Namazi previously spoke with Amanpour by phone in March 2023 from inside Iran\u2019s notorious Evin Prison, in what was an unprecedented interview. He was the longest-held Iranian-American prisoner, excluded from three separate deals that freed other detained Americans during the Obama and Trump administrations. <\/p>\n
On 18 September 2023, Namazi stepped off the plane and onto American soil. At the top of the airplane steps, he paused to breathe in the air. It was, he tells Amanpour, a tribute to what his uncle had told Namazi and his brother Babak when they first immigrated to the United States in 1983. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan you smell that?\u201d Namazi\u2019s uncle asked his young nephews. \u201cThat is the smell of freedom.\u201d Forty years later, Siamak Namazi emerged into the night air after eight years in prison. \u201cI remembered what he said. And I felt it this time. I felt the smell of freedom.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now, he says, \u201cthe most dominant feeling that I have is gratitude\u2026 particularly (towards) President (Joe) Biden, who made a very difficult choice and struck the deal.\u201d But, that said, he explains it has been \u201cvery difficult\u201d to adjust to life outside. <\/p>\n
After so long behind bars, he even had to set an alarm to remind himself just to leave the apartment. \u201cI remember once I hadn\u2019t left for three days, and I realized why. I just wasn\u2019t used to doing that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Today, he is still putting together the pieces of his life. \u201cIt\u2019s an eight-year earthquake that hits your life \u2013 and it leaves a lot of destruction. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I would say I do feel very free in the US \u2013 and I tried to live the freest life I could, even when I was in Evin.\u201d <\/p>\n
Namazi was born in Iran and, after moving to America age 12, he had returned to his country of birth many times. In 2015, he went back for a funeral and felt little reason to worry. It was a period he describes as \u201cthe peak of Iran-US relations,\u201d with high-level delegations from both countries in Vienna, Austria, to negotiate what would become the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA. <\/p>\n
But at the airport, as he tried to leave, he recalls how everything changed. He was approached \u201cby a man in a plain suit who said, \u2018Come with me.\u2019\u201d Namazi says he refused and asked for identification. Then, as the man went to get a uniformed official to enforce his demand, Namazi urgently messaged his brother: \u201cPulling me aside at airport.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, I was interrogated off site illegally for three months and then I was finally arrested. I was charged formally with cooperating with a hostile state \u2013 referring to the United States of America.\u201d It took six years for him to secure his full file and discover exactly what he was accused of. <\/p>\n
He says that Iran\u2019s authorities claimed that \u201cfor three decades, (Namazi) had been building a network within Iran to infiltrate and topple the Islamic Republic with the cooperation of the hostile US state. Now, I was arrested at 44. So, these guys are pretty much claiming that when I was learning to skateboard with my buddy Dave in White Plains, New York, I was actually subverting the Islamic Republic.\u201d <\/p>\n
While today he almost laughs at the absurdity of the \u201cridiculous\u201d charges he faced, he knows the danger he was in. \u201cThey wanted a death sentence for me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Namazi was not na\u00efve. He knew that the real reason he was being taken was to function as a bargaining chip for the regime. That, he says, gave him some comfort \u2013 but not for long. <\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed that because I\u2019m a hostage and I have value, they will not harm me. Unfortunately, that assumption was proven wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soon after his arrest, Namazi says, he was \u201cthrown in a solitary cell\u2026 the size of a closet.\u201d When facing his interrogators, he says he was told that \u201cunless you cooperate\u2026 you are going to be here until your teeth and your hair are the same color. And our methodology of how we\u2019re talking is going to change.\u201d <\/p>\n
That, he says, was a clear threat of violence. <\/p>\n
In all, Namazi endured around eight months of solitary confinement, along with what he calls \u201cunutterable indignities.\u201d He was blindfolded and beaten, but the worst was the \u201chumiliation,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat I\u2019m not comfortable talking about,\u201d he tells Amanpour. \u201cAnd I mean unutterable \u2013 because it had a profound effect on me. I still haven\u2019t even gotten to talking about it fully in therapy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Eventually, Namazi\u2019s mother was permitted to visit. The first visit was before he was beaten, but even then, his appearance had changed so much that she didn\u2019t recognize her own son. \u201cI looked like Saddam (Hussein) when they pulled him out of that hole. I had (a) long beard,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI remember her sobbing and I remember trying to make her laugh by telling her, \u2018I look like Saddam.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
After that visit, he says, the beatings began, and lasted for weeks. \u201cIt\u2019s much scarier than I could tell you,\u201d Namazi recalls with emotion \u2013 particularly as he knew that the Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi had died in similar circumstances in 2003. \u201cI knew how unsafe I was.\u201d <\/p>\n
After weeks of this, his mother was permitted to visit again \u2013 and this time, Namazi was prepared. He says his guards warned him to say nothing of his mistreatment and flanked him as he entered the room. \u201cEven before sitting, I say, \u2018Hi, mom. These guys have been torturing me. I need you to go public on this.\u2019\u201d Recalling the moment today, Namazi is almost overcome by emotion. \u201cI put her through a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n
