fareed zakaria gps starts right now. >> we have a wonderful show today. mort mortimer zuker man tell us when the reform will be over. first, iran. there is much stirring beneath the surface. the most striking aspect is an opposition movement that refuses to be silenced. the former president, head of an important constitutional body, has called for the release of all those in prison for

political reasons. that, by the way, would include the friend of this program, the respected news release reporter who is in jail skpchlt another president called for a referendum on the leaders. the company's president, ahmadinejad ahmadinejad are battling over an appointment. finally, the candidate who may have actually won the june elections, has asked if he can create a large social movement to oppose the government. what does all this mean? it's very hard to say from the outsi outside, but clearly there is a bitter fight in iran. the stakes are high. it has not lost any grip on the backbone of its power, the military. but the facade is clearly cracking. that's why ahmadinejad can dare

defy the iran leader. this might seem like a small sign, but imagine if one day the vatican newspapers stopped calling the pope "his holiness." it's been very difficult to speak with anyone on the ground inside iran, so this is a rare opportunity. let's get started. joining me now from tehran is seyed mohammad mirandi. he is a professor of social studies. welcome. >> thank you. >> let me ask you, how do we make sense of what is going on in iran right now? the only way in which the regime has been able to maintain its control is to use fairly tough

methods, brutal methods of repression. it has used the be siege, the revolutionary guard, it is arresting people, it is arresting journalists. this is not what the republic of iran presents to the world as the basis of its regime. it is turning into a military dictatorship, is it not? >> since he and his people went to the streets every day, it was causing trouble in the city of tehran. the police really felt that they had to bring things back to normal. mr. mousavi took people to the heart of tehran where businesses were damaged, ordinary people were hurt. he did it on a daily basis, and i think on the other hand, mr. ahmadinejad was provocative in his victory speech after the election. but i think as things settled

down and the two sides become more level-headed and less emotional, i think things will settle down. >> you make this sound like a normal disputed election where people are happily reconciled, but you still have on one side the use of the besiege, the revolutionary guard, house arrests, real arrests. this has become a military clamp-down in a military dictatorship, has it not? >> no, again, i don't agree because if you go on the streets of tehran, things are very normal. you can walk around town -- >> you can walk around north korea as well, professor mirandi. >> i think you also have to keep in mind some of the measures taken by the security forces has

to do with the fact that there has been a lot of interference from outside the country. right now you have almost 40 television channels in persian being broadcast into the united states and europe basically funded by the european government, or in some cases at home, have played a negative role with people turning against one another. this sort of behavior and this sort of funding coming from the united states and its european allies really does not serve their interests. >> professor mirandi, you can't possibly expect us to believe that here you have a president of iran calling opposition to the regime. but two-tone prime minister of iran, mr. mousavi, calling for the creation of opposition, a two-tone president calling for a referendum. you have people under house arrest, you have major clerics asking that the major election

be boycotted. are you telling me all these people are doing this on the bidding of the united states? surely you realize that's kind of a ludicrous claim. >> that's not exactly what i said. what i'm saying -- >> those are the people going out on the streets, not president obama. it is a president, all right, it just happens to be the president of iran, not president obama. >> what i was saying is when they interfere in the country's affairs, it only makes matters worse and only creates further tensions. i think it's extraordinary that the united states allows itself to be among tens of television channels or funds television channels into the country, and in many cases they call for

riots and they call for violence. >> do you worry you will be seen in history as a mouthpiece for a dying, repressive regime and one of those smooth-talking spokesmen who says they're all wonderful? >> i would be very surprised to hear that mr. ahmadinejad would be supportive of me, because i've always been a critic of his administration. but i think it is my duty to be honest, and if he has won the election, i will have to accept the results, just like when mr. chavez won in venezuela, i think the people opposing him have to accept the results. also, i think if we look back in

my own personal history, i was a volunteer in the iraq-iran war when iraq invaded iran, and i survived two chemical attacks by the iraqi regime, and those chemical weapons were provided to us iraqs to saddam by the military. s united states provided saddam hussein. >> you know the united states backed him. >> these are not chemical weapons. these are two separate things. >> i think history has shown the united states did back saddam

