ABC’s George Stephanopoulos is in Iran where he interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and spoke to imprisoned American journalist Roxan Saberi’s parents.
The interview with the president will be aired this Sunday on the “This Week” show.
Stephanopoulos says that he and Ahmadinejad had a couple of heated exchanges about 9/11, U.S.-American relations, Saberi, the holocaust and Iran’s nuclear program. If this is true, it would be a good thing: American journalists have been far too soft on Ahmadinejad.
Although I fear that Stephanopoulos exaggerates the nature and passion of the debates I am willing to give him a chance.
One of the things that struck the journalist in Iran is that senior administration officials believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy, an inside job if you will. The statement is rather obviously insane, but unsurprising coming from people who doubt that the holocaust ever happened.
Saberi, meanwhile, told her parents she would go on a hunger strike today to protest her imprisonment. That is bad news in so far that hunger strikes are not exactly healthy for the striker, but you could also spin it a bit more positively; it proves that the journalist will not give up. She will fight for herself, her rights, and her freedom. She could also have broken.
She is a fighter, it seems; it is a characteristic she needs to survive this horrific ordeal.
Meanwhile, you have to wonder what Obama and other Western leaders – for we should all stand together in these cases – are doing to convince Iran to let Saberi go.
/