When the government takes away freedoms

[Ancient]

The next time someone on the left complains that Bush or the Patriot Act is taking away our freedoms, show them this article. Because this is what it really looks like:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19256860/

WASHINGTON - Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution.

The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups.

The move has quashed or forced underground many independent civil society groups, silenced protests over issues including women's rights and pay rates, quelled academic debate, and sparked society-wide fear about several aspects of daily life, the sources said.

Few feel safe, especially after the April arrest of Hossein Mousavian, a former top nuclear negotiator and ambassador to Germany, on charges of espionage and endangering national security.

The widespread purges and arrests are expected to have an impact on parliamentary elections next year and the presidential contest in 2009, either discouraging or preventing reformers from running against the current crop of hard-liners who dominate all branches of government, Iranian and U.S. analysts say. The elections are one of several motives behind the crackdowns, they add.

Instilling fear
Public signs of discontent -- such as students booing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a campus last December, teacher protests in March over low wages and workers demonstrating on May Day -- are also behind the detentions, according to Iranian sources.

"The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "You're going to think twice about taking to the streets to protest the hike in gasoline prices if you know the regime's paramilitary forces have been on a head-cracking spree the last few weeks."

Despite promises to use Iran's oil revenue to aid the poor, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have backfired, triggering 20 percent inflation over the past year, increased poverty and a 25 percent rise in the price of gas last month. More than 50 of the country's leading economists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad this week warning that he is ignoring basic economics and endangering the country's future.

Universities have been particularly hard hit by faculty purges and student detentions since late last year, according to Iranian analysts and international human rights groups. Professors still on campus have been warned by Iran's intelligence ministry about developing relationships with their foreign counterparts, who may try to recruit them as spies.

"Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated his goal of purging Iranian society of secular thought. This is taking shape as a cultural revolution, particularly on university campuses, where persecution and prosecution of students and faculty are intensifying with each passing day," said Hadi Ghaemi, the Iran analyst for Human Rights Watch.

In recent weeks, the government has also tried to dissolve student unions and replace them with allies from the Basij -- a young, volunteer paramilitary body, human rights groups say. Between April 30 and June 6, eight student leaders involved in the elections at Amirkabir University -- where Ahmadinejad was reportedly jeered as students set his pictures on fire -- have been jailed in Evin Prison.

The campus purges have been mirrored in virtually all government-funded organizations, as hard-liners have been slotted into positions in the civil service, security apparatus, financial institutions and public services in the two years since Ahmadinejad took office, Iranian analysts said.

Leaders of groups defying the new strictures -- such as bus drivers trying to unionize, teachers protesting pay rates below the poverty line and women's activists trying to gather 1 million signatures to demand reform of Iran's family law -- have been arrested, human rights groups said. Others have been summoned for interrogations by the intelligence ministry.

Censorship increases
Iran's Supreme National Security Council last month also laid out new censorship rules in a letter to news outlets, instructing them to refrain from writing about public security, oil price increases, new international economic sanctions, inflation, civil society movements, or negotiations with the United States on the future of Iraq, according to Iranian journalists.

"Censorship has got much worse recently," Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi told the BBC in Tehran this week. "Iran's government doesn't like . . . events inside the country to be reflected in the outside world."

One of the biggest crackdowns has been the campaign against "immoral behavior" launched this spring. Iran's police chief said in April that 150,000 people had been detained, but few were referred for trial. The rest were asked to sign "letters of commitment" to honor public behavior and dress codes. An additional 17,000 were detained at Iranian airports in May, the airport security chief told Iranian news agencies.

The Bush administration's $75 million fund to promote democracy in Iran is the key reason for the recent arrest of several dual U.S.-Iranian citizens in Iran, including D.C. area scholar Haleh Esfandiari. Iranian analysts contend that the U.S. funds have also made civil society movements targets because of government suspicions that they are conspiring to foster a "velvet revolution" against the regime.

[rhink]

This is why we don't need to fight Iran. Keep up external pressure and keep them isolated and they'll implode on their own accord.

[Namrok]

Originally Posted by rhink

This is why we don't need to fight Iran. Keep up external pressure and keep them isolated and they'll implode on their own accord.

The problem is how far they'll expand their influence, and how many countries they'll take down with them :/

[rhink]

We should definitely stay engaged with them- but that doesn't necessarily mean active hostilities. Actually I think continuously pushing back against them reduces the possibility of hostilities.

[Ancient]

Originally Posted by rhink

This is why we don't need to fight Iran. Keep up external pressure and keep them isolated and they'll implode on their own accord.

I agree. I also believe it's why the Bush admin hasn't attacked Iran militarily and have resorted to a sort of economic warfare instead.

[|MaguS|]

OMG they are oppressing their people! We need to bomb them and then we will be greeted like liberators!

[$n][pErMan]

just nuke these jawas already... no need to let radicals have nukes.

[Tea on Tuesday]

Originally Posted by $n][pErMan

just nuke these jawas already... no need to let radicals have nukes.

Ahh, the intellect of the average American shines like a beacon of stupidity atop a mountain of ignorance. They have civilians there, like you know, women and children.

[netviper13]

Originally Posted by $n][pErMan

just nuke these jawas already... no need to let radicals have nukes.

[retsam]

Originally Posted by Tea on Tuesday

Ahh, the intellect of the average American shines like a beacon of stupidity atop a mountain of ignorance. They have civilians there, like you know, women and children.

ahhh the intellect of the average liberal/socialist shines like a beacon of stupidity atop a mountain of ignorance, he was being sarcastic you dumb ****.

[retsam]

so how many american soldiers have to die untill we wake up and realise that most of the armamants are coming from iran?...

[Tea on Tuesday]

Originally Posted by retsam

ahhh the intellect of the average liberal/socialist shines like a beacon of stupidity atop a mountain of ignorance, he was being sarcastic you dumb ****.

That's cute. I doubt he was kidding.