hussein at a time when he was carrying out brutal measures against his own people and the people of iran. i am a survivor of those two attacks. but at the end of the day, what i'm looking for is a more realistic understanding of iran and the united states in order for ahmadinejad to begin. if politicians in the united states do not wish to understand the reality on the ground in iran, then there will not be an opportunity for the two sides to sit together and resolve their issues. >> thank you very much, professor mirandi. i would only point out to you and to our viewers that when one side looks favorable, it is almost impossible to get anybody from tehran and to be allowed to do so on an open satellite link. >> you invited me. >> that's my point, it is very hard to get these satellite links through in iran -- >> a lot of people don't trust

the western media. they don't trust the western media. rightly or wrongly. >> i would love to talk to prime minister mousavi or the others, but we're not allowed to speak to them. i have to speak to you. >> you can speak to my colleagues at university of tehran. you can speak to my students at the university. hopefully if you get a visa, you can speak to them and you'll see it's a very different world than the one you believe it to be. >> i anxiously await the day i will be granted a visa to tehran. it hasn't happened yet. >> funk iif you think i'm the mf soran, you're mistaken. it is truly proven at the beginning of this year that there is no plan to bring the nation's finances under control. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long.

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good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. are we done with this recession? here to tell us is an economist and a businessman at the top of his field. the economist is known on wall street as dr. doom. so when he said in a speech last week that the economy is likely to recover by the end of the year, stocks actually rose 1% in one hour. the billionaire real estate and publishing mogul, mortimer zuker man is usually an optimist, but

even he wrote in the wall street journal that the economy is worse than you think. yikes. he warned on this program just a few weeks ago that the giant budget deficits in the united states could eventually have dire consequences. neil, what should we make of the fact that despite this bad news, goldman sachs had record profits? >> it just shows there's winners as well as losers, and the best-known banks can make serious money. trading, which has always been one of goldman sachs strongest suits. making trades, making transactions with the firms in the capital. but it was interesting to see the number of other banks, morgan stanley, for example, had to report much more disappointing losses. this reminds us the banking crisis isn't over. it may be over for gold man, and it may be over for morgan, but

other banks are still in difficulty. if you try to map out when those losses are going to peak, it will probably be early next year. one can't say this is over. yes, there are some green shoots in the stock market, yes, you'll get good results from some well-known financial institutions, but the systemic problems in the banking institution are not over. >> you have one of the strongest proefr portfolios in the world. what do you think will happen? >> the particular companies that will be in trouble are those that have financing and can't get refinancing. it's not just in terms of the occupancy, it's in terms of the financial structure. it's in literally the hundreds of billions of dollars. but the one that i think is even worse than commercial real estate, and not just because i'm in commercial real estate, is credit cards. there are gigantic numbers of credit cards that are going to

go into default, and both a business and consumer thing. the number of credit cards per business went from 5 million in the year 2000 to 25 million. they're defaulting at a rate even faster than individuals. but it's in the hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars. if you read the financial reports from the banks, the biggest losses they were suffering was their credit card obligations. that's what i think is really going to peak, and that's going to put great pressure on the banks. they know the trouble they have in that category and that's why they're hording their cash and not lending much because they have huge losses in commercial real estate and in credit cards they are looking to and they know they have to cover that. i don't think we're out of the credit crunch, either. >> let me ask you to clarify. i gather you felt the reports at the end of the session were exaggerated. that didn't mean you were calling it is end of the recession. >> the recession technically

might be over at the end of the year, but i think the question most relevant is not if the recession will be over in two or six months, or whether the economy will be strong, and in my view, it's a very weak recovery, so it's going to feel like a recession if we're technically out of the recession. for example, the unemployment rate is 9.5, it's going to peak at 11% sometime next year. the job market is going to be awful, the u.s. consumers are sending us messages that are very weak in recovery. >> now, you say -- at the end of the day, the job's numbers are the most important numbers because it will determine spending patterns. you say that the unemployment picture looks a lot bleaker than people realize. >> yes, i think it's not just

