Bad news from Tehran

Ramin Jahanbegloo, "formerly a prominent thinker and writer on democracy and non-violence", has made his confession. As The Economist noted last week:

Thanks to America's reorganisation of Iraq in favour of its Shia majority and the Islamic Republic's successful cultivation of the new elite there, Iran has a degree of influence to its west that it has not enjoyed since it lost its Mesopotamian possessions in the 17th century...For most of Iran's sad reformers, it is Mr Bush's blunders, not the clergy's inspired leadership, that have put Iran in its present strong position.

(P.S. 1 Sep: Rasool Nafisi comments here on Jahanbegloo’s release)