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tv   Charlie Rose  PBS  November 28, 2009 1:00am-2:00am EST

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>> rose: welco to the broadcas tonight maziar hari the "newsweek"eporter who w held ia tran prison for
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118 days. >> they arrested meecause i was a filmmaker and a journalist. so by arresting me they we going teach aess on to journalists and film make es. and at theame time i was working r the american media and the british media. so they were teaching lesson to the britind american media. also, i h some friends inside the iraan gornment, inside the minister of interr, minister of foreign affairs, cultur even minister of intelligence. and the revolutiary guards, they wanted to tell those pele that we can do what we ever -- whatever we want. >> rose: also is evening the filmmaker john woo whose lm is called "red clip" >> i met the, you know, some of the young people fro chin youknow, they all have a gat passion about movies. they alleager to learn. th all want to learnhow to make a hollywood type big budg movies. they all want to learn some
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new experience. at -- that's one of t biest reason i wanted to go back to make that movie. >> rose: a program to, wes anderson the filmmak schele for thisvening to talk about h new film, the ntastic mr. fox will be here on moay night. tonight maziar bari and john woo. next. >> funding for crlie rose has been provide by the followin. > captning sponsored by rose communications
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from our sdios in new york city, this is charlirose. maziar bahari here. he is a nave iranian, a "newsweek"eporter and film maker who is repting on the iranianlection when he was arrested and held in evan priso for 1 days. during that time he was tortured and threated with exution. duringis detenon "newsweek" magine, the american governmt and otrs pressured iranian officials release h. reporters ask abt his case in interviews and conversations with t irania government. >> maziar baha, the "newsweek" jrnalist, lot of us in thicontext are concerned about him andis lease. >> i hope all prisoners are released. i really do ao. but i think that someone shld also be concerned about theranian nation.
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>> rose: maziar was leased last month andrejoined his wife andnewborn child in london. heas begun to write and talk about his experiences. here is hi a expience -- appearce on the cbs news program "60 minutes" last sunday >> maziar bahari took the ri of shooting thesues which mon anything else would later get him into trouble with th regime. he filmed a group of demotrators attacking base ofthe was i believe, of the rev use leer guard. they're throwing rocks. >> they're towing rocks, they're throwing lotov cocktail. >> that was a molotov cktail. >> exactly. >> the demonstrators just keepn going. >> that's it. >> that's the bij fing. >> basij firing at the people. they are goingo shoot ts
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ma >> he's been shot. >> he's en shot. >> was he killed. >> he was killed, yes. >> rose: andaziar bahi has wrten of his experiens in a "newsweek" cover sty, it isitled 118 days in hell. i'm pleaseto have hijoin me now in th studio to talk about whatas to be a at best a harrowing experience never to know as you go i whether you ll er come out. so thank you for coming. >> nice to be here, crlie. >> tell me about is. "nsweek" cover story gives 118 days in hell. walk us through it. >> well, i was arrested last june on the 21 of ne. ur people came to my mother'souse. i was asleep. it was around 7:45 in the morning, i think i smelled the people before i saw them. i could smell andixture of road water and sweat which is a very typical sme of iranian ficials because
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they do their elutions before prayer but ey don't take swer. so they cpensate by putting se water perfume on. and my mother camto the room and she said that dear, there arfour people who want to ke you ay. they searched myhouse. they confiscated some tapesc and some cameras. and my laptop they took meutside. they put me in aar. ere were five cars waiting outsid what was ieresting that there were two women police officers outside, two wom volutionary guard. they had their wle, you know,he black, orheir ve on and th had tir ak7 underthe chado. i guess they were the because if i wanteto escape they coulcatch me. so we drove north from my mother's housend i asked my -- the personho was in thcar with me whether we are goingto a notorious evan pli n or not.
