Haleh Esfandiari

[Rasputin]

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Sunday defended the broadcast of interviews from two US-Iranians detained for harming national security amid criticism from reformists the programme was unnecessary.

Tehran has said the televised statements from Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, who were arrested in May, have exposed a US plot to overthrow Iran's Islamic authorities through a peaceful "soft revolution."

"It was necessary that the nature of the cultural onslaught was exposed," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"This was required for informing the public. It is nothing people are unaware of. But their beliefs have now been documented by real evidence," said Elham.

He also denied US allegations the statements were made under pressure, pointing to the comfortable surroundings in which Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh were filmed.

"For those who say that the statements were made under pressure, their appearance shows that these were natural comments," he said.

No mention was made in the programme that the two academics are currently jailed or face grave charges of harming national security.

Instead, both were shown in rooms equipped with potted plants, carpets and, in Esfandiari's interview, a fridge. The surroundings bore absolutely no resemblance to prison cells.

This was to show that "we are not the kind who use violence with our enemies and opponents. Giving the accused a hard time and pressuring them is not our policy," Elham said.

Elham also recalled Iran's treatment of the 15 British sailors detained in March, who were shown on television relaxing in tracksuits, browsing through brochures and playing table tennis.

"A humane, non-violent, behaviour with the accused is part of neutralising psychological warfare," said Elham.

The US State Department and New York-based Human Rights Watch had expressed concern that coercion was used to force the detainees to make the statements.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini also defended the broadcast, saying the programme had shown up US efforts to destabilise Iran.

"The United States has always had overthrowing goals and the detainees' recent confessions aired on television are an indication of a long-term plan and extensive efforts," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

However Iran's main reformist party, the Islamic Iranian Participation Front, attacked the conservative government for airing the programme, which it said was of "no use."

"Such programmes are no use in clarifying anti-Iranian moves by US officials ... by airing such programmes one cannot divert public opinion from the numerous mistakes and failures resulting from the government's work."

"A 'Velvet Revolution' normally happens in a dictatorship where it is not possible to implement the people's free and fair opinion through free elections," the Fars news agency quoted it as saying.

"This is why the best way to assure the durability of the Islamic system is democracy," it added.

Iran has repeatedly protested that the United States has been seeking to spark a "Velvet Revolution" in Iran under the guise of initiatives to promote democracy.

A reformist Iranian newspaper also broke ranks on Saturday to criticise the interviews.

"We must accept that the era of televised confessions is over," said the Hambastegi (Unity) daily.

"If these people are spies then why are the ones who gave them classified information not introduced and detained?

"Would it not be better if the national media introduced these people as opponents of the Islamic republic after their intentions to oppose and overthrow have been proven in court?" it asked.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

The Iranian security apparatus had closely monitored her reports, asking her about specific pieces she had broadcast about Iran's Kurdish minority, women's rights, censorship, U.S.-Iranian relations and the treatment of dissidents.

"Isn't it a counterrevolutionary station?" the interrogator asked. "If not, why do you have so much criticism of Iran?"

"As a woman, I am in favor of equal rights for women," she replied. "As a person of culture, I am opposed to censorship. As far as Kurdistan [goes], I interviewed a person from Kurdistan who was later put to death. I am opposed to the death penalty. If these are crimes, I am guilty of all these crimes."

He didn't reply. The session ended.

Azima pleaded with the interrogator to return her passport, but he warned her to keep quiet. "If you don't make a big deal about this, we'll clean it up and you'll be able to go back home," he said.

She warily complied. She posted the deed to her mother's home as bail to keep herself out of jail.

But the interrogator, however, offered her a deal, Azima said. Collaborate with Iranian intelligence services, and you can go home, back to your job at Radio Farda.

Azima refused. She told her interrogator that she was 18 when Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi's security service, the SAVAK, approached her and asked her to inform on her fellow students. Back then she also refused.

"I told him, I am almost 60 now and I don't have more than 10 or 15 years left," she said. "I have one son, and the only thing I have to give him is my name and integrity — I'm not going to ruin this at the end of my life."

What they wanted, he said, wasn't much. "If a bomb is about to go off, you'll tell us about it," he said.

"I said to him, 'If a bomb is about to go off, it's my duty to alert the public about it,' " she said. " 'I don't need to make some kind of deal with you.' "

The interviews continued for three weeks, then, they handed back her passport and let her go. After she left, they cleared her of charges and handed back the deed to her mother's home.

But before she left she had a question for her interrogator. Why didn't they arrest her the previous year?

"Last year," he told Azima, "you were our guest."

When Azima's 93-year-old mother fell severely ill this year, Azima found herself facing another harrowing trip to Iran.

Her plane arrived before midnight Jan. 25 at the Tehran airport.

"That CD you brought," the man in the black suit told her. "Hand it over, and we won't search your bag."

Azima wondered whether they were trying to trump up an espionage case against her or just wanted an excuse to search her bags. They found nothing, but again seized her Iranian passport.

