Iran and espionage charges. His imprisonment was the based on the film rosewater. He sat down with the executive producer to talk about his experience this is one hour. [applause]. Good evening, welcome to the john f. Kennedy junior form. I make it williams, the williams, the director of the institute of politics here at harvard. Tonight we take up the fascinating topic, journalism is not a crime. Shes moderated by a great moderator journalists. For nearly three decades american audiences worldwide have look for candy for politics that is thorough, as insightful, revealing, and tough, but honest. Over her career she has channeled the world as you can read in the form program. She has covered every major u. S. Political figure in recent memory including every president since jimmy carter as well as countless governors she has worked in all 50 states and around the globe, covering not only politics but many historical events. She. She has won more awards for excellence in journalism for Network Employers and for herself than i have time to relock tonight. If you are interviewed by candy you can count on several things. Intense questioning. Intellectual integrity. Study knowledge of every issue, and every relentless probe being until she gets the truth. We are very, very proud to have her. I am honored to introduce her. She will be our moderator this evening. Thank you make a. [applause]. My goodness. Im just going to really briefly introduce these two gentlemen because i think they need a bit of a set up for those of you who do not know why they are here together. To my left is a journalist, filmmaker, next to him is mr. Greenberg who is the executive producer of the daily show. So the first question is, and they are why are they together . So im going to have tim set up something from the daily show for you all to see so we can move the conversation along. This is a clip from a short series we did in iran where we travel to iran right before the election back in our plan was basically to present the country to american and to one of the people we went to interview was the Islamic Republic of iran, a nation and a people, power writ waiting to explode. As we at the emphasize with these lives who are risking their lives to take a stand in the face of democracy, let let us not forget these people are evil. Just what is it that makes them so evil . I have not signed up for twitter so the only way to find out was to go and see for myself. As i touched down at the airport on my 36 birthday i was completely alone. No american embassy, no alcohol, not even exposed angles truly are at. I have a. I have a wife and children, dont hurt me. Even leaving the hotel led to potential risks. Then i should my producer, Tim Greenberg that as long as he was with me there is nothing to fear. First up i made contact with my translator, we headed to a copy shop for a meeting with a journalist. I was told he would go by the codename, pistachio and i would recognize him. I asked him the question on everyones centers and mine, why why was his country so terrifying. One were, misunderstanding. Theyd two sides dont understand each other, they dont have to talk to either side. I was written about that in a mixing for several times. Yeah i didnt understand a word about. Can you translate that for me quest mark. Okay. Okay what did he say. He said that i said ive written about it for a newsmagazine several times. Im going to need some who speaks english. The one thing i could understand is this entire country is evil. First thing you need to knows iran is are not evil. Iranians and americans have much more in common than they have different. What i have in common with you . Well the enemy of the United States is al qaeda and that is the number one enemy of iran. If they kill in iran in you would go to heaven. Enough of these western educated newsweek doublespeak. So that is a portion of the first one you aired. Clearly aimed at poking fun at americans views of iran. But something went a mess after this was aired. Ray, so were there right before the elections. It seems like mossad beebe which was a more liberal candidate was going to win. In fact when we are there the mood at least when were there was every place you would see these green ribbons which was the symbol of his campaign. There is young people driving around with the green ribbons hanging off their cars. It seemed like it was a time where things were going to change. Like there is a desire for change for more liberal society. We went there right before the election thinking great, well cover this. Thisll be this will be a time pressed to introduce america to iran and then it turned out that did not happen. It was the exact opposite happened. The powers that be arguably stole the election and things clampdown. There is three demonstrations and Government Forces cracking down, they killed some people. You, as a reporter and i were following this. The day after the election, take it from there into your imprisonment. Wont basically what happened as tim said, for a period of two or three months i believe, about three months people were in a euphoric mood. People thought that we had someone who is not him. It. It really did not matter who was that person but they really do not want to have him. To put things in contacts, if you have how many is a Supreme Leader who has ultimate power and him as a president , these are two people who iranians are just ashamed of. It is as if you have like donald trump and Kim Kardashian as president and vice president. Maybe maybe i just gave you an idea. And you really want to get rid of Kim Kardashian because he say well donald trump is a Supreme Leader he is not untouchable but lets focus on cam. So people wanted to change in iran so that is why they voted the other way who he was not really a jeffersonian democrat, he is not someone who believed in democracy. He was the Prime Minister of iran in the 1980s giving many atrocities have happened during his time. He was talking about opening up the states a little