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and heaid we may begoing the. we mayot. so everythin was uncertain from the begiing. when they swed me the arrest warrants, itaid that you have undeined the security of e state and you have propagated against e holy islamic rublic govement. we went to evan prison. th put a blindld on me and they put me in my cell. after half an hour they took me tthe interrogation room and my inrrogater said that mr. bahari, you ha beasterminding the western mediin iran. and we know that you are spying forour intelligence agencies. and i asked them -- asked him could u be kind enough to tell me which ageies they are? >> and he saidsraeli, american cia, british mi 6 and "newsweek" magazine. there and then i kne that i was part of a scenario. i knew that the revotionary guard and the
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supreme leader ayatollah khamenei, hioffice, they had a enario and i was suppos to play arole in the scenario. and whatever questions they were going to ask me, it was not toet accurate informion from me. it was forhem to pute in the scenario i had f the scenario. >> you wera prop and a player and piece to be moved around. >> exactly. >>ose: to make their propanda point. >> and younow it was very strange. it reminded me a lot of a bad hollood film. you kn, they had a t of resources. theyad big productionbut thscript was really bad. it was maybe an iranian version of -- water world. they kept changing the scenariothe plot. >> rose: what do that say to youhat they didn't do it well. if they wanted be more adept at it they might have donet in a different way why the heavy-handedness? >> because i think they were taken by surprise by t amount of people w came to the streets and demonstrated
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peefully against madinejad's re-election. so they wanted to ll their supporters and iranian publ who did not take part in the demonstrations that these demonsttions we orchestred by the westnd pecially the western media. as y know, eye khamenei arted talking about this soft war against iran by the west. and by soft war he meansthe war that is staged by the stern media. and he actually, m interrogater cald me a peaceful terrorist. and he told me that mr. bahari, you are peaceful terrorist. and because of that you are more dangerous than anyone who kills and assasnates people beuse those people they just kill one pern or destroy on individual. t you, you corrupt minds. and it is just that they didn't know what to do with maybe half of the populaon who rose against ahmadinejad
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and vicariouly ainst amenei's rule. >> so where isit today i mean this surprise and now we see pple being condemned and we see people being exuted. do they think that they can get pa this or do they lookt this as an ongoing battle for a long time? >> hy think theyan succee you see, the iranian govement, the revolutionarpart, escially, ty're a mixture of high degree of infeority complex and at the sameime a supiority mplex. it is a very schizorenic institution. on one hand they think that th are a superpower. my inrrogater told me tha the aricans, america is waning, americs power is wang and we are going to the superpower very soon. and we have allies all over the wod, all over e region in lebanon, in iraq, afghanistan, in venuela, in bolivia. but at the same time they are afraid of individuals like me who are just doing
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their jobs, you know. i don't ha that much power. most of these people tha they arrested are just individuals and theyere just demstrating peacefully. so that is the mentality of the revolutionarguard. >> rose: are they surpred that there is thakind of hostility d that kind of in dep and in wih of protesagainst them? >> yeah, i think they are - they were surpred in the benning. but then they enjoyed it. the reason iaying is that the revolutnary guard, theynly thrive inhaos. they cannot operate in a normal situation. if the is any sense of normal see and transrency, that is the end of them because th are corrupt. they do many things surreptitiously, they have these foundatns thatare just answerae to the supreme lead. d they just do wtever they want in this very closed, corpt circumstances. >> rose: tell us who the revolutionary guards are. >>he revolutiory guards
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started at the beginni of e revotion as an alternative to the iranian my because the new iamic government in 19, they could not trust the iraan army. so manyevolutionaries in the beginning of the revolution who ironically came reformists later on, they startedhe revolutionary gud. and after ayatlah kmenei's death in 1989 when eyea khamenei becamehis successor, he arted to give more power t the revolutiony guards. d he started to groom the revolutionary ards as his only power base. so in the last 20 years the revolutionary guard have en growing gradually. and right nowhey areot on the strongest army iranthey also, theare the stronge industrialists. they have manyront companies not ly in iran. >> rose: the stronst industrialists. >> indtrialists. they he taken over many pratized industries. in the last fr arsf
