Why don't we cut to the chase and state the obvious: Iran is an Islamic state and like all Islamic states are backward and brutal.
Do Americans know that their staunch ally Saudi Arabia practices amputation, beheadings, and crucifixion? If all they read is the NYT, I'm pretty sure they don't.
Good article, though you couldn't resist smearing Israel, could you Roger? Israel is not itching to go to war with Iran, it would, however, like to remove Iranian troops from Syria and stop Iranian backing of their Hezbollah colony in Lebanon (as would most Lebanese). The Iranians do march through the streets with large missiles covered with 'death to Israel' slogans, several times a year. Might make anyone nervous if a psychopathic neighbor were to do that, don't you think?
To write that Mr. Kavous Seyed Emami was, "the kind President Hassan Rouhani, a reformist" is desecration of name, Mr. Rouhani a reformer? only to the dreamers who refuse to see the facts, the truth. Mr. Rouhani is an orthodox Shi'ite, fanatic follower of Ayatollah Khomeini who passed, on his way to the presidency, through all levels of the Iranian regime. The only difference between him and Khamenei is that he learned that you can influence the western media by smiling and speaks softly in excellent English. The western media wrap with love every evil dictator once he smiles and talks nice while attacking President Trump foe exposing who these people really are. As always you and your colleagues will learn only in retrospect that the Iranian regime (including Rouhani "the reformer") like the North Korean regime, only deceiving and the only way to change it is by using sanctions and fear.
I can't believe Mr. Cohen's Ignorance of the Islamic Republic of Iran's political system, when I read about veneer of democracy. Iran has never claimed to be a democracy. The Supreme Leader is the selected dictator. The president, parliament, and the courts are his play thing. Rouhani is a glorified messenger boy because the Supreme Leader can overrule him.
1
The U.S. and other outside antagonists must give space to Iran's people to act on their own to restore their nation to a humane and civil course. Mr. Cohen is absolutely right that any attempt to hasten that end from outside is folly and will only worsen the chances of a peaceful resolution.
At the same time, Russia might well intervene even if others use restraint, and that is my worst fear for Iran's future. For that reason, if not for the existing brutality of the Iranian regime alone, I fear the chances are slim that a peaceful transition will result. Still, the U.S., Saudis, and Israelis must stand pat in any case to avert an even worse blood bath, if it indeed comes to that.
My hope is that by some miracle TBD that the Iranian people do ultimately prevail, and in the most peaceful manner possible. In this way, Iran could even transform itself into an unlikely beacon for the world in these unsettled and perilous times. Imagine, a shining light of liberal humanity from a largely Muslim culture that shines bright enough to illuminate even the darkest corners of our own promising, but faltering example.
Israel isn't itching to battle Iran. Come on; it's more like that battle is inevitable, with Iran having stocked Hezbollah with hundreds of thousands of missiles, some devastatingly accurate enough to hit all the cities in Israel.
Other than that goof, the article should make people think. The majority of Iranians, I believe, are freedom loving people who aren't Islamic zealots and are waiting for a break. The govt. has robbed them of billions by "investing" in war, terrorism. Let's read more articles exposing the Iranian govt. for what it is. Evil, and a bit crazy, too.
8
exactly. Israel is hardly itching to battle Iran. It's Iran that has been fighting Israel through its various proxies such as Hezbollah, Syria and Hamas.
1
Mr.Cohen , l am happy to see your writing again, no body can write like you do, look what is going on in Turkey , a Nato member fighting against American forces, ERDOGAN jailing any body writes or talks against him, Russia , all the people was running against Putin death or in jail, all middles countries are in war , Israel's BIBI is going to jail for stilling , Germany can not put a govirnment together, and all Europe is going write wing and anti Muslim and anti Jews, and our country, the person trying run the country is better than SNL , a laughing stock ,whole thing remains me 1936 , as we both know world war II started and we are going to right to world war III, take care
2
Capital punishment is barbaric, expensive, cruel, and stupid.
2
Iran will now intensify militaristic adventures - to rally internal support and to neutralize dissent: a common move for fascist-genocidal-theocratic-fanatical regimes.
3
They had the foresight to videotape Emami preparing for suicide, and yet could not intercede in his (obviously fictitious) suicide. What a pathetic lie.
5
Was this also a "obviously fictitious" suicide they could not intercede?
"After a three-year blackout was broken by an Australian TV expose, Israel on Wednesday acknowledged that a dual national had committed suicide in prison where he had been kept isolated in the name of state security.
Authorities made no effort to deny reports the man was 34-year-old Ben Zygier, a Melbourne Jew who moved to Israel, became a citizen, joined its military and Mossad, only to be arrested in early 2010 on suspicion of betraying secrets after Canberra began investigating trips he took to Middle East trouble-spots. "
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-security-spies/spy-suicide-sca...
1
I would caution you against Islamophobia.
And it does'nt happen here? Remember the young healthy woman pulled over for not putting on the indicator light and arrested for smoking in her car? After her arrest and imprisonment she was found hanging in her cell.
We are such sanctimonious hypocrites!
6
Back in 2000 or so when I was teaching at Dubai Women's College, the faculty of which consisted of men and women from around the world but mostly from English-speaking nations, an Iranian faculty member told us that the "Not Without My Daughter" narrative--or at least the movie version--was complete fiction. She also told us that things like requiring women to cloak themselves in black was not important, that deeper issues were what needed to be addressed. I thought she was childishly defensive and at best not very analytical. If the very clothes you wear are controlled by religious police and you get flogged for violations, that speaks to very deep issues indeed. And they're egregious violations of human rights. Even Saudi Arabia has now decreed that women no longer need to wear the abaya and hijab.
3
Interesting. Many years back, while doing nursing, there was an Iranian born and educated intern in our hospital who actually knew the husband in the book "Not Without My Daughter." He defended the guy, said the wife was crazy, etc. My co-workers eating lunch with him rejected that, and gave him an earful. Other Iranians I've met aren't chauvinistic, but this doctor was. Wonder how he got his internship in that well respected teaching hospital.
3
"Seyed Emami’s death is an indication of the gathering storm in Iran.”"
