So the Islamic Republic has freed Roxana Saberi. Everything about this sniffs up visions of Alice in Wonderland and the Marx Brothers. Alice being Roxana. Things aren't always what they seem. Spy or Stringer? Journalist or Fabulist? A bit of all four? Her press credentials expired long ago, so why was she there? Down the rabbit-hole Alice went. Makes about as much sense as the Mad Hatter's tea party. Off with her head? Apparently not.
is running for re-election. Nuff said.
Still, Roxana's out. Despite her motives, the backstory, crazy intrigue, she's a journalist. Journalism may be dying, but we need to keep reporters alive. The last intrepid souls...like Danny Pearl (click for Georgetown Pearl Project) or the writers, editors and photographers murdered in Mexico exposing the drug gangs, or the reporters tortured in Zimbabwe or shunned in China for telling the truth. Even Alice had a little nobility and lot of pluck. Sometimes that'll overshadow stupidity. As for Iran, Lord knows...
8 comments:
Only you can combine Alice and Groucho. But it seems to work, philosophically! lol
This was a victory of diplomacy over saber rattling or "bring em on" cowboy rhetoric. My guess is that it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in close consultation with President Obama, that got this done.
I'm convinced part of this was indeed a show. I am also convinced that Nat is right. This is not an evil empire, but rather a bizarre collection of power centers and contradictions and some of it is comical.
On the subject of journalists; Danny Pearl was an idiot. He chose to seek out people whom wanted him dead on so many levels. Everyone else kills journalists because they are telling the truth about a situtation. The truth Danny Pearl sought was already known
I disagree because I was a student on the Pearl Project (where Prof. Chambers was a fellow). That's unfair. He was trying to uncover the truth about Sheik Gilani, an American who was associated with the Jamaican shoe bomber. He was also working on stuff about the Pakistani ISI, and the nukes. He was falling into a trap that I don't anyone could have foreseen, and the men who killed him were not the kidnappers, as the old Pakistani government was trying to assert. I don't think you have all of the facts, therefore, RobertM
YO! I saw you quoted (as Nat Turner) in the Post.
Kudos. My daughter in law saw your blurb in the paper this morning. I am no fan of the Islamic Republic but you had some interesting "global" comments.
This is not an evil empire, but rather a bizarre collection of power centers and contradictions and some of it is comical.Evil Empire?
You must be talking about America, right?
After all, the self-proclaimed Land of the Free has waged criminal and indeed genocidal wars from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, threatening other nations like Iran in the process.
For Americans to be shedding crocodile tears about journalists in other countries is somewhat comical, though delusional.
But Americans have no real clue as to how much their rhetoric about "freedom" is increasingly laughed at around the world.
Even the political fraud called Barack Obama cannot change that reality.
Obama on torture photos: cover-up and complicity
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/pers-m15.shtml
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