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I just found out that NITV is no longer on air... and that was the only one TV station in the US that concerned Mullahs .... this coincides with having Iranian diplomats in town ...is there any connection.???
Are we negotiating? We may be. If so, Bush is playing hardball. He, again, refused to take the use of tactical nuclear weapons off the table.
To Tom Friedman's and Sy Hersh's frustration and my delight, Bush continues to believe in preemption. Tom Friedman's hatred of Bush completely undermines his judgment. Not only does he argue that the US has the means to change the behavior of the Iranian Messianic Theocrats but this is the way he wishes to deter them:
A short diplomatic note to Iran's mullahs will suffice:"Gentlemen, should you ever use a nuclear device, or dispense one to terrorists, we will destroy every one of your nuclear sites with tactical nuclear weapons. If there is any part of this sentence you don't understand, please contact us. Thank you."
Apparently, it has never occurred to Tom, that understanding is not the problem. Belief in the coming of the 12th Imam is. But lack of common sense is one of the reasons that as Bruce Kuklick so persuasively argues in Tuesday's FT,"politicians outrank scholars and that the military has a constitutional obligation to keep silent and take orders." Unfortunately, his op-ed is not online. But you can read the gist of his argument in the Daily Pennsylvanian.
My friend went on expressing her frustration by the ease with which Iranians, especially, bloggers, who she believes are enjoying the benefits of living in the West but do not support its struggle. I understand her perfectly though I am not surprised. We all know that the Yale Taliban is far from unique. Tom Friedman is security vigilante compared to the diplomats who dispense American visas. Still, I understand my friends speculation has upset the persons mentioned. If so, I am sorry. Moreover, since they contested the accuracy of her speculation, I removed it from the posting.
To be honest, I suspect I published her email because it responded to a painful experience I rarely mention and have not written about. It has to do with an Iranian family with which I was very close for 35 years. Indeed, when they escaped the Mullahs, they stayed with us until they got on their feet. I knew their son since he was 6. He grew up in the US and is living here now married to an American woman and working for a top investment firm.
Hence, I was stunned when in 2003 he said to told us at a dinner party:"If you touch Iran, I will go there and fight you."
"Hence, I was stunned when in 2003 he said to told us at a dinner party: "If you touch Iran, I will go there and fight you.""
"I was stunned" Was Klinghoffer's reaction to the genuine patriotic reaction of a true Iranian patriot who, unlike Klinghoffer, can tell the difference between opposing and fighting a regime in his home land and a foreign power invading and conquering it.... irrespective of the presumed cause of the invasion!
I truly wonder what Klinghoffer's definition of patriotism is...not necessarily hers which would be another matter altogether!
Sima Shakhsari -
5/3/2006
I am not sure who the sick person is who has been leaving comments on my behalf and having a conversation with himself (Houman?). HNN admin: Please remove those comments, as I have warned your organization in the past that any slanderous posts/comments need to be supported by proof, or I will have to take proper legal action.
-Sima Shakhsari
Jomhoor -
5/3/2006
Hi,
Just I saw this article which is about this post.
Hi there,
thanks for covering Iran news,
However please be careful, saying spy to someone we know her very well since she start her blog 4 years ago as feminist is not s.t you say it just due to your friends believes.
Just think, why Iran needs spy in US? to collect info of university & college lifestyle? if Iran want to buy some spy ,first they do it on clear persons, & second on guys in important places like army,CIA,NSA.
what can she spy on?
please think before you write else it could look like a joke to others.
ali 4 Mandana Barandeh Fard -
4/28/2006
Mandana, your nose is big, olagh!
Anahita -
4/27/2006
I don't live in Iran, and I don't know what Sima meant. My name is Anahita and I live in the US!
ali 4 Farnaz Seyfi -
4/26/2006
Anahiti (Farnaz Seyfi):
You are such an idiot! You live in Iran. You care to talk about your little nose? How big is your brain?
Sima -
4/26/2006
Sorry, dear Ida, it was me Sima and not Anahita that posted the comment. I used Anahita to post comment at another site but forgot to erase it--- how stupid of me.
Ida -
4/25/2006
I'm afraid you are the lying idiot Anahita (or wahtever your name is.)
Shima knows very well about Iran, like the rest of us here, the diffrence between her and the "filthy five" pressure group is that she also cares about Iran and Iranians. Unlike you and the likes of you isnults on the face of humanity.
Anahita -
4/25/2006
Shima Kalbasi is such an idiot! What does she know about Iran? She has this hatred towards anything that is happening in Iran now, and it includes people who live there too. I by no means support "mullas" regime the way she calls it, but I relate much more to any of the 5 people mentioned. They have lived there as I had. We know what it is like in Iran. She has no clue yet she keeps writing about Iran.
Soudabeh Rohani -
4/24/2006
How do you know Pouyan? We all see the film and we see the same person. What makes you such an expert. The least effort is for some authority to investigate this fully. Anything less would be irresponsible.
Soudabeh Rohani -
4/24/2006
How do you know Pouyan? We all see the film and we see the same person. What makes you such an expert. The least effort is for some authority to investigate this fully. Anything less would be irresponsible.
Soudabeh Rohani -
4/24/2006
How do you know Pouyan? We all see the film and we see the same person. What makes you such an expert. The least effort is for some authority to investigate this fully. Anything less would be irresponsible.
In the past few days what I witnessed was a web war going on in the comment section of this American university professor who had briefly written about a team of Iranian bloggers living in the West. She had mentioned the names of Sima Shakhsari, Hussein Derakhshan, Bahman Kalbasi, Sanam Dolatshahi, and Nazli Kamvari as the Iranian regime's blogger cells. I don't have evidence to prove these people are IRI spies, but they certainly appear to me that way: at least 4 of these individuals tried to buy legitimacy for the regime by encouraging participation in regime's phony UNDEMOCRATIC elections; they campaigned for Rafsanjani who has direct involvement in killings of more than 100 dissidents abroad and scores of intellectuals inside Iran; they attacked people who boycotted this farce; and then they travel around the globe posing as regime's dissidents, fooling westerners who don't know much about the dynamics of the Iranian society or cozying up to the international liberal-left alliance against new conservatives and Bush. When speaking in English, they are the voice of the displaced and friend of the oppressed. When blogging in Persian, they attack the very same people and accuse them of treason (reference to a blog by Hussein Derakhshan a couple of years ago on Iranian refugees in the West). I know that at least three of these individuals have attacked some Iranian academicians in the West for receiving US funds to continue their activity, calling them American cronies. But these hypocrites scream bloody murder when a similar standard is applied to them. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
pouyan -
4/23/2006
I saw the film. The young lady looks a bit familiar but it is not Nazli.
Pouyan -
4/23/2006
I saw the film. The young lady looks a bit familiar but it is not Nazli.
Dariush -
4/23/2006
Dear Sahand
In my comment, I mentioned the terrible situation of ethnic minorities in Iran but we should accept the fact that Persians are in majority. “Three-fifths of the Iranian population is ethnic Persian. Other groups include Azerbaijani and other Turkic groups, 25 per cent; Kurds, 7 per cent; Lur, 2 per cent; and Baloch, Turkmen, and other [groups] 6 per cent. Nomadic life has always played a role in traditional Iranian society, and more than 10 per cent of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, including the Lur, Bakhtiari, Shahsevan, and Qashqa'I” (Encarta Interactive World Atlas, 2001).
And another source is saying the same thing if we add 8% Gilaki & Mazandarani to 51% Persian:
“Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%” (CIA, the world factbook, 20 April 2006).
Dariush -
4/23/2006
Dear Sahand
I am a half Turk - half Arian and when I use Persians instead of Iranians, it's because the word "Persians" has less racial identity than "Iranians". I think in English we better use “Persians” because English people used to use this word since Persia was a huge country with huge range of ethnic groups. In my opinion, the word “Iranians” does not include Turkish group but the word “Persians” does.
Yours sincerely
winston -
4/23/2006
she has removed these posts!
winston -
4/23/2006
lol
she is wife of a mullah back in iran
Wake up -
4/23/2006
Mr. Sahand:
It seems to me that your problem arises from the fact that you can't categorize me and put me in a neat little box of your choosing. You must be an engineer of some sort and I don't mean that in a deragatory sense. They seem to have a built-in intolerance for abstract concepts. What you call as incoherent most people who-- don't suffer from cognitive dissonance-- will call 'deliberative'.
