Fars News Agency reports that according to the “American Federal News” homepage, Ramin Jahanbegloo has been hired for a contract by the American Government (see). To make it more convincing, the report is decorated with a photo which shows him in ties, a sign of connection to the west, participating a conference. The report also adds that on November 6, 2001, Jahanbegloo participated in a meeting in Washington as the official representative of the National Endowment for Democracy (see). More shocking news is ahead. “The endowment is established during Reagan administration by himself and its fund like other governmental organizations in the US comes from the congress”. In another news, the minister of intelligence announced that Jahanbegloo’s charge is “communication with foreigners” (Persian: ارتباط با بيگانه) (see). The first charge is regarding to participation in an event, the nature of which I am not aware of. How ever, in his own CV, Jahanbegloo writes in the honors section “2001-2002: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)” (see). The NED webpage describes him as (see),
Ramin Jahanbegloo (October 2001-August 2002 ) Intellectuals and Democracy in Iran Dr. Jahanbegloo’s project focused on the role of Iranian intellectuals in promoting Iranian democracy, including the attitudes of youth and young professionals in Iran today. A scholar-activist trained in France, he continues to publish in Iranian journals and organize conferences introducing Western ideas of democracy into Iranian public discourse. While in the United States, Dr. Jahanbegloo gave many lectures and presentations to American policy and academic audiences.
So, I assume it would be very obvious to attend a meeting on behalf of the organization which is supporting you. Let’s look at it in another way. Here, I try to show that how easily his charges can apply to me, as a very simple case of an Iranian living abroad. If I ever get a fund it is obvious that I have to give reports and attend meeting. For example I attend quarterly meeting. In the meetings I talk to other people and sometimes present my work. Fortunately, I am working on content delivery, so I will chat with people about “Google Video” and “Telek’s works on phase-type distribution”. However, if I was working on “Democracy and Islam”, I would be chatting with people about “Ahmadinejad” and the “last coup in Pakistan”. I just remembered that I was allowed to leave the country only after I signed that I will do nothing but studying, and probably doing research. So, why not? They pretty much own the Iranians, or at least they think so.