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ahmadinejad's vernment, th have privatized many national industries. and the revolutionary guard, they have bought the share rently they bought the telecommunications comny. and through that, thenot only make a l of money, but in effect,hey also control all the land line communications. and soon they will start their ow bile mmunications and they can control that as well. theyre so inharge of iranian nuclear progr right now. which is the most dangerous development. you knowin the80s the iranian army started the nuclear prram but receny theevolutionary guard too over. >> rose: ahmadinejad asked for the nuclear progm himsf. >> exactly. noonly the nuclear program but also the revolutionary guards, they have taken ov e intelligence apparatus. and there has been a masve pue in the minister of formation, minister of intelligence. an many professionals in minist of ielligence have been fired andhey've been replaced
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revolutiary guard. >>ose: so effectively running the state ofiran. >> effectively they ha started to gain more control of the governmen we cant say that they are runng it 100 percent. buthey are gaping all the strategic positions, including the forgn policy, includinthe nuclear program. >> rose: we used to always operate under the ia as you well know that the eyea had control of theational security appatus and that it was those particular levers of authority that he used, notwithstanding who was president. >> it's true. it istill somewha true. right now we can describe the por structure in iran as a triangle. ayatollah kmenei, the relutionary guard and president ahmadined in the same ord of --. >> rose:t's a triangle. >>t's a triangle. aneach of these groups, they kind of po -- empower each other i order t garner more support an power for themselve. t the revolutiona guard, because their nature,
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because eyave more arms than sharesupreme leader and the president an because th have more money and more access t different resources, they eaining mo support. they are gaining more power. and soon w can se that ey will become eve more powerful tnyea khamenei. so in effect right nowak ak is basicly, we can say that he is a stooge of t revotionary guard. >> rose: we can say that >> we can say that. and --. rose: so he does nothing without their approval and consen >> he cannot anythin but he's gaini more -- i mean and he is cating to their mands. the are many cabinet miniers in ahmadinejad's government w are former revolutiony guards. and also he was a revoluonary guard mself. but the most impornt thing is that the are gaining more power than khamene himself. so soon they will run the show and khamenei has to listen what they -- >> ros and they will pick
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the next eyea. >>hey can eitr pick the next eyea, the supreme leader or they can justsay th we don't nee a supreme ader. right now iran is becoming more of military dictatorship. >> rose: is that the biggest storin iran, thatran is becoming a military dic by the name of the revotionary guard. >> exactly. because the gime, most religious people don believe in this regi any more. and most religious people, they don't see ts regime as a legitimate regime and eye tolda khamenei as a legitimate leader. and he fitshat to himself. becaushe sidedwith ahmadinejad agnst all the other candidates before june selections. in effect, he put himself against the people of iran. many people in iran. and as more dissent are in, as more factory rkers coming to e street because ey haven'teceived their wages, more farmers comi to thetreet because they can't te their product,
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they are ainst khamenei and not the governnt of iran or e president any more. >> rose: and so whe ishe counterbalance? anhow much strength and how much power and move up futureoes it have? >> well, right now can say that the -- in the next w years d i don't know how many yearst can be three yes t can be five years, sev years, the revolutionary guards will win, will gainore power. an they will be ruling t countr in the foreseeable futurent but they will eventually fl because of their corrupon and also because of their attempt t establh a dictarship in iran. iran becse of its muiculture nature, because of my ethnicities who live in iran, different religions, different languages, ican never be a dictatorship. th sha attempted to d that, he failed the. the revolutionary guardsre not arning from the history. khamenei is no learning
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from history and he is repeatinthe same mistake. >> rose: what happens to usavi. >> they they are not ry effective. the revolutiony guards, they a smart enough n to arrest them so they allow th to say certain things. but caroubi can be arrested anday. >> rose: he has saidnough to bearrested six mths ago. >> and i think he -- he likes be arrested. and therevolutionary guards. >> rose: why does he fl safe? >> it's just that that's a lesson that th have learned fromhe shah's gime that they d't wa to create mar tirs if they arrest themthey will raise their profile and they will become martyrs and marrdom is part and parce ofa islam. sohey are doing something smart and ielligent that they areot touching them now. but ifouseavi and core ubee start a more fective cameaken -- campaign
