Thanks for sharing those emails. Send FReegards from me to your friend!
The author is a secular Shia Biology Professor (the typos are a consequence of going online in an internet cafe...where time is a premium); we have been corresponding since 1992 and finally met last August in montreal; he was mentioned and quoted in a NY Times article last spring. I should add that he has mentioned for 2 years+ that the "hands off" approach by the Brits in the south has allowed Iranian-backed militias to take over--info that has really only gotten play here in the US for about a year. A lot of their initial optimism has been dampened by the electricity issue [esp in summer]. But, as he says, they are free--free to talk, he doesnt have to worry anymore about his son being held by the secret police as they did when he left the country for medical treatment in 2001; he doesnt have to worry that the letters i send have been intercepted and replaced with compromising information by the secret police, etc-- as had happened in the past.