Iranian Physics Student From UT Gets 10 Years In Jail For Spying 253
scibri writes "Omid Kokabee, a laser physics graduate student from the University of Texas who has been imprisoned in Tehran for the past 15 months, was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Sunday for allegedly conspiring with foreign countries against Iran. Kokabee was arrested in February 2011 while on a trip home, and charged with 'communicating with a hostile government' (i.e. Israel) and 'illegal earnings.' He has consistently denied the charges, and refused to speak at his trial, where no evidence against him was presented. Several international science groups, including the American Physical Society, have spoken up in his defense, and an online petition has been set up in support."
Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly, this is a very common theme with the Iranian Government. Usually this is to get the person on board with them. They get out when they are on-board, and often family members are jailed to be sure that they stay on-board.
As long as crap is in power, crap like this happens. How many brilliant people did Stalin and Hitler kill? So many that we have no way of knowing.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like the trial-less imprisonment here in the US. He's a "terrorist" and doesn't deserve a (fair) trial.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:4, Insightful)
I was wondering how long it would be before some sheltered fool claimed America was just as bad.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:4, Informative)
I was wondering how long it would be before some sheltered fool claimed America was just as bad.
Actually [wordpress.com], it [wordpress.com] is [motherboard.tv] somewhat [aljunnah.com] worse [thepeoplesvoice.org].
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You're right, our version of "honor killing" is much worse here. We kill the young woman involved and a couple of puppies and a pony, too, for good measure. Can't let those Persians out-honor-killing us.
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Non-response. He's talking legal system, you're talking vigilantes. And those vigilantes aren't violating their Bill of Rights left and right.
So, got any relevant comparisons to make?
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+1
though a semi working sewer/legal system is much better than an open gutter; also allows us to say our shit don't stink.
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Sorry, but of all the examples you could have possibly given this is the worst. Was Abu-ghraib right? Don't even be foolish enough to ask. Hell shooting someone in the face is not right, neither is having someone else try to shoot you in the face. Abu-Ghraib is a very unfortunate side effect of war.
Before you say "but but but but" I'll ask you to volunteer for the Military and go see for yourself. Watch a few of your friends die and get hit by a bullet or two. Lets see how you react when you capture so
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
Before you say "but but but but" I'll ask you to volunteer for the Military and go see for yourself.
Couldn't. Gay. Curiously, people who chant "death to america!" are a bit more accepting regarding military service, though it usually ends with a bang.
Watch a few of your friends die and get hit by a bullet or two.
I didn't have to serve in the military to see that. I've been shot myself... twice.
Lets see how you react when you capture someone and they spit in your face and tell you they will hunt down your whole family and kill them.
I can't say I ever captured someone, but I've had people spit in my face and tell me they will hunt down my whole family and kill them. Again, gay. Also, small town.
Try helping out someone asking for help and watching them kill a few innocents, and then yell "he did it!".
Okay, at this point, I have to ask... what the fuck are you getting at? Is your justification here that two wrongs make a right? That it's okay to kill people, as long as it's for the right reasons? Collateral damage? Where are you going with this... or are you just rattling off the many inhumane things human beings are capable of when told by an authority to do them?
We torture and kill innocent people; and it's not just foreigners, it's our own citizens. Our fear mongering leaders want show trials for their re-election so badly they throw people to the wolves. The FBI is busy manufacturing terrorists just so they can claim credit for taking them down. And you're acting like we shouldn't be ashamed? That we should just accept it? Are you truly that jaded?
But in a war, when you have your ass on the line 24/7/365 and you watch people die..
You don't kill others to protect your way of life, only to come home and kill more people who's crime is living that way of life.
There are countless Occupy people that have been arrested and detained without bail or trial for weeks.
Yes, I know. I was there. And no bail or trial for a couple weeks is not the same thing as never having a trial, being disappeared, having the government deny your family, friends, or anyone access to you, never seeing a lawyer, permanently. That's what we've legalized in the past few years; and it goes against everything we have sent generations of young men overseas to die for.
We should be ashamed.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe you're mistaken in calling the parent a "sheltered fool".
