Free Republic

Iran – or more accurately the Iranian government – this week celebrated the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. In preparation for the tightly orchestrated event, the government unleashed the full might of its security forces – including riot police, the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij, the civilian militia corps – to suppress the opposition protestors who have poured onto Iran’s streets since last summer’s fraudulent election. Armed with live ammunition, knives and teargas, the security forces set upon anyone identified as opposition protestors. When not resorting to violent repression, the government tried to thwart the opposition by disrupting...

Analysis: Iran's Ahmad Chalabi? Claims Iranian students favor U.S. intervention By Jacob Russell UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON -- Amir Abbas Fakhravar may be the "Ahmad Chalabi" of Iran, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, founder and director of the Syracuse University's Middle Eastern Studies program and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School. Fahkravar was arrested several times for his political activities while still a student in Iran. He wrote a book in 2000, while imprisoned, called "Inja Chah n ist," or "This Place is not a Ditch." The book follows the last months of 1979 to 2000 in Iranian politics, though...

Murder in the Cathedral Sept 9, 2006 An Exclusive Pajamas Media video presentation on Iranian President Khatami’s visit to the Washington National Cathedral. Produced by Andrew Marcus with Richard Miniter. Among those interviewed are journalist Eli Lake and Amir Abbas Fakhravar, an Iranian dissident jailed during the Khatami regime. See original link for video link

Torture Victims Blast Khatami Visit Kenneth R. Timmerman Friday, Sept. 8, 2006 WASHINGTON –- Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., introduced legislation Thursday that would refocus U.S. government-funded broadcasting into Iran to "stand with the people of Iran." The Iranian regime's record of "repression, oppression, beatings and abuse ... was "a story that has been told too little," Brownback told reporters and Iranian-American activists. His "Iran Human Rights Act" would also appoint a "special envoy" to pro-democracy groups in Iran and in exile. "While we are focusing on [Iran's] nuclear weapons development, as we should, we cannot deny the human suffering of...

Ex-student Hailed as Iran's Hope July 02, 2006 Telegraph Toby Harnden in Washington An Iranian student leader who was imprisoned and tortured before fleeing to the United States in May is to meet Vice-President Dick Cheney and deliver his message about the need for "regime change" in Teheran. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, 30, has become the poster child of some of the leading neo-conservatives in Washington and, less than two months after leaving Iran, the former medical student who spent five years in jail and still bears the scars on his youthful face, is being championed as the person who can...

Fugitive pleads with US to 'liberate' Iran Sarah Baxter, Washington FOR almost eight months, Amir Abbas Fakhravar was held in solitary confinement in a soundproof cell in Iran. His bare, constantly lit surroundings were all a creamy white — the walls, the floor, his clothes and the door, with a slit through which white rice would be delivered in a white bowl by guards wearing slippers to muffle their footfall. Amnesty International calls his case the first known example of “white torture” in Iran and it nearly drove Fakhravar mad. He was stuck in a terrifying, real-life version of the...

February 13, 2006, Counting the Minutes A conversation with Iranian dissident Amir Abbas Fakhravar. Q&A by Jason Lee Steorts Amir Abbas Fakhravar is one of the most prominent dissidents in Iran. A former medical student and journalist, he was arrested and imprisoned after the publication of his anti-regime book This Place Is Not a Ditch. While on a leave from prison he fled the authorities, and has been on the run ever since. From the Iranian underground, he coordinates the activities of various dissident groups, and for this reason the regime has (according to his knowledge) issued a standing order...

NRO: One argument we hear in the West against confronting Iran, whether through sanctions or through military action, is that doing so will make the regime more popular with the Iranian people — that it will actually strengthen the regime. Fakhravar: Please don't ever say that the people of Iran are going to have resentment or anger in their hearts toward America or Western countries for doing this. That is 100 percent false. To see this, all you need to do is contact some Iranians inside the major cities. Just send your journalists to interview the people in the streets...

A conversation with Amir Abbas Fakhravar. Iranian Amir Abbas Fakhravar is a hunted man. A former medical student and journalist for the now-banned reform newspapers Moshareka and Khordad, Fakhravar came to prominence with the publication of his book This Place Is Not a Ditch, in which he criticized Iran’s rulers and called on the Iranian people to reject the mullahs’ regime. For doing so, he was sentenced in 2002 to eight years in prison. His status as a political prisoner and his mistreatment while incarcerated — he was reportedly denied medical care, and suffered frequent physical attacks — brought international...