bit so people were kind of euphoric. So when tim and jason came to iran which was before the election. Yes i think it we left a week before. People were euphoric and the government, we did not know what was going on. The government somehow was allowing many journalists to come to iran. I think about 200 visas were issued. Every. Every major News Organization was in iran. They were getting ahead of themselves calling this a green revolution rather than a Green Movement. Because it was not going to have a revolution. So the election happened and everyone based on all of the secret surveys that were carried out by the intelligence and i had seen one of them reportedly before the election. Everyone thought he was going to win but nothing after. On the night of the election they announced the winner by 78 million of a margin. The next morning that it was like dark clouds of iran. It was a change of mood. It was a dramatic change. So for a couple of days people did not know what to do. So the election was on friday, then on saturday and sunday people were thinking what to do. On monday they went to the streets. People said that we are going to the street to organize and we are asking people to come to the street and have a demonstration of silence. I thought maybe 10000 or 15000 people would, chant a little bit, chant a few slogans and then go back home. I had a meeting and i got to the demonstration, so i thought i was right. I went to the revolution street which was the main street and tehran and i was on that street in 1979 as a young boy. During during the iranian revolution 3 Million People it was the same thing repeated 30 years later. That millions of people, and according to the city of iran statistics it was between two or 2. 5 Million People were marching silently asking for the votes. That was repeated for a few days. So i reported it. There was an attack against the Prime Minister, it was an anomaly really. I reported on that. Then. And let me make it clear you are working for newsweek at the time. Yes which was a maze news program in the u. K. Then a Supreme Leader he came to the prayer ceremony and he said that people have to go back home otherwise theyre not responsible for the backlash. So then there was a big crackdown and thousands of guards, thousands and we call them ninjas. They were dressed in dark, they have in a dark shield, we had not seen these people. We had not known where they were coming from. They were beating up young women, children, men, women, it was horrible. I felt the most horrible i have felt in my life on saturday the 19th of june. I had been working in africa, afghanistan, iraq. So it was quite dramatic. It ended with the pictures of a woman who was shot in the head and we saw the dramatic pictures of her bloodline from her nose and mouth. Then i went to sleep, the next morning a few men in plainclothes came to my house, and my mother i was staying with her and they arrested me. So the story i dont know if you know theres a book out that you have written, now entitled rosewater. A film directed film directed by jon stewart called rosewater, which is really it is a family story in a lot of ways. But it is the story of that imprisonment for 118 days. So, one of the things i was curious about, the link here is in your being interrogated they played the clip from the daily show. When i was arrested they sent me to an Interrogation Room and within a few minutes my interrogator told me that youre here for espionage. I asked him politely, so do mine tell me who i was spying for . He said for organization cia, and newsweek. And i said Newsweek Magazine and he said yes your magazine is is Common Knowledge that it is part of the intelligence operation. I wish bill was here because i was in touch with someone named nicolette who is an industrialist, i had interviewed him. His name was nicholas and they thought it was Nicholas Byrne and they thought i was in touch with nick burns and he had just written an oped in newsweek, so they said that you are in touch with nick burns who is a Government Official and that proves you are working for the cia because nick burns is part of the cia. So is all this conceit piercy theories coming together. So they were charged with espionage, and in the absence of any evidence because i was not a spy that head to bring for ridiculous evidence including my appearance on the daily show. So they took that seriously. Yes because they looked like a spy. And i think now they said i taste like a spy. So jim, youre back in the states at this time, when was your first knowledge . I think some of the other people that we had interviewed had been arrested at that point. There is one email and i went back to check this to make sure he told us to do this, but there are other parts of the interview where he spoke more against the regime and i just wrote an email and said hey are you okay . What you want us to do . And he said he said please eric, in fact ahead and air these, more difficult remarks. So we proceeded and i know how exactly we found out. I think just from the press found out he had been arrested to at that point. For us it was extremely uncomfortable because even though people say we are journalists, we really are not. We are not journalists. We are not. It was personally uncomfortable just that my world of silly comedy had intersected reality in a way that i was completely and prepared for. The entire time i thought i was in over my head and i thought i should not be involved with this. I think that was a striking thing for me, that we were making jokes. We thought we were doing something safe and silly and it turns out theres not much separation shim between a safe, silly world we live in and yet a very much darker side. I have seen it in the movies, i seen it on tv i know it exists. But the fact that exist with someone i know something were doing and is being used as a form of torture is just way beyond. And there was, tell them a bit there was torture of these 118 days. 18 days. There are other pieces of