We risk trolls, they risk more.
Via Jeff Jarvis, Iranian blogger Parhtistan (who is in the UK) translates the efforts of the Iranian mullahs to silence the blogs there.
He translates from the Farsi blog of Abtahi, who “as the ex VP in Parliamental Affairs, and a member of the Constitutional Supervision Committee, has published some details of interrogation and torture that has happened in prisons, and I’m sure by doing so he is seeking public and international attention to this subject.”
Here’s what he says:
They told very important points about the unjustifiable treatment they had received, including:
1- Physical torture, punches and kicks: “he banged my head to the bench that made my recently-operated nose bleed, and later I found out that they broke my nose”; “they punched us”; “we were alone in single cells for months”; and things of this kind…
2- The classical questions about sexual relationships [to create moral scandals]: “Write down the names of your boy/girl friends”; “tell us about your illegal [= out of marriage] sexual relationships”; “what kind of relationship have that girl/guy had with you?”; “how many times have you been raped, or have you raped?”; and worst of all, they gave the names of 6 reformist activist to one of the girls asking her to confess in writing that she had had illegal sexual relationship with them. And when the girl refused, they brought in a former prisoner (who had turned to their side under torture) who told the girl face to face that he had had sexual relationship with her!
3- The interrogations were managed by a formerly arrested blogger. A few other bloggers who had [given up and] repented before were under less pressure, and were in a way helping the interrogators who had lack of technical knowledge on the subject [of internet and blogs]. This proves that weak people cannot be trusted in politics. However, we understand the situation they’re in and can’t really blame them for what they’ve done.
4- Objection to the bloggers right to hire lawyers, ignoring their legal rights.
5- The interrogators lacked technical knowledge [on the subject].
6- The interrogators tried to force bloggers to confess in writing based on the templates given to them in prison, which were along the same line as the Spider’s Web conspiracy article published in Kayhan newspaper. The bloggers were told that they would be freed once their confessions were printed in daily newspapers. Some of the bloggers had accepted the terms, but those whom we met today had not given up.
7- The bloggers were individually asked to write lies about the sexual and sometimes political corruptness of a number of different politicians. All of them were asked to write about Mostafa Tajzadeh and myself [Abtahi] amongst others.
And other points that are impossible to mention here.
After listening to them for 3 hours, depressed, anxious and tearful committee members made some decisions which will be announced shortly, although they are not sure if they will be able to implement those decisions.
High-level international attention is the best thing that can be done here; spread the word wide and fast.
>>High-level international attention is the best thing that can be done here; spread the word wide and fast.
We can do better. We need to get bloggers in the MidEast _proper anonymity_ so they can avoid harrassment by the local police state. This is a technical problem, and one that we personally can solve through direct action, that is, without the need to waste time lobbying the USG or any other government.
The Iranian government isn’t nearly as sophisticated as USG surveilance state institutions (NSA, ECHELON, etc.) so this should be pretty easy.
Joe,
As you know I have some thoughts on this. It is quite clear the MSM for whatever reason is not reporting on these details that trickle out of Iran.
The Blogos can be the medium to bypass the MSM logjam and bring this info to the American people directly.
This is why HSPIG is a strong supporter of Spirit of America’s blogger challenge to collect funds for the Arabic Language Blogging Tool projects. Keep in mind most Iranians consider themselves Persian and not Arabic but do speak Arabic. The Arabic minority are the ones that brought radical Islamic fundamentalism to Iran.
My other belief is to move of the dime on this we must appeal to the women of the world. We need to target key women who are opinion setters for women. The woman who comes on the top of my list is Oprah Windrey. She recently did a piece on the status of women in the world and had a women from Iraq and Iran speaking on the condition of women in those countries.
My suggestion is the Blogos bring this issue to the attention of Oprah and seek her support in bringing this message to the women of the world to demand action by the governments of the free world. This is in our strategic interest as the Mad Mullahs of Iran are on a course to obtain an Islamic nuke it’s only a matter of time no matter what agreements they have signed.
See further here and follow the links:
Link Here
Ron Wright, Moderator
HSPIG Forums Site
http://www.hspig.org
Wow, I agree with TJ, how unusual!
I can’t help with his suggestion, but there are lots of bloggers smarter than me…
I honestly think the Iranian government has mastered the technique of bluffing based on some imaginary nuclear weapon rumour. While every measure must be taken to assure people of Iran and the world that oil money is not being spent on development of nuclear WMD, the world must also notice that the Iranian gov could be exaggerating by deliberately giving away false information. In this way they will keep the mind of the world busy on the nuclear threat, and this gives them a lot of free time to do whatever they want, oppress intellectual movements, shut down all reformist movements, jail every journalist and recently bloggers. And because everyone is just worried about nukes, the main thing which is ‘reform’ and consequently ‘freedom’ will be lost.
If western democracies are serious about helping Iranians, which I think they are, they should give “human rights record” and “nuclear deals” the same weight in the negotiations.
A persian provern says “they offered death so you would be happy with a fever”. Our problem is the fever now, we need remedies i.e. international pressure for changes.
You’ll be glad to know the Iranian bloggers themselves keep a sense of humor. Check out this sketch on the UK persian bloggers site.
Ron Wright, the majority of Iranians don’t speak and understand Arabic. All they get is some compulsory training in school (because Arabic is the language of religion) but that does not really help. As you know they’re totally different languages (Arabic being a semitic language while Persian being an indo-european one).