Editor: Myself

J. Ried is too smart for what he is doing. Please let him know.

The Guardian: Beware the bomber, not the bomb

Here is my latest comment i wrote for the Guardian. Please take a look and let me know what you think:

• Beware the bomber, not the bomb
  The west should focus less on Iran's nuclear capability and more on those likely to have their finger on the button, writes Hossein Derakhshan

Nuclear Iran: Bombs or who controls them

Iran is determined to achieve complete nuclear technology and apparently nobody can stop them. I even think they should have nuclear bombs because of the potential long-term threats by Pakistan, Russia, China, and even Saudi Arabia.

The world has long tried to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear expertise to make bombs. But ever since, a moderate government in Iran has been replaced by a fundamentalist administration that controls almost all institutions now.

However, the problem is not the bombs, but who controls them. Pakistan is a good example for that. So why instead of changing the controller, the world is desperately trying to stop the bombs?

It's not too late now. While the world keeps negotiating with Iran over the bombs, they have to shift their focus and resources to changing the controllers. I'm not talking about the Bush's favorite yet unrealistic Regime Change policy -- although it never became a clear policy -- in Iran. I'm talking about a revival of the reform
movement for which there has never been this much potential.

I was in Tehran last June and I know what potentials I'm talking about. Demographics and technology are promising for such change in the near future.

Meet My Parents (Trip to Tehran - Part 3)

My parents were both very worried that I couldn't get out of Mehrabad airport. But fortunately, due my father's connections, we managed to find someone at the airport who helped me get out faster.

However, something strange happened when they were checking my passport. They asked me if I had a British passport as well as my Iranian one, and I answered no. Then we got out quickly and nobody cared.

Later in the week, when I was leaving Tehran, I realized what the problem was.

Presentation at Columbia University, SIPA

If you are around and have time on Thursday this week, please come to my lunch-time presentation at Columbia University:

"Reform, Youth, and Technology: Observations on the Recent Elections in Iran"
A brown bag discussion with Hossein Derakshan

A prominent Iranian blogger (http://hoder.com), Hossein Derakhshan went to Tehran last June to observe the presidential elections. Aside from the process of the elections and its surprising result, he saw that a new wave of young but realistic reformists is subtly changing the political dynamics both inside and outside the reformist camp in Iran.

Showing pictures and videos he took during the trip, Derakhshan will discuss the signs of this change, and suggest how the world can best help the new movement.

Thursday, September 22
12:30 pm
Room 1118, International Affairs Building

Hoder on VOA TV

I was in Washington D.C. last week to appear on a live TV show in Persian section of Voice of America. The show, hosted by Ahmad Baharloo, is almost the oldest TV show beamed to Iran via satellite since 8,9 years ago. It's also extremely popular.

I talked about Internet censorship in Iran, freedom of speech in the US, presidential candidates' use of the Internet in recent elections in Iran. I also answered phone calls from viewers and showed some of the videos I'd taken during my trip to Tehran, including short interviews with some of the bloggers and technicians who were arrested a while ago.

You can watch the whole show on VOA's website now. It expires in a few days, though.

Apparently, the show was widely seen by many. I've got tons of emails and comments from the viewers and I think there is the potential to specify a regular show on VOA dedicated to the Internet in Iran.

Rajavi and Ahmadinejad

Don't be fooled by these MKO bastards. Rajavi is much more of a ruthless dictator than Khamenei. If anyone has the right to oppose to Ahmadinejad, it's not those who boycotted the elections.

See how these radical dictators empoer each other?

Newsstand (Trip to Tehran - Part 2)

Despite the state pressure, newspapers are still relatively free as long as they don't touch taboos such as Khamenei and judiciary.

But it doesn't mean they are poplar as they once were during the first years of Khatami. Their circulation even reach to almost 6 million everyday in total. But now many of them have less than 150,000 circulation which is absolutely disastrous, given the population of literate in Iran (over 40 million).

However, there are many economic newspapers emerging these days in Iran; a sign that economy is doing not too bad for whatever reason -- most likely for the sudden hike in oil revenue.

