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WikiSecrets

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Martin Smith - May. 24 (Special Report) - It's the biggest intelligence breach in U.S. history -- the leaking of more than a half million classified documents on the WikiLeaks website throughout 2010. At the center of the controversy stands Bradley E. Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who's charged with handing them over. Who is Bradley Manning, and what does his story tell us about how and why the secret cache of documents may have been leaked? In WikiSecrets, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith gains exclusive access to those closest to Manning -- including his father, close friends and his Army bunkmate -- and uncovers video of Manning taken around the time of the alleged handover of classified information.

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The Arab Spring's Impact on U.S.-Iran Rivalry

Thu, 19 May 2011 09:08:27 -0700

Frontline - May. 19 - [ Q&A ] w/ Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Stimson Center. How has the Arab spring changed the strategic environment for U.S.-Iran relations? Turbulence in Arab politics will have both direct and indirect effects on U.S.-Iran relations. The uncertain outcomes -- specifically which countries other than Tunisia, Egypt and possibly Yemen undergo leadership or systemic changes -- will mean that neither Tehran nor Washington can be sure who their friends and partners will be. Several Arab states may redefine their foreign policies. In Egypt, policies may be less closely coordinated with Washington, less premised on the 1979 peace treaty with Israel as an anchor of its regional relationships, and more focused on reasserting Egypt's historic role as a leader and driver of Arab politics. [Persian] Gulf countries, while still willing to partner with the United States on the threat from Iran and radical extremism, are moving to a more assertive posture. Their strong defense of Bahrain's monarchy suggests that the Sunni-Shiite tensions aroused over the past decade or more in Lebanon and then Iraq could well reemerge as a defining issue for the [Persian] Gulf states. All this suggests that the regional relations among Arab states, between the Arabs and Iran, and between the region and the United States, are in flux. In the best case, a more confident and at least partly democratic Arab world would find its own ways of managing the challenge of Iran's role in the region. A region with several power centers -- including Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia -- would be better able to coordinate on regional security, and to provide a counter-balance to Iran's ambitions and influence in the region. Such a development would indirectly converge with U.S. interests and strategies. But tensions are emerging between Arab republics, which are mired in messy transitions, and the monarchies of the [Persian] Gulf, Morocco and Jordan, which are defending the status quo or incremental reform. The shifting regional dynamics suggest that the United States and Iran will continue to compete over which country best embodies the values and aspirations of the peoples of the Middle East. This may not be central to the prospects for a positive change in U.S.-Iran relations, but it will be part of the strategic context in which the long saga of U.S.-Iran relations takes place. So far, how has the Arab spring altered U.S. or Iranian influence in the region? In the short run, both Iran and the United States have diminished influence. Events since January have been largely domestic. Each society is focused on its own history, its capacity to change, and an effort to find a new political equilibrium that better reflects the people's will. The activists who made the Arab spring are proud of the fact that they worked without outside help or interference. So all outside parties have been observers more than participants, and all are scrambling to learn more about the new and potential leaders of Arab societies and states. How significant is the resumption of Egypt-Iran relations? Will Iran be able to make new alliances with changes in Arab leadership? Egypt and Iran have been in a cold war since Egypt's commitment to peace with Israel three decades ago. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Araby, who was recently elected Arab League secretary-general, said that Egypt wanted good relations with all states, including Iran. But the requisite legal and diplomatic steps to resume relations have not yet been taken. Resuming ties between two pivotal states would obviously be seen as an achievement for Iran and a setback for the United States, which has urged all countries to isolate Iran through political and economic pressures until it changes policy on its controversial nuclear program. But even if diplomatic relations are restored, most Arab states are likely to remain concerned about Tehran's intentions and ability to destabilize individual countries or regional relations. Arab states may be less intensely focused on Iran's nuclear activities, and more on Iran's ability to foment sectarian tensions or to encourage Hezbollah and other allies to provoke conflict with Israel. So Iran may well make some advances in formal state-to-state relations, but true alliances with major Sunni Arab states are not likely. How will the Syrian uprising affect the rivalry between the United States and Iran for influence in the region? Syria's turmoil has posed a great challenge to Iran, as Syria is Iran's most important and close relationship in the Arab world. Reports suggest that Iran is providing direct assistance to the crackdown against protestors. Many observers see similarities between Iran's treatment of its opposition since the disputed 2009 presidential election and the Syrian government's crackdown. The U.S. position is slowly becoming more assertive against the regime of President Bashar Assad, as the brutality and the human cost of the crackdown increases. The fall of the Assad regime would be a grave setback for Iranian influence in the region. But external powers with deep interests in Syria as a regional actor, including the United States, France and other EU members, have not yet declared their support for systemic regime change, given the uncertainty about what would emerge after this long dictatorship. Change in Syria over time would be a gain for the West and a significant loss for Iran. Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Stimson Center, worked on Iran and other Middle East issues on the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Council and at the Congressional Research Service. This article is presented by Tehran Bureau, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as part of the Iran project at iranprimer.usip.org.

