I met Hossein (Hoder) two years ago and we became friends. Last time I talked with him through the email he told me he was planning to go to Iran and to open a review to popularize Edward Said thinking and he said his reading Judith Butler, Foucault, O'Rorty and others changed his way of thinking, but he was not supporting Ahmadineyad. Now I a m worried for him and writing international organisations to free him.
Thanks for your article.

The abduction of Sean Goldman should be just as important as the abduction of a "reporter". Sean's story should have provoked national outrage, but our press corp is silent. http://bringseanhome.org

Now, aren't we just AMAZED that someone the Israeli-first Ignatius tried to palm off as an
Iranian...

turned out to be a Jewish spy?

Do you never tire of trying to push your rotten stuff off on the American people? The old sick game of trying to marry Ameican and Israeli interests is foul.

If you read posts anywhere, everywhere, you'll see how sick Amerians are getting of it. It'll backfire big time, by people who seeing israel as our biggest, greedy problem. A tick on our soul and treasure. Whatever soul we have left.

Britain, Israel and the US MUST treat all countries in the Middle East with dignity and respect in ALL ways including fairness and justice for all.

If the countries in the Middle East have existing conflicts, THEY need a neutral place to resolve conflicts - no US and British present. We MUST remember that it was the Brits and Harry Truman that enabled the partition. Obviously we share some responsibility for the distrust of us.

Is the Hague a place to resolve the conflicts?

Is there data on how many persons have been killed since 1947. OR, how much Americans have been deprived of necessities because of the money we have spent re the Middle East conflicts?

We are operating in the RED. It is unpatriotic
(to engage in pre-emptive attacks and occupation
UNLESS we do so in self-defense) to start a war with a country that is not a threat to US. Further, to spend our treasure killing persons in a country that has not asked us to assist them.

While doing some research, I found the original definition of a patriot has changed. I Wonder who did THAT?

A patriot - the definition I believe - is love of country that includes defending it against anyone who threatens our security. WWW 11 was the last JUST WAR, in my opinion.

All others were shams. Remember Grenada?

Follow up for earlier post.

Responsibility is also an must for the United States. IF the US is directly threatened, of course we will do our best to resolve the conflicts peacefully and with dignity and respect for ALL countries - NOT just a few countries.

We absolutely MUST stop behavior that indicates we are going to POLICE the whole world. THAT is NOT our responsibility. We will be a better America when we focus on the needs of our own country.

If other countries enjoy war that is their choice.
We should NOT supply ANY country with WMD of any sort. Neither should we finance crossing another country's border. ALL states, countries need the necessities to safeguard their turf.

A PEACE ACADEMY could stop the aggression BEFORE the blood starts flowing.

I am an idealist. Even though many quote the Bible "...there will be wars and rumors of war..." Amen, I do not subscribe to this theory.

For a start, a PEACE ACADEMY in an isolated area - not easy to leave before conflicts are resolved - would be the best way to start.

When there are conflicts any place in the world those who are responsible for the conflict would go here and with mediators work through their differences and come up with a solution.

This concept would be for ALL countries and require great dedication.

Sure, I may be describing utopia. Why not? The UN does not seem to have the proper facility, located in an isolated area (no phones allowed in the 'conflict resolution areas) to have a successful outcome.

Details? Psychiatrists to guide the participants to the core to determine how the anger, resentment, hatred began. Same to work toward a resolution to negate the negative mindset. Sociologist to help all understand each other. Diplomats TRAINED in these areas to assist with finding solutions.

WAR would not be an option. Lies, smears, labels, greed could not be a part of the solutions. Absolutely NO POLITICS. Focus on the entire world as ONE COMMUNITY with all residents build a peaceful community where they live.

I may be dreaming. Don't wake me, if you think I am.

Iran is a dictatorship. As such freedom of thought and expression and all of the good that can come from a healthy honest society are lost. The "journalists" permitted in such a society are generally those who don't mind bending the truth to better themselves. Yes, this arrest is a crime against humanity and yet another big step backward for an already backward Iran.

Note that none of these comments will be discussed in the Iranian press.

The Terrorist They Call "president" Is The Enemy Of Humanity!!!

A lot of white men calling themselves "journalists" are actually SPIES working for their governments. We have seen how all white men and their white women who run around calling themselves "journalists" have supported for the last decade American War Crimes and Terrorism against Muslims.

