Iranian of the Day

FYI/Roxanna Saberi Interview of Googoosh for CNN (2000)

Roxanna Saberi Interview of Googoosh for CNN in june 2000:

I have nothing against,

I have nothing against, roxana, but I think who ever accept the dual citizenship, should have though of this moments too!!!!!!!!!!!, why not giving the fucking citizenship of Iran up , and be a free person?????????

don't be a " Shotor Morgh" choose one!!!!!!!!!!

hope the best for Roxana

Therefore,

the only thing which brings these scumbags to terms is to vote in 8 weeks. Enough is enough, the more people vote the louder the bastards can hear the voice of the oppressed Iranians.

I wish her all the best and hope she can get out of the prison as soon as possible.

I ask you all AGAIN

everytime I bering this up, no one pays any attention. Why?

5 Iranians have been held and tortured in Iraq for years now.

does anyone here care about the Iranians civilians detained by Bush currently being held in Iraq FOR OVER 2 YEARS without charge? don't they have families?

//ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37142

some have been tortured by Americans

//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/07/iraq/mai...
//www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288554,00.html

where are the petitions? The outrage ? the calls for release and disgust?

its easy to be outraged when you just repeat one sided US media reports.

Well, I just gave you a

Well, I just gave you a list. Moreover, there are only about 20 real 3 minute segments of Roxana using big words to talk about Iran of what every child can learn from reading the New York Times. 20 segments at 3 minutes each, that’s 60 minutes of work in 6 years. I’d surely like to work 60 minutes in 6 years and not have to worry what tomorrow brinks. I’m not assuming anything, the evidence is just not there right now to discredit that very notion.

Tehran has dug itselves a perfect case. Unless she can prove that she is a legitimate reporter and document the sources of her income, they have a case. After all, doesn’t the cia itself go after suspected enemies by observing their movement and following their money trail. Of course the best way to avoid detection is to avoid leaving a paper trail. But that can be a problem if you can’t document your sources of income. In the US you that means you must be involved in some sort of “criminal” activity.

Of course those are not crimes in themselves, except a form of theft imposed by the government. Governments are getting more aggressive and destructive everyday. The calls do need to be made for a rule of law and proper court procedures, yet these laws and procedures can be so derailed that they end up having a greater social cost than benefit. We are living in a world of kangaroo courts, lol…. In today’s world the government sees itselves above the law and and does with people what it pleases. I hope this incident serves as an awakening point to all citizens of the world and all the double standards on all parts.

For now President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized that Miss Saberi must have her legal right to defend herself. They will have their kangaroo show. The Iranian government will play with her a bit, perhaps try to get it’s diplomats out of US custody (another double standard). Iran has a case. In politics anything goes. Whatever the outcome, in the end, I’m certain Miss Saberi will walk free. This is very political. Iran will try to improve it’s imagine by showing the world what good sport they are and point out the corruption of the us and it’s torture policies. After all, didn’t that happen with the British sailors. In fact they each got a brand new suit and book offers when they returned back home. You will mark my word….

Well, I just gave you a

Well, I just gave you a list. Moreover, there are only about 20 real 3 minute segments of Roxana using big words to talk about Iran of what every child can learn from reading the New York Times. 20 segments at 3 minutes each, that’s 60 minutes of work in 6 years. I’d surely like to work 60 minutes in 6 years and not have to worry what tomorrow brinks. I’m not assuming anything, the evidence is just not there right now to discredit that very notion.

Tehran has dug itselves a perfect case. Unless she can prove that she is a legitimate reporter and document the sources of her income, they have a case. After all, doesn’t the cia itself go after suspected enemies by observing their movement and following their money trail. Of course the best way to avoid detection is to avoid leaving a paper trail. But that can be a problem if you can’t document your sources of income. In the US you that means you must be involved in some sort of “criminal” activity.

Of course those are not crimes in themselves, except a form of theft imposed by the government. Governments are getting more aggressive and destructive everyday. The calls do need to be made for a rule of law and proper court procedures, yet these laws and procedures can be so derailed that they end up having a greater social cost than benefit. We are living in a world of kangaroo courts, lol…. In today’s world the government sees itselves above the law and and does with people what it pleases. I hope this incident serves as an awakening point to all citizens of the world and all the double standards on all parts.

