Silent No More

The Economist ^ | July 10, '08

[T.L.Sink]

Nine years ago, Ahmad Batebi appeared on the cover of "The Economist." He was a 21-year-old student, one of thousands who protested against Iran's government that summer. He was photograhed holding a T-shirt bespattered with the blood of a fellow protester. Soon afterwards, he was arrested and shown on our July, 1999 issue. "With this," he was told, "you have signed your death warrant." During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. He was played recordings of what he was told was his mother being tortured. His captors wanted him to betray his fellow students, to implicate them in various crimes and to say on television that the blood on the T-shirt was only red paint. He refused. He was sentenced to death for "creating street unrest." But after a global outcry, the sentence was commuted to 15 years in jail. He speculates that his high profile made it hard to kill him. For two years he was kept in solitary confinement, in a cell that was little more than a toilet hole with a wooden board on top. He was tortured constantly. He suffered a partial stroke and needed medical attention. The regime didn't want to be blamed for him dying behind bars, so he was allowed out for treatment. He escaped into Iraq and arrived in America on June 24th. He seems to be enjoying America.

[T.L.Sink]

It's important that stories like Batebi's be told because it reminds the world that the mullah's in control of Iran are savage and barbaric fanatics still anchored in a 7th century world view of religious apocalypticism. They believe thay will be rewarded with instant Paradise if they suffer martyrdom while struggling to destroy the "infidels." Unlike the Soviet Union, they fervently believe that a global holocaust or jihad is the ultimate plan of Allah and something to be desired. Death, in such a holy war, is something to which one should aspire and welcome. The easiest thing to do is underestimate their ferocity by thinking of them in terms of traditional Western geopolitical structures and international relations.

[marktwain]

“The easiest thing to do is underestimate their ferocity by thinking of them in terms of traditional Western geopolitical structures and international relations.”

---

Nailed it. One of the most persistent liberal fallacies is “people are the same all over the world”, the “its a small world fallacy”. Like most fallacies, their is a grain of truth and a gallon of falsehood in it.

[stylin19a]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2041265/posts

check out post #41

[Tzimisce]

What? this can’t be right. The MSM keeps telling me what a wonderful place Iran is.

[InkStone]

Hail TL Sink, GREAT POST! And you’re so right: it is indeed crucial that stories like this be told to expose such terrible “governments” that need to be destroyed.

[lightman]

He would likely be deported by a B. Hussein Obama administration.

[pankot]

Why not grant their wish and make them “martyrs” in nuclear fire; then they can all go to Paradise?

[benjamin032]

Heck, he's lucky he didn't go to Gitmo. I hear they know even worse tortures. Things like mandatory prayer times, halal diets and recreation.

[God luvs America]

Is this the entire article???

On the way home from the office I heard someone talking about this entire article on the radio...evidently after talking about how great America is this guy said at the very end of the article if America ever attacks Iran he would go back to Iran and take up arms to kill Americans...I am completely serious....

[alecqss]

What? this can’t be right. The MSM keeps telling me what a wonderful place Iran is.

Indeed. No waterboarding or touching koran without gloves... Just cool cables and pure sea salt on wounds.

[1066AD]

Maybe magazines and newspapers need to be a little more careful about using photos taken in such circumstances.

[Rembrandt]

This is a hero, one who could one day be the President (Shah) of a new Iran.

[A_perfect_lady]

I always wondered what happened to him. President Bush should meet with him publicly for a nice photo-op. This young man should be heard.

[parisa]

You have to understand, most of what these Iranian dissidents are saying are for the Iranian listeners inside the country. The treacherous, scheming devil-mullahs have mastered the art of painting the dissidents and pro-democracy activists as western and especially American stooges who are plotting to bomb and destroy the whole country of Iran. They are painting them as traitors to their own country. Therefore these Iranian heroes HAVE TO stress that they are no patsies and traitors but they want to free Iran thus the rhetoric about defending Iran if bombed. They are walking a fine line, stressing that they are fighting the mullahs and their murderous rule but they are very much, like all Iranian, PRO-Iran. They are trying to save the country.

I think Batebi has proven by his heroism and never allowing the mullahs’ goons to break him that he is a genuine item.

[T.L.Sink]

I think we should use Rush’s name for it: “Club Gitmo.” And to the other things you mentioned don’t forget to include world-class healthcare.

[T.L.Sink]

Good point. None of the dissidents in Iran can afford to be labeled “tools” of the infidel. It’s a young country and the main force operating against the mullocracy is a proud sense of Iranian nationalism which is heavily influenced by Western culture.

[T.L.Sink]

I think we’d both enjoy seeing what would happen to the MSM if they tried to exercise their First Amendments rights there. America would start to look much better!

[parisa]

Thank you for understanding the situation totally!

My friends here must understand that Iranians themselves are not the enemies. They only wanted more “democracy” and freedoms with the help and encouragement of the “noble” carter and his islamist architect brzezinski, when they went into the streets! They never did want the mullahs, let alone the fanatic islamist militants, to rule their beloved country, and they loath and despise them even more now after these long, horrifying thirty years.

The mullahs and the thugs and goons are the enemies, not Iranians.

[dangus]

>> On the way home from the office I heard someone talking about this entire article on the radio...evidently after talking about how great America is this guy said at the very end of the article if America ever attacks Iran he would go back to Iran and take up arms to kill Americans...I am completely serious.... <<

No, the article ends with his talking about how much he loves America.