The slap across my jaw from behind me made my ears sting red with anger and embarrassment. I was being punished for daring to glance around the room where I was being questioned - accused of being a spy for Britain.
A few days earlier I had been brought, blindfolded, to the heart of Evin Prison, to begin what my captors believed would be the simple process of establishing my guilt. I was told to sit down, and keep facing the bare wall in front of me, before my blindfold was removed. On a sheet of official notepaper I was to scribble answers to my interrogator's questions. What had I been doing in the days since the disputed Iranian election? Who were my contacts? Who had I interviewed and what had they told me?
When he stepped outside to talk to intelligence ministry colleagues, I briefly craned my neck to see whether the interrogation suite was equipped with a camera. It was a mistake: quick as a flash the official was back, and I was being punished for my disobedience. My face still smarting, I whirled round to confront him. It was a visceral reaction and the only time in a week of almost daily interrogations that I stared straight into the face of one of my captors. What I saw was not reassuring. A scruffy white-flecked beard, a contemptuous mouth curling to reveal a flash of gold fillings, and eyes fixed at me in white anger. "Didn't I tell you never to turn around?" he snapped. "Now turn away from me."
My first interrogator was like that. Sometimes his carefully cultivated voice oozed false sympathy. Occasionally, his solicitousness appeared downright sarcastic. When I refused to reveal the names of my Iranian contacts, he assured me that they need not fear. "They are fellow Iranian citizens like myself, Mr Iason," he purred. "Why would I ever hurt my own flesh and blood?" At other times he flew into blind rages, prodding me aggressively in the back while making a point - perhaps about the perfidy of supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the presidential candidate who is still disputing the outcome of the election. "You think you're treated so badly," he snapped at me, "but what is our treatment in London or Heathrow? Every time in that airport it is four or five hours interrogation for us."
Continued on Page 47
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Several new polls suggest that the United States is gaining ground in the "Arab street," and that President Barack Obama's latest overtures, specifically his June 4 speech in Cairo, were well received by some important Arab constituencies.
Although a great deal of skepticism remains, students of Arab public opinion would regard these numbers as surprisingly encouraging. In contrast, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popularity has slipped dramatically in the Arab world, with many saying that the outcome of Iran's recent presidential election will hurt the region. Approximately half of the Arabs questioned even agree that "if Iran does not accept new restrictions and more international oversight of its nuclear program, the Arabs should support stronger sanctions against Iran around the end of this year."
If the Middle East were more like the United States or Europe, an overnight phone poll would provide immediate answers to important questions. The reality is that phone polls in the region are notoriously unreliable and that most individual polls, however elaborate or well intended, are inevitably suspect of government interference, social bias, or other distortions.
Still, if evidence from several different pollsters can be gathered, evaluated, and compared, some reasonable and even significant judgments can be rendered. This is precisely the case today when comparatively solid (and in great measure previously unpublished) data of this kind are at hand for three key Arab societies: Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The data in question derive from three different sources, all using in-person rather than phone or online interviews: the Washington-based Zogby International, the Ramallah-based Palestinian AWRAD Institute, and the Princeton-based Pechter Middle East Polls. This last is a new entrant on the scene, but one whose fieldwork is conducted by a very experienced, professional, and completely apolitical regional commercial survey firm - and unlike most other polls in the region, without any government sponsorship or supervision.
The latest Zogby Arab poll was conducted in March and April, several months before Obama's speech and the Iran election, and has had more than its share of methodological problems (including heavily loaded questions) in the past. Still, it provides some context for assessing which issues resonate most in certain Arab societies, with sometimes surprising findings. More up to date and reliable was a West Bank/Gaza poll conducted June 12-14 by the nonpartisan AWRAD institute headed by Dr. Nader Said. A poll conducted from June 15 to 18 in Egypt and Jordan by Pechter Middle East Polls provides the most recent and in many respects the most interesting data.
#2
If Iran is slipping in Arab street polls, it is more likely due to heavy-handedness in the Iran streets by Dinnerjacket and mullahs rather than the BO speech in Cairo.
#3
"Approximately half of the Arabs questioned even agree that "if Iran does not accept new restrictions and more international oversight of its nuclear program, the Arabs should support stronger sanctions against Iran"
This is a new and encouraging development.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/12/2009 13:10 Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran will execute 12 Jundullah members who were involved in terrorist activities at the behest of the terror group's notorious ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi. "Sistan Baluchestan's revolutionary and appellate courts have ordered the execution of 12 members of the Jundullah terrorist group on charges of terrorism. One member of the group has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a remote town," the Chairman of Sistan and Baluchestan's Justice Department Ebrahim Hamidi, told the ISNA news agency in Zahedan on Saturday.
Hamidi added that among the charges leveled against the defendants were the responsibility for the killing of 22 people in the Tasuci incident, setting up armed roadblocks on Chabahar road, kidnapping foreign nationals, and carrying out armed robberies.
Abdolhamid Rigi - the brother of Jundullah Leader Abdolmalek Rigi - who is among the convicted had told Press TV in an interview that "since 2003, Jundullah members have masterminded fifty to sixty terrorist operations, including mass murder, hostage takings, bombings, raids, car thefts, and other acts of sabotage against civilians and the government."
Did he have any of his fingernails left when he said that?
"I was under strict orders to take part in most of these missions," he explained, while adding that he killed at least four innocent civilians with his own hands in one particular raid.
He asserted that if he had refused to conform to his brother's orders he would have been faced with serious consequences. "I would be labeled as a traitor and therefore condemned to death."
Abdolhamid Rigi was arrested by Pakistani forces and handed over to Iranian officials early last year.
Jundullah is a Pakistan-based terrorist group comprised of some members of the Baluch ethnic minority. The terrorist group is closely affiliated with al-Qaeda.
Continued on Page 47
This article starring:
Abdolhamid Rigi
Abdolmalek Rigi
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Jundullah
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The slap across my jaw from behind me made my ears sting red with anger and embarrassment. I was being punished for daring to glance around the room where I was being questioned - accused of being a spy for Britain. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran will execute 12 
