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The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East
The promise of democracy for Muslims offers something historically unparalleled. Where Islamist groups once dreamed of revolution, quietly developed paramilitary cells, and assassinated their secular opponents, mainstream Islamist groups today see elections as a means for society to maintain akhlaq; the mores that define good Muslims.
Learn MoreAnalysis & Commentary - Iran Human Rights Project
Terrorists or Fall Guys?
The Treasury Department has issued subpoenas to the speakers’ agencies of 11 prominent former U.S. officials, including a governor of Pennsylvania, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. more...
Liberate ‘Zones of Electronic Repression’!
Islamists shouldn’t be allowed to use Western technology to crush dissent. more...
Tearing Down Iran’s Electronic Curtain
Three hundred and sixty seconds. That's all it would take for Iranian security services to identify and track an encrypted message sent to a mobile phone somewhere inside Iran, kick in the door, and seize the phone. more...
The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
In June 2010, the U.S. State Department led a high-level delegation of technology executives to Syria. Comprised of representatives from, among other corporations, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft and Symantec, the purpose of the trip was to improve relations with a nation that... more...
The Iranian Regime’s War on Christians
Former Maldives foreign minister and current U.N. special rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed issued his report on Monday that Iran executed 670 people in 2011, including more than 20 for offenses against Islam. more...
Iranian Carnival (aka “Elections”) Redux
The Basij — the radical thugs who beat up Iranians for violations of the dress code and other sins against the official version of Islam — will be voting early and often in Iran on Friday. more...
Obama Administration Ignored Iranian Opposition’s Advice
When mass demonstrations against the Iranian regime erupted in the summer of 2009, the Obama administration found itself facing a totally unexpected problem. more...
Dear General Dempsey
Every time I hear some policy maker talk about “destabilizing” (as you did the other day, discussing a possible Israeli military attack on Iran) my heart sinks. For two reasons: more...
Are Sanctions Working?
There’s pain and then there’s pain. Getting stung by a bee hurts. Having a Doberman sink his teeth into your thigh is a more intense experience. By the same token, there are sanctions and then there are sanctions. more...
When Will the West Act Against Persecution of Christians in the Middle East?
The case of the Iranian pastor sentenced to death for his faith has attached a human face to the horrible situation of Christians in the Middle East. more...
An Iranian View
Roya Hakakian, an Iranian-American public intellectual who recently visited Israel, was born and raised in Iran and has a great deal to say about her birthplace. more...
The United Kingdom Bans Iran’s Media Outlet
The Guardian reported on Friday that Press TV, the English-language news outlet operated by Iran’s clerical regime since 2007, was stripped of its license for violating broadcasting regulations. more...
Christians in Iran, Syria Face Rising Persecution
There has been a wave of violence targeting Iranian and Syrian Christians over the past month, say Christian news reports. In addition, Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been on death row since 2010 for seeking to register his home-based church, refused to renounce his Christian beliefs in exchange for his release from prison. more...
Who’s Really Killing Those ‘Nuclear Scientists’ in Tehran?
They run the banks, the press, all Western governments, the universities, the spooks (most everywhere). And if you can’t find any evidence for it, well, that shows how diabolical the Jews are, right? more...
You Cannot Reform a Totalitarian (You’ve Got to Defeat Him)
Back when I was even younger, and living in Rome, the main topic of conversation was of course Communism. Italy had the largest Communist Party outside the Soviet Union, and it was forever on the cusp of becoming the biggest party in Italy, thus forming the government, thus taking over. more...
A Ph.D. in Torture
When NATO planes launched their air campaign over Libya’s skies last spring and Western leaders said that Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi had to go, the first regime to change was at the London School of Economics. more...
Why Tyrants Fall
What spells the doom of dictators? Nobody really knows, and there are so many “whats” that the whole subject defies quantification. Coups and assassinations, revolutions, defeats in war, and even sudden collapses, are all to be found in the texts, ancient and modern. more...
Who’s REALLY Blowing Up Iran?
It just has to be Israel, according to the pundit class. You know, that warmonger Netanyahu. Or maybe it’s us. Maybe it’s Obama, who after all killed bin Laden and Qadaffi, toppled Mubarak and bin Ali, and has proclaimed that “Assad must go.” more...
Europe Waives Diplomatic Sanctions Against Iran
Continental Europe's zig-zag course with sanctioned Iranian officials remains a counterproductive leftover vestige to the EU's nearly 30 year failed policy of dialogue with Tehran's clerical rulers. more...
Dismantling Iran’s Clerical Regime
Legislative devotion, including potent oil and bank sanctions, to stop Iran from creating a nuclear weapon device is largely exhibit A in US policy toward the jingoism of Tehran’s rulers. more...
US to Turn Non-Military Screws on Iran
The growing tendency toward targeting the Islamic Republic with powerful non-military sanctions moved beyond the idea stage on Thursday among Washington’s politicians and Iran experts. more...
Hi There, Iranians! I’m Hillary, Let’s Chat
For those who may have thought the Obama administration lacked real spine on responding to the 32-year old Iranian war against us, there is now a dramatic response (mild sarcasm alert). more...
How Assad Stayed In Power—And How He’ll Try to Keep It
On November 12, the Arab League suspended Bashar al-Assad's Syria. After that, King Abdullah II of Jordan publicly called on the Syrian President to go -- the first such demand by an Arab leader. more...
Sanctioning Iran’s Military-Industrial Complex
As the United States and its allies have tightened sanctions on Iran, they have sought in particular to isolate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s most aggressive institution. more...
Reading IAEA in Tehran
Reading the Iranian press last week after the International Atomic Energy Agency released its report on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program elicited a sense of déjà vu more...
The Vienna-Tehran Connection
“In the first eight months of this year, Austrian firms supplied goods and services worth a total of 189 million euros to the Islamic Republic, more than, for example, to Israel, Thailand or Ireland,” the Vienna daily Die Presse reported recently. more...
Don’t Give Up on Sanctions
The release last week of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report on Iran’s progressing nuclear program has to make one wonder whether more than 30 years of sanctions have helped to thwart — or even stall — the country’s nuclear designs. more...
The War Against the Mullahs
This past weekend’s monster explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base outside Tehran has attracted the usual assortment of speculation and “informed information,” most of it sucked from the thumbs of pundits who feel they must write quickly. more...
How to Target the Islamic Republic Diplomatically
The International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Tuesday confirmed the West’s suspicions that the Islamic Republic is working on a nuclear weapons system. more...
How To Punish Iran
A U.N. report released Tuesday confirmed Western suspicions that Iran plans to build a nuclear weapon (PDF). In its report, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency noted that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.” more...