The Latest from Iran (22 November): The Security Forces v. Ahmadinejad's Senior Advisor

See also Iran Special Analysis: The Security Forces Cross Ahmadinejad's "Red Line"
Iran Feature: So What Happened When Security Forces Tried to Arrest the President's Senior Advisor?
The Latest from Iran (21 November): Let's Talk Nukes...And Nothing But Nukes

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Iran Newspaper after Monday's Raid1835 GMT: A Change in the Revolutionary Guards. Looks like we have our answer to the question (see 1045 GMT) of why Yadollah Javani, the head of the Political Bureau of the Revolutionary Guards, has been replaced --- he has been appointed as advisor to the Supreme Leader's representative to the Guards.

1828 GMT: Arresting the President's Men. Ten of the staff of Iran newspaper, detained during the raid to seize Ahmadinejad advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr, have been released.

1825 GMT: Elections Watch. The head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, has appointed Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr and Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei to prevent "elections crimes".

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Iran Feature: So What Happened When Security Forces Tried to Arrest the President's Senior Advisor?

Now see Iran Special Analysis: The Security Forces Cross Ahmadinejad's "Red Line"

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Ali Akbar Javenfekr (left) with President AhmadinejadRecreating the extraordinary story of the attempt by security forces to detain President Ahmadinejad's media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr, as they raided the offices of Iran, the newspaper he manages....

News broke this morning via Tabnak, linked to 2009 Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, that security forces used tear gas and wielded electric batons after Javanfekr's colleagues tried to stop his detention to serve a one-year prison sentence, imposed yesterday over an issue of the newspaper on hijab.

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Iran Journalism Special: Protecting the Nuclear Talks from Lady Ashton's Cleavage

Forget all the chatter about weapons, uranium stocks, and "break-out" capability at the nuclear discussions in Istanbul between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, Russia).

The clear-and-present danger was the chest of Lady Catherine Ashton, the head of the 5+1 delegation.

It was the newspaper Iran, confronted with a picture of Ashton and her Iranian counterpart, Saeed Jalili, that saw the threat of cleavage. However, thanks to their quick-working editors and PhotoShop, the mutually assured moral destruction of the original photograph (right) was averted:

Iran Note: A Message to the Media About "American Woman Spying Through Her Teeth"

UPDATE 2105 GMT: Given my crankiness this morning at the lack of scrutiny by most in the media sensationally recycling this story, it is only fair to give a big tip of the hat to Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor, who gets to the heart of the matter, "US Woman Arrested in Iran as Spy: Why the Story May Not Have Teeth".

Peterson updates on the changing stories in the Iranian media --- Fars says, “The detained spy asked the Iranian authorities not to return her to Armenia in fear of her life,” but the TV outlet Al-Alam says Hall Talayan never entered Iran, as she did not have the proper visa --- and notes the lack of support from Iranian government officials and outlets like Press TV.

Peterson notes our original entry, "The uncertainties prompted the EAWorldView website, which closely follows daily events in Iran, to urge caution."

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