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Food, Politics, and the Iranian Way of Water

Tue, 10 May 2011 14:21:31 -0700

Frontline - May. 10 - The life and near death of the qanat system. [ personal history ] It is hard to imagine that many are aware of such a threshold. Certainly, birth and death and certain events sprinkled in between are well recognized. In Persian, the final event is "giving age" -- age being an ordinal, singular entity, at the end of which you give it back and are thus relieved of your obligations. The equivalent of to age is "doing age," and to have done your age means you are done with your life. A 20-billion-year-old mountain "has been there for a lifetime," and so has a cucumber patch. We understand life and lifetime by their context. A handful of decades for the patch; two pairs of handfuls of epochs for the other. Thus, my coming of age occurred with no awareness that such a "thing" actually existed. Like the generation gap, teenage angst, middle age, and many other facile concepts, the process of "coming of age" has little to do with its conventional representation. There seem to be no ill symptoms from the lack of awareness of such things. Anyhow, this essay is about a political coming of age, which unlike in movies and novels is not about personal, but social development. In fact, it is about "giving age," or actually, "taking age" -- that is, taking life and giving it up, both political acts. Date certain, my first memorable sense of life was at the sight of hitherto obvious forms, infants to grandmothers and then the more interesting types in between, which unlike on past occasions suddenly turned not so obvious one day in a bathhouse in the windy city of Damghan. A life jolt that started "age" ticking, soon after which I was weaned from female baths. Similarly, a few years later, another moment of recognition, when after a restful night's sleep after having destroyed a bird picking at figs on my favorite tree with a single shot, I suddenly concluded that I didn't like to kill any more and immediately let my gun fly out the window. The window was open because it was hot. It was in a compartment in a train speeding through the desert. Later, a parallel feeling bloomed when I realized that that which had allowed the fig tree, the bird, the bathhouse, those in it, and me to exist was being destroyed and dying. The bathhouse, its occupants, and all other types of life were supported by it, as were their ancestors. They existed in a place, arid and hot, not conducive to higher forms of life. In this case, there was no window through which I could jettison the cause of death. What allowed all this was the qanat system -- long subterranean tubes with holes drilled on one side at regular intervals, like buried flutes magically delivering sweet water to otherwise desolate places hostile to life. This essay is about politics, or life, food, sex, babies, smiles, laughter, music, and joy. It looks at these subjects from the perspective of the qanat, which allowed such things to flourish on the Iranian plateau, oh, from about four millennia ago. It is about abundant water and its sudden disappearance. My knowledge of this ancient system comes from my involvement in my father's agriculture business, and then his work as general director of the Ministry of Agriculture, which turned into the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform, and soon after, the Ministry of Agricultural Corporations. My family's agricultural business started early last century, and per the ministry's 1989 classifications, the holdings had been medium-sized for much of the 1950s and '60s. They shrank to mere patches by the late '60s due to an imposed imperial "revolution." During this critical decade, I witnessed the death of two intertwined systems, agriculture and qanats. In just over a decade, Iran's agriculture petrified from an environmentally harmonious organism into a brutally mechanized "man knows better" system, dependent on technological and chemical life support. If something analogous is done to a person, the perpetrator is jailed. Done to a nation, the culprit is good business. Tragedy in the former case, statistics in the latter. Even if we adjust for population growth, Iran turned from a self-sufficient and net agricultural exporter to a net importer. Meanwhile, disenchanted young farmers left their land for shanties around Tehran in hope of industrial employment. Modernity had succeeded, nature was beaten, and for the unwitting victims the only savior seemed to be religion. Water and politics have been inseparable in Iran's history. It was not surprising that the death of qanats lead to the destabilization of Iran's society and politics, and finally derailed its economic independence and any hope for autonomy and freedom. This land, mother of civilizations, was not prepared for the iron-fisted assault from the West -- a neo-Alexandrian cultural attack. Iran succumbed to the allure of steel-cast promises that then proceeded to bleed its veins dry. When the qanats that had kept Iran alive for millennia were stopped, it was the end of a culture. Iran's ravaged body writhes, but it will die. The basis of its culture is nearly dead, its way of life nearly gone. An inevitable march of history? A sinister plot? Or mismanagement by imperial marionettes? I will not hold my breath awaiting historians' verdicts. I believe what transpired was premeditated and orchestrated. Although a dust cloud still shrouds this recent period, I will try to guide you through it and point out circumstantial evidence to support my claim. There is nothing sentimental about this presentation -- passages that ring so are provided to emphasize the effect of immersion in the ecosystem at a very young age. It is only later on that one realizes its value and uniqueness, which no formal education can afford. Descriptions from my youth are grounded in first-hand experiences and I have tried to stay as true to them as memory allows. Bread and tea -- vanishing icons Before coming to the United States to study, I traveled regularly from Tehran to Varamin, Semnan, Damghan, and Shahrood. We had family and farmland in these cities, spread between Tehran and Mashhad. Millennia before us, trade routes skirting the central desert had given birth to these cities. I also visited dozens of other cities, where family, friends, and colleagues lived. I thus experienced all manner of farming around Iran -- in plains and mountains, frigid, tropical, and sere. Mostly arid plains, mostly on the periphery of the central desert. A desert's memory is indelible. A vastness that once experienced, forever absorbs everything. Words, music, images, and other art are not immune to this draw. If they rate, they will enter the imagination and find a place within the infinite memory of the desert. The memory is boundless -- a dome where the universe, represented by its stars, extends from horizon to horizon and all around. Infinity gets etched in the mind. Thereafter, all things get evaluated against that scale, subconsciously. The two-lane semipaved road, flanked on the north by stoic mountains and by the vast, restless desert to the south, appears in that memory as a wavy gray ribbon. Under the mercurial force of winds of distant origin, the desert recasts itself. The mountains watch gracefully and tirelessly, even after the billionth variation. We can behold no more than a short episode of this ancient dance from that gray ribbon. Whenever we stopped, to stretch our legs or allow rest for whoever was negotiating the road, I would bound from our metal-and-canvas desert dinghy of a World War II Jeep to enjoy the two-palette stage that life has developed in that narrow stage between the nurturing mountains and the temperamental desert, the