For now President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized that Miss Saberi must have her legal right to defend herself. They will have their kangaroo show. The Iranian government will play with her a bit, perhaps try to get it’s diplomats out of US custody (another double standard). Iran has a case. In politics anything goes. Whatever the outcome, in the end, I’m certain Miss Saberi will walk free. This is very political. Iran will try to improve it’s imagine by showing the world what good sport they are and point out the corruption of the us and it’s torture policies. After all, didn’t that happen with the British sailors. In fact they each got a brand new suit and book offers when they returned back home. You will mark my word….

The problem is much more

The problem is much more complicated than this simplified discussion. The media is blowing it out of proportion and yes people are raped and battered. But the problem is worldwide. Worldwide. Not just Iran, not just US, but worldwide. The whole world is a mess. And for the most part everyone aligns themselves with this or that camp. We have all these political goons who spit out poisonous venom dressed up in humanitarian causes. They strangle their servants and at the same time rob their neighbors of all their possessions until their children wake up homeless in the land of their forefathers. They do their cherry marries on their subordinates and than we have people killing each other over something they themselves have no idea about. No one is immune, that’s why it’s so hard to rationalize with the clowns, puppets, and pawns. Injustice is injustice, no matter what form and or side it takes.

P.S. Miss Saberi’s NPR Reports:
//www.npr.org/search.php?text=+roxana+saberi&...

P.S. Her mother claim’s

P.S. Her mother claim’s that she’s “a world-renowned journalist.” How come she has no myspace, no facebook, no blogs, no journals, no interviews, nothing published. The only thing there is are about five unprofessionally done several second segments supposedly for FOX about nothing of real importance. No human rights, no woman’s issues, nothing! Not even an activist. By the way the videos I’m mentioning about have already been removed. They were on her official website (//freeroxanasaberi.webs.com/). Kind of empty if you ask me. The comment, perhaps a bit strong, that I posted here has also been removed.

If she wants to be a real world-renowned journalist, perhaps now is the time to start. I wish her all the best! Godspeed her release and all the other political prisoners!

Her Credentials:
*A 1994 honor graduate of North High School, Roxana was active in music, soccer, Key Club, and danceline.
*Roxana earned a double major in French and Communication in 1997 from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN.
*She remained active with music, soccer, and reporting for the campus television and newspaper.
*In 1997, she was selected Miss North Dakota; and was a Top Ten Finalist at the Miss America competition, winning the Scholar Award.
*In 1999, she completed a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago (Northwestern is a Hot Spot CIA recruitment territory).
*In 2000. Roxana earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Cambridge University in England.

Her Experience:
*Roxana has worked in video journalism and reporting for various television stations and agencies in several states and England.
*Since 2003, she has served as a free lance journalist representing various international organizations, including the BBC (What international organization?).
*She is presently residing in Tehran, Iran, where she reports on the Middle East; and is completing work on a Master’s Degree in Iranian Studies and International Relations.
*Roxana Saberi with former Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami (//www.payvand.com/news/09/mar/Roxana-Saberi-K...)

Sources:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxana_Saberi
//www.fargo.k12.nd.us/education/components/sc...

Personal attacks by some Iranians on Saberi!

It is unfortunate that some Iranians think it is ok to attack Saberi because of what they "think" about her. For example one lady who called BBC Persian and insinuated Saberi was in Iran to spread deprived culture of the west. And this lady was living outside the country herself.

Our "dayi jan" mentality gives us this right to come up with suspision since Saberi has endured 6 years in Iran. Who in their right mind would leave USA (paradise on Earth for Iranians in Iran) for Iran, there must be something wrong with her story many say.

Many say also that she should not have continued working as journalist after her license was revoked.

I am also tired by this locked situation in Iran where some use any pretext to stop Iran from joining the rest of the world and want it to isolate even more.

We do not know if Saberi did continue journalism after her license was revoked. The only thing the court said was that she was doing her own research on Iran but that does not mean she was doing journalistic activities, it could mean she was traveling and making logs of her travels.

For spying she would have needed a source and also the penalty of spying is death. There were no other people tried for the same crime as her and she was not given death as penalty. That means even the judge does not think she was spying.

That said, my heart and mind is with her and her loved ones, I hope she is freed soon.