evidence brought up to prove that you are a spy for america. Talk a little bit about the process that you went through and we should say first of all that your father was also imprisoned during the shaw regime. And your sister was also imprisoned in the next wishing for being a member of the opposition party. So you had and it is very effective in the filled i thought, conversations and you had with your dad about what should i do here. Talk about talk about your revolution of how you thought you would behave and eventually what happened. While growing up in a political family having witnessed a revolution and a war somehow prepared me for getting arrested. I had been arrested a couple couple of times when i was younger, and my teenage years. But just for a day or three or four days. The second time i got arrested was because i was having coffee with my girlfriend in a coffee shop. And it was i was around 16 or 17 at the time and they read arrested everyone in the coffee shop. They took me to the most dangerous prisoner tehran at that time for criminal common criminals. So i was in prison at the age of 17, my crime is having coffee with a girl and they said no it was a disturbing public morality. Size in a communal cell and i asked people so what is your crime . And he he said murder. And another person, rape. So there is like 30 common dangerous criminals. There were a few other people arrested as well. So i thought maybe i was a bit prepared. You cannot really be prepared for something as dark and something as ridiculous as this. They may have felt guilty about what have happened but you cannot really prepare yourself for something. I was not prepared. I knew there is many stupid people in iran, there are many stupid people who are in the regime in iran. They dont have any sense of humor but until i got there and i was distant firsthand i could not believe it. During those 118 days, because out 107 days in solitary confinement i did not get any new information. But the information about the revolutionary the regime, the paranoia, really deep inches i i understood how much they hated jews for example. I realized how much they regard israel with an v at the same time hatred. So i went through a different. During my interrogation. At the beginning they charge me with espionage, their beatings, psychological torture, mostly telling me this isolation of solitary confinement because you are deprived of all of your senses. You cannot touch anything except the walls, you do not see anything except for the walls around you. You do not hear anything. That was torture, sometimes i really wish i could get out of the solitary confinement and i could go to the Interrogation Room so i have some human contact. Then when the espionage finished after couple of months they started to ask me about my private life. Especially about my life and how many people i slept with. How many times, was getting ridiculous and more ridiculous. Who is basically a dark comedy. The best, the in the book come from people who take themselves seriously. In terms of the daily show, your jokes about mitt romney were funny but donald trump was really funny because he takes himself much more seriously than mitt romney. When i was in prison and being interrogated, my interrogator become my news because when i start with i got into prison and i wrote an article ten days in an iranian jail. So i decided to write a book. Every time youd Say Something stupid or he would make the presumption about my life where life in the west, i was taking a mental note. That would end up in the book. I was just trying to add color to it as well. Basically he did not have any other human contact is cites me as well because he spent all of his time in the Interrogation Room. He was tired of talking to his buddies about the revolution so sometime he was confiding in me. Tell me about his personal life. I could hear his conversation, even sometimes when he was beating me he was talking to his wife. I i remember one day he was holding my ear and he was twisting my hair and it was very painful. Then his phone rang and he kept on twisting my hair and while he was talking on the phone i thought could you just like on my ear while youre talking. Then he hit my head and said talking on the phone, be quiet. It makes it actually even more dangerous but is there is no rationale here. Exactly. You are dealing with this you dont how to play. It was multilayered and i am trying to come i Start Talking about in the book as well that this confession they have, this host ceremony that iran torture and and beating and getting confession, it has become sort sort of movement within the regime. Especially because ordinary iranians do not believe in force confession or people appearing on television confessing against themselves. But when you read the article by the revolutionary guard or hardliners in iran you hear that a really relish this. They are perfecting it. It has Better Writing now it has better staging, now they pit things next to people, they put books, the books can be more intellectual now. It used to be just the koran but now can be something else. So it becomes a torturous sport. Its a torture as a spectacle basically. One of the other things thatll lead to my arrest among all the different journalists should i read is the islamic notion that they believe that it is making an example of someone. In iran we have many public hangings. When you ask a Government Official why you hang people and public . They say we want to make an example of these people. We call them drug smugglers. So i was arrested to make a example of a journalist, a filmmaker so they can scare large group of people. Theres so much more to the story which i hope youll ask about both these gentlemen, there are four microphones here for your questions. One appear, one up one appear, one here, and one there. We only ask that you tell us who you are, keep your question short and make sure it is a question. So to hear the end of the story, i am counting on uts those questions. Go