Current Events

Pahlevan

No JJ! Stanford is not "lucky" but rather greedy. The reason American and Western universities employ these Islamists is because they bring in a lot of dough with them. The Rafsanjani/Mohajerani mafia (I'd like to call them, the Khat-e emami mafia) has been funding a lot of projects in "belaad-e kofr" using billions of petro dollars they stole when they were in power.

Very good points. I often wondered why do these "universities" employ Islamist idiots. Now there is a very good explanation.

People like Mousavi Khoeeni, Fatemeh Haghighatjou, Mohsen Kadivar and others aren't even qualified to work as Stanford's Janitors, let alone working as Stanford's teachers.

Now I disagree. Stanford by lowering its bars has made them qualified. This is of course a criticism of Stanford and not endorsement of this gang. It is a shame to see once respectable universities stoop to this.

HD= HG

Hee hee:)

HD dorood bar to

You really hit it in the "Khalesh"

It really is beyond my understanding why such people are considered as assets that ought be cherished and valued. It is one of those things i guess.

People like this Gentleman have taken the definition of Politically correct and Reconcilliatory methodology to a new Height.

you can always tell a lot

you can always tell a lot about a person from his logic.  i can tell you the logic of mousavi khoeini is not that of a researcher from a reputable univeristy.  two times in his speech, to defend his opinion, he said that he "talked" to the people (protesters) or "talked" to mousavi or his aide.  that's "why he knows what he's talking about." this form of logic is called appealing to authority.  the funny part is that he's making himself the authority by having this valuable information from all those on the ground beknownst to him; hence, making himself an authority and then appealing to himself!!!!  this unreferenced, undocumented "talks" are the basis or his opinions.  now, there's one thing that i claim e = mc squared because einstein said so; but at least, this informtion is documented.  and jj says, stanford is lucky to have this guy?

a second point about this green-wristband-wearing pseudo intellectual, that he seemed to only have the message of patience, slow down, and being peaceful for the protesters. any reasonable and conscientious member of an oppostion group to the velayat faghih should be mad, angry, up in arms about the treatment of the protesters by the hand of the government.  they wouldn't implicitly fault the uprising for the punishment they're being doled out.  there was no outrage by mousavi khoeini.  there was no "talk" about the viciousness of the regime and his reconcilation on why there are people who are for velayat faghih but with a different supreme leader.  just endless cheap talk by a run-of-the-mill politician from islamic republic.  now, is someone actually saying the green movement is lucky to have this guy?

Good Man

Nader, you are the one who is out of touch with reality

Nader, It's very unfortunate that you have derailed this civil discussion by making it personal. You don't know me or Doctor mohandes so keep your ignorant personal attacks to yourself. My family and other true believers in democracy and secularism have done much more for Iran than some khat-e emami Islamist, be it "reformist" or not!

My parents live in Iran, and I go back to visit them every year. I have lived in Iran for more than 80% of my life and apparently know much more about it than you do. Anyone who claims that any IRI majles has been "freely elected" doesn't know jack about Iran or its political system. The current Shoraay-e Negahbaan and the Shoraay-e Negahbaan back in 2000 are one and the same ... hand-picked by Khamenei himself. The only difference is that back then, Khamenei and the reformist mafia were on good terms and they could pass through his Islamofascist filter. 

There has never been free elections in the IRI system. Majority of Iranians have always been excluded from the IRI's political process. Ethnic and religious minorities like, Baloochs, Kurds, Sunnis and Bahais along with non-Islamist political forces, like Jebhe Melli, communists, constitutional monarchists, seculars and others have not only been excluded from the political process, but also severely oppressed often by ideological forces that your Islamist buddy, mousavi Khoeeni, belongs to! 

In conclusion, anyone who claims that there has been anything remotely resembling a free election during IRI's life time (especially 1981 onward) is either intentionally lying or simply ignorant.

Nader Vanaki

No you can not,. Because you have no idea and you can not tell for sure who has done more or less for iran than you or anyone else, Quit with irooni bazi already.