/Bidar bash ke ma bekhabim

I wonder why she did not get

I wonder why she did not get married. she is beautiful and it makes no sense to waste 6 years of her life in iran.
To leave a great country America dn leave in a third world country for any price not worth it.
so i wonder why she did such a act which may be foolish or something we cannot understand.
freelance workers and journalist are usually homneless and hungry for food.

Shahini ...

You may have a point in a country of laws, but consider this:

a) Where did you get that 5 year from, I read it was more like a couple of years ago.

b) She is not being charged for working without license; do you know why? BECAUSE working without license, according to IRI laws, is NOT a crime or even a violation of law. A license is required for identification like if you want to interview a person in leadership position. Otherwise, reporting does NOT require a license based on IRI laws. BTW, the same applies to western countries that you have mentioned.

c) And even if it was her fault, should she pay with an 8 year sentence? That by itself makes a joke out of the whole justice system.

d) She was initially charged with purchase of alcohol. What happened to that?

e) According to his father, her trial for espionage (a normally complex matter) took 15 minutes with no lawyer and no relative present behind closed doors. Again, according to IRI constitution, the defendant can have a lawyer present and (as funny as it is) she can ask for a jury trial to rule on her guilt. That is the law of the IRI land even though it is almost never followed.

f) Who are those people to accuse her of anything? The same people who sent tens of thousands of iranian youths to gallows, have continuously arrested and tortured (another illegal act according to IRI laws) many many students, and cut the throats of their opposition when they could (yet another illegal act according to IRI laws).

Now who is following the law more (even the IRI laws), her paying 8 years for a expired license which is not what she is accused of, or IRI with 30 years of crimes on their hands?

In relation between people and their government, one cannot ask for absolute obedience from people yet total disregard for the (even unfair to people) laws of the land from government -- that is what is called tyranny, which is what IRI is.

just hilarious

some of the comments here are just hilarious! babam jaan what laws, does anyone respect the laws, just any law under IR? Even the regime doesn't respect its vey own constitution! Give it a rest, Roxana and Hossein can very well think of becoming spies after a visit to Evin! Period!

Roxan Sabery is also a little guilty

Every things what you say against the IRI and Mollah are OK. Iran is passing now a very bad time in his history. But nearaly 5 years ago the goverment of Iran revoked the license of Roxana Sabery as a jourlanlist and did not prolong the work permission of her. The question is why she continued with her work as freelance journalist in Iran. Also in whole western countries is not allowed a business without a license. Every body should accept the law of the country in which he/she is living. Because she has also american passport then she can not ignor the law and do every thing what she want because she is living in Iran!!!

Iranian justice works in mysterious ways

I remember when that professor from Hamadan was accused and convicted for calling people monkeys, even Khamenei's intervention and protests were not sufficient.
Essentially the less this case becomes over blown the better, Rafsanjani is a good character who can negotiate with all involved, this case can only be solved by diplomacy.

Nazanin just opened the Geneva Summit for Human Rights

On the wires:

"Opening the conference, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iranian-born human rights activist and co-founder of Stop Child Executions, issued a broadside against the Islamic Republic and its president, who is scheduled to address the U.N. conference on Monday

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khameini "do not represent the people of Iran," Afshin-Jam said, "but represent a regime of intolerance and the most brutal human rights violations one could imagine."

The Struggle Continues

But today Let's save Delara

Tit for tat

It's interesting that president Ahmadinejad has singled out Ms Saberi and Mr Derakhshan in his letter. It's not a matter of human rights for him but a matter of diplomacy.

Are they spy? I don't know. I could only imagine US goverment should have some spies in Iran. When it came to Haleh Esfandiari and Ramin Jahanbegloo, they were allowed to leave without being seriously charged. This was despite the fact that both of these individuals had dealings within the US government that could bring very serious charges against them.

On the other hand, there are some Iranian diplomats held in Iraqi prisions without any trial. 

Of course when it comes to US and the treatment of its prisoners, everything is honky dory.

US is disappointed? Let them be.

Oh !!

The pulling back was too fast!!

Just pitiful how they take this game so easy:
//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_mi_ea...

Ahmadinejad Also Mentions Hossein Derakhshan

Mr Ahmadinejad said the rights of Ms Saberi and jailed Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who has been behind bars since November, must not be violated in any way.

