History repeats itself... another Iranian-American detained..

Time magazine is reporting that an American-Iranian citizen, Kian Tajbakhsh, who was in Tehran was detained yesterday by the Iranian government. This brings back eerily familiar feelings, as a dear friend and colleague of mine, Ali Shakeri was detained along with Kian Tajbakhsh, Haleh Esfandiari and Parnaz Azima in early 2007. Ali and I worked for the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding together at the time and as part of such, I worked, along with many others, to campaign for Ali's release as he was not a threat to the Iranian regime, but merely a peace activist who dearly loved his country of Iran. He was released some five months later. I think of other Iranian-American friends who had plans and even plane tickets to visit Iran this summer who had to throw away the money and change their plans indefinitely. It was truly a wise idea to do so after these distressing events. This all comes just as protests resume in the streets of Iran after a short and tense period of calm.