Talk to foreigners and we will view you as a spy - What crap!

Academics in Iran have been asked not to travel abroad for conferences... The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three American citizens with spying.

"I have been told that my services will not be required in the next academic year, even though I am not close to retirement age and they need lecturers in my field," one social scientist, who has taught in the US, told the Guardian. "I was told that I was in touch with quite a few foreign academics and travelled abroad quite frequently to lectures and, therefore, I was a suspicious person. They warned that if I followed it up and created publicity, they would make more trouble for me and even threatened my family. It's terrible. For the first time in my life I have the feeling I'm living in a police state. I think things will get worse before they get better." More from Guardian.