Is Jahanbegloo's confession real after all?

Although I have expressed my skepticism regarding Ramin Jahanbegloo's confession, as have the majority of commentators, Hossein Derakhshan has another opinion, and it's not easily dismissed. He's not a shill for the Iranian government, and knows Jahanbegloo personally. He presents his case at Open Democracy.

He argues first of all that Ramin's confession did not follow the standard template that most coerced confessions in Iran do.

Then his next point, that he realized that his research for think tanks was actually serving the interests of those who wanted to overthrow the Iranian government:

Jahanbegloo describes how this research gradually led to a strengthening of his ties with these think-tanks, and how he eventually realised that the main people interested in the research were intelligence officials and those associated with the United States state department, who sought to use it to help form their polices towards Iran.

Derakhshan does not seem to be entirely convinced himself of this point.

He then wraps up his argument with a very interesting analysis of changes within the Iranian security establishment, which alone makes his article worth the read.

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