During his eight years of captivity, Namazi saw other prisoners being released in deals between the US and Iran on three separate occasions \u2013 despite, he claims, the US government being fully aware of the torture and abuse he was suffering following correspondence between his parents and the State Department. <\/p>\n
Feeling abandoned by his government, Namazi decided he faced a choice: he could either be patient and try to stay sane, trusting that the authorities would eventually negotiate a deal that secured his freedom; or he could fight. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of my reaction to the unutterable indignities was that I have to gain my own respect back for myself. I had to fight them.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI fought every day, every single day,\u201d Namazi says. \u201cI had a program: I\u2019d get up, it was organized, you know, think about how to be a pain in the ass.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the years went by, Namazi tried many things, including smuggling out an opinion piece for The New York Times and going on hunger strike. But, he says, \u201cI basically got no love back.\u201d More was needed. So Namazi suggested to his pro bono lawyer in the US, Jared Genser, that perhaps it was time to do an interview. <\/p>\n
In the end, Namazi\u2019s calculus was remarkably simple. If he did the interview, he might be beaten up and thrown back in solitary. \u201cI knew I could live (with) that,\u201d he says. But if he chose not to do the interview, and there was no deal to free him, he\u2019d always wonder if it could\u2019ve got him out. <\/p>\n
Speaking to Amanpour today, he says, is a little less high-stakes. \u201cIt is such a joy to be talking to you and not worrying about someone dragging me to a solitary cell somewhere because of it,\u201d he tells her. <\/p>\n
As Amanpour brought the phone interview to an end, Namazi made one last request: to address Biden directly, appealing to him \u201cto just do what\u2019s necessary to end this nightmare and bring us home.\u201d <\/p>\n
This \u201cdesperate measure\u201d was one way that Namazi felt he could get attention and try to lend some urgency to the ongoing negotiations. <\/p>\n
He sees it as a crucial lesson for anyone in a similar situation: \u201cIf you are taken as a hostage, you need to make noise.\u201d This creates more \u201cpolitical value\u201d for a US president to make what otherwise might be a \u201cpolitically costly\u201d deal to release someone, he believes. <\/p>\n
In September 2023, Namazi was finally released along with four fellow dual nationals: Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and two other prisoners whose identities were not disclosed by officials at the time. <\/p>\n
The unfreezing of Iranian assets under the deal prompted intense criticism from former President Donald Trump and his allies \u2013 despite Trump having agreed to two prisoner swap deals with Iran during his time in office. Before it was finalized, 26 Senate Republicans wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to argue that it set an \u201cincredibly dangerous precedent.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Namazi says he knew that, without a deal, he wasn\u2019t getting out \u2013 a point his interrogators made \u201cextremely clear.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a duty to get out our people from foreign dungeons when they have done nothing,\u201d he adds, and \u201cunfortunately, we have to make distasteful deals to get out our people.\u201d <\/p>\n
More importantly, Namazi feels he is more aware than most of the nature of the Iranian regime. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you something: no one is as angry, no one is as disgusted at the fact that the Islamic Republic, this horrible regime, profited from blighting my life, than me and the other hostages and our families. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spent 2,989 days in their dungeon\u2026 They have done things that I\u2019m not able to tell my therapist yet, and I still, I can\u2019t even speak about it\u2026 I am upset that they profited from this. But what other choice is there? Are you just going let an American rot?\u201d <\/p>\n
Safely back in America, Namazi is full of ideas for changing how the US deals with hostage diplomacy. He likens it to \u201ca game of rugby. We need to stop playing political chess with it. It\u2019s different.\u201d <\/p>\n
He argues that the West can do far more to deter this sort of hostage-taking, from cracking down on international money-laundering that funds the lavish lifestyles of autocrats and their cronies, to restricting the visas they receive when visiting the United Nations in New York. <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just an American problem: Evin Prison is \u201ca dystopian United Nations of hostages,\u201d Namazi says, with many countries\u2019 citizens behind bars. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can upend this business model very quickly. We have to make it unprofitable,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
Namazi believes he could offer more but says he was not debriefed by the US government on his many interactions with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. <\/p>\n
He also feels there was a notable lack of support structure once he arrived in the US. <\/p>\n
In reflecting on the year since his release, Namazi\u2019s focus returns to Biden. <\/p>\n
Emotion in his voice, Namazi tells Amanpour that, eventually, he\u2019d like to meet the man who freed him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would really love to shake President Biden\u2019s hand one day. I really would.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Namazi previously spoke with Amanpour by phone in March 2023 from inside Iran\u2019s notorious Evin Prison, in what was an unprecedented interview. He was the longest-held Iranian-American prisoner, excluded from three separate deals that freed other detained Americans during the Obama and Trump administrations. \u2018The smell of freedom\u2019 On 18 September 2023, Namazi stepped off the plane <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}