We've suspended Habeus Corpus for anyone branded a terrorist. We've suspended the 4th Amendment any time the NSA wants to wiretap all phone traffic. We torture people. We have secret evidence in trials, which defense attorneys can't see. And National Security Letters can make it a crime to even talk about what the government is up to, even if it's illegal.
So we have a government capable of *exactly* what Iran did to this guy.
And if you're arguing that America isn't as bad because we don't to it as often, there are two points to be made. First, Bigby never talked about how the relative frequency of this kind of trial in the U.S. vs. Iran; just that the U.S. has done these things at least once in recent history. Secondly, given that our our handling of alleged terrorism is secret, none of us has real information on how often the U.S. conducts "trials" of the sort Iran did with this guy.
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There's no doubt that US did things exactly like that, and worse. Here [slashdot.org] is a Slashdot post that names some names.
The only difference is that 779 people went through Guantanamo, while Iranian prisons contain far more dissidents who did not get a fair trial.
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Secret evidence is a common thing in the US court systems. Just Google that, you will see. Are you sure we are not doing everything listed just because most of it does not make media? I mean... awe hell, I won't even start on the media bashing. To easy of a target.
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+1
it seems that the general public is apathetic to this erosion, which just makes it worse.
Always happens quick (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a lot of very narcissistic people on Slashdot and any discussion that isn't about America they seem to need to find a way to redirect it to the US as soon as they can. I can never be a discussion about civil rights in another nation, they have to try and steer the debate right back around to America so they can do more whining and make more things about themselves.
It is extremely annoying, and precisely as expected for this site.
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1) There are a lot of U.S. citizens on Slashdot, so it is hardly surprising that those people are going to discuss stories from a U.S. perspective, making it sometimes U.S. centric.
2) I think that, rather than being narcissistic, this is simply a case of "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." [wiktionary.org] When your elected representatives, and certain media elements, endorse assassination without trial, imprisonment without trial, and torture without trial, then they lose the moral authority to crit
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It sounds like the trial-less imprisonment here in Russia. He's a "terrorist" and doesn't deserve a (fair) trial.
It sounds like the trial-less imprisonment here in China. He's a "terrorist" and doesn't deserve a (fair) trial.
It sounds like the trial-less imprisonment here in the DRC. He's a "terrorist" and doesn't deserve a (fair) trial.
It sounds like the trial-less imprisonment here
and your point is? (Score:2)
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in usa you don't get a mock trial.. ok, technically in cuba you don't get a mock trial if you're hold by the u.s authorities.
in iran, they don't need evidence, just that the other 10-15 guys(article wasn't more specific) confess after a beating.
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In the US you don't need evidence either. The government can simply tell the courts hey its a national security issue trust us. And that's it. The poor guy gets to rot in prison for undetermined time for completely made up charges.
Now in Europe on the other hand the courts can't judge you based on non disclosed evidence. Precisely to avoid the arbitrariness that underlies the modern US judicial system. Funny to think that european citizens are more protected from their govenments than US citenzens are from
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That, or the imprisonment of completely harmless individuals for completely harmless acts, after giving them a fair trial at a jury of their peers. The US likes to act like it's better than Iran, but it engages in persecution of its own people too.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
This is so far away from the US that it's laughable
Agreed. In the U.S. he'd never get a trial.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:4, Funny)
your espionage card has been revoked, you now have the new terrorist badge. go directly to gitmo
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, I know, right?
It's not like there was a law passed that allowed the executive to hold prisoners indefinitely. (NDAA)
It's not like there were multiple inmates from Gitmo who have Supreme Court rulings bearing their name. (Hamdi, Hamdan, and Boumediene)
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Your (and any other) country is only as fair and righteous as what it did in the living memory of those wronged. That is why the Bush years were so devastating; no matter what Obama does the period between 2001 and 2008 very much defines how the rest of the world looks at the US.
Torturing people is wrong? Says 'dictator A', ok... We'll only do sleep d
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Obama isn't as blatant about it, at least he pretends to be a good guy.
Doesn't that make it worse instead of better? I figure an honest scoundrel is better than a guy who tells you he's on your side while he's stepping on your head.
Not that I find it acceptable...
Of course not.
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Selection of Vice President is very important to Presidential security -- Dan Quayle was much more important to insuring the safety of George Herbert Walker Bush than his entire Secret Service detail was.
