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On AMANPOUR. today, we look at the human cost of rapid economic development in India. A booming India has provided millions in Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities the good life: jobs in call centers and high tech, lifestyles scripted out of a Bollywood romance. But behind the urban prosperity lies an ominous reality; 600 million people eking out a living on parched lands, so indebted that for many people suicide seems the only way out. A growing divide - between urban plenty and rural poverty - has come together in a battle over electricity, where India’s wealthiest man is attempting to expand a power plant on the fragile ecosystem just outside Mumbai, despite community resistance and court orders limiting his influence. A globalizing India desperately needs the power, but will the world’s largest democracy ignore the plight of local farmers, and what does this mean for hundreds of millions who live off the land? There are also some other important issues in the news tod ay as well. Here are perspectives on some other headlines today.

Tom Evans
Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

AFGHANISTAN – How could a Jordanian double-agent kill 7 CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence official so easily?

– New questions about security breach at a CIA base in Khost on December 30th when a suicide bomber, a Jordanian national, entered the outpost

– Senior U.S. official tells CNN bomber was an intelligence source who had provided information about high-value terrorist targets in the past

– Former intelligence official says bomber was met off base by U.S. officials who failed to search him before they put him in a car

QUESTION: How vulnerable to attack are U.S. and NATO intelligence officers operating outside the military chain of command and with their own security rules in Afghanistan and elsewhere?

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What will the regime’s next move be and what impact can have Obama have? Tell us what you think, here:

Christiane Amanpour speaks with Iranian reformist Fatemeh Haghighatjou.

Today, AMANPOUR. focused on the government crackdown in Iran and how far President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will go to forestall a velvet revolution. Christiane sat down with a former member of the Iranian parliament who’s an outspoken critic of the Tehran regime, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo. She’s now living in exile in the United States. Christiane also spoke to Iranian political analyst, Professor Mohammad Marandi, who’s at Tehran University. And former U.S. State Department official, Ray Takeyh.

Tom Evans
Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

(CNN) – President Obama must stand up and declare that some of the behavior of the clerical regime in Iran is unacceptable, former Obama Administration official Ray Takeyh told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour today.

Takeyh, who served as an adviser in the State Department last year and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. must also be open to negotiating some sort of deal to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He said, “You can have negotiations with Iran, as the United States has had negotiations with many adversarial countries while also at the same time disapproving on the internal practices of those regimes.”

Takeyh’s comments came just over a week after the bloodiest clashes between pro-democracy protesters and government security forces in months, clashes that left at least eight people dead. Days after those clashes, hundreds of thousands of pro-government demonstrators held rallies in Tehran and other cities.

Those protests coincided with new tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, a program the United States says is intended to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes alone and says it’s up to the West to decide whether to accept Iran’s proposals on further enriching its uranium.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today said the United States remains open to the possibility of further negotiations with Tehran, despite Iran’s refusal to make significant progress towards a deal before January 1st this year, as President Obama has demanded.

Clinton told reporters the U.S. is holding discussions with its partners and like-minded nations about possible new sanctions and other forms of pressure.
Takeyh said he expects the United States and its allies will try to ratchet up economic pressure on Iran, targeting in particular the Revolutionary Guard and its business interests.

“So you will begin to see intensification of economic pressure on Iran in the hope that external pressure, combined with internal pressure, will cause Iran to adjust its behavior.”

Takeyh added that he believes the Iranian government internally is rather weak and vulnerable and may seek some sort of agreement abroad at least to mitigate international pressure.

But he said the opposition movement in Iran is also somewhat incoherent. “It doesn’t have a central nervous system. It doesn’t even have an identifiable set of leaders or even a coherent ideology. It is a protest movement.”

He said the longer the movement sustains itself though, the more it will develop an ideology and a leadership.

A leading critic of the pro-democracy protesters, Professor Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, told Amanpour that opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi’s position has been severely weakened by the December 27th protests in Iran.

“The opposition that protested on (the holy day of) Ashura made a very major tactical mistake by being very brutal towards the police and also by carrying out these protests on a day of public mourning.”

But one of the most fearless critics of Iran’s regime, former Iranian Member of Parliament Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, rejected Marandi’s assessment. She said everyone still supports Moussavi.

“The government is not able to arrest all the population in Iran”, she said. “The people of Iran need fundamental change in the country and I am so optimistic that they will see this change in the country in the future.”

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/04/moussavi.jpg caption="Mir Hossein Moussavi"]

From Christiane:

A well placed source close to the Iranian government told me that the Revolutionary Guards and security forces have recently decided to step up security around both opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, since any harm done to them would not be in the regime’s interest. In addition my source says that from the office of Ayatollah Khamenei there is no order to arrest either Moussavi or Karroubi.

We'll discuss this and look at the continuing riots and deadly protest in Iran tonight on CNN at 2000 GMT.

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/09/art.amanpour.writer.jpg caption="Sr. Writer Tom Evans"]

Happy New Year! As we begin the first work week of the first year of the new decade, we have plenty to tell you about, beginning with today’s show which is all about Iran after the worst violence since last summer. After the government crackdown during the recent holy period of Ashura, how far will President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei go to forestall a velvet revolution? Are cracks appearing in the united front presented by the Islamic Republic? Or is change even possible in an Iran where the Revolutionary Guard has its own military-industrial complex and a steadfast devotion to the status quo? And how will the Iranian opposition persist in the face of the bullets and beatings at the hands of the Basij militia? Christiane sits down with opposition supporters to look at who is really leading the protest movement: the people or the politicians.  And we are joined from Tehran by political analyst, Prof. Mohammad Marandi. That’s not the only topic in  the news today. Here are some perspectives on some other stories making headlines that resonate across the globe.

Tom Evans
Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

YEMEN – Can the government there successfully crack down on Al Qaeda?

–          France today joins the U.S. and Britain in closing its embassy in Yemen amid new Al Qaeda threates

–          New threats follow alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day. U.S. Pres. Obama linked man to Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen

–          Head of U.S. Central Command, General David Petraeus, met Yemeni President on Saturday. Yemeni forces today kill two suspected Al Qaeda activists

QUESTION: Will U.S. become even more closely involved in campaign against Al Qaeda in Yemen?

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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/africa/09/24/zimbabwe.mugabe.amanpour/art.mugabe.2.cnn.jpg caption="Robert Mugabe says sanctions against his country are 'unjustifiable.'"]

The interview with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe caused controversy among the vast majority of viewers.  Most expressed disappointment over Mugabe’s “arrogance and blatant lies” during the interview and noted his “resistance” to helping the country of Zimbabwe.  Most had very strong adjectives for Mr. Mugabe that highlighted the indignation felt toward the “false promises” and “lack of action”  he had expressed, according to the audience.  Many viewers thanked Amanpour for a “great interview” and for holding Mugabe accountable, although “one thing was clear”, some stated, and that was that “Mugabe could not be trusted.”

Below, you will see some opinions from viewers like yourself:

CNN MAILBOX

• Dear Christiane

Jolly well done with your interview of Mugabe this evening.

Your questions concerned real issues; and he squirmed like blazes to slither out of it. Even though he would not admit to any of his wrong-doings, your audience was left with the certainty that this man cannot be trusted or believed.

In the southern part of Africa the folks know very well who and what he is. The problem is that he is up 'close-and-personal' with many in the senior leadership; having each other by the 'short-and-curlies'. Each one knows the other's secrets, and nobody would talk; because this would ignite a fire on own turf.

There is one area which needs a measure of investigation, which could blow it all wide open. Over the past ten (or more) years I've often watched and listened to this man, with particular reference to his highly irrational and senseless statements. In it all I've seen a clear (and remarkable) resemblance (a carbon copy) of a man who had the world's attention 60 – 70 yrs ago, i.e., Adolf Hitler.

In the early 30's Hitler became a hero because he came through with amazing projects which created jobs for the German population, so that they could have a regular plate of food, when the rest of the world was starving. Therefore, it was no surprise that he became the Head of State of Germany. However, as time went by, a situation developed which was described in great detail in a documentary on Discovery or the History Channel (or the like). [You wouldn't have a problem tracking and locating that documentary]

Hitler started showing irrational behavioral patterns. His personal physician wrote to Hitlers aide de camp  (I think it was Goebels) to inform him that Hitler suffered a certain disease which (if left untreated) attacks and causes damage to the spinal cord, and then moves-on to the brain.  The physician stated that this caused the increasing irrational and senseless behaviour (and decision-making) and he predicted that by 1946 Hitler would go completely 'over-the-edge'.  The rest is history, i.e., Hitler did not make it to 1946.

