Iran | The New York Observer

Outside Iran-Linked 650 Fifth, Just Another Rainy Day at the Office

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:40:42 -0500

On a dreary Friday morning at 650 Fifth Avenue, a day after the U.S. government announced it would seize the building because of ownership links to Iran, it was just another day at the office. Most employees who worked there had little reaction to the seizure, and no one reported anything unusual about the building.

“It’s like a normal office building,” said Reggie Mathas, 54, an IT technician for Delta National...

Inside Iran's Fifth Avenue Skyscraper

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:07:23 -0500

Citigroup, Joseph Abboud, Kurt Salmon Associates, Pali Capital, and the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation are just a few of the bold-faced names who may have been paying rent to the Iranian government for their offices in a Fifth Avenue skyscraper, according to real estate sources, the tenants' own Web sites, and a complaint filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that the Alavi...

Obama Stays With Engagement, at a Cost To Be Determined

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:17:00 -0400

The White House made clear on Sunday that Barack Obama will proceed with his push for diplomatic engagement with Iran, no matter the outcome of the current upheaval in the Islamic Republic. Appearing on several Sunday morning talk shows, Susan Rice, Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, and David Axelrod, one of the president’s top advisers, stressed the same basic theme: that this month’s election shouldn’t dissuade the U.S. from trying to resolve the...

With Video of Iranian Death, What's O.K. to Air?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:22:35 -0400

On the morning of Monday, June 22, television producers across the city grappled with a difficult question—how much of Neda’s death do we show on TV?

Over the weekend, Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian woman, was shot and killed in the streets of Tehran, nearby clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators. Her tragic final moments were captured on a cell phone video and soon disseminated rapidly across the Internet, transforming the young woman into...

We Are All Aggregators Now

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:03:10 -0400

Among the many lessons learned from this "new media revolution" spurred by the violent protests in Iran, one is that we are all aggregators.

The Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan and Nate Silver are not the only ones. Anyone posting links to stories about the protests, putting an #iranelection hashtag on a Tweet, or embedding the YouTube video of Neda's death on their blog is an aggregator. They have "followers" and "friends"...

The Last Thing the Iranian Reformers Need

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:55:00 -0400

It’s not a stretch for Americans to look at the scenes of mass protest in Iran and think back to 1989, when popular uprisings toppled one Soviet-backed regime after another in Eastern Europe. That mental association is one that Barack Obama’s critics have seized upon, arguing that the same presidential bully pulpit that hastened the liberation of those nations from Moscow 20 years ago should now be used to spur on the women, men...

As Tehran Roils, Obama Refuses to Pander

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:26:00 -0400

Rudy Giuliani used to like to tell the story about how, at the height of the panic and chaos of 9/11, he supposedly turned to Bernie Kerik, his then-police commissioner, and exclaimed: “Thank God George Bush is our president!” This was back when memories of the disputed 2000 election were still fresh, so the sentiment that Giuliani, who typically mentioned the anecdote to Republican crowds, was really conveying was more like: “Thank God Al Gore...

How to Invent Facts About the Iranian Election

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:01:00 -0400

Even when the evidence for something is overwhelmingly compelling, a small but noisy chunk of society will still resist it. The debate over evolution is an example of this. So is the present discussion of the Iranian election results. The clear consensus in the West is that the fix was in—that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supposed re-election landslide is a sham sloppily cooked up by the Islamic Republic’s conservative, change-resistant clerical elites. This isn’t simply because most...

Ann Curry Defends Foreign Correspondents, Twitter; Rick Sanchez Defends CNN

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:29:31 -0400

Ann Curry was on fire.

"Here's what's pissing me off," she said, leaning forward in her chair. She was jabbing a pale finger at the audience of more than 350 new media types who had unfolded their laptops at the 140 Characters Conference on June 16th.

"The reason I have to fight every time to do these stories is because the truth is that it's hard to get the majority of...

Iran Coverage on Twitter: Counter Arguments to the Online 'Revolution'

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:56:44 -0400

Over the weekend, as protestors raged against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declared victory in the Iran electon, the Web world watched events unfold online on sites like Twitter where students and activists were sending updates and pictures live from the ground. Some Twitters fueled a trending topic with the hashtag #CNNfail to call out the network for their perceived lack of coverage on the uprising. The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, on his Daily Dish blog, aggregated tweets, pictures...

Katie Couric Headed to Egypt, Saudi Arabia for Interviews with Robert Gates

Mon, 04 May 2009 12:58:02 -0400

On Monday morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was en route to Egypt.

Over the next several days, Mr. Gates, according to the Associated Press, will be on a "delicate mission" to "reassure long-term U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf region that efforts by Washington to reach out to Iran will not come at their expense."

He will do so under the watchful eye of Katie Couric.

CBS News announced on...