I really don't have time to continue this debate because I have other pressing issues to attend to. I wish you best of luck though in whatever you do. Love and peace to all humanity.
Sahand -
4/23/2006
Dear Wake up: You did not have to boil that fast, not only smoking weed is not the worst crime but also it is legal in most European nations as well as Canada. I objected to your post because of its incoherence, you preach peace and at the same time you ask “ others” to go back and clean their backyard; this in itself is prejudice, which is a fertile soil for hate. You praises the Western culture at the same time your hate Bush administration etc, well where do you stand brother? One can’t have a meaningful dialogue with others after placing them at the other side of the river bank and dividing the camp between “us” versus “ them”
Sahand -
4/23/2006
Actually I should have said 30 Million Turks instead of Azerbaijani Turks, because besides Azerbaijan there are Khorasani Turks, Turkmen and Ghashghaei Turks as well.
Nora -
4/23/2006
Great points in your post.
Fundamentalism of all stripes is a toxic mode of thinking. Iran has become one of the most dismally unequal societies in the ME. A small caste of very rich fat priests and their cronies are reducing most of the Iranian people to abject poverty (40% live below poverty line) in a country that is immensely wealthy. To cover up for all this greed and corruption, religious fundamentalism is a very effective tool of ideological domination. The more Iran sinks into inequality and social injustice, the more fiery the pseudo revolutionary rhetoric of its theocratic ruling elite, and the more dogmatic and intolerant their version of Islam. Religious fundamentalism is a wonderful tool for diverting attention from all real issues. Khomeini and his supporters learned from the Stalinist techniques of establishing informers in every neighborhood outside and inside of Iran.
Sahand -
4/23/2006
You dumb ass Dariush: Not all Iranian are Persian, there are more than 30 Million Azerbaijani Turks, plus Kurds, Arabs, Balouches, Lurs etc that are all sick and tired of your rotten Persian chauvinism. Persians are in minority, get you stupid information straight.
-
4/23/2006
I have never in my life smoked a joint or anything else. Your ad hominem attacks instead of addressing the topic only further proves my points. Your fanaticism is an instruction on how ideological indoctrinations,
and pure lunacy can result in such absurd and distorted sense of reality. It's obvious that truth conflicts with your brain washing and causes you unease. It's apparent that Reasoned argument means nothing to you if it doesn't corroborate your self-serving view of things. In other words, you embody the totalitarian nature of the regime. Because after all, you're a product of that society.
There will forever be Homo sapiens gone wrong a la Sahand or Whatever your real name iswho are incapable of introspection and critical analysis. Their ship has already hit the iceberg; it is a matter of time before it sinks. "The tank shall not win over the human spirit".
Dariush -
4/23/2006
There are two kinds of Persians in the west:
Those who fled to other countries and because of starting their new life in self-exile far from Iran did not follow their political aims any longer; those opposition theorists were assassinated outside of Iran; those who their family members were arrested instead of them who had run away. Those who were relative with those children (some at age 12) who were in jail and girls were raped before execution to ensure that they would go to hell because governors thought they might go to heaven as virgins; those who are not allowed to follow their own faith, get governmental jobs, earn retirement payment, study at universities, earn anything by inheritance, marry and divorce legally in their own faith, those who their family members have been punished by stoning, and so on, are the first kind of Persians in the west.
The second kinds of Persians are people who get paid from the Islamic Republic to study at the best universities in the west and to promote the Islamic ideas there; people who fly the Islamic Republic flag in the west and make anti-western statements to hide the mistakes of the Iranian government. People who do not care that in Iran many writers and poets are forced to silence; the government censors books and movies; it changes books’ contents; it even does minor changes to dictionaries and encyclopaedias; it teaches its own written history, with everything outside Islamic history called atheistic, and ignorance. But always complain that the west do not give them the real freedom that they wish! People who do not talk a word about the ethnic minorities in Iran that live in absolute poverty and distress but always complain that why the west do not let the Islamic Republic to have nuclear weapons! People who encourage the government to spend millions dollars to spread world terrorism, but do not care about many people in Iran who live in streets.
Hamshari -
4/23/2006
Not on medication, on drug. She doesn’t even recall that she bad-mouthed Dr. Millani, one of the most respectful Iranian intellectuals. She just acts as an attack robot, complying according to the orders received.
This low life Sima, a.k.a. belog’s censor-chi, in small round brain of hers thought that she could stop people of exposing her by blocking their IP addresses. Of course this is the only lesson that she has learnt from her masters in IRI.
Loli -
4/22/2006
This phony individual, Sima Shakhsari, claims to be a women right activist but reviewing the posts in her weblog it is clear that she is just repeating the Islamic republic anti-American, anti-Semitic propagandas. She also claims that she lives on scholarship salary but meanwhile threaten to send her $400/hour lawyer after the author of this article! I guess she is enjoying a big bounce on her paycheck ;)))
Loli -
4/22/2006
In addition, if you ever get caught by FBI we guarantee a safe heaven in Guantanamo Bay in which you can serve your brothers-in-sprit in satisfying their more earthly needs without minding your ugly fat appearance. Chicks having names that start with “Nazli Kamvari” are given special priority.
Act today and good luck.
Sibil the Hairy -
4/22/2006
Since I have moved up the ladder and working in the field and due to time restraint, the regular Gillette does not do the shaving of my pubic hair, as most of you already know mine is very bushy—I mean very hairy—I have given up the traditional Gillette and instead am looking for a small, custom designed lawn mower, to do the job, If you happen to have such a machinery please post it here.
Sahand -
4/22/2006
Dear wake up; Gave us a favor and check your joint before smoking, it seems that you had a very high quality weeds in the first day and then some smart ass had sold you dry mint or other grasses instead of real marijuana, because this last post of you is nothing but a empty talk of a psychosis.
PS: next time please keep the receipt so that you could go back and return the dry parsley that was sold to you as a real Thai weed.
Gholam -
4/22/2006
DON'T FORGET.
You will also undergo a world level crash course on Anti-semtism 2006 - The whore version.
Allameh -
4/22/2006
Needless to say , in training you will acquire highly sophisticated skills, such as speaking, writing and acting like a filthy ugly fat whore, or utter superficial nonsense like an ugly lesbian idiot with low IQ who is under the impression of being an intellectual, also how to get out of the jails of the most brutal and fascistic regime of our time in only 60 days with rewards, or how to be a circus baffoon while trying to convince others you are a citizen journalist ( or any other new word you just heard and found cool without comprehending what it means).
These skills are not even taught in ivory league universities.
Mohandes -
4/22/2006
The firm also promises to clear any trace of conscience once you are employed, using very high dosages of silliness and lumpenism, inorder to wipe your memory from the misery of millions of your compatriots under a certain Islamo-fascist dictatorship. Once you acquire their cleverness and satirical genius uou won't be bothered by images of women systematically stoned, beaten, raped, children and young adults hanged, addicts and those crushed under extreme poverty. Instead you can enjoy the intelligence and character improvement of a pervert mullah leader or the subtlties of a suicide bomber wanna be feminist.
Hurry for this coveted extremely competative position before it is too late!
Omid -
4/22/2006
If the firm goes bankrupt, the whole staff can still find a meaningful life functioning as (alas, defetctive) refrigerators. This would be the lif time warrantie.
NB.
For this life time policy to work, only applicants who are as silly and as devoid of any sense of humor may apply , to conform to the same essential features of the employers.
Hussein and The Sisters -
4/22/2006
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The small, casual dress but dynamic firm of Hussein and The Sisters currently looking to hire some competent people for various positions. Ideal candidates do not need to have any qualification except being totally crook. We are in the business of data gathering, sorting and distribution. We offer competitive wages, health, dental, and life insurance, thrift savings plan, employer paid pension plan, paid holidays, vacation, and sick days, as well as dogs and cats. Currently there is opening for following positions. An experienced, entry level and novice spy, and a janitor to replace sibil that currently moved up to field officer position. We are an Equal Opportunity Employment (EOE) but encourage female candidates with some looks, double personality and large boobs, to trap the stupid males. Please send your résumé, to company’s CEO Hussein and cc to manager of the recruiting and public affair department Dr. Sima; their last names are being hold confidential for security reasons.
iran.noname -
4/22/2006
Your sources are Incredibely Unrfeliable: just an example would be about the "iran doplomat in Washington" I just want you let you that it had nothing to do with politics and only sick mind made such a relationship. It is not some thing confidencial, and very body knows that Mr. Mohammad Nahavandian
is in US for taking care of his son "Mahdi Nahavandian" who married recently. Nahanvandian and his family have US GreenCard and they visit US frequently. Recently Mehdi could successfully get Green card for his wife "Soodeh", and they moved to US a few weeks ago, since their did not like to live inside Iran. Please do not make fun of your self by relating this travel to political issues. The Rest of Your article was also based on wrong information and Non-sence analysis.