the absolute unemployment, but you have under employment, and if you add that to unemployment, the people who are in a sense working less or not working at all, it's 25 million or 6.8%. i agree the number is going to be up in the 11% number next year. we've had not just temporary employment. you've had companies like general motors and chrysler wiping out total divisions and brands. these are jobs that are not coming back, so we're going to have a much slower recovery in terms of the employment going forward, and that's what makes me worried, and i think the risk that mortimer refers to is, will there be a second dip and will the political system allow for another stimulus program after having, frankly, such a limiting effect on the existing stimulus program which in my judgment was so terribly structured to do what it was supposed to do, which was to get money into the

economy quickly, because otherwise the economy feeds on itself on the down side. >> we have a stimulus on top of a fiscal crisis that has very little to do, in fact, with this great recession. the fundamental problem is no one in congress wants to agree on any measure that's like toll bring the budget into a long-term balance. democrats can't wait to spend more public money on new reforms that have nothing to do with combatting the crisis, whether it's in health care or climate change or you name it. so there is a major fiscal crisis building in the united states. it's been building for some time, and that is the biggest threat to any long-term recovery. at some point, americans and foreigners are going to wake up to the fact the u.s. so an unsustainable path. it's clear that there is no plan to bringing the united states' finances under control, and we're going to see a crisis mixed. this is a real train wreck and i think it's a cause for great

concern for everybody right now. >> we will be back after this. >> if anyone is calculated to blow this apart, it is a fiscal crisis somewhere in the middle of the administration. it keeps . to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announceit keeps my airways. to help me breathe better all day long. )d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d

we are back with our star-studded panel, neal fergus ferguson. on one issue you all seem to agree, which is at the end of the day, if the american consumer doesn't get back into the market, you'll have a very weak economic recovery. it seems to me this is almost a psychological question, which is, when will the american consumer feel that he or she has saved enough to start spending again? as you point out correctly, the savings are already up to 6 or 7% depending on how you count it. historically it was 8 or 9%. in the 1950s, it was 14%. what are you sensing on the ground? why do you feel they're not going to get back into the market for a while? >> primarily because they have lost such a huge amount of their net worth. the wealth destruction that has taken place, the evaporation of wealth has been so large and so

quick, they have lost two main assets in the balance of the american household. their homes were the main asset. they've gone down 30%, and you assume a mortgage from 50 to 60%, they've lost anywhere from 60 to 70% on their homes and the same with 4 0 01(k). i don't see how that's going to change until there is a much larger anticipated growth in the economy, and i don't see that for several years. >> if you look at the household as a whole, it's down from where it was in 1989. we have lost 20 years of wealth stimulation. but what we haven't lost is the debt that american countries and other countries piled on to keep their areas going in the last decade. the amount of deleveraging is remarkably small. so there's a whole lot more saving that has to be done before anybody is going back to

the shopping malls. >> one of the areas you've been pressing on this, i'm going to try to could yue in on one thin. you were very adamant about the americans not being able to withstand the downturn in the economy. but over the last six or eight months, china has seemed to do remarkably well. in fact, if you look at chinese growth quarter on quarter, the last quarter they seemed to grow 16%. this is largely because of this massive government stimulus, but be that as it may, the chinese economy, the indian economy, all seem to be doing a lot better than anybody thought. >> right now china is culminating and feeling the recession. but you have to attribute it to merging markets, that on one thing china was in better shape than the other economies.

because of that, they've been able to do more of a monetary and fiscal easing of economic growth. that's why we see some better economic growth in places like china. asian and the owe emerging markets are exports. the trade of china and all these other merchant markets have to shrink. for these to go back to their own potential growth rate, they have to start domestic public demand. >> so just to make sure people understand, can the chinese government get its people to spend? because there is a limit to how much the chinese government can spend. what is your sense? will the chinese consumer be able to bail out the world economy in the way the american consumer has for the last, you know, decades?

