popular logistics

In a country so harsh about other matters of personal autonomy (sex, in particular) I found it surprising that Iran would have a progressive syringe exchange policy and and a fairly gentle drug regime. From Nazila Fathi’s June 27th piece in the Times, "Iran Fights Scourge of Addiction in Plain View, Stressing Treatment:"

More than a million Iranians are addicted to some form of opium, heroin or other opium derivative, according to the government, and some estimates run as high as 10 million.

In a country where the discussion of some social and cultural issues, like homosexuality, can be all but taboo, drug addiction has been widely acknowledged as a serious problem. It is talked about openly in schools and on television. Posters have encouraged people to think of addiction as a disease and to seek treatment.

Iran’s theocratic government has encouraged and financed a vast expansion in the number of drug treatment centers to help users confront their addictions and to combat the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, through shared needles.

The center in central Tehran, which is called Congress 60 and is run by a private nonprofit agency, is one of 600 centers that provide drug treatment across the country with help from government money. An additional 1,250 centers offer methadone, free needles and other services for addicts who are not ready to quit, including food and treatment for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.

Iran’s government, trying to curb addiction’s huge social costs, has been more supportive of drug treatment than any other government in the Islamic world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

It was not always this way. After the 1979 revolution, the government tried a more traditional approach: arresting drug users and putting them in jail.

But two decades later, it recognized that this approach had failed. A sharp increase in the crime rate and the number of people infected with H.I.V., both directly linked to a surge in narcotics use, persuaded the government to shift strategies.

"We have realized that an addict is a social reality," said Muhammad-Reza Jahani, the vice president for the Committee Combating Drugs, which coordinates the government’s efforts to fight drug addiction and trafficking. "We don’t want to fight addicts; we want to fight addiction. We need to manage addiction."

Apart from the observation that this is yet another piece of evidence that non-punitive approaches are more effective than "war on drugs" - it also suggest that the Iranian government is capable of changing course, rethinking problems - and thus perhaps - under the right circumstances - able to negotiate.

Tags: drug policy, harm reduction, heroin, Iran, HIV, syringe exchange

From HelpBobLevinson.com:

On Sunday, March 9, 2008, the Levinson Family will be holding the Help Bob Levinson Rally of Hope in Coral Springs, Florida.

We hope that you, our family and friends, will join us in showing love and support for Bob on the one year anniversary of his disappearance and the eve of his 60th Birthday.

We’ll try to provide further information shortly.

RFERL reports that Christine Levinson is awaiting a response to her application for a visa to travel to Iran to search for her husband, Bobby Levinson, who has been missing since March 8, last seen on the Iranian island Kish.

The wife of a former FBI agent who disappeared in March while on a business trip to Iran told Radio Farda today that she has traveled to New York to try to meet with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who is expected to speak at the UN General Assembly. Christine Levinson told Radio Farda that she has not been able yet to get an appointment with the Iranian president.

[photo of Robert Levinson via RadioFarda.com, credited "public domain']

“I keep trying to get an appointment, I know he’s a very busy man but I hope he will be able to find even 10 minutes to see me,” she said. “I want to ask him for his help in finding my husband, I know that he has the ability to find him.”

Robert Levinson was last seen on March 8 on Kish Island off the southern coast of Iran, where according to his family he had gone to seek information on cigarette smuggling.

His wife told Radio Farda that she has applied for an Iranian visa to travel to Iran and seek information on her missing husband. She said Iranian authorities are reviewing her visa request.

Greenspan says ‘We invaded Iraq for Oil!’

• Click Here For Fox News
• Here for FPIF,
• Here for Global Policy Forum,
• Here for Times Online UK,
• Here for BBC,
• Here for our friends Down Under,
• George Lakoff on the Huffington Post.

Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, lets do the math. Iraq, according to the Global Policy Forum, and the CIA , Iraq has 112.5 Billion Barrels of “proven reserves” of oil. At $80 per barrel … Iraq’s oil is worth $9.0 Trillion. We’re only spending $1 trillion, so it’s a pretty good return on investment. 900 percent return on investment for the 112.5 billion barrels of proven reserves.

And they said George W couldn’t do math.

