Thank you for your reply. I have been away for a bit dealing with my Mom’s cancer surgery and doing a nasty background check for my new job. I will respond to your response later but I would very much like to see your response to the post I sent you awhile back on the thread you mentioned. Please keep in mind it is my “view” based on what I have understood from my studies. I do not hold my “view” to be universally right and am very much open to your critique. I look forward to seeing your respone. Take care and all the best to you.

Thx
Bill

Of course we do. Stop reading the New York Times.

Indeed. In the words of Nikahang Kowsar:

“There is freedom of speech in Iran, but we don’t have freedom after speech.”

I’ve already responded to your claims so it will be a waste of time to repeat myself. Iran has a far more open society than you think.

I would attribute the Iranian denunciations of the US to reaction to American (and other western) actions, including the foolish demonisation of Iran that so many American leaders engage in.

I think it is a bit preposterous for the US even to describe Iran as an “enemy” – - and I see such a description as a product of the incessant manipulations of the Israel lobby/neocons and fellow travellers.

It is ironic that regime supporters/sympathisers call their enemies hypocrites. They should look in a mirror.

har vaght kam miari va harfi baraye goftan nadari tohmat doroogh-gooyi ro be man mizani va man ro yek shakhs digar seda mizani. Aslan shoma yek Irani vasat Tehran ke dar hadde bozorgan zabane Farsi savad khandan va nevashtan in marz o boom ro dareh. Man ham yek ajnabi bisavad ke na Farsi baladam na midoonam Meydoon vanak kojast! Vaghti dar tool chand mah akhir in hame khabarnegar ra zendani mikonand, in hame rooznameh ra tatil mikonand o in hame website ra block mikonand, shoma mibayest ke koor bashid ke begooyid dar Iran azadi bayan ast. Vaghti bish az har keshvare digar rooznamenegar o akase khabarie farari darim ke dar kharej az keshvar darkhast panahandegi kardand, mibayest ke kheyli roo dashteh bashi ke begi dar iran azadi bayan ast. Vaghti hatta be in soal ke aya dar iran mitavan ashkhasi moshabeh Leveretts dar America vojood dashteh bashad nemitavani javab bedahi, nemitavan in ro azat khast ke aghlat ra be kar begiri va age na ba man, balke ba khodet sadeghane barkhord koni. Aslan man Scott Lucas ya Roger Cohen ya Jason Jones ya har kasi ke mikhai mano seda bezani. Kam miari va mesle khar too gel gir mikoni ke chi javab bedi. Hala bedeh yeki barat tarjome kone ke chi goftam!

Dear James Canning,

“You seem to make a big deal of the fact the US government considers Iran “an enemy state”. Isn’t this utter stupidity the problem we are trying to address on this site?”

Good point. But at the same time we can’t continue to justify Iran’s hardliners actions who continue to chant “Death to America” whose Leader’s every other word is “enemy” in reference to the so-called “Great Satan.” Basically the neo-conservatives in both countries have to face a tough opposition so as to stop them from getting what they want; a full confrontation. A war will only benefit the hardliners in both countries. The very same people who call each other names, be it “Axis of Evil” or “Great Satan.”

You seem to make a big deal of the fact the US government considers Iran “an enemy state”. Isn’t this utter stupidity the problem we are trying to address on this site?

You do not live in Iran and you have know knowledge of the Persian language, so you do not have access to Persian newspapers. If you did, you would see that there is an enormous amount of openness in the media. Right now battles are raging over the Azad University, for example. Also, if you watch the PressTV documentary on Neda, you will see that Iranian suspicions that MKO terrorists were behind the killing are more than reasonable. However, as you are merely a green spin doctor there is little use in trying to reason with you.

“Your whole objective in this forum is to demonize the government of Iran by any means.”

No need for me to do that. I’m just some guy posting comments on some website a handful of us frequent. From their attacks to student dorms to their attacks on homes and offices of Grand Ayatollahs the current regime does the demonizing itself.

“I asked you two questions;

1. What would the government of Iran gain by killing an innocent girl in a side street?

2. What would a “Foreign agent or the enemies of Islamic Republic” gain by killing her?”

1. I don’t think they specifically targeted Neda Agha Soltan. She was just a victim of circumstances as I have said before. But what would the government of Iran gain from ANY of their missteps over the past year; from attacks on student dorms, to running over people with police trucks, to jailing of students, journalists, filmmakers and feminists and reformers to their heckling of Khomeini’s grandson and destruction of Sanei and Montazeri’s homes and offices? What did they have to gain from Kahrizak? From torture and death of people like Ruholamini? From mysterious death of Kahrizak’s young doctor? Neda’s death is just the tip of an iceberg. Even if you were to successfully link her murder to foreign agents — as IRI has tried many times and failed — you will not be able to deny the wrongdoings of the regime itself.

