She's home!

Haleh Esfandiari at Evin prison, in Iran, shortly after her release.
She was reportedly quite sick at the time.

Readers know I have been following the imprisonment of Haleh Esfandiari in Iran. Esfandiari was imprisoned for over 100 days and then released to house arrest. Lee Hamilton, former Democratic Congressman and member of the Iraq Study Group, and now Director of the Woodrow Wilson Institute, where Esfandiari is Director of Middle Easter Studies, sent a letter that somehow moved the government to release her. Why his appeal worked, where others did not, is still a mystery.

In all, Esfandiari spent eight months under siege by the Iran government. This article will bring you up to speed. She agreed to be interviewed by CNN and that video is here. Although the interview is typical CNN cheese, it is good to see Esfandiari alive, well and very happy to be in her home.

The imprisonment of Esfandiari has sent a chill throughout the community of middle-eastern scholars. The force of terror, on all sides, is narrowing the possibilities in people's imagination. The shut down is pervasive.

Barb, Do Not Rest!

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, my Senator, issued a statement today regarding Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute:

“I join Dr. Esfandiari’s friends and family in relief and joy at today’s news that, after more than 100 days of unjust imprisonment, she has been released by the Iranian government. This is an important first step, but I will not rest until Dr. Esfandiari is allowed to return to her family in Maryland.”

GO Barb!

Ms. Esfandiari, the 67 year old scholar and Director of Middle East Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, who was held at the infamous Evin prison in Tehran, was on her twice-yearly visit to her elderly mother in Tehran when she was arrested and accused of spying for the CIA. She has reportedly lost a considerable about of weight and has suffered.

This is what mindless, foreign countries do to people. However, this kind of blindness is now a basic form of justice practiced by the Bush administration. To think that the US has lowered itself to the atrocious practices of mindless, foreign despotic governments is appalling.

Because of our Abu Graib and Gitmo, we are unable to argue persuasively for freedom and justice. We are in such violation of these concepts.

Send Ms. Esfandari home to America. We beg of you.