The only indication of gathering storm we see is once again the neoconservatives in this country doing their warmongering on behalf of Israel. Freeland can ask for whatever she wants, Iran doesn't recognize dual citizenship and they viewed him as an Iranian.
"...embodies the anti-democratic intrusion of heaven on a system with a veneer of democratic institutions."
So, does that mean Netanyahu's Israel making claims based on biblical fiction is anti-democratic?
Media's Iran bashing and Russia bashing is nothing other than prepping Americans for wars that we know are not in our national interest. Iraq war peddlers are at it again with their pestering, now demonizing Iran and Russia endlessly as part of their devious schemes.
1
So in an article about Iran killing a prisoner and tormenting his family, and the Canadian govt. looking for answers as to what happened to it's citizen, you feel the compulsion to blame Israel?
2
Show me a revolution that doesn't have unintended consequences, or doesn't bring the more violent and repressive elements to power.
A revolution with good intentions got Iran to this dire place, because the ruthless hijacked history again.
Iran needs engagement and reform.
This will not be a straight trajectory to democracy, nor will it always be pretty, but in the long run it will yield a better result that revolt.
1
Will do. The American Revolution for one. Never turned into a violent dictatorship.
America is in no position to lecture other countries about the state of their prisons.
4
My parents are political activists in Iran (and outside of Iran). I grew up watching their group fight, occasionally get jailed for an article and some got killed in the same prison as this lovely man. I had not met this man, but I have close friends that had. Majority of these people during entry get questioned upon entry, threatened the lives of their family (son), put under a lot of mental pressure that is incomprehensible. They may get stuck there for years and leave with severe PTSD which is done to them on purpose for years to come. I never discussed my father and mother’s activism to my friends and those around us, but I can tell you that my parents group had “spies” from both sides planted in their important meetings where their action plans were discussed. In one incident when my father was summoned they asked him questions about meetings and knew exactly what had been said. It was one of our secrets of our family. In recent years due to the internet they know more. It was only last year when my mother passed away that one of the Speakers which was part of that chapter spoke about her and the secret was out.
Whether this man sacrificed himself for his family and the pain of wondering what is happening to him or was killed - all of it is tragic.
We must ask ourselves what can we do to educate those that did this to him and their question their ideology.
My condolences to his family and I only hope they know how much people of Iran love him.
3
Iranians who are safe in the West and go back there to visit or study are playing Russian Roulette. They are not safe.
How long will it be before the rank deception, obstructionism, and self-protectionism of Washington crosses this line and brings all of its moral ugliness in the effort to cover over murder? Or has our pardoning of an Arizona sheriff already crossed this line?
3
Sometimes the hardest and smartest thing is to do nothing. Iran needs to decide its future just like we did during our civil war, civil rights movement, womens rights movement, and LGBT rights movement. Any outside interference will only make things worse.
1
I read in the Israeli paper Haaretz that the officials in Iran have accused some of the environmentalists as spying for Israel and the USA; we do know for a fact that both the USA and Israel have been actively recruiting Iranians to spy for them in Iran, and even commit murder on their behalf--the better known murder of Iranian nuclear scientists is a case in point. The official case against the environmentalists is that they were positioning their cameras not to observe environmental changes, but to locate Iranian nuclear sites, for which purpose they even brought with them reptilians, as lizards, whose skin is apparently sensitive to nuclear waves and can be used for locating nuclear sites (I have no expertise on the reptilians and of what type of detection they may be used for; but only reporting what I have read). Please note, I am no uncritical defender of the Islamic Republic, and am saddened by the well attested brutalities it has committed. But in measuring the extant of those brutalities, one need take into account that some of these brutalities are caused as reaction to the interference of foreign governments in Iran. Faced with constant hostility of certain foreign powers determined to overthrow it, the Islamic Republic has been fighting for its very survival since its inception, and this at times has pushed it to committing shameful atrocities against the Iranian people.
As opposed to what? Those poor wilttle bitty misunderstood mullahs who constantly vow to destroy Israel which would require a second Holocaust to pull that one off? And as for the feel-good nonsense that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism, that didn't stop the mullahs from using Hezbollah operatives to blow up a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires back in 1994 resulting in the largest massacre of innocent Jews at one time since World War II. Progressives looking for anyway to place the blame on Israel and/or the US -- the usual obsession, show the usual ignorance, naivety, obtuseness and short memories. A Jewish Talmudic saying: "If a man comes to kill you, you kill him first." Sorry, The world is a hard messy place. A lot messier than the theoretical niceties of an intellectual espresso cafe or faculty lounge. Deal with it.
1
Emami died in the power struggle for dominance in the mid-east. He is just a footnote, a pawn. There are plenty more un-named, decent, indealistic individuals, who died or will die fighting injustice by their government. They can be in Tehran, in Jerusalem or in Rhiyad.
Roger may have oversimplfied the holy mess there, but bascally he is right that these 3 major powers are all vying for dominance. It wont end well - regardless if the US is drawn into a war or not!
Thus we compartmentalize.
Seyed Emami is a tragic victim of a repressive dictatorship that flogs adolescents for kissing, foments and participates in proxy wars throughout the region, conducts and supports terrorism on a global basis ... but we sign a pact with them that merely kicks the can down the road a few years while they perfect the delivery systems that they intend should carry nuclear warheads when they can manufacture them again. We sign that pact because Munich is always more inveigling than the alternatives.
Would Emami still be alive if we'd kept those sanctions at full force and doubled-down on them, eventually forcing a reckoning between the people and the Imams? Who knows? All that's certain is that in just a few years Iran will possess ballistic missiles AND nuclear warheads, and -- somehow -- the world will need to deal with that reality.
10
A) It's not just a "few years" during which their nuclear capacity is off line; and a lot can happen before then. But more to the point,
B) Tell us all about how we should have gotten into yet another major middle east war against a far stiffer opponent than Iraq. Any more bright ideas?
1
Cogito:
Who said anything about a war? We should have maintained the full weight of he sanctions, kept their money impounded, and doubled-down on MORE sanctions. For those who wished to end-run the sanctions, we freight our trading with them with penalties and tariffs.