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against the revolutnary guards they will be arreed by them. >> re: did this administration make a mistake not being much stronger in rms it of its support for house avi at the time? >> i think obama did not know exactlyhat to do in june. because it was a few months after he came to power. and i think that they still don't know whathey are doing. but they are doinghe right things. they are moving the right direction. but they are just confud. they are as nfused as the rest of the world ar but whats going on in iran and also as confused about whats going on in iran as the people in ira are. cause it's a vy confusg situation, as mentioned out my case, the plot s ally convoluteed. the ript was really convoluted and twisted no one knew what was going on. i mean i can just sympathi with secretary of state hillary clinton d president ama that they cannot fathom what is going on in an. >> but do they he a card to play? >> think they have a card to play. the mostimportant card that they ha is the
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president -- iran is in gion where rhetoric i more iortant than what theyo. and if the presidt can charm iran's quote,nquote, alliesnd the countries - can ha a veryffective policy in terms it of isolating an and puts a t of pressure oniran. >> but is theranything that the administration can do to engage the revolutiary guards? >> only throughhmadinejad? >> y, i mean if you are engaging with the irann governnt right now, you are in effect- >> are you engaging wh the revolutionary ards. and think it's a correct policy to engage with the iranian governnt right now because ey have to kno that ty have a big pre to pay for what they are doin and without engagement they would not know about that price. >>ose: and what pre shoulde spelled t that they have to pay >> isolaon >> rose: sanctions.
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>> smart sanctions tha don't hurt ode peoe as much as possible. >> rose: howo you do that, how do you creat smart sanctions that don hurt. >> that is the bilon dollar question, y. i think that se very sma people here in this couny, they are workinon it. buit has to be like that. becae the reme can nefit from some sctions. in my humble opinion, i thinkhat the current administration, they ha to rsue two policies. they have toupport the human rights in iran and freem of expression in iran. they have to support the peaceful demonration in iran, people like muse avi and at the se time the have to very vocal about the terrori activiti against irania governmen because right now there is a perception among some ration elements within the iranian governnt that the americanareupporting terrorist oups whoare acting againsthe inian government >> rose: there a groups that arerying to overthrow -- the government through miliry means. >> re: and has the cia
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supported the groups. >>n the past they have supported em. and the common perceptio among some rational elements with the regime is that they are sti procrastinate being that. they may not be supporting them b they are thinkg about that. >>ose: but the people without want to see pore democracy, want to see statesyou know, is doing this a it's wrong and it gives them reason to be opposed to the united states. >> exactly. and worsthan that, a lot of people in iran because of the ct that presidt obama is a reali and he is a pragmatic litician, they think that,and i mean i'm t saying that he is doing it but that is a common perception in iran that they thk the american adnistration has reached a al, has reached a gnd bargain withran that there are going to be quiet about humarights in in and irann government and the revolutionary guards will reach -- willake some sort
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of compromise what nuclear program and also security and peace andecurity in aq and afghanistan. >> re: how important are the nuclear program to the revolutionary guards? >> it's very importa. i mean the wor thing that can happen in is a nuclear bomb. i am not suggesting that the x day after they build the bomb they are gog to attack israel other countries. that's not goingto be the case. buwhat the nuclear bomb will do i toolster the confidence othe revoluonary guards. they will intensify their intern oppression of peaceful demonstrations. andlsohey ll continu their expansion of politics in the diplomacy in t regi and they will, right now they are just,hey are very active lebanon, of course, in iraq, somehow in afghanistan, yemen and they ll continue doing tt. it just makeshem more
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bossier. >> ros stake the smartest people you know and ve contt with. whato they - how close do you thinthey are t having the ability to make a weapon? >> they -- the people, i'm in contact with, they are not part of the nuclear prram but from what i gathered, it is not fa off. it's somethi that ty can reach within the next few ars. >> rose: iit something at in the end if evything elsefails, a mitary solution is better an them having those mbs? i think is just too premature to tk about a military solion. i think the military lution should not be even talked aut at the moment. because we do t know how effectivthe military solution will be, it is counterproductive. >> it is a carrot and stick is there anying in terms of a carrot that could be done to influence the leaves of power in iran so that they accep the tion of
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having a ske in the world communy, they are appreciated for the le they plain the region, that they ve given a seat at the tab so that t gime will change its behavior? >> the mos important tck is tbe vocalgainst terrorist groups and separatist groups in ira they are reall frightening th iranian government, especially saratists. because as you kw, iran is a couny of different nationalitie and right now we he at let four difrent kindf separatist groups. balui on the border of pakistan, the arabs on the border oiraq. the rdist separatists and the turky separists so we ha all these groups. and the best thing for t american governmento do right now is to be really vocal against terrorism against the iraan gornment. >> why don't we? >> i am not sure. i think theres per
