A threat to our nuclear security?

According to a Daily Pennsylvanian article published yesterday, six U.S. university presidents will soon be visiting Iran in an attempt to “build scholarly relations between the [United States and Iran].”

The presidents — representing Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Rice, and the universities of Florida, Maryland at College Park, and California at Davis — will be accompanied by Robert Berdahl (president of the Association of American Universities) to “[strengthen] scientific and educational ties” with various Iranian scholars.

With the strained relations between the two countries and the unexplained and continuing detention of human-rights scholar Medhi Zakerian by Iranian government officials back in mid-August, there are concerns among certain circles about the potential risks associated with this sort of trip.

To avoid any potentially scary confrontations with Iranian government officials, I have only one piece of advice for the six university presidents:

Don’t, at any point during the trip, dress or act like a pigeon.

That’s because according to multiple sources, Iranian security forces have recently arrested and detained “two pigeons suspected of spying on one of the country’s nuclear facilities.” The “Natanz Two“, as the pigeons have been nicknamed, were captured at a uranium enrichment plant in a location by the same name. No word has been heard from the accused avian spies since their detention in mid-October. One can only imagine the horrors these pigeons are suffering at the hands of their captors at this moment.

So, presidents/academic ambassadors, please don’t imitate birds and bring unnecessary risk to yourselves. Birds have never had it that great in our cruel society anyway. Need more proof? Here’s another.

What? Oh, in other news, apparently this also happened.

Tags: Daily Pennyslvanian, Iran, Medhi Zakerian, Natanz, Pigeon, Spies

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