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That must be why they got Dick Cheney to be VP for Bush; as bad as Bush was, having Cheney as Pres would have been even worse.
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That's exactly the extent of the difference between Bush and Obama. And as the other poster said, it's actually worse. At least Bush was honest about what a piece of shit he was.
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If you're talking about the US, I fail to see where the difference is. The current President of the US authorized the assassination of a US citizen overseas without due process: http://www.salon.com/2010/04/07/assassinations_2/ [salon.com] and now he's dead. [1]
Worse, to this day even the head of the FBI doesn't know whether or not this applies to US citizens on U
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Not without precedent. The American South seceded and the president ordered lots of Americans killed to stop it.
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Wrong. AFAIK, "martial law" and a state of emergency was declared when the South seceded. When martial law is declared, civil liberties stop, for everyone. That's fairly understandable for a situation where nearly half your country has decided they want to break away and is in open rebellion (let's not get into a discussion about whether it's right or wrong to put down a rebellion that a majority of the population (in the rebelling districts) approve of).
What we have now is totally different. There's no
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If by "inconvenient" you mean they are "enemy combatants attempting to harm or destroy the USA", then I guess that's true. However, my only point is that such individuals have in the past, also been targeted and killed. In large numbers, actually. The Civil War is such an example
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The United States of America did not accept the secession, so in the eyes of the USA, the Confederate States of America was not a recognized country. See the "Emancipation Proclamation" which the USA issued to free the slaves in the entire USA, which also covered the breakaway southern states. The secession was a contested issue. So the killing of people in the states attempting to secede, in the eyes of the USA, was still the killing of Americans, in an attempt to stop the secession from completing succes
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None of which addresses my point, which was this: An American citizen, simply accused of being a terrorist, was assassinated, without being arrested, without being charged and without any proof of wrong doing at all, so far as we know, other than the US Federal Government saying that he was a "bad person"
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the difference between a trial with no evidence, and a trial with classified evidence that the defense is not allowed to see or contest?
What's the difference if you're held in prison for "indefinite detention", and you have never been charged, and you cannot file a habeas corpus petition to determine if the government even has any evidence to justify imprisoning you? At least in this case, there was a trial. That's more than some folks at Gitmo get.
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Here, the entire "plot" is woven, whole cloth by the "investigative" agency. Dupes are recruited from the targeted population to execute the plot, under the continuous supervision and motivation by agency operatives. Ultimately, the "plotters" are intercepted for their stage-managed arrest and exposure.
In Iran? Well, they first apprehend someone who has a detectable pattern of contact with hostile, foreign governments and provable omissions in record and testimony.
After that? They are both foregone conc
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+1 underrated, please.
"-1" moderation is not a valid argument against ideas. This guy has a point.
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Don't worry. I've picked up a tail on /.
Might be run-of-the-mill hasbara or one of the various MISO/Psyop members of the Chairforce that are sent to "police" public forums.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Your characterization of American justice is incorrect. You seem to be talking about the dangerously-close-to-entrapment behavior that the FBI engages in, cooking up plots and luring idiots into taking the bait, and then waving them around as evidence that the FBI is protecting us.
What about foreign nationals like Kahlid el-Masri? He was some innocent German guy who the CIA had kidnapped. The CIA agent who recommended his detention wasn't punished; she was promoted!
Or Maher Arar? Kidnapped and rendered to Syria for torture. The Canadian government paid him restitution for their part in his detention, rendition, and torture. But when he tried to sue the US? Nope, sorry, State Secrets.
Or perhaps Lakhdar Boumediene? He was a member of the Red Crescent (think of it like the Muslim version of the Red Cross) He was held for 7 years until a federal judge finally ruled that the government had no evidence. When one side of his nose was broken, US personnel force fed him (twice a day) through the other nostril. Sometimes they missed his stomach and the tube went into his lungs instead. Oops.
Murat Kurnaz? Another German, held for five years in Gitmo. There's a DoD memo stating that he was cleared for release about one year about his detention, and yet he languished for four more years anyway.
What about the Uighurs? Everyone admits they aren't guilty of any crimes, and yet many are still stuck in Gitmo after nearly a decade.
These are ALL perfectly fucking innocent human beings, who were never charged or tried despite spending years and years in detention, sometimes almost as long as this student has been sentenced. There was no plot. There was hardly an investigation.
