The Economist tells a story they've obviously been sitting on for years, about Ahmad Batebi, an Iranian student who was pictured on their front cover in July 1999 demonstrating against the brutality of his own regime. He's been in jail ever since, until he recently managed to escape to Iraq, and from there reached the United States.
It's a story with a happy ending (Iraq is a better place to be than Iran, but the US is vastly better than both of them), but before the ending it's a story of relentless horror, real horror. The torture Batabi underwent is probably standard fare for Iranian prisoners - after all, he hadn't done anything particularly bad - but it's vastly worse than what the Americans and Israelis are routinely condemned for.
Update: the New York Times has a longer version of the story here.
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FROM CAROL HERMAN
You bet, there are ugly places in this world! Iran became a toilet. Didn't have to.
Pakistan is run by mobs. And, in India, no group is feared like they fear the Pakistanis.
Move on to Russia. Moscow and her environment never had a lucky day.
The only place where help came, was poland. Brought by the polish pope, and the Vatican treasury.
So, every once in a while you get to see that some violence breeds a stronger will among the people ... who will throw off the yoke of the Bear. Nobody believed the Poles could do that. But they did.
And, if Iran ever wants to be free? It will take more than one student. And, it will also take courage.
However, without the Vatican's vault, all the courage to take on the mullahs may not be enough?
I have no idea.
No one knows the future.
But we are living in interesting times. And, Americans will be sweeping a new president into office.
Hope or experience? Nothing springs eternal.
But if you look back at history, you see some powerful stuff. Where the bad guys paid for anti-Semitism. Even hitler. Whose dummy's head just got ripped off in Berlin. (Shows ya, there has to be enough dissatisfied Germans, for one to come out and do such a thing on a wax figurine.)
Still, who am I to pick if iran falls from the inside? Or not? All I can tell is IF the iranians want no change, they're more than welcome to what they got, now. Attached to Persian history that goes back 3000 years. Go figa.
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