Iran arrests blogfather for spying
The Guardian and The Times are reporting today on the arrest of Iranian blogger, Hossein Derakhshan, who has been accused of spying for Israel.
Derakhshan has the enviable nickname the “blogfather” for his efforts in kick starting the Iranian blogging revolution – so far the only casualties of which have been the bloggers themselves.
He was arrested after returning to Tehran a few weeks ago having lived in the UK and Canada. He had been publicly critical of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a “hardline reactionary”.
Derakhshan had previously visited Israel as he wanted to show Iranian readers what “Israel really looked like and how people live there”. He said he also wanted to “humanise” Iranians for Israelis. His reward for that slice of humanity was a visit from the Revolutionary Guards.
According to the Iranian website Jahan News, which is said to be linked to linked to the Iranian intelligence services, Derakhshan “confessed” during interrogation to being involved in espionage. Jahan News also said he had been described in Jewish newspaper articles as a “friend of Israel”.
The Guardian quoted him as saying: “Iran doesn’t recognise Israel, has no diplomatic relations with it … Too bad, but I don’t care. Fortunately, I am a citizen of Canada and I have the right to visit any country I like. I’m going to Israel as a citizen journalist and a peace activist.”
His blog has been blocked by Iranian government since 2004 and he founded Stop censoring us blog to watch the situation of internet censorship in Iran. The last post to his English language blog was on October 6.
That post marked one of a few that had seen him start to distance himself from Israel and praise Ahmadinejad.
“Ahmadinejad’s brilliant strategy of dismissing Israel and smiling to the U.S. has divided the the U.S. in all levels and that’s a big achievement comparing to Khatami’s weak and failed U.S. strategy that led to Iran being part of the ‘axis of evil’. Now the same Bush administration has officially opened the diplomatic line. Please get over Ahmadinejad’s scruffy look, prayers, and plain language and see these achievements.”
He had also defended Iran’s right to nuclear weapons for defensive purposes, and said he would return to defend Iran if America ever attacked. “I can’t let myself to sit down for a moment and watch make a Baghdad out of Tehran”.
The concillatory tone could be seen as an volte face or alternatively it could be seen as the reality of living and blogging back in Iran, which ever it was it did not affect the attitude of the regime.
Comments
| 20 November 2008, 12:18 pm |
Expect incoherent but obscene comments from Gameboy that any Iranian could see Israelis as humans.
| 20 November 2008, 12:19 pm |
Couldn’t agree with you more.
| 20 November 2008, 12:48 pm |
I suspect that Game is otherwise engaged trying to contextualise Al Zawahiris racism in the context of the anti imperialism of the movement in which he is rooted.
| 20 November 2008, 1:32 pm |
When Derakhshan first stepped into the limelight a few years ago, we covered his activities sympathetically.
However, looking around the blogosphere, discussions of his visit to Israel were absolutely BRISTLING with Iranian bloggers saying:
“Don’t trust this guy, he isn’t all he seems…”
and stuff like that.
I also had Iranian bloggers writing to me at the time, basically saying that Derakhshan was a stooge of the Islamic Republic, and that he was one of a number of Iranians who the IRI had set up as “faux dissidents”. There was also a suggestion that the IRI was blackmailing him over his sexuality.
Now, I didn’t quite know what to make of all this. It seemed hugely conspiracist to me.
Derakhshan did, however, very quickly and noticably change tack on Iranian issues – lots of articles which basically said
‘I’m a huge opponent of Ahmadinijad and big supporter of a free and open democracy, but frankly, he’s brilliant and the Islamic Republic of Iran is the greatest achievement of human civilisation EVAH”
Seriously – not too far off from that!
Now he has been arrested, apparently.
Some have been suggesting that this is all part of the plan: to give him back some of the credibility that he has lost by his output of pro-Ahmadinijad material. Others have suggested that it is a power struggle between different factions in the IRI, that Derakhshan has got caught up in it – having thought he was untouchable.
Alternatively, he is just a free thinker, and got unlucky, and blundered into trouble on a trip back “home”.
| 20 November 2008, 4:20 pm |
Anything here is simply speculation.
The truth may be known in the future and it may not.
This whole episode seems premature for real discussion until some sound facts emerge.
| 20 November 2008, 4:23 pm |
I agree
| 20 November 2008, 6:09 pm |
Derakhshan is, at the least, a loose cannon who started defending Iran’s quest for nuclear arms a couple of years ago, after his first trip to Israel, in response to suggestions that the facilities under construction be bombed before Iran had nuclear capacity. Only time will tell whether his friendship with a Canadian born Israeli Jew and subsequent trip to Israel was for the purpose of spying on Israel’s Persian diaspora (about 100,000 or more).
| 20 November 2008, 7:11 pm |
Wow, I hope it isn’t as you say it is David T: it’s just so sinister.
| 21 November 2008, 12:34 am |
Derakshan’s own blog will show you that his opportunism and capacity for self promotion are unbounded by any consideration for political honesty and consistency. Here’s his self-translated summary of one of his most recent Persian blog entries:
Ahmadinejad’s brilliant strategy of dismissing Israel and smiling to the U.S. has divided the the U.S. in all levels and that’s a big achievement comparing to Khatami’s weak anf failed U.S. strategy that led to Iran being part of the ‘axis of evil’. Now the same Bush administration has officially opened the diplomatic line. Please get over Ahmadinejad’s scruffy look, prayers, and plain language and see these achievements.