Clinton on Iran Options

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:31:50 -0500

Judging from the order of questions Hillary Clinton received at today's confirmation hearings, it is clear that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee thinks the gravest concern facing the United States is Iran's apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In his first question to Clinton, Kerry asked what carrots and sticks the Obama administration was thinking of with respect to Iran's nuclear program. Clinton said that she couldn't get too specific, because she didn't want to...

Iran, So Far Away, in Drawings

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:43:01 -0400

Iran’s worrisome prominence in world events can’t help but cross your mind while viewing “Ardeshir Mohassess; Art and Satire in Iran,” an exhibition on view at the Asia Society. And not only because Mr. Mohassess hails from Iran. His brand of satire is, to put it mildly, skeptical of his home country’s political convolutions. Would Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffer Mr. Mohassess’ uncompromising art gladly?

Organized by video artist Shirin Neshat and painter Nicky...

Something Unexpected in the U.S.-Iran Relationship

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:05:58 -0500

Beneath the bluster—Iranian patrol boats reportedly playing chicken with U.S. warships; President Bush’s statements about “containing” Iran—there’s a significant shift under way in the relationship between Iran and the United States. And nearly everyone is missing it.

In the first week of January 2008, as most Americans were focused on the presidential campaign and the Iowa caucuses, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared in a speech in Yazd...

CNN Shelves Iranian Nukes Doc

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:09:19 -0500

In response to this week's news that, according to the National Intelligence Estimate, Iran halted its nuclear-weapons program four years ago, CNN has tabled its forthcoming documentary We Were Warned -- Iran Goes Nuclear.

Variety reports: "The two-hour spec, which was slated for Dec. 12 under the 'CNN Presents' banner, was 'set partially in the future,' featuring a what-if scenario as former government officials -- playing fictional cabinet members -- debate how to deal...

Hillary Aide: Terrorist Designation Doesn't Authorize War in Iran

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:54:57 -0400

More from Hillary Clinton on Iraq and Iran:

She writes in a new essay in Foreign Affairs magazine that she lays out a tough diplomatic approach on Iran and says that she would start bringing troops home from Iraq "within the first 60 days of [her] administration," but that she could also foresee an American presence in and around the country to help maintain stability and keep pressure on al Qaeda.

In a conference call...

Thwarted Over Iraq, Pelosi Makes a Stand on Iran

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:53:58 -0400

It can often to seem to rank-and-file Democrats as if the Republicans are still in charge of Congress: Nearly a year after their party picked up 31 House and six Senate seats, the war in Iraq still rages, with tens of thousands of more troops deployed now than then. This failure to force even a beginning to the end of the war accounts for the painfully poor poll standing of the Democratic-led Congress, with...

Tehran's Taste in Web Sites

Tue, 15 May 2007 15:49:17 -0400

Observer contributor Niall Stanage, who is currently on assignment in Iran, sends an email for our "general amusement" to say that it is possible where he is to access the sites of the New York Times, Washington Post, the Guardian and the Times of London, but that attempts to get to the New York Post, the Sun, Gawker or Wonkette are met with "a disappointingly literal 'Access to this Site is Denied' together with...

International Popularity: North Korea Up, Iran Down

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:17:23 -0500

A nationwide Quinnipiac poll gauged the popularity of various countries with American voters and found that North Korea became slightly more popular, Iran became less popular and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela stayed the same. Here are the current approval ratings of the most popular and least popular countries, along with their scores from a Quinnipiac survey back in November. 1) England - 77.9 (78.9) 2) Canada - 75.4 (73.4) 3) Israel - 66.5 (68.2) [skip] 12)...

Blix Blasts Bush’s Policy in Iran

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Hans Blix believes the Bush administration is courting catastrophe in its handling of Iran. “It is playing at very high stakes,” Mr. Blix said. “The risk is that a spark could fly and that things could happen unexpectedly.” Mr. Blix’s dark warnings come at a time of particularly high tension. The United Nations is grappling this week with what to do about the recalcitrant regime in Tehran, with the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad virtually...

It’s Time to Block Bush’s Iran Adventure

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Regardless of which side of whatever issue she may take, Senator Hillary Clinton still has a slimy-politi cian problem: Does she mean it, or will she do anything for votes—and will the anythings she may do entrap the United States in yet new disasters? Her Feb. 5 speech at a dinner meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) underlines the subliminal mistrust in which she is held by some. This account...

The Next Disaster: Bush’s Iran Policy

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Whatever George W. Bush may tell us about his intentions toward Iran, every action and order indicates that he will seek to expand the war eastward from Iraq. Despite the warnings voiced by wiser military and diplomatic advisors, the President still seems to be listening to the same discredited neoconservatives whose fantasies and falsehoods drove us into the Iraqi quagmire. If their plotting succeeds in provoking military conflict with Iran, the resulting carnage could...