ahead. Hi. Im sorry to let you down, and i cant ask about the rest of the story. You mentioned earlier that you didnt think you were journalists. But i want to know your opinion about what he thought of politicals shows like pinochle bears and others in the effect they have on Public Opinion, which i think its huge . What you think about that and how is that changing the political media landscape of today . Well, that didnt seem to help much in this case. Really directly or indirectly although he got a movie made of his life. Ill just answer briefly because i dont necessarily know. I think it reflects Public Opinion, i i dont know that it influences it so much. Maybe their particular stories that do get highlighted that you do not know about. But like for example, i was reading reading an article about the john oliver effect recently and this has been said about the daily show and everything that was changed because of him. There is maybe one or two things that may be of changed and it was because he was reporting on things, i think think it is more of a reflection than a cause. That is my opinion. Hi, go ahead dont forget to tell simon. Hello. I will to. Thoughts on the iran tail. On the iran deal, thank you for asking me. I support the iran deal. I have tried to read the agreement, it is very complicated. I know most of the people who have opinions about the deal to not understand much of it. It is is a very technical document. I support the deal because i just look at the alternatives. Which would be another war in the middle east, another invasion of the muslim country, and that would definitely affect america and other countries but also harm iranians because it would militarize the states and the situation inside iran. Why iranians have some space to express themselves, to gather and share information, if there is a military pack, if there is a military, even a threat of a military attack, then it allows people within the ref illusionary guard, the the secret government, the parallel government to who took over the country after the 2009 election, they will take over again and they will get results even in this little state that we have in iran now. So i have been in a difficult situations inside been out out of prison in 2009. On one hand i have to come i it is my duty to talk about the situation in iran, the human rights abuses and the atrocities that the regime has had. But but at the same time i do not want to provide any reasons for warmongers and people who went to war in iraq and who think or who say that going to war with iran would solve the self situation and build peace and security. Which i guess iranians also look at their neighborhood as a whole, iraq, libya, afghanistan, these are not good role models that they want to emulate. Hi my name is ben im a harvard law. Theres been examples of successful revolutions in america, it was america who just have a revolution. In regards to iran, if you have a successful, peaceful democratic revolution, does that inherently have to be from the inside out or there anything that external portions can happen to help support a Better Process . I think external forces can help the situation in iran. First first of all, they should not invade the country, that is the first thing they should do. Also, they have to find out what is the situation inside the country and what do the iranians need in order to bring about a peaceful change in the country. Ive been talking to different governments on different Government Officials asking them to create some sort of internet in iran because one way you can bring peaceful change is to by allowing different iranians to commit a kit with each to communicate with the rest of the world. To share information with themselves and the rest of the world and while the iranian government is in charge of the internet and the bandwidth it is very difficult. It is is still possible but it is very difficult. If there is a satellite internet for example that the foreigners can provide to iranians, that would be a positive help. Also when you think about you do a costbenefit analysis, how much is military ship costs and how internet costs. I think those things could help yes inside iran. So iranians do not think about revolution anymore because they had a revolution 366 years ago. They have been regretting it sense and they are reminded every day by the government that they had a revolution. It is something that a historical stake they do not want to repeat. Im going to go here next. Because journalism obviously is my passion here. That is, your case did get publicity. Hillary clinton talked about it, about the show trial talked about the unfairness of the imprisonment et cetera. You had journalist friends who among them from cnn who was on the case, did the daily show feel there needed to be some help here in terms of trying to get your release . Well nothing directly other than a couple of times we featured people who were speaking about his case. Again, in terms of anything beyond that we were sort of coordinating with the people who are taking more of the lead which was his wife, another scored in the process. Only left out that part of the story ladies. His wife was pregnant at the time. She was five months pregnant when you left question mike. She was three months pregnant . So that is part of the story. Im going to ask you some similar to this question what you think would be helpful for those who are still there who may be to not get the publicity impression or speaks to speaking of which i am very sorry about your time in jail. I wonder if there is greater sympathy about those being held when theyre forced better on hunger strike, whether you can extend your own experience to neighboring countries and around the world because these are the kind of stories, like yours that never get featured on the daily show or newsweek. Well there are many atrocities going on in the world. Of course in palestine, in china, and russia, and egypt, and some of these countries are western allies, some