2. Nothing. Even if Neda’s death was never captured by a video camera, there’s plenty more to use against the Islamic Republic of Iran. To say that BECAUSE her death was captured she must have been murdered by foreign enemies of Iran is absurd. You’re essentially saying if she was just another faceless victim of the brutality of the Basij forces, only then she would have been a true victim of the regime, because the foreign media could not have taken advantage of her murder and exploited her death. Furthermore, if she was indeed killed (and photographed) by BBC or MEK or whoever else the government claims, shouldn’t she be considered a martyr by the regime itself? And what does it say about Iran’s security forces if in broad daylight enemies of the Islamic Republic can shoot innocent people to death and film it too?

“Shortly after Neda’s murder, CNN, Fox News, VOA and BBC were broadcasting the film and demonizing the regime.

In fact, the publicity that was given to Neda’s story by the western media was bigger than the assassination of John F Kennedy.

Every year thousands of innocent women and children have been slaughtered in similar fashion by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the Israeli soldiers in Palestine and many of these deaths have been caught on camera, but you do not see their faces on CNN, Fox News, VOA or the BBC.”

If the film of Neda’s death didn’t exist it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to demonize the regime. Because like I said before, the do the demonizing themselves.

The reason Neda’s video went viral (even if the likes of CNN and Fox didn’t show the video, youtube alone would have brought the attention of the world to it) is because her death showed a different side of Iran. A side of Iran that didn’t fit the previous descriptions of what Iranians look like or act like. As far as the Western Media was concerned all Iranians were “Death To America” chanting fanatic religious people who once held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Neda was able to break that stereotype and tell the world that there are indeed two Irans; one is the Iran of IRIB, the other the Iran of youtube videos and supporters of the Green Movement. This is a bankable story for media corporations thirsty for new storylines to increase their ratings with. Cruel and exploitative, but true nonetheless.

And the fact is if the violence continued and more Nedas died and videos of Iranians dying in the streets became a norm, the Western media would have been bored and would have moved on to their next balloon boy story. Unfortunately Iraq and Afghanistan have become repetitive news, that even the IRIB does not bother to show the deaths caused by Americans or the insurgents. Why do you even go so far. I am sure thousands more AMERICANS die in the streets of South Central LA and shady neighborhoods of New York, Chicago and Washington DC. But victims of gang violence and inner city murders often don’t even make it past the local TV stations that may or may not cover them. Because to the Western media they are no longer stories worth the international scrutiny… Who wants to hear about a Jose gunned down in the streets of LA because of gang wars? that’s to be expected. Instead the attention is shifted to likes of Neda, victims of a civil movement in the streets of Tehran…

“There is no doubt that Neda’s vivid and shocking death is tragic to witness and a terrible loss for her family. However, the repercussions of the video circulating the globe via You Tube and its propaganda-driven exploitation by the west to demonize the Iranian government could have tragic consequences for many more innocent Iranians in the years to come.”

I never said the Western media is not worthy of the criticism article on this page and others like it make of it. I just said such articles should expand to include IRIB and Press TV. For to not include them in the criticisms is to have a double standard. Yes, the western media demonizes the IRI (thanks in large part to the material the IRI provides for them), but IRIB and Press TV do their own share of demonizing. That’s politics.

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

Let’s not ask if a Chomsky can exist in Iran. The question we should be asking on this site is whether the Leveretts can exist in Iran?!

Two American politicians always in line with an Iranian regime their own government considers an enemy state. They are constantly calling for a dialogue with the Iranian regime while downplaying the opposition. They appear on national TV shows inside the United States and have traveled to Iran and have met with Iranian politicians and policy-makers.

Now… Imagine the following:

Two Iranian politicians (read reformers) always in line with an American regime their own government considers an enemy state. They are constantly calling for a dialogue with the American regime while downplaying the opposition. They appear on national TV shows inside Iran and have traveled to America and have met with American politicians and policy-makers.

I bet that not only such people would be arrested and jailed in Iran. But most folks who comment on this blog would be first to call such people traitors, Zionists, puppets of the Americans, etc. etc. And in doing so they’re saying it would okay for Americans to have a difference of opinion, but Iranians should stick to their third-world one-party rule governance and all voices of dissent and opposition should be silenced.