Jewish Liberals Say The Dog Wags the Tail (I Say the Tail Wags the Dog)

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:12:45 -0500

Doni Remba, a peace activist, disputes my claim that the progressive voice in Jewish life has been marginalized by the neocons. He has some evidence: he says he's getting traction in the Jewish press for his view that there has to be a progressive lobby, to push for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. His post follows, below. I have one important quibble, ahead of time. Remba reflects the conventional leftish pro-Israel view that the...

A Mesopotamian Proposal: Restore Chaos’ ‘Dread Empire’

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

In the 15 years during which I more or less regularly conducted a column for this newspaper, I can’t recall presuming to address issues of foreign policy more than once or twice. I suppose this is because I’ve always found the question of what kind of country we want this one to be more interesting and pertinent in both the short and long run than what kind of a country we want Iraq or...

The Fine Line Between Our Friends and Enemies

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Should the United States attack Iran, which side would the Iraqi government support? The answer to that simple question is far from clear, despite the thousands of lives and the billions of dollars we have sacrificed to support the ruling coalition in Baghdad. While the Bush administration seeks to isolate and even overthrow the Iranian regime as well as its Syrian ally, its supposed partners in Iraq are establishing closer relationships with both. Indeed,...

Letters

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Hypocrite Pataki To the Editor: Your Dec. 18 editorial “Will Pataki Poison Spitzer’s Well?” illustrates the hypocrisy of outgoing Republican Governor George Pataki. After the 1994 elections, as the Governor-elect, Mr. Pataki was critical of the man he defeated, Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo. Arguing that the voters had given him a mandate to serve as chief executive for the next four years—which included appointing people to management positions in the state government to assist...

Letters

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Letters

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Did Israel's Acquisition of Nuclear Weapons Lead to 1967 War?

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:08:39 -0500

In Tuesday's New York Sun, editor Seth Lipsky refers to the Six-Day war of 1967 in typical fashion, saying that Ariel Sharon "saved the Jewish state" by enveloping the Egyptians in the Sinai. Lipsky's view of the war is unreconstructed chauvinism; it shows no familiarity with Israel's new historians, who have described the '67 war as a terrible accident brought on by saber-rattling militarists on both sides. Neither side really wanted war. The Israelis...

An Alternative to Baker: Kill Our Enemies, Quickly

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

James Baker is an intelligent man, so it beggars belief that he favors every one of his simultaneously obvious and unlikely recommendations. (Sample: “Syria should...

An Alternative to Baker: Kill Our Enemies, Quickly

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

I don’t know how the poet Horace managed to get an advance copy of the report of the Iraq Study Group—everyone expects leaks, but 2,000 years ahead of time?—yet he seems to have managed it: “Mountains will be in labor, the birth will be a single laughable mouse.” James Baker is an intelligent man, so it beggars belief that he favors every one of his simultaneously obvious and unlikely recommendations. (Sample: “Syria should control...

Bush's Words Evolve, But Not His Policy

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

As someone who has never displayed any great aptitude with words, President George W. Bush shouldn’t become preoccupied with the proper terminology to describe the ferocious communal violence in Iraq. Whether the chaotic situation that he and his government have created in that country is or is not called a “civil war” by newspapers and broadcasters matters very little. Whether the President can bring himself to pronounce those words matters even less.

...

Bush’s Words Evolve, But Not His Policy

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Rumsfeld Story

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:45:00 -0500

With the Senate and House under Democratic control, and the defense department in new hands, some members of Congress are apparently now comfortable enough to tell their scariest Donald Rumsfeld stories. Here's one from Jerry Nadler: "During the one month official war with Iraq, you know, before Mission Accomplished, when the tanks were rolling across the dessert, we had a secret briefing with Rumsfeld. And I went to him at the end of the briefing and...

Finding New Ways To Confront Old Woes

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The other side holds no elections. No one in Al Qaeda has called for a timetable whereby they would begin to stop blowing up Iraqis and crusaders. No one in Iran has proposed a bipartisan commission to re-examine the country’s nuclear program, or its war on Jews. So every problem we had on the first Monday of November we will still have for every foreseeable day. We will have to deal with them differently,...

Give Bush the Tools to Finish the Job

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The midterm election was decisive—the election of 1874, that is. The Republicans went from a 111-seat lead over the Democrats in the House of Representatives to a 79-seat deficit. The Democrats also picked up numerous governorships and state legislatures. President Ulysses Grant still had two years to go in his second term, and the Senate remained in Republican hands. But the midterm election of 1874 guaranteed the end of Reconstruction.

Reconstruction was the...

