A senior cleric called Friday for British Embassy employees to be tried for allegedly inciting mass protests. The move signals a heightened effort to portray recent unrest as a foreign plot. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
Good piece. My only qualm is the Iranian commentators are based in Washington and San Diego. Given that recent reportage indicates a clamp down of information inside Iran, this is somewhat understandable. I like that Mr. Murphy has backfilled information on the Iranian revolution of 1979 and compared Mousavi's positions to the current theocratic government and that of Ayatollah Khomeini in '79. There are ominous overtones "With TALES (unspecified) of young protesters detained and tortured for their ...views" and Parsi's closing observation about "eliminating the opposition" that lead one to think a totalitarian crackdown is in process or getting worse.
Given the depth of distrust between the west and Iran since 1953, it is no wonder we continue to experience blowback in the form of religious hardliners blaming the Imperial West. It is almost childishly simple, looking through the funhouse mirror at our historical (hysterical?) red scare or the current climate of fear of an unknown terrorist, that a politician might toss off vaguely formed accusations for political gain. Now then. Given that the west has meddled in Iranian affairs historically, might not a fair minded question for reporters be to try to seriously examine Jannati's position? THAT would be some delicate reporting, well worth the asking, that I would like to see.