Beth K › Comments

"Since I was released from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison last month, the questions have come again and again: Can we still talk to these people? Should the Obama administration engage in dialogue with Iran? What should the West do in nuclear negotiations? After being jailed, interrogated and beaten by the Revolutionary Guards for 118 days for reporting honestly on the disputed June 12 presidential elections, I am often expected to oppose any dialogue. But the West still needs Iran and should continue talking to it -- no matter what it has done to people like me." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

" The recently released Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, speaks to 60 Minutes tonight about his physical and psychological torture in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. “My interrogators thought New Jersey was paradise. That’s when I thought to myself, Maziar, you are screwed. These guys are in charge of your life, and they are stupid. They are ignorant.” - Beth K from Bookmarklet

Thanks for sharing - امیریدر

"Karim Sadjadpour describes a math superstar's unprecedented act of challenging Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"It has been three decades since Iranian college students overran and occupied the American Embassy in Tehran, and we are still dealing with that country's revolution. Americans at the time were understandably preoccupied with the fate of 66 countrymen who were held captive, accused of being spies, and threatened with prosecution and punishment—which in the Iran of those days tended to mean firing squads or the noose. We still refer to this outrage as the Iran Hostage Crisis. Yet this way of remembering the episode ignores its larger significance in Iran, and impedes our understanding of the political drama unfolding there today. The movement to oust the Shah was primarily a nationalist one, albeit colored by the religious rhetoric of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Many of those who took to the streets in 1978 and 1979 were motivated not by a desire to establish a theocracy but by the same thing that stirs the reform movement there today—a desire to cast off authoritarianism and... more... - Beth K from Bookmarklet

From the Morgan's exhibit of the works of Blake, this illustration is from Blake's treatment of the Book of Job. It is called "Job's Evil Dream". I had a wonderful time entering the world of the philosopher, poet, painter and printer William Blake this afternoon at the Morgan. Check out the online exhibit, which include...s some audio clips of Jeremy Irons reading Blake's work, along with many of Blake's beautiful illustrations. - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"Largely absent from international media reports and discounted by Western policymakers more focused on Iran's nuclear program, the protest movement that erupted after Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection has continued to smolder, mostly on college campuses." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The CRC’s mission is to provide free access to technology and information in order to achieve the ideals embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: that all people have the right to seek, receive and impart publicly available information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"I read about the impending trial and all-too-likely execution of seven Bahais in Iran as I was reading about the outbreak of Babi/Bahai-killing in Iran a little over a century before. As I was wending my way through Mirza Yahya Dawlatabadi’s memoirs, Hayat-e Yahya, I came across a passage describing the mob violence let loose against these heretics in Yazd and Isfahan in 1903." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

Great follow-up interview to the original piece the Daily Show did in Iran just before the elections. Many of the journalists they interviewed on the show are still in prison. - Beth K from Bookmarklet

" The most urgent challenge that faces the president precisely in realizing this vision is the nuclear ambition of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the president now has a counterpart in Iran infinitely more important than any president or leader. Shirin Ebadi won precisely the same prize in 2003. As an Iranian, a woman, a Muslim and a brave and untiring human rights activist, Ebadi will have much to tell her fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner (in Oslo, Tehran or Washington) about Iran that will give insight into the recent hopeful signs of rapprochement between the two nations that could signal a fundamental commitment to the sanctity of our fragile humanity." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

He evokes the image of Neda and all the brave young Iranian protesters.... - Beth K

"Esmail Kawsari is once more beating the drums for the prosecution of Mir Hosein Mousavi. This insistence, added to Kawsari’s important public position (he is the Vice President of Parliament’s Esmail Kawsari Esmail Kawsari Commission for Foreign Affairs and National Security) might presage a new stage in the repression–an attack on Mir Hosein Mousavi himself. –The translator" - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"Over the past century, the U.S relationship with Iran has been volatile, and the coming months may prove to be a decisive era in the history of the relationship between the two countries. A misreading of the situation in Iran might lead to decisions which will damage the national interests of both countries. The harsh repression of peaceful protests in the wake of the disputed Iranian election this past June removed any doubt about the cruelty of the Iranian totalitarian regime. Direct shots fired at unarmed civilians in Iran captured global attention, but this was only an example of the atrocities that were committed. Intensifying pressure on protesters, the use of Stalinist methods against detainees, and threatening university students and faculty are only few more examples of the continuing campaign against peaceful opposition in the weeks since the election. " - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"Mehdi Karoubi’s Second Letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani: What Is Your Answer to People Who Are Questioning the Duties of the Assembly [of Experts] Presided over by You under Such Circumstances?" - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"They want to bring the Judgments of the Imam’s Behavior Under Question [Hashemi-Rafsanjani:] Today, the Imam’s Household and the Imam himself, which are inseparable from the revolution, are under attack. People who had not been reconciled with the revolution and did not approve of the Imam’s way from the first have found an opportunity to ruin the Iranian nation’s accomplishments. ILNA: The president of the Assembly of Experts said, “These days, they even some times bringing the judgments of the Imam’s behavior under question and want to ruin them.” - Beth K from Bookmarklet

This was inevitable. I see though that Karroubi went on the attack today and had Rafsanjani firmly set in his sights. - JSLeFanu

