Archive for 2010

  • WikiLeaks

    Fmr. US State Dept. official in Tehran Henry Precht on WikiLeaks

    The following message was sent to the Gulf2000 email list on December 19, 2010 and is re-printed here below with his permission. Henry Precht is a retired Foreign Service officer who was country director for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis. -CF...

    Full Story

  • Hossein - Tel Aviv

    Iranian blogging pioneer temporarily released from prison

    I just filed this latest update to the ongoing Hoder saga. Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan was temporarily released from a Tehran prison, after having been incarcerated for 26 months, according to a report Thursday on Mashregh News, a conservative Iranian news website. The site was...

    Full Story

  • 3488874778_4764fd64d7_b

    Joint French-Canadian statement in support of Hossein Derakhshan

    Joint Declaration by Canada and France (No. 341 – October 20, 2010 – 1:15 p.m. ET) The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, and Bernard Kouchner (pictured), Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of France, made the following statement today concerning Canadian-Iranian...

    Full Story

  • Bex and Cyrus

    Rebecca Farivar to publish her first book in 2011

    My beautiful and brilliant wife, Rebecca Farivar, is getting her first book of poetry — tentatively titled Conception — published by Octopus Books in 2011. That means both of our books will be coming out next year! Hooray! Discounts will surely be in effect for...

    Full Story

  • 4606770910_d43ce04a8e_z

    UK Minister for Europe David Lidington speaks out for Hossein Derakhshan

    As per the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s website, David Lidington has spoken out against the arrest of Hossein Derakhshan.

    Full Story

  • 2750140049_34f2930ea8

    My audio portrait of Hossein Derakhshan (Nov. 2009)

    Over all that’s been going on with Hossein Derakhshan lately, I thought I would repost this audio portrait that I did of him for the MediaShift website back in November 2009. You can listen to it here (it’s around 19 minutes long):

    Full Story

  • Canadian FM Cannon

    Canadian FM Lawrence Cannon on Hossein Derakhshan’s jail sentence

    I emailed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa and received this statement back from Melissa Lantsman, on behalf of Canada’s Foreign Minister, Lawrence Cannon. “We are deeply concerned about the news of this severe sentence. Our officials continue to seek confirmation of these reports...

    Full Story

  • Hoder in Marseille

    Hossein Derakhshan sentenced to 19.5 years in prison

    A conservative Persian news website, Mashregh News, is reporting that Iranian-Canadian blogging pioneer Hossein Derakhshan has been found guilty of “conspiring with hostile governments, disseminating anti-Islamic propaganda, disseminating anti-revolutionary propaganda, blasphemy, annd operating and managing obscene pornography websites.” He is ordered to serve 19.5 years...

    Full Story

  • Delanoe

    Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë speaks out for Hossein Derakhshan

    The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, released a statement (in French) today in support of Hossein Derakhshan. I have translated it below to the best of my ability. —BEGIN ENGLISH TRANSLATION— I have learned with dismay and the utmost concern that the death penalty was...

    Full Story

  • 29272694_f4e6882928_z

    Hossein Derakhshan’s mother speaks

    Editor’s Note: This is a English translation of an interview originally done in Persian by Kamtarin, published on September 21, 2010. I did not translate this interview myself, nor have I been in direct contact with Kamtarin nor Ozra Kiarashpour, Hossein’s mother, but my Derakhshan...

    Full Story