Good for you. I am sure he will take care of you when the time comes. have fun.

Doctor Mohandess

Since I have lived and worked in Iran, I can criticise those who have not done 1 rial worth of work for their country.

As I mentioned I voted for him and will do so if he ever ran for Majlis.

Nader Vanaki

I certainly forgive you for stepping far beyond your boundaries and getting extremely personal where it was not called for, You're welcome.

You defend the guy as if you had ssome kinda personal relationship with him or something??? what was up?

I really doubt if you did anything for iran that would have amounted to anything that this guys supposedly did, Unless you want to make something up.

interesting comments

Nader khan, most of what you write about the man is new to me! keep em coming, an eye opener!

Doctor Mohandess

It is obvious by your views that you are just reacting to this fellow whom you know nothing about since it is a very easy target to vent off your animosity towards IRI.  The sixth Majlis was freely elected since the candidates were not filtered as they are now.  Masses of people voted for this guy who was endorsed by the student population.  So yes D.M. joon he won his seat in Majlis by popular vote and based on these grounds I claim him to be a legitimate representative of a good cross section of the Iranian society IN IRAN and not your typical Northern California community!

He did more for Iran than you and Pahlevan will ever do.  And you are not feeling tap water by characterising his efforts as "luke warm" because he did not remove "the top guy" for you.  He risked his life and suffered imprisonment when he was a deputy in Majlis.

If he is attending Stanford to pursue his graduate studies, that is his business and how many Stanford grad. students have been a member of parliament in their respective countries?  So JJ is right in that Stanford is lucky to have a student like him, eventhough he means it sarcastically.  Maybe the admissions committee saw something in his resume that led them to think he is an exceptional guy and maybe your 3.94GPA friend from MIT who was applying for a job at Stanford was rated on entirely different grounds than graduate admissions.

Your scattered information and lack of reading on Iran is obvious enough to make me conclude that you, Pahlevan, and JJ all go to the same hair stylist.

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Dear Pahlevan

Thanks for the recap. I truly agree with your post below, and not a day goes by that I do not reiterate that IRI is stooge of the British and US governments. Your comments about many of the Iranian TV stations abroad are certainly correct too.  My doubt was only about the top universities that do they really receive funds from Iran or not. 

But in general I agree with your other post earlier about how certain characters are installed in universities to basically represent us -the other Iranians so that we remain silent and silenced. 

Prior to revolution of 1979. Ebrahim Yazdi and Reza Barahani used to come to our campus and recruit anti shah volunteers. I never forget these two men's criminal eyes and in particular Yazdi. He also used to go to different campus to recruit Iranian professors in USA for anti Shah forces. Yazdi was a prime example of what you are referring too and we saw how at the dawn of the revolution a package of such "university professors" came to Iran and took over our destiny. One should only wonder and be very concerned that how can we be sure that this will not happen again?  Are the United States and the British government preparing and nurturing the power brokers of the next uprisings, right now in their institutions?   Thanks for your discussion.

JD jan, please read carefully

JD jan, akheh nokaretam, who said he is being funded by "IRI" or "CIA"!!  The Mohajerani/Rafsanjani mafia (or west-residing Khat-e emami gang) are not currently part of IRI. They were once part of IRI and now are considered part of IRI's "oppostion" (GOD help us!), though they are certainly Islamists as they openly advocate following the ideals of "emam-e rahel"and going back to the "golden era of emam"!!

Nowadays, Mohajerani resides in London, so do Rafsanjani's sons. The west-residing Khat-e emami gang is currently considered by western government as an Iranian "opposition" group and actually preferred to the secular Iranian opposition groups by most European think tanks and some American ones as well; so their billions of petro dollars are considered perfectly "legitimate" by western governments! though they should certainly be considered illegitimate by regular Iranians, because they were stolen from Iranians when these Islamists were part of the regime. 