And Iraq’s “probable reserves” are estimated to be another 200 billion barrels. If the “probable” reserves are only another 100 billion barrels - that’s 212.5 billion barrels of oil. Black Gold. Texas Tea. That ups the ante to 1,700% ROI. Why that’s better than Microsoft’s historic $3 thousand in 1986 worth $One Million in 1999.

Of course this is assuming we win the war. There are people who suggest that we have given Al Queda 9 to 17 Trillion Dollars worth of oil. Some people are just negative.

Craig Crawford’s post in Congressional Quarterly Politics places Bobby Levinson’s disappearance squarely in the middle of the Persian Gulf chessboard:

Now that George W. Bush seems to be around the corner on Capitol Hill to keep control of the Iraq War, he can move on to his other military target: Iran.

And while Congress dithers about Iraq, developments on the Iranian front are playing into the president’s hands. Europeans, especially the Germans, are stepping back from sanctions against Iran that might delay or prevent a U.S. bombing campaign. The British are once again playing ball by agreeing to a U.S. request to move troops to the Iraq-Iran border. And Iran is conveniently heightening tensions by ignoring State Department requests for information about an American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in March. [emphasis supplied]

All this comes at a time when Democratic leaders in Congress show no interest in legislation that would tie Bush’s hands if he wants to make a move on Iran — which he will probably do before the year is out.

“Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: With Iraq Policy Intact, Bush Free to Target Iran.”

Also via Evil Poet Lost in Thought.

 From Nasser Karimi of the Associated Press, dated June 10th:

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the detentions of the Iranian-Americans were unwarranted but would not stop the United States from trying to engage Iran on other matters, including its disputed nuclear program and alleged support of insurgents in Iraq.

“We take seriously the holding of any American anywhere in the world where they are being wrongly held and where they are being accused of things that clearly are untrue,” Rice said. “It just shows again what kind of regime this is.”

- snip -

The U.S. also has expressed concern about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who the United States says has been missing since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.

[Mohammad Ali]  Hosseini [the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry]  reiterated Sunday that Iran has no information about Levinson.

Via Washington Post. 

Iran, according to CNN, has now arrested four Iranian-Americans on questionable charges.

Christine Levinson, according to CNN (this graf appears about halfway down the page), “recently traveled to Washington to meet with lawmakers and diplomats who are working on his case.”

Bobby has been missing since March 8th.

According to www.hindu.com - we understand it to be the on-line version of a large English-language Indian daily paper:

…. Iranian media is reporting behind the scenes activity that could encourage the release of some of the detained Iranians. According to the Iranian website Baztab, detained American Robert Levinson was turned over to American officials within the last 24-hours.

The entire Hindu piece here.

However, the Baztab piece cites back to the earlier “National Security News Service” piece of May 2nd.

According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) , Baztab is

close to the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai, highly critical of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, was banned by the State Council on 29 March. Iranian news agency ISNA, reported that supporters of the president had taken out 15 law suits against it. It was previously blocked on 12 February and 19 March for posting “false” news which “violated the Constitution”, “damaging private life” or the “unity of the country” [Criticizing Ahmadinejad)

[A piece on the same page, reports that the ban has been lifted]:

The Iranian authorities yesterday lifted a ban on the conservative website Baztab.com, one of the most visited sites in Iran. The ban was imposed on 12 February under regulations adopted on 27 November 2006 forbidding the publication of “false” information, “violating the constitution” and attacking “personal privacy” or “the country’s unity.” The site had published reports on Iran’s nuclear industry and on corruption in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was criticised.

Reporters San Frontieres piece here.

The National Security News Service - is a division of Stories That Matter - a group of journalists with impressive investigative and journalistic resumes - Popular Logistics is familiar with some of the players - but not the group. However, our reading is that this sourcing - via NSNS/Stories That Matter - makes it more likely that accounts of Bobby Levinson’s release are accurate.

Rodger Morrow reports that Bobby Levinson has been released to American officials in Iraqi Kurdistan.  We’ll try to update later with references to Morrow’s sources.

Our thanks again to Morrow for being ahead of the ’sphere on this story.

We won’t actually be entirely relieved until we hear direct confirmation that he’s back with his family, friends and admirers -  who are sufficiently numerous to populate a medium-sized island.