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ception -- pception amongst some peoplin the american establishment, especially in e congress that ty should support separatistroups and terrort groups in dero put essure on the iraan government. but what that doess to alienate t rional pele inside t iranian governments. asou know, there was a letter by some people inside the iranian government 2003. and they asked for a grand bargai and part of that grand bargain is just to ban the mek which is a terrorist group based inraq. and the american governnt they jt ignored th. and they still -- >> this is senatorower d con powell and deputy secretary artage at the me. exactly. >> thiis a big dete in foreign policy circles as to how seous theopportunity was and not. >> but for a fact i know that shall did --. >> it was serus a it was an opptunity. >> it waserious and people close to khamenei wrote that
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tter. >> rose: now the interesting thing about that t for me is how much was it connected tohe american vasion of iraq >> it was very close. i me -- >> they are doing this for male. we better ke a deal. >> they were reallyscared at that time. you know after 9/11, and after the invasion ghanistan the iranians beca really scared. and th sign of theirscared s that they did not, people didot chant eath to america" i friday prayers for a couple of weeks. and after e invasion of iraq the irani establishment, thebecame scared as well. and th is why they wrote the lter undersecretary arm ste. but -- armitaj, but because eight years of bush administration and because of all the mistake that happened during that time we are in the situatiothat we are in now. >>ose: what happened as you know better than i do, is rather an having tha respon, the evil empe speech came t.
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they became, u know --. >> exactly. rose: does it amazeou or n in terms of how much peop operate out of th para andheir fr, and the absence of real understandinabout the other de, both ways understanding what is going on in iran an iran undersnding what is going on here. >> i can't talabout the iranian government and especially t revutionary gud. i think tt's part of their nature. ifhey were not paranoid, they wouldot be in a position --. >> re: right. >> andou know --. >> rose: parand wouldn't nt to make them part of threvolutionary guard. >> that alhas been part -- para haseen partf dick sterships in. part of the accusations that were made in the mass trial was the assassinati of -- d support for weste imperialism, especiay americ imperiali so those people who were put on trl, theywere portrayed as americans stooges and stern imper a stooges. same thing happened, don't
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know, 7 years later in the islamic public. so it is t same par oy -- paras that what been happeninand haseen basically --. rose: yeah. >> y are obviously well-read guy. and you readhe stories o the lag and all the stories of where tre has been a nazi germy and wherever thereas been a state ying to crush people. did you -- within day one, 24 hours say oh m god, i am now character of what i have bn reading about all these years? >> exact. i mean as soon as i stepd in evan prison iemembered l the interviews i had done with former prisoners in evan prisonhich w built in the shah's time. ani specifically rememberedn interview i did with a communist activist who was in the shah'srison for24 years. and he wasin the islamic government for ten yea. and he told me that being in
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the islic prison for one y equs ten yrs in the shah's time. becausthe people who are inchargeof pore turing pele inslamic prisons now, they are e people who were tortured in th shah's ti. so it is the torre who are becoming torture. and they now how effective it can be. an wn i rememberedthat, you know, i also remembered all the defense mecnisms that he told me about. ani trie to, you know, that myself. >> rose: what doou worry post about when youenter the circumstances. when somebody has total donation over your le. >>he worst fear,nd you know the worst sse that you get isjust to be isolated and th no one cares about you. that you are alone. you know, e thing wch was very smart that they did was to have an interrogater, one interrogater who was in charge of for the whole time. so i did not feel that i was
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facing the state or facing the governnt it was an individual grudge. was against this g w i call mr. rose water. >> rose: ectly. it was not the iranian governme or theslamic republic against me. i had this guy who was controllinmy life. and he was telling me that, you knowi am inharge of ur life. i am yournterrogater. he cal himself, i am your specialist i can execute you. he told me, he was threateng me with execution for three months. heaid that i am going t execute you onof these days u. will wake up one day you wi see the news in front of you. i willake sure that i will behe person who puts you in a chair put thes into around your neck a i will be the one who will kick off the chair your fe. and that is the worst fear that you can he. >> rose: you had nreason to know at he wasn't tellinthe truth. >>xactly. because at had happened it to many people before me. it was not somhing that he was just saying.