selfless, noble mother and its playful, thirsty child. Beautiful animals, insects and reptiles, fly, bound, and crawl, filling a beige-to-gray palette festooned with dashes of brilliant color on wing and limb and body, to be flashed at the sight of an appealing mate. The other palette, assembled by native plants, flows from gray to green, also with dabs of brilliant hue in floral cups and chalices that invite insects to nourishing nectars. The insects in turn help to expand the gracious plants' gene pool. My father, a highly experienced agronomist, was addicted to the "plains," as he called that region. He showed me that just feet below the desert's crisp surface is sufficient moisture for all this life. The plants suck it up and pass it to insects as nectar. The reptiles dig into the damp soil, which loosens it and allows plants to reach deep for moisture. The reptiles are rewarded by the succulent insects the plants then fatten for them. When noon strikes on a summer day, mirages shimmer over dry riverbeds. The undulating layer of heat above the searing stones is reminiscent of the hot air that hypnotizes the gaze into the oven of a baker of sangak -- that delicate, almost ephemeral flatbread baked in deep, gently sloping ovens lined with loose pebbles, heated as if to challenge the surface of the sun. The baker pulls off and puts down a fistful of whole wheat dough that has risen overnight onto a long-handled wooden paddle, spreads it with his palms and fingers, then glides the paddle, hovering just above the scalding pebbles, deep into the oven, flips it over, catches the far tip of the dough on the pebbles, and then with a steady motion pulls the paddle back, stretching the dough out like a thin, yard-long robe onto the hot pebbled bed. The dough transforms into bread in minutes. His apprentice at the ready stabs the now tanned robe with a long metal hook and pulls it out, in a rush of synchrony with the baker who is ready in turn to repeat the procedure for the next fistful of dough spread on his paddle. People seldom argued that Tehran's sangak was the best. I understood that it was due to the combination of the city's wonderful water and the special wheat used for the dough. This was in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. During each subsequent visit home, it seemed there was an accelerating qualitative and quantitative deterioration of sangak. The delicacy was diminishing as the bakeries vanished. Essays and entire books have been written about this bread. It has inspired works of art both classical and modern. It is a symbol of a culture that threads through layers of society. It is more ubiquitous in Iranian cinema than the baguette is in the French counterpart. Except that you can keep a baguette for a few hours. Sangak is like a kiss. It has to be tasted with its inherent warmth. You can't revive it by toasting it, like you can with a baguette. Sangak is ephemeral. A short delay and a kiss turns premeditated, without spontaneity. The sight of a child running in an alley to deliver a hot sangak to his family's table is a primordial expression of small fundamental pleasures. The shimmers above hot riverbeds connect with the nation's favorite bread beyond imagery. They raise the inevitable questions: How have people survived in this ovenlike climate? And how did they manage to plant wheat in this parched land to make such amazing bread? Agriculture in climates typical of most of Iran is not short of miracles. The prerequisite is a vast supply of water, equal to several times that of the Colorado River. Yes, the one that is diverted through hundreds of miles of manmade canals and pump stations into southern California to help feed millions. Yet the 300-mile-long route we traversed each way, on the edge of the desert, was spotted with vibrant towns about 30 miles apart, with their attendant villages, cradled by substantial farmland. By late spring, rivers resembling sangak ovens suggest: pray for an early fall. Thick dust on dark tree leaves suggest no heavenly gifts either. Yet a bite into a peach there suggests an invisible abundance. These oases are lush. One couldn't squeeze as much water from a yard of local soil as there is in a single peach. Miracle indeed. On these frequent journeys, we would stop at certain roadside venues. Teahouses mostly. The most popular one, about an hour east of Tehran, was at Sharifabad. It seemed that anything on that shimmering ribbon stopped at Sharifabad -- to fill apparently unlimited jugs and pots and containers of every imaginable shape, and of course, to drink tea made from the water streaming through the pair of oval mouths that one could barely make out on the sides of the nearby hills. The teahouse was on a small island between two streams of crystalline water. Even sheep flocked to drink and wade in the streams. A few local kids constantly shooed the animals from the streams' upper banks to keep the water potable, or at least give that assurance to their clientele. They were tipped almost religiously, as if they were mortal offspring of Anahita, the god of water. Given that most become immunized by age two against whatever water natively bears, and which is in fact happy to coexist with us, the only reason to keep the sheep downstream is not to ruin the water's acidity and mineral content for good tea. Which is highly anti-bacterial and encourages the phobia instilled by modern medicine -- which by tackling harmless germs makes of them scourges -- to disappear. Equally good water streamed into Tehran through a stone-framed rectangular mouth, seven feet by four with a constant roar. That was Qanat-e Shah. In fact, to ascertain that a person of my vintage is from Tehran, either Sharifabad or Qanat-e Shah must be in their recollections about water, tea, and the long crisp melons known as kharbozeh. Otherwise, they could not have lived in Tehran "back then." Shared pleasures of a place and its moments build communal memories. If you don't know of Sharifabad kharbozeh, you are not from Tehran of the 1950s and '60s. I left for the United States in 1968. Afterward and until the change of regime in 1979, subsidized student flights allowed us to visit home each summer. On later trips, I would accompany my father not to the minuscule remnants of our "reformed" lands, but to agricultural corporations that he had help set up to heal the wounds of the reforms. He was in charge of them around Iran. Nature is amazing, industry merely amusing. These trips could have been to Iowa, South Dakota, or Kansas, not that there is anything wrong with these places, only that there is nothing stirring about them. They produce. Huge amounts. Although I do recall a couple of remarkable things. These fields in Iran had few insects, just like in Kansas. Monsanto had taught the farmers not to waste time on old-fashioned organic pest control, but to adopt a scorched-earth policy. So, the earth had developed a chemical dependency there too -- just as in the midwestern United States. They were also fed mechanically to cajole uniform products. In two decades, much of Iran had become Kansas. We didn't have Dorothy, but we did have Evin, our own Leavenworth. Presumably it entertained bodies whose souls didn't agree with the wholesale damage to agriculture and nature. The vast green fields belied accelerating problems: damaged irrigation systems and degradation of land quality. Clearly the rapid drop in the quality and quantity of sangak was connected. So how did we end up talking about Kansas in Iran? Why is it important if there is more yield? Let me step back and explain. End of Part 1 by the same author | The Perfect Water for Tea. Photos: Sirvan River, from War Tourism blog; Mahmoud Pakzad, Bakery, Sangak bread, Tehran, Iran, 1958 Copyright © 2011 Tehran Bureau

