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US Launches Virtual Embassy For Iran
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from a report at Al Jazeera "The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has launched a virtual embassy for Iran in what it said was a bid to promote dialogue with the Iranian people in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. The web-based embassy went online on Tuesday in English and Farsi, offering visitors what it described as 'another perspective' for Iranians who 'remain hungry for information about the United States.' 'This website is not a formal diplomatic mission, nor does it represent or describe a real U.S. embassy accredited to the Iranian government,' the U.S. state department said in an introductory note. 'But, in the absence of direct contact, it can work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people.'"
It's an eEmbassy?
..Iran has blocked the Virtual Embassy for the entire nation.
Bachmann says we should shut this down, too.
So while the server have a self destruct button with the thermite option for the disks? The government gets all the best toys, surely they can order this from their vendor...
welp, that didn't take long.
Because I know the first place I go when I want to know about a foreign country is their embassy. I'm sure the members of that institution are COMPLETELY unbiased about the country they're representing. Talk about an empty gesture. A spy plane gets shot down over their airspace, and the response is an e-embassy? I'm sure that'll sway the masses!
It's like a Voice of America type thing. No big deal.
...but I play one on the web.
Thanks for the nice embassy, US, but how about not toppling democratically elected governments in the first place, mmmkay?
"The 1953 Iranian coup d'état (known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup[3]) was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States under the name TPAJAX Project.[4] The coup saw the transition of Mohammad-RezÄ ShÄh Pahlavi from a constitutional monarch to an authoritarian one who relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power until his own overthrow in February 1979.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
slashdotted already? Oh here I got a cut and paste for my friends here:
Why Virtual Embassy Tehran?
Its harder to take hostages online, and our current prez Jimmy Carter the Second doesn't want to redo that, although he seems cool with "StagFlation II the adventure continues".
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Video Remarks to Virtual Embassy Tehran
"We have outlawed Tehran and the bombing begins in five minutes". Oh wait that was Ronnie's microphone test line from three decades ago. Well, different day, same old scare tactic to maintain control.
Former Iranian Embassy
Earlier this year, the State Department provided essential repairs for the former Iranian Embassy in Washington, DC, which was closed in 1980, to ensure the safety of mechanical, electrical, plumbing systems, and auditory and visual bugging and monitoring systems, along with an extensive array of external CCTV cameras monitored by the FBI. Also installed geiger counters for your protection.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Americans go home!
is this part of some sort of psyops mission ?
Put links to founders of the "Middle East Spring" movement. Add virtual links to American and European Persian supporters and business people. links to leaders in the American Muslim movement. Make this resource a combination; "Open Hand", "Information Clearing House" for liberal and moderate Persian ideology, A celebration of Persian culture and a clear commitment from the west to be ready for and open to dialog to empower the future of a free, democratic and peaceful Iran.
Of course at the same time, we need to have "Come home to Moses" talk with Israel about changing their stance to one of causing peace in the Middle East instead of undermining it. There are so many brilliant Israeli people, who want an end to hostility, and are more than willing to work out coexistence. The ongoing growth of illegal settlements only destroy options and nail the future to rails that lead to inevitable violence and ultimately the genocide of Palestine. Certainly there must be a better answer.
Iran has incredible resources, and amazing people. If we could only convince the population to pull it back from theocracy, its future would be incredibly bright.
Makes sense, as US don't have big problems with common Persian people - they have problem with nut heads at the top. I know, someone will come here again and will complain how US is corporation dictatorship, how Iran stands out for being "different", etc. etc. Please. We all know what this government is really all about. And yes, in current state of affairs there's still HUGE difference between power obsessed richies and "I'm fundamentally right to call myself a hand of the God and I will execute my rights nuking you" regime. First ones are nasty and we are growing tired from them, but it doesn't mean that we should be happy about second ones. Both kind are power junkies and both have nasty cold turkeys to deal with power withdrawal.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
" ''But, in the absence of direct contact, it can work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people.' "
ROFL! Too bad only an imbecile (or a politically-motivated sociopath) would even try to suggest that the US Gov't in any way actually represents the American people! :p
Oh c'mon now, I'm not the only one old enough to remember this right?
This site needs proper https support, not a broken like this one:
https://iran.usembassy.gov
iran.usembassy.gov uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is only valid for the following names:
a248.e.akamai.net , *.akamaihd.net , *.akamaihd-staging.net
(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)
This will work. In Iran there is a "spiritual leader" in the ayatollah who has 100% actual control. The President while the public face and with some limited powers and responsibilities, has no actual sovereign powers at all. His speeches at the UN and other places amplify his need for controversial and unbelievable positions as a means to get personal attention and to attempt to assuage perceived domestic concerns.
