And scholars in new york mdc, and not the angry base of the party in places like iowa and south carolina. As good as his ideas sound, brooks would have a difficult time winning up republican primary, and i think he would be the first to admit it. Really, the three candidates of the moment right now are donald trump, because in, and carly fiorina, none of whom have held public office. Host the people they are talking to are not really the inople that will vote other words, the establishment is saying, it is early. Mr. Hohmann they are. Comthey have been saying that for five months now. Sees hard to ultimately donald trump be the republican nominee, in part because the leads of the party hate him so much, but someone like john kasich, for example, who he mentioned in his laundry list of candidates that are saying the right things. What he suggests very hard in his book, saying, we need to have a heart, and expand medicaid because these people need health care. He is not really getting any traction with people outside of the donor class and the conservative elites in washington. Is second ben carson in just about every national poll. He doesnt even really have business experience, which fiorinalike trump or have. Mr. Hohmann i think you will know that they are really getting worried when they start being more outspoken, and are willing to say, everything he was talking about, donald trump is doing the opposite. Either he has not read the book, or he has read it, and is doing the opposite. Mr. Roarty lets check back in january. Host i appreciate you being on newsmakers. Thank you. Next, journals talks about his imprisonment in iran on espionage charges. After that, the challenges of the kurds seeking an independent state in iraq. Then, as obama on the future of u. S. Troops in afghanistan. He said from the beginning, i look at the mirror, and dont see a president. My response to that was dont look in the mirror. From the very beginning, he said, this is not something i have ever thought about. A, aight on q and discussion about Mitch Daniels and his d decision to not run for president in 2012. I became convinced that he is very competitive. I think if he had made a decision to do it, he would have had his heart and soul in it. From the very beginning, is not something he thirsted after. Tonight at 8 00 eastern and pacific on q a. After appearing on comedy centrals the daily show with john stewart, a newsweek reporter was imprisoned. Is the president was the basis of a documentary directed by john stewart. Discussed this daily shows that the producer and political journals candy crowley. This is about one hour. [applause] tonight, we take of the fascinating topic, journalism is not a crime, moderated by a Great American political journalist, candy crowley. For nearly three decades, americans and people worldwide have looked to candy for coverage of politics that is insightful, objective, revealing, and tough, but honest. Over her career, she has transverse the general listing traversed the journalistic politicalering every figure in recent memory, including every president since jimmy carter, including members of the senate. She has worked in all 50 states and around the globe, covering not only politics, but many historical events. She has one more awards for journalism than i. Ave time to realize tonight if you are interviewed by candy, you can count on several things, intense questioning, intellectual integrity, studied knowledge of every issue, and until she probing gets the truth. We are very very proud to have her as a fellow the semester. I am honored to introduce her. She will be our moderator this evening. Ms. Crowley thank you. [applause]. Oodness i am just going to really briefly introduce these two gentlemen because i think they need a bit of a setup for those who do not know why they are here together. , amy left, Maziar Bahari journalist and cell maker. Next to him is tim greenberg, who is executive producer of the daily show. The first question is why are they together. I will have tim set up something from the daily show, for you all to see. Mr. Greenberg i think we are starting with a clip from the daily show to get you in the mood. This is a clip from a short series we did on iran, where we traveled through iran, right before the elections back in 2009. Justoint was basically present the country to americans , and one of the people that we maziar interview was bahari. [video clip] the Islamic Republic of iran. A nation and of people in a upheavel. Let us not forget, these people are evil. Just what is it that makes him so evil . I had not signed up for twitter, so the only way to find out was to go and see for myself. At the airportwn on my 36 birthday, i was completely alone. No american embassy, no alcohol, not even exposed ankles. I have a wife and children, please dont hurt me. Even leaving the hotel presented the essential risk potential risks. My producer, tim that as long as hein was with me, he had nothing to fear. I made contact with my translator. We went to coffee shop for a clandestine meeting with Maziar Bahari. I was told to go by the codename, pistachio. I asked him the question on every westerners mind, why is this country so terrifying . In one word, misunderstanding. They do not know how to talk about the other side. I have written about that for Newsweek Magazine several times. Did not understand a word of that. Can you translate that for me . You need to read about it. What did he say about it . He said that i have written about it for Newsweek Magazine several times. Thatwill need someone speaks english. The one thing i did understand is the entire country is evil. Is not evil. Iranians and americans have much more in common than difference. What do i have in common with you . Also theda is number one enemy of iran. If you kill an iranian, you will go to heaven enough of his western educated newsweek double seat. Doublespeak. Mr. Bahari that is a portion of the first when you aired, clearly aimed at poking fun of americans views of iran. Something went amiss after this was aired. Mr. Greenberg right. We were there right before the elections, and it seemed like