Obama didn't go to Rouhani with a deal: Rouhani came to Obama because Iran was desperate to get out from under the sanctions. We simply caved. And we are where we are.
3
For 2500 years Persian/Iran has been interested in one thing only-- world conquest
9
What an odd comment. We Jews remember to this day being liberated from Babylonian captivity by King Cyrus of ancient Persia. And then in modern time Persia and the Zorastrians were conquered by the Arabs. What a very strange level of misinformation you have, esp given that every empire from Assyria, Rome, Genghis Khand England and the USA has done its best to conquer the known world. I think you will find in 2018 that its actually the USA that has military bases in all the 8 corners of the earth....none of which justifies the current despotic regime in Iran.
1
Well it looks like things haven't been going too well in the Iranian world conquest plan.
Iran is a rogue state in the worse snse of the word. Criminals are ruling and nobody, but Israel, is calling a spade a spade. Since it is Israel, nobody is doing anything, least of all the "mighty" USA, until it will be too late.
13
I cannot understand why anyone with dual citizenship would want to live in Iran. Given it's a couple of rungs higher on the ladder than North Korea, but that isn't saying much.
10
Nothing is that black & white. Non-Americans probably often wonder how Americans can live in a country where there have been 12 school shootings in 2018 alone. Headlines and news articles can't offer a full picture of life in any part of the world.
3
Iran is quite likely to competently sort out is own future if just left alone. It has a well educated, young population. That will be the main driver. The clergy rose to power only after the 1979 revolution because there was a power vacuum .The dictator of the Shah had long wiped out any political opposition organisation.
Rhouhani is acutely aware of the corruption within the Republican Guard. A bit more of what happens in Iran can be gained by reading the Tehran Times. Although it’s coverage of political events is obviously very constrained, it does give some important insights about day to day life in that country.
12
Yes, sometimes the scolds at the NY Times strike me as stand-ins for the controlling parents some people had: constantly giving unwanted advice and quick to criticize, usually driving the agonizing and confused young people closer together. And in this case the (Anti-) Revolutionary Guards wanted to silence that voice, and did so. It was wrong and unfair, but when you confront a repressive and violent regime there will be casualties, and this sort of violence is exactly what the current regime has to do in order to maintain its power. Even worse when the regime claims to have a god on its side. Is anyone really surprised? Really?
"Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel" is not "itching to fight Iran," Roger. Iran has explicitly and repeated expressed and acted upon its obsessive desire to destroy Israel, the latest example being the establishment of a not-small Iranian military presence in Syria, not to mention Iran's franchisee Hezbollah's virtual control of Lebanon.
Elie Weisel famously once said: "When someone says they want to kill you, believe them."
Irrespective of your oft repeated dislike of Netanyahu (a sentiment you share with many Israelis) how you can imagine Bibi's or anyone else's Israel "itching" to engage Iran in a military conflict is simply mind-boggling.
25
When worlds collide, in this case, those of the absolutist Capitalism, and the absolutist Theocracy, the friction which results is accompanied by pressure designed to justify the perspective of each.It is very regrettable that someone who had not acquired illusions, whether due to his time in both absolutisms or due to an acuity and clarity of perception, should have to "fall prey" to an "invention" of whatever stripe, and consequently to have to bear the burden of such pressure-justifying perspective. It does seem not only unconscionable but also outrageous that such a person should have been made, in effect, an example of in this way, which led to his death, whatever the circumstances. Howsoever, in this area of the world, the growing myriad injustices to everyday people stands out equally, but is not so often reported with such experiential zeal.
1
As cold as it may seem, the best course of action for the U.S. and for Iran may well be for the U.S. stand back and not interfere with history. Time is not on the side of the current regime; demographics alone will likely bring their demise in time.
And the unintended consequences of interventionism, particularly of the military variety, are worse and more widespread than most Americans are aware of. I was a teenage son of Americans working abroad in Pakistan in 1979 when the U.S. tried and failed at a military rescue of our hostages in Iran (an arguably justifiable attempt to be sure). One result was that an angry mob burned the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to the ground. The staff survived only by closing themselves in the fireproof vault. A Marine guard was shot and killed. The U.S. was also arming the Mujahideen in Afghanistan at that time to thwart the Russian invasion, but the weapons would end up being used in other conflicts, including the ones that continue to this day.
11
Why would any sane, successful Canadian return to Iran?
We don't know the whole story.
5
Perhaps because Iran was his country and he cared about its fate?
21
Because it’s his home country!
1
I'm glad that this article has appeared.
Iran is one of the world's leading users of the death penalty, both judicial and (as here) extra-judicial, including against regime opponents. This regime deserves utmost opprobrium.
12
Iran is a complicated country. It is too easy to say they are horrible people. The Iranians are intelligent. Yet, they are led by the nose of detrimental religion that has infected this great country in way like no other. I hope they can find their way out of this mess or it is obvious to me that another revolution will take place.
11
When the world finally wakes up and realizes the brutality and radical religious based terrorism that is promoted and funded by the Islamic clerics who control Iran, it may be too late. Obama gave Iran the tools and money to build nuclear weapons; it's only a matter of time until they complete the task and begin exporting nukes rather than car bombs.
14
What a selective memory! Iran was developing nuclear weapons UNTIL the agreement with the US and 6 other countries to ship out most of its materials and decommission its plants. Iran is under a tight UN nuclear inspection regime, at least for the next ten years. There is no indication that it's doing anything to violate the agreement. If the US should remove itself from the agreement, it will not only be a slap in the faces of the other signatories, but free Iran to acquire the nuclear weapons it was trying to produce in the first place.
23
Gotta love the fictitious histories and "alternative facts" that readers like "paul" believe. If they read the Times, they certainly neither absorb nor remember the contents. Or maybe they just drop in now and then from Breitbart.
Oh come on. They got back money that was always theirs from the beginning. We never claimed it was ours. The funsd were in a frozen account. You guys are just embarrassed because Obama succeeded where you failed for years and years.
"The theocratic regime that promised freedom in 1979 only to deliver another form of repression..."
Let's be honest, the repression that the Shah and his Savak unleashed was far worse than the current regime - and Washington remained an ally of the Shah throughout his bloody reign.