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Fighting for bin Laden

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Stephen Grey, Martin Smith - May. 03 (Special Report) - Two days after Osama bin Laden's death, Frontline presents this special report with inside access to the two biggest fronts in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. First, correspondents Stephen Grey and Martin Smith go inside The Secret War and uncover new details of CIA-funded Afghan militas tasked with guarding the border, gathering intelligence and launching kill raids against the insurgents and their Al Qaeda allies. Based in Afghanistan, their work is focused on Pakistan. A former commander of one of these teams, the Khost Protection Force (KPF), tells Frontline about how the team crosses the Afghan border into Pakistan's tribal areas. Under the protection of drone aircraft, they fire mortars against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan.

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Cairo: The Protest Diaries

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - Feb. 11 (Interview) - We first met Ahmed Youssry and Abdel Hameed Ezzat two years ago during the making of "Middle East, Inc." The story followed them across Cairo as they hustled their way through a nail-biting contest, one part of a regional effort to inspire a new generation of Arab entrepreneurs. Ahmed planned to start a green recycling business. Abdel Hameed had designed and produced a multipurpose laptop bag. One of their ideas would ultimately win the competition. You can watch the original story to find out who took home the prize.

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FRONTLINE: obama's deal: watch the full program | PBS

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - By Pbs - Nov. 18 (Investigative Report) -

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Iran Primer: The Obama Administration

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By John Limbert - Nov. 04 (Editorial) - President Obama inherited 30 years of hostility in U.S.-Iran relations. During the previous decade, the two longstanding rivals had engaged in unofficial outreach. Track II diplomacy had included exchanges of scholars, athletes, filmmakers, scientists, and artists. But the unofficial meetings could not diminish the underlying tensions, and, in some cases, even increased suspicion.

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Fashion, Iranian-Style

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Hooman Majd - Sep. 05 (Opinion) - On my most recent trip to Iran, to Tehran in April of 2010 to be precise, I saw a tall, thin man wearing Thom Browne on a not-so-chic downtown street. Or at least that's what it looked like from a distance -- jacket two or three sizes too small, sleeves resting a good three inches higher than his white shirt cuffs, hem barely covering his derriere, and trousers ending more than three inches above his ankles. He was wearing white socks and black shoes, his hair cut was not that different from Thom's himself, and I had to blink to remind myself that I was in Tehran, and not on Spring Street outside Balthazar, where the Thom Browne/Pee Wee Herman (and, to a degree, Mad Men) style for men is as common as, well, any other uber-fashionable look on any given day.