the more liberal candidate was going to win. In fact, when we were there, the mood, at least where we were, you would see these green ribbons, which were the symbol of his campaign. A lot of young people were driving around with the green. Ibbons it seemed like it was really a time when things were going to change, like there was a desire for change for more liberal society. We went there right before the election, thinking, gray, we will cover this, and this will a time to introduce america to iran. It turned out that did not happen. In fact, the exact opposite happened where the powers that be arguably stole the election, and things clamped down. Ms. Crowley there were street demonstrations and Government Forces cracking down. You, as a reporter, were following this. Tell us what happened. The day after the election, take us from there into your imprisonment. Mr. Bahari basically, what happened, as tim said, for months, people were in a euphoric mode. It really did not matter that much who was the person, but they really did not want to have the one leader. To put things in context, if you have a Supreme Leader with ultimate power, and then the president , these are two people who iranians, many iranians, are ashamed of. It is as if you have donald trump and Kim Kardashian as president and vice president. [applause] [laughter] mr. Bahari maybe i just gave him an idea. You really want to get rid of Kim Kardashian. People wanted to change. That is why they voted for the other candidate, who was not someone who believed in democracy. He was the Prime Minister of iran in the 1980s, when many atrocities happened. He was talking about opening up this day a little bit. People were kind of euphoric. Iran,im and jason came to which was two or three weeks before the election . Mr. Greenberg right. We left about will be before. About a week before. Government, we do not know what was going on. How government was some allowing journalists to come. Was inajor news agency iran. People were getting ahead of themselves, calling this the green revolution, and not movement. The election happened, and everyone, based on all of the surveys, and i had seen one of them, i reported it for newsweek before the election musabiryone thought wa was going to win. He washey announced that behind. The next morning, it was as though a dark cloud was over to ruehran. It was a dramatic change. What to do. T know the election was on friday. On saturday and sunday, people were thinking what to do. People said, we are going to the streets. The organizers were asking people to come to the street. I thought, maybe 10,000 people would come, chant slogans, and then go home. 2 00, imeeting around got to the demonstration at 5 00, and i could not hear anything. I went to the revolution street, which is the main street in to ehran. I was on that street in 1979 as a young boy. Scene repeated 30 years later. Millions of people, and according to the statistics, it peopleween 22. 5 million get backsilently to their boat. That was repeated a few days. I recorded it. There was an attack against the paramilitary base. That was an anomaly, really. I reported on that. To make sure it is clear, he was working for newsweek at the time. Mr. Bahari for newsweek and a major news program and the u. K. In the u. K. The Supreme Leader came to the prayer ceremonies and said people had to go back home, otherwise they would be responsible for the bloodshed. On saturday, there was a massive crackdown. They beat up there were thousands of guards. We call them ninjas because they were dressed dark, black shields. We had not seen these people. We did not know where they were coming from. They were beating up young women, children. It was horrible. I saw some of the most horrible scenes that i have seen in my life on that day. I had been working in africa, afghanistan, iraq. It was quite dramatic. The day ended with a picture of the woman shot in the head. We saw the dramatic picture of her blood flying from her nose and mouth. I went to sleep, and the next a few men came to my house, i was staying at my mothers house, and arrested me, and took me to prison. Ms. Crowley the story, i dont know how many of you have seen, there is a book out that you , rosewater, titled. A film, directed by john, called , rosewater. In many a family story ways, but it is a story of that imprisonment for 118 days. The link here is when you were being interrogated, they played the clip from the daily show. Mr. Bahari when i was arrested, they took me to the Interrogation Room and within a few minutes, by and take your my interrogator told me you are spying. I said, do you mind telling me who i am spying for. They said the cia and newsweek. I said, my magazine . They said it is Common Knowledge that is part of american intelligence. I was in touch with someone i hadholas glenn interviewed him. They thought it was nicholas burns. Sorry, nick they thought i was in touch with nick burns. They said, you were in touch with nick burns, a Government Official, and that is why you are working with the cia. It was all of this Conspiracy Theory coming together. They were charging me with espionage in the absence of any real evidence. I was not a spy. They had to bring forward the dig is evidence, including my appearance on the daily show. Ms. Crowley which they took, or said they took, seriously. Mr. Bahari it says that i am a spy yes. Tim, you are back in the United States at this time, when was your first knowledge . Mr. Greenberg i think some of the other people that we interviewed had been arrested at that point. There is one email, and i went back and checked this to make sure he told us to do this, but there were other parts of the interview where he spoke much more aggressively against the. Egime i wrote an email to say, are you ok, what do you want us to do . , evend, please air it those more difficult remarks. We proceeded. I dont know how exactly we found out. I think from the press, we found out that he had been arrested too at that point. For us, it was extremely uncomfortable. Even though people say we are journals, we are not. Show we are not journalists. It was a comfortable