>> you can change from being thrifty to being profitable, but not in a year. the united states used to be full of thrifty people. go back 100 years, and they would marvel at the thrifty habits. it took a long time to persuade americans that it was better to get leverage and to save. we cannot turn americans into spenders, into shoppers in 12 months, which is really all they have. >> what do you think will turn around the chinese relationship, which you talked about in your last book, we overconsume, they oversave, and it all sort of works out. >> it's a world i climbed before this crisis began, because it seemed the marriage between china and america was the key to the boom. now that that boom soefis over,

think the manrriage is on the rocks. if he feel that the dollar is going to lose its purchasing power, begin to lose its credibility as an international currency, and they worry about that, because one of the strategies was an accumulation of dollars in the national reserve. the chinese is very concerned the way we're going about our recovery, printing money like fury, will ultimately pass the buck to them. so i think the marriage is on the rocks because the spendthrift part is really in trouble. and the savings are saying, it's time to cut those credit cards. you've maxed out, darling. >> the health care reform. president obama says we have to do it. what do you think? >> i think providing universal health care might be a healthy goal, but the crucial point is how you pay for it. that's additional spending over the next ten years.

one might think of financing it by adding an additional tax, but the key issue is you have to control costs. we're spending 50% over any other economy to cover health care, and the quality of health we see in the united states is much less than europe and other countries. so we have to do much more to control costs, otherwise, health care is already one-sixth of the economy and could become even bigger in the next 20 years with the aging population. that's what we must do, control costs. >> would the only advance in industrial countries that don't have health care, couldn't we do something? >> we want to be able to cover those that are uninsured, but i keep remembering that phrase at the beginning of the administration, that the administration shouldn't let a good crisis go to waste, but i think the crisis could end up wasting a good administration. what's happening here is very

predictable. the administration is going to propose something and then congress is going to decide not to pay for it, because they'll chip away at any tax increases and it will make the debt even larger. if anything will turn barack obama into a one-term president, it is the fiscal crisis. and anything that makes the deficit larger, including health care or any other bill you care to mention, is a risk in that respect. >> on that note, have a nice day. thank you, all. we will be back.

now for our work in the world segment. here's what caught my attention this week. it was the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, talking about health care. >> we have quality health care now. surveys indicate that americans

overwhelmingly like the quality. so let's focus on access and cost and not try to scrap the whole system. if you look at the surveys and ask the american people what they think, they don't think quality is a problem, they think cost is a problem and access is a problem. >> very interesting point, senator mcconnell, but not exactly right. there is a galop poll that says only half of america is confident in their country's health care system. in fact, in all major industrial countries, people have much more confidence in their medical care than we do. in france, in germany, britain, and yes, even in canada. we only do better in public satisfaction than countries like s slovakia, hungary and greece. the fact that we pay more per capita than any other nation, yet in many key areas of health, mortality and obesity, we do

worse than other countries. let's hear more from senator mcconnell. >> i have a friend in florida who called up and said he lost a friend in canada because they said he was too old for a certain procedure, and he didn't have the money or the ability to get to the united states for quality health care. i don't think that's the direction the american people want us to go, david. >> i find it very hard to believe that the republican leader of the senate is deciding major national policy based on anecdotes from a friend of a friend. health care in canada called mcconnell's claim absolutely nonsense, quote, unquote. and the point that health care is going to become exactly like canada's if this legislature passes is also untrue. health care is a complicated problem. i don't pretend there is an easy solution, but it is too important an issue to be decided on the basis of anecdotes, misleading statistics and

outright falsehoods. and we'll be right back. >> you know, friends in the united states, it's like an old couple. >> what stage are we in now, the marriage counselor stage? >> no, no.

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this is what's happening right now. french president is in the hospital undergoing medical tests today. the presidential palace said mr. sokarzee became ill when jogging when his body guards. no word yet on his condition. we'll have a live report next hour. and moscow says it's perplexed by comments made by vice president joe biden. he told the wall street journal that russia has a withering economy and a leadership clinging to the past. his comments come a week after a summit meeting between the u.s. and russia designed to promote a softening between countries. during a ceremony, lieutenant governor shawn parnell will be sworn in as her successor. she's leaving mid-term largely because of a slew of ethics complaints against her, and the complaints cost the state

millions of dollars to investigate and distracted her from her job. meantime, three best friends make a packet as teenagers to make something of themselves. well, they have. they're all doctors on the front lines now of the health care debate in this country. hear what they have to say about reforming the system, live in the next hour of cnn at the top of the hour. fareed zakaria gps returns in just a moment.