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it was sething that happened to many people who i knew. >> a in fact there was a ciumstances which you found out thawhen there wasome debate about what to do about you, heoted for execution. >> am i right about that? >> not execution but my imprisonment and tria in the last days, after i came out, my friend inside the irian government told me that th revutionary guard did not want t release me. it wass you know, as you were part of it, i had to thank yo actuallyor that, there was an international campai for my release. and iranian government you know they ju got tired o hearing about me becse wherever they were gng, you know, mcase was raised. the tional people inside thgovernment they wanted to release me. but the relutionary guard and especially my specialist, theyanted me tohave a lengthy sentence. i mean he was lking aut 12, 15 years. >> what was that about, u do thi?
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i think tt he thought that he should teach a lesson to dierent people. you know they arrested me because i was a filmmaker and aournalist. so by arresting , they were goingo teach a lesson to jrnalists and filmmaks. and athe same time i was workinfor the american mea and the british media they were teaching a lesson tthe british and americ media. also i had some friends inside the iranian government, inside the minister of inteor, minister of foreign affairs, cuure, even minister of intelligencement andhe revolutionary guard,hey wanted t tell those people that wcan do whatever we want. and you can to the do anything about it. and by sentencing me to a lengthy sentence, i thk th would be another reson for those people. fortunaty i'm really grateful that -- >> what do you tnk happened, clearly "neweek" was using every influence it had. >> yeah. >> i mean i really don't know. i don't know 10 percent
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at happened. t i am sure from what i am hearing is that t campaign, the international campaign worked you see, "newsweek" and other, my other friends, my wife paula who was the main pa of the campaign to release methey were told in the beginning tt we shouldust keep it quite. we suld go throughthe back channel wehould not be vocal about his case. and i think if theyursued that policy i uld have still been in jail. i think "newsweek" and others told the iranian government that you have to y for what you have done. you have imisoned an incent man. and yo should explain yourlf. you ould be accountable fowhat you haveone. and also there were some peoplenside the iraan gornment who were lobbying on my behalf. who are trng to get me out because th thought it is notgood for the procedu of the reme, for the prestige of the system as they call it.