Jessica -
4/22/2006
Dear Judith:
I applaude your courage and conviction for highlighting the potential threats that lurk in our midst. True, you don't have tangible evidence to indict these people in the court of law but we would be naive to think that people like this don't exist and the Iranian regime doesn't spend millions on or has not engaged in any deceptive and deliberate propaganda campaign against America. The Iranian regime is recruiting suicide bombers in Britain as we speak: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1756546,00.html
Back in the cold war days Politicians in Washington, D.C. used to have a way of determining if a leader in a foreign nation was a communist. They would say, "If it talks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck."
The burden of proof is on them NOT us.
Wake up -
4/22/2006
That's rich calling neocons Nazi's while your president and your 10 million Basiji call for annihilation of Israel and America. The Bush Adminstration is the most incompetent and misguided adminstration America has had in its history (It's tragic that a country like ours has stooped to the levels of the cirminal mullahs committing atrocities in Abu-gharib in the manner of the mullah's in the EVIN prison) but to demonize the American people and the American system is the height of hypocrisy while you're basking in the glory of your backward country and its ideology who has not contributed an iota to humanity in the 20th century. You need to clean up your own backyard before before speaking about others shortcomings. I can see the regimes propaganda has brainwashed many of you lemmings with doctrine of hate and revenge. The problem with countries like yours is that the hatred you harbor for the West outweighs the love and well being of your country. The doctrine of hatered of the West maintains and preserves the status quo in your country. If there was no US or Israel to hate, the regime would have to invent one to survive. You're your own worst enemy. The enemy, my dear lies within.
"Make me an instrument of peace!" This was St. Francisco of Assisi's prayer. It has been also my prayer since childhood. I hope it will be answered and real peace, based on not tolerance but acceptance among all humans is established. Peace is not just ceasefire or secession of hostilities. Peace is being able to see yourself in others, feel their anguish as if it is yours, cry in their sorrows as if it is your sorrow and rejoice in their happiness as if it is your happiness. Peace is possible, if we let go of spurious and satanic beliefs that divide us and make us hate one another. Whether these false beliefs are religious or political, they must be eliminated before we can experience peace. These doctrines of hate are cancers of humanity. They should not be tolerated.
Houman -
4/22/2006
Do I need to send the link on your blog? Are you on medication?
fourchoob -
4/22/2006
What the hell r u talking about, u nice & kind (!!!!)american???? Do u really think Iran is the most-America loving nation in the Middle East ? Open your eyes babe! u know what your problem is my kind and smart honney? u can not bare some one criticize your system and your hypocrisy using your own western technology (!!!) and now u r trying to make us beleive that they r propaganda agents of the Islamic Republic??????? what a misery! and u the neo-colonizer! I am the one talking to u from Iran ( the smarter one as u said !!!!) and i hate the mullahs but i also hate your hypocrite and poisoned democraty... The world has already seen your kindness in Abou-Gharib prison in Raq so shut up.
Mohammad -
4/22/2006
You are talking about "play by rules" in your comment. I think this is the main thing that people who visit US see that it is not correct. Now if you hear from US, it is full of contradictions and you only can find only one rule there: "It is just bussiness!". Did you heard the Condi speech in Egypt about "Localized democracy"?
Actually your comment about Iranians in US is much more closed to Neo-Nazist! But did you thinked that what will happen to your US if the forighneer leave the US? Just check that to see what is reality!!
Paranoid bashi -
4/22/2006
Sean,
The reason I get offended (note, I didn't say "we" get offended), because I am an Iranian and it was not in my _political_ education not to slander, not to accuse. It was in my _family_ education not to accuse and not to slander.
So Mullahs made me arrive in the US many moons ago and the first thing I learned at school, at college, at work, at busines, at dotcom, at non-profit, at dinner tables with American people's houses, and even on the streets with the homeless was NOT TO ACCUSE.
That is why _I_ am offended and worked up. Slander is a big thing in the US. Look at the court system. A great number of cases are about slander, mischaracterization of somebody's name. Heck, if you publish somebody's name and identify him or her and claim s/he is spy working against the US government, trust me the US government could come after you because it is federal crime (read FEDERAL, not STATE) to slander and accuse people without due process. Also, next time you are not worked up about me being worked up, check out the word LIABLE in the US court system.
I still believe Drs. Klinghoffer needs to receive a letter from a civil rights attorney that US is not wild wild Baghdad. We have laws here to protect the people from being slandered.
Finally, as I mentioned in another reply to this comment section, the Drs. has already retracted her statement. So you see, even SHE is worked up.
Paranoid bashi -
4/22/2006
It is a big difference between to be interviewed by the FBI or examined (examined, sir, not interviewed) by a psychologist.
In the former, it is a matter of national safety and in the latter it is a matter of health.
In reference to Persian bloggers, the only one that pissed on her weblog is Drs. Judith Apter Klinghoffer, the author of the original lie, which she immediatelty retracted her storyt. For your information I used to work in a publishing house. Retracting part of your statement in less than 48 hours is considered a major major setback, or you risk BEING SUED for SLANDER in this country.
Drs. Klinghoffer is lucky some of us who knew how the US system of courts work have not knowcked at the door of the office of the head of the department of history at Rutgers University.
I believe expressing viewpoints is one thing, but accusing people of slander is something else. If you say this and you are a nobody in the US, nobody cares. If a professor in a reputed university makes the same statement, trust me, there are law firms -- from big ones to little shark attorneys -- taking the case, beause, ehem, excuse me, "it's a slam dunk."
I see no problem if you even support US attacking Iran. I see no prblem if X or Y expresses that they oppose such action. But it is a no-no to slander people because of the statement they make. It is appalling to me that I see American scholars are reducing themselves to gross slander like this. As for Iranians, we have been doing it for as long as I remember. I am not surprised that Iranians talk so low. But what went wrong with America. So sad.
winston -
4/22/2006
exactly my point!
Harry -
4/22/2006
in lady sune ahmagh tarside mese sag
lol
winston -
4/22/2006
nice work dude
Khashayar -
4/22/2006
true!
Harry -
4/22/2006
roozbeh the fucking idiot
shut your dirty mouth please a$$hole
Lady Sun -
4/22/2006
Sahand, I didn't bite you. I simply didn't publish a comment that included insults to other people. Do I have that right? Also, I didn't want to insult you by offering to make you a blog. I honestly thought you can't make one for yourself. I apologize if you felt insulted.
Khodadad -
4/22/2006
I don't recall making any statements about the contents of their blogs, thus your "contrary to your report..." is logically flawed, since I did not say anything about that.
Also, I never mentioned Hossein. Sanam and Sima are both grad students. Sima is in Stanford and Sanam is in Uni. of Florida.
Yes, they are my friends, and I am proud of it.
Sima -
4/22/2006
Dear Houman: I would more than happy to pay for your ESL classes, because seems to me you really do not understand what I just said. Where in my post, I mentioned Ahmadi, Nafisi or Milani’s name?
Sahand -
4/22/2006
Sanam: Thank you for the offer but I am not that allaf to spend my time for having my own site, believe me my 14 year son is in the mailing list of some famous corporations testing their software and currently he is testing beta version of Vista from Microsoft, so please do not insult me. I post comments because I want to tear down some charlatan’s masks, the masks of people like Hussein Derakhshan that helped you in establishing your site and suspicious individuals like Sima that her name is all over now. Sanam: I know what I am doing, please take care of yourself, you are not my type and I do not take on people like you, I am not trying to put you down whatsoever. My only comment at your site was in your favor; well you bite the fingers that feeds you.