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Selected Headlines

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:05:08 -0700

Frontline - Apr. 23 - Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Iranian press, and excerpts where the source is in English. The link to the news organization or blog is provided at the top of each item. Tehran Bureau has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Please refer to the Media Guide to help put the story in perspective. You can follow our news feeds on Twitter. nuclear AFP | April 22, 2010 Iran suggests it could accept nuclear fuel swap abroad Iran is ready to consider an exchange of nuclear fuel on foreign soil as proposed by world powers if it gets "guarantees," the country's atomic chief said on Thursday. "Iran is always ready to exchange fuel -- the requirement is to have concrete guarantees," Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by the state television website as saying. "There are many ways to give Iran concrete guarantees. We can discuss these guarantees during negotiations," he said in response to a question on the possibility that an exchange takes place in a third country such as Turkey. "We are ready to begin negotiations without preconditions," he added, recalling that an "Iranian proposal is on the table." The US said Monday it was "still interested" in an offer to swap nuclear fuel with Iran, despite seeking a new set of sanctions against Tehran for its defiant nuclear enrichment program. national Azad University students make pornographic film Khabar Online | April 22, 2010 A group of students at Islamic Azad University have allegedly made a pornographic movie in Bushehr, a matter soon to be investigated by police and legal authorities. On Wednesday, Mawaj, a Bushehr-based website, described the pornography as a warning sign for the dean of Azad University, Abdollah Jasbi. The website asked Jasbi why he had not paid closer attention to the ethics of his students, and why Azad University did not have campus security to control students and prevent criminals from entering the compound. Mawaj said Jasbi should be held accountable for appointing incompetent people to take on important responsibilities, and also for the misdemeanors being committed at the educational facility under his care. Mawaj said a copy of the pornography film had been handed to authorities on Thursday so that the unnamed soldiers of the hidden Imam could look into the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice. Rasaei: Rafsanjani's fate not tied to his son Tabnak | April, 22, 2010 Lawmaker Hamid Rasaei said that even though Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani believes that the trial of his son Mehdi is in a way his own trial, the people do not see it that way. "Mr. Rafsanjani is tying himself to Mehdi Hashemi's fate and his confidants portray the situation in such a way that it appears that prosecuting Mehdi Hashemi is like going after Rafsanjani. However, this is not how the people see it," Fars News Agency quoted Rasaei as saying on Wednesday. "Mehdi Hashemi will neither return on his own accord nor if Mr. Rafsanjani asks him to return to Iran. We must return him to the country like Abdolmalek Rigi and Shahram Jazayeri." "If justice is administered, people will not see it that way as was the case of Ayatollah Mohammadi Gilani whose son was an MKO member. He personally tried his son, and after carrying out his death sentence, the people never accused Ayatollah Gilani of the crime committed by his son." "In 1980 when Seyyed Hossein Khomeini had talked in [Abolhassan] Banisadr's defense in Mashhad and enraged people attacked him, he tried to use his gun [to protect himself] but committee forces (a paramilitary force active after the revolution) managed to get him out unharmed. Afterwards, Imam Khomeini ordered that Seyyed Hassan Khomeini be returned to Tehran under guard and that he be shot if he ever attempts to use his gun again." Regarding former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's travel ban, Rasaei said, "Mr. Khatami was told not to leave the country or entertain plans to leave the country and he accepted because he was told if he decides to leave the country it will be officially announced [that he is banned from leaving] and the same goes for Mr. [Mir Hossein] Mousavi and [Mehdi] Karroubi." He then went on to claim that Karroubi's health was in critical condition. Rasaei said the purpose of Khatami's trip abroad was to attract global coverage. "Due to Mr. Khatami's political standing, international media outlets would be at his disposal to keep the sedition movement alive," he said. "This would be the main objective behind Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami leaving the country." In response to a question about first vice president Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Rasaei said, "We have not kept silent about Mr. Rahimi's misdemeanors, rather we are waiting for the judiciary to conclude its investigations into the matter. Our stance is that corruption must be dealt with in any rank and naturally if it is proven that Rahimi is guilty of corruption and there is resistance against the administration of justice we will protest it like any other matter." Mesbah says no hope for Obama's guidance Khabar Online Asr Iran | April, 22, 2010 Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi said there are people in society who knowingly lead others astray and they can never be guided to the right path. "One example of this is the US president [Barack Obama] who cannot be steered to the right path with admonition or by sending letters." "Those who out of ignorance and without ill intentions assist seditionists, can be steered to the right path." He added that if individuals physically or militarily oppose the establishment it is the duty of the government and Muslims to act in defense. Iran Guards test new speed boat in key oil supply route AFP | April 22, 2010 Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards launched a new "ultra-fast" boat capable of causing high destruction after testing it in a key oil supply route during a three-day military drill that began on Thursday. The boat, named Ya Mahdi, is "ultra-fast and has high destruction capability," said Ali Reza Tangsiri, spokesman for the exercise. "Since the boat has high speed, it is less detectable by radar." The naval exercises were described by a senior aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a specific response to Washington's "nuclear threats." "The most important message from the exercises in the face of American nuclear threats is that we will strongly