Iran Sentences Game Developer To Death

[ReinWeisserRitter]

I feel badly for the guy, as our government is shady and lacking in credibility at best, and horrendously manipulative and self-serving at worst. While he probably felt he was doing the right thing, he was probably convinced to do it just to further some asshole's political agenda, not the greater good.

I'd like to be wrong, of course, but it's not where I'd put my money if I were a betting type.

You realize that claim is being made by Iran, right? A country that isn't exactly the most honest or trustworthy, right? I mean more so than usual. Iran is known to create false confessions.

That may be, sure; certainly don't need proof that Iran's also run by manipulative assholes. My sentiments regarding the United States' leaders aren't far off either, though.

That said, this isn't good publicity for Iran, and they definitely don't need more of the bad kind. It'd be a bad tactical move to do something like this just so they can twirl their mustaches and wring their hands.

 

[devotedsniper]

I dunno about you guys but i can see another iraq war on the way with the way iran keeps pushing their luck. I mean come on look at all the news recently first the british embassy gets attacked, then the american drone and now this, yeh each side has a story but so far they seem to be pushing it in my opinion.

 

[Strazdas]

US policy: Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
A former CIA starts making games in Iran. Sounds legit!

I can soooo see this as a "Reason to invade iran"

 

[Spud of Doom]

Wow, that's...
Wow.

I'm so sorry.

 

[bliebblob]

So he was a U.S. marine for a while and than went to live in Iran? And he didn't just go live there, he started working on training software for the U.S. army?
That's like a hardcore U.S. patriot moving to Moskow in the middle of the cold war and starting a bussiness in imported American cars.
Definantly not saying he deserves this but it does make you wonder why exactly he moved there. Family or something? Make no mistake people this has nothing to do with videogames. It's just another case of "hey an American in our country! Let's nab him and see what we can bargain his life for." Here's hoping he gets out alive, poor guy.

Also: sure western media coverage is no doubt somewhat tainted by our world views, there's no helping that. But there's a difference between that and outright anti-western government propaganda and totalitarian control of the media.

 

[RebelRising]

we can hold Iran to a nuclear double standard from which Israel is exempt

There is no double standard. That is an intellectually dishonest and lazy straw man. Israel can have nuclear weapons for the same reason Pakistan, India and China can. It's not signatory to the NPT. Iran not only signed the treaty, but claims to be in complete support of non-proliferation. By saying there's a double standard, you're implying that Iran wants nuclear weapons, but everyone else is saying 'no.' That is not what's happening, and not even Iran themselves would argue that it is.

Fair enough. Let me rephrase: There is very disproportionate treatment of these two countries (leaving aside for now the mess that Pakistan is now) given the paucity of substantial evidence pointing conclusively, first, to the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and second, what the actual application of said nuclear weaponry would necessarily be. (Although it's safe to say that the Iranian leadership definitely would want a nuclear bomb.)

My point being that, signatory or not, Israel would never be subject to this sort of scrutiny and opprobrium such as we've seen with the handling of that hugely overhyped IAEA report. Granted, Israel has yet to respond aggressively with nukes. I remain largely unconvinced that Iran (which has been complying more or less with IAEA standards, more than one can soy for coy Israel) would use any such capability for anything more than deterrence; i.e., what every country since Hiroshima and Nagasaki has done.

One might say that Iran, by being a signatory to the NPT, is necessarily bound by more restrictions than non-signatories, but to me that's just an argument for promoting non-prliferation equilaterally. the problem is that there is no solid proof that they are charging headlong into acquiring a nuclear weapon, and they themselves claim that uranium enrichment and whatnot is for peaceful purposes (which should always be taken with a grain of salt, no matter who is saying it); in any case, it's an issue that can be better resolved through diplomacy than through hubristic fulminations and threats of violence.

 

[UltraXan]

Needless to say, the US easily has one of the most powerful military forces on the planet, and Iran thinks they can get away with something like THIS?! For fuck's sake, EVERYONE knows how trigger happy the US is, and they go and sentence a US citizen to death? And based on what actual, physical evidence? A suspicion? An unconfirmed accusation? Either way, Iran is playing with fire, and the worst part is they probably don't realize just what kind of shit they're getting into... It's times like this that I'm glad I live in Canada: we're friends with the US, but we don't go picking fights with other countries to "export freedom" and "liberate" them, and other countries like us for it. At least, that's what it's like from my point of view.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Please, please, PLEASE tell me someone with real power is working towards getting him released. I don't like using black and white terms like this, but these kind of things that the Iranian government does is just flat-out evil. I'll take any good news on this story; that the White House was successful in getting his release, that Anonymous holds their government servers hostage. I don't know! SOMETHING! This guy doesn't deserve this. No one deserves this.

