Left out of the President's Iran message

By Ethel C. Fenig

President Obama's message to Iran is being praised by the media for its forward looking approach to relations with Iran. Unfortunately, the president forgot to mention one, small, item that may have given everyone a little perspective on the Iranian regime.

At least one Iranian blogger did not have the inspiring opportunity to hear President Barack Hussein Obama's cuddly, let's all hold hands and be friends video message.

A young Iranian blogger jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said that although there is not yet an official report about the death on Wednesday of Omid Mir Sayafi, "officials in the prison said that he committed suicide."

He demanded "an immediate inquiry and an autopsy into why he died."

Dadkhah said another prisoner in Evin, a Dr Hessam Firouzi, "had warned officials in the jail of the state the young blogger was in.

"Dr Firouzi called me from the jail to say Omid had a slowed heartbeat and he had taken him to the infirmary, but that doctors there did not take this seriously and said he was faking it," Dadkhah said.

And what horrible crime did the 25 year old Omid Mir Sayati commit to be imprisoned under conditions worse than say, Guantanamo?

The blogger, aged around 25, was sentenced in February to 30 months in jail for insulting Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic.

(snip)

Iran has launched a crackdown on bloggers and Internet users deemed to be hostile to the authorities and their Islamic values.

Busy condemning Israel for defending itself against rockets falling on Israeli schools, hospitals and other civilian sites and the U.S. for detaining prisoners in Guantanamo under conditions better than in Iran, the various human "wrongs" organizations did not have any comments about the Iranian blogger's death or this Iranian crackdown.