"Please take the necessary measures to ensure that the process of examining the charges against the aforementioned individuals are being carried out carefully and fairness, justice and regulations are observed," he wrote in the letter to prosecutors.

"Please, personally observe the process to ensure that the defendants are allowed all legal rights and freedom in defending themselves and that their rights are not violated even by one iota,"

//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8006861.stm

FYI/Ahmadinejad urges reporter rights (bbc)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said an Iranian-American journalist jailed for spying must have her legal right to defend herself.

The request came in a letter from his office to Tehran's prosecutor, state media reported, a day after Roxana Saberi was jailed for eight years.

The US has expressed dismay over the 31-year-old's sentencing at a secret one-day trial in Tehran.

Our Tehran correspondent says it is an unusual intervention by Mr Ahmadinejad.

//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8006861.stm

The smell of BS rising from this unjust verdict

The Islamic Republic originally accused Saberi of the "crime" of buying alcohol.

Then it accused her of working as a journalist without a valid press card.

And now they've sent to her to jail for 8 years for spying. She was tried, convicted and sentenced in just 24 hours. That's justice for you under the Islamic Republic.

You can smell the cow dump rising from these trumped up charges. Every time they want to pick on someone the Islamic Republic authorities come up with the usual "spying/anti Revolution/against the country's security" charge of some sort, which in the majority of cases is purse fabrication designed to justify the regime’s persecution of anyone who falls foul of their tyrannical rule

Chances are, the IRI is using Saberi as a bargaining chip and might release her before the full 8 years as part of a deal with the Americans. We'll see. In the mean time Saberi, along with may other people, who are very probably innocent, will languish in the prisons of the Religious hierarchy that rules with merciless brutality and injustice.

Same mulla different name?

Therefore I ask (without prejudice) if someone could perhaps enlighten me as
to why and WTF was she doing in Iran under the umbrella of journalism

I don't think you understand that there are people that LOVE iran for iran rather than for mullas or for islam. Iran is as much of her country as anyone else's and certainly more of her country than any mulla who has been brutalizing iran for the past 30 years, and certainly far more than any run-away islamist and IRI supporter.

Iran is her country, she does not need a reason to be there, and she is not obligated to explain why she was living there and for what. She was there for the same reason that 70 million others are there.

Same islamists, different names again?

Yeah, she is guilty and dishonest, but islamic republic leaders and supporters with blood of tens of thousands of iranian youths on their ehands are innocent and honest. That is a big bull, even for IRI propagandists! Only a fanatic islamist would believe that. But what the heck, in the islamists' view every weak iranian is guilty and IRI monsters, likes of rafsanjani and khamenei, the butchers of kurdestan, are innocent.

And the excuse is: well islamic republic is just as bad as US as far as negatives are concerned; but we never compare IRI with US when positives and prosperity and freedom are concerned that even islamists cannot live without and had to run away from dear IRI to US for. IRI and US share the bads but never share the goods.

Days of iranians falling for lies, deceits, propagandas, and accusations are long gone. If she is truly guilty, then this one time, they would open the proceedings for all to see how guilty she is. But apparently she is as guilty about spying as she was of buying alcohol that she was originally charged with.

When islamists have nothing more to say, they either talk about long dead mosaddeq or take the discussion to the unrelated subject of esraeel and palestinians. This is the case of wagging the dog's tail, or "goreez raa beh karbalaa zadan".

A single hair on Ms. Saberi's head is worth more than all IRI leaders and supporters collectively.

I long for a reza shah like to get rid of all these bast*** arab mullas and their arab religion once and for all.

To follow up to my own post...

I must admit that I had not read most of the later comments on this blog subject, since I read the earlier ones this morning. I tend to lean toward the theory that Miss Saberi was not just some naive and idealistic kid who went back to her Paternal homeland to expand upon cultural and international matters. It seems to me that poor Miss saberi got herself involved with a subject matter that turned out to be way over her head. JMHO.

After reading more about Miss Saberi...

I tend to have some questions?.