And from what I read here, this stinking, racist, anti-Muslim website (WAPO) has been recruiting NON-WHITE "journalists" and "writers" (SPIES really) who HATE their own people and their OWN Cultures, and their own countries, and their own societies, as, and this is a joke that always makes me laugh a lot, as "writers" and "journalists"

To qualify as a "writer" or "journalist" for the WAPO, if you are NOT white, you must NOT just hate yourself. You must HATe your culture. You must hate your society. You must hate your original country. And you must strip yourself of your own IDENTITY and pretend to be a white man and talk like a white man and sympathise with white man ISSUES and "write" like a white man and, most importantly, PARROT your white man BOSS!!!!!

The white man, their god, DOES NOT ALLOW them, ever, to write POSITIVE stuff about their own socities, their own people and their own countries!! To make their MASTER, the white man, happy, they must lambaste, attack, ridicule and tar their own people, their own cultures, their own societies etc!!!!

ONLY then, does the stinking white man, their god, give them the reward labels such as "journalist" or "writer" etc!!!

All the stinkers who are non-white who participate in the so-called "debates" on this stinking WAPO website as "journalists" or, and I LOVE this one, as "experts" or, again laughter please, as "analysts" are MISERABLE SLAVES who think the white man is their god!!!!

If these yellow-bellied slaves of the white man are caught in a country like Iran and prosecuted for SPYING, I have NOOOOOOO problem. I believe these sorts of ccreatures deserve to be punished in their own countries!!!!!!!

It is time for clerical leadership of Iran to accept State of Israel as a signatory member of UN charters.

If visiting State of Israel and obsevring her people, culture, rituals, conflicts, trials and turbulations warrants title of being a spy, I would consider myself as one, and ask all Iranian nationals to do the same.

It is a persian tradition to celebrate diversity of thoughts, views, cultures, and religions. This diversity in Iran of today and more than 6,000 years of history is a testament to her rich culture, and it is time for leadership of Iran to embrace this tradition.

Hossein Derakhshan visit to Israel is an attempt to bring our artificial barriers down in a human sense. I encourage we all do the same.

ali.houshyar@yahoo.com

USA can call its own citizens enemy combatants but Iran cannot?

Is this a bit rich coming from the premier political newspaper of a country that practices CIA renditions and runs Guantanamo, but Iran should not investigate its own citizens that are aiding and abating a hostile, foreign country that is lobbying to isolate Iran, even push America to bomb Iran?

Absurd.....Mr. Ignatius! Try travelling to Cuba as a U.S. citizen without prior permission from Washington and see if you can shake away a 5 year jail sentence and a fine in your own home country!

Whilst Hossein Derakhshan's arrest should not be entertained nd be condemned so should we also condemn all forms of journalist intimadation, whether by the US, Israel, Iran or China. The hypocricy here is that, we quickly cry foul when it happens in Iran but silent when it happens elsewhere.

This writer exemplifies the hypocricy so much portrayed here. Iran supposedly demonises Israel, but what does Israel do about Iran? Lets not even overstretch it with Israel but what does the western media do about Iran. Demonising Iran by the western media would be too generous.

Again, he asserts that Iran forbids its citizens contact with Israel. Its a plain lie. As a matter of fact, Iranian Jews are allowed to visit Israel and return to Iran without any issues.

I fully support for your call for release for Mr. hossein Darakhsan

Iran must understand that it is already very isolated and working against international Journalist will not help them any way.

Mean time Canada on whose passport he was traveling must exert diplomatic pressure.

More important is that for Mr. Hossein the support of Washington post is available and i am sure it will work positively. but for those who are alone and want their voices to be heard there will be no relief.

ANJUCHANDEL:

:
“Yes, I too join your appeal to the Iranian administration and say that Free Hossein Derakhshan!
Iran is a weird country and worst are its current so-called political and self-proclaimed religious leaders who have for sure completely failed in carrying the age old legacy of their country for being one of the most cultured civilizations of the world.
Iranians should protest in order to protect their right to live with liberty and dignity.”

It bewilders me when one so void of any knowledge about Iran and their culture drops here to express a political opinion and advise Iranians about their civil rights too without displaying any intellectual basis to qualify as such.
I vividly and still remember when US pitted, encouraged Iraq to attack Iran and blocked all the military supplies to Iran which resulted in about near one million Iranian death and hundred thousands injured needless to mention, the atrocities the Iraqis committed against Iranians both civilian and troops, no one here or anywhere else cried afoul. Or, when the Iranian civilian airliner was deliberately shot down.