Azima's mother recovered from her illness. Azima, along with her lawyer, Mohammed Hossein Aghassi, began navigating the byzantine maze of Iran's security establishment.

An interrogator asked why she had refused to collaborate.

[Rasputin]

Azima replied that she would never work for them. She asked for her passport back but was told to go home and wait.

Iranian law requires that charges be filed before passports are taken. Still, weeks became months, and no charges were forthcoming.

Frustrated, Azima and her lawyer alerted the international media. They enlisted the support of the Swiss Embassy, which acts as a U.S. liaison in Iran in the absence of formal relations between Washington and Tehran.

Iranian authorities were furious. She was summoned to the Revolutionary Court to face charges May 15.

Aghassi advised Azima to bring her toothpaste and personal items to the court appointment because she might be sent to jail.

She was charged with working for an institution that authorities alleged spreads propaganda against the Iranian regime. Bail was set at about $600,000, the estimated amount Azima earned during nine years at Radio Farda. She put up the deed to her mother's home.

Aghassi said he believed Azima and the three other Iranian Americans were being held against their will in retaliation for the five junior Iranian diplomats detained by the U.S. in a Jan. 11 raid on an Iranian government office in northern Iraq.

"If the five Iranian diplomats are freed in Iraq, then there might be some reciprocity, and Parnaz and other cases may be positively affected," Aghassi said.

Azima considers herself lucky to be out on bail but still feels like a prisoner.

"My situation is unclear," she said. "I have trouble sleeping and eating. I have nightmares."

[Rasputin]

After spending weeks in detention and after being charged by the Iranian judiciary with "endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners,” Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre, and Dr Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with Soros Institute, on 18th and 19th July, appeared on Iranian state television. In the broadcast, the two individuals described their professional background and what was labelled as their “confession” by the state television. Two other Iranian Americans, Parnaz Azima, Radio Farda Journalist, and Ali Shakeri, a businessman working with the Centre for Citizen Peace, have been similarly detained and charged.

Detention and harassment of individuals, academics and NGO or political activists for expressing their ideas or promoting different cultural positions, are deplorable acts, regardless of the diverse contexts and vastly different dimensions in which they might take place, be it in the United States, Guantanamo Bay, Israel, the UK or any other place, including Iran. In addition to being abhorrent in their own right, such acts in a country like Iran which is threatened by warmongers in the west, also play directly into the hands of those determined to bomb Iran.

The Woodrow Wilson Center is funded by the US Congress and its activities and programmes in relation to Iran are sponsored by the Soros Foundation, which is believed to have been instrumental in instigating the “velvet” revolutions of the former Soviet-block countries. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry alleges in its communiqué that according to Dr Esfandiari “Soros Foundation has established an unofficial network … whose main objective is overthrowing the system." The communiqué adds that “Although the short term objectives of the above mentioned foundations are mainly lined to their apparent activities, their mid-term objectives include a type of culture making …aimed at soft overthrowing of the system."

These charges of “culture making” against the four Iranian-Americans, even if true, do not amount to a direct threat to Iran’s national security. Predictably and understandably, these acts have caused protests and outcries of indignation from diverse quarters, uniting the voices of individuals and organisations genuinely concerned with human rights and civil liberties with the disingenuous cries of the US warmongers and their pro-war Iranian Chelabis. It is not difficult to see how such unwarranted measures against legitimate democratic and civil rights, themselves, have the potential to create the conditions that could compromise Iran’s national security by endangering its unity in the face of an active foreign threat.

However, these charges must be viewed in the wider context of the lawlessness of American hegemonic policies in the Middle East and its stated strategy of regime change in Iran. In an atmosphere charged with threats of annihilation, externally through threats of war and internally through fear of disintegration and regime change, over-reactions to perceived threats are likely to occur, whilst at the same time pretexts for curtailment and suppression of legitimate democratic rights find a fertile ground.

Today, Iran is under military, economic and psychological siege. It is surrounded by American forces and air bases ready to launch attacks from neighbouring countries and beyond; there is a massive US naval build up in the Persian Gulf complete with menacing exhibits of war games; there have been warnings over a sustained period of time from military and intelligence experts of the imminent plans for bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites and military and economic infrastructure and its consequent catastrophic human and environmental ramifications; there is the economic and psychological siege through US driven sanctions designed to bring the country to its knees by fomenting chaos and hardship, the same kind of sanctions that killed 1.5 million Iraqis prior to the illegal US/UK invasion of 2003.

Iranian diplomatic missions are attacked by the Americans, and Iranian diplomats incarcerated and tortured, without any charges brought against them and with total impunity. Of course, none of these, nor George Bush’s blunt announcement of a “shoot to kill” policy against “suspected” Iranian “agents,” nor the maltreatment of Iranian travellers to the US, as “unpeople,” often harassed and incarcerated inhumanely, have elicited any degree of alarm and concern from those vociferous Washington and Washington-led advocates of democracy and human rights in Iran.