I say again, at least this student was given a sham trial before being imprisoned. That sham trial is more than any of those folks I listed above got before they were imprisoned and tortured. The difference between a sham trial with no evidence and no trial at all is in practice negligible.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Or perhaps Lakhdar Boumediene? He was a member of the Red Crescent (think of it like the Muslim version of the Red Cross) He was held for 7 years until a federal judge finally ruled that the government had no evidence. When one side of his nose was broken, US personnel force fed him (twice a day) through the other nostril. Sometimes they missed his stomach and the tube went into his lungs instead. Oops.
I went to read about the guy on Wikipedia, and...
"In January 2002, the Supreme Court of Bosnia ruled that there was no evidence to hold the six men, ordered the charges dropped and the men released. American forces, including troops who were part of a 3,000 man American peace-keeping contingent in Bosnia were waiting for the six men upon their release from Bosnia custody, seized them, and transported them to Guantanamo."
What. The. Fuck? Last I checked, Bosnia was an independent sovereign country. How can this kind of crap be pulled off? Did they do it Mossad-style, or what?
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)
What the fuck, indeed. You should read Boumediene's op-ed in the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantanamo-nightmare.html?_r=1&ref=opinion [nytimes.com]
Also, I forgot a bit about Kurnaz
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/notes-from-a-guantanamo-survivor.html [nytimes.com]
This is the kind of shit you see in movies (movies like Rendition, which was based on Khalid el-Masri's experience). It's almost hard to believe that my government can do this sort of thing to innocent people.
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See decades ago when the US was seen as the mega super bastion of freedom, truth, shining knight of armor and whatnot, I told my friend, the US is simply a country like others
I don't know how old you are, but no one I know (in the UK) has thought of the US in those terms since 1945.
I suppose members of the old Soviet Bloc had a romanticised view of the US until the 1990s though.
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Last I checked, Bosnia was an independent sovereign country
So were Iraq and Afghanistan until the US invaded them. So in theory are Pakistan and the Yemen.
The US recognises three types of country: itself, other big countries it has to respect in order to avoid starting WW3, and everyone else, including alleged allies, which it treats in the same way that Medieval kings treated their serfs.
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"What about the Uighurs? Everyone admits they aren't guilty of any crimes, and yet many are still stuck in Gitmo after nearly a decade."
Hand them to Beijing.
Banality of evil (Score:2, Insightful)
The great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal. [wikipedia.org]
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Here's a tip for all Iranians outside Iran. Don't go back. No matter how much you miss the kin and pine for the fjords, if you can manage it, don't go back.
Is Iran crazy? (Score:2, Flamebait)
He's the last nuclear physicist in the country that Mossad hasn't killed, and they're sending him to prison?!?
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Re:Is Iran crazy? (Score:5, Funny)
If they next imprison a biologist specializing in cold blooded, carnivorous sea fauna, we know what's going on!
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The TSA is too stupid to catch any nuclear physicists on their way to Iran or anywhere else.
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Hmm. Laser-induced fusion...
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Laser physicist. Not a lot of use in making nuclear weapons.
You should read up on the Laser uranium enrichment [nextbigfuture.com] program announced by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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well, he had a life outside iran too and that he wasn't dead is clear evidence that he must be working with mossad.
maybe mossad should target the mock trial judges though? or the iranian resistance should(it exists.. they carry out the bike bombings etc inside iran).
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No He's a Laser Physicist... Iran wants to build a "Star Wars Defense System"!
So if you check out the "Human Rights Watch" [hrw.org] you'll find that Iran is a stinking cesspool in the area of human rights and you simply can't be surprised at how unfair or nasty they are and on how little provocation they will burn you down and pee on the ashes. If you are LGBT or friendly to such, an "Intellectual or Social Scientist", an unhappy student, protester of any type, woman, child, religious/racial/or social minority, you
Online Petition (Score:4, Funny)
Oh shit. A fucking online petition. Those Iranian guys a really wishing that they hadn't fucked with that grad student.
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Hey, they're also totally going to hold a sit-in and bake sale as soon as the Fall semester starts.
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Oh c'mon, every time we have a serious discussion someone has to come out and ridicule it.