as the fitness minister of france, christine la guard is a powerful voice in the economic crisis. she has argued frequently and loudly for world cooperation on strengthening financial regulation. even before assuming her current position, lagarde made history as the first female lawyer at the law firm of baker and mckenzie. she was ranked the third most powerful woman in the world by forbes magazine. it's a pleasure to have you on. >> thanks so much, fareed. >> how are people in france looking at this crisis? at some level, it seems the popular perception, the french must be very happy. even though they're doing badly, they must think, you see these americans, they are so arrogant,

they think their banks rule the world and it's turned out to be a house of cards, so the french have vindicated in economic misery. >> it's not that bad, but one sometimes wonders whether the world has gone french in a way. >> in what sense? >> we have always advocated they should be better, more comprehensive and more coordinated regulations. and we are actually pushing that. we are definitely in favor of both, free market economy and capitali capitalism. all we're saying is there has to be rules, there has to be traffic lights, there has to be gate keepers, otherwise it's a jungle. we don't want the jungle, but we don't want a zoo, either. we want people who can express their talent and achieve more than they can achieve. >> let me ask not just about

your finance portfolio. has the election of barack obama lessened french anti-americanism? one of the things americans associate with french is that france will be somewhat in opposition to the united states on issues and they'll look down on americans. has this adversary changed? >> france and the united states, it's like an old couple. we've been a state for a long, long, long, long time. i think we were one of the first allies and certainly one of the strongest of the united states, and our histories are abound. the blood of our soldiers are, you know, very, very much together throughout our history. the foundation of this country, the freedom of france. all of that is getting us so close to each other that we are like an old couple. we have fought many battles together, and we will continue doing so.

>> what stage are we in now, the marriage counseling stage? >> no, no, i think it's very good, actually. what i can tell you is that we in france have a very strong leader at the moment, and i hope we keep it for a long time. when he was president of europe for six months, we achieved a lot. in this country, which i dealer like, president obama is a terrific leader. and if these two leaders can actually join forces, which i'm sure they will, with in mind the same common good, they can deliver fantastic results. i certainly hope so. by the way, i want to mention that because it's fascinating to me. there was a poll that was just conducted recently about -- >> in france? >> no, in the united states. about the opinion that the american population has about france. and it was 61% favorable, so 61%

of the american population that was surveyed in that poll thought that france was great. >> this must be out from the bush years, or do you know? >> well, all i can say is it seems quite positive, and i hope we can do everything we can to convince the other 39% that, yes, france is an ally with the united states. >> do you feel that the current administration and tim geithner in particular are doing a good job? >> it's awfully difficult to pass a judgment, frankly. i think that he is in charge of such a big job at the moment and has to face all these issues while cooperating with all of us who are concerned about what is going on in a consistent and comprehensive basis that he's doing the best he can. really, will it be bad? it's hard to say, and the same goes for me. if you were to ask anybody, is

she really doing a good job, it's too hard to say at the moment. the proof is in the pudding. the proof in the pudding is in meeting, that's how you say it. we are working so hard in building the regulatory system, in making sure we have the discipline in place, that the financial stability board is capable of setting standards, that the imf can actually, you know, sort of analyze what's going on throughout the world to send the right alarm signal, if there is a need for that. it's very much a work in progress. >> so you really think that the jury is out for all of you whether you guys are doing the right thing? until you see economic growth resume. >> you need to stimulate at the moment, and you need to stimulate on the basis of what i call the triple t. it's got to be temporary, targeted and timely, so we don't really run the risk of having public finances that for the

long run will be affected by massive deficit and by huge did he acce-- deceptiveness. we need to stimulate and do enough that it will kick start the economy. it's not enough to be involved in the activity of the functioning of the economy. at the same time, we need to regulate and signal to our constituents that we are not going to tolerate -- we, who are spending taxpayers' money -- we're not going to tolerate the kind of behaviors we've seen in the last few years. >> this all happens in some ways in an awkward manner for you and your president because you came into office promising to regulate the french economy. he was happy to be called an american, a neo-conservative. when he came into office, he said he wanted to glorify work

