A Dissident’s Tale of Escape From Iran’s Vise
The New York Times / SCOTT SHANE and MICHAEL R. GORDON
13-Jul-2008 (22 comments)

Free after years in Iranian prisons, Mr. Batebi provides a rare window
on Iran under its ruling clerics.

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Abarmard

Why against Betabi

by Abarmard on

He has paid his dues. Anyone who has given one tenth of Ahmad can judge him.

Why harsh on him. What do you expect of him? To save Iran. He is a person with wishes and desires. He fought for many many years and got tortured. Is it fair to be harsh to him?

I agree that he made a mistake going to VOA, because all his struggles and days in prison gets vanished to some extend. But He is new here and needs to find his way. You should not expect too much of anyone but yourselves.


mostaghel

RE: I am a member of JM, hellooooooooooooo

by mostaghel on

Masoud Khan,

It should not matter what your political affiliation may be. I think attacking you on that basis is totally unfair, rediculus, and wrong. At some point MKO also did great things. So they are not that bad. I am not their fan though. I would like to remain independent in politics. However, it is clear from circumstances of Mr Ahmad Batobi that his situation is suspect. This is totally expected given US's spending $400 Million Dollars to destabalize Iran (see New Yorker Article by S. H). Therefore, I would not blindly support Mr Batobi before I know more about his case. Long time ago (this goes back 7-8 years ago and my memory is completely unclear on details) one of his former colleagues with whom I had email exchange in Iran had pointed out that my friend and few other students around him were not certain about his motives. My friend is sort of quiet and mellow -- not a political type -- just an observer. I don't want to put more oil on the fire and so I will leave it at that.

 

Regards,

M...M

P.S.

I enjoy your articles. Keep at them please.


Masoud Kazemzadeh

I am a member of JM, hellooooooooooooo

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

The person posting as Maleke_:

Maoud the MKO...

 

 

MK: Why in the world you give credit to the PMOI for all the time I spend here? I am a member of Jebhe Melli and I provide my valuable time here, and instead of you giving credit to MY ORGANIZATION, you help the PMOI get all the credits!!!!!!   It is not fair. Please correct your error. JM and I do all the work and the PMOI gets the credit for the activities of Jebhe Melli. Bummer.

You should be fair. You do all the dirty work for the fundamentalist regime’s Vezarat Ettelaat, do I give credit to Pakistan’s ISI for the work that you and your agency do?

 

:-) 

 

 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

sepaas Fred jaan

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Fred jaan,

Thank you for your thoughful response.

Best regards,

Masoud

 

 


Shiny Head

re: Our enemy is the fascist fundamentalist regime

by Shiny Head on

Kazemzadeh

And to be simple minded like you in your response to "malakeh", and you may not know it, but you are working for free for MKO bloodsuckers.


Fred

Couldn't agree more

by Fred on

Thank you for the explanation. I assure you I am well aware of the main players and their history of contributions and hindrances to Iran’s trials and tribulation on the road to pluralistic governance. .I am also an admirer of the leftist principles and wish there were more of it in place of the loony far right.  I further know without the counter balancing one another both the left and right will quickly degenerate into dictatorships. You might have noticed I only use the belittling lefty and never ever Left or leftist. In my book a lefty is a wannabe, the exact type of person that Islamist republic attracts.  A person who is capable of foaming at the mouth hating a lot more than loving, this common denominator connects them all to the world headquarters of hate international, the Islamist republic. We have people who hate the long gone Shah’s regime, U.S., Israel, Capitalism, etc.. more than loving enslaved Iran and Iranians and by design or default help the chief world nemesis, the Islamist republic. 


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Our enemy is the fascist fundamentalist regime

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Fred jaan,

Why do you keep attacking the left? Overwhelming majority of IRANIAN leftists 100% oppose the reactionary fascist fundamentalist regime. The fascist fundamentalist regime has killed many thousands of Iranian leftists. Agents of the fundamentalist regime try to deceive many leftists around the world. You should not make their job easier.

The group that helped Batebi escape the fascist terrorist regime is a democratic socialist party (the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdestan). We might agree or disagree with many of their policies, but we cannot ignore the fact that the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdestan is a leftist party.