8
Is one dictator worse than the next? The US was allied with the Shah. As an ally of Stalin, it defeated Hitler's dictatorship. The US is an ally of Egypt sparing us the nastiness of a Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. There is merit in choosing alliances. It limits the wriggle room of unsavory characters.
5
T"he repression that the Shah and his Savak unleashed was far worse than the current regime". What nonsense is this. Any honest person would laugh at this. Ask any honest Iranian. This is a country where anybody who can get out is busy working to do just that. Should that alone not tell you something about the comparison. The Shah was dictatorial for sure, but these guys are barbarians. Open your eyes and ears, please.
7
What an ignorant and false statement. I is very much the opposite.
In a way the US and Iran are eerily similar now. The Trump anti-democratic leanings are based on his demanding loyalty from his subordinates, even if they are ostensibly committed to the rule of law, and cultivating an Orwell-esque version of twisted truth which is bellowed out every day in the state( Fox News) media. Very similar to the way the Theocrats in Iran suppress democracy and enlightenment.
Iran is a jewel in the Middle East with amazing human and natural resources, and a rich cultural history. It is so misunderstood by idiots the likes of Trump and his minions,who don’t realize that, if the Theocrats there can be phased out, a Western-style democracy could evolve. This will happen anyway over a period of time, and the US should not disrupt the process with heavy-handed blustering. But an honest public inquiry into Seyed Emami’s death should further discredit the Theocracy.
The citizens of both Iran and the US deserve to have their autocratic rulers replaced, and will not advance further as societies until they do.
16
I'd like to say you're wrong. We're not quite there yet. The praetorian guard, in Iran's case, the Republican guard, can't make you disappear.
If this occurs in the US, I hope we will be putting ourselves in harms way by tearing down the government brick by brick. If the police or army get in the way, up the body count.
1
Far be it from me to defend Trump, but the United States is not (yet) anything like Iran. For example, environmental activists are not being murdered in US jail cells.
Criticizing the Iranian regime's human rights abuses, and the same time opposing the Trump government in the United States, is not hypocritical or contradictory.
5
Interesting the focus is the corrupted Iran. But, I would remind those itching to project their own form of retaliation of Guantanamo torture, and the corruption in our own president, right wing evangelical extremists and ‘governing’ GOP. Our own shameful treatment of women, and police brutality. This also applies to religious zealots in Israel and their corrupt officials, torture and police brutality against Palestinians.
It seems it’s always easier to place blame when pointing the finger at others.
Until we all can admit we are part of the problem, the result is only stagnant and misguided violence against others as in the death of another kind soul, and more itching to war. Perspective needs widened.
Iran nuclear deal was reached as a beginning for some protections in a very volatile world of people who are itching for war.
7
If there was a Trump Tower in Tehran we would be seeking a peaceful solution.
10
I met and grew to dislike, many of the men in paper bags who claimed, to be terrified of the Shah's mighty Savak, which, if they only knew who was in the USA goinfg to US colleges and protesting against their "evil shah" would run to their parents in Iran and give them social trouble. Possibly causing them to be recalled to Iran from America. Mostof these(all men) were arrogant, kept to themselves and rarely spoke with or exchanged ideas or political talk with Westerners who they claimed to despise. I soon began to realize that they were playiong a children's game. As long as they didn't let their identities hang out in the 6 o clock news or in the NYTimes, they were left alone. Savak was a basically incompetent group which was more concerned with it's perks IN Iran than in causing trouble for the Iranian one percenter's children, who, having managed to get from relatively free and Westernizing Iran, as soon as their Mullahs managed the takeover of the US consulate and kidnapping of the 444 Americans, all rushed home expecting to received like long lost saviors. Instead, most were hated and treated like the wealthy and privileged dilettantes they were. As soon as possible, Iran's religious conservatives made them suffer for having ever been in the US. Soon they realized they should never have returned and were far better off under the Shah, though none admitted it out loud.
How does the song go? "You don't know what you got until it's gone. . "
10
But Iran is "revolutionary."
The most democratic of Middle Eastern countries. A far from perfect democracy. But a more democratic democracy than any in its neighborhood.
Look ma, no apartheid oppression of Palestinians or any other minority or occupied group. How unlike Israel you are Iran. In the best of ways!
And that evasive sanctions "relief?" Could our terrorization of the world's financial institutions, demanding they refuse to do business with Iran, have anything to do with it? How into the "spirit" of agreements we are. A beacon. A model of righteousness. That in fact is why our columnists get to sneer at others. Who needs "white supremacists" when we claim for ourselves the right to be "supreme" and "infallible" in all thoughts, actions and intent.
3
yes very sad. Unfortunately Roger Cohen you and your leftist cohorts are largely to blame for throwing Iran's tyrannical government a lifeline with your ridiculous nuclear deal and further legitimation in the global market. If you and your so called "liberal" comrades would have called for turning up sanctions instead of appeasing these murderous thugs, perhaps a democratic revolution would have materialized by now. Instead these theocrats have become embolden not just in Iran but in Syria, Lebanon and throughout the world. Shame on you.
17
Since anti-government protests began late last year...Seyed Emami is the third case of a supposed suicide while in custody."
Hmmm.
Wonder how many "supposed suicides" occur in US jails every day. When you have millions in jail, it's probably hard to keep track. Sigh.
12
I don't believe the Trump Administration is itching to fight anyone. It is simply wanting to stand up and confront evil unlike the Obama Administration's desire to accommodate evil. Obama was the Chamberlain of the 2000's, and his policies of secrecy and sell out may play out one day with war.
12
Well Gary, I'm sure you are aware we have the current Iranian regime because the Republican Eisenhower administration's CIA overthrew the democratically elected president of Iran in the 1950s. Right?
8
Yeah, so impressive, how Trump confronts evil by cozying up to guys like Duterte of the Philippines who actively encourages his police to kill drug dealers and Netanyu of Israel who just got indicted on corruption. So glad to have a president not afraid to stand up for principles.
10
THIS is what happens, when " religion " supersedes all else. An unholy mess, used as a cudgel and excuse for DEATH. No thanks.
15
The Islamic Revolution failed, it is time for another.