and get away tr thinfrom things the 35-hour week. they always have you speak lots of english words because you're sort of supposed to be an ere y model i thought you were trying to change. >> we're going to continue to change the model, actually. but the french economy was in a straight jacket. and frankly, my country was dozing a little bit. what sarkozy has been trying to do is release that straight jacket, open up, allow entrepreneurs to contribute to the economy and get their business going. do away with the 35 hours absolute by instilling the overtime flexibility that is now available to companies. we did an awful lot of reforms in the last 18 months and we're going to continue doing so, despite the fact that we need to fight the crisis head-on,

despite the fact that we kneneeo stimulate the economy, we need to properly regulate financial markets in a comprehensive and coordinated fashion, which means we need to do it together. >> let me ask you about your personal story. one of the things people tell me, friends of mine that do business in france, that france is a tough place for women to achieve great success in the corporate world. it's still a patriotic culture. what was it like for you being the head of a big company in france? >> i'll tell you a story, when i applied at law firms right after law school, i applied with french firms and international firms and applied with american firms. and all the french firms i applied with said in the main, you'll do fine, you're okay, but no expectations of partnership. i was like, why, they looked at

me, and said because you're a woman. that has changed. but that gives you an idea while when i joined back then, there was a woman who was the leading partner, and said, yeah, fine, you come in, work hard, get clients, develop the business, and you have a chance to make partnership. that was in the early '70s, and it has changed massively and plenty of opportunities, but it is still -- it's a tribute to sarkozy to have been determined to have parity between men and women in his government, 15 ministers of which seven are women, eight are men, and of the seven women, we're not all in social affairs, health, and indication. i'm in charge of finance, one of my colleagues is minister for interior, another one is justice, so it's, he has given a

very strong signal at the top. >> and is france changing in broader sense. we have an image of women in europe, perhaps unfairly, but the numbers tell you why, which is this is a place with a very large state, perhaps, you know, as a result a very good life for most people, but very little energy, very little vitality. as one senior official in the bush administration once said to me, he said it's the world's greatest outdoor museum, meaning its glories are behind it, lacks the energy, the vigor to kind of confront the problem, the world of the future. is that changing? is there a sense that that may always have been a caricature? but there was some truth to it. >> well, you know, when i said to you earlier there was this straight jacket and that the country was a little bit dozesy, that's, you know, that was a bit the case, we're very proud of our history, monuments, and we should be proud of that, and we should be proud of it. but i think that president

sarkozy's talent has also been about stimulating people, encouraging, about, you know, for instance we gave a 30% tax discount for anyone who invests in research and development, created the self-employed status where people can go about starting their business even though they are employed or retired or unemployed, that's used not to be available as a status or, and those are sort of little examples of how, actually, innovation, energy, entrepreneurship is very much part of the fabrics of french society. >> on that note, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and we will be back.

now for our question of the week. last week i interviewed the president of rwanda. he has transformed his country in 15 years from the chaos and genocide we all remember to a model of stability and growth. he hasn't always done this domestically and some have called him an authoritarian. so i asked you, do some countries actually need a strong man? might it take a tough leader to turn a country around as he did with rwanda. our views are largely foreign policy realists, you said yes. viewer joseph scriber put it this way. the good probably outweighs the bad in a case like rwanda, the u.s. must take a more nuanced approach in the support for democracy. barbara hutchins was one of the few decenters, she quoted the

19th century politician lord actton, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. for this week, i want to ask you, do you think the recession is ending? not is it over, but can you see any light at the end of the tunnel? let me know what you think. and as always, i'd like to recommend a book. i don't normally recommend novels, but it's summer time. david's day job is writing op eds about foreign affairs for the washington post. he moonlights as a spy novelist writing about foreign affairs. the increment is his latest book and it has me hooked. the title comes from britain's intelligence services, real life unit. although they would deny this that has the license to kill, the famous james bond license. in this novel, the unit is called in to help a cia agent get an iranian scientist out of iran. it's been optioned by hollywood and i can see why.