Longstanding interest as a commentator and analyst in iran. Im delighted to be joined by two of the people i think understand iran best in this country, and i will just move from my left, Maziar Bahari was my colleague as a newsweek reporter in iran. He worked for newsweek from 1998 until june 21, 2009, thousand nine, when he was arrested and imprisoned in tehran. You will know if youve read his wonderful memoir, then they came for me, what that imprisonment was like. If you havent read the book, you can go see the movie because it was made into a movie by jon stewart called rosewater if memory serves, was the name and the unmistakable calling card of his interrogator. In 2014 he started something that im sure its know youre too many people in this audience, certainly is a must read for anyone who wants to follow iran, and thats his website called iran wire which gathers information from iran, reporting, commentary, immensely valuable resource for all of us. And Suzanne Maloney who is
We are joined as well by matt guaranteed you know a professor at st. Lawrence university. We frequently Work Together on forgot issues. It also runs an Excellent Program in nairobi to celebrate its 45th anniversary. Matt was there doing research and bringing some alumni along on the trip. They had a great Semester Program in africa. From Freedom House the Relief Program in africa. I also want to thank john for an outstanding article that he coauthored in the Current Issue of Foreign Affairs. On some of the new promising democratic movements and some of africas biggest countries which was largely the inspiration for this email. We modified it a little bit. South africa democratic republic of the congo where i was a peace corps volunteer hundred years ago when it was practically before building congo days and also that nigeria so between these kids six countries we have nearly half of africas rep ovulation represented. A fair amount of helpful notes as well. No one is going to say is goi