News Corp embraces its inner Iran

Who says Rupert Murdoch doesn’t love the Islamic Republic? The News Corp-backed network Farsi1 offers Fox favorites and Telenovelas, and has quickly become the most watched in Iran. Reza Aslan on why Ahmadinejad’s government is worried. Farsi1, a Persian language satellite station partly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, has become the most popular entertainment network…

Yet more signs of an insecure Islamic leadership

Why does Tehran continue playing into America and Israel’s hands? Repression is a bad look, politically and morally repulsive: Reporters Without Borders is outraged that the Iranian government is reinforcing and extending its online censorship and repression of netizens. Several news and information websites have been blocked in the past few days including those of…

Castro tells Ahmadinejad to respect the Jews

Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg – a man fond of war, Israel and conflict with Iran – is invited to Havana to meet and converse with Fidel Castro. There is much to digest but this is especially interesting: He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two…

Thank us for helping Iranian repression

The more the West bullies Tehran, the easier these outrages will occur: Iranian newspapers have been banned from publishing the names or photos of the leaders of Iran‘s green movement, according to a confidential governmental ruling revealed by an opposition website. The move is part of a new round of censorship, which follows the recent…

The non-Ahmadinejad Iranians

We so rarely these days read accurate reports about life inside the Islamic Republic. A rare exception (via the ABC): While in the West some might associate Iran’s restrictions on freedom with the religion of Islam, it’s over-simplistic to assume that this mass dissatisfaction with the state of the country necessarily signifies dissatisfaction with the…

Revolutionary Guards pulling strings in Iran

A new blog by a colleague who knows Iran inside out. Iran Dispatch is essential reading. Like this post that discusses where real power today lies in the Islamic Republic: Iran’s opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi says Iran Revolutionary Guards has been behind the election fraud and now controls the whole economy of the country. In…

Ahmadinejad wants a good bombing campaign

The ongoing guessing game over America bombing Iran. Steve Clemons claims it’s highly unlikely that Barack Obama will order a strike against Tehran, a god-send for the mullahs. As for Israel launching a strike, that’s maybe another story.

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