Psycho4Bud
05-27-2007, 06:57 AM
POTOMAC, Md. - The only contact Haleh Esfandiari's family has with her are short phone calls from one of Iran's most notorious prisons. They usually come in the evening to her 93-year-old mother's home in Tehran. Esfandiari says she is fine, sometimes asks about her grandchildren, but is always cut off after a minute.
Those are the few clues about Esfandiari's fate since the 67-year-old scholar was arrested in Iran in early May, accused of trying to undermine and topple Iran's hard-line government by opening up the country to the West.
Esfandiari, an Iranian-American who holds dual citizenship, works on Middle East issues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Her family has heard nothing from the Iranian government, and lawyers and Esfandiari's mother have been barred from visiting her. Back in the Washington area, her husband and daughter worry about conditions at Tehran's Evin Prison, where late-night, blindfolded interrogations in stark cells are said to take place.
"There have been much stronger men in their 20s and 30s who have broken under this process, " said her husband, Shaul Bakhash, a Middle East scholar at George Mason University. "So I worry a great deal."
Two other Iranian-Americans, journalist Parnaz Azima and Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant for George Soros' Open Society Institute, have been recently detained or prevented from leaving Iran as the hard-line government cracks down on nongovernmental organizations. A former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, disappeared in Iran in March.
Worldandnation: Family hears little from scholar Iran detains (http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/27/Worldandnation/Family_hears_little_f.shtml)
Another nation that the left feels so sorry for. We have three people kidnapped now and the most ironic thing is that one of them works for George Soros who puts millions into web sites promoting the far left.
I'm SURE that this 67 year old woman was trying to topple Irans government.
Have a good one!:s4:
Those are the few clues about Esfandiari's fate since the 67-year-old scholar was arrested in Iran in early May, accused of trying to undermine and topple Iran's hard-line government by opening up the country to the West.
Esfandiari, an Iranian-American who holds dual citizenship, works on Middle East issues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Her family has heard nothing from the Iranian government, and lawyers and Esfandiari's mother have been barred from visiting her. Back in the Washington area, her husband and daughter worry about conditions at Tehran's Evin Prison, where late-night, blindfolded interrogations in stark cells are said to take place.
"There have been much stronger men in their 20s and 30s who have broken under this process, " said her husband, Shaul Bakhash, a Middle East scholar at George Mason University. "So I worry a great deal."
Two other Iranian-Americans, journalist Parnaz Azima and Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant for George Soros' Open Society Institute, have been recently detained or prevented from leaving Iran as the hard-line government cracks down on nongovernmental organizations. A former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, disappeared in Iran in March.
Worldandnation: Family hears little from scholar Iran detains (http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/27/Worldandnation/Family_hears_little_f.shtml)
Another nation that the left feels so sorry for. We have three people kidnapped now and the most ironic thing is that one of them works for George Soros who puts millions into web sites promoting the far left.
I'm SURE that this 67 year old woman was trying to topple Irans government.
Have a good one!:s4: