Escape from Iran

I don't know how much of this news report is true or if it is propaganda for the US against Iran...

It's just shocking to read this story about a guy who's only slightly older than me. And the story about how he survived all these tortures in prison and escaped to America is stunning.

I have some questions about the story though. The guy could leave the prison for exam for a degree and escaped with a video camera, Dell laptop and withdrew cash from an ATM machine???!!! Is this real??? I don't understand how this can happen...

The last part of the report sounds like propaganda, if not for the last paragraph.

When his flight from Vienna landed at Dulles Airport near Washington in late June, Batebi was astonished to see that the airport worker waving the jet into the gate was a Muslim woman wearing a tight head scarf.

Batebi was enthralled, sensing a casual tolerance that was exactly what he had longed for in his own country. "It seems to me that people here are free to live their lives, as long as they do no harm to anyone else," he said.

There are more distinguished figures in the Iranian opposition - people who have spent decades in the struggle - as Batebi is quick to acknowledge. But he is discovering that few are so recognizable. For the Iranian diaspora, The Economist's 1999 photo remains an iconic image.

Batebi was a little nonplussed, Mazahery said, when an Iranian-American woman outside a Washington grocery store walked past him a few days ago, did a double take and called out his name. When he said that, yes, he was Batebi, the long-imprisoned dissident, she burst into tears.

Zahir Janmohamed of Amnesty International USA called Batebi "grounded and humble" about his role.

......

Batebi speaks of working from afar for peaceful change in Iran. He recoils when asked about the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran, saying that if the United States attacked, "I might go back and fight for my country myself."

I don't doubt that parts of the report must be true, and it makes me treasure the freedom I have even more.