◼ The man who saved Iran Dan Surber - DailyMail
The guy who asked Twitter to keep the lines open for the protesters is a Condoleezza Rice appointee.
The Bush Doctrine trumped the President Obama’s Flock of Seagulls Doctrine (and I ran, I ran so far away…)
The man who asked Twitter to delay a routine maintenance so that Iranians could Twitter the Revolution was Jared Cohen, 27.
“Cohen, a Stanford University graduate who is the youngest member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, has been working with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other services to harness their reach for diplomatic initiatives in Iraq and elsewhere,” the New York Times reported....
◼ Washington Taps Into a Potent New Force in Diplomacy NYT
The Obama administration says it has tried to avoid words or deeds that could be portrayed as American meddling in Iran’s presidential election and its tumultuous aftermath. Yet on Monday afternoon, a 27-year-old State Department official, Jared Cohen, e-mailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.
The request, made to a Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, is yet another new-media milestone: the recognition by the United States government that an Internet blogging service that did not exist four years ago has the potential to change history in an ancient Islamic country.
“This was just a call to say: ‘It appears Twitter is playing an important role at a crucial time in Iran. Could you keep it going?’ ” said P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs....
◼ Profile: The Kid at the State Department Who Figured Out the Iranians Should Be Allowed to Keep Tweeting Media Bistro - Baynewser