As for proof that the Mohajerani/Rafsanjani mafia is funding these people .., well It's a well-known fact that Rafsanjani is partly funding JARAS website and RASATV satellite station who are run by Mohajerani and Kadivar. By the way Mousavi Khoeeni and the rest of the west residing Islamists regularly write for JARAS and are regularly featured in RASATV. 

There is enough information out there for inquisitive minds to know the truth about some of these shady characters, who after years of chanting "death to America" now live comfortably in "belaad-e kofr" and "sheytaan-e bozorg" and still support the ideals of "emaam raahel"!! Unfortunately many Iranians, mainly due to extremely busy lives, do not look into these things, after all, not everyone has the luxury of being funded by stolen petro dollars!! Though What I am afraid of the most, is that not knowing, may come to bite us in the arse, like it did back in 1979!

Who is next?

To come to US and becomes the expert professor of this or that or whatever? Khamenei, AN, sarlashkar Firoozabadi, Dr Abbasi or.................? What a country and what a nation.

THE SAD TRUTH

It is unforetunate but except a few million people in major cities in Iran the majority of the Iranian population is brain washed by 1400 years of  Islamic rhetoric.  Again it is extremely sad but this regime has a lot more supporters that you may think.

What you see in iran today is nothing but an internal war between the different factions of Hezbollahi's over  the right to rob the country.

Mousavi , karoubi, khatami and Rafsanjani are just pissed off cause Khamenei and ahmadi's group are not letting the so called greens to devour  the countries wealth like they used to .

Mr. Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeni

Let's do some fact finding: 

On minute 13 of the program Kambiz introduces Mr. Khoeni as:

• Member of the 6th Parliament in IRI
• Former General Secretary of the Sazmane Advar Tahkim Vahdat
• Current researcher in Information Technology at Stanford University

Proofs needed or provided by those who left comments:

1. If Iran's regime is indeed making financial contributions to any American university or college, this information should be substantiated beyond friend of a friend's claims. These universities such as UVA are publicly supported institutions and any contribution in particular by a foreign government is part of the Freedom of Information Act and can be easily obtained. If anyone truly believes this is happening, I highly recommend they conduct an investigation and make an expose. But I personally doubt it. At the time of the Shah yes, but now it is very dubious. Perhaps Candadian Universities or the British, but proofs needed.
2. If we claim that Mr.Mousavi Khoeni is an installed agent of IRI or CIA, again this is too far fetched allegation that must be supported by solid documentation. Because statements as such can ruin a man's records and reputation on dangerous forums such as Google search. So, let's avoid pinpointed accusations. But let's make everyone's day by bringing in proofs.
3. Someone mentioned that he joined Stanford as a student / researcher and not a member of academy, and the fact that he was formerly a student when he was elected in IRI Parliament. Thanks for that clarification. Because if indeed he came to USA as someone who is interested to continue his education and at the same time he is a politican, then my hats off to him too. As they say on Saturday Night Live "what's wrong with that? what's wrong with that?"

My conclusion:

I think our problem is that we do not have sufficient background information on lots of our politicians. For example I had not a damn idea about Khomeini at the time of revolution beyond the basics, until a few years later when I read Shamshiri's short biography of Khomeini and where his roots came from.

Same goes with Ayatollah Khamenei. I personally do not have much information about him. I know about revolution days and some of his involvements and Nourizadeh's calim that he used to play half ass tar and "nim-dong seda" and visit houses for rozeh and mourning sesssions on hourly basis. But what about his family and when did they convert from Judaism to Islam and his grandfather and his wife's family and how many children does he have, other than Agha Mojtaba?

Our lack of information leads us to lots of speculation.  I think it would have been nice if Kambiz had given a bit more background about his guest.  So, if he is indeed a researcher in IT then good for him and good for Stanford. I will be more careful going forward and I hope the same for everyone else.  If anyone has complete Khamenei's background it would be nice to print it on IC for everyone to read.  But we have to be very careful not to ruin a man's reputation, who is far from his homeland and in this country to establish a new life.  Thanks

Nader

American is not erse pedari of anyone and neither is Stanford.  This guy is a respected Iranian politician who chose to attend this university and Pahlevan is totally lost with his claim he brings his own funding with him.  He was a university student in Iran when he got elected to Majlis and is qualified for admission to anywhere he wants to go.  Stanford must be thrilled to have an influential political figure like him.