The Marxist left is left-wing anti-imperialist. The extreme right sometime also may act as a anti-imperialist (e.g., al Qaeda, Khomeini’s fascist regime, Hitler’s Nazi regime, Hamas, PIJ) in a particular historical moment. Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Khomeini, and Ahmadnejad are right-wing reactionary and anti-imperialist. When the right-wing fundamentalist use words like imperialism, neo-con, the left around the world has a Pavlavian response (like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment they drool due to the sound although there is nothing real there). The stupid left sometime is fooled by reactionary fundamentalists. By providing information, we can educate the uneducated left so that they would not make the same mistake many leftists made in 1933 and 1979.

Some in the left are not fools, they simply make a marriage of convenience with the reactionary right. Stalin made the pact with Hitler in the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact. Tudeh party made this alliance with Khomeini in early 1960s although the reason Khomeini stopped supporting the Shah and began opposing him was due to the reforms such as female vote and land reform. Tudey and USSR supported the right-wing reactionary forces for the same reason the Reagan administration supported right-wing fundamentalists in Afghanistan.

In conclusion, the overwhelming majority of IRANIAN leftists have been fighting against the fascist fundamentalist regime. The overwhelming majority of Iranian leftists are fighting against the reactionary fundamentalist regime.

There are a handful of morons (who were affiliated with Tudeh and Aksariyat that still are fighting against the US) who side with the fascist regime. There are also some agents of the fundamentalist regime who pretend to be leftist in order to fool the leftists around the world and gained their support.

Leftists are NOT our enemies. The extreme right-wing fundamentalist regime is our enemy.

Best,

MK

 

 

=================================

 

 

Poster writing under Maleke_:

I would do the same to Batebi-like who are neo-con sell-outs that I do to mollahs if I get my hands around their throat. That is, if I get my hands on their throats I will make sure they have no breath left to survive. There is a list of sell-outs on this thread by a previous poster.

 

MK: If you are not an employee of the fascist terrorist regime’s Ministry of Intelligence, you are doing their job for free.

 


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Your stupid ideological historical baggage !

by Mahnaz (not verified) on

I can not believe this. How dare you critize this man? You have so much historical baggage that you don't even realize it. We are done with ideologies. These stupid catagories like "neo-cons, leftist, etc... ! STUPID ! Let's just concentrate on human rights. Who was this man suppose to go to? you all make me sick ! Batebi sacrificed his life for human rights! He has paied the ultimate price. You my friend are a sad case. Nothing but a complainer. Hezb bazi baseh ! Let's concentrate on humanistic values. I'm so tiered of your stupid "neo-con" , "leftist", etc terminologies. So damn sick of it.

I praise the ground this man walks on. remember what Martin Luther King said:

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."


default

Can he become a leader?

by Arash Kamangir (not verified) on

The IRI has suppressed and tricked the Iranians in such way that the nation look like a boxer who has been beaten up with smashed bloody face and does not even know where he is! The Mullahs know this and you can see that in their dirty smiles they wear!
More than ever in last 30 years a young, competent brave leader is required who can put some opposition together. Is he up to this task?

Payandeh Iran


Fred

True to form

by Fred on

As expected the Islamist/Anti-Semites and their likeminded lefty allies are making a spectacle of themselves. What is of some surprise is their lack of imagination in verbatim usage of the Islamist republic official propaganda organs’ mind-numbing anti Batebi claptrap.  

  

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BATEBI IS A SELLOUT!

by BATEBI IS A SELLOUT! (not verified) on

With his appearance on Voice of America, Batebi gave the clerics in Iran the GREATEST GIFT IMAGINABLE. Batebi is not selfless. He is self-ish! He put all the REAL students struggling in danger now. He is the biggest sellout ever. How can anyone defend this guy now?

How can someone who was tortured and solitary confinement in Iran, gain 20 lbs, look younger, etc.

What kind of prison are they running in Iran? Batebi probably gained all the weight from eating KABOB? This is all PROPAGANDA.


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Dorood bar tamam-e azadi-khahan-e Iran

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

The person posting as Malekeh_,

Mr. Ahmad Batebi is the leader of the pro-democracy student uprising. I fully support him and his struggles for azadi, democracy, hoghoh bashar. I strongly condemn YOUR vicious attacks as well as the cruel and vicious attacks of fundamentalist thugs who tortured him and now are attacking him.