 

[BlackIceWater]

No Marine Left Be hind we need to send in the Navy seals and Force Recon Marines and get this man out of there are we really going to stand by and let this happen we have the 5th fleet near there WTF people.

 

[zefiris]

The hilarious part is americans thinking that Iran is anything like Iraq. Iran actually has weapons worth a damn. Even with WMDs, and massive support from the US, Iraq failed to invade them.

And they have VERY good reasons to hate the US, considering that the United States actively supported (and put into power) a dictature so bad, the current regieme looks good in comparison (and before you claim I support Iran - I'm gay. They'd kill me, probably by raping me to death for being a gay woman. I have no love for the regieme there whatsoever). Not to mention the Iraq/Iran war, which the US caused by making Saddam attack Iran, which led to a ridiculously high number of civilian casualties - and don't think the Iranians aren't aware of this.
The west can't even pacify Afghanistan, and that land barely had an army and no actual reason to hate us. Iran's a whole different beast. Attack em, and you have a whole country trying to kill you, not just the regieme itself.

Which is exactly why Iran hasn't been attacked yet, and why they get away with stuff like this. They know the US won't attack them.

Killing one guy like that? That's pretty awful, but nothing the US will go to war for. And if the US did, it'd SERVE Iran - even Iran's enemies in the region would side with Iran. And Iran'd probably win the war simply by killing US soldiers and shooting US helis down until the US pulled out.

and the worst part is they probably don't realize just what kind of shit they're getting into

Check a history book. They know EXACTLY what the US is capable of. In fact, they already faced worse than the US uses these days.

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

Dear Humanity

Please stop doing needlessly cruel and stupid shit. It's getting a bit depressing.

Thanks.

Relevant:

The whole of humanity consists of one long war; we just prefer to divide them all into chunks so we can look upon the history of humankind with a bit of sadness as opposed to total disgust.

Basically, this story is 'Humans gonna Human'. People have been killed over less than what this guy was accused of.

Shock level is coming in at a record breaking zero percent.

Sad but true. I can't even look at things like this with shock anymore, its more "lets see what asinine abomination is going on today... meh that's it? Slow day."

I know what you mean, I have honestly browsed through the news paper with that same thought and have thought to myself 'Well the human race is behaving themselves today' when there isn't something absolutely stupid in the paper.

 

[Sylveria]

How many times does this need to be said.. if you're a US citizen, DON'T GO NEAR IRAN. Good crap how many people need to die till this message sinks in?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

OMG, what a bunch of retards. If they think video games can make people think that military action against Iran is justified, wait until you kill a video game designer. If people didn't think military action is justified, they will after they kill a young man based on such moronic accusations. This is so counter-productive.

 

[Gokuofuin]

Two questions:
1) Is this caused by a government problem or a religious problem?

2) If it is the first then why do Americans go into a hostile country if the second WHY DO AMERICANS GO INTO A HOSTILE COUNTRY!!


Here is my point, I do not walk around Hawston (A shady place near where I stay) because it would be stupid to go looking for trouble in a area I KNOW trouble resides, so why do the Americans constantly stick there noses into buckets that are assured to have SNAKES inside.

 

[Antari]

Iran's days are numbered. They think the US can't afford to hurt them. While the US certainly can't afford to rebuild Iran after a take over. They can still afford to level the country.

 

[Akimoto]

It would have been hilarious, if not for the death sentence - or any sentence in general.

Bad PR, Iran. Really bad.

 

[Awexsome]

While announcing to the world that you're going to execute this American is just a terrible thing for Iran to go with... I could believe that the U.S. would have a guy in there doing that kind of spy work. Iran's accusations mean as much as the U.S. denial.

Is there any proof of this propaganda? It shouldn't be too hard for Iran to show proof of this method of propaganda if what they accuse is true. If they show up proof of said game I'll feel bad for the guy but I put the blame on the U.S. for running that shit.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

This is just really weird, I'm so used to seeing news about the American or Australian government doing shit like this. But Iran? I wouldn't be surprised if it were a radical movement party, but the actual Iranian government.

It kinda shows another thing too. All this time America has been pouring money into homeland security, protecting every square foot of land we have with a shotgun, and what most of us don't realize is they're doing more of the same.