The fear and suspicion of “culture making networks” has to be viewed in the context of US’s “Iran Freedom Act” and its $100 Million plus funding as part of its strategy of regime change and the establishment of yet another client state in the region. The US funded “democratization” campaign is a destabilization project which amounts to foreign state intervention that is illegal under international law, the UN charter, and the existing bilateral agreements between Iran and the US. This domestic interference can blur the distinction between genuine NGO activities and externally sponsored regime change in Iran. This is a perception for which the US bears the primary responsibility. The impact of this on the genuine NGOs in Iran and on legitimate voices of dissent has been catastrophic for the fledgling civil society in Iran.

The US destabilization project, labelled “democratization”, has already turned violent and has the potential to kill many more Iranians. The American support for covert operations to infiltrate the domestic opposition and to foment ethnic and religious violence in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Baluchistan and Khuzistan are well-documented The US funding, support and diplomatic cover for known terrorist groups PJAK and MEK is an indisputable fact, not even denied by the Neocons. There is therefore an atmosphere of national emergency where the first victims are, predictably, the rightful and legitimate voices of opposition and the diversity of intellectual and cultural trends. Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh, Parnaz Azima and Ali Shakeri are victims of this atmosphere of siege engendered by the US aggressive policy towards Iran.

However, these threats do not justify disregard for legal due process and the nature of the charges filed against these individuals. Repressive measures against civil liberties and human rights in Iran, do not serve Iran’s security and national interests, even in an atmosphere of impending war. These measures are divisive and would only serve to heighten the demonizing propaganda campaign against Iran and its historical identity. Such repressive measures play directly into the hands of the pro-war forces in the US and its pro-US client opposition. The neo-conservative instigated regime change can only find a likely appeal to a sense of resentment, discontent and dissent in Iran.

No matter how radical and provocative they seem to be to the establishment, non-conformist ideas and different cultural perspectives should only be countered through ideas and cultural dialogue, in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for freedom of expression, and certainly not through harassment and detention of individuals or groups. The most effective defense against American hegemonic ambitions is achieved, not by curtailing and suppressing human rights, but by strengthening the unity of Iranian people, on the basis of safeguarding and guaranteeing their rights of democratic decision making and participation.

[Rasputin]

Iran announces more arrests made

TEHRAN, Iran - Authorities arrested a number of Iranians allegedly connected to two Iranian-Americans detained on charges of conspiring against the government, the intelligence minister said Wednesday.



The minister, Gholam Hossein Ejehei, did not say how many people were arrested or give details on their connection to Americans Hala Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh.

"Internal elements related to these people have been arrested," state radio quoted Ejehei as saying. "We are hopeful their names and reasons of detention will be announced."

Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh have been accused of endangering Iran's national security, and the Intelligence Ministry has alleged they were seeking to set up networks of Iranians to foment a "velvet revolution" against Iran's Islamic government. Families and employers of the two have denied the charges.

Esfandiari, 67, the director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been held largely incommunicado since May.

Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, has been held since May.

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وزير اطلاعات دستگيرى تعدادى از افراد مرتبط با برنامه*ها و اقدامات هاله اسفنديارى و كيان تاجبخش را تائيد كرد.

غلامحسين محسنى اژه*اى وزير اطلاعات در حاشيه جلسه اين هفته هيئت دولت با اشاره به پخش اعترافات عوامل مرتبط با بيگانه گفت: تشخيص نوع اتهام و جرم اين افراد بر عهده قاضى است.
وى در پاسخ به سؤال خبرنگار فارس درباره دستگيرى عوامل داخلى افراد ياد شده، اين موضوع را تائيد كرد و اظهار اميدوارى نمود كه اسامى آنها و دلايل دستگيريشان به اطلاع افكار عمومى برسد و در ادامه در پاسخ به سؤال خبرنگار ديگرى مبنى بر ارتباط آنها با برخى احزاب مشخص، گفت: عنوان كردن اين موضوع به اين نحو كه آنها با حزب يا گروه خاصى مرتبط بودند، غلط است.

وزير اطلاعات همچنين اضافه كرد: البته بر اساس قانون، همكارى مجرمان با دستگاه قضائى مى تواند موجب تخفيف در مجازات آنها شود كه هنوز آنها محاكمه نشده*اند.

اژه*اى در پايان با اشاره به تحويل عوامل مرتبط در فرار شهرام جزايرى به دستگاه قضائي، توضيحات بيشتر را به اين قوه محول كرد.

[Rasputin]

Iran concludes inquiry into detained U.S.-Iranians

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's judicial authorities have completed their investigations into two detained Iranian-Americans, a senior official said on Sunday, in a case that has added to high tensions with Washington.

"The two have some written work to do and then the decision will be made about them," Tehran Deputy Prosecutor Hassan Haddad told the official IRNA news agency. Haddad, in charge of the file, did not specify what he meant by "written work."