are anti western. Atrocities atrocities all around the world and going back, i was really lucky that i was working for newsweek and i had been working with different organizations for many years. I had friends all around the world. I had an Amazing Campaign launch for me when the president of iran came to the United Nations in september 2009, newsweek made sure that every people that met iranian officials raise my case. Even the secretary of state met the set met in geneva and talked about my case. Unfortunately, most of my iranian colleagues and most of my colleagues all around the world, they are not as lucky. Most of them are not working for media organization. Most of them are freelancers. Many of them are social Media Journalists who in the absence of facebook, and twitter, they do not enjoy the support. That is why journalism is not a crime. Com which is for now it is for the iranians to provide them legal help, psychological help, and to put a face on the name and a name on the number and possible these people. Then you say thousands of palestinians and hundreds of russians journalists are chinese journalists youre not number. These are people with stories, individual stories. Their parents, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, who have loved ones. We have to give these people a face in order to do something about it. So yes, i, i am trying to do as much as i can but i am one person. I am sure there are many of palestinians, israelis, russians, who can join us if you want to get in touch with me you can do it by twitter or facebook or email and we can see what we can do. And we will do the address again at the end. Hi, i am a student here and a moroccan journalist and someone who has respected journalism for a few years and i can see there are obstacles for free speech where we come from. One is in the regimes to impress journalists and the right to free speech but the other is popular attitudes toward liberal or openminded journalists would say about society. I am wondering if that is the case with iran. Do you think iranian Public Opinion is open regardless of what regime is in place . Do you think it is open to journalistic work that is challenging to the public morals, as they call them. Because i know for fact in the arab world it is one of the obstacles, it is not just the regime. I do not think we can generalize and say that Public Opinion is like that. Yes, yes, their members a public who may be bigoted, ignorant, and prejudice prejudice and think the way that youre describing them. But in general, and my experience people, especially in the access of Satellite Technology they would like to know more about the rest of the world. So they are more open to receiving information. So yes, many iranians may not want to hear about gay rights in america you know because homosexuality is not something that is discussed openly in the iranian society, but more and more iranians, more and more middle easterns are traveling to middle Eastern Countries and more more people are open to new ideas, new information. I think especially with the absence of social media the new mood in the middle east, we saw the train the era of time people naming their children facebook for example. Hi, im a student at boston university. You have reformists and hardliners. Not much has changed about freedom of speech and journalism in particular. You think president s at the main election of the government have any impact on the situation or not question what. I argue that a lot has changed. If we think about the situation in iran and now in 1990s and 1980s we can see that there is more freedom in iran compared to that. Yes iran is not like sweden of course. It is for your, people have more space to discuss things than in the 1980s at the height of the dictatorship. In the 19 and in the 1990s. People believe in gradual chains. Maybe excruciating gradual change. That is the only way to be able to have sustainable change. As we discussed it before people look at the changes in iraq, and libya, those are not changes that are sustainable. Change that that happened in iraq has resulted in more things like isis for example. So i think president and ironically a symbolic figure but in 2005 you had fundamentalists and the president of iran in 2013 you had ronnie is a little bit more liberal, and people are happy with that. Maybe he cannot bring that much change to the country but he is a symbol of change. Okay i want to ask big where you change . Do you have more sympathy for those who are tossed into prison and sort of lost . You talked a little bit about when he thought it was safe and went over and you read about the darker parts of the world but this is the first up close you have met somebody who is in deep trouble and had no way to fix that. Does it change you as the worldview . I get you are incomedy but as a person did it change request mike. Yes it did. It made me realize i will tell you one thing we are much closer to some of these darker elements then i am aware. To some degree i do not believe it. I just and not believe it. It was not part of my world. Then to see it directly and interact directly was quite a shock. Even reading his book, im reading the book, im now in the character going along with him and his story, page 130 he hundred 30 he brings up the daily show thing, even reading the book i forgot i had anything to do with it, its a great book him involved with the story and then i thought while i have something to do with this story. It is shocking to realize were not so separate from that. Theres one other thing which is even at the time where there which is when things were more liberal than they are now, and things were opening up ive been to a lot of places and theres still something in the air that feels like it wasnt free. A certain heaviness about things that i had never really experienced before. It was interesting because not too long we had come out, many years under george bush were freedom especially post9 11 in this word became almost meaningless