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"Greetings ; I noticed that you care about the rights of fellow men. Good for you. My husband, Dr Nodal Momorani was imprisoned and killed, and I am trying to distribute his $30 million
No disrespect to the student.
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Yet that is the whole premise of modern 'protests'. Sign a meaningless petition. "Like" a meaningless blurb or post a meaningless forward on Facebook. Send an "outraged" tweet or two. Get the bumper sticker. Get the T-shirt... Go on with your life in the sure and smug knowledge that you've made a difference.
Oh, and don't forget - declare victory quickly before the next meme comes along.
This says it all. (Score:3)
He has consistently denied the charges, and refused to speak at his trial, where no evidence against him was presented.
You're guilty because we say so.
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Well, I don't know about legal practice in Iran, maybe that's how it is? You're accused, your prosecutor thinks you did it and if you don't defend yourself, it means you agree?
Not as implausible as it may sound, I mean, it's something similar here in civil court. You don't show up, you're losing by default.
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Not Quite "His" Trial (Score:5, Informative)
and refused to speak at his trial
From the Nature article
Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolution Court — who is famous for his harsh sentences — tried 10 to 15 people in the same trial, under the collective charge of collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.
Hardly "his" trial now, wasn't it? From the sound of it, it was just 10-15 students they all accused of the same thing with some of them (like Sina Zahiri [iranian.com]) confessing in order to reduce their sentences. Of course, Zahiri's accusation is contact with Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (completely unrelated to the Mossad). So now that Zahiri has confessed, Iran has "evidence" that they can now use to justify counter attacks or assassinations or arrests or whatever.
I'm sure in Kokabee's case, he'd have a lighter sentence if he just said that Israel is doing all the stuff of which they accuse him. Because then Iran has evidence to start some international shit (by the way, I am by no means claiming Israel has no such operations inside Iran).
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It's more likely he gets 10 yrs for not agreeing to work on Iran's nuke program when asked...and for asking to return to the US to finish his studies. Thus he must be a spy.
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From the sound of it, it was just 10-15 students they all accused of the same thing
I haven't seen a report saying that they are students. But, regardless, how do we actually know they are innocent? There have been numerous targeted bombings and assassinations of Iranian scientists and academics. [nature.com] Some organised "terrorist" group has murdered these people, and others have supplied that group with information, weapons, money, safehouses etc. If this were happening in the U.S. - if American scientists and academics were being murdered by a foreign terrorist group - then Americans would be dem
Brain Drain in Iran (Score:5, Insightful)
Iran is desperate to plug that hole, but frankly they're heavily outmatched and being sanctioned and sabotaged every step of the way.
If you're imposing strict social codes [wikipedia.org] with ridiculously harsh laws while trying to compete with super powers, you're going to have a bad time.
It's true the USSR and US played a big part in turning Iran into the screw up it is today but at some point the people have gotta turn it around if they don't want to end up completely like North Korea. Smart people don't want to live in places where smart people are bothered and executed. Smart people also can't be told where to live -- they're smart and they figure out ways around that.
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but at some point the people have gotta turn it around if they don't want to end up completely like North Korea.
Turn [salon.com] what around? [businessinsider.com]
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Smart people goes away.
The people that stays are the ones that endup like North Korea, and this is the problem here (IMHO).
So was he spying? (Score:2)
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Well, at least Mossad is getting smarter than trying to send 3 jewish students into Iran with a bunch of surveillance equipment, trying to claim they're on a fucking Iraqi hiking trip [wikipedia.org].
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Well, at least Mossad is getting smarter than trying to send 3 jewish students into Iran with a bunch of surveillance equipment, trying to claim they're on a fucking Iraqi hiking trip [wikipedia.org].
That's the fucking Iraqi hiking trip I was trying to remember! Yeah, those people were obviously guilty, even from the western slanted news stories. I'm not as sure about this student, but I'd be willing to bet he was spying for Israel. If I had to bet, I'd be he was spying. On the hikers, I would have willingly bet everything I own that they were spying.
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You think they would have at least given them a decent cover story. Three arabic-speaking jews go from Syria to Iraq, via Israel. Their relatives are all closely tied to Israel. They show up on the Iranian border with spy gear, claiming they were going on a "nature hike" in one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
Jesus, they may as well have been wearing "I'm a spy!" t-shirts. Pretty fucking cruel of Mossad to even allow that.