Last month, Iranian television aired "confessions" by Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, which the Foreign Ministry said had revealed a U.S.-backed plot to topple Iran's clerical establishment.

The United States has denounced the broadcast as illegitimate and coerced, urging Tehran to immediately release the two dual nationals, arrested separately in May while visiting Iran from the United States.

The two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, are also embroiled in an escalating standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme. The West suspects it is aimed at making bombs, a charge Iran denies.

The detentions of the two Iranian-Americans coincided with what rights groups and diplomats said was a fresh crackdown on dissent in Iran, with the authorities targeting women's rights activists, students, journalists and labor figures.

Iran dismisses accusations it is violating human rights.

Esfandiari is an academic at the U.S.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Tajbakhsh is a consultant with the Soros Institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros.

The programme in which they appeared, called "In the Name of Democracy," did not mention two other detained Iranian-Americans, one of whom has been freed on bail.

Iranian television has in the past broadcast "confessions" by dissidents serving jail sentences for alleged attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic.

In the IRNA interview, Haddad also touched upon the case of dissident labor leader Mansoor Osanloo, detained last month for "distributing statements against the system."

His union, which groups bus drivers, is an illegal organisation but his arrest was not related to labor issues, the prosecutor said.

"I told Osanloo 'your behavior creates problems for the country's security'," Haddad said. "Because he has traveled abroad he thinks he can do whatever he wants."

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هاله اسفندياري صد روز تنهايي را پشت سر گذاشته و شايد از آن بيش را پيش رو دارد. کيان تاج بخش صد روز تنهايي را پشت سر گذاشته و شايد از آن بيش را پيش رو دارد. از سرنوشت علي شاکري خبري نيست که نيست. "تنهايي" مجازاتي است که دوستداران ايران آن را مانند يک تقدير و سرنوشت از پيش تعيين شده و تاريخي بايد تحمل کنند. گفته مي شود هاله اسفندياري در پايان صد روز تنهايي روي صندلي چرخدار نشسته و پياپي او را با صندلي چرخدار از سلول انفرادي به جايي مي برند و سپس به همان سلول باز مي گردانند. گفته مي شود هاله پوستي شده است بر استخوان. سرخي چشمهايش زير پوست صورت دويده و رنگ آن را تغيير داده است. هاله تبديل شده است به تصويري بي روح. از آن هاله پر شور که صبحانه اش يک فنجان قهوه بود، ناهارش يک پياله ماست و ورزش روزانه اش ترک نمي شد و بي وقفه کار مي کرد چيزي باقي نمانده است. دعا دعا مي کنيم خبرهاي رسيده صحت نداشته باشد. اما چگونه مي توان آرام گرفت؟ شاهدي آنگونه که بايد در ماجرايي چنين شگفت انگيز حضور ندارد. وکيل مدافع همچون ما که فرسنگ ها از ماجرا دور افتاده ايم از هاله بي خبر است. او را به ديدار موکل راه نمي دهند. مادر سالخورده اش که نزديکي هاي اوين زندگي مي کند همچون ما که فرسنگ ها از او دور افتاده ايم از هاله بي خبر است. مادر که هر لحظه ممکن است چشم بر هم نهد از ديدار يگانه دختر 67 ساله اش محروم مانده است. او نيز صد روز تنهايي پر درد را تحمل کرده است. او اصالتا اتريشي است و پس از ازدواج با پدر هاله، ايران را همچون بهشت برين يافته و هرگز در بدترين شرايط مانند انقلاب و جنگ خاک ايران را ترک نکرده است. مادر هاله بي گمان با خود مي انديشد: چرا در سرزميني که به آن عشق مي ورزد چنين بي رحمانه با او رفتار شده است؟

کيان تاج بخش در يکصدمين روز از آن تنهايي ژرف با سر و صورت اصلاح نشده و چين هايي بر چهره و نوميدي مطلق ديده شده و گفته مي شود پس از آنکه او را براي حضور در نمايش امنيتي، تلويزيوني مثل بازيگران آراسته اند و سر و صورتش را صفايي داده اند تا بتواند متن ديکته شده را روي صحنه بازي بخواند و به بينندگان بباوراند که در شرايط مطلوبي به سر مي برد، ديگر روي سلماني به خود نديده و او را مثل تفاله دور انداخته اند.

همه کساني که تنهايي از اين نوع را تجربه کرده اند مي دانند چه رنگ و بويي دارد. مي دانند تنهايي هاله و کيان مثل ابر خاکستري است. تب آلود است. با کابوس و هذيان درآميخته و بوي مرگ مي دهد. اما خود مرگ نيست!... در ورطه اين تنهايي مرگ تبديل به "آرزو" مي شود. آرزويي که بيش از رهايي، تمنايش از دل مي گذرد. جايي که مرگ رويا است، زندگي کابوس است. براي تنهاياني از تبار هاله و کيان دعا کنيم. آيا اين تنهايي که بر هاله و کيان يکصد روز است تحميل شده حاصل يک سوء تفاهم است يا علامتي است از جهل کساني که قادر نيستند دوست و دشمن خود را از هم جدا کنند. اين هردو که تنهايي شان صد روزه شده دوست بوده اند، نه دشمن. آيا آنها با وجود تحمل بار تنهايي و انزوا همچنان دوست باقي مانده اند؟ دستگاه امنيتي ايران يک کارخانه دشمن سازي است. دوست را وارد لوله هاي مخوف اين کارخانه مي کند و دشمن تحويل مي دهد. توليد کارخانه ساليان سال است همين است.