4
Wow! What a crime, by a religious institutionalized violence that provided forced assistance in an announced "suicide" by a life-loving patriot, who tried so courageously to impart some sanity to a corrupt regime, a regime claiming legitimacy by representing a make-belief all-loving deity. What a farce. Rouhani seems the more rational of the Iranian bunch, but with little recourse in controlling an abusive self-serving Revolutionary Guard. Should we mention that this regime came about in 1979, after deposing the Shah of Iran, a U.S.'s puppet enthroned by deposing the legitimate president in 1953, for oil control? Now, a reckoning deferred, again? Ms Justice is crying!
5
The description of Iran's chokehold on the resistance and the associated misgovernance resembles the Trump administrations attempts to foster cronyism and authoritarianism.
Cohen writes, "Raised expectations induced by the lifting of sanctions that accompanied the 2015 nuclear deal have met incompetence, bank failures and corruption." This has led to unrest and rumbling against the government in not just the young, educated urban population but also, apparently in the more conservative rural areas.
For those opposed to the current repressive Iranian regime, this should be good news, as internal resistance to it grows and may lead to a popular uprising. Reinstituting or increasing sanctions against the regime would have exactly the opposite effect.
2
Hmm, a one-party government dominated by religious extremists who twist the electoral process to ensure that they win every election. Sound familiar?
8
Normally, I am appalled by the Iran bashing so common in the MSM. Imperfect as it, and it is very, it is still vastly more democratic and modern than our so-called "allies" in Saudi-Arabia, the Gulf States , Egypt and even Israel which is great for half its population, but a brutal occupier to the other half. Each of our "allies" needs to demonize Iran as a dangerous enemy and threat to world peace for their own self-serving reasons, and the craven US politicians and MSM eagerly fall in line.
But this column honestly points out the evil that does exist in a segment of Iran which has accumulated great power to the detriment of a potentially great country with a clearly democratically inclined populace. Unfortunately, there is little that the US can do to help the Iranian people that would not be counterproductive. Obama was on the right course here. History is on the side of greater democracy in Iran and outside interference only serves the interests of the current power structure. Shining the light on episodes like this, instead of raving myths about nonexistent nuclear weapons and lies about supporting terrorism is probably the best way to go.
44
That evil segment of Iran that you refer to is the revolutionary regime that has "governed" this wayward nation for 40 years now. Hardly anyone in Iran wants it anymore, and most of the population isn't even old enough to recall it's violent birth. It's time for Iran to move on, but don't expect the regime to pass peacefully. It will require force, possibly international support to topple.
If Iran is more democratic than the Gulf States, it's not so by very much considering the corruption of politics and the Islamic constitutional system which is established to consolidate power rather than protect the rights of its own citizens.
1
America has the problem that because Americans do not like or care about foeign nations or governments, that they rarely study or understand them. Language and political science courses in the US, which might once have allowed the creation of a cadre of educated US scholars with connections in the ME and Iran, have been stripped and cut to the bone.
America often relied upon other European nations to do the hard work of thinking about "furriners", and, eventually, the Reagan administration sent the absolutely amazed Iranians a cake, borne on an Air Force plane, with a sugary covering in the shape of a "key" to show them how much they wanted to imporove relations.(Sound Familiar?). As long as the USA elects ignorant and stupidpeople who are usually servants of local or red state religious groups, we will never be able to do more then follow other foreign governments around like a hound dog, and take their advice because our own people are still living in dark caves as far as the world beyond our borders. Where people speak langauges other then American, the world remains a forbidding and dangerous place. The more we push their people away from our educational institutions, the less we will ever be able to learn of them.
So you needed this column to remove the blinders from your eyes? Finally, you can see?? This Iranian regime has been hanging and imprisoning subjects for trumped up charges of spying and espionage since its inception in 1979, and it is far from democratic, tossing the results of elections which do not meet the needs of a ruling, aging theological cohort of dictators. Like them, you distort what is really going in Israel, where both citizens Palestinain and Israeli, vote in free elections (there is an Arab bloc of representatives in the Knesset) You say Half doesnt benefit you are talking about those Palestinian Arabs in occupied territores from the 1967 war where there is still no negotiated peace to be found. Israel is much more of a vibrant democracy than Iran, and it certainly does not imprison people for foreign countries for their political beliefs. Wake up!
7
Iran is further evidence that government and religion shouldn't mix. The role of government should be to protect the people's right to practice a religion, not mandate it. Europe learned this after centuries of war. America's constitution embraces it, but the lines get blurred from time to time. Who hasn't learned this? Iran, Israel, most of the Middle East.
Having grown up in a democracy, this view comes naturally. I expect that for people who haven't lived this privilege, they hold this same view privately.
9
3 US states still allow hanging as a form of execution.
3 allow gas chambers
8 allow electrocution
16
This is what you get when you are ruled by unelected, illegitimate, religious-fanatic Twelver dictators in 6th century costumes and headgear.
22
Much like WE have here and now!
2
There have never been any "suicides" in any US prison. No political prisoner has ever died while under the watchful and protective eyes of the CIA while being
held in some unknown black site.
This could never happen in a secular democracy. We don't even torture people. Yes, this could only happen in a theocracy.
1
Concernucus, what is your defense as to the costumed, unelected, illegitimate, religious fanatic dictators who run Iran? Merely pointing out that there are abuses in democracies does not constitute a defense as to murderous Iranian abuses. BTW, Iran executes more people than any other nation. On average, two people a day, and that's what we know about.
2
Roger you were such an Iranophile. Did you come around?
9
Mr. Cohen *** Thank you very much for writing this.
13
Cohen gratuitously writes of Israel itching to fight Iran when, as he well knows, Israel is only reacting to Iran’s often expressed goal - toward which it is inexorably moving - to destroy the "cancer" that it says is the Jewish State. before iran became a vicious, expansionist theocracy under the grip of the ayatollahs, Israel and a then more Western oriented Iran had cordial relations.
If only Chamberlain's UK had been similarly itching to fight Nazi Germany when it marched into the Rhineland (and had prepared itself to fight), the world would have been spared the horrors of WWII.
19
Sometimes a picture really does speak a thousand words.