Question: Is there a Journalist/Reporter who would love to research President Mugabe's health record?

Best regards, and keep-up your great work.

Leon

• Unfortunately you tried giving mugabe a voice. He is dead politically, pls let him remain so. You heard his rant, and obviously he is disconected from everything around him.As Africans we are ashamed of Him.

From: bada – francis, Nigeria

Felix Otchere Boateng

He is hero to those who benefits from his worse form of governance, God have mercy on his soul

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Feedback was light and the topic that most viewers discussed was Climate Change.  Alarm over the threat that climate change represents to Alaska was present.  Some felt climate change had a political association and was a “government tactic” to distract people from the “real issues”, while others expressed compassion for those having to bear the harsh weather conditions.

Below, you will see some opinions from viewers like yourself:

Raul E. Lorenzana

Look lake Atitlan in Guatemala , we have a BIG problem too

John Ray Nagas

We really must take action fast!

Julie Raymond

Thank you for covering this.

Meher Zaidi

it is so sad that there are so many people in the mountains and their precious ,rich lives will be affected by the climate change. Here ,in Pakistan also we have mountains and valleys where so many wonderful cultures and peoples survive.We have to record the climate changes and the affects on thier lives in our part of Himalayas too.This is a research in sociology and human anthropology which social scientists ought to encourage.Maybe the UNESCO people will link this debate .

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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/18/christianerwanda.jpg caption="Christiane Amanpour standing in a graveyard in Rwanda for her documentary 'Scream Bloody Murder'"]

By Vladimir Duthiers; Production Assistant, AMANPOUR.

On November 25, the Committee to Protect Journalist honored five journalists with its 2009 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony highlighting the plight of journalists in danger zones such as Somalia, China, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and most recently, the Philippines, where thirty journalists were killed in the province of Maguindanao. Christiane, who sits on the CPJ board, hosted the event at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Among the awardees of the CPJ’s 2009 International Press Freedom Awards was Eynulla Fatullayev, founder and editor-in-chief of Realny Azerbaijan, J.S. Tissainayagam, editor of the news web site OutreachSL and a columnist for the English-language Sri Lankan Sunday Times, Mustafa Haji Abdinur, Somalia correspondent for Agence France-Presse and editor-in-chief of the independent radio station Radio Simba, and Naziha Réjiba, editor of the Tunisia based independent online news journal Kalima. The CPJ also presented the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award to the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist, Anthony Lewis. The award is given in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished achievement in the cause of press freedom

For me, the sight of Miss Réjiba at the podium was especially moving and served as a personal source of inspiration around the issue of the Internet’s emerging role in press freedom and those that seek to suppress it. While attempting to report on recent elections in her home country of Tunisia, Réjiba said she faced “a relentless and vicious campaign” waged by her government. She added, reporters’ movements “have been restricted; others have been beaten, abducted, subjected to politicized trials, imprisoned, or placed under constant surveillance.”

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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/09/art.amanpour.writer.jpg caption="Sr. Writer Tom Evans"]

Our Sr. Writer Meets His Father’s Former Editor

By Tom Evans, CNN

It’s not every day that a journalist has the good fortune to meet a man who has inspired not only his own generation but also his father’s. That’s exactly what happened to me this week when I met Sir Harry Evans, who was editor of London’s Sunday Times for 14 years from 1967 and editor of The Times for one year until he abruptly resigned in 1982 after tensions with its new proprietor Rupert Murdoch.

More than a quarter century after his resignation, Sir Harry and his wife Tina Brown, an accomplished journalist and editor in her own right, came to our New York studios to talk with Christiane Amanpour about old media, new media, and what’s next in a world where newspapers in the U.S. and other countries are shedding thousands of jobs and news web sites are gaining popularity and influence.

It was a very different era for newspapers when my father Peter Evans, a journalist on The Times, worked for Sir Harry back in the early 1980’s. My father was the newspaper’s Home Affairs Correspondent, covering issues such as race relations, immigration, police and prisons. Here’s what my father told me this week about his recollections of Sir Harry.

“He was the only editor who had ever given me a chance to correct my own copy.  I loved his hands-on approach. He cared for his writers but was demanding in his quality. Of the seven editors I worked for, he had most intuition. He knew how to take the germ of an idea and develop it, without distortion. His news sense was supreme.”

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