Roxana Saberi, Iranian-American journalist imprisoned for alleged “espionage,” was granted an appeal from the Iranian judicial system after going through a two-week hunger strike in protest of her arrest. Iranian officials say that Saberi has confessed to espionage, But her father believes that she was forced to admit to things she did not do. There are many organizations and prominent individuals that have denounced Iran’s imprisonment of Saberi and presenting her as a poster child for the fight for freedom of expression.

Roxana Saberi, former Miss North Dakota

It is great that the world has taken notice of Saberi’s unjust imprisonment, even the president called for her release, but the world needs to divert its attention to all other regimes that imprison journalists and human rights activists. Worldwide, repressive regimes use terror, imprisonment, and death to beat their populations to submission simply to retain power by controlling what people say and think. It is these very regimes that, in their quest for absolute power, seek out weapons in order to export their socio-economic model. Power knows no bounds, so when these repressive regimes develop weapons, they do not develop them for mere self-defense, they develop them in order to threaten other nations. For example, currently North Korea has an thousands of artillery pieces hidden away in well-protected underground emplacements all aimed at South Korea and is holding that country hostage. With all of its cannons aimed at US positions and densely populated South Korean cities, the chances that that any or both of these two countries would invade North Korea are slim to none, but this insurance is not enough. North Korea, despite their genocidal deterrent, has still been developing nuclear weapons. Why? The only thing that nuclear weapons do is give North Korea greater weight at a negotiation and make them more dangerous. If they improve their missile technology, they can threaten the United States with a nuclear attack. They can also threaten the US with releasing nuclear material or weapons to terrorists.

The moral of the story is: if a dictatorship views free thought as a threat to their existence, then their paranoia will lead them to ever more irrational and dangerous behavior. Tyranny is a disease that stems from the absolute corruption of absolute power. To ignore it or to appease it is to surrender to it.

-AG