3
Let the Iranians continue to run their country into the ground; bring US troops home from the 700 US bases scattered around the world and let these 8th century "republics" fester until the people have had enough. We have no interests whatsoever in the Middle East now that we are self-sufficient in oil and natural gas; give the Israelis all they need to defend themselves and bring our boys and girls back home. Twenty-five years since we invaded Iraq, after being lied to by our own President. Enough is enough.
31
Israel can fend for itself. Enough IS enough.
There is very little difference between the fundamentalist evangelicals and the fundamentalist Muslims. You either accept their dogma or you are removed from the gene pool. I shudder at the thought of "spending and eternity" with either sect.
31
Fundamentalist evangelicals don't murder people for their dissent.
Only deranged do that.
2
"Fundamentalist evangelicals don't murder people for their dissent."
Were that only true. Just as most Muslims are peaceful so are most Evangelicals. It is the folks on the extreme in both cases who do not tolerate dissent.
1
This is what combined religion-state looks like. And still there are people here who want a Christian-Taliban government for the US.
26
I am not questioning Mr. Cohen's credentials as a concerned journalist, but I wonder if he is aware of the critical timing of his article. As New York Times reported yesterday, Israel is preparing to start a war against Iran. Articles such as this will no doubt serve to build sentiments against the Iranian regime. But, those who will suffer at the end, will be millions of innocent Iranians who have nothing to do with the Middle East quagmire.
Mr. Cohen may know, but I don't know if Mr. Emmi was innocent or not, or did he commit suicide or was killed in prison. What I do know is that the Iranians can be cruel. But do they have a monopoly on cruelty? I don't think so.
As a journalist, Mr. Cohen should know something about the fate of Australian-Israeli journalist Ben Zygier. He died in 2010 in a maximum-security prison in Israel, reportedly after being repeatedly tortured (Israelis claim he died from a hunger strike). Peter Beaumont thought that was an important news to let the world know about (www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/13/australia-mossad-zygier-israeli-jail). But, for some reasons, that story did not meet Mr. Cohen's journalistic standards.
6
Drar Roger,
You have me confused, you have been a strong supporter of the Obama, Iranian Nuclear Deal, where Russia of all the despotic countries were given the Iranian Nuclear fuel for safe keeping. Now you depict an Iran that hanged one of your friends in his cell & called it a suicide. You go on to report that since the sanctions were removed, there is corruption & bank failures in Iran. You give the impression that Iran is being run by a despotic zealot, which we have already known, & there is unrest throughout Iran.
Do you still support the Obama Nuclear deal?Do you still have faith in a country that despises America & yearns to destroy Israel ?
11
What you are seeing is a part of Iran that is fighting against the religious government.
That is increasing because of the Iranian deal as more of the educated middle class Iranians get a little more taste of the West. One example is where women are beginning to protest having to wear head scarves.
And this article is showing the religious government reacting to that taste of the West. They are scared.
So I would make the argument, we need to do even more to support those educated middle class Iranians.
By the way, are you familiar with the 1953 Iranian coup?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
Then the US supported the Shah who did terrible things to the people.
There is a reason the religious government can get away with calling the US the great Satan.
And yet, my educated friends from Iran, while they blame the American government, don't blame Americans.
In addition, look up the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration.
There was no Israel before 1948 regardless of what the settlers tell us.
2
Independent,
The American Oil Barons catered to the Shar, & the Sunni Sheiks, oil was king in those days, & it still holds sway over American Oil Interests. Puting this aside, what do the Iranians have against Israel, & Jews in particular?Jews that have resided in Iran for generations were persecuted & push out of Iran, that they considered their home. Most were Iranians before they were Jews.
1
Sorry to see that you are using this column about your acquaintance Seyed Emami to do the bidding of "Donald Trump’s United States, Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel itching to fight Iran."
Let Canada handle this.
The US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have done enough damage to Iran and the Middle East already.
Their continued meddling only strengthens the hardliners in Teheran.
America also has zero credibility with regards to human rights in the US criminal justice system.
Iranians could just refer to the case of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested during a traffic stop.
"Death by Hanging in Texas" so to speak.
Bland’s controversial death was ruled a suicide despite a plethora of unanswered questions, and 4 more black women died in police custody in the same month of July.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/543-death-in-police-custody
https://www.theroot.com/at-least-5-black-women-have-died-in-police-custo...
Zero credibility, Roger.
Neither does Israel who has had its own share of mysterious deaths of Palestinians in Israeli custody, including due to medical negligence, suicide and torture.
Just stay out of it.
32
"Let Canada handle this."
I would suggest "let the Iranians, themselves, handle this". Iranians have shown to be highly resilient. They have survived 2500 years; they have faced brutal invaders and murderous dictators. They know that their country has the human and natural resources to give them much better lives. If the current regime does not respond positively to their cries for democracy and freedom, I have no doubt they will rise against it. They did kick out their king who was armed to the teeth by the US in 1979. Why shouldn't they rise against a regime that is many times weaker.
Nothing is more fraudulent than religious government. Shirk and idolatry are all these clerics know.
5
I have a profound dislike for all religions. They are control freaks. No matter how they try to justify them, they all fall short of any compelling logic. I can't wait to see them disappear from the face of the earth. Theocracies are tyrannies of the worst kind. I don't believe a word coming from them! I feel sorry for the gentlemen who hung himself in his cell in Iran.
I am also concerned about religion creeping into our government, we must keep religion at bay, if we want to remain civilized. We must focus on education and more education. Can anyone explain to me why we have a prayer breakfast in the White House? Whose God are they talking to?
15
Hitch said that religion poisons everything.
Sam Harris claims an atheist cannot even run for president: Too many believers would crush that candidate. We can evolve only so quickly. Education takes time to have an effect; however, we do seem in retrograde.
So many problems, so few solutions. It's almost as if earth is the planet born to lose, at least for its human inhabitants.
Yes, a religious fundamentalist government (like the one Roy More and his biggest supporter Trump want to impose in the USA) probably murdered a political activist. It is outrageous and the Iranian people should replace this undemocratic regime.
