Tehran | Tehran

Apr.16.2013 After "Argo" - Iran, 1999 Twenty years after the events portrayed in the movie “Argo,” I set foot in Tehran for the first time and began almost a month of exploring the complex, sometimes surprising, country of Iran. We were experienced travelers who had...	Mar.09.2013 Argo - deja vu I watched Argo tonight and I was there. I was in Tehran. I was at the airport. I had the fear. It was real and the hair on my arms and the chill up my spine reminded me. In the 70's, I had my own terrifying Middle East experience from which I fashioned the...
Aug.03.2012 Iran: Ancient, Complex, Passionate Land History is easily forgotten, yet everything we are today is because of it. Iran and our relationship with that country is a good example. Not many people from the West visit Iran these days, but not long ago quite a few were – and were welcomed by Iran. Even though women entering...	Jun.18.2011 New Novelist's Advice: "Never give up" even after 40 years Doug Roberts with one of his cats By Anthony S. Policastro When I read Doug Roberts' book, The Man Who Fooled SAVAK, it was one of those stories that completely engrossed me where I couldn't put it down until it was finished. Inspired by true events in the early 1970s, The Man Who Fooled SAVAK...
May.23.2010 Israel prepares for next threat--nuclear? NABLUS, West Bank — During the Palestinian intifada, I sat on a dusty hilltop overlooking this most violent of West Bank towns with a dozen of the top Israeli officers in the area. The brigade commanders told their regional chiefs that all the police work and house-to-house fighting of the intifada...	Jul.02.2009 They Came from Cyberspace: Five Twitter Tweets I was very much relieved recently when both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and actor Johnny Depp admitted to hearing something go "Twitter-Twitter Tweet-Tweet," like some Vulcan canary singing for its supper out in the depths of cyberspace, but didn't have the faintest idea what it...
Jun.14.2009 Netanyahu holds his line Israeli Prime Minister ignores Obama and reiterates same policiesby Matt Beynon Rees on Global Post JERUSALEM — It’s as if Obama never happened. Less than two weeks ago President Barack Obama laid out his plans for the Middle East in a speech in Cairo. He called for a freeze on Israeli settlement...	Mar.01.2009 "The Nuclear Club" On Sunday, the Associated Press reported Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, top military brass, contention that Iran has enough "fissile material" to produce a nuclear weapon. Mullen added that the outcome would be "very, very bad" should Tehran proceed...
Jul.19.2008 Reading Tehran with Lolita: Time to Publish Iranian Authors Huffington Post, July 19th, 2008 Whether or not the George W. Bush administration's surprising act this week of initiating people-to-people diplomacy with Iran is sincere, it presents a critical opportunity for cultural and human rights organizations in the United States to take the lead in making...