Iran, on its own has made progresses that are simply, along with its independence and disobedience, not acceptable to US and I safely assume they find any criticisms coming from posters who are fit for national inquirer irrelevant.

I have read all articles by Mr. Derakhshan published right here and enjoyed all of them. However, I do indeed trust Israel and US are sparing no efforts to sabotage Iranian independence and derail its progress and its path to a dominant regional leader and a relevant player in world affairs.

If Mr. Derakhshan is innocent I trust he will be freed soon if not, Iran has and is doing exactly what it has to do to protect itself and its national interests.

Faramarz Fathi
faramarzfathi@aol.com

I would like to thank your attention. We should note that Mr. Derakhshan used to attack many people under arrest in Iran through his blog and try to connect them to foreign agencies. This has caused a great deal of stress and trouble for many Iranian activists.

Iranian hardliners have mostly benefited from the false documentations published on Mr. Derakhshan's blog.

I have learned that a number of his posts on other blogs have been removed because of lack of evidence.

Many of the allegations he brought up against activists were not supported by any facts, and made things worse for human rights in Iran.

But now, he is the victim himself, and the best thing to do is to show him merci by calling for his freedom. Even if he doesn't feel sorry for his actions, we should not repeat what he was doing in the past.

Why Ignatius does not call for freedom of 10,000 palestinain political prisoners in apartheid israeli jails is beyond me. Propaganda Propaganda Propaganda.

This move by Iran surely falls short in matching US policy of shelling Al Jazeera journalists with tanks or bombing them with airstrikes. Where were these postglobal "contractors" when those journalists were being killed and tortured at the hands of US troops? Uhm... nevermind you hyopcrates

Actually, I think Iran arrested Derakhshan for defending Richard Perle of U.S. Defence Council and call his ideas "wonderful". But again, so did David Ignatius in his regular column....LOL

There is a lot that we do not know about the facts of the case. This supposedly celebrated blogger of PostGlobal has only 10 articles over the last 2+ years of PostGlobal, some of which are cut-and-paste articles of other sources (New Yorker, etc.). Also, he has to choose if he is 100% Canadian (whatever that is??) or 100% Iranian.

But one thing is for sure: he is in his homeland and he will be treated just like his 70 million countrymen with the same laws, system etc.--warts and all.
There are also Chinese, Russian, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, .... journalists and Judith Miller of The New York Times that have been jailed in their own home country. So, what is the big deal? It is part of the profession chosen, voluntarily!

Yes, I too join your appeal to the Iranian administration and say that Free Hossein Derakhshan!

Iran is a weird country and worst are its current so-called political and self-proclaimed religious leaders who have for sure completely failed in carrying the age old legacy of their country for being one of the most cultured civilizations of the world.

Iranians should protest in order to protect their right to live with liberty and dignity.

Citizenofthepost-Americanworld
jilliancyork

Point well taken indeed....journalism 101; well, at least as it once was before it became entertainment 101.

it makes Iran look weak.

what a cover for a spy: a loudmouth blogger!

he is really guilty of being international, objective, and critical, which leads to accusations of crimes in many countries, not just Iran.

try to make an example, make a martyr: beware.

skewb writes: "Do we not have precedence to believe the Iranian authorities would unjustly accuse and arrest a journalist?"

Believing is not knowing. He who knows needs neither assume nor believe.

The public knows from what went on for decades "inside the company", that hundreds of people from all walks of life, a great many in key positions (including journalists and other people in the media!!!) whose names were ultimately divulged, did indeed spy extensively for the United States of America, all over the world. Enough efforts were made to ensure that information did not reach the public at large, for everybody to have safely concluded those concerned were indeed US spies.

As for innumerable people spying in Palestine, in Iran, even in the United States of America on behalf of Israel, proof of that has been provided on such a regular basis that no such confirmation is required anymore.

He who knows needs neither assume nor believe.

We ought to insist: this matter should first be dealt with through appropriate diplomatic channels without outside interference.

The verbage employed by Ignatius here does not reinforce his unsubstantiated claims about Derakshan. As noted by others, it is Iran and Iraninans who are the subject of wildly inaccurate and manipulative caricatures and stereotypes.

The Terrorist They Call "president" Is The Enemy Of Humanity!!

