However you feel about the WikiLeaks organization’s recent and ongoing release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables, there’s no doubt that many of the releases offer fascinating windows into the ways of world power — and more. Not least among the latter was the view a series of cables detailed at the Eurasianet.org site, dedicated to dissemination of news from Central Asia, gives of cross-border Iranian long-haulers’ view of their country’s leadership and the U.S.
The points of view sound in part familiar to my ears, varying from 9/11 “inside job” theories to real interest in the reality of U.S. points of view and more typical sorts of political expression. “The mullahs and Ahmadinejad? They can all go to hell,” the Eurasianet.org piece quotes one of the interviewed Iranian drivers. Sound familiar to you?
U.S. diplomatic sources in the cables were passing along information gleaned from “a source dubbed ‘Iran Watcher,’ identified only as an American who apparently had other travelers with him,” who canvassed border stations in Turkmenistan, where long waits left truck drivers, many of them from northern Iran, plenty of time to chat with other travelers at cafes in the area. Read the full piece here.
