Saturday, June 16, 2007

Four down, one more to go...

The detention of Haleh Esfandiari of the Smithsonian Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Kian Tajbaksh of The Open Society foundation, Parnaz Azima of Radio Farda, and Ali Shakeri, a so-called peace activist (read BBC report here) nearly completes the list in the tick-tack-toe the mullhas have been playing against the United States. As by their admission, these arrests are in "retaliatory" response to the arrests in January 2007 of the mullahs' five "diplomats" in Arbil, Iraq by the US forces. This, of course, means that the mullahs have one more arrest to go before the tally is even- if one also counts the former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, as detainee, yet to be acknowledged by the mullahs- then the list is complete.

Another common thread which appears from the above four-person list is that all have been unapologetic supporters of "civil dialogue" with the fanatical mullahs, ala their support for the ill-winded "promoting (the elusive) moderates" from the within the Iranian regime. Those in the know recall the efforts of like-minded intellectuals in the late 1990's and early 2000's in chasing after Khatami in hoping to score points with the mullahs. Now, they know better, of course.

The facts are clear: all four must be freed without conditions and immediately. It is an uncomforting thought that the new detainees are being held in the same infamous prison, The Evin Prison, where many political enemies of the mullahs were being tortured and executed during the Khatami reign and while the then-free Mrs. Esfandiari, and Messrs. Tajbakhsh and Shakeri, were admiringly chasing after the smiling face of the murdering mullahs.

Nevertheless, for those Iranian expats, who long ago forfeited their right of return until the genocidal mullahs are removed from Iran, this is a small, albeit painful, measure of redemption.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home