صد روز تنهايي، اگر تحقير، توهين، فشار عصبي و فيزيکي هم در کار نباشد به خودي خود ويرانگر است. شخصيت و کرامت انساني را تخريب مي کند. انسان را به پوچي مطلق مي رساند. به تدريج خاطرات گذشته و خطوط چهره عزيزاني که از ديدارشان محروم مانده از ديوارهاي تنهايي مي گريزد.

در منجلاب تنهايي ديرپا نام ها و يادها دور ودورتر مي شود. آن کس که تنها مانده تصور مي کند همه آن دوستان و خويشان و ياران، او را پشت ديوار تنهايي رها کرده و به دنبال کار خود رفته اند. تنها مانده براي کاستن از بار تنهايي که مشقت بارترين شکنجه است، دست در دست بازجو مي گذارد. چشم بر لبان او مي دوزد و مي گويد هرآنچه را بازجو در طلب آن است.

يکي از کساني که مدتها در برهوت اين شکل از تنهايي در زندان هاي غير قانوني ايران غوطه خورده است مي گفت بار تنهايي بر شانه هايم چندان سنگين بود که دلم مي خواست بازجو سراغم را بگيرد. يعني همان که از رنگ خون و هق هق گريه هايم لذت بي حساب مي برد. هم او را مي خواستم تا بيايد و با مشت و لگد و پس گردني من را از ظلمت غريب خود بيرون بکشد.

سلول زده در هم شکسته ديگري مي گفت تا مدتها با آن تنهايي وصف ناشدني خوب سر مي کردم. هر روز صبح سحرگاه به خود مي قبولاندم هنوز در آغوش خانواده ام هستم. در خيال زندگي خانوادگي روزانه را بازسازي مي کردم و زمان را مي کشتم، پيش از آنکه زمان من را به قتل برساند. مي گفت در خيال براي دخترهايم صبحانه مي چيدم. يکي يکي همه چيز را از يخچال بيرون مي آوردم. نان گرم مي کردم. لقمه مي گرفتم و به دقت مواظب بودم چيزي توي اين سفره خيالي کم و کسر نباشد. بعد در خيال مي رفتم اتاق دخترها. آنها را با نوازش دست بيدار مي کردم. با هم سر سفره مي نشستيم و صبحانه مي خورديم. بعد ميني بوس مدرسه مي آمد. زنگ مي زد و يکي را با خود مي برد. همه در خيال اتفاق مي افتاد و من به خود آموخته بودم تا به همه خيال ها عينيت بدهم. سپس خودم پشت رل مي نشستم و دربزرگراه مدرس مي راندم تا دختر دانشجويم را به دانشکده حقوق دانشگاه شهيد بهشتي برسانم. سلول زده مي گفت دوران اين زندگي هم تمام شد و چون تنهايي به طول انجاميد و از دو صد روز گذشت، ديگر چهره دخترهايم را به خاطر نمي آوردم. يادم رفته بود چه شکلي هستند. مثل کرم روي زمين سرد سلول پيچ و تاب مي خوردم و از درد پاهاي مجروح، دنده هاي شکسته و شانه هاي ضرب ديده زير مشت و لگد مي ناليدم و مي گريستم.

سلول زده ها مي دانند تنهايي حتي اگرشکنجه جسمي هم در کار نباشد از حد و اندازه معيني که مي گذرد، جنون مي آورد. انسان هذيان زده را براي تمام عمر معلول مي کند. شايد جاي زخم هاي شکنجه جسمي ترميم بشود، ولي ياخته هاي شکنجه شده مغز و اعصاب و روان هرگز ترميم نمي شود. تازه هزاران هزار سلول کينه ورزي و انتقام خود را در بدن سلول زده تکثير مي کند.

هاله و کيان يکصد روز تنهايي را پشت سر نهاده اند. به کدام جرم؟ به جرم آنکه خواسته اند ايران در طبقه بندي هاي سياسي در جايي قرار بگيرد که بهانه جويان به سويش شليک نکنند.

به کدام جرم؟ به جرم آنکه خواسته اند از ايران و تحولات درون زاي آن و ظرفيت هايش تصوير روشني به زورمندان جهان ارائه بدهند تا شايد به آنها بباورانند ايران سرزميني است که در شرايط صلح به بالندگي مي رسد و ايرانيان را با روحيه تروريستي کاري نيست. ايران سرزميني است که بايد آن را از چشم کارشناسان مقيم ايران ديد و شناخت و نه سياست بازان دوستدار تجاوز و حمله و ويرانگري. با ايران بايد دور ميز مذاکره نشست.