to me. The way they would use it was a mismarking. Tears were fighting for freedom, all all these things that to me became into words. When i was there i got a sense that all it is not nearly sent as i thought. It is only once you see the absence of freedom that you see what we do have here. So that open open my eyes. I was not young when i was there. I was a middleaged man and it open my eyes to something that i did not realize existed like that before. Hello, my name is danielle and im a student here. My question is for both of you, the daily show gets involved somehow and issues that and that being advocacy issues in the us. Now, especially with advocating for him when he was in prison but also in a case where the show ended in egypt, what is the perspective of the show i guess taken from the comedy role in advocacy role and how comfortable is that for you in that position . Maybe each can answer from both sides of that. There few answers to that. I dont want to speak for john but i will say that both in his case that he had a personal involvement. I think that changes the. Even if you talk about the 911 responders, it was something that he had a personal connection to. I think that changes a little. Even what i do, i run the field department, when theres something that you feel something specific about the person involved, whether that is for or against you are going off of what you actually feel. Generally that is not her job. Generally, our job is to make comedy and commenting on things. Sometimes you cant sit there and say im going to make a joke about this. Sometimes you want to do something. Usually something. Usually in the form of jokes but. Do you think you wouldve been in prison had you not a on the daily show . Yes. [laughter] one ridiculous evidence among all of the. But you talked about how many journals that were there. There were a lot of journalists there so there was something that made you, and perhaps its your iranian background. That exactly is reason why i got arrested. The reason for my arrest was exactly what we are talking about before. They wanted to make an example of me. I was a a journalist, was making documentary films, is working with for media, so they thought that i would be the best target for them. They could teach a lesson to a big number of people. At the same time, i ran does not break its dual citizenship. In the eyes of the iranian government i was not iranian canadian, i was iranian. So they could easily arrest me, put me in prison, put me a trial, and put teach me a lesson. The daily show was just one of the ridiculous evidence they brought forward. I will say that one segment we did, every one was arrested. That actually happened before we aired it. I think partially it was the people who are willing to speak to us tended to be from a more liberal bowl perspective. I think the way i met him and jason was a little dodgy in terms of the suspicious eyes and Iran Intelligence agent. I was doing a documentary for bbc at the time, as with the correspondence in a hotel room. Because there were a lot of media organizations and iran they were calling me for interviews, i did not have time because i assume my own documentary. We had a very tight deadline for the bbc. When tim called, i said yes to the daily show because i was a fan of the daily show. And tim and jason came to the hotel to meet me i had a very short time, maybe five or six minutes. We have it a quick coffee and i just give them a bunch of names. This. This person is english, the wrapper, foreign secretary, so if you are ignorant and you look at the world through suspicion than you think that this guys a spy. What is a spy do . As my interrogator said journalist are allspice because theyre like spies, they gather information and they get paid for. So that is a spy. So for him i was being a spy and not be announced all of were being monitored. I remember if you so that meeting it was five or six minutes in the hotel, it looks kind of suspicious. I wish you couldve her what were talking about. You guys dont do know about phones. No one else stand up because im going to try quickly. Hi, my name is sherry, im an alum of the kennedy school. Tim you mentioned you run the field pieces area of the daily show, now that things are changing and iran and we are seeing the president and things are bit more open, as the show ever interested in going back, and or is he going to do anything, is it going to continue advocating for better relationship or understanding between iran and the u. S. . First of all the daily shows gone through its its own regime change right now. I think well find out what the new voice of the show is. I dont feel comfortable going back to iran. What i sensibly back there . Not at the moment. I think things would have to change a lot. Even then, i guarantee the lawyers would not let us. But in terms of advocating, certainly i do think so and i think well always have a little up connection there on like other places in not a responsibility. I did think it is a special interest to us as an institution. I think that will remain. In the cab over someone asked me, what you think of the iran deal . He . He didnt know what were going to be talking about so i think that is on a lot of peoples minds. Thinking of advocacy when i was in jordan were filming there, because of his john had become very popular and the fact that everyone in this streets of jordan and everyone knew who he was and asked if they see john, they would say john stuart number one. Number one. Hi, im a freshman at harvard college. During the spring in 2011 iran experienced a few shortlived protests. I was wondering if you are involved in covering those protests and what your thoughts were on those protests and their implication after your experience in 2000 i . And iran there protests in 2011 . Yes. Well maybe they were small. Well i dont really remember those protests and im not sure what it was doing at that time. No i did not cover it that much. What really scared me where the protest in