In Iran, the name Abbas Abdi is inextricably linked with the word "reform." Although he's now a key ally of President Mohammad Khatami and an advocate of opening a dialogue with the United States, Abdi first made his name as a revolutionary student leader in the 1979 US embassy siege. Twenty years later, student protests and massive civil unrest broke out around Abdi again, when hard-liners shuttered the prominent reformist paper he edited. So it is in keeping with Abdi's symbolic stature that he is under fire in the latest conservative assault on the reformist opposition. On November 4, 2002--the twenty-third anniversary of the embassy takeover, no less--Abdi was taken from his home and charged with espionage.

At the heart of his case is a poll that he and fellow detainees Behrouz Geranpayeh and Hossein Ghazian conducted for the reformist-dominated Parliament late last year. In a country that calls the United States the Great Satan and finds itself on the receiving end of that "axis of evil" barb, the findings were explosive. Nearly 75 percent of those polled favored dialogue with the United States, and 46 percent felt that American policy toward Iran was "to some extent correct."

The conservative judiciary struck back with a vengeance, accusing the pollsters of funneling information to foreign intelligence agencies and tampering with the poll data. But the three men may be guilty of nothing more than their reformist associations--ties that make them enticing targets for conservatives hungry to demoralize a weakened opposition and consolidate power.

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