Execution of Canadian web programmer in Iran may be imminent

[fungusman]

Not to be the bearer of bad news today ...

(CNN) -- A computer programmer from Canada faces imminent execution in Iran for the actions of another person, which he had no control over, a human rights group says.

Execution of web programmer in Iran may be imminent - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/18/world/meast/iran-programmer-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t3)

[Dudebro]

I've been hearing about this and I'm completely unsurprised. Iran is run by a bunch of religious nuts and the people are mostly brainwashed. He'll be lucky if they don't execute him because of outside pressure. His family will be lucky if they even get word that he was killed. Iran is a horrible country.

[Demon-Mask]

Way to go Iran.

[Kong]

This doesn't have much to do with this but I thought the similarities were creepy.
Imagine if an American cartoonist drew picture of Muhammad while working for a Canadian newspaper and Iran asked Canada to arrest the cartoonist and ship him to Iran for trial.

[jim5cents]

Iran blows. If they do execute this guy, Canada should grow some balls and start lobbing bombs over there.

[Blue Shoe 2]

Iran blows. If they do execute this guy, Canada should grow some balls and start lobbing bombs over there.

yes, because the large amount of civillian casualties would not be hypocritical at all.


Back to the point, however, that is a real BS reason to execute someone. It's a real failure of logic to give him responsibility for other's actions.

[Kong]

That was what the SOPA law would have done, assign responsibility to innocent people because they could not catch the guilty people.

Kind of hard to stand on the moral high ground when we came pretty close to almost doing the same thing - yes we would not have gone so far as to torture and execute them, but we came very close (and still might) to creating a law allowing the US to ruin someone's life even if they are innocent and foreign without a trial or any due process.

[Demon-Mask]

We'd do the same to someone from Iran. We, as a nation, really hate Iran and its people.

[Blue Shoe 2]

Jim, you are aware that Demon-Mask wasn't supporting Iran with that remark?

[Dudebro]

@DM- The US would arrest a foreign national, for something someone else did, give them a quick trial and execute him? Sounds like a load of crap to me.

[Demon-Mask]

We've done it before. Actually, we transport them to countries where you can torture and execute them. It's called "extraordinary rendition", look into it. We do it when we have no evidence that they committed a crime, sometimes they have ties to people who've committed a crime, or they just happen to be middle eastern.

[Dudebro]

I'm not denying the US ships out people to be taken care of away from our laws. I'm denying that if the situation was the same we'd be shipping out an Iranian for summary execution.

[Demon-Mask]

We'd ship him out to be tortured until he admitted to the crime, which he didn't really commit, then we'd ship him to a secret prison to be malnourished and beaten until his premature death.
I'd rather just be executed.

[Dudebro]

Well that's not 100% proven fact now is it? It is a proven fact that Iran is being ridiculous, pretty much all the time. Either way I'm not interested in discussing your belief that Iran is just as bad as the US, it's annoying to me.

[Demon-Mask]

I do think Iran is worse than the US, I'm just saying the US isn't exactly perfect in this regard.
Iran is pretty ridiculous in most cases.

[Dudebro]

This will probably be my last post about this, but I can't guarantee it.

The US isn't angelic, obviously. But I think they are unfairly demonized because they're the center of attention on the world stage most of the time. When a big news story breaks concerning the US I can read about it on news sites from all the major countries, for example.

My point is, most of the major world powers do what the US does but it doesn't get exposure like Gitmo does. It would be naive to think that other countries don't make similar deals to have foreign nationals detained and dealt with in friendly countries to avoid political backlash in their own country. The US is only different because it got caught/didn't hide it well enough.

[Demon-Mask]

I know it's probably no different anywhere else, we just know for a fact that it is this way here, in the US. Just because everyone does something, doesn't mean the one who gets caught shouldn't be punished.

[Dudebro]

Punish? I don't know what you expect to happen but I can't see any realistic situation where a government, any government, would willingly allow itself to be punished and basically put on trial for it's secret stuff.

[Demon-Mask]

I don't see a realistic situation where the US gets punished either, but it is still deserved.

[RevJ]

I reckon the US gov't would love to see this Canadian get executed.

I think I can see a pattern emerging, just like in Irag and Afghanistan - demonise the country's government/people, get a scare campaign going (hey, isn't Iran developing nuclear power? What if terrorists you know nuclear something something?) I bet the US will soon start heavy on the 'attack them first because they have / are making a nuclear bomb' thing. Iran has a big oil laden economy and the US has little control over what goes on in the country, I imagine Iran would be in a more beneficial state to US interests after it was war torn and trashed. Iraq and Afghanistan are now war torn and trashed, but it hasn't helped US debt. I hope the US decides it just can't afford a war in Iran.