Give Bush the Tools to Finish the Job

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Left-Wingers Listen: Rushdie, Ritter, Hersh Foresee Our Doom

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Left-wing New York gathered at the Society for Ethical Culture at 64th Street and Central Park West on Monday night. They came to hear dark prophecies, to hear insults hurled at Cheney and Bush, and to hear it done with a fervor equal to the sick loathing that has gripped them in the last six years. Hundreds filled the nontheistic pews to capacity. Seymour Hersh and Scott Ritter did not disappoint. Mr. Ritter is...

Reaping the Fruits of Bush's Korea Policy

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

If North Korea’s first nuclear weapons test was indeed a dud, we will hear another round of jokes at the expense of Kim Jong Il and his clown haircut. But while mocking an eccentric dictator is always fun, he has equal reason to chortle at the Bush administration’s erratic foreign policy, which has stumbled into a dangerous corner.

Back in January 2002, George W. Bush invited the world to judge him according to...

Reaping the Fruits of Bush’s Korea Policy

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Mahmoud and Me

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

On Tuesday, Sept. 19, the day of his now-famous speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered the General Assembly at the United Nations and sat down with his foreign minister and the Iranian U.N. ambassador. He waved in my direction, and I waved back. Me and Mahmoud, I thought to myself. I had seen the text of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech before he’d even arrived in Manhattan on Monday, Sept. 18: I was his interpreter, or...

(At Last?) Bush Puts Israel/Palestine on Front Burner

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:45:40 -0400

An important piece in the Forward this week suggests that Bush is at last going to do something about Israel/Palestine so as to try and redeem his failed policies in the Middle East and restore American legitimacy in the world. The Forward quotes Philip Zelikow, an assistant to Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the pro-Israel thinktank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: Zelikow said that the Europeans and the moderate Arabs are America's most...

Khatami's U.S. Tour: Can a Former Leader Prevent Another War?

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s widely covered and high-profile 12-day trip to the U.S. was all about symbolism. Or so it seemed, at least as far as the media and the public were concerned. For though he delivered four major speeches, President Khatami disappointed some who thought—or at least hoped—that he was here either to make some new announcement on Iran’s nuclear policy and its troubled relationship with the United States, or to carry...

Khatami’s U.S. Tour: Can a Former Leader Prevent Another War?

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

How Unilateralism Has Hurt the U.S. and Endangered Israel

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:06:42 -0400

On Friday, the Nation magazine hosted Yizhar Be'er, who directs a media monitoring organization in Israel called Keshev. (The group's president is David Grossman, the writer, who lost his son, a tank commander, in Lebanon last month.) The theme of Be'er's comments was the danger of unilateralism—the policy of going it alone in the Middle East, undertaken by both the U.S. and Israel. Be'er spoke of a false attitude in Israel toward its neighbors...

Ready For Suicide Bombers, Not Ready for Iran

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

TEL AVIV—In the upcoming weeks, myriad Israeli committees and panels will begin deconstructing the Israeli army’s performance against Hezbollah over the summer.

But even before the investigators begin their work, a chorus of politicians and experts have started to debate whether Israel’s fight against Palestinian suicide bombers over the last six years has distracted the military from preparing for more powerful foes like Hezbollah and its Iranian patron. “This is going to be...

Ready For Suicide Bombers, Not Ready for Iran

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

TEL AVIV—In the upcoming weeks, myriad Israeli committees and panels will begin deconstructing the Israeli army’s performance against Hezbollah over the summer. But even before the investigators begin their work, a chorus of politicians and experts have started to debate whether Israel’s fight against Palestinian suicide bombers over the last six years has distracted the military from preparing for more powerful foes like Hezbollah and its Iranian patron. “This is going to be the...

Events for August 31, 2006

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:07:59 -0400

Candidates in Brooklyn's 10th Congressional District debate at NY1 (7 & 10:30). Maryland Democratic candidates, Benjamin Cardin and Kwiesi Mfume (head of the NAACP) debate on C-SPAN 2 at 7. Andrew Cuomo and Charlie King speak at the House of the Lord Church (415 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn) at 8 p.m. Mike Bloomberg finds out if his favorite Shakira video wins an MTV Music Video award when the award show starts at at Radio City Music Hall...

Breaking Up Is Good to Do: The Case for an Iraqi Split

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:00:00 -0400

About a month ago, I was having dinner in a West Village bistro, eavesdropping on two young men who were discussing the American invasion of Iraq. Neither was for the war (nor am I), but it became clear that one of them could not wrap his mind around the possibility that the other could both oppose the war and claim that it might have been motivated by something nobler than imperialism and venality, even...

Hezbollah Stages Iran's Sideshow

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:00:00 -0400

The war in Lebanon and Israel doesn’t have much to do with Lebanon, and scarcely more to do with Israel.

Lebanon is a land of ancient identities. If you follow events there at all, you come across the name of Walid Jumblat, the Druse leader. But Mr. Jumblat is not just the Druse in the street. In the article on “Druses” in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a Lebanese warlord is...