"Welcome to Iran Wiki! We welcome all translators who want to post their translations. Why Iran Wiki? In the course of translating documents pertaining to the post-electoral, we have found that many of our friends have been working on the same document. Moreover, the finished products were, like all human works, open to criticism, and too often fell short of professional standards. On Iran Wiki, a translator can start a page for whatever document he or she is working on. On completing the document, others can then offer improvements, annotations, etc. I emphasize here that we are not taking a political stand and our pages are open to all translators. " - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The Campaign against Crimes Against Humanity in Iran presents: A Town Hall Meeting on Human Rights Time: Saturday, September 26th 2009 , 9:00 am – 4 pm. Place: South Hall Riverside Church (490 Riverside Drive, New York, 1, 9 line 116 Street)" - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The World Public Opinion, an established polling organization, “a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland” came out with a randomly selected poll of slightly over 1000 Iranians. The WPO’s summary of the results are published on its website, including a link to PDF files with the survey’s full findings and its methodology. A very good analysis is published on Gary Sick’s blog. In this post I want to examine the questions Gary Sick raises. I believe that many of the issued raised in it can be explained by a general desire “to say the right thing.” However, the evidence can be otherwise interpreted. The italicized are abridged passages from his blog. They are followed by my comments." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

" NBC News’ Ann Curry interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the presidential compound in Tehran on Thursday. In a wide-ranging interview, Ahmadinejad responded to questions about Iran’s nuclear program, the legitimacy of the recent election and allegations that opposition supporters were tortured in prison. " - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The Campaign to Prosecute the Islamic Republic for Crimes Against Humanity presents: A Town Hall Meeting to Denounce Murder, Torture, Rape, and Forced Confessions in the Islamic Republic of Iran TIME: Saturday, September 26, 2009: 9AM-4PM (doors open @ 9:00am) PLACE: Riverside Church, South Hall, 490 Riverside Drive, New York City (near the 116 Street 1 and 9 trains) Speakers include (in English and Persian): Reza Baraheni, Hamid Dabashi, Mansour Farhang, Shahrnoush Parsipour, Ahmad Sadri, Abdolkarim Soroush, and others. Musical Performance by Faramarz Aslani, KIOSK, and … " - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"Mehdi Karoubi’s Speech to the Nation of Iran: The True Judgment is among the People and Must Go to the People…" - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The following is a translation of the text of a tribunal consisting of First Aide to the President of theTribunal Judiciary Ebrahim Raisi, Attorney General Gholam-Hosein Mohsen Ezhei, President of the Presidential Body of the Judiciary Ali Khalaf. It is part of a campaign by the Coup Regime of attacking the opposition and discrediting it. A few things are notable about these comments. Karoubi is not so much portrayed as a tool of foreign powers, but as a victim of their deceptions. In this context, the Tribunal findings seem more intent on discrediting, weakening and ridiculing him than in setting him up for arrest. But time will tell." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The story of Saideh Puraqayi has appeared on otherwise credible websites allied with the Green Movement (the democratic-Islamic opposition in Iran). We will exam this story as it appeared in these websites in this posting. Then we will show how this story is clearly another hoax." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The search for the real Saideh Puraqayi begins with the Democratic Party of Iran. According to the Wikipedia article on it, it was founded in 2004 by a group of student and political activists. Its general secretary was Abbas Khorsandi, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2007 and its spokesman was Qasem Shirzadian aka Kaveh Shirzad. One of the party activists was Sepideh Puraqayi, the sister of our Saideh Puraqayi. That’s right. Contrary to what the Green Wave for Freedom said in its communiques, Saideh had a brother and a sister born to a first wife of their father. The Taraneh Mousavi rumor-mongers were faced with inventing a victim out of thin air. The Saideh Puraqayi rumor-mongers were faced with the more daunting task of reinventing a victim who already existed." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"Fars News Service: The Tehran DeputyIRAN-DETAINEES/TRIAL Revolutionary Attorney General, in reading the text of the charges against the accused in the defeated project of a velvet coup d’état, announced: According to the documents available and the confirmed confessions of the accused, the recent events and the riots had been planned in advance and, according to the indictment presented by the Deputy Revolutionary Attorney General on behalf of the Attorney General, they proceeded according to a timetable and the stages of a velvet coup." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

"The liberal website Fararu carried an article, “Who Is the Hasan [sic] Taeb?”1 said that he joined the Revolutionary Guards when it was involved in an all-out campaign to crush groups allied with the People’s Mojahedin and interrogate their captured members. He was eventually promoted to an aide to the counter-intelligence wing of the Ministry of Intelligence while Hashemi-Rafsanjani was president and Ali Falahian was the Minister of Intelligence." - Beth K from Bookmarklet

These guys are very clever, but their series on tv is tedious... I enjoy the music but the rest of the show doesn't measure up imho - Beth K from iPhone

Yeah this is a good one. I posted it a few weeks ago :) - Beth K from iPhone

The man was pond scum - Beth K from iPhone

Ok I just found where I could see your comment and yeah it's a good one but IMHO you go too easy on him.... :) - Beth K from iPhone

Still choking on smoke here in Santa Cruz - Beth K from Bookmarklet