Latest Iran Video: The Bahari Interview on CNN (Part 2)

On Sunday CNN aired the second part of Fareed Zakaria's interview with Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was freed after 118 days in detention on charges of "working with foreign governments" in the post-election conflict. (Part 1, as well as Bahari's article in Newsweek, was posted on Enduring America last week.)

Beyond Bahari's personal reflections, the most interesting parts of the interview are his framing of a Revolutionary Guard takeover of the Islamic Republic and his representation of the Iranian opposition. Bahari reduces the current Green movement to an uncoordinated, confused collections of groups which include "terrorists" and are becoming "militarised". We're so intrigued and concerned by this perception of the opposition, and whether it is shared by the Obama Administration, that we've posted a separate analysis.

Iran: How Washington Views the Green Opposition — The Next Chapter
Iran Video & Text: Maziar Bahari on His 118 Days in Detention
Iran Video: Maziar Bahari Tells CBS of His Detention and Post-Election Conflict

Video (1 of 2)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow4iYiYNgDg[/youtube]

Video (2 of 2)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TllGmYIcPF0[/youtube]

Comments

[mahasti]

I think it's absurd to suggest that Bahari actually meant to reduce the Green movement to those 3 groups, which means omitting Mousavi/Karoubi and their followers. That is absurd. It's more probable that he was trying to make too many points at the same time (varied ideologies/groups; lack of unity; peaceful goal of the majority; likely outcome/terrorism)--and therefore got confused. His actual words are: "... Some of them are monarchists, some of them are communists, some of them are terrorists; the majority, of course, they wanted a peaceful reform...' I think that by "the majority" he has the Reformists/the rest of the Green movement in mind, because he then talks about their goal being the peaceul reform of the government. It's live TV, after all, and English is his second language.

[Scott Lucas]

Mahasti,

I take the point. I should have made clear that Bahari is unlikely to believe that but that, for reasons you cite, his comment was garbled.

That said, I was very taken aback by his linkage of the Green opposition to Jundallah. Another major slip or does he genuinely see connections?

S.

[mahasti]

That's not a slip. He's actually predicting that the majority will go silent; dissent will be driven underground and the most radical elements will call the shots (no pun intended!). That idea isn't far fetched; remember the Mojahedin-e Khalq in the early days of the revolution. And he has the handy example of the Jundullah to make his case.
He clearly has a distaste for militarism--he may be the first to have actually said this is now a military regime and no longer a clerical one; he now fears a comparable development may occur in the opposition.

[Mazyar Bahari’s Allegati]

[...] by Nite Owl on Dec.02, 2009, under Projects Mazyar Bahari is a correspondent for Newsweek who was imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage for almost four months. He was released this week by Iranian authorities. Watch the entire interview here: http://enduringamerica.com/2009/11/30/latest-iran-video-the-bahari-interview-on-cnn-part-2/ [...]