I say perceived because the typical Iranian is smarter than the typical American, and while less connected to news and the internet is far more educated and engaged in day to day politics.
I say unbelievable because any and all statements by the Iranian president, elected by a "beauty contest" vote with little or no sovereign powers, would be a treasure trove for factcheck.com if they ever wanted to waste their time on this charlatan and snake oil salesman. It might make a phunny Youtube video however. :)
The USA is waiting for Arab sprint to hit Iran and trying to help, but the degree of oppression and religious intolerance closely connected to the legal system, such as it is, is a strong deterrent to any citizen uprising and liberty.
Besides we are not setting all that good of an example. We should fix that by killing one-sided Keynsianism, Demo-Socialism, and installing traditional free market capitalism with a dose of free market style welfare to shut up the friggin' communist leaning Democrats. There are plenty. I have met them.
JJ
'But, in the absence of direct contact, it can work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people.'"
Then it should come from the people, not from the government.
The idea is nice, though there are roughly 10,000,000 other websites already telling someone interested in america everything he wants to know and a million things he really didn't want to know. But how about dropping the marketing speech? Don't pretend that real humans are talking to real humans when on the one side it's just marketing zombies and politicians.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Stuxnet discussion group?
Yours In Ashgabat,
K. Trout
I used to be an embassy, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
The government made a web site! STOP THE PRESSES!
Truly, this will go down as a crowning achievement, a turning point of history, for today, an actual, for-real WEB SITE was created!
with foreigners but anything their own citizen want to let the gov know about falls on deaf ears unless you can contribute $$$$$$$$$ to the politician of you choice. What a fucking wonderful country. I so hope I see the fall of the US in my life time, i'll be at the Canadian border with my illegal guns to keep illegal at the border while I watch the show and eat popcorn.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
...4chan to represent Americans to the world.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
in the U.S., for the U.S. citizens. They could bring democracy...
in the embarrassing decades-long chapter of American detest for a country with a population larger than great britain, that most of its citizens cant even find on a map.
just once, instead of pissing away money and resources on a country that presently seems just as content to leave us all the fuck alone, id like to hear a compelling reason why we're working so hard to make the lives of seventy-five million people so god-damn miserable with sanctions on international goods and services. The only thing we arent sanctioning is oil, because we're terrified it might negatively impact the global economy that america helped cast into ruin.
yeah its off topic, but i think its asinine to watch the United states, of which i am a citizen, simultaneously propose a content-rich international website for the people of iran while at the same time ignoring the fact that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 will eventually leave them with rolling blackouts from the Mesbah Energy Company or Kala-Electric, and standing up to their tits in garbage uncollected by the Pars Trash Company.
Good people go to bed earlier.
OTOH, how many - who may not yet have Internet - will be excluded, by the on-line only nature of this new creation?
But the hostage rescue mission fails...
Contra?
Real Killing of Iranians planned.
Yup that should convince the Iranians the US means them no harm.
The Iranian people are not stupid - here's a video of an Iranian girl (~ 8 years when filmed)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn01Wt71FUg
This is just a honeypot, so the US can track and test the Iranian hackers and try to divert the attacks from the US main sites
Higuita
This is a terrific idea, and not just for Iran. Have virtual embassies of the US in all countries, and vice versa, which would allow citizens of those countries to deal w/ US immigration and other similar services, w/o having to pay for State Dept bureaucrats to live cushy lives in foreign capitals (or conversely, third world fatcat bureaucrats to live it up in DC and other major US cities that have consulates).
The best part would be - automate everything. A foreigner wants to apply for an US visa - automatically trigger a background check, apply whatever the applicable waiting period is, and tell him to check back on that date. If a visa application is rejected, make it instantaneous, but if it's accepted and made effective on a certain date, notify the applicants that it's valid from _____ to ______. Check the database for whether the caps for such visas have been hit, and if they have, push the lead times out by a year or more.
No more Vienna convention complications, no issues w/ foreign diplomats over parking tickets or worse, and governments don't have to embarrass themselves by seeking diplomatic immunity for embassy staff engaging in criminal activity. Nor any worries of foreign savages trying to seize hostages out of embassy staff either. Just have it done online, and if any manual overrides are needed, have it only in a few places and @ really high levels to justify it.
I was hoping they would have finally made a Second Life-like virtual conferencing system. For a small fraction of the cost of any of the G20/whatever conferences, they could instead build such a system with Crysis-quality graphics, facial motion capture, secure high-quality conferencing terminals, you name it. It would be much more eco-friendly as well, and what governments will really like is that it doesn't create an opportunity for protests.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I hope you betted on that
I don't have a sig.