Quote Originally Posted by Rex Brynen View Post
I didn't meet anyone in Iran--among regime critics--who thought this would be helpful.

I agree that the regime is paranoid about US-backed regime change efforts. Having said that, I was surprised (to say the least) at how little internal security was in place, compared to other countries in the region.

1) Students openly asked questions of me that were critical of the regime in public lectures. They did so with some caution, but it is not something I would have found in, say, Syria.

2) There were no internal movement controls on me of any sort.

3) There was very little street-level security: I saw two AKs (I was counting) and a few sidearms on police and Pasadran the entire time I was there. I see more internal security in Jordan or Egypt or Lebanon crossing the street.

4) I walked up to, around, and touched, Ahmadinejad's podium a few hours before due to speak at an event. No police, other than a few at the opposite end of the square. No sanitized area or perimeter security. Nada.

Either the regime is foolish on security issues, or (gasoline riots notwithstanding) they're really not fundamentally worried.

What I did find was enormous openess among students, academics, and even many policy-makers to new ideas and change. I think there are better ways of encouraging that then openly calling for the overthrow of the regime.
Nice to know u went to Iran.

One thing I must mention is that the regime certainly knows it is not popular and knows it has critics and also realizes that every body speaks against it BUT it won't jail/detain/take action against/ those who just speak about it in cabs and lectures and libraries and grocery stores since it cant jail all the populace. However they will take action ONLY against those who dare to challenge it out loud. They only care about the vocal critics, other than that you're left to say whatever you want. They simply dont care and know you're not a real threat but once you have a following and trying to challenge them, you'll be dealt with, no question asked.

And yes, Iran is not like Saddam's Iraq, Cuba, North Korea or even Syria. The democratic experience of the people has taught them to THINK differently and act differently. Iran is a different country altogether.