Yes, I salute Mr. Ahmad Batebi. I honor him for his brave resistance against fundamentalists who tortured him. Batebi stood up for all Iranians who demand freedom, democracy, and human rights. It is the duty of ALL decent Iranians to stand up for him.

Ahmad Batebi put the interests of Iran above his own personal interests. He was tortured by fundamentalist fascists, but he remained true to the ideals of freedom and democracy. Batebi put his life on the line. Mr. Batebi’s resistance against fundamentalist fascist regime makes me not only be proud of being an Iranian, but proud of being a human being. Batebi is a decent human being. A man of sharad, vojdan.

All those thugs who attack Batebi lack sharaf, vojdan. You are hiding under a non-entity "Malekeh_" on the internet and attacking our pro-democracy hero. I find your attacks unethical and immoral. It is disgusting.

This great pro-democracy activist has stood up to one of the most vicious fascist terrorist regime in the world, and he deserve the support of all decent human beings around the world.

We should not only honor the dead, but we ought to honor the living. Batebi is a pro-democracy hero just like Dr. Mossadegh, Dr. Fatemi, Parvaneh Eskandari-Forouhar.....

MK

 


Malekeh_

re: In Defense of Ahmad Batebi

by Malekeh_ on

Are you a child Kazemzadeh? You are equating the greatest honor of our nation (Dr. Mossadegh) with a neo-con sell-out baby with "pestoonak" in his mouth? What have you been smoking? It must have been too strong for you.


Masoud Kazemzadeh

In Defense of Ahmad Batebi

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on


Fair

Smear campaign

by Fair on

Once again, someone is trying to smear a great Iranian.

WHERE DID BATEBI COLLABORATE WITH NEOCONS. PROVIDE ONE BIT OF PROOF. JUST ONE.

Otherwise, it is clear what agenda you serve, and it won't work.

 

Be FAIR.

 


Malekeh_

Re: Mitra:...we will have a tapestry of all kind of people/part

by Malekeh_ on

aaj sr (what a name!!)

In the risk of being called names (your usual approach to someone who you cannot argue with in civility) , I guess you are one of those people who tries the same failing thing over and over again and expects a different result.

Aren't examples of Batebi's like (shiny head mentions names in his post) enough for you? It is not that people should all think the same way, it is that some who are so called "opposiotion" to akhonds, have proven to be worse than akhonds. No one claims that we have a good or even mdeiocarly reasonable government in Iran. Problem is that those who want to displace that misreable government are not making sense.  Example: Batebi goes to VoA in his first interview in US and he claims to be for human rights. This is fine. How come you the human rights activist are collaborating with the neo-cons whose main objective in iraq was to take over its oil, and for that they killed nearly 1 million iraqi civilians? What do you think their objective is in iran? If you are naiive enough to think they come to establish "democracy" you are wrong. Wasn't iran on its way to have a democracy in 1953? Who messed it up for Iranians and set us back at least 100 years? Yes, it was the CIA an organ of the US government. The same government that is now "dayehe as modar mehraboon tar" .

Please grow up and get real.  God gave us the gift of brain to use it, not to waste it. I pray for you to learn how to use your brain.


Fair

Mobarez.. yeah right.

by Fair on

Maybe that is the problem, the "mobarez" of your generation were loyal to an ideology and not to basic human rights and the condition of the people. Which "ideology" are you talking about? Marxism? Islamism? Marxist-Islamism? Did the "loyal" ones ever stop to think what the heck they were doing "mobarezeh" for, or did they stay "loyal" despite the obvious screwups of the "movement"?

 

Mr. Batebi is a student, a human being, and above all, A FREE MAN. He thinks for himself, and devotes his life and energies to the rights of his people, not some bankrupt ideology. Get over it.

AND STOP SMEARING DECENT PEOPLE. SHOW US ONE IOTA OF EVIDENCE OF THIS MAN RECEIVING A STIPEND FROM THE US GOVERNMENT OR GRANT FROM AEI. STAND BEHIND YOUR ACCUSATION AS STRONGLY AS YOU MAKE IT.