How the U.S. should deal with Ahmadinejad

Ahmadinejad lacks legitimacy among many middle-class, educated Iranians. I know online polls are not reliable, but it's significant how people have responded to a poll I posted last week on my Persian blog.

The question was "Did you accept Khatami's presidency? How about Ahmadinejad's presidency?" and the answers:

14% - Khatami: Yes, Ahmadinejad: Yes
64% - Khatami: Yes, Ahmadinejad: No
3% - Khatami: No, Ahmadinejad: Yes
19% - Khatami: No, Ahmadinejad: No
(Total respondents: 2,355)

It must be alerting to Iranian leaders that respondents who acknowledged Khatami as the president are four times more than those who also know Ahmadinejad as their president.

However, although I personally think his win was fraudulent and don't accept him as the president of Iran, I think the world, especially the U.S., should not do so.

First of all, unlike us as Iranians, they are not in a position to judge about legitimacy of elected officials in other countries without solid evidences.

Secondly, an isolated Iran would be much more harmful than one with which the world and the U.S. is engaged with. Since Khamenei now controls almost all sources of power, it's the best time the U.S. tries to re-establish relations with Iran. If it happened for China during Nixon, why not for Iran? Chinese regime was way less democratic and open than today's Iran.

Ahmadinejad is not popular in Iran despite how the results looked like. But the U.S. will never have a better chance to normalise relations with Iran.

Approaching Tehran (Trip to Tehran - Part 1)

On June 10th, 2005, I left London for Tehran, fearing what was expecting me at the airport, as a blogger whose blog was already filtered by the Iranian regime for its political content.

Before leaving, however, I wrote about why I was going and how I wanted my readers to support me, in case something would happen.

I'm going to post more videos like this in the coming weeks. Special thanks to Jay and Ryanne for their continuous encouragement and support.

Khamenei and Rafsanjani: The split is now public

Rafsanjani and Khatami are surprisingly absent and Khamenei doesn't try to hide it

For the first time, Hashemi Rafsanjani has revealed a deepening dissatisfaction with how Khamenei is treating him and his allies. How? He (and probably Mohammad Khatami) simply hasn't attended Khamenei's annual meeting with all top government officials.

Khamenei, however, has not even tried to hide the fact that Rafsanjani, who holds a top position in the regime as the head of an important council, and Khatami, the only former living president except for Rafsanjani, have visibly been absent in the event.

He has placed his favorite officials (Haddad Adel, Speaker of the Parliament, Ahmadinejad, President, and Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary) on his right side, and deliberately put two empty poshti's (cushions) on his left side, a sign that two of his guests are missing.

There are lots of things like this happening in Iran these days which remain completely out of the world's radars, especially to those who can't read Persian.

Read what I wrote about this, as well as people's comments, on my Persian blog.

Playing with Haddad

I'm kind of secretly glad the U.S. is playing with Iran's speaker of Parliament. The whole new Irnaian parliament is a fiasco and does not represent the Iranian people and should not be embraced by the international community.

However the ethical questions remain: Is the U.S. in a position to decide which delegate is representative of its people and which not? Whoever to decide about this should treat all countries equally. Then many Arab and African countries should be banned too.

What a morally complex world!

Incompetent Bush only emboldens fundamentalists in Iran

Hardliners in Iran have picked up heavily on Washington's failurein the recent hurricane in New Orleans, as if the regime of Iran is the most human-loving state on earth and its leaders care most about their people. (We all know what happened in Bam two years ago.)

My Strong feelings against Bush administration are no secret to my readers, but when I see Kayhan, the true voice of fundamentalists who now hold the entire power in Iran, lamenting the U.S. for these failures only to justify its own actions and positions, it sickens me.

Bush, as the wrong symbol of the West, has emboldened all dictators who desperately seek reasons to show their people that democracy and human rights is not what the West wants, it's what we provide to you.

Now you see how hard it is not to side either with Bush or Khamanei when they both keep helping each others' agendas.