Originally Posted by
Rex Brynen
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.
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