Roger L. Simon: Iran was on my mind today ...

It's never that far off. I think most would agree that the Persian nation is at the heart of the world conflict. Yesterday, I received some email out of the blue, asking if Pajamas might be interested in some clandestine video of an Iranian dissident, Zahra Kamalfar, trapped in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyvo Airport for 73 days. 73 days, I thought. I can remember being trapped in Sheremetyvo for about six hours during the communist era and getting crazy paranoid. 73 days? It was and is hard to wrap your mind around.

So I made friends with a mysterious Iranian-American director named Ardeshir Arian, who turned out not to be so mysterious but a fine fellow, and spent the usual hours on the phone and IM with my trusty partner in crime Andrew Marcus and the results are now up on Pajamas. I hope in our little way we have helped with the fate of Ms. Kamalfar and that she will not be heading back to Tehran on Monday. Another Zahra - Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist - did not fare very well on her visit to Tehran's notorious Evin prison. I always have to laugh in a bitter way when I read these stories out of Iran and think how little time our media devotes to them and how much to the far less threatening tales of supposed American torture. Sometjmes I think if Pajamas works to correct that imbalance ... and that is all we do ... we have accomplished more than enough. Check out the video. There are some things I cannot say about the circumstances of the video and how it got here, because people would be endangered. Maybe after the Mullahs are overthrown. In the words of another friend of mine, "Faster, please!"

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I hope the mullahs are overthrown, it would sove a lot of peoblems if the barbarians were gone and people like this were allowed to live in peace.

You know, it is easy to walk around and demand that the planet be saved, preferably with somebody elses money. It is often harder to help just one person.

This video of Zahra Kamalfar is heartbreaking. I do not mean to be frivolous, but she would be vastly better off under "Guantanamo conditions". Her children would not be malnourished, for starters. She would have advocates with money and media access. As it is, no one gives a damn. Russia may be breaking human rights conventions by sending her back, but that is what they do. So move on. Nothing to see here.

I wish I could help just this one family. Aside from signing the online petition (done) there seems nothing I can do.

Google News showed no hits for this--I guess the old media aren't interested, despite the fact that this is an obvious human-interest story.

The conditions that this dissident lives under and the fear for her kids must be unbearable. Death would be almost certain if returned to Iran. This is a country where stonings still occur. I hope the Russians come through. I will write my Senators and Representatives about her.

Terrye, you say faster and you are right. But what do you think those who would attempt regime change from within belive? No help from the Americans. Not only does the US not fight to win in Iraq, but our the Democratic leadership wants to cut and run regardless of the short-term, medium-term and long-term consequences.

I was talking with my brother, who has a number of elderly friends who fought in WWII. Those folks fought to win and if people were waving guns, did not have their hands in the air or were not holding a white flag, they shot first and asked questions later.

I don't understand how we can go to war and then leave al-Sadr's militia intact. It's bizarre.

So we avoid collateral damage only to get collateral damage. That's how I view what is happening now in Iraq.

When Ted Koppel does his tour of Iran for the Discovery Channel, you can be sure he'll ask the tough questions. Iran will finally be exposed. I can't wait.

I just wanted to thank you for your efforts to cover and expose the atrocities of the regime that your good friend coined the 'mullahcracy'.

As you say near the beginning of this post, Iran is (and historically speaking, has always been) at the heart of the world's major conflicts. Let us all hope for the day that the mullahs will be replaced by a truly democratic government that allows and fosters real freedom of thought. The day that this happens will be the day that the world begins to significantly change for the better - for the Islamic Republic has been the seed from which the majority of the world's serious problems have sprung.

I have added your video to my blog (http://noggr.blogspot.com), which also keeps a watchful eye on developments in Iran and other subjects such as Islam, terrorism and human rights. Have a gander when you have a chance.

November 18, 2006: Iran was on my mind today ...

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