News: The Middle East

CIA Probes Afghan Base Security After Bomber Kills 7

The CIA vowed today to avenge the deaths of seven officers in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan and to investigate security breaches that allowed the second deadliest attack in agency history (hat tip: Drudge Report). The Taliban claimed the attacker was a sympathizer from the Afghan army who detonated a vest of explosives at a meeting with CIA workers on Wednesday. An Afghan was also killed and six CIA employees were wounded. In a letter to CIA employees, U.S. President Barack Obama mourned the deaths of those he said "served in the shadows." The death toll was the CIA's highest since eight employees were killed in a bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. The chief of the CIA base was among the dead.

Iran: Regime Wages A Quiet War On 'Star Students'

Behind the drama unfolding in the streets of Iran, the regime is quietly clamping down on some of the nation's best students by derailing their academic and professional careers. On Wednesday, pro-government militia attacked and beat students at a school in northeastern Iran. Since last Sunday's massive protests nationwide, dozens of university students have been arrested as part of an aggressive policy against what are known as Iran's "star students" (hat tip: Black & Right). In most places, being a star means ranking top of the class, but in Iran it means your name appears on a list of students considered a threat by the intelligence ministry. It also means a partial or complete ban from education. The term comes from the fact that some students have learned of their status by seeing stars printed next to their names on test results.

More than 1,000 graduate students have been blocked from higher education since the practice began in 2006. Star treatment is reserved for graduate students, although undergrads also face suspension for political activity. Several hundred undergrads have been suspended for as many as four semesters, according to student activists and human-rights groups in Iran. Under Iran's higher-education law, students are dismissed from school if they miss four terms.