[Kugyince]

Iran is in my top three countries I would love to visit. It's too bad their political strife will keep me from doing so.

[jim5cents]

Jim, you are aware that Demon-Mask wasn't supporting Iran with that remark?

@BS, no, it is text and can be difficult to determine what is or isn't sarcasm.

[Dudebro]

get a scare campaign going (hey, isn't Iran developing nuclear power? What if terrorists you know nuclear something something?)
They are openly developing it but claiming it's for power plants. No one believes them as far as I'm aware. Combine that with their proximity to Israel and how their leader has said they don't deserve to exist and I think we have a real problem brewing.

[Demon-Mask]

Iran is in my top three countries I would love to visit. It's too bad their political strife will keep me from doing so.
I've always wanted to visit all of the major middle eastern nations, Iran being one of them.
@BS, no, it is text and can be difficult to determine what is or isn't sarcasm.
I'll start using emoticons when I'm being sarcastic.

[Dudebro]

Iran would be a very nice place to visit because of all the history but the crazy religious thing means that won't be an option for many years.

[warghoul]

Yeah. I don't wan to go anywhere desert. Give me the good ole Emerald Isle. or some other europe thingy. I just wanted to say Emerald Isle.

[samejamesbond]

WG, I'm in Arizona and it's pretty nice here.

[jim5cents]

I've always wanted to visit all of the major middle eastern nations, Iran being one of them.


Joining the Army is an option, they will probably get through them all before the tour is over.

[warghoul]

@sjb I don't like it in the 90's all the time. I'm sure there are some more temperate areas but I also really like a bit of rain.

[RevJ]

They are openly developing it but claiming it's for power plants. No one believes them as far as I'm aware. Combine that with their proximity to Israel and how their leader has said they don't deserve to exist and I think we have a real problem brewing.

"Nuclear Program of Iran" on Wikipedia makes a good read (OK I've just had a skim through it) but it's interest how it starts off by pointing out that ths USA helped launch Iran's nuclear program.

Saying a country doesn't deserve to exist is pretty poor, but didn't Bush do something similar by declaring Iran part of the "Axis of Evil" so many years back? No wonder Iran might be cagey about what the US knows about them. Iran has a huge economy, why can't they develop nuclear power like so many other nations? As for who believes their nuclear ambitions, the US has in recent days been telling Israel to cool it, Iran isn't developing nukes. What would Iran do with nukes anyway? Blow up Israel with all the Islamic sites, muslims, and Palastinians, in return for it's own destruction?

And how's this beat up in the current (on-line) Sydney Morning Herald: Sydney's Iranian drug network (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-iranian-drug-network-20120225-1tv01.html) Those nasty Iran criminals selling drugs in Australia? I've never heard such before, it just seems so convenient to start trashing Iranian people now when governments might be shoring up support for war.

[Dudebro]

Yeah the US got them started, we have a bad habit of doing that kind of thing and then regretting it later.

It's more than poor it's pretty close to a direct declaration of war. Israel already knows it has very angry, aggressive neighbors all around them. Having one of their more powerful enemies come right out and be so direct about it changes everything.

Putting aside the fact that I think Bush and the party he belongs to have no tact I don't think it's that far off to lump Iran with other countries like N. Korea. Of course Iran doesn't want us to know what they have but they also don't wanna share that information with anyone apparently. Not exactly reassuring coming from a country that openly says another country has no right to exist and is run by a hardline religious group, right?

Iran has lots of oil and natural gas. This is pretty much the reason they have a strong economy. So why the need for nuclear plants for power? Maybe other countries seek to restrict that effort because it's plainly obvious that Iran wants the ability to make nuclear warheads. They may not be stupid enough to use them but as a threat and bargaining chip it would dramatically change the region, not in a good way either. If they did decide to use them the consequences would be catastrophic. I see no reason to allow a country run by a religious group who wishes death on it's neighbor to have that technology. N. Korea constantly threatens S. Korea and no one can do anything about it, do we really need that in the middle east too?

Nothing implies that story is propaganda, at all. It says right in the article that there's a close knit Iranian community in Australia, is that part true? If it's true then why wouldn't they use that cover to operate? It also says the Iranian drug trade is well known internationally, unless you have something to the contrary it seems like you're just viewing it through anti US bias.