The choice of your subject as well as the title and lead of the article you posted, however, was "academic boycott of Iran" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20070521/009956.html>), not "Haleh Esfandiari," which leads one to think that you are happy about Juan Cole's decision not to attend a conference in Iran and believe that Noam Chomsky has made a similar decision.
> And U.S. sanctions against Iran are awful. In that WP
> article, I was interested in the comments of Juan Cole and especially
> Noam Chomsky, who are not known as saber-rattlers. If you've said
> anything on the detention of Haleh Esfandiari, though, I've missed
> it. Is the Iranian government justified?
I in fact have on another list: <http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2007w20/msg00151.htm>. And see also the other posting on regime change and paranoid reaction.
That said, I do not comment on every crime and misdemeanor of the government of Iran any more than I do with regard to other governments.
BTW, Juan Cole is liberal, and Noam Chomsky is anarchist. While I respect some of their work, their ideologies are obviously not mine. -- Yoshie