But Saudi Arabia is a far more repressive religious fundamentalist regime, and they are our allies. It seems that the U.S. should be more worried about holding our allies to account, since we have leverage and responsibility, because we arm Saudi Arabia with billions of dollars worth of weapons, even as they indiscriminately kill thousands of civilians in Yemen, and continue to be the world's biggest exporter of pro-terrorist religious propaganda around the world.
With Trump itching to start a war, this piece smells like yet another excuse to attack Iran more than real concern for the plight of activists there (if not by the author, than by the editors that selected this piece for publication).
Compared to what the U.S. and its allies are doing, Iran is far less aggressive, and does not directly threaten us. And Iran has now people a better army, and far more difficult terrain than Iraq, where we were not able to decisively control events on the ground.
As a left activist fearing for my future under emperor Trump, I am acutely aware of decades of murders of activists around the world, many facilitated by the U.S., but that is no excuse to attack Iran.
13
Roger, are you a millennial? Write formally, not like you are having bar room chat.
2
Authoritarian regimes never change their pattern of governance---repressive rules/codes--->secret police--->surveillance-->secret prisons--->secret courts-->mysterious deaths. Fortunately, at least for now, our country possesses institutions that for strong obstacles to this pattern of governance. Having said that, you can see in Trump's administration the support and promotion of this pattern of governance. The irony of course are Trump followers who fail to see the double edge sword of populism and fascism.
5
As terribly sad as this story is, let's not forget that the current regime in Iran is the one created 39 years ago by the majority of the Iranian people. That many of them now have buyer's remorse is equally sad, but it's their problem to solve. The U.S. already "contributed" it's part by overthrowing the democratically elected government in 1953 and installing the autocratic Shah. It is time for the Iranian people to decide, again, what they want, and for the U.S. to back away. We have a track record of unwanted interventions, almost always ending up with unanticipated and unwelcome results.
117
And that has resulted in a toppling of Mosadegh - the prime minister of Iran... organized by CIA.... which led to the Revolution!
1953 coup blah, blah, blah. If Israel can maintain a good relationship with Germany now after what the Germans did to the Jewish People in the 1940s, why do progressives keep dragging out something from 1953 that isn't even a percentage point as horrible as the Holocaust to justify placing the blame on America for a theocratic tyranny in Tehran. Would you be doing the same intellectual acrobatics if someone rationalized Nazism because the Versailles Treaty after WWI was unfair to the Germans? Oh, and by the way: Israel had nothing to do with the 1953 coup in Tehran. So please explain the mullahs' dedication to wiping Israel off the map which of course would require a second Holocaust to pull that one off? Please explain.
"... an embarrassment to the Islamic Republic." Autocratic regimes, and autocrats, are incapable of such.
2
Unfortunately, our acceptance of police murder as a matter of course in the US, our lack of respect for the democratic process in the US, and a foreign policy that has historically embraced dictators (Mubarak comes to mind) makes any finger pointing at Iran (a country led by a bunch of kleptocrats dressed in religious garb) feel completely insincere. Any Iranian opposition group that would accept help from the US State Department should be suspect.
8
Horrifying in every detail for which this ossified, repressive regime is entirely responsible. May the overthrow of these theocratic dictators come sooner rather than later. And there is nothing wrong with hoping for true, timely democratic reform coming to Iran by whatever means, and soon.
16
It's too bad that we, too, are slowly slipping into a theocratic dictatorship, albeit somewhat muted so far. Evangelicals now rule the White House and much of Congress.
2
Repressive regimes gain strength the longer they are in power, and they are immune to sporadic street demonstrations – standing alone.
It is up to the community of nations to make a repressive regime vulnerable, and change requires unanimity and a multi-front effort to attack the regime and to support its victims.
The problem with economic sanctions is that they often harm the average citizen, who already is a victim, without affecting the regime decisively. This is what is happening in Iran.
If one looks carefully at the situation, in the case of any repressive regime there is aid and comfort given to the leaders of the regime by seemingly enlightened nations, whose governments mouth support for the demonstrators.
That outrageous aid and comfort takes the form of providing the repressive rulers a safe haven for the money plundered from the people every year. Again, this is what is happening to Iran, and some of the culprits are the bankers in Switzerland.
Justice is not easy to obtain for an oppressed people when their oppressors have friends in high places overseas. This is what Iranian men, women and children are facing every day.
47
Must be mighty nice to be white, free and safe in Cleveland.
Too bad that Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were neither white nor free nor safe while being shot to death by Cleveland cops. While a black mayor-Frank Jackson- and black police chief -Calvin Williams presided over a serial bigoted unlawful Cleveland Police Department that has had multiple DOJ consent decrees.
What do you know about being black in America? Or Kurd in Iran?
4
I largely agree with the sentiments expressed by your comments, but I have two main concerns. First, a military attack on Iran will undoubtedly meet with Iranian reprisals against Israeli and US targets in ME. That means any Israeli attack on Iran will be accompanied by heavy US bombardment of all military facilities in Iran, which are typically within cities. As in the case of Iraq, such bombardments will not be limited to a day or two but will go on for weeks, day and night. The result, as in the case of Iraq, will be destruction of the lives of millions of innocent Iranians.
Second, I wonder what such an attack could accomplish. If there are only bombardments with no US booths on ground, the result will be a country that is in total ruin, run by a regime that has to act with more brutality towards its citizens to ensure that it remains in control of what little is left. If the US actually invades Iran to force a regime change, then Iran will get a puppet (military?) regime, many times worst of what is currently in power there. The Iranians, being extremely nationalistic, will not accept such a regime and there will be a civil war, which will be followed by partitioning of the country. This may be a scenario that many in Jerusalem and Washington will cheer for, but I am not sure how 80 million Iranians will be able to survive it. If history is any indication, like thousands of Afghans, Iraquies, and Libyans, they just will pack up and head for Europe.
I largely agree with you, Eddie B., but read my comment carefully. You will see that at no place do I advocate a "military attack" on Iran. It would be used by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an excuse to discredit further the legitimacy of the Iranian protestors and to punish them with increased cruelty.
1
"At the same time, tensions have flared, particularly in Syria, with Donald Trump’s United States, Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel itching to fight Iran."