resist them," the IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shirazi as saying. The new vessel was tested in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Nearly 40% of world's seaborne oil shipments pass through this waterway. Tangsiri said that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and guaranteeing its security was a priority for Iran. "The Strait of Hormuz belongs to the region and foreigners must not intervene in it. We want to keep it safe and secure," he was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. Iran security forces hand over 22 illegal Pakistani immigrants APP | April 23, 2010 Iranian border security forces handed over 22 illegal Pakistani immigrants to Taftan administration at Pak-Afghan border Thursday, FIA (Federal Investigating Agency) sources informed this news agency. According to reports, these Pakistani nationals had entered Iran without having legal documents and were trying to proceed to Europe. The immigrants were handed over to FIA for further interrogation. A case has been registered. economy Iran minister says gas exports possible with 'just prices' only IRNA | April 23, 2010 Minister of Oil Masoud Mir Kazemi said here on Friday [23 April] that expansion of gas exports will be possible in case logical oil prices [meaning just prices] are in effect. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 15th International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition (23-26 April), Mir Kazemi said, "We would focus on gas injection to oil fields instead if prices for exported gas are not logical." He said by 2010 or early 2011 Iran will assume OPEC presidency and "Our strategy for expansion of cooperation and promotion of country's oil industry will be developmental." To this end, he added, Iran will cooperate with the Persian Gulf neighbors to draw up regional energy strategy to adjust supply and demand mechanism and prices, while guaranteeing interests of the suppliers. He went on to say that today, the energy consumers' interests and the amount of taxes levied on them to be paid out of their energy revenues exceed the OPEC members' total income. The Minister said his ministry will give the priority to guaranteeing energy security to keep it for future generations and confronting limits and sanctions. Gasoline consumption to decrease to 65m liters/day this year IRNA | April 23, 2010 Deputy Oil Minister Nureddin Shahnazizadeh said here on Friday that domestic gasoline consumption will be lowered to 65 million liters a day this year once the target-oriented subsidy law is enforced. Shahnazizadeh, who is also Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, told reporters on the sidelines of the 15th International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition (April 23-6) that average gasoline consumption in Iran stood at 64,900,000 liters a day last year, which will rise to 68 million liters a day this year in case of failure to implement the target-oriented subsidy law nationwide. international Iran, Zimbabwe sign 11 accords, open tractor factory IRIB | April 23, 2010 During the first day of President Ahmadinejad's visit to Zimbabwe, 11 memorandums of understanding, a schedule for the implementation of agreements and a joint statement were signed by high-ranking officials of the two countries in the Zimbabwean capital Harare in the presence of both presidents. These memorandums include a memorandum on tourism, a memorandum on the abolition of diplomatic visas, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation, a memorandum on cooperation in the field of education, technology and air transportation and a document on the implementation of the decisions of the sixth session of the joint [Iran-Zimbabwe] commission. A memorandum on the repayment of debts by Zimbabwe was also signed between an Iranian bank and the Bank of Zimbabwe. Following the signing ceremony, the presidents of Iran and Zimbabwe attended a joint news conference. Ahmadinejad noted the collapse of exploitative and evil systems, saying that the future belongs to nations and that signs of global government by nations have appeared. Referring to the expansion of mutual ties, Zimbabwean President Mugabe described cooperation between the two countries as very extensive. The two countries enjoy very close partnership in regional and international bodies, like G77 countries, the Non-Aligned Movement and G15 countries, Mugabe said. Iran, North Korea sign cultural cooperation agreement IRIB | April 23, 2010 Iran and North Korea have signed a document on cultural cooperation. During an official visit to Pyongyang by the Iranian deputy foreign minister for Asia and Oceania, a document on a new cultural exchange programme was signed between Iran and North Korea. This document was signed at the end of a meeting between Fatollahi and (Chung Yong-jin), the deputy head of the cultural relations committee of North Korea. The document determines the strategy of cooperation between the two countries for the next three years, that's to say from 1389 to 1391 [2010-2012]. During the meeting, the Iranian deputy foreign minister for Asia and Oceania and the deputy head of the cultural relations committee of North Korea exchanged views on coordinating the two countries' positions in the fights against threats, hegemony and cultural attacks by expansionist countries. New Software Could Outwit Tehran's Censors IPS | April 23, 2010 While the Iranian government has intensified its aggressive efforts to expand Internet filters, Austin Heap, a young programmer in the U.S., says he has developed software that would enable Iranians to evade their censors. In response to the widespread crackdown following Iran's June 2009 presidential elections, the San Francisco-based Censorship Research Center (CRC) developed a program that provides unfiltered, anonymous Internet access. Called Haystack, it uses a sophisticated mathematical formula to hide the user's real Internet identity while allowing access to widely-used networking websites blocked by Iran's government, such as Youtube, Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter. "Now we can launch our efforts to help those in Iran access the Internet as if there were no Iranian government filters," Austin Heap, CRC's executive director, told IPS. Week in Green Episode 20: Interview with Akbar Ganji Week in Green | April 23, 2010 In the twentieth episode of The Week in Green, acclaimed journalist Akbar Ganji discusses the role of nonviolence in the Green Movement, the relation of the movement to the geopolitics of the wider region, and the possible forms and effects of economic sanctions against Iran.

