Iran Detains Another Iranian-American

(AP)  Iran has detained an Iranian-American consultant working for George Soros' Open Society Institute, the latest U.S. citizen connected to a non-governmental organization to be seized in the country, the institute said Wednesday.

The detention of Kian Tajbakhsh comes amid a crackdown on NGOs at a time when Iranian authorities accuse the United States of using critics and dissidents to overthrow the country's hard-line government.

Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant who has also worked for the World Bank, was detained on or about May 11, the Open Society Institute — a private foundation that encourages democracy-building — said in a statement.

"We are concerned for his safety and call for his immediate release," the statement said, adding that the 45-year-old Tajbakhsh has worked as a consultant for the institute since 2004 "with the knowledge of the Iranian government."

Iranian officials could not be reached to comment on the detention.

Earlier this month, Iranian authorities earlier this month arrested Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Esfandiari, also an Iranian-American, was charged Monday with setting up a network to overthrow the Islamic establishment, the government announced.

The Wilson Center denied the charges. "Haleh is a scholar and has never been a spy," said Lee H. Hamilton, the center's president and director. Esfandiari's work had involved bringing Iranian scholars and others to the U.S. to give talks on the situation in Iran.

The detentions come as tensions have mounted between the United States and Iran, even as the two countries prepare to hold ambassador-level talks in Baghdad on calming Iraq's violence.

The United States accuses Iran of backing militants in Iraq and of seeking to build nuclear weapons, accusations that Tehran denies. U.S. Navy ships with 17,000 sailors and Marines moved into the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for air training exercises in a show of military force off Iran's coast.

Esfandiari had been in Iran visiting her ailing 93-year-old mother but was prevented from leaving in December, when her passport was stolen. She was interrogated repeatedly before her eventual arrest and has since been held at Iran's notorious Evin prison, where dissidents are often held.

When it announced the charges against Esfandiari, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry accused Soros' New York-based Open Society Institute of being involved in the plot to set up the network to overthrow the government.

The institute said Wednesday that Tajbakhsh had been consulting "to facilitate public health, humanitarian assistance and urban planning projects that we undertook openly and with the knowledge of the Iranian government." He is also a senior research fellow at the New School in New York City, it said.

Another Iranian-American, journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda, has been prohibited from leaving Iran since her passport was seized in January. She has been interrogated several times by intelligence agents since, the journalists rights group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Wednesday.

Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, disappeared in March after going to Iran's resort island of Kish, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Reporters Without Borders said a French-Iranian journalism student, Mehrnoushe Solouki, was arrested in February. She was released in March on bail but her passport was taken away and she has been unable to leave the country, it said.

[randalds]

Nope. They just disappear and are never heard from again.
Posted by Infidel_US at 08:56 AM : May 24, 2007

Just like in Bush's CIA "black" prisons.

[ov442]

Apparently Iran makes them play ping pong and wear Unmatching jump suits, and laugh and joke while eating on camera.
...Per the british soldiers they captured.

[infidel_us]

do the iranians dog-collar their prisoners, water-board them, attack-dog them, force them to have......, like we do ?
Posted by neoconRcrazy at 05:44 AM : May 24, 2007

Nope. They just disappear and are never heard from again.

[infidel_us]

Good! The fewer "Iranian-Americans" we have over here, the better off we all are! If anyone can get Soros to go over there, we'd be in the land of strawberry soda! :)

[bluestardad]

It is not anti Semitic to believe there are millions of other good people in the Middle East with valid concerns!

Even Eisenhower had problems with Israeli groups but he did not let them buy him!

READ AS THEY BRAG ABOUT THEIR INFLUENCE ON OUR GOVERNMENT!
http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm


Founded in 1953 by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen, AIPAC's original name was the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. According to UCLA political science professor and author, Steven Spiegel, "the tension between the Eisenhower administration and Israeli supporters was so acute that there were rumors that the administration would investigate the American Zionist Council. Therefore, an independent lobbying committee was formed, which years later was renamed [AIPAC]." [SPIEGEL, p. 52].[citation needed] Today, AIPAC has over 100,000 members.[1]
Activities and stated goals, AIPAC's stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation "to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong so that both countries can work together" to meet the challenges of "stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons..[2] It regularly meets with members of Congress and holds events where it can share its views. AIPAC has been effective in gaining support for Israel among members of Congress and White House administrations.
The New York Times described AIPAC on July 6, 1987 as "a major force in shaping United States policy in the Middle East."

[neoconrcrazy]

"since been held at Iran's notorious Evin prison, where dissidents are often held."


is that prison like ours in iraq ? Abu Ghraib?


do the iranians dog-collar their prisoners, water-board them, attack-dog them, force them to have......, like we do ?

[neoconrcrazy]

This jackel Bush is provoking another war - Seymour Hersh told us about it weeks ago in the New Yorker magazine -

our government is putting its dirty finger in a sunni-shia proxy war in Lebanon and covert operations in iran meant to destabilize (as if that was necessary!) even more the ME.

i would expect Congress to start reacting otherwise we'll be faced with another bushit folly.

retmilspouse wrote:

"They were the ones that continued the war there and for him to say that Bush is the worst that he has seen and has blood on his hands is a joke."

He's the worst President I've ever had to endure - and he most definitely has blood on his hands.

That's my opinion - prove me wrong. :-)

[toldyouso21]

Oh and I didn't say that Bush was the worst president ever (as it seems as that's who your took it). I said he was and is the worst THING that has ever happened to America. Worst anything that has ever happened to America. Anything. War, flood, earthquake, terroist attack, anything. He is the worst ANYTHING that has ever happened to America. No one or nothing else is even close.
Posted by RandalDS at 11:53 PM : May 23, 2007


Well.. I do happen to agree with this--except perhaps we underestimate Gonzales and Cheney--they can be the worst 3 things....but specifically, what is unforgiveable about Bush is that he appears to fail to learn from what are obvious errors. In his book to admit any wrong is a weakness and therefore cannot happen.

But a person cannot admit a wrong or failure, then they can never self correct because they fail to acknowledge the errors in what they are doing--hence the war--and the continued dying and the 2nd surge on Bagdhad which keeps being given later and later dates to succeed.

[toldyouso21]

He lies and twists the truth and trades in fear mongering to spread his war for profit and at the cost of our troops lives. A hundred years from now his grandchildren will be spending money he left them that is still soaked in our troops blood and he doesn't care about it. The most American thing I can do is to oppose this monstrosity in any manner I can. As a proud American I owe it to my country to do it. Posted by RandalDS at 09:36 PM : May 23, 2007


While I am certainly no lover or supporter of Bush and believe this story is just war baiting, I find in retrospect that RandalDS may hate Bush because he reminds him a lot of himself. When his personal opinions on subjects are debated or contested, he appears to lie (or at least exaggerate) are derisive and venal and steer clear of the actual subject as he throws diatribes and accusations around.

Radiob may take up for him--but he probably has not seen RandalDS or his alterego JDUB in action on the illegal amnesty blogs--there--the REAL RandalDS comes out and that creature is as rabid and hateful and dismissive as any neo con--he offers no discourse--only diatribes and nasty comments. If ever he is to be taken seriously by anyone--he would offer more than rabid political bile once in a while--if he is at all capable.