First of all, I have been (briefly) aware of Miss Saberi's predicament in
Iran, but had always thought that she was just an American with some Iranian
heritage who had travelled to Iran to find out about her paternal "roots". There
are many children born in the U.S. who are from Iranian parents (one parent in
her case) who yearn to learn more about Iran when they grow up and discover
paradoxical differences between the culture excercised by their parents at home
and the culture in the general society.

However after reading more about her in this profile:

//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8000522.stm

I have some (actually many) questions and concerns. First of all, I did not
realize that she had been LIVING IN IRAN FOR SIX YEARS ALREADY!!!. I mean,
WTF?!. This girl must have been around 25 years old when she embarked upon her
journey to live in Iran and it seems to me that she did not have a large
extended family over there to rely upon. In a chauvinistic and male dominated
society, it would take a certain caliber of "balls" for a young lady (a former
beauty queen at that) with a hybrid of American culture plus Iranian-Japanese
heritage, to just go to Iran to study, promote and report on cultural
issues.

I am the last person to advocate conspiracy theories and in general I despise
that typical Middle Eastern (particularly Persian) mentality of living in
constant state of suspicion and conspiracy. However, I must say that there are
certain elements to this story which just do not fit logic, or at least do not
jive well in my "dumb" head!.

Therefore I ask (without prejudice) if someone could perhaps enlighten me as
to why and WTF was she doing in Iran under the umbrella of journalism and
education?.Folks, this story just seems to have many twists and turns to me.

Ah well, may be I am just a dumb-f*ck who is getting grouchy in my middle age
days, but this just does not make much sense to me. On the surface, it seems to
me that she did not deserve what she got and is obviously being played as a pawn
in this chess game between the U.S and the Mullah Republic of Iran, but the
whole thing is kind of reeking like something unpleasant to me.

P.S. Her father kind of rubs me the wrong way, but as stated before, I am
just a dumb-f*ck. Help anyone?.

Please End This Madness: Wake Up Everyone!!!

What can I say. Another sad story. Of course, I’m sure she’s not spending time shackled in a tiny cell, sexually molested, sprayed with insects, waterboarded, etc… From a bit of research on this unfortunate young lady, there is a more than 50% probability that she did some work with the us gov. Pretty dumb after all her studies and knowing how the Iran regime operates she confessed. Of course, after Israel finally nukes Iran and starves the Palestinian people to death, she could be the next western Iranian leader puppet.

If we truly stand up for truth, fairness, liberty, justice, etc… let’s abolish all governments, central banks, interest rates, the military-industrial complex, the police state and free all the spies, all the journalists, and all the other victims of government coercion and manipulation all over the world. Just to point out the us has the highest prison and conviction sanctioned population in the world. Between 3 to 5 times the number in Iran. What is all this senseless incarceration, war, carnage, and bloodshed about?

In the end, I’m sure Iran well show it’s humble face. Miss. Saberi will be much more comfortable than those in us prisons, better treated, and will eventually, hopefully fairly soon, be released. I just hope once this happens, Miss. Saberi is honest about her treatment and instead of playing espionage games focuses not just on Iran, but dedicates her life and the opportunities that she has been given to exposing the real problems plaguing and oppressing civilization. Godspeed her release!

Islamic Republic of Prejudice

Everything in IRI is biased. Why don't they show any evidence? To me this sounds more like playing politics. Is she going to be pardoned later on to show how compassionate the IRI is towards its enemies?
Farid Parsa

i hope ali p is right.

on a second note to gol-dust.  dude it's as obvious as it can be that YOU do not want relations with the US either.  you denigrate and demonize the US right and left.  you wear blinders when it comes to israel as the only evil in the world.  look to your IRI buddies for evil my friend.

Ruling conservatives don't want any relations w/ US! That's why

they do this! Don't you think? I don't know this girl and i don't know whether she is innocent, but the timing of it is suspicious! After all, she is as American as it gets! Born in N. Dakota. This IRI is really ass!

I'd like to draw you attention to the following:

//iranian.com/main/news/2009/04/08-0

OH TRITA WHERE ART THOU???!!

where is parsi, carter, barbara walters, obama, and the rest of the appeasers to go and bow to khamenei for the wonderful job he and the rest of the akhoonds are doing in iran!!!!!!?

this is just a sham.....the mullahs' survival depends on being enemies with the US.....pure and simple, if the walls come down, they will be drained like an abscess

may god free iran in 09