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Obama's Deal

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Michael Kirk - Apr. 14 (Special Report) - A sobering look at the push to reform health care, revealing the realities of American politics, the power of special interest groups and the role of money in policy making.

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Digital Nation

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - By Rachel Dretzin, Douglas Rushkoff - Feb. 05 (Special Report) - Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained? In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world. Continuing a line of investigation she began with the 2008 FRONTLINE report Growing Up Online, award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin embarks on a journey to understand the implications of living in a world consumed by technology and the impact that this constant connectivity may have on future generations. "I'm amazed at the things my kids are able to do online, but I'm also a little bit panicked when I realize that no one seems to know where all this technology is taking us, or its long-term effects," says Dretzin. Joining Dretzin on this journey is commentator Douglas Rushkoff, a leading thinker and writer on the digital revolution -- and one-time evangelist for technology's positive impact. "In the early days of the Internet, it was easy for me to reassure people about what it would mean to bring digital technology into their lives," says Rushkoff, who has authored 10 books on media, technology and culture. "Now I want to know whether or not we are tinkering with something more essential than we realize."

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Exploring Technology's Impact on Society

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

NewsHour - By Rachel Dreztin - Feb. 02 (News Report) - In an excerpt from the PBS program "Frontline," Rachel Dreztin examines how our brains are being shaped by technology, how companies are spicing up conference calls with avatars and how advances in weaponry have reshaped war.

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Fighting Revolution

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Tehran Bureau - By Thor Neureiter - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - As the Islamic Republic prepares to celebrate its anniversary next month, similarities between the current turmoil and the one that led to a successful revolution 31 years ago continue to increase. Perhaps this is most evident in Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's seeming attempts to use lessons from the galvanizing moments of the Islamic Revolution to employ defensive tactics against the Green Movement.

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The start of an Iranian intifada

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - By Meir Javedanfar - Dec. 28 (News Analysis) - Judging from the events of Ashura, however, the protests now seem to carry the potential to turn into a full-scale civil disobedience campaign, not unlike the first intifada the Palestinians initiated against Israel in 1987. Such an uprising will mean continuous periods of strikes and civil disobedience, as well as more confrontations between members of the public and security forces.

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Ashura 101

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - By Muhammad Sahimi - Dec. 27 (Special Report) - December 18 marked the beginning of the month of Moharram. Shiites, and in particular Iranians, have been mourning the killing of their third Imam, Hossein, the quintessential martyr, since his death in the battle of Karbala on October 10, 680, which falls on Ashura, the 10th day of Moharram. Ashura has been commemorated for at least a thousand years, beginning probably in Baghdad, Iraq, in the 4th Islamic century. Tradition holds that Imam Hossein and 72 of his followers were slain on that day after fighting bravely with the much larger army of the Umayyad Caliph, Yazid ibn Moaaviyeh, which some historians have said was 100,000 men strong.

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A Death in Tehran

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Frontline - Nov. 17 (Special Report) - At the height of the protests following Iran's controversial presidential election this summer, a young woman named Neda Agha Soltan was shot and killed on the streets of Tehran. Her death -- filmed on a camera phone, then uploaded to the Web -- quickly became an international outrage, and Soltan became the face of a powerful movement that threate

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Obama's War

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Martin Smith - Oct. 14 (Special Report) - Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan, led by a new commander and armed with a counterinsurgency plan that builds on the lessons of Iraq. But can U.S. forces succeed in a land long known as the "graveyard of empires"? And can the U.S. stop the Taliban in neighboring Pakistan, where U.S. troops are not allowed and the government is weak? In Obama's War, veteran correspondent Martin Smith travels across Afghanistan and Pakistan to see first-hand how the president's new strategy is taking shape, delivering vivid, on-the-ground reporting from this eight-year-old war's many fronts. Through interviews with top generals, diplomats and government officials, Smith also reports the internal debates over President Obama's grand attempt to combat terrorism at its roots. "What we found on the ground was a huge exercise in nation building," says Smith. "The concept's become a bit of a dirty word, but that's what this is. We started with the goal of eliminating Al Qaeda, and now we've wound up with the immense task of re-engineering two nations."

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What Makes a Digital Native?

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - Aug. 30 (Interview) - What Makes a Digital Native? For starters, they take technology for granted, says author Marc Prensky.

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Women and Islam

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - Jun. 04 (Interview) - The veiling is not only just covering the head; it indicates a way of behavior, which is called to be more modest, more pure--Puritan maybe--which means you limit your presence in public life. For instance, the way you look at people. You have to cast down the eyes. The way your body occupies the space in public. That means you shouldn't be too loud--laughing, for instance. So it means a way of behaving, more modest behavior. It comes from hija, meaning being more cautious, being more modest. So I think it's not only just a kind of dress code, but a dress code which indicates a set of manners, bodily manners, in relation to the other sex, but in relation also to public behavior. Also, culturally, it means a more civilized behavior--civilized in the sense that you are more controlled. It's a kind of self-control in public life.

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inside the meltdown: watch the full program | PBS

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - Apr. 24 (Investigative Report) - "Many Americans still don't understand what has happened to the economy," FRONTLINE producer/director Michael Kirk says. "How did it all go so bad so quickly? Who is responsible? How effective has the response from Washington and Wall Street been? Those are the questions at the heart of Inside the Meltdown."