درد آشناياني که هاله آنها را به ويلسون سنتر دعوت مي کرد با آنکه خود قربانيان تندروي هاي امنيتي بودند مي آمدند و مي خواستند بر اذهان کساني که اراده کرده بودند در خلاء درباره ايران تصميم گيري کنند نور آگاهي بتابانند.

آيا اين شيوه ها از نگاه عقلا جرم است يا از نگاه ديوانگان؟ اگر يک رژيم سياسي در جهان پيدا شده که با وجود برخورداري از حمايت شهرونداني مانند هاله و کيان، از سايه خودش مي ترسد و به آنها شليک مي کند با آن چه بايد کرد؟

هاله و کيان تنهايي شان صد روزه شد. آنها را مي توان نمادي از تنهايي ايرانياني برشمرد که نمي دانند به کدام جرم ناکرده تنها مانده اند و نمي دانند چرا سياست خارجي کشورشان به انزوا عشق مي ورزد. حال آنکه سياست خارجي هنرش اين است که ديوارهاي انزوا را پيرامون شهروندان بشکند.

هاله و کيان در يکصدمين روز تنهايي نمادي شده اند از "ديپلماسي انزوا" که سياست خارجي ايران آن را ساليان سال است در پيش گرفته و زيان هايش را در ستون منافع ثبت مي کند و اسم اين بيلان را مي گذارد "سند استقلال ملي"!

هيلاري کلينتون در نخستين روزهايي که تنهايي هاله در سلول انفرادي آغاز شد از او با لقب "بانوي مذاکره" ياد کرد. بانوي مذاکره از جان مايه مي گذاشت تا باب جنگ و حمله را ببندد و باب مذاکره را بگشايد. بخش جنگ دوست حکومت ايران بانوي مذاکره را پاس نداشت. او را پشت ديوار تنهايي حبس کرد. شايد از آن رو که با صلح خصومت مي ورزد و شايد از آن رو که مذاکره را مثل پول نفت و ديگر داشته هاي ملي ارث پدري و حق انحصاري خود مي داند و معتقد است اختيار جنگ و صلح با زورمندان تندرو است و شهروندان شايسته و ميانه رو حق نزديک شدن به ميز مذاکره را ندارند. حتي اگر ميانه روهاي ديني باشند!

هاله و کيان تنهايي شان صد روزه شد. راستي تنهايي ملت ايران چند روزه شده است؟ بياييد باهم روزها و شب هاي تنهايي خود را بشماريم و حساب کنيم همه ما درون و بيرون کشور چه اندازه مشقت کشيده ايم تا در منجلاب تنهايي که بر ما تحميل شده خود را زنده نگاه داريم.

تنهايي هاله و کيان که هر دو دوستان يک جمهوري اسلامي ميانه رو بودند، صد روزه شد. حساب کنيد تنهايي ملت ايران را. حساب کنيد درجات تنهايي منتقدان و مخالفان جمهوري اسلامي ايران را.

[Rasputin]

هاله اسفندياري آزاد شد

به گفته مسئولان قضائي در ايران، هاله اسفندياري، پژوهشگر ايراني كه به اتهام جاسوسي و اقدام عليه امنيت ملي بازداشت شده، با سپردن وثيقه اي سيصد ميليون توماني آزاد شد.

هاله اسفندياري و كيان تاجبخش كه در ايران در بازداشت به سر مي برند متهم به جاسوسي و اقدام عليه امنيت ملي اند
خانم اسفندياري كه تابعيت آمريكايي نيز دارد، در مؤسسه وودرو ويلسون در واشنگتن به فعاليتهاي پژوهشي اشتغال دارد.

وي سال گذشته به ايران سفر كرد اما پس از چند ماه كه قصد بازگشت به آمريكا داشت، از خروج از كشور منع شد و سپس بازداشت گرديد.

دولت آمريكا از آزادي هاله اسفندياري استقبال كرده و سخنگوي كاخ سفيد آن را اقدامي "دلگرم كننده" از جانب ايران توصيف كرده است.

علاوه بر خانم اسفندياري، يك پژوهشگر ايراني تبعه آمريكا به نام يحيي كيان تاجبخش نيز بنابر اتهامات مشابه خانم اسفندياري در بازداشت به سر مي برد.

از مقامي مسئول در دادسراي تهران نقل شده كه براي آقاي تاجبخش نيز احتمالاً بزودي قرار وثيقه صادر مي شود و او هم آزاد خواهد گرديد.

چندي پيش، هاله اسفندياري و كيان تاجبخش دو بار بر صفحه تلويزيون ايران ظاهر شدند و گفتند كه با راه اندازي همايشها و برنامه هاي پژوهشي در خارج، ميان فعالان سياسي و فرهنگي ايراني و مسئولان سياسي و اطلاعاتي آمريكايي ارتباط برقرار مي كرده اند.