Lady Sun -
4/21/2006
Sahand, one of the rules of my commenting system is that the comments should not insult others. I don't excuse foul language. This is not censorship. Every house has its own rules. When I come to your house and you ask me to take off my shoes, this is not censorship. You wanted to abuse my blog to insult other people so your comment didn't have a chance to be published. If you want to express your insulting opinions, you can easily open a blog in blogger and express your opinion there, instead of posting comments on at least 20 blogs about other people. If you don't know how to open a blog, I'll be more than happy to open one for you. Just email me. (I apologize from the owner of this blog for using her space to reply a personal comment.)
Sahand -
4/21/2006
Preface: I posted this comment in Sanam's site but most probably it is not going to pass through her censor department, so I wanted to post it here.
Sanam: This is the second time that I am visiting here but seen your name all over. As you know in US “ Everyone is innocent till to be proven guilty.’ So you should not worry about it. As you may already know I dislike Sima for her being an ignorant, arrogant fanatic, I do not read Sibil for her talking nonsense and suffering from mouth diarrhea, and I do not know this Bahman Kalbasi at all, but I do know very well this spiritually bankrupt Hussein Derakhshan. Excuse my foul language he would even sleep with his own mother to get up in the power ladder. He is another potent Saied Imami and most probably your friendship with him have brought this upon you. As my father used to say.” gara gharghaynan dost olanin, hamishe dimdighi pokhta olar.” “ har ke ba kalaghe siysh dosti kone, hamishe mengharesh gohiye.” ya “ tou avval bogo ba kiyan dosti… man ungah begoyam ke tou kisti.”
PS: Dr. Klinghoffer: excuse my language but it seems to me even yourself is ignorant of the roosts, meaning and historical progress of religion. Because if believing in coming of the 12th Imam is the source of problem, well you have not read the Bible yet. I would more than happy to discuss about religion from psychological point of view, the sources that I can guarantee you have never read. All I am asking is this: please leave people’s private beliefs for themselves and judge only their acts and behaviors. No I am not a religious person but a solid scientist. Dr. Kinghoffer: Besides tens of millions of decent Americans, the late president Roland Reagan believed in apocalyptic destruction of the world. Dr. Klinghoffer: Your indiscriminately ridiculing other’s religious beliefs is the source of pushing some toward fanatic’s camp. Any intellectual effort that does not try to bring different people, different races, and different religions close to each other is useless and why waste our time, if we cannot bring them close and narrow the gap.
Houman -
4/21/2006
Dear Sima: Milani’s, Ahmadi’s and Nafisi’s money is your business?
Sima -
4/21/2006
Dear Houman: as I said before my other insignificant friends of mine pays for very small portion (~%98) of my bills, by the way besides living in three places at once, I also have a very very sick cat that costs me over $ 2500,00 to keep her alive, plus never forget my other expenses, such as never missing none lavash, none barbari, none tafton, none sangag, and of course Iranian cholo-kabab, joje kabab, ghorme sabzi. As I have said before, I love eating. I would invoke my fifth amendment not to answer your other mischievous questions regarding my other much more expenses, such as my love of the latest fashion and jewelry, my love of exclusive French wine, my exclusive French make up materials and other stuffs that you may imagine by yourself. None of these are your business?
Houman -
4/21/2006
Sima Shakhsari, your résumé, needs more updating. Consider writing your reasons for your accusations against Dr. Azar Nafisi and Dr. Abbas Milani of being paid by the Conservative administration in the U.S. Also, we like to know at $20000 or more per year in tuition and living expenses, plus the $35000+ not earned in the job market, trying to earn a Ph.D. is a losing proposition, so how can you afford to travel back and forth in Canada and United States.
Wake up -
4/21/2006
I'm glad that these stooges and propaganda agents of the Islamic Republic are finally being exposed for the traitors that they are. Using the internet, a Western technology, to promote their hatred of the West and cultivate the seeds of hatred in the minds of most-America loving nation in the Middle East (Iran).
We here in the West believe "if we are kind and just and open and play by the rules, then all others will do the same". We give these so-called students/agents visas to come here in hopes of understanding each other's culture and friendship.
However, unbeknownest to most Americans, the criminal mullahs and their bi-continental agents have no intention of playing by any rules. There is no issue of conscience and honor for these scums who come here and study in the best universities at the expense of poor Iranian masses in America and spew their venom against America while living here only to achieve prolongation and prservation of their masters, the murderous mullahs. But the Iranians inside Iran are much smarter than these cesspool of paid anti-west bloggers. As it's clearly evident by the comments they leave for these stooges on their blogs. They are bunch of failures who have no other talents but to create more misery for their countrymen.
Sima -
4/21/2006
In my résumé, I have said that “ I was being paid by Stanford University to do research on Iranian bloggers”, but Inadvertently I have omitted some very minor details. I should have said “ I am being paid both by Stanford University and some other insignificant dear friends of mine to do research and gather information on Iranian bloggers.” Please take a notice of my updated résumé and forgive my innocent mistakes. Sorry for any inconvenience. Sincerely Yours Sima Shakhsari
Wake up -
4/21/2006
The criminal mullahs know that their conflict with the West will not be won with weapons alone. They know that this will be a psychological war more than a military war. And that's why they have dispatched their stooges to the West. Here the Mullahs and their Regime's-funded PhD lackeys who have complete superiority because of the use devious rules which the West has not even has begun to comprehend. The mullhas are thinking centuries ahead while the West’s vision is limited to a fixation on tolerance, freedom and democracy in the present. This aspect alone makes the West completely vulnerable and inferior in the conflict.
Another handicap of the West is its belief that "if we are kind and just and open and play by the rules, then all others will do the same". The mullahs have no intention of playing by any rules. These stooges come here and use everything the West has to offer including the internet that was created and invented by the West as their propaganda tool. The murderous mullahs have embded paid-and-bought for University professor and so-called "Middleast" experts/pundits and political consultants in some of the highest places in the government. These punks are peanuts compare to what really is going on.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Did I say 40 million? sorry. read 30 million.
Anyway, you get the idea. if voting is wrong and voters deserve this public attack, you have to attack 30 million of your fellow countrymen.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Hessam,
Since when voting in an ellection is a crime?
What was your alternative? Boycott? To what end?
It is not always black and white. You don't go around and accuse a person of spying only because she/he voted in an election.
That way you have accuse more than 40 millinion human being.
Sanaz -
4/21/2006
I always considered this Nazli Kamvari as a very mentally disturbed, screwed up person so I never paid attention to her writings but after reading the following, I started having my own suspicion of her as well. I will do read this Bahman Kalbasi and express my opinion on him as well. I did visit Mr. Bahman Kalbasi’s site and to my surprise, I realized that in his list of very few friends, Derakhshan, Sanam (Lady Sun) and Nazli are included. Well? The following is posted in Sima’s site.
important information regarding Nazli Kamvari (#87265)
by AmiAli Qasemian on April 20, 2006 at 6:49 PM
Here are some remarks concerning Nazli kamvari and her ties to teh regime in Iran:
Her father has very close ties with Rafsanjani clan and has profited enormously by deals with the family.
She has repeated waged allegations of being US agants to Iranian humn rights activists and has "exposed" some of them by name for cooperating in human rights projects. Projects like forming centers for gathering and cataloguing human rights abuses by the Iranian Regime. Some of the people she accused by name of being American proxies stil have their close family member sin prisons inside Iran and so are vulnerable to her continuous accusations.
Some examples: http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/20...og- post_23.html http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/20...og- post_20.html http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/ 20...4496914610.html
She and her colleague Bahman Kalbasi wrote articles "exposing" all the connectiosn of Iranian student activists and herads of Iranian Student organizations in their trip to the United States. The activists live in Iran and such articles can and are constanlt used as evidence against them by the Iranian regime:
She and her colleagues have been very active during the elections in Iran, to hire buses and organize voters to vore for the Islamic regime and annule the boycott of the elections proposed by Iranian political prisoners and student activists.
She constantly supports Islamists in Iran and the West.
She supports young suicide martyer trainees inside iran: http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/20...og- post_03.html
She who claims to eb a feminist supported the Sharia courts in Ontario: http://sibiltala.blogspot.com/ 20...6642500777.html
Her posts are filled wityh anti-Israel and anti-semtic remarks. There are too many to include here. She constantly calles Iranian freedom activists as Zionist lobby agents. Writes vile remarks against Judaism and Israel.