B.S.!!!Unfortunately, I trust Iran on this MORE than I would trust War Mongers, terrorists and supporters of torture and mass murder like this writer and his website WAPO who are ruthlessly anti-Muslim and pro-mass murder and pro-torture of humann beings.

I trust Iran on this. If Iran says he is a SPy then he must BE a SPY!!!!

As a journalist and human being, this is distressing news indeed. For those critical of Mr. Ignatius, have you considered that we may never get the facts? Do we not have precedence to believe the Iranian authorities would unjustly accuse and arrest a journalist? Of course we do. Furthermore, the suggestion that Mr. Ignatius is somehow demonizing the Iranian people is ridiculous. He very clearly directs his sentiments toward the Iranian authorities. Mr. Ignatius is spot-on in his observations. We have long observed the anti-semitism of Iran's ruling institutions.

For some reason you're under the delusion that Iran is a Constitutional Republic with a set of Bill of Rights.

I'd like to see the Post do something more activist about this. Can someone set up a letter writing campaign? With an issue this blatant, why not move from being a static medium and do something concrete where we can all help Mr. Derakhshan? And as for the person who sarcastically states that we think President-elect Obama walks on water.....we'll have to undo years of neglect by the Bush administration regarding Iran. It seems we have no sway with their government after their blundering and misguided, ill attempts to isolate a pivotal middle eastern power.

Iranian leadership has a opportunity to show the rest of the world that they can be compassionate and reasonable by commuting Hossein Derakhshan. They have not demonstrated these characteristics in the past. Remember, this is the country that thinks the Holocaust was a conspiratorial plot to promote Zionism.

"Last weekend we learned that Derakhshan has been arrested and accused of spying for Israel... We fear that his real crime in the eyes of the Iranian authorities was that he dared to visit the Jewish state and write about its people as human beings -- as opposed to the demons of Iranian official propaganda. He was traveling on a Canadian passport, which unlike that of Iran doesn't forbid contact with Israel."

I consider a person's freedom is everyone's concern, as is the universal quest for truth and justice.

That said, may I point out, with all due respect, that I like neither the tone of nor the premature assumptions in the above? I do not find them the least helpful.

I understand 1. that there has been no official confirmation yet of the arrest, 2. that Canadian authorities are doing everything they can to obtain both confirmation of the arrest as well as the reasons for it, as the case may be, 3. that Canadian authorities have made it clear they are prepared to provide, as necessary, all diplomatic help that Canadian citizen may require.

Before we indict the Iranian authorities on the basis of, to say the least, unfriendly speculations, we should all be encouraged, rather, to discover what the facts are.

To paraphrase, Iranians are "human beings" too... "as opposed to the demons of official anti- Iranian propaganda". Not to treat them as such cannot help Hossein Derakhshan.

If and when necessary, I believe there will be time to demand that an innocent man be treated humanly and released, to seek help to that end from every quarter and to provide support to those whose responsibility it is to seek justice on his behalf.

Justice always first requires that facts be known. I believe we should never let a man's fate be decided in anything that may be perceived as a propaganda exercise.

Although I too have written about this issue (for the Huffington Post) and have been working with press since the news "broke" last week, I think it is irresponsible of you at this point to encourage people to "free Hossein Derakhshan" when we're not even sure he's been arrested.

What you failed to mention to the public is that only one source has actually confirmed Hoder's arrest, and that source is related to Iranian intelligence.

While I'm glad the story is getting out there, I wish the media would get the facts straight for once.

Yes, well why not send the grand uniter Obama to argue for his freedom. You folks think he walks on water, so this would be a snap for him. He could talk the Iranians into a coma, just like he is trying to do to the Amerian people today.

Iran cannot hold back the tide of freedom within or without it's borders, it will only hurt it's own life, growth, and evolution as a vibrant Nation....closing itself off as it does it tightens it's own life-force.

Iran, only a very fearful system needs to arrest and hold someone simply because they threaten your power...true strength of soul, or spirit, whether it is a person or a Nation is not afraid to allow diversity of thought, word, or deed, in fact it needs it....encourages it....

Iran, let us see your power....free Hossein Derakhshan

As one of PostGlobal contributors, and who has been threatened for my writings, I also want to join David and others in calling for the immediate release of Hossein Derakhshan. Journalists should be allowed to work freely. I've always argued that those who threaten journalists for their writings are bankrupt in ideas. The won't engage in logical thinking. Instead, they resort to brute force and intimidation.