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.

(more…)