One exmaple: Here she called "being economicly savy" by the very deragatory and extermely vile antisemtic term "joodbaazi" meaning "Jew-play"
She has allegedly partcipiated in an Iranian sponsered film directd by Lebanese Hezbollah in which Mossad aganets try to kill a heroic Holocaust denier. The film is a clasica example of anti-semtic genre. She also allegedly plays in it for a short part as a student of the Holocaust denier professor. You can see her at this clip:
www. memeritv.org , Clip #905
here: http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S2
(minute 00:01:20)
in raste? | 04.21.06 - 1:47 pm | #
Sanaz -
4/21/2006
From this list, I can express my opinion only in two of them, Sima and Derakhshan: This Hussein is so principles that would even go to bed with devil just to get what he wants and this Sima according to herself, worked only as volunteer but can afford to stay in three places, being able to afford paying $3000,00 for her cat, which I, a single and a dentist assistant can not afford to have a cat because of en extra $30.00 per month. Well fill the blanks.
winston -
4/21/2006
Ship them to where they belong
winston -
4/21/2006
kudos Babak
winston -
4/21/2006
One should ask these idiots why they have deep sympathy for the Mullahs of Iran and why they worry that their rotten regime may go away?
hessam -
4/21/2006
Farnaz get your facts right. Sanam Dolatshahi voted for Rafsanjani. Does she or doesn't she support Mullahs? Isn't Rafsanjani a Mullah? Didn't Rafsanjani order killings of Iranians? Did or didn't derakhshan vist Iran? Samienejad is still in jail. Is or isn't Mojtaba in jail? Bahman Kalbasi travels to Iran. Ahmad Batebi is in jail. Did Bahman fly to Iran without any problem or didn't he? Get your facts Farnaz Khanom. Kamvari writes jew this and jew that. Does she hate Jews or doesn't she? If she is an American citizen she goes to court for her writings. Get your facts right Farnaz.
Farnaz -
4/21/2006
This is how your whole argument is from the beginning to end, all conspiracy theory! You said that "a very reliable Iranian friend" wrote to you that NITV's closure had possibly to do with the Iranian diplomats being in town, and using such reliable friends you accused some people of being agents of the regime. Let's just look at the NITV argument: NITV was closed because Mr. Zia cheated on his wife, and his wife got so mad that cut the money from him. Apparently she got the money after winning a law suit due to medical malpractice. She called on other channels and explained the matter... So it turns out it doesn't have to do with the "Iranian diplomats in town", rather Mr. Zia's cheating with this X person (I don't want to name her here...but those who live in LA know the full story!)Lady, check your facts before you start accusing people...
Reza -
4/21/2006
I followed the link in AmiAli Qasemian's comment.
Accordinb to the comment in the first minute and twenty seconds there is a shot of a girl. I have seen the film and there is indeed a lot of resemblance to Nazli's pictures. That is all I know.
I'm just saying it is suspiscous.
Reza -
4/21/2006
I followed the link in AmiAli Qasemian's comment.
Accordinb to the comment in the first minute and twenty seconds there is a shot of a girl. I have seen the film and there is indeed a lot of resemblance to Nazli's pictures. That is all I know.
I'm just saying it is suspiscous.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Reza,
Have you seen that film? Because I haven't!
Shira -
4/21/2006
Yes, I do think it's suspicious. I looked at the film, which was a piece of rubbish of course, but I didn't see Nazli in it. Where does she appear?
Reza -
4/21/2006
Don't you think when an american citizen out of the closet lesbian ends up acting in a film made by the iranian islamic regime in Lebanon or Syria or god know where propogating holocaust denial and antisemitic hate, it is a bit suspiscious?
Reza -
4/21/2006
Don't you think when an american citizen out of the closet lesbian ends up acting in a film made by the iranian islamic regime in Lebanon or Syria or god know where propogating holocaust denial and antisemitic hate speech, it is a bit suspiscious?
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Chris,
On the accusations of "Dr. Milani, Dr. Ahmadi and Dr. Nafisi, Mr. Afshari and Mr. Atri.", I completely agree with you. That, too, was a horrible attack on people. Very judgmental, distruptive and unfounded.
Please note that I am not trying to defend these people. I do not agree with whatever they say. But I also do understand that I do not have the whole truth. So I hold my judgement.
If you believe that Nazli Kamvari is spreading hate speach you should bring your facts to the court of law and close down her weblog, instead of citing a "reliable friend". If she is a jew hater, she should face the concequences. If it is only "your opinion" that she is a jew hater, that's different story.
Dr.Klinghoffer is not accusing these people for ani-semitisim. She is accusing them of being a member of "secret cells" that god knows what the hell they're doing in US!!! My question is : Based on what are you accusing them?
Ali Ramzegar -
4/21/2006
I second that!!! Americans are getting smarter in figuring out who is a friend and who is a foe.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Jafar and Nasim,
You are still using words that are not clearly defined in the context. Whoe gets to judge "sympathizing"? What is "sympthizing" with Mullahs?
Contrary to what you are saying Jafar, I think it is a subjective matter. You claim "Mullah sympatizers are those whose words are constantly and systematically written only for expressing the Islamist mullah point of view". Now tell me where did you see that these accused people do that?
Give ma a crisp and clear example: does voting in election sympathizing?
Give me examples. I want to know what are you talking about?
Chris Irani -
4/21/2006
Dear Mr. Hosseini,
Please advice Ms. Shakhsari, Ms. Kamvari and Mr. Kalbasi to apologies for their accusations against Dr. Milani, Dr. Ahmadi and Dr. Nafisi, Mr. Afshari and Mr. Atri. Please understand this is a blog and not a classroom. Please understand that Ms. Kamvari, an American citizen, has publicly written against Jews. This is a crime and legal actions can be taken against her. She has to be educated in respecting ethnic groups.
Moe -
4/21/2006
I am glad that people finally started to expose this cult who is lobbying in favour of Islamic regime in Iran. I 100% confirm your claims against those bloggers that you named and would like to add that every things that they post in their weblog against Iranian activities are usually used by Iranian security agencies and justice system when they accusing Iranians in the court of law.
Jafar R. -
4/21/2006
Nobody accused them of being spies. They are accused of having ties (ideological and/or personal)with the islamic system in Iran and do their dirty propaganda work in the blogoshere for them.
read first then start to shout nonsense.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Dr. Klinghoffer,
I am surprised that an academic person make such STRONG accusation againts individuals just based on the claims of a "very reliable Iranian friend"!!!
I hope this is not the way you conduct your professional research, otherwise I am really worried about the future of science!
I don't know if these people are spies or not . But if someone makes such a STRONG claim they have to BACK IT UP WITH FACTS!!!(Citation of weblog materials which I don't agree with is not fact.)
Let me educate you a little about Iranians in US,
There are many Iranians who have left the country and have not lived for long periods of time Iran over the last 20 years or so.
On the other hand there are groups graduate students who have lived in Iran for the most part of their lives and went to school there.
These two groups of people have completely different (and at times contrdictory pictures) about the realities in Iranian society and politics (I leave it to you on which one's judgement to trust). They might not necessarily be categorized in pro -or- againts regim.
The point is when it comes to Iranins, there is no black and white. Try to see the spectrume. Try to see their differences. And don't fall for accusation of a sick minded "relibale friend". Critisizing US government is not a crime, accusing people of spying based on fales claims is!
Good Luck
nasim -
4/21/2006
a mullah sympatizer, sympatizes with mullhas. mullahs kill iranian people or do you care?
Jafar R. -
4/21/2006
No. There is no one that can agree with me or anyone lese on all subjects and this is definitely not what I or others here are looking for. Disagreement and free opinion is the essence of free life. Wht Mullahs are prohibiting millions of people to this day. Do you understand?
Mullah sympatizers are those whose words are constantly and systematically written only for expressing the Islamist mullah point of view. This is an objective matter, not by sujective opinions, Those people fight openly against freedom activists and put them in danger.
Stop this nonsense word plays and opne your damn eyes.
Roozbeh Hosseini -
4/21/2006
Jafar (or whatever it is your true name)
What is your definition of "Mullah sympatizer"?
