dagblog - Comments for "Silva's Turn"

Duly noted.

jaisizzle — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:24:11 +0000

In reply to Here's a link to an item I

Duly noted.

You're welcome. The NPR

jaisizzle — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:21:20 +0000

You're welcome. The NPR article is interesting. It's sad really that even someone who is backed by the state dept. is left behind like this. I do find it interesting how everyone can seem to hate media, claim it as liberal (which I'm still clueless what that really means) then all of a sudden care about journalists. I just love the faux humanitarian positions the media outlets take then turn around and support things like torture in fucked off places like Gitmo and black prisons in Jordan. What do they call it, enhanced interrogation techniques? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Journalists have a dangerous job, so yeah. Its also a cool job.

That link you posted to the

DF — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:18:26 +0000

In reply to Here's a link to an item I

That link you posted to the State department is totally on the up-and-up, as evidenced by the clear phrase "DIPLOMACY IN ACTION" at the top of the page. Nothing to see here!

Here's a link to an item I

acanuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:59:12 +0000

In reply to Thanks for posting this,

Here's a link to an item I posted a few hours ago at TPM: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/acanuck/

Follow the link back to the New York Times story, and judge for yourself whether Saberi was, indeed, a spy. It's obvious to me, but maybe that's because I assume any denial of anything that comes out of the State Department is bullshit -- and also because most of my synapses still seem to be functioning.

Is Harotonian some kind of U.S. agent? I don't know zip about her case, but neither do Justin or Genghis. And I am by nature way more skeptical. IREX, the K Street-based institution she worked for, appears to get most of its funding from the U.S. State Department and USAID, both of which seek to further U.S. foreign policy. Policy that hasn't been too friendly to Iran recently. Here's one State Department branch that IREX openly claims as one of its donors: http://www.state.gov/s/inr/

I really dislike Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and we should all hope (and pray, if that works for you) that a moderate candidate defeats him in the presidential election that will be held next month. I also hope Obama's outreach to Iran succeeds, and it plays into a broader move toward Mideast peace. And, of course, that the Likudite crazies don't drag the rest of us into their Armageddon wet dream of a biblical clash of civilizations.

The little bit we can all do is to not buy into the constant anti-Iranian PR-fest. Yes, they have extremists and hard-liners, just as the United States does. The key is for the sane people to outflank the crazies by questioning and rejecting the marketing of war as inevitable.

Thanks for posting this,

Michael Wolraich — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:11:05 +0000

In reply to Silva's Turn

Thanks for posting this, Justin. What a terrible story. Now that Roxana Saberi is free, I see some media sources asking about those who, like Ms. Harotonian and Hossein Derakhshan, are still imprisoned.

This NPR story evaluates the rationale behind the arrests. While many analysts assumed that Ms. Saberi was arrested as some kind of bargaining chip or pawn in a political game, the parallel arrest of Silva Harotonian and others with lower profiles suggests that these arrests constitute "business as usual" in Iran. (Not that I would ever accuse Americans of thinking that the world revolves around them.)

Sadly, it's hard for me to see the State department going to bat for another Iranian prisoner who lacks the good fortune of American citizenship, especially as she'll be upstaged by the journalists in North Korea. But perhaps the media coverage will help. I wish that it could do something for other prisoners whose names we don't even know.