that my world of silly comedy had in some way. Eality the entire time, i felt, im in over my head, i should not be involved in this. That was the striking thing for me. We thought we were doing something that was safe and silly, and it turns out theres not that much separation between that world that we live in and a very much darker side that i have seen in the movies, i see on tv, i know it exists, but the is being it exists and used as a form of torture, it went way beyond. There was torture, other pieces of evidence brought spyo prove that you were a for america. Talk a little bit about the process that you went through. We should say, first of all, your father was also imprisoned regime shawot regime, and his sister was also imprisoned. You had, and this was very effective in the film, conversations with your dad about what to do here. Talk about your evolution of how you thought you would behave, and eventually, what happened. Mr. Bahari growing up in a political family, having witnessed the revolution and a , somehow prepared me for getting arrested. I had been arrested a couple of times when i was younger, in my teenage years, but just for a. Ay or 34 days actually, the second time i was arrested was because i was having coffee with my girlfriend. I was 16 or 17, i believe. They rested everybody in the coffee shop, and took me to the most dangerous prison in tehran at that time. The age ofison at 17, and my crime was having coffee with a girl. They said it was deserving public morality. I asked different people, what is your crime . They said, murder, rape. I was there with common criminals, dangerous criminals. I thought maybe i was a bit prepared. You cannot really be prepared for something as dark, and as ridiculous as this. They may have felt guilty about what happened, but you cannot really prepare yourself for something. I was not prepared. I knew that there were many secret people stupid people, and they have no sense of humor, it firsthand. Ed i cannot believe it. During those 118 days, because i was 107 days in solitary confinement, i did not get any new information. My information about the revolutionary guard, the regime, the paranoia really deepened. I understood how much they hated jews, for example. I realized how much they regard hatred. Ith envy and i went through different periods during my interrogation. In the beginning, they charge me with espionage. There was beatings, psychological torture, mostly, know, solitaryou confinement is the worst type of torture because you are deprived of all your senses. You cannot touch anything or see anything that the walls around you. You do not hear anything. That was the worst type of torture. That i could get out of the solitary confinement to go to the Interrogation Room to be beaten, to have some human contact. After the interrogation ended, they started to ask me about my private life and sex life, how may people i had slept with, how many times. It was getting from ridiculous to more ridiculous. It was basically like a dark comedy. Comedy i have seen come from dictatorships that take themselves seriously. Even on the daily show, your mitt romney are funny, but the jokes about donald trump are even more funny because he takes himself or mitt romney. N my interrogation became my muse. I wrote an article for newsweek called 10 days in and i iranian jail. Anytime he said something stupid , i was making a mental note. Color to it to add as well. Basically, he did not have any other human contact is well as well. He spends all his time in the Interrogation Room. He was tired of talking to his buddies, of the revolutionary guards. Sometimes he would confide in me, tell me about his personal life. I could hear his conversations. Even sometimes when he was beating me, he was talking to his wife. I remember one day, he was holding my ear in his hand, twisting my ear. It was really, really painful. His phone rang, and he kept on ear. Ing my while he was talking, he let go of my ear. He hit me on the head and said, im talking on the phone, be quiet. Ms. Crowley there is no rationale here. We dont know how to play it is multilayered. I tried to talk about it in the book. , ase confessions they had whole ceremony around torture in beating and getting confessions. It has to come from amusement from people within the regime and people within the revolutionary guard and the intelligence agency. Ordinary iranians do not believe in forced confessions or people appearing on television confessing against themselves. Byn you read the article people close to the revolutionary guard or hardliners in iran, they really relish this. They are perfecting it. It is better lighting, better staging. Books they can be more intellectual now. These to just be the corolla qoran, is become almost a torture sport. Is torture spectacle. Things that led to my rest among all these different journalists was this islamic notion that they believe in that it is making an example of someone. In iran we have many public hangings. When you ask a Government Official what you hang people in public, they said they want to make an example of these people. They call them drug smugglers. I was arrested to make an example of a journalist, of a filmmaker so they could scare a large group of people. Ms. Crowley there is so much more to this story that itll you ask about, both of these gentlemen. There are four microphones for your questions. One appeared, one here, one there. Who you are,ll us keep your questions short, and make sure it is a question. To hear the end of the story i am counting on you all to ask the questions. Go ahead. Hi. I will not ask about the rest of the story. You mentioned earlier you did not think you are a journalist but i wanted to know your opinion about what you thought of recent political shows such as stephen colberts, jon stewarts, and the effect on Public Opinion . Politicalhanging the media landscape of today . Mr. Greenburg it did not seem to help much in this case. Either directly or indirectly. Later we got a movie made. I will answer briefly. I think reflects Public Opinion. I dont know that it influences it so much. Maybe there are particular st