پخش اين اظهارات واكنش اعتراض آميز فعالان حقوق بشر و برخي از تشكلهاي سياسي را در پي داشت.

[Rasputin]

Iran-US scholar released but unable to leave country

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian-US academic Haleh Esfandiari was on Wednesday enjoying a first day out of custody after her sudden release from three months in jail but is still unable to leave Iran until her passport is returned.

Esfandiari, 67, was released on Tuesday afternoon on bail of three billion rials (320,000 dollars) from Tehran's Evin prison, where she had been detained since early May on accusations of links to a US drive to topple Iran's rulers.

The move was welcomed as "encouraging news" by the White House, which had repeatedly called for the release of Esfandiari and three other US-Iranians held by Tehran.

The future of her case was not immediately clear, with Tehran prosecutors emphasising that it had not been closed. Moreover, she is still without her passport, which was stolen when she was about to leave Iran in December.

"Technically speaking she can leave the country as the purpose of the bail is that she can leave and return when she wants," said Esfandiari's lawyer Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize-winning rights activist.

"But as you know her passport has been taken," she told AFP.

Iranian television late on Tuesday showed pictures of Esfandiari as she left Evin prison in northern Tehran, saying she was happy to be released and that she had been well-treated in jail.

"They treated me very well in the section. I had a room, it was very big, it had a window. I could have air whenever I wanted. The food was very good."

"I feel happy. I thank those who made it possible that I can go home," she told the reporter before walking towards a group of people waiting for her at the gate.

There was no official comment on the case of Kian Tajbakhsh, a US-Iranian urban planning expert who has also been held in Evein on the same charges as Esfandiari since May.

The arrests had increased tensions between Tehran and Washington at a time of growing concerns about the Iranian nuclear drive, which the United States claims is aimed at making an atomic weapon.

"This is encouraging news and the United States welcomes this," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in reaction to Esfandiari's release.

Esfandiari, who heads the Middle East programme at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, returned to Iran last year to visit her sick 93-year-old mother.

According to the Wilson Centre, she was travelling in a taxi on December 30 to the airport for the flight home when three masked men with knives stopped the car and took away her handbag and passports.

She was not detained at that time, but over the next few months was interrogated several times. She was then arrested and taken to Tehran's Evin prison on May 7.

"We rejoice at the news of Haleh's release," said Lee H. Hamilton, the Centre's director.

"Haleh has lost close to seven months of her life. She was subjected to untold hours of interrogation and an isolation that we cannot imagine."

Iran's hardline daily Kayhan, which had run a virulent personal campaign against Esfandiari accusing her of being a spy, was less impressed.

"Three billion rials is nothing for the Americans who have spent millions releasing her," it alleged. "It's so easy with a bail of three billion rials to have their spy escape."

Another US-Iranian, Ali Shakeri, a California-based businessman who is also a board member of a private conflict resolution group, is also believed to have been detained since May but on different charges.

Judiciary officials have made no mention of a fourth US-Iranian, Parnaz Azima, a broadcaster with Radio Free Europe's Prague-based Persian language arm Radio Farda, who faces similar security-related charges.

Azima is not being detained but her passport has been confiscated and she is unable to leave the country.

[Rasputin]

I know speaking against Haleh Esfandiari is like suicide these days. After all, with the help of her mostly American and Iranian neoliberal allies (especially Washington Post's Robin Wright whose love for Esfandiari, for some reason, surpasses that of Esfandiari's own daughter), has become a symbolic victim of the 'most repressive regime on the planet.'

But let's be honest for a moment. If an American scholar served , in Tehran, as the head of a prominent think-tank, very close to the heart of the Iranian policy making machine, and started travelling back and forth to the U.S. and tried to establish contacts and with dissident Americans (let's say the leftists) and invited them to Tehran to speak for highest Iranian policy making, top officers of the Revolutionary Guards and intelligence officers, how would the U.S., even the most liberal one like Jimmy Carter, would treat him or her?

On top of that, Haleh Esfandiari was the first Iranian fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1995, as the first group of NED fellows. (She was followed by Hossein Bashirieh, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Siamak Namazi, Ali Afshari and Manouchehr Mohammadi ever since.)

And we all know about NED's roles and functions in countries where the U.S. wants to bring about its favorite governments such as in Venezuella and the rest. Some even suggest that the links between the CIA and NED are undeniable. "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA," says Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED in 1991. (Read the entire Le Monde Diplomatique's article on the links between NED and the CIA. )

Given what we know about NED today, I believe, anyone in any country who has had any ties with NED and its affiliate organisations (International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, American Center for International Labor Solidarity and Center for International Private Enterprise) deserves to be charged and fairly and justly prosecuted.

I emphasize on the process to be just and fair because I think Iran has sometimes ignored some of its own laws when it comes to such cases. For example, withholding Esfandiari's passport and therefore keeping her in Iran without prosecuting her was totally wrong and illegal.