And here is the absolutely shameful way he dissed the very Israeli blogger who first invited, subsidized and hosted him on his first trip to Israel.
It wasn’t the first time he’d done that. He had previously inveigled her and a fellow Israeli woman journalist into repeating his choice of Iranian swearwords on video in the course of a private conversation, then posted the video on a popular Iranian website where they attracted huge and horrified attention (women in Iran never use the words he got them to utter, and if they do they are regarded as contemptible).
If you read through the backlog of his blog entries, you will see ample evidence of endless proclaiming of his own importance, together with successive espousals and droppings of extreme and totally incompatible positions which appear to be closely related to his pursuit of freebie visits and funding from whatever sources (pro and anti the Iranian regime) he’s been able to get his hands on.
He’s not so much a loose cannon as an utterly self-regarding self-publicist who’s got a lot of mileage out of playing on the goodwill and sympathies of well meaning Western left-leaning bloggers and journalists.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it emerged that the news of his arrest was the latest bit of self-publicization since his blog has long since ceased to attract a significant readership. Even at the time he claimed he had ten thousand readers, his own site stats showed that the actual readership was a few hundred.
If it’s true, he’s played a very dirty and opportunist game in the hope of getting himself a job with the regime when he returned; his output over the last few months included various entries suggesting he must be worth the Iranians giving him a nice cushy commentator job.
One thing’s for sure. No espionage agency in the world would employ such a blatant self-publicist and narcissist. There’s a link to his flickr gallery from his blog site. Look at the number of photos of himself (almost all self-photographed.)
| 21 November 2008, 12:51 pm |
Im one of the Iranian commenter that warned DT/Harry’s Place about Hossien Derakhshan. Derakhshan is a conflicted character – originating from a Hezbollahi family he has procivilities and tendencies that don’t fit well within an Islamic regime that he supports. He is a fellow traveller and apologist for the reactionary Islamist regime in Iran.
Unlike most here I read the Farsi version of his blog aimed as it is at Iranian readers – it is far more supportive of the Islamic Republic and specifically its hard-line Khomenist faction now embodied by Ahmadinejad. Derakhshan repeatedly castigates Khatami as a “sell out.” His support for the Islamic Regime is such that Derakhshan has had to turn off his comments facility on his blog because of the incessant flame mail he has received for Iranians.
For a long time Derakhshan tried to reconcile his life style preferences with his support for the Islamic Republic’s social and religious aims. In doing so he has on numerous occasions crossed all lines of moral decency.
Less than 2 years ago when a number of prominent Iranian women’s rights activists (Ramin Jahanbegloo, Haleh Esfandiyari, Ali Shakeri) were held in Iran’s most notorious political prison on trumped up espionage charges and faced life imprisonment and possibly the death sentence Derakhshan was using his blog http://www.hoder.com to falsely implicate them in an Bush administration conspiracy against the Islamic Republic knowing full well that such ludicrous charges could lead to their deaths. Derakhshan has continued to attack any critique of the Islamic republic – even Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
As for Derakhshan’s so called support for Israel, you need only read the blog of the Lisa Goldman the Israeli journalist who invited her to Israel to understand how disappointed and duped she felt by Derakhshan’s time in Israel (where he was primarily concerned in having a good time) and his multitude of anti-Israeli comments after his visit and his betray of her when she was held in Lebanon
http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/017553.shtml
Derakhshan has a longstanding support for the Islamic Republic:
If one needs reminding, here are just some of his views including his defence of Fathem Rajabi’s overtly anti-semetic (as opposed to anti-Zionist comments)
http://nuzee.com/editormyself.php
So don’t shed any tears for Hossien, I doubt that his incarceration will last long. The Islamic Republic knows who its supporters in the West are.
Instead of writing a letter voicing concern for Derakhshan you should instead write to the Guardian and ask why they promote Derakhshan on CiF but never give an opportunity to Iranian bloggers who are opposed to the facist Islamist regime that rules Iran.
| 21 November 2008, 1:18 pm |
ClapHammer & DavidT
The evidence for Derakhshan’s support for the reactionary forces in the Islamic Republic is plain to see right on Derakhshan’s own blog & CiF articles in the Guardian …
Just a few examples of Derakhshan’s views should suffice. No matter what happens next to Derakhshan it doesnt change what he is a supporter of the Islamic Republic’s hardliners.
Derakhshan tries very hard to label any opponenet of the Islamist regime as a freemason, anti-Iranian, pro-Bush … and he coinsistently whitewashes the most hardline elements of the regime.
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