, for propaganda purposes. In the meantime, there are others, also American citizens, whose fate in Iran is either very precarious or whose fate is altogether unknown.
In the grand scheme of things, they are irrelevant from the perspective of power politics on an international level, or pawns at best. Were it not for some international groups advocating on their behalf, no national leader anywhere would give them so much as a second thought. Sad but true.
Beakerkin the teabagger is here.
Pagan: Saberi's father says she is healthy. She will be acquitted because of the international pressure.
I doubt if Ahmadinajahd will win the next election, with the mullahs wanting relations to be better with the US, and the economy.
Trade unions are illegal in Iran, but the workers have them anyway. Several unionists are always in jail.
Here is another example of the US putting Islamists into power, to prevent socialism. Even elements of the Shah's government supported the Islamists along with Stalinists.
Ren
You are off your rocker. Commies colaberated with religious lunatics. This is a well known fact.
Sorry if history and logic are beyond your grasp
Ren-
Saberi's father has made conflicting statements about her health and state of mind over as little as a two-day period, ending with she is well. I say there is a good chance Ahmadinajahd will lose, as he seems to be something of an embarrassment. He has no real power other than the bully pulpit of his office. The mullahs make the decisions, and they want somebody more pliable, less of a loaded cannon. Ahmadinajahd tries to walk the tightrope between them and the people. Such people always come across clownish.
As far as the mullahs wanting better relations with the US, I think probably some of them do, some of them don't, its not all cut-and-dried.
Carter paved the way for the mullahs to take over because the Shah was becoming an international political liability, and probably also because he seemed to think the tide was turning that way and he wanted to get in front of it, but it backfired on him. Luckily for us, the mullahs refused to align with the Soviets as well, which they could have easily done.
In effect, they wanted to be, and tried to be, neutral, but that was difficult in the face of their hostility to Israel and the US. They tried to be independent without being isolated, a rarity. It's almost impossible to not join international alliances in the modern era without being marginalized, if not completely shut out. The mullahs have always wanted to be the regional power broker, not a bit player. That has always been the main reason for the continuing dilemas with them.
In the grand scheme of things, international worries about Iran going socialist are somewhat trivial in the face of the decades long instabilities and uncertainties the Iranian regime has fostered, in the form of Hezbollah, Hamas, and other concerns.
Beak-
The Soviets tried to have relations with Iran, with limited success. Gorbachev visited the Ayatollah Khomeini, who told him publicly that he should abandon communism, which he described as a morally bankrupt system, and embrace Islam. The mullahs are not the most diplomatically savvy people on earth, to put it lightly.
It is no mystery the Soviets and their adherents in the region would want relations with one of the world's most prolific oil producers at a time when the Cold War was at its zenith.
The Realpolitik we felt obliged to engage in with Iran in the nineteen-fifties may have been deemed necessary at the time, but rightly or wrongly it has had consequences that have lasted to today. That's just the way of the world.
We gave our puppets too much leeway, and it came back to bite us in the ass. Even if a lot of the complaints were greatly exaggerated, we still supplied plenty of ammunition to our detractors.
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