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Iranian-Canadian journalist, Maziar Bahari talks of prison ordeal

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | November 23, 2009 at 02:43 am

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Maziar Bahari, a Canadian Journalist, was arrested as a result of protests last June after the rigged election in Iran. Maziar Bahari was accredited as a journalist for Newsweek.

He was released in October and reunited with his wife in London just prior to the birth of his first child.

Although threatened by the regime not to talk about his ordeal, Bahari broke his silence and spoke to CBCs Nancy Durham and 60 minutes this weekend.

Bahari was told that the regime's agents would track him down and send him back to Iran in a bag.

His ordeal started shortly after his arrest. He was beaten with a belt, slapped, kicked and made to confess that he was a spy. His Iranian guards told him that Newsweek was a spy agency organizing journalists to report anti-regime articles around the world.

Mariaz Bahari eventually confessed on television that he was a spy. When 60 minutes played that clip Bahari became very emotional.

In his interview with 60 Minutes he talks about his interrogators Early on during his arrest he was told that he would be executed, In Bahari's mind this was very likely since people were executed daily at 4 am.

Several mornings he was awakened at 4 am and he was convinced that it was his turn to be executed.

He said one of his guards was fascinated with the fact that Bahari had lived in New Jersey. To this guard/interrogator New Jersey was the afterlife with the 72 virgins. He was convinced the interrogator was jealous of Bahari having been there.

When asked who was in charge in Iran he said it was the Revolutionary Guard.

Biography of Maziar Bahari

Bahari spoke to CBC's Nancy Durham about what happened in Tehran's Evin Prison, where he was taken after his arrest during the post-presidential election protests in Iran.

Bahari was reporting for Newsweek when he was arrested at his home on June 21, a number of days after witnessing one of the street protests.

After a worldwide campaign for his freedom he was released from prison in October and reunited with his wife in London just in time for the birth of their first child.

Bahari made Canada his home in 1987, but the allure of Iran drew him back over the past decade — even though he says he expected that one day he'd be arrested.

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Mritunjay

at 04:49 on November 23rd, 2009

He said one of his guards was fascinated with the fact that Bahari had lived in New Jersey. To this guard/interrogator New Jersey was the afterlife with the 72 virgins. He was convinced the interrogator was jealous of Bahari having been there.
I don't know if a heaven exists or not and can be achieved like this or not but surely these "jihadis" are making their own homeland a living hell on earth. May god give them some brains to live with rather than the elusive 72 virgins to die for!

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 05:21 on November 23rd, 2009

I certainly agree with that Mritunjay. It was interesting though, that despite their hatred of the U.S., New Jersey fascinated him.

René

at 20:19 on November 23rd, 2009

This reminds me of this little quote I found on Infidel Bloggers:

2. The West had ships that carried goods from hither to thither. They created large birds of steel, that could fly them to and fro, over a great many miles. The West also had music, beautiful music, played skilfully by well-trained musicians. And many other ways to entertain themselves.

3. Compared to the House of Allah and his prophet, may wasps nest in his stomach for eternity, the West was very like the Paradise written in their holy book, which told of Virgins, and rivers of wine and endless pleasures, if the believers would but die and kill for Allah.

4. And it made the lawless savages angry, because they must die and kill in order to attain the very Paradise which already was in the West! --- from The Blasphemous Book of Queen Kafirtiti (Battle of the Melody, verses 2-4) by Jewel