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Poisoned Waters

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - Apr. 22 (Investigative Report) - More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, two iconic waterways—the great coastal estuaries Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay—are in perilous condition. With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture, and massive suburban development, scientists fear contamination to the food chain and drinking water for millions of people. A growing list of endangered species is also threatened in both estuaries. As a new president, Congress, and states set new agendas and spending priorities, FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the rising hazards to human health and the ecosystem, and why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean.

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Heat

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Martin Smith - Oct. 21 (Special Report) - (VIDEO - 50 mins.) Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, fires, floods and droughts. On the eve of a historic election, award-winning producer and correspondent Martin Smith investigates how the world's largest corporations and governments are responding to Earth's looming environmental disaster. "I have reported on the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the rise of Al Qaeda, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," says Smith. "But nothing matches climate change in scope and severity." The world needs to dramatically cut the carbon emissions responsible for wreaking havoc on the planet's climate, according to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, whose organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize. "If we don't take action immediately, we face a crisis," Pachauri tells Smith. "Climate change is caused by human actions, and we need to do something about it. The sooner we realize that, the better." With that sense of urgency in mind, Smith traveled to 12 countries on four continents to investigate whether major corporations and governments are up to the challenge. HEAT features in-depth interviews with top policy-makers and with leading executives from many of the largest carbon emitters from around the world, including Chinese coal companies, Indian SUV makers and American oil giants. The report paints an ominous portrait. Despite increasing talk about "going green," across the planet, environmental concerns are still taking a back seat to shorter-term economic interests. Smith's journey begins at the epicenter of new industrial development: China. In the midst of unprecedented growth, the Chinese are clearly moving in the wrong direction. He visits Shenhua Energy, one of the largest and fastest-growing power companies in the world -- a coal conglomerate with a huge carbon footprint. But its CEO, Dr. Ling Wen, tells Smith that he answers not to the public but to his shareholders. "We must create money, not lose the money," Ling says. "It's my responsibility as a CEO of this company." And when pressed whether he should make climate change a higher priority, Ling says that he would if his shareholders asked him. But, he says, "I'm afraid maybe all the shareholders, they cannot accept that concept." In the meantime, China continues to build two new coal-fired power plants every week.

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The Choice 2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - Oct. 15 (Special Report) - It has been called one of the most historic presidential elections in our nation's history -- Barack Obama versus John McCain. It is a race that pits the iconoclast against the newcomer, the heroic prisoner of war against the first African American nominated by a major party. FRONTLINE's critically acclaimed series The Choice returns this election season to examine the rich personal and political biographies of these two men in The Choice 2008. The Choice 2008 draws on in-depth interviews with the advisers, friends and those closest to these unlikely candidates, as well as with seasoned observers of American politics, who together tell the definitive story of these men and their ascent to their party's nominations. When FRONTLINE first aired a profile of presidential candidates during the 1988 election, The Choice redefined political journalism on television. Now, in an unprecedented election year, veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Bush's War, Cheney's Law) goes behind the headlines to tell a deeper political story about the candidates, the decisions they made and why their nominations may indicate a historic change in American politics. The story begins at the Democratic Convention in 2004 when Barack Obama, a little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, stepped forward to tell his personal story and to call for a move beyond partisan politics. "All around were people with tears in their eyes," Obama's chief political adviser David Axelrod tells FRONTLINE. "And I realized at that moment that his life would never be the same." Also that summer, the future Republican nominee John McCain, a self-described maverick and sometime adversary of the Bush administration, took the stage at his party's convention to defend the president's national security policy. In an effort to win the support of his party, the longtime senator from Arizona had decided to try to walk a fine line -- a line he had had trouble walking all his life -- between being an unconventional outsider and a team player. "I think McCain's goal was to make himself more acceptable to the party base without completely surrendering his outsider, independent persona, and that was a very complex balancing act," says Mark McKinnon, a member of McCain's inner circle and former media adviser to President Bush.

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Mexico: Crimes at the Border

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Frontline - By Andrew Becker, Lowell Bergman - May. 30 (Special Report) - (Video - 60 minutes) An investigation of the rapidly expanding business of smuggling humans across the U.S.-Mexican border. This joint project with The New York Times follows the dramatic story of an American border guard tempted by money and sexual favors to join a smuggling operation, and explore what the U.S. government is doing about the problem.

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Growing Up Online

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Rachel Dretzin, John Maggio - May. 20 (Special Report) - (Video - 60 mins. - Repeat) Jessica Hunter was a shy and awkward girl who struggled to make friends at school. Then, at age 14, she reinvented herself online as Autumn Edows, a goth artist and model. She posted provocative photos of herself on the Web and fast developed a cult following. "I just became this whole different person," Autumn tells Frontline. "I didn't feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn't feel like myself. I felt like someone completely different. I felt like I was famous." News of Jessica's growing fame as Autumn Edows reached her parents only by accident. "I got a phone call, and the principal says one of the parents had seen disturbing photographs and material of Jessica," her father tells FRONTLINE. "I had no idea what she was doing on the Internet. That was a big surprise." In Growing Up Online, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. "The Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it's something that really is the province of teenagers, " says C.J. Pascoe, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Berkeley's Digital Youth Research project.

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