Free Maziar Bahari

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham has issued a plea for the release of Newsweek journalist and documentarian Maziar Bahari. I’ve met Maziar several times, I attended rallies and press conferences with him in the runup to the June 12 election, and the idea that he is any sort of spy is blatant nonsense. The Iranian authorities should know that blaming outsiders–journalists, British diplomats–for the street demonstrations that attended the electoral debacle is simply ludicrous, not just to the world, but also to the Iranian people, for whom these star-chamber arrests are intended.