Free Republic

The Justice Department on Friday charged three Azerbaijani gangsters with plotting to murder a Brooklyn-based Iranian-American author and activist last year. The case stems from the July arrest of Khalid Mehdiyev, who was collared near Masih Alinejad’s home with an assault rifle after the beefy and bearded 24-year-old was filmed ringing Alinejad’s doorbell and lingering on her porch in a leafy part of the New York City borough. The other two men facing charges are 43-year-old Rafat “Rome” Amirov, a resident of Iran who was arrested on Jan. 26 in New York, and 38-year-old Polad “Haci Qaqa” Omarov, who was...

Radio Free Europe journalist accuses Iran of intimidation March 5, 2008 PARIS: An Iranian-American radio journalist who is facing a yearlong prison term for her broadcasts to Iran through Radio Free Europe said Wednesday that Iran had threatened to seize her 95-year-old mother's home in Tehran if she did not return to serve a sentence for propaganda. The journalist, Parnaz Azima, 59, who works for the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, said her lawyer in Iran was appealing her conviction Saturday by Tehran's 13th Revolutionary Court for spreading propaganda and working for the "anti-revolutionary" Radio Farda,...

U.S. academic Haleh Esfandiari (top, right), a New York-based urban planning consultant and another Iranian-American have been "formally charged'' with endangering national security and espionage, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday. "Esfandiari has been formally charged with endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners,'' spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters. "She has been informed of the charges against her.'' Jamshidi did not say when the specific allegations had been read to Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. She has been held at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison...

Are Farsi-language Broadcasts Helping? Washington Times Editorials/Op-Ed (excerpt) In his position as ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Government Information, Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, has made it his mission to reform what he views as a largely dysfunctional system of broadcasting to Iran. In a letter to President Bush last month, Mr. Coburn made a powerful case that Radio Farda, which broadcasts music and other entertainment programs to Iran, and the Voice of America's Farsi-language service "may actually be harming American interests rather than helping." As chairman of the subcommittee ..., Mr. Coburn held a hearing...

A first-time listener to Radio Farda might mistake it for an eclectic pop music station that broadcasts such artists as Madonna, Shania Twain and Britney Spears. But those who continue to listen will hear a news anchor delivering reports on Iran's enrichment of uranium, the Saddam Hussein verdict and the 100th birthday of composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Since its beginning in 2002, the U.S.-funded station, which beams a 24-hour mix of pop music and news into Iran from Northern Virginia, has been criticized for playing too much music and not enough hard news.