Nader:

Why are you mixing issues up? in the above paragraph you make several totally different claims:

1- being in america is a right for everyone. Agreed

2- respected politician? On what ground? I am sorry but i do not subscribe to the notion that just because he made a very Lukewarm attempt at challenging the top guy, supposedly where everyone else failed to so, would earn him a hero status, let alone a respected one.

3- what proof do you have that he did not have on him gobs on money when he came to this country?

4- Getting elected to Majlis should qualify one to get admission to any college or univ, in the world? really? Since when?

5- Stanford is Aftabe ing Tax payers' money paying this dude  to conduct research plain and simple. Influential Political figure. LOL. Oh ok! my bad.

Dear Nader

I would have voted for him too if I could (I wasn't old enough to vote back then) but that would have been a vote for bad versus worse!

Anyone who can pass through the Islamofascist filter of Shoraay-e Negahbaan cannot be anywhere near democratic, and has to have a connection with the Mullahs and their mentality! since all IRI candidates swear their allegiance to Velaayat-e Faghih and Asl-e Velaayat-e Faghih! 

America isn't anyone's erse pedari, that's true! but at the same time people who live in secular and democratic societies and still defend an ideology (Khat-e emami Islamism) and political system that is the exact opposite of democracy and secularism are hypocrites of the worst kind; That's why I call them Islamist leeches and parasites.

Also, my "claim" is actually based on a close family friend who is a professor at University of Virgina; according to her, the only reason the university employed Mohsen Kadivar (Islamist Mullah), was because of substantial funds that came with him. You can easily deduce that the same "arrangement" exists for other Islamist reformists (khat-e emami's) like Mousavi Khoeeni (Stanford), Fateme Haghighatjou (university of connecticut), Molla Kadivar (Duke University), Abdolkarim Soroush (University of Maryland) and so on.

Think about it! these people can't even speak proper English, how can they become "researchers" and "professors" at reputable American universities!!! I had an Iranian professor at my university who was an MIT graduate. She had a 3.9 GPA and was truly a genius. Even she wasn't able to get into Stanford as a professor, how can you expect anyone to believe that people like Mousavi Khoeeni can get into Stanford under normal circumstances!!

JJ quit going to hair salons to get your information

"I heard from someone that Mousavi Khoeini added "Khoeini" to his last name in order that people would confuse him with the famous Hojatoleslam Mousavi Khoeiniha, who was the "spiritual" leader of the students who took over the US embassy in 1979. And thus increase his chances of getting elected to the Majles. And it worked!"

He was the candidate of university students who had never cared for Mousavi Khoeinha or even heard about him.  Everyone who voted for this guy including me had read about him and clearly knew there is no connection between him and the mullah.  He won millions of votes and I would still vote for him.  He led a few courageous investigations and has a reputable stance with his constituency.

American is not erse pedari of anyone and neither is Stanford.  This guy is a respected Iranian politician who chose to attend this university and Pahlevan is totally lost with his claim he brings his own funding with him.  He was a university student in Iran when he got elected to Majlis and is qualified for admission to anywhere he wants to go.  Stanford must be thrilled to have an influential political figure like him. 

That guy Janaughty is really funny!

That guy Janaughty is really funny!

Shaakh-Shekasteh???

Thank You Pahlavan

Best comment on this blog. Very well said.

Pahlevan and JJ

Pahlevan

Thanks for bringing to us that much much needed does of reality, I have a much easier time believing your version of the real reason behind why and how these people quickly choose USA at their final destination than anything else which is basically a form of Justification.

