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The Derakhshan mystery
A prominent Iranian blogger has been arrested in Tehran and accused of spying for Israel after visiting the country with the aim of being "a bridge between Iranian and Israeli people".
Hossein Derakhshan, 33, was reported by the Iranian website Jahan News to have confessed during initial interrogations to being involved in espionage.
The Jahan News site, which is widely believed to be linked to the Iranian intelligence services, also said he had been described in Jewish newspaper articles as a "friend of Israel".
Derakhshan is known in Iran as the Blogfather after effectively launching the country's craze for blogging. He has claimed 20,000 people a day read his postings.
He holds joint Iranian-Canadian citizenship and left Tehran for Toronto in 2000 after hardline opponents of then president, Mohammad Khatami, closed down the reformist newspapers he worked on. He also lived in London for a while.
Derakhshan had returned to Tehran three weeks ago. His blogs, in Persian and English, have been suspended.
He used his Canadian passport to get into Israel in 2006 on a widely publicised trip to "be a bridge between Iranian and Israeli people, who are manipulated by their own governments' and medias' dehumanising attitude, especially now that the possibility of some sort of violent clash is higher than ever".
Writing in the New York Times that year, he called the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a "hardline reactionary" running one of the "most extreme governments post-revolutionary Iran has ever had".
However, Israeli commentators noted that he had recently begun to express anti-Israeli views in his postings, defending Iran's right to possess defensive nuclear weapons and expressing a degree of admiration for Ahmadinejad's stance against the US.
Meir Javedanfar, a Middle East analyst, wrote on his website that attacks by Derakhshan on the former Iranian president Ayatollah Rafsanjani may have caused him to fall foul of internal power struggles in Iran.
Derakhshan was aware that his trips to Israel could jeopardise his return to Iran. "Iran doesn't recognise Israel, has no diplomatic relations with it … Too bad, but I don't care. Fortunately, I am a citizen of Canada and I have the right to visit any country I like," he wrote.
"I'm going to Israel as a citizen journalist and a peace activist."
First, thanks to the many people who posted in the discussion thread, and especially Bizhan, who went to the trouble of translating a whole article from the Parsineh website.
There has been some scepticism – in the Cif discussion thread and elsewhere – as to whether the reports of Derakshan's arrest are correct. The original source, Jahan News, is variously described as being reliable, unreliable and having close links to Iranian intelligence. The main reason for these doubts is that he had been very supportive of the Iranian regime in his recent writing and so there would be no obvious grounds for arresting him.
The Iranian authorities have provided neither confirmation nor denial. A spokesman for Iran's the permanent mission to the United Nations told National Public Radio that he had no information.
What we do know, however, is that Derakhshan – known as the "godfather of Iranian blogging" – has not been heard from on the internet since November 1. His last post on Twitter was 26 days ago and the last post on his English blog was dated October 5. His regular Farsi blog has not been updated since October 30.
On October 9 he registered a new website, hoderiniran.com, giving a contact address in Toronto. He posted on this site after arriving in Tehran – including some videos. In his posts, he seems enthusiastic about Tehran and talks of getting a flat there. His last post on that site was dated November 1.
At the very least, this suggests that if he hasn't in fact been arrested something else must have happened to him. But if he has gone into hiding or been taken ill, what would be the motive of Jahan News for saying that he has been arrested and confessed to "spying" for Israel?
Derakhshan wrote in one of his own blogs that he had broken Iranian law by visiting Israel, so presumably that would have given the Iranian authorities grounds for arresting him if they were so minded.
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This is my second post here so you may have to bear with me.
I was not familiar with Mr. Derakhshan until this article appeared in the Guardian, thanks to Mr. Whitaker.
I have had an opportunity to read his posts and see very little reason for him to have been detained by the authorities of the regime.
There has also been no official confirmation of his arrest or at least one that his family can confirm according to the reports. So at this point in time, we may all have been a little hasty in response.
Judging by Mr. Derakhshan's writings he has nothing to be afraid of and quite frankly I do not find him to be important enough for a state arrest or questioning of any kind.
Derakhshan may have simply decided to take a break, go to Israel for visit on his way back to Toronto, or simply picked up another interest other than blogging (at times quite contradictory comments I may add).
