Category: Current Affair

Discussion on the Historical Election

Ross Mirkarimi was born in Chicago in 1961 to an Iranian father, Hamid Mirkarimi, and a Russian-American mother, Nancy Kolman.

Ross grew up in a climate where stuffing envelopes and protesting was another form of family recreation. His mother, an anti-war, pro-union labor, feminist activist, worked for the State of Rhode Island for 30 years, seventeen as the Deputy Director for the Rhode Island Commission of Human Rights.

In the late 1980s, Ross spent time with the German Green Party in Bonn as they ascended to power in Parliament. He returned motivated into kick-starting the California Green Party.

Ross took a leave of absence from the D.A.’s office in mid-2004 to run for his first elected office. In a field of 22 candidates, he won the race to become Supervisor of District 5. Since taking office in January 2005, every month on the third Friday, Ross has faithfully hosted an art reception for a local artist.

The Rise and Fall of Iranian Social Classes in the Post-Revolutionary Iran, Sohrab Behdad, Jan 12, 2008

Sohrab Behdad, born in Iran , received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University . Dr. Behdad was a member of the Faculty of Economics of Tehran University from 1973 to 1983 when he left Iran . He has written several articles and books. Among his recent publications in English are Workers, Peasants and Bureaucrats: Class Nature of the Iranian Work Force; Islam and Public Policy; and Iran after the Revolutions: Crisis of an Islamic State.

Will the US attack Iran?, Reese Erlich, Sep 30, 2007

Erlich has reported from Iran and Iraq five times. Based on his first-hand reporting from the Middle East for over 20 years, Erlich explains what went wrong with the Iraq war and how the US is making similar mistakes with Iran. . He traces the troubled history between US and Iran that has led to the current showdown over nuclear technology, and he reports from Iran and northern Iraq to uncover details of how the U.S. has funded ethnic minorities to carry out guerrilla raids and terrorist bombings inside Iran. Erlich’s book The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis, has just been published.

In his previous book, the best-selling Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You, (co-authored by Norman Solomon, and with contributions from Howard Zinn and Sean Penn) Erlich presciently exposed the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or Al Qaeda ties to Saddam Hussein. He showed how the U.S. media failed to report the full spectrum of facts to the public.

He is the winner of a 2006 Peabody Award for his work as a segment producer on Crossing East: Our History, Our Stories, Our America, aired on Public Radio International. As a Celebration of Investigative Journalism, the City of Oakland Proclaims October 2, 2007 “Reese Erlich Day”

Iran’s Nuclear Program and U.S.-Iranian Relations, Mansour Farhang, Mar 26, 2006

MANSOUR FARHANG has a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate School. In 1970s, he taught at California State University at Sacramento. Following Iran’s 1979 revolution, he served as an advisor to the Iranian foreign ministry and as ambassador to the United Nations. He resigned his ambassadorship in protest when his efforts to negotiate the release of the American hostages in Tehran failed. In the early months of the Iran-Iraq war, he worked with international mediators to settle the war. During this period, he wrote and spoke about the threat of religious extremists who had come to dominate the course of the Iranian revolution. In June 1981, following the violent suppression of political dissidents, he was forced to leave Iran. In the fall of 1981, he returned to the United States and became a research fellow and lecturer at Princeton University. Since 1983 he has been teaching international relations and Middle Eastern politics at Bennington College in Vermont. He is the author of two books and dozens of articles, in English and Persian, published in both academic journals and popular periodicals. His opinion pieces have appeared in a variety of newspapers, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. His third book, A Theology in Power: Reflections on the Iranian Revolution is near completion. He has been a human rights activist since his undergraduate days in California. Currently, he serves on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch/Middle East and is a designated speaker for the Vermont Council on the Humanities. He has lectured at many universities and colleges across the country and is a member of the Columbia University Middle Eastern Seminar. He has also been a participant in the seminars of Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and television programs, including PBS News Hour, ABC’s Night Line, Bill Moyer’s Journal, 60-Minutes, CBS’s Face the Nation and CNN. He is a regular commentator on the Persian broadcasting of both BBC and Radio France International.

Tales From Tehran, Reese Erlich, Nov 13, 2005

Reese Erlich traveled to Iran in June 2005 to report on the Iranian presidential elections for NPR and the Dallas Morning News. He had the opportunity to interview many ordinary Iranians, attend women’s rights demonstration and meet with high ranking officials. He will describe the political mood in Iran and assess the latest threats from the Bush Administration. Erlich made the trip with Norman Solomon and Sean Penn, and Erlich’s photos accompanied Penn’s articles in the SF Chronicle.