• 14 April 2009
  • Posted By Patrick Disney
  • 4 Comments
  • Events in Iran, Human Rights in Iran

60 Minutes: Ahmed Batebi and Torture in Iran

14 April 2009 Posted By Patrick Disney

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMQhyvekFCk”]

Posted By Patrick Disney

    4 Responses to “60 Minutes: Ahmed Batebi and Torture in Iran”

  1. a reader says:
    April 19, 2009 at 11:15 am

    stupid, & naive at best. he should tell the Iranian people what was that protest for? what were they looking for ultimately? and why should a student like him, with almost no political wisdom, disturb the psyche of a nation with such a protest? he was part of a group of stupid students (who even I at that time was thinking they are right!) who didn’t know what are they really looking for. I would call their action PARANOID at best. These are the ones,with their sensational actions, that should be responsible for the failure of reform movement in Iran.He better to stay here more so he can understand that the kind of the protest he attended in Iran is not allowable in the U.S as well. FREE!, within few years, if he get out of the group of those Iranian gangs in VOAPERSIAN, and truly tries to assimilate in the U.S with dignity, then he will get the reality of discrimination, and racism, embedded (in the capitalistic system) in his presumably free land. Mujahedins also, at the time they were receiving money from Saddam, claimed they live in a free country!

    It seems, the U.S has again turned to the awesome excuse of modern time, HUMAN RIGHTS!, as its other leverages have simply faded.

    P.S, if he got tortured, why is he that healthy?!

    * at some point, the gov. of Iran is guilty. it should free these young people to release their energy in other areas! so that they would not enter in a field like politics that they are totally blinded.

    Reply
  2. no comment. says:
    April 22, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    First off, when you start a sentence you should be capitalizing the first letter of the word, secondly there should not be a comma than (&) it does not make sense in your sentence. Last grammar mistake I will point out is that FREE!, (you cannot write that because there is either going to be an exclamation mark or a comma, not both).

    Now to start on my rant on what you wrote, obviously you are an uneducated dimwit who has come on here making a comment that makes no sense grammatically or even argumentatively. You state that they are “Paranoid” that does not make any sense. A person who is paranoid would not start a protest because they would be too fearful of their lives.

    A stupid group of students? Are you really trying to pull that one, sweetie I’m sure if you were somewhat educated you would not be calling them stupid. People who go to school, especially at the University of Tehran need a certain gpa to get in, because of this it is obvious that you may be bitter for not making it in and choose to call these enlightened Iranians stupid.

    Mr.Batebi obviously went to prison and he looks healthy because he has been out for a year now, and has received medical care. I am sure that if you got out of prison and were sick, you too would go to a doctor or physician to get better.

    Lastly, if you knew anything about human rights and the reform movement you would not be making such moronic comments. At least these people attempt to make a change, while you, cowardly reader sit here and watch these documents and harass these people. At least they have the guts to stand up for those Iranians who are being tortured and condescended by their government.

    Please do a bit of research on Ahmad Batebi, the reform movement, and Iran in general to maybe get a somewhat understanding of the situation through your thick head.

    Reply
  3. a reader says:
    April 22, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    i got educated at Sharif Univ.!, and my last sentence was meant for people like u!

    Reply
  4. no comment says:
    April 26, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    Maybe Sharif should have taught you how to properly word sentences and use grammar rules. I guess there are some things money can’t buy. Your last sentence does not make much sense either, and by the way what is your political standing, because you are coming off as an anarchist.

    Reply

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It has come to our attention that Google has begun omitting the title of the Persian Gulf from its Google Maps application. This is a disconcerting development given the undisputed historic and geographic precedent of the name Persian Gulf, and the more recent history of opening up the name to political, ethnic, and territorial disputes. However unintentionally, in adopting this practice, Google is participating in a dangerous effort to foment tensions and ethnic divisions in the Middle East by politicizing the region’s geographic nomenclature. Members of the Iranian-American community are overwhelmingly opposed to such efforts, particularly at a time when regional tensions already have been pushed to the brink and threaten to spill over into conflict. As the largest grassroots organization in the Iranian-American community, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) calls on Google to not allow its products to become propaganda tools and to immediately reinstate the historically accurate, apolitical title of “Persian Gulf” in all of its informational products, including Google Maps.

Historically, the name “Persian Gulf” is undisputed. The Greek geographer and astronomer Ptolemy referencing in his writings the “Aquarius Persico.” The Romans referred to the "Mare Persicum." The Arabs historically call the body of water, "Bahr al-Farsia." The legal precedent of this nomenclature is also indisputable, with both the United Nations and the United States Board of Geographic Names confirming the sole legitimacy of the term “Persian Gulf.” Agreement on this matter has also been codified by the signatures of all six bordering Arab countries on United Nations directives declaring this body of water to be the Persian Gulf.

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In the 1930s, British adviser to Bahrain Sir Charles Belgrave proposed to rename the Persian Gulf, “Arabian Gulf,” a proposal that was rejected by the British Colonial and Foreign offices. Two decades later, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company resurrected the term during its dispute with Mohammad Mossadegh, the Iranian Prime Minister whose battle with British oil interests would end in a U.S.-sponsored coup d'état that continues to haunt U.S.-Iran relations. In the 1960s, the title “Arabian Gulf” became central to propaganda efforts during the Pan-Arabism era aimed at exploiting ethnic divisions in the region to unite Arabs against non-Arabs, namely Iranians and Israelis. The term was later employed by Saddam Hussein to justify his aims at territorial expansion. Osama Bin Laden even adopted the phrase in an attempt to rally Arab populations by emphasizing ethnic rivalries in the Middle East.

We have serious concerns that Google is now playing into these efforts of geographic politicization. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Google has stirred controversy on this topic. In 2008, Google Earth began including the term “Arabian Gulf” in addition to Persian Gulf as the name for the body of water. NIAC and others called on you then to stop using this ethnically divisive propaganda term, but to no avail. Instead of following the example of organizations like the National Geographic Society, which in 2004 used term “Arabian Gulf” in its maps but recognized the error and corrected it, Google has apparently decided to allow its informational products to become politicized.

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