JJ

Please read that last part of Pahlevan's paragraph and be reasonable about it. EVen if what you heard was right, Changing names proves that this person is nothing but a shyster who is willing to play dirty and go to any extent to fool people so they will vote for him. Don't get me wrong, Politics is a dirty buisness and they are hardly anyone in that arena who is not Playing any sort of games, But to say that doing what he did could be an indication that he Understnad politics, is a stretch.

Calling for a dignified response when The one with all the noble ideas is sitting pretty and well paid and pampered (please don't say they are not) Does not take much guts and does not need much nobility and intellectualism behind it.

Greedy Stanford

No JJ! Stanford is not "lucky" but rather greedy. The reason American and Western universities employ these Islamists is because they bring in a lot of dough with them. The Rafsanjani/Mohajerani mafia (I'd like to call them, the Khat-e emami mafia) has been funding a lot of projects in "belaad-e kofr" using billions of petro dollars they stole when they were in power. Websites like JARAS and satellite channels like RASATV are part of those projects. They have also been giving substantial grants to universities who employ their fellow khat-e emami's who have fled Iran.

People like Mousavi Khoeeni, Fatemeh Haghighatjou, Mohsen Kadivar and others aren't even qualified to work as Stanford's Janitors, let alone working as Stanford's teachers. The only reason these people are allowed to work in universities like Stanford, is because of the funds that automatically comes with them.

By the way, I wouldn't call criticizing a competing faction of the regime while you have the full support of the other faction, "true courage". I know many, including some of my own relatives, who boldly criticized the whole system of IRI (not just majles-e khobregan) as outsiders (gheir-e khoodi); they suffered years of imprisonment, torture and even execution at the hands of people like mousavi khoeeni and his friends ... now that's true courage!

Do you trust yourself

53 coup used lompans and laats to conquer power. IRIR believe in the power in those people and  retards and using them as well (oabaash o basiji haa)

the questio is when the democracy is stablished in Iran. my answer is: when we respect all including minorities. Typically, big cities will be ahead in the game and small villagers would be the last.

I propose promoting a secular society, nuclear small family, city dewelling and high education. hopefully in 2 generations we get thgere somewhere if Iranians do not let somebody or state disrupt the process.

آیا کسروی حق داشت کشته شود؟

واژه ی سید نژادپرستی است. انقلاب ٥٧ انقلاب مردان سنتی برعلیه زنان و اقلیت های پیشرفته بود. حالا لمپن ها بر اریکه سوارند. بازگشت به دوران طلایی خمینی چیزی را عوض نخواهد کرد.

30,000,000 hits, not too shabby,

ya hack!

Good program, boring interview Do a program on Arab Revolutions.

cannot trust this guy

who is next to start working for Stanford, the Larijani brothers????? Every opposition figure is a former member of this job or that job in the Islamic Cultist Republic.  You guys all supported this revolution and the Hitler of our times, Khomeini.  You are responsible for the destruction of Persia and should be held accountable.  Moussai Khoeni mentions that freedom comes when all religions are free to practice.  To that I add, the agnostics.  The day people like me (who number in the millions), can stand on a chair in a square in any town in Iran and say that Mohammad was an Arab child molestor, then freedom has arrived.  Not a day before not a day after. You dont have to agree with my thought, and I dont have to be right.  Just the freedom to say it and speak it is the fundemental issue.

HOT!

Parazit ro migam. Also the interviewer. And I'm one of middle aged readers here.

I was puzzled about Mousavi Kheini's name too, but perhaps it was a smart way to get himself joined into the hard core scene, in earlier years. It doesn't bother me when politicians change ideological direction. Better use his expertise at Stanford rather than under torture house of Evin. Or Dead!

Gar Sabr Koni...

I don't want to diminish this gentleman's past and it's easy for someone like me to sit in front of this screen and using a fake name, condemn his main argument about being patient.

However, I hope he takes into account of people like myself who waited for years and saw our black hair turn grey. I hope he doesn't wish the same faith for our young generation.

How long is he suggesting that our youngsters should wait? What fututre does he forefee for them if they just go to the demonstrations, being imrisoned, tortured and at the end being called "fetneh-gar"?

How long do they have to wait?