Let me see if I get it right : it is a person who has opinions, experiences and poin tof view other than you right?
If that is correct, someone should deal with you, you dangerous creature!
nastaran -
4/21/2006
The sources can not be from Iranian Embassy and Hossein Derakhshan and Bahman Kalbasi are. They travel back and back again without least worries! Hossein and Bahman are paid by the regime of Iran.
Afra -
4/21/2006
A lawyer should send a letter to Nazli Kamvari for her Anti-Semitic remarks.
behrouz -
4/21/2006
Farangis:
Just like your friends Nazli Kamvari and Sima Shakhsari, you are antisemitic and anti Iranian.
Jafar -
4/21/2006
Ww are at war against an unhuman system that has been systematically working its way to destroy us physically, culturally and intellectually. No normal Iranian can be a Mullah sympatizer. There has to be other reasons for an Iranian to support so actively the regime in tehran and distribute their propaganda as personal opinion.
Mullah sympatizers are the enemy and they will; be dealt with as such.
Simple as that.
Farangis -
4/21/2006
how unprofessional!... stop writing, will ya?
Farah -
4/21/2006
Hossein Derakhshan is not a student. He never even finished his undergraduate degree. Hasn't been registered at the University of Toronto since 2004.
Mitra -
4/21/2006
The sheer imbecility of this ruling bloggers that think they can continue to pretend they are in any position to control everyone's opinion and blog!
Try to undrestand that you are not in control of every blog.
Khodadad, contrary to your report, three of these weblogs have constantly written anti Semitic remarks and accused human rights defenders for taking money from the U.S. government. Skewing of facts is not a good idea.
These are your friends?
Maryam -
4/21/2006
Katayoon:
Grow up,
mature up.
narges -
4/21/2006
I hate of this type of announcment. Do you sure your source wasnt from embassay of Iran. The type of statement is the same as Ahmadinejad
speaks without any tough reason!!
Vida -
4/21/2006
As Mina says, Anti-war is a different matter than Anti-West. This is simply manipulation of people, disgrace for human race!
Helia -
4/21/2006
I wish we had Freud here to explain the psychology of people who make such accusations.Why do you have to make statements to ruin reputation of those few people who DID something, who SAID something, and who WROTE something, when other have remained silent. It is so evenly divided between the regime to luck up students and HR activists (Saman Rasoulpour, Peyman Piran, Ahmad Batebi) and the rest of them such as those you named to be prosecuted by you and other factions (Royalists, Mujahids...) Is it jealousy that made you make such a statement? Are you envious that they have been able to make a minute difference, and you haven't? Why do you have to ruin their names, and the last remaining hope? My dear saying something that people identify with does not make them “spy” or “agents of propaganda”, rather shows their fine level of understanding of the sociopolitical situation of Iran, and their love for the country that they share with others in Iran. I sometimes wonder, do you have to see them in jail for you to approve of their character?!!!
Shira -
4/21/2006
I do agree with the commenters who pointed out that it's irresponsible to make accusations of spying without providing any named sources or supporting evidence.
I read Nazeli's blog and it looks pretty vulgar and worthless. I also don't think that an out-of-the-closet lesbian would be too anxious to live in a country where women cannot leave their home without covering their hair.
But I have a couple of questions about Hossein Derakhshan:
If he really was detained and interrogated by Iranian security during his visit to Tehran in June, as he has claimed so publicly and so often, then why was he invited to the gala dinner for Ahmadinejad in New York in September?
and
If he is such a supporter of human rights, then why did he give a privately recorded interview he made with Omid Memarian, the dissident journalist, to the Voice of America's Persian language service? Memarian had just been released from jail at the time and he did not give Hossein permission to make that recording public. I heard that Memarian received death threats after that tape was broadcast.
and
Why did Hossein support Ali Larijani, who is a spokesman for Iran's nuclear program, in the June elections? Could it be because Larijani's brother is the cultural attache to Ottawa, and Hossein has Canadian citizenship in addition to Iranian citizenship?
and
Why did he not even mention the release of Ganji from jail, after six years and a 40-day hunger strike? Ganji was jailed for writing a book that exposed the regime for murdering around 80 dissidents. Surely his release merits at least a mention on Hoder's blog.
These are the tough questions that Hossein needs to address publicly, I think, if he wants to have any real credibility with serious people.
And when I say serious people, I am not talking about uninformed, ratings -hungry reporters and TV journalists who just use Hossein because he is an excellent self promoter and they are too lazy to go out and find someone who may not know how to get attention, but does have more intelligent and informed opinions to offer.
Khodadad -
4/21/2006
You reliable Iranian source seems to suffer from jealousy, more than anything else. Other than the fact that two of your alleged spies are very good friends of mine and I know that they are hardworking individuals and both very active in their local communities on the issues of human rights, women's rights, and support of prisoners in Iran (at least three of them were initiators of campaigns to free arrested journalists in Iran, contrary to your claim), I am amazed at your extreme naivete.
They do not work for their living? Does working only consist of putting bricks on top of another or spending days in an office or flipping burgers? In that case, I don't work either, and I write a weblog as well, so arrest me?
They, and I, are GRADUATE STUDENTS! We live on grants and fellowships and scholarships and Teaching-Assistantships. That is our work. I am sure you are familiar with this concept, so it is amazing that you call people spies based on the fact that their job is in Academia.
Please at least do some research of your own before trusting other.
Something else, contrary to your report, three of these weblogs have English weblogs of at least two years each. It is not that they "recently" started writing in English, and they certainly did not start together. Skewing of facts is not a good idea.
Khashayar -
4/21/2006
These idiots you named ALL work for the Iranian Mullahs!
Shira -
4/21/2006
I heard Hoder make a presentation at Tel Aviv University, and I was not impressed at all. He struck me as a man whose main goal in life is to get publicity and to have a good time. He could not answer any of the students' deeper questions, and quite a few remarked on that after his presentation was over.
His visit was covered quite extensively by the Israeli media and I read the articles, but they were incredibly stupid and shallow. All he did was repeat his personal story. The article that was written about him in Ha'Ir, a Hebrew weekly published in Tel Aviv, was unbelievably stupid. He talked about sex parties in Tehran and said that he was probably half gay but didn't dare say that in Persian or English (who cares? Israel has one of the most active gay populations in the world. No one here thinks it's interesting or shocking that he likes men).
I have read his blog, and it seems to me that he is a self-promoting, publicity seeking peacock who has nothing of value to say. I did notice that he never blogs about important human rights issues in Iran, like the bus drivers' strike and the recent release of Ganji. Actually, I did not find one interesting or informative post on his blog. It was all about "me me me" - his travels, his interviews, his face in the newspapers.
I do think it's shocking that the western media has adopted this vacuous, self-serving guy who seems to have no real education as their "spokesman" on Iran. I'm sure there are better candidates for that role.
Is he a regime agent? Hard to say. I don't know enough about Iran to comment on that. But if he is an agent, then he is certainly not a very good one. Quite a lot of people in Israel - including one of the journalists who interviewed him - told me that they thought he was an idiot.
katayoon Moghaddam -
4/21/2006
Maryam;
Think more,
Read more.
Bye.
Maryam -
4/20/2006
Too often taking your medication makes it work longer than you might suspect, Katayoon! You write and deny it? All the shattered bones, dismembered bodies, incinerated flesh, tortured souls and ruined Iranian lives and you support Hashemi? Grow up or come to appreciate the need to make choices-sometimes very unpalatable ones. You need to learn that all personal choices come with a price; a cliché for sure, but no escaping the consequences. You need to learn about human frailties as well, and the need for being there for your people.
katayoon Moghaddam -
4/20/2006
Maryam;
Are you crazy or something?
What do you mean by revealing Sanam's name?
I just made fun of a stupid irrelevant comment!!!
Sayeh -
4/20/2006
Dr. Klinghoffer!
Please expose Nazli Kamvari for the antisemitic remarks she writes on her public weblog. I'll be emailing some people in her university soon.