february 2010 which became great violence. The protest became violent and the regime really managed to suppress the protests quickly. I think that was really dangerous because the success of the Green Movement was a peace movement. The regime, or the revolutionary guard, part of the regime really trying to militarize the Green Movement. I think the collective wisdom of the iranian people did not become really violent movement. Otherwise the regime is would be easy to suppress. They know they are violent, they know how to suppress violence. So one protest especially in february 2010 was quite violent and the regime managed to suppress it. We have not seen that many protests, manifestations of people with the government. Although people come out at every occasion, can be a football game, they come to this streets and they chant names, even though he is under house arrest, they chant for freedom. Hi. Sarah, im a secondyear student. My question is this, i think the Nuclear Agreement has raised the question of whether or not therell be a broader between the u. S. And iran, given what you know about the iran since you been there what you think about improving u. S. Iran relations after the nuclear deal . I think if theres no interruption, i think of the process goes ahead as it is started since a couple of years ago there will be some sort of ofmarket is not going to come to fruition after the current Supreme Leader is alive because he is anti american and that is part of who he is. So well see some sort of response between iran and u. S. I dont think United States embassy will be open anytime soon in iran. But there will be some sort of economic deal, maybe some members of the american government, and it will be good for iran to have that. We have seen in other countries as well when they have opened up to u. S. , theres some respect for human life and freedom of expression. Because you have been so patient, please be quick. Hi, im frankie hill, im a freshman at harvard college. I have absolutely no idea what i want to do thrust my life. So i wanted to ask, well any of you would like to answer, what is the most fulfilling part of your job . Very nicely question. Usually the last question is so what to think about the future of iran . And like how many hours do we have . Its nice to earn a living, i will tell you that. It is. Dont discount that. The matter what you do its nice to support yourself and your family. I think for at least what i do it is nice to have fun yet feel like you if youre not making a difference in the world at least looking at things that matter. Sometimes i feel like we could do more of that. There are things you care about in the world and if you are somehow involved in that some way, whether its us commenting on it more directly, i think there really is something about hearing your involvement with something you care about in the world. To me it is learning every day something new. By nature i am a nosy purchase and so if i had any other profession i cannot go to someone and ask about their opinion about something. Find something that floats your boat. Boat. You will be doing it for a long time. Look, the name of the book is rosewater. It will tell you the complete story. Originally called then they came for me. It is a page turner even though you know how it turned out. The film directed by rosewater, thank you so much. Tim greenburg of the daily show. Tell your friends. Thank you both for being here. If you want to learn more go online and you can find out much more about what we are doing in their other activities. Thank you all so much. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] on the next washington journal of debate over raising the minimum wage. Wednesday british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron answers questions. Livelive coverage at 7 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan2. John hinckley, of course, the person who shot president reagan who was not wearing a bulletproof vest that day. The thing is, he was docking jimmy carter before this. Sunday Ronald Feynman author of the book, assassinations, threats, threats,book, assassinations, threats, and the american presidency talks about various assassination attempts and threats. Well, there have been 16 president s who have faced assassination threats although none directly eyeball to eyeball since ronald reagan. I also covered three president ial candidates, huey long and Robert Kennedy in 1968 he1968 he was assassinated and George Wallace who was shot and paralyzed for life in 1972. I cover candidates as well as president s, and it is a long list. Sunday night at 8 00 oclock eastern and pacific on cspan q a. A pakistani born scholar currently chairing the Political Science department at Westminster College in fulton, missouri. Next nextfulton, missouri. Next she speaks of the conference on security versus freedom and life in the post september 11 muslim world. This is about an hour. I have a great honor of introducing doctor hawkes who taught me during my years getting my bachelors degree of momus college. Born in central pakistan moved to the us when she was 18 years old, received her ba from Suny Fredonia and her phd in Political Science from cornell university, currently a professor at committee college in the visiting professor. She received in the eh and awards to studies on topics of comparative religions, nationalism and ethnic politics at the university of wisconsin at madison, islamic origins of the university of chicago and an asian valley debate at Columbia University and has participated in almost one dozen midwest faculty seminars at the university of chicago, recipient of the Burlington Northern award for excellence in teaching and the fulbright Teaching Research scholarship published in the area of ethnic politics, gender and politics, islam and human rights and militarism and motherhood. Visiting scholar at Woodrow Wilson center in washington dc for 2015 to 2016. Working on a book project, politics in the age of the nationstate