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but i don't ow 100ercent what happened. this is what i know right now. i'm still trng to figure out whatappened. >> i can tell you that wn i raised your case with present ahmadinejad, i mean and sai youshould do th, you should release him now, he lookedt me like this inot the first time i' heard this. >> i think that s very imrtant. i thi the fact that you know people like you, fareed zakaria, theyept on mentioningy nameis diffent interviews t was very important. it was very effective and that where i -- why i am here. >> what is interesng too is what else you learned om that abouourself. at one point you thought abousuicide. you were going to use your glasses , you know, nobody can understand the fear that u hado feel. >> yea >> and the sensethat nobody may no anybody know. i don't know that my wife
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know >> exactly. >> ty finally letou speak to her. >> ty finally let me speak to her because they wanted me to tel her to shut u and not to give interviews. and it was tually good because i knew she was doing the right thing there were two ve good days during myipson. the rst one was after the months while my terrogater was teing me that no one car about you and that you a isolated, that, you know, he came to my cell once and told me don't haveou have a family. don't you have colleagues. >> those people,nd you know,e waselling me i was really isolated. but after about three months, the pris guard tt stard to call me mr. hillary clinton. and when i asked him why are you callin me mr. hillary clinton, theyaid because hillary clinton talks out you. so there and then knew that the was an international campgn. at secretary of state clinton talking about me. becausi'm notven an
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ameran. and then the sond day which was vy good for me --. >> re: that was a great day. >>t was a great day. rose: that is what makes a difference, i think, when hillary inton says it. >> it st gave me extra energy, yoknow. prison, in my solitary confinement i didn't he thatuch to do so ias doing push-upsnd situps. i usually did about 500 situps and that dai had s much energyid 650. and other day which was really good was when they asked me to talk to paula and tell h not to campaign for me. and i knew at she was doing exactly whatshe shld do and she was doing the right thing. >> rose: you knew she was doing when ty asked you to tell h. >> i toll her n to thingsn a way that we have a code beeen us so shknew exactly what to do. that she suld continue and other frnds knew whathey we doing was right. cause it was pissing them off. >> rose: why did you thi about suice? >> you know t worsthing
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abousol taree confinement besides sol tare confementtself. rose: it's sol taree. >> exactly. in the could ran itsays that the worst punishment that allah bestows p the sinners is to make their grave smaller. when are you ia sol taree confinement you ally think of yourself as your ave. and yo actually e, you art to hall use nature and you see that the walls are getting oser to each othe and your grave is becoming smler. when someone is tellou you that youre going to be executed every day and you are going , you have no one who cas about you and you don't knows what's going on, you just, you havthe worst fears and was oking at my glasses an i thought that,ou know, i can just cut the leftnd just finish mlife. >> rose: you thought how long would it tak
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>> how long would it te to bleed myself to dth. then i thought abo my family my wife my child and my mother. >> rose: you think aut, according to this, i did this, i made a terrible mistake cause my famy is suffering now. and i p them ihis place. >> yeah, that is the worst, that is real a bad feeling that without being guilty you feel guilty. that's the thing tt they want you to believe. you know one of the last thin, the lasthing that my interrogater told was that mr. bahari, we he agents all over th world. we can always bring you back in abag. soe wanted me to feel that i would beoing thewrong thing by talki about what happened to me. that i shoul be responsible fory family. even when i'm not a prisoner any more. >> rose: tnk you for cong. >> thanks, charlie.
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>> rose: john woo is her he is a legdary director of action films. his work h influence fimakers from hong kong t hollywd. in 2003 "new yk times" critic els mitchell wrote mr. woo's actnman motives ve been looted so thoroughly by other filmmakers that could qualify foa creative version of chapter 11. born and raised ina, mr. woo moved to the unitedtates in 1992. his english lanage films includface-off and bken arrow. here is a look at se of his work .
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>> you lose. >> i still got my finger on the trig are. >>hat's the remote igger. you see i press this button here, you lose. and if i push this button, the apon is disarmed. >> why don't you disarm it then? >> i'm notn the mood. >> why don't w just trade back. >> c't give back what you'veaken from . >> oh, well. plan b. let's just kill each other .
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>> rose: now john woo has returned to cha to make what some are caing his best film yet. red cliff is a htoric epic sent it portrays t battle ofed cliff which marked e end of the hang dine ee, it has already earned the highest domestic gross in the history of inese cinema. here i a look at the trailer. >> in a country sken by years of civil war, a powerful war lo's quest for dominationhreatened all who and in his way.