I cannot imagine a more distorted depiction. Itching to fight Iran? Israel wants Iran away from its border. Israel wants Iran to cease supporting and arming Hezbollah in Syria (and Lebanon). There are red lines which Israel, or any rational nation would not suffer. What was that Iranian drone doing over Israel (for a minute and a half until shot down). Does Mr. Cohen think that any Israeli, Jew, Arab or whatever wants a war in the north?
Yes, this is just an aside to Mr. Cohen's major theme, but it is hard to take him seriously when he distorts reality as he did here.
As for Prof. Emami, the Iranians apparently murdered him. The Revolutionary Guard still rules and the reckoning, if it ever comes, is a long way off.
34
It is really hard to believe that you count Israel as a rational regime that can be reasoned. They are suppressing Palestinian by far larger scales and Yes, USA are supporting them.
2
Is Cohen's comment a distortion, or does he just see differently. We who do not have family ties to Israel tire of folks screaming about minutia when there are larger ideas to work. Cohen's major point has nothing at all to do with Israel.
2
I guess this is what passes for clear thinking in Israel. Open your eyes and actually look at Bibi.
3
Atrocity story= justification for war.
Here we go again.
2
Please tell us where in the article there is a demand for war.
3
War is foreseeable in that part of the world. So is some type of American involvement.
as a Canadian Iran is sure not popular in Canada.plus wasting allthat money and having Iranians dying fighting in Syria.
1
dream on...
we created a client state under an implanted despot and let him alone to pursue his interests which, as long as he flew elites to iran for bread and circuses, we paid for.
our diminishing appetite for the heavy lifting required to finish what we start (compare to ww2 and the rebuilding of europe and japan) has sapped our "can-do" strength like a geopolitical eating disorder.
1
Iran is headed for a reckoning; if Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia will back off and let the political situation in Iran develop. The more that Iran is threatened from the outside the more stable they become internally. We can hope that Netanyahu is too embroiled in his on own political survival game to get Israel into a war and that Trump is to busy replacing cabinet members to stir the pot. Iran will change or the current government will fall under the weight of its own contradictions. Much like the Soviet Union, the promise of the revolution was never realized and each generation becomes more aware that it never will be. What I hope for is a bloodless transformation into a more democratic and open Iran.
124
Iran is the culmination of 2500 years of Persian culture.
Iran is the center of Shia Islam that is the most motivated effective force against the Sunni Muslim extremist malign likes of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, al Qaeda and ISIS. Iranian women are a force in Iran unlike anywhere else in the Middle East Muslim world.
I do not care how much Israeli blood and treasure is lost in any conflict with Iran. Israel is already the evil ethnic sectarian supremacist state sponsor of terrorism rogue with nukes that it claims Iran wants to become.
This Iran is the creation of America's malign covert and overt existential acts of war against Iran over nearly seven decades.
2
These regimes, can easily manufacture, incidents, flash-points with their neighbors, regimes, don't really fall by themselves,
it always takes a struggle.
The idea of some commenters that Israel is looking for war with Iran is absurd. Iran’s puppet - hezbollah - would launch thousands of more accurate, more powerful missiles at Israel, which would suffer hundreds, if not thousands, of casualties. Israel is simply trying to prevent Iran from gaining the ability to
Attack Israel from Syria and to deliver even more accurate missiles to Lebanon.
Yes, this is truly a tragic story, no doubt. However, maybe we should also think about and mourn the hundreds of thousands of completely innocent men, women and children either killed or made into homeless refugees by indiscriminate US bombing in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other places in the Middle East over the last 15 years. In its effort to put everything in control of its allies, the US has a lot of blood on its hands. There is nothing noble about the fight for control of oil and resources, plain and simple.
18
Or you could remember the hundreds of thousands killed by Assad and Sadaam Hussein. I realize liberals love to blame the US for EVERYTHING.
4
When the US instigates things for its own nefarious purposes, yes, it is to blame. The Iraq war was based on lies, after the US supported Saddam Hussein to the tune of millions of dollars for many years. And it decided to oust Assad only after he refused to go along with a gas pipeline plan pushed by John Kerry. Either you go along, or we will destroy you. That's the way a mafia operates. Wake up.
1
Mr. Cohen: I am sorry to hear of this, but also enlightened by your article.
I was struck by you mentioning, several times, that you met him. Clearly that informed your willingness to write about it. You did a wonderful job of painting who he was: a mild mannered man. An environmentalist. A man with a son and a wife who was loved. Someone who cared about something other than blind power.
Despite all that, I kept thinking of three words after I read what you wrote:
"I met him".
The thing is, people are murdered every day in the name of politics. Whether it's an Iranian dissenter, or the victim of a terrorist, or a person of color, or an LGBTQ person etc. They are all someones to anyone they meet.
I mention this not at all to diminish what you are saying. Quite the contrary, I applaud you for this essay and for bringing to my awareness something I did not know about.
So I walk away from this article with three thoughts:
1. The world lost a good person. Again.
2. Remember not to depersonalize the people I read about and
3. Thank goodness for reporters, who can still bring alive injustices and speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves.
It is said that the world, despite outward appearances, is becoming more peaceful and less violent. Less poverty. It sure doesn't feel that way to me--I have never felt less hope. Yet, perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Reporters tell these stories. Regimes/people are held accountable. Things change.
62
"They say they have a video of him preparing his suicide. "
Right - because prisoners in Iran all have cameras to document their fateful decisions behind bars...
If there was only an uninhabited continent on which humanity could strand its religious reactionaries of every persuasion, and allow them to have it out in a "my god is bigger than your god" extravaganza.
My sympathies to Emami's family and friends - and to the long-suffering Iranian people. My your struggle against theocratic oppression be victorious.
129
Well said, Mr. C. And may we exile our own #45 prezzy to that continent, with his "My deification is bigger than your deities" shtik....
1
Where was your sympathy for your fellow Americans while black like Sandra Bland, Kalief Browder, Tamir Rice, Oscar Grant, Rekia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams?
Black lives in America matter most to me and mine.
3
How does sympathy for Emami cancel out /prevents sympathy for any other victims of institutional violence, including those in the US?
4