Pro-Iranian Blogger Arrested By Iran For Blogging
This would be ironically funny as an Onion article, but in real life it's just awful: Hossein Derakhshan, pictured, is a Toronto-based Iranian blogger who has grown more pro-Iran over the past two years, supporting the country's nuclear program and its three-decade-old Islamic revolution in the press. The dual Iranian-Canadian citizen blogs in both English and Farsi and generally tries to help people understand his home country. PR win for Iran and its blogger-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right? Actually no, because Derakhshan visited Israel last year for a blogging conference, and bogged there to "show the Iranians a more realistic image of this country," so he's been thrown in jail during a visit home, as a spy, reports The Media Line:
Jahan News, an Iranian website affiliated with Iran’s intelligence community, reported on Monday that he admitted to spying for Israel [presumably in jail under some kind of awful interrogation] ...
Two years ago, Derakhshan did not express any concern about being arrested.
“Blogging in Iran is not something that gets you into trouble now. It's a mainstream thing, because religious people, pro-government people have blogs and secular, totally rationalistic people also have blogs,” he said.
Yes, it's the hallmark of a good spy: A really active blog, where he reports his location, thoughts and meetings to the entire world. Where do we go to apply for a part in the next 007 flick??