Heck, he may have gotten married in Iran like most Iranian bachelors living abroad do, and promised his wife and in-laws that he would quit writing and get a real job instead. Who knows?
Hossein Derakhshan, 33, was reported by the Iranian website Jahan News to have confessed during initial interrogations to being involved in espionage.
The Jahan News site, which is widely believed to be linked to the Iranian intelligence services, also said he had been described in Jewish newspaper articles as a "friend of Israel".
Derakhshan is known in Iran as the Blogfather after effectively launching the country's craze for blogging. He has claimed 20,000 people a day read his postings.
He holds joint Iranian-Canadian citizenship and left Tehran for Toronto in 2000 after hardline opponents of then president, Mohammad Khatami, closed down the reformist newspapers he worked on. He also lived in London for a while.
Derakhshan had returned to Tehran three weeks ago. His blogs, in Persian and English, have been suspended.
He used his Canadian passport to get into Israel in 2006 on a widely publicised trip to "be a bridge between Iranian and Israeli people, who are manipulated by their own governments' and medias' dehumanising attitude, especially now that the possibility of some sort of violent clash is higher than ever".
Writing in the New York Times that year, he called the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a "hardline reactionary" running one of the "most extreme governments post-revolutionary Iran has ever had".
However, Israeli commentators noted that he had recently begun to express anti-Israeli views in his postings, defending Iran's right to possess defensive nuclear weapons and expressing a degree of admiration for Ahmadinejad's stance against the US.
Meir Javedanfar, a Middle East analyst, wrote on his website that attacks by Derakhshan on the former Iranian president Ayatollah Rafsanjani may have caused him to fall foul of internal power struggles in Iran.
Derakhshan was aware that his trips to Israel could jeopardise his return to Iran. "Iran doesn't recognise Israel, has no diplomatic relations with it … Too bad, but I don't care. Fortunately, I am a citizen of Canada and I have the right to visit any country I like," he wrote.
"I'm going to Israel as a citizen journalist and a peace activist."
First, thanks to the many people who posted in the discussion thread, and especially Bizhan, who went to the trouble of translating a whole article from the Parsineh website.
There has been some scepticism – in the Cif discussion thread and elsewhere – as to whether the reports of Derakshan's arrest are correct. The original source, Jahan News, is variously described as being reliable, unreliable and having close links to Iranian intelligence. The main reason for these doubts is that he had been very supportive of the Iranian regime in his recent writing and so there would be no obvious grounds for arresting him.
The Iranian authorities have provided neither confirmation nor denial. A spokesman for Iran's the permanent mission to the United Nations told National Public Radio that he had no information.
What we do know, however, is that Derakhshan – known as the "godfather of Iranian blogging" – has not been heard from on the internet since November 1. His last post on Twitter was 26 days ago and the last post on his English blog was dated October 5. His regular Farsi blog has not been updated since October 30.
On October 9 he registered a new website, hoderiniran.com, giving a contact address in Toronto. He posted on this site after arriving in Tehran – including some videos. In his posts, he seems enthusiastic about Tehran and talks of getting a flat there. His last post on that site was dated November 1.
At the very least, this suggests that if he hasn't in fact been arrested something else must have happened to him. But if he has gone into hiding or been taken ill, what would be the motive of Jahan News for saying that he has been arrested and confessed to "spying" for Israel?
Derakhshan wrote in one of his own blogs that he had broken Iranian law by visiting Israel, so presumably that would have given the Iranian authorities grounds for arresting him if they were so minded.
---
This is my second post here so you may have to bear with me.
I was not familiar with Mr. Derakhshan until this article appeared in the Guardian, thanks to Mr. Whitaker.
I have had an opportunity to read his posts and see very little reason for him to have been detained by the authorities of the regime.
There has also been no official confirmation of his arrest or at least one that his family can confirm according to the reports. So at this point in time, we may all have been a little hasty in response.
Judging by Mr. Derakhshan's writings he has nothing to be afraid of and quite frankly I do not find him to be important enough for a state arrest or questioning of any kind.
Derakhshan may have simply decided to take a break, go to Israel for visit on his way back to Toronto, or simply picked up another interest other than blogging (at times quite contradictory comments I may add).
Heck, he may have gotten married in Iran like most Iranian bachelors living abroad do, and promised his wife and in-laws that he would quit writing and get a real job instead. Who knows?
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