 

In other words, BE FAIR.


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Mitra:...we will have a tapestry of all kind of people/parties..

by aaj sr (not verified) on

Mitra what are you talking about?
This Batebi guy just landed in here, give him a few weeks or months before jumping at him. Why are you siding with this Shiny Head who is talking cheap without any substance and proof ? (I mentioned earlier in this site, either he is IRI agent or really a sick person, with a goal of dividing oppositions further than what it is now? what's this empty, nonsense rhetoric coming from? read your article once again, you may have good intention but seems you are missing the main point totally.
If you open the boarders in Iran, provided visa granted to every one, there is no one would stay there except some die heart Basijs, Sepahi and their cronies. Granted, Batebi has been given special privilege to come to USA, same as you guys, in a different way or conditions, except, you did not spend 8-9 years in jail, what's wrong with you pathetic, hypocrite, selfish people?.
So what's wrong if someone take side with Pahlavi, or Jebhe Melli, Communist party or MKO or others?
Are you guys for democracy or you are for a different type of dictatorship in your own way of interpretation?
Like it or not, this is a fact, next government of Iran we will have a tapestry of all kind of people, ideologies, agendas and parties including all mentioned above organization and people, other wise there is no democracy and all you guys are saying is mimicking your own quasi democracy "ala me".


default

Well said Shiny Head

by Mitra123 (not verified) on

Haven't we seen enough from these so called freedom fighters which become sell outs?They claim being Mossadeg follower ,then suddenly they shake hands with Pahlavi ,get a grant from American Enterprise Institute....
Oh please save it.
No disrespect to his suffering ,in my time "Mobarez" meant believing in an ideology and staying loyal to its values as a group but now days is about me me me and to make a name ,fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.Iranians have lost their integrity and values ,to be honest I am not sure we even had it,
We like it or not we have "abused children's syndrom" and we need cure ,for centuries people and the land was and is ravished by outside and inside powers ,we have lost our identity ,one regime forces no chador then one forces hejab,these selling out is not new ,in Gajar era insiders caused more harm than foreign governments,nothing has changed since then.
look at his 360 yahoo page ,I promise after a while
that Che's slogan will disappear.Tone of writing will change then as Shiny Head said too late to be sorry.
Greatness comes to those who take it.


Fair

Shame on you

by Fair on

And what exactly have YOU done on behalf of human rights in Iran to make such demands on Mr. Batebi? Or anybody?

It is not your place or anybody else's to tell Mr. Batebi what to do. He has fought enough and has chosen to take the chance where he can make his voice heard, and work on behalf of his fellow students as a human rights activist. I am glad he is free outside of Iran so his head can be talking to us and the world about what goes on, instead of submerged in a toilet, where is exactly where the regime would prefer it to be.

And furthermore, what stipend are you talking about? Do you have any evidence of this? Or are you just like this regime and give yourself the right to just throw out accusations?

I am very proud that my country produces selfless decent young men like Mr. Batebi, who are there for their people and not some bankrupt ideology. Cheap shot efforts to smear him and his cause will fail miserably.

 

Cheezy keh ayan ast, cheh hajat beh bayan ast.

 

Fair


Shiny Head

Join the Club ....

by Shiny Head on

Mr. Batebi

The first thing you do is to go and get your "honorary green card" or US citizenship. If you don't know how, talk to  Abbas Fakhravar, Akbar Atri, Mehdi Khalaji, and the like. Like you, they made some trouble in iranian universities, got in jail for a while and then with an "honorary" green card or US passport entered the US with a guarantted future! No better than many other sold-outs.  Like you, if they were true fighters (of any cause), they would stay in Iran and fight, regardless of the price. That is what ll past leaders of decent have done!. 

After that, you will get a monthly stipend from US government (CIA?) which over time will not be sufficient to keep up with your expenses an dlife style. As you get OLDER your value will be lower, and your stipend will not keep up with your life style. At that time it will be too late for you to say, "I am sorry, I made a mistake to turn against my nation and support its enemies". Wecome to America!


Fred

Welcome to the land of the free

by Fred on

Welcome to the land of the free Ahmad, your Islamist tormentors can’t hurt you no more, kudos lady Lily Mazahery kudos.