News & views on RFE/RL's broadcast regionAf/Pak # Pasthoon Atif says Afghans want Karzai to be held accountable # Spencer Ackerman on the logistics of the (potential) surge # The new Obama strategy will probably come next week # Afghanistan's Attorney General is rolling out corruption charges # Hillary Clinton is in Afghanistan# The "NYT" ed board on the task ahead in AfghanistanRussia # Fyodor Lukyanov on Gorbachev's Wilsonian credentials # The "WSJ" ed board on the death of Sergei Magnitsky # The "FT" ed board on Russia in the WTOIran# Mark Bowden on how the 1979 revolution was hijacked# Obama set out a new line on Iran's nuke programU.S. Politics/Foreign Policy # Timothy Garton Ash on Obama's Asia trip # Al Kamen's "In the Loop" # Embassy Row - the "Washington Times"Of Interest # Louise Arbour on Kosovo's continuing divide # Michael Bociurkiw on Ukrainian swine flu politics # Kishore Mahbubani on U.S. involvement in the Islamic world
Aleksandr Ryklin is joined by two "extremist demonstrators."
Several Russian opposition leaders were detained briefly on November 16 for protesting against the detention of Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia coalition. RFE/RL reported on their protest here. But it turns out that their detentions were not a simple matter; in fact, they required a little assistance from a pair of agents provocateurs, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.Each of the opposition leaders began his protest standing alone. Under Russian law, that’s not a punishable offense; an individual needs no prior permission to hold a sign in a public place. But when the one-man protest turns into a crowd of three, the police can charge the participants with holding an unsanctioned demonstration. And that’s exactly what happened as a pair of men in hoods joined opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on his solitary protest. After the police detained Nemtsov for leading the mass action, Vladimir Milov stepped up to take his place -- and again, two hooded men boosted the demonstration’s numbers to three. He was also detained, as were two more opposition leaders who began individual protests only to find themselves leading a crowd.See a slide show of the four consecutive three-man protests.-- Margot Buff
News & views on RFE/RL's broadcast regionAf/Pak # Steve Coll on a Taliban-controlled caliphate # A scrapbook from SWAT# H.D.S Greenway on Afghans acting like Americans# Afghanistan's mineral chief took a $30 million bribe # Michael Innis on media leaks as a part of war # Pakistan's offensive may influence U.S. strategy in AfghanistanIran # Neda Sultan's grave site has been desecrated # Meir Javendafar on Tehran learning from Ankara # The "WSJ" ed board on hostages held by IranRussia# Suspects were arrested for the murder of a Russian activist # Yulia Latynina on Putin's "Vertical of corruption" # Lilia Svetsova on Medvedev's modernisation push # Vladimir Putin gives a "big up" to Russian rappers Obama in China # The Newshour on human rights in China # Peter Beinart thinks China is less likely to listen to the U.S. # Martin Wolf on what Obama should have said in China 9/11 Terrorist Trials# Steve Simon thinks the trial is a great idea# Jeff Jacoby calls the trial "reckless" # Andrew Cohen channels the Timothy McVeigh trialU.S. Politics# The Senate is at odds with the White House on foreign aid # Al Kamen's "In the Loop" # Embassy Row - the "Washington Times"
A conservative Iranian website, "Alef," has claimed that a former deputy defense minister who has been missing for three years was abducted by Israel's secret services with the collaboration of German and British intelligence services and is now being held by Israel.
Mehdi Karrubi (center) has led calls for the complaints of the rape of prisoners detained in the demonstrations following the election to be investigated.
"Tagheer," the website of reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi's Etemad Melli party, reported over the weekend that a physician resident at the Kahrizak detention center has committed suicide. "Tagheer" identified the physician as Ramin Purazdjani, but another reformist website, norooznews.ir, gave his name as Ramin Pourandarjani."Tagheer" said that 26-year-old Purazdjani committed suicide following the revelation of events at the detention center that is being described by the opposition as "Iran's Guantanamo." Several people who have been arrested since the June presidential election who were held at Kahrizak have reportedly said that they were tortured and raped. At least two detainees, including the son of a conservative official, Mohsen Ruholamini, are reported to have died as a result of abuse there.Norooznews.ir, which is close to the reformist Mosharekat party, whose senior members have been jailed in the postelection crackdown, reported that the physician examined Ruholamini two days before his death. According to the report, Dr. Pourandarjani died on November 10 in his room at a police clinic in Tehran."Norooz" said that Pourandarjani was arrested following Ruholamini's death and pressured to announce that he died of meningitis. Following the issuing of the coroner's report that Ruholamini died from repeated blows to the head, he was released on bail. "Norooz" also reported that Pourandarjani was threatened on a number of occasions by "unknown persons " not to reveal the truth about the involvement of "senior military and judiciary officials" at Kahrizak. The reports adds that Pourandarjani recounted the events at Kahrizak to a few of his friends and expressed concern for his own safety. Shortly afterward, his sudden death was announced. Officials have reportedly said that he died from a heart attack. But "Norooz" reported that the authorities did not allow the family to perform an autopsy and that his funeral was held under tight security measures. The father of the dead physician told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that his son did not suffer from any disease. He said the authorities have yet to notify him of the cause of his son's death. The "Mowj" website has posted a video of Pourandarjani speaking at his graduation ceremony. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered Kahrizak, which is in southern Tehran, to be shut down in late July following growing criticism and anger over reported abuses there. The authorities have said that those officials who violated the law at Kahrizak will be put on trial. The spokesman of the Supreme National Security Council committee in charge of investigating the postelection events, Parviz Soruri, was quoted in October as saying that most of the suspects arrested for the abuses at the Kahrizak detention center have been released on bail.-- Golnaz Esfandiari
Oleg Panfilov
The prominent Russian journalist and free-press advocate Oleg Panfilov has moved to Tbilisi."The main reason for my moving to Georgia is the situation in Russia. It's impossible to live in a country where the authorities lie to you, where media lies to you, and people are afraid of them," Panfilov, who previously ran the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, told reporters.Panfilov, a longtime critic of the Russian authorities, said he had been receiving death threats. He took Georgian citizenship last year.In Tbilisi, Panfilov will host a program on a new Russian-language television channel called "Kavkaz Kanal." He will also teach journalism at Tbilisi's Ilia Chavchavadze University. Panfilov also says he hopes to found a journalism school and write a book on the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war.-- Brian Whitmore
A senior Iranian police officer in charge of cyber crimes has announced that a special police unit to fight “crimes” committed on the Internet has been created. General Omidi told the ILNA news agency that the 12-member unit will act against “attempted fraud, illegal advertising, insults, and false statements.”The move could lead to the targeting of websites that have become a platform for the opposition Green movement and its leaders Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi.On November 12, Iran’s police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moqadam was quoted as saying that cyberspace needs “security.” Iranians opposing President Mahmud Ahmadinejad have utilized the web to share images, videos, and news about the protest movement.Another Iranian police official, Hassan Karami, the chief in the West Azerbaijan Province, is quoted by ILNA news agency as saying that “the tensions” following the disputed June 12 election developed because law-enforcement forces did not have enough of a presence in cyberspace. According to the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Iran is second only to China in the extent and sophistication of its efforts to stifle dissent online. Iran has banned thousands of news and political websites and also sites containing content that is deemed immoral. -- Golnaz Esfandiari
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