But more or less the rest of her case was handled fairly and legally, given the laws in Iran, that like like in many countries post 9/11, give the right to the judge to extend the time a detainee can be held without charges. But Esfandiari had a lawyer, has contacts with her mother and, at it appears, was treated well in detention.

Now perhaps Danny Postel would like to write another piece for openDemocracy and compare me this time with Adolf Hitler. I wonder what he and other Christopher Hitchens clones think about the NED.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Bailed U.S.-Iranian academic leaves Iran: lawyer

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A U.S.-Iranian academic, who was detained for more than three months on spying accusations and freed on bail in August, flew out of Iran overnight, one of her lawyers said on Monday.

Haleh Esfandiari, 67, was detained on May 8 during a visit to Iran to see her elderly mother. She was released after paying bail of 3 billion rials (about $320,000) on August 21.

Her detention and the case of three other dual nationals -- two of them still detained and another free on bail -- have stoked tensions with Iran's old foe, the United States.

Iran has accused Esfandiari of involvement in what it says is a U.S.-led plot to topple its clerical establishment in a "soft revolution." Washington has dismissed the allegation.

"She (Esfandiari) took her passport last night and left Tehran for an unknown location ... There is a high possibility that she will return (to Iran) before her trial," lawyer Abdol-Fattah Soltani told Reuters.

A spokeswoman at the Centre for the Defenders of Human Rights, led by Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, said Esfandiari was returning to her "place of residence," apparently a reference to the United States. She did not elaborate.

Ebadi said when Esfandiari was freed on bail that she was allowed to leave the Islamic Republic. Parnaz Azima, the other dual national earlier freed on bail, has been unable to leave because the authorities kept her passport, rights groups say.

Esfandiari works at the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The two detained U.S.-Iranians are Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant with the Soros Institute, and Ali Shakeri from a centre that seeks to promote peace.

Last month, Iranian television aired "confessions" by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh, which the Foreign Ministry said had revealed a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow Iran's clerical rulers.

The United States denounced the broadcast as illegitimate and coerced, and urged Tehran to release the detainees.

[Rasputin]

On a sunny day in Washington, DC, my imaginary American scholar, Hannah Esfandiari, was sittining in her Kalorama-located house, opening a letter she had just received from Tehran, Iran. It was a job offer from a prominent think-tank at the heart of the Islamic Republic's policy-making machine.

Her main job was going to be establishing contacts with Americans dissidents, scholars and activists and inviting them to Tehran to speak for high-rank Iranian policy-makers, top officers of the Revolutionary Guards and the intelligence ministry.

But she could not take the job offer. Not because she was afraid of being charged with assisting a 'state sponsor of terrorism' and perhaps being sent to Guantanamo Bay. But simply because, based on the U.S. Sanctions on Iran (Iranian Transactions Regulations), it would be illegal for her or any other American to sign any contract with, accept any funds from, or give any service to an Iranian citizen or organisation, wherever in the world. Violating that law could cost her up to 20 years of jail and $250,000 fine.

Now, let's come back to the real world and consider a similar case about an Iranian citizen who was directing a prominent American think-tank.

Haleh Esfandiari's job, as the director of the middle east programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (established by the U.S. Congress in 1981 and co-funded directly (PDF File) by the U.S. government), was to invite Iranian dissidents, scholars and activists them to Washington, D.C. to speak for and interact with high-rank American policymakers, top military and intelligence officers. (Absent from all media reports is that that she has served among the first group of fellows at the infamous National Endowment for Democracy with its well-known shady past and agenda.)

But when she last visited Tehran using her Iranian passport, she was detained, charged with acting against Iran's national security and released on bail after a long investigation.

Since her arrest a few months ago, the American media, politicians and scholars (including George Bush himself) made a huge fuss about the illegality of such detention and repeatedly called the charges against her bogus and appalling and insisted that Mrs. Esfandiari was totally innocent.
Quite hypocritical. Everyone is overlooking the other side of the story about the way the American government is treating its citizens who would give such a service (in fact much less significant) to Iran.

If Iran prosecutes its citizens after they started giving service to the policy-making machine of its biggest enemy, the U.S doesn't even allow such service in the first place by making it illegal and somehow punishes its citizens even before they started such service. The delicate point here is that both countries try to protect their national security through such measures, but while the American method to do that is more severe, it never gets any bad publicity, because, on it surface, the legal framework it is using is sanctions against a 'terrorist state,' not sanctions to protect national security.

This smart strategy prevents the American government to look bad in public, while it achieves its goal of depriving the Iranian policymakers from interacting with American scholars and at the same time make Iran look bad when it does the same. (When was the last time you heard an American teaching in any private or public Iranian university?)

Perhaps it is time for Iran and other countries under American economic sanctions to strike back and begin using the legal frameworks of sanctions against the U.S. to address their legitimate security concerns.