The battle between pro-democracy activists and the hardline regime over President Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory is the culmination of years of tension between a variety of powerful leaders. Who are the major players in the standoff?
Stay Out of It, Obama
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
Roja Heydarpour is an editor at The Daily Beast. She has reported for the The New York Times and The Times-Tribune.
Critics have urged Obama to "go green," to side with Iranian protesters more vocally. But in an exclusive interview, one of Iran's most high-profile opposition clerics, Mohsen Kadivar, tells The Daily Beast that the reformers don't want any help. He also says the protests are about the presidential election, not about overthrowing the ayatollah.
What Iranians See on TV
Alex Vatanka is a senior Middle East analyst for Jane’s Information Group.
When Iranians turn to state-owned media, they get "reporting" far detached from their own experience. Alex Vatanka, a Middle East analyst for Jane's, on the bias and Iranians' alternative options.
Why Obama Won't Talk Tough
Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist, and senior strategist at Public Strategies. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, was published by Crown in June.
The easiest way to demonize the reformers in Iran, a senior administration official tells The Daily Beast's Richard Wolffe, is for the U.S. to align with them. Inside the Obama's PR strategy.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
Jeffrey Koterba is an acclaimed syndicated political cartoonist. Since joining the Omaha World-Herald in 1989, he has been a finalist for Editorial Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society and has placed second in the National Headliner Awards. His work is distributed through King Features Syndicate to 400 newspapers nationwide, and has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post, among others.
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