You can't go home (Score:2)
I know several Iranians, and none of them have been home in 30 years. They're not stupid enough to get caught up in the political tug of war between the US and Iran.
Queue "But the US..." comment in 3... 2... 1... (Score:3)
Re:Queue "But the US..." comment in 3... 2... 1... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you escape, do not return. (Score:4, Insightful)
That simple. Iranians (well, except the MEK) aren't dedicated enough for a protracted violent struggle, so their government will remain as it is.
The Viet Minh and later Viet Cong were willing to die, by the hundreds of thousands, to take power in their country. The Taliban have demonstrated the same will to fight over decades.
Either be willing to fight as a revolutionary or get the fuck out before Serious People eat you. The Mullonazis are Serious People. If you aren't willing to slaughter them, you don't really oppose them.
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So you renounce all war and revolution which involves violence? Good luck with that.
Pacifism wouldn't have freed the US from Britain, freed the slaves in the US Civil War, freed Europe from Hitler, or freed much of Asia from Hirohitos minions.
Also, it is better to be victor than vanquished. Not conforming to some arbitrary moral standard has no inherent cost. Being on the LOSING SIDE of a violent conflict demonstrably does.
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if you act the same as your enemies you are no better than they are.
Sometimes there is no "better", only dead or alive.
Not a lot of sympathy (Score:4, Interesting)
It's difficult to glean from the articles, but it seems Kokabee is not an American citizen, but an Iranian citizen who was attending an American graduate school. The act of going to an American school was the first risky move, both to his own safety but that of his family. The Iranian government knew he was attending an American school and simply waited for the appropriate time to use him as a pawn. Did he really think he was going to be able to associate himself with America and not end up being used for propaganda purposes by the Iranian government? He's a young kid so maybe he didn't think about it, but his parents should have.
I do sympathize that he felt he had to risk everything in order to get a good education in the field of his choice, but he put himself in a very risky position.
If you're in Iran, get out (Score:2)
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the evangelical dominionists don't have anything in their ideology remotely like what they have in Iran, where they can call you "mohareb" and just kill you.
Well, extreme right wing would normally call you "traitor", with the same connotations. They'd probably execute people for it, too - if their blogs and such are anything to go by - it's just that they're not in power (yet?).
There's the big difference (Score:2)
In the West, the religious fanatics are not in power. The extreme ones who would kill you for blasphemy, apostasy or homosexuality are laughed at or scorned by the rest of the nation. It is not a reasonable expectation that these people will attain enough power to impose their will any time in the near future.
In the Muslim world, it's quite often those extreme religious fanatics who are in charge. Iran executed a man for being homosexual not long ago. Salman Rushdie still has a price on his head because he
Re:Puts things in perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
We have a LONG way to go before the West descends into such a farce.
Not as long as Cannabis is illegal. If the US can maintain the illusion that Cannabis(which is less harmful than most OTC drugs) is so dangerous that we have to lock people in cages for multiple decades just for growing it, what can't they do?
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It DOES put things into perspective, especially for people who like to complain about teh evil government in America taking away their rights, when there are governments which REALLY abuse their own people.
"Things could be worse" doesn't translate into "things are good."
And this should serve as a warning for what happens when you allow governments to run rampant.
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"Or at least I hope so -- the evangelical dominionists don't have anything in their ideology remotely like what they have in Iran, where they can call you "mohareb" and just kill you."
They just don't have the POWER, yet. They are all "Fred Phelps" under the skin. Why do you think there are so FEW counter-protests when WBC show up to picket?
Let's see those fucking hypocrites drag their inbred polyester-clad arses out and SPEAK UP when someone professing to be "Christian" spouts "God Hates Fags" at the funera
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I imagine his "prison" will be a research facility. He was nabbed before he managed to complete his studies, get a job in the US or some other Western country and never returned.
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90% of the inmates at Gitmo were innocent as well, and they didn't even get a show trial.
No, they got free board and lodging in a tropical paradise instead of scrounging for food in a war-torn desert.
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Morality is absolute, not relative. Either be perfect or kill yourself.
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It was 15 people, not 1 person.