{"id":2771,"date":"2009-11-25T08:16:14","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T16:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2009-11-25T08:16:14","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T16:16:14","slug":"newsweek-118-days-12-hours-54-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/25\/newsweek-118-days-12-hours-54-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek: 118 Days, 12 Hours, 54 Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a little behind, but I just read Maziar Bahari’s account of his 118 days<\/a> in an Iranian prison in Newsweek<\/em>. It’s frightening to say the least, and confirms similar accounts I’ve heard by others who have had the pleasure of Evin Prison’s hospitality. <\/p>\n

Robert Mackey in The Lede<\/a> blog writes:<\/p>\n

Mr. Bahari\u2019s account of his 118 days in captivity offers a fascinating insight into the government\u2019s attempts to understand and stifle the dissent that followed the election. It is often a harrowing read, but his description of being pressed about the meaning of his appearance on \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d<\/a> in addition to being absurd, points to the apparent difficulty his interrogators had in distinguishing between the work of spies and the work of journalists. Mr. Bahari, who calls his main interrogator \u201cMr. Rosewater\u201d because of the cologne he wore, recalls:<\/i><\/p>\n

I saw the flicker of a laptop monitor under my blindfold. Then I heard someone speaking. It was a recording of another prisoner\u2019s confession. \u201cIt\u2019s not that one,\u201d said the second interrogator. \u201cIt\u2019s the one marked \u2018Spy in coffee shop.\u2019 \u201d Mr. Rosewater fumbled with the computer. The other man stepped in to change the DVD. And then I heard the voice of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.<\/p>\n

Only a few weeks earlier, hundreds of foreign reporters had been allowed into the country in the run-up to the election. Among them was Jason Jones, a \u201ccorrespondent\u201d for Stewart\u2019s satirical news program. Jason interviewed me in a Tehran coffee shop, pretending to be a thick-skulled American. He dressed like some character out of a B movie about mercenaries in the Middle East\u2014with a checkered Palestinian kaffiyeh around his neck and dark sunglasses. The \u201cinterview\u201d was very short. Jason asked me why Iran was evil. I answered that Iran was not evil. I added that, as a matter of fact, Iran and America shared many enemies and interests in common. But the interrogators weren\u2019t interested in what I was saying. They were fixated on Jason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is this American dressed like a spy, Mr. Bahari?\u201d asked the new man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is pretending to be a spy. It\u2019s part of a comedy show,\u201d I answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell the truth!\u201d Mr. Rosewater shouted. \u201cWhat is so funny about sitting in a coffee shop with a kaffiyeh and sunglasses?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a joke. Nothing serious. It\u2019s stupid.\u201d I was getting worried. \u201cI hope you are not suggesting that he is a real spy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you tell us why an American journalist pretending to be a spy has chosen you to interview?\u201d asked the man with the creases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also, for the record, Jason Jones<\/a> is Canadian, not American. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a little behind, but I just read Maziar Bahari’s account of his 118 days in an Iranian prison in Newsweek. It’s frightening to say the least, and confirms similar accounts I’ve heard by others who have had the pleasure of Evin Prison’s hospitality. Robert Mackey in The Lede blog writes: Mr. Bahari\u2019s account of his 118 days in captivity offers a fascinating insight into the government\u2019s attempts to understand and stifle the dissent that followed the election. It is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,96,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-election-1388","category-iran","category-journalism","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uks-IH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}