Kia -
4/20/2006
Indeed! we don't need to go far to remember Mullahs in Iran doing the exact same thing bahman kalbasi, nazli kamvari, katayoon moghadam, sima shakhsari write on their blogs and e-mails. Sanam Dolatshahi maynot be as bad as these people but she is a charismatic blogger and has too many readers. She uses them to pass her ideas on. Sanam, go back to your native Iran and work for your friend, mullah Rafsanjani.
frieda -
4/20/2006
What Mr. Qasemian has laid out is not a good picture of Nazeli Kamvari, Can anyone object to what he has said.
assar -
4/20/2006
I see indications of an organized effort in these supporters of Mullahs. The vulgar language they use to push their point. I read their blogs in Farsi and don’t get a sense that there is half decency among them.
exerpts: Ahmadinejad continually talks fo the good old glory days of the Iran-Iraq war and of a "new islamic revolution", at a time when even most of his contemporaries appear to have moved on.
Altough many ordinary iranians may logically believe that acuiring nuclear energy is in their national economic interet in the long term, the resumption of its nuclear programme has thrown Iran into an open clash withthe international community, igniting fears that the issue could spiral into armed conflict....
READ HER COMMENTS ON BLOGGEs
Joseph Salomonsen -
4/20/2006
The real issue is this: these people are Iranian nationals and as such they should concentrate mainly on their own people and not on Palestinians, Arabs, Iraqis, and others. In these troubled times they are wasting time on prisons of GITMO and forgetting our very own Evin. I don’t care if they are spies or not; their minds are fermented and one fine day we will press charges on all these Arabs in Persians clothing in our 2morrows free Iran.
you should read the last comment by AmiAli Qasemian , I think he has a strong case against them
ali -
4/20/2006
I think AmiAli Qasemian has posted enough information to show the opposite...read the next post
Amir Ali Qasemian -
4/20/2006
To verify, please compare the image in the Memri file , clip # 905 from the time 00:01:2o to 00:01:25 with the picture of Nazli Kamvari here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41368237@N00/21830326/in/photostream/
Sam -
4/20/2006
Vida, It seems that you're expert in the field of finding true colors. Nice job! I don't know about you but I as a proud citizen of United States, believe in freedom of speech in the great nations of ours. I have this right to express my objection to inaccurate entry. What's wrong with expressing objection? It seems for me that you are keep trying to spread fear and inaccurate stories like Mr President. I am sorry for you, this way is not working anymore.
Omid -
4/20/2006
Indeed. I totally support what she says here. It si very important to rise the satkes for the islamix regime supporters in the West.
AmiAli Qasemian -
4/20/2006
Comment removed by HNN editor.
Dara -
4/20/2006
I think you're out of your mind by calling those bloggers anti-west. Not a single one of them is anti-west. Anti-Bush doesn't mean anti-west by the way!
Payman -
4/20/2006
Your post is breathtakingly irresponsible. Have you not an ounce of
integrity? Leveling such serious accusations at people whom you don't know anything about, based on a vague
inaccurate "source". It's certainly deja vu. I think we remember Mullahs in Iran doing the exact same thing!
It's a shame for a respectable university Rutgers to have Professors like this.
Ali -
4/20/2006
3 out of 4 is not bad!! so lets give that Dr. the credit
ali -
4/20/2006
dear Sara,
well, how do YOU know them? why are you guys so defensive about? it's one person opinion. People who hate Bush and Iranians who make fun of them, have not met Bush either but people speculate....nothing wrong with that!
Omid -
4/20/2006
Accusing Sanam Dolatshahi is ridiculous.
The other names however are very suspicious and a Iranian regime connection is very possible. Especially the firs link (Bahman Kalbasi) and Nazli Kamvari have family ties to Rafsanjani clan.
Hossein Derakhshan is also linked via his family to the Hojatiye (mahdavist) clan and quite obvious links to Khamenei and Larijani.
Sara -
4/20/2006
Where do you get these wrong information from?
have you ever met any of these bloggers?
Is your source MEK?
Why do you bring something that you are not sure is true.
Why don't you go meet some of these bloggers to see what they are about before your blind accusations.
You and sources are doing worse than what Mollahs are doing to Iranians.
sigh
Arash -
4/20/2006
I'm sorry Sean, but I don't feel like we need to redeem ourselves before qualifying to comment on a second rate weblog. Ad hominem attacks have no place in this serious matter.
Vahid -
4/20/2006
You can't acuuse people without any evidence. Whay don't you introduce your RELIABLE FRIEND?
Arash -
4/20/2006
And you have no clue what constitutes the "West".
I'd be emailing some people in your university Ms. Klinghoffer. I can't see for the life of me, how you can be a research assistant and at the same time spread misinformation so liberally with little regard for others' reputations.
-
4/20/2006
You could not boycott the elections,
so what? Get a life, bitch! Is it the
fault of some bloggers that the
boycott supporters were not effective
in their mission? With this kind of
attitude and putting the blame on
someone else you never win anything
and be nothing but a nagging loser.
Amir -
4/20/2006
You're using the word "Iranians" as if you're talking about a single person. Do you realize that?
Maryam -
4/20/2006
Neda,
Sanam was one of the most read Iranian bloggers who asked her readers to vote for Presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Bahramani. Her ability to arouse in her supporters emotions of anger and hate against those who did not vote for Hashemi encouraged web violence. Based on her blogs, Sanam and her friends picketed to ensure the boycott wasn’t successful. Katayoon Moghadam, blogger of Sayeh, implies this maybe a reason for Sanam’s name to be revealed. Sanam played more of a prominent role in managing the civil servants to the Mullahs.
Ali -
4/20/2006
YOU ARE DEAD RIGHT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST
Mahmood -
4/20/2006
I am really glad to see finally somebody in the west took an action against I.R.I blogger spies. I do not like to mention any specific name but there are many evidences showing that Iran agents are occuping all of the important posisions in blogging and internet and most of them are living in US and Canada. Just for example, for all of Iranian intelectuals it is really strange that Hoder is so respected in the west. Because for them Hoder is just an I.R.I spy who is here to disvalue what opositions are doing. Your friend is right, these people are always against any reaction to what Iran goverment does. They even refuse signing a petition. In the time of election, they were working hard to encourage people to vote to govenment, much more enthausistically than official government agents. Even Hossein Derakhshan went to Iran (without any problem) to ask people to vote. Knowing all of these, western people does not want to think more about why they are supporting these people?
Shahin -
4/20/2006
Thanks for your post. Among Iranian internet surfer, the names that you listed in your post as “blogger cells” are very well-known bodies of being Islamic republic agents trying to lobby and spread propaganda and hatred against West in general and United State in particular. Probably the most aggressive and visible of them is Sima Shakhsar running “farangeopolis” blog.
Note that they usually take cover under misleading titles such as women activist or journalists.
Actually, normal Iranian bloggers always have been wondering how this kind of obvious hostile and biased activities, which all the evidences show a direct link to the Islamic republic government, have never been dealt with by the security agents in North America and, as you mentioned correctly, they even got publicity by some media. There is obviously something wrong here. Anyway, Iranian bloggers are trying hard to expose them and challenge them online (see readers comments on their posts), however that won’t be enough and a serious action by the state is certainly needed before they spread their cells even more.
Nightly -
4/20/2006
Calling the most progressive Iranian women rights activists/reserachers as "anti west" is quite "anti west"!
Nightly -
4/20/2006
Calling the most progressive Iranian women rights activists/researchers as "anti west" is quite "anti west"!
mina -
4/20/2006
let's think that Mullas are paying for my internet connection!but how can you prove that Sanam,Sima,Nazli and Bahman(I don't take care of Hossein Derakhshan)are iranian spies by that?!!!and the last thing is I don't like to ask about your internet connection (!)please don't explain!
Sean -
4/20/2006
Who knew Iranians are so sensitive? What are you guys so worked up about this...It's ok for Iranians to shout their anti American slogans all they long, but when ONE blogger accused them of being a spy, they get offended.
Ali -
4/20/2006
Good point Babak!!
Ali -
4/20/2006
"American conservatives were pretty much a minority in the West"...
Well, apparently you have not seen the blue/red map of the Unites States during last election...
vida -
4/20/2006
Sam, this is American and you can not force people into doing things. Poeple are free to say whatever they want, if they are not anti-west they should not worry what one blogger has said about them, unless they are affraid their true color has shown.
