The spokesman of the Muslim Students Association at a Tehran polytechnic was arrested on Wednesday, … Babak Zamanian was reportedly arrested because of interviews he gave to … radio stations … that broadcast outside Iran. The students of the Amir Kabir Polytechnic made front page news around the world last December when they managed to prevent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on a visit to their campus, from making his speech. It was the first time since his landslide victory in June 2005 that Ahmadinejad had been challenged in public.
Here is Michael Ledeen’s interpretation on these two events:
The demonstrations took place at a time when the United States had sent carrier groups into the Gulf, and named an admiral at the head of CENTCOM. The deep thinkers were placing bets on just when Bush was going to launch the American attack.
The arrest takes place at a time when the secretary of state is virtually begging for some Iranian to talk to, when Iran has thumbed its long nose at the UN, and when the Europeans are chirping sweet sounds of concession. That’s the way it works.
Whatever factors motivated these AKP students, they deserve to be commended for their courage.