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>> now the destinyf an empire. d the fate of millions. ll depend on the fight of a few >> from legendary director
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john wooomes a new epi like n other . >> red cff, john woo film. >> rose: i'm pleased to have john woo here, welcome. >> thank you. >> rose:ou went ba toa. because china is where it's happening. because it home. >> wel because it's home of course. and also i ha wanted to make this movie for over 20 years. >> rose: this movie. >> yeah, ts movie. >> rose:hy this movie? >> because i grew up with a
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story, there are so many hero admire. and you als ha gave me lot of -- so after i he been working in hollywood for over 15 years,t really had made me learn a lot from so many grea people, you know. i have learned so ch from the technology, the working system. d i thought it's about time ing what i have learned from hollywood intoa. >> rose: what is the status of t chinese fm cinema? >> the prison -- it is business is growing now, and growing fast going back to e theat, they le to watch all kind of movies. and they keep building t theatres. they also have the largest
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soundstage i. they have all kinds, more modern fility and all the good equipment. so they all --. >> rose: how did y do decide when was the right time to go back >> i met me of the ung ople froma th all have a great passion about movies. they allager to lea. they all want to lear how make a hollywood te big budget movies. they all want to arn a new experience. that is one of thebiggest reasons i wanted to go back to mak that movie. >> rose: to benvolved with all e young, enthusiastic people. >> yeah, yeah, theilm ople. >> ros this is the biggest gros film in china
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cinema history >>es. have made a record. and it did extremely well in japan. broke a lot of records, so the young aeloved the movie so much, and they feel some of excitement about the film. >> will you stay in china? >> i lik to work ina. and also --. >> rose: all over the wod. >> -- yeah, my home i in los angeles. but i also love to liven chinas well. >> but they have much to do. we have a great lture, great history. they he so muchood story with the town. so many this. what kinds of movies a you most coortable making?
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>> well, like ckless t is very challenge also wish coy make a musical >> rose: a musical. >> i greup with musical. i love musicals. you knowwhat, i alst have chance to mak ccago. rose: did you. >> yeah. i somehow the --. >> rose: thecame to see you. >>eah, yeah, one of the producers had apprched the ideaoe but unfortunately i was working on something else. younow, so i am excited about amusical. i remember the fst me wall i saw was the "wizard of oz". >> rose: a loved it. >> yeah. and i have seen it many musical. and i really want to make
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one. >> rose:et me take a look this is from red cliff is e name of this film. hereit. >> there you go. >> rose: but you also y that the is a place f mance in action films. >> yeah.
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think that eve movie no matter what kind, is a love story. so i want to try to make movies morof a romanti. >> rose: would you like to make a musical. would u like to make just a romantic story >>es, yeah, yeah, definitely. i am trying to make a love story for long time but it is marred to -- hard to -- it is hard to make -- it is hard to convinc people that i could make one. >> they want you to do what
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you have don >> yh. estaish an action director so you know,they all want me to make big action movies. >>ow this is the first epic you have ma and th is the first perd movie you have made. >> yea >> was that a challeng >> it was a challge. it seems to b, all needs t start from the beginning the movie was so huge. so we had to sing a lot. do a lot of homework. >> how much of iis based on fact? >> about 50%. >> about 50%. >> so yotook litera
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licence to make a good story. >> yeah. beuse from the ok you know, i meanedbook, the romance of three kingdom its, actuly it was a fiction it wasn't really from the history. so they made up some of the character and there is some, u know, mething really over the top. i tried toake all the characters mo human instead of superhero. so. >>ose: you had a stunt man lose his life. >> yeah, very sad. >> ros what happened? >> we were shooting the burning sea and there was, he -- i wasn't on the set.
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the thing was there was a scene, the hero ship that ran into the enemiesando3 th were soiers. they were standing there and you kn, and there was quite a few explosions happen. and they had been rehearsing for so manimes and en therwere no problems. all a sudden they star shootingwhile they are shting the scene, all of a
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sudden there was strong nd came from the her side and the windlow the flam into 9 stunt man. it was purely by accent. one the stunt n got kill kd, burned. >> rose: did you think aut stopping the movie. >> yeah, i was -- you know, was in hong kong at the time. i wa sosad when i got the ne. i stop the movie, trying to, u know . >> re: thank you, john, great have you. >> thank you. >> rose: thankou for joing us. see you next time. caioning sponsored by rose communications
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