Vida -
4/20/2006
I agree with Dr. Klinghoffer, there are many pro-Mullah regime student and bloggers living among us. I know a few of them myself and I am surprised as to who supports them financially???...Mullahs' regime always brags about their hidden influence they have on other countries. Look at the Hoder, he easily went to Iran during the election without being questioned once.! How can he travel around the globe without a real job? Come on, my Iranian comrades; let’s think about these things. I don't know about Lady Sun, and it's not just being anti-war..It bugs me to see Iranians enjoy the freedom this country offers and the opportunities it provides and they use all the blessings and they turn around and trash this country more than they trash Mullahs’ regime. Thank you Dr. Klinghoffer, for raising this sensitive issue....
Amir -
4/20/2006
Dear assar,
I am sorry if I used a vulgar language. Next time I will try to convey the same point without it. But do you see any decency in Judith's post? Calling people spies based on an email that she got? Did she even take the time to read a couple of posts from those people's blogs?
Shahram -
4/20/2006
Strictly speaking, these bloggers are nothing to be proud of. Regrettably, here is another thing you hardly ever read on their blogs: When will they stop mourning long suffering Iraqis and write about long suffering Iranies.
Javad Ghorbati -
4/20/2006
To add to my last comment, I am a dazed and bruised victim of my stupidity.
babak -
4/20/2006
And who will reveal Sima Shakhsari's moneyman? Hossein Derakhshan's savior? Why Ahmad Batebi doesn't get a visa and heads to prison but Bahman Kalbasi leaves Iran with a passport to study in Canada?
Who is paying for your Internet connection, Mullahs?
Javad Ghorbati -
4/20/2006
First thing first, your source seems to have personal interests inaccusing others, come on girl, some hearsay has no value in any court even now adays an audio cassette can not be seen as a solid source.
Second, if I was a spy I would act like a normal citizen and sign of all of those “cyber” petitions, no harm in them… I would make some myself and sell it for idiots to sign them… sounds a bit childish to me to say since they don’t sign any petitions, they must be spies.
Third, I might agree with you on the employment issue, bunch of useless waste of flesh and no work, but is nt it true for all of you guys in human “science” field of study? A diploma in history or communication, political “science” or whatever, they are normally for a dropout from school can’t do any better in anything, My point is the world would be a better place if you guys keep your mouth closed, look how many soul would saved if Karl Maxx would be a DJ (DJ MAXX) rather than a political “Scientists”… So zip it up and get a job in one of your local franchise (well, 9 out of 10 of you guys finally will do that or they go to Korea to teach English)… so the government wont need to import “illegal aliens” to do the job
babak -
4/20/2006
And who will reveal Sima Shakhsari's moneyman? Hossein Derakhshan's savior? Why Ahmad Batebi doesn't get a visa and heads to prison & Bahman Kalbasi leaves Iran with a passport to study in Canada?
Who is paying for your Internet connection, Mullahs?
assar -
4/20/2006
I see indications of an organized effort in these supporters of Mullahs. The vulgar language they use to push their point. I read their blogs in Farsi and don’t get a sense that there is half decency among them.
David -
4/20/2006
How dare you make these dangerous accusations with no evidence to support it? Please reveal your sources so we can see how reliable they are. What kind of public service is this Doctor?
Amir -
4/20/2006
Yea. Exactly. You're right on the spot. I also received an email that said Judith Apter Klinghoffer is a part-time whore. If she wasn't, then why would someone email me saying that she is? Hence, she IS a part-time whore. I learned this sort of deduction in middle school.
IDIOT.
Pari -
4/20/2006
You should claim much credit with seeding the idea of cell bloggers. Are we really the fools these bloggers and their friends take us for? Of the agony of Iranians, I can only say to these bloggers: Stop releasing your series of lies! The numbing grief one feels from reading their posts can only engender sorrow. The only other viable reaction is fury.
Shahin -
4/20/2006
They are pissing themselves in their Persian weblogs after this post! I think Sima should be interviewed by FBI or a top psychologist regarding her strong anti-american ideas.
Mansour -
4/20/2006
Remember that practically everything we come to rely on to shape our opinions has certain sources. The bloggers you mention are Islamic Republic's propaganda machines. These human bodies effortlessly ask their friends to validate them. All that they require is the affirmation notes by their "friends". Look at these friends' comments. These bloggers of note create nothing; stop at nothing. They simply want delay in a regime change. These groups of Iranian blogger bandits have not have their fill yet, and perhaps they'll continue to throw some bones at others. What about writing about freedom? Dignity? Human Rights? Equal opportunity? You may wonder. Of those who choose to hide behind the babble of their blogs, the persons I am all unsettled—curious and been dying to figure out for some times now are Bahman Kalbasi and Hossein Derkhashan. They travel back to Iran and are not arrested after everything they have written?
farzane -
4/20/2006
i had had a different understating of the right of people and the document you needed to accuse people before reading your ...(i won't call it article. it so far from it. the only thing that i can call it is bullshit)
now i see how easily you can use a media to release a series of lies even without reading any of their blogs . i am sorry .
i believe you need to clarify your resource of claims
Masoud -
4/20/2006
I have been reading Sanam's weblog from the day one since she was in Iran and have been following Iranian media continuously. Had you done a quick research beforehand you would have figured out what nonsense allegations you were about to throw against her. You are not any different from Kayhan's Shariatmadari. Anti-war activists are not Anti-West and this should not be that difficult to understand.
neda -
4/20/2006
sanam is a feminist and has been arrested in iran just because of joining women in a march, please do not make such comments about people you don't know. she was one the first women bloggers who was thretened so many times just because of talking about "being a woman" in iran.
Kaveh -
4/20/2006
Who is your reliable Iranian friend? How does she/he know about this? I personally don't like the ideas of some of the bloggers you mentioned. To be honest I hate at least two of them. But what you wrote about them is outrageous. Ask some other RELIABLE Iranians. I am sure there is more than one. And appologize if you figure out you were wrong.
An Iranian Girl -
4/20/2006
How dare you are to accuse someone without having reliable information. Be more responsible for what you put on the Internet who is available to the whole world
mina -
4/20/2006
at first you should clearly introduce your sources,and the second point is the people who talk against bombing Iran are not anti-west,spies or things like that...
-
4/20/2006
So you are saying that just because someone is living and enjoying life in the west he should shut up and brag about how great the US is all day and clap and cheer for your troops to go and bomb his country and kill his people?
By the way those people you mentioned are not anti-west.
Vida -
4/20/2006
This article is based on some insinuations from 2 vague anonymous sources, do you really call this journalism????
Arash -
4/20/2006
Your "source" is way off. I wouldn't trust someone with that grammar and punctuation skills anyways. Those bloggers are as Western as they come, and they are very liberal. Last time I checked American conservatives were pretty much a minority in the West. Don't you all constantly moan about European "permissiveness"? You should avoid labeling people whose language you do not speak and based on the writings you cannot read.
Sam -
4/20/2006
Your information source is absolutely unreliable, I personally know Sanam Dolatshahi and Hossein Derakhshan, and putting "Anti-West" tag on them is ridiculous. You should reconsider your entry. The whole entry seems irrelevant.
I look forward to see this entry corrected.
Lady Sun -
4/20/2006
Sorry to disappoint you, but most of the information this "reliable" friends of yours have provided you with and you have posted in your blog unquestionably is simply inaccurate. A little fact finding or communication would have brought you down from your "mission: impossible" theory and might have made you a better writer. I wish you would follow the same rules of your discussion board in your own writings.
An informed source -
4/20/2006
Hi there!
I enjoy reading your posts and really appreictae the due attention you pay to the like of Akbar Ganji and the Iranian freedom-loving democrat/republicans freedom fighters.
On the issue of Iranian bloggers I have a word of caution against jumping to far-fetched cinclusions. true, some of the people named in the quote (Kamvari etc.) are really out of their way in opposing the US policies while they can never actually go back and live in Iran exactly because their life style is banned in Iran. But this is far from them being spies. I am not saying a spy cannot use this opportunity and use these people. But I am sure a spy would not do anything like what these people do. They are simply misguided and illogical. Hossein Derakhshan is the driving force and the popularizer of Iranian blogs in Farsi and also much in English. Of course he has his own views about things and some of them are really stupid. But overall he has a positive effect. The rest of these people do what everybody else does: speak their mind and propagate their ideas, many of which are flawed and worthless.
Anyway, I don't want you to fall into an unfounded judgment on the role of these people. Thank you again for your wonderful web site and your Iran focus.
