From Filmmaking to Serving Time
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SPARTAN DAMN VOLUME 125, NUMBER 15 Serving San Jose State I 'niversitv since 1934 wEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 "Pingue and the Brain," MACLA film festival, Volleyball, Opinion Page 2 A&E Page 3 Sports Page 4 Cyrus Kar, a San Jose State University alumnus and an independent filmmaker who went to Iraq to shoot a documentary on the Persian king Cyrus the Great, hired a taxi after a long, searing day. The next thing he knew he was arrested by U.S. troops and held in detention camps Staff living for more than a month before being cleared of any wrongdoing. This is his story. next door to From filmmaking to serving time undergrads SJSU alumnus Cyrus Kar arrested on suspicion of being an insurgent in Village BY VAISHALI KIRPEKAR Faculty building Special to the Daily houses grad students Cyrus Ku. the prisoner in cell 174. sat in disbelief of the absur- BY CHRISTINE BARKER dity of his life as each of the 52 til) 51.111 \At aei rising suns came up and went by, sinking his hopes of a release. .File sound of false tire alarms us Ills1 OW distraction that echoes CAPTIVE through the courtyards of C'timpus IN Village. said Seth Wollman, a grad- uate student is hit hies in Building A of the nos complex. IRAQ Other residents of Campus Village's Building A. which Kar's taxi journey that was houses staff and I acuity twilit-x.1,, supposed to take him from the agree that living in close quarters central depot to the Shiite town of ith undergraduates in the fresh - Balad. 75 miles north of Baghdad. Man suites and Budding B can he began in the expanse of the desert "interesting." and ended in the confines of an 8- "We in Building A tend to use by-8-foot cell. the front door rather than simply Detained on the grounds of jumping out the ground-floor win suspicion of being a terrorist doss.," said Mitch Berman. direc- combatant. Kar was taken to two tor of the Center for Literary Arts military camps. including Abu at SIM ' and a resident of Building Ghraib, for interrogation, be- fore being detained for 53 days -We tend to sleep when iii' 're in solitary confinement at Camp tired. Students tend to stay up Cropper, one of the U.S. military when they're tired detention camps in Iraq. Martin Castillo, associate di- According to a July 7 PHOTOS rector ot housing, said there are Washington Post story written COURTESY OF CYRUS KAR Cyrus Kar tasting the only vegetarian dish in an Afghani restaurant in Balkh, Afganistan four graduate students I is ing in by Josh White. Pentagon officials Building A of Campus Villagc. said American nationals made up along with the staff and faculty a tiny fraction of the 10.0(X) de- Wonders of the World. department Chair Jonathan Roth A history gfCyr us the Great The building us s intently .0, pei - tainees in custody, and an even "Someone had to champion agreed and wrote in an e-mail, cent Mt. ilpied. ',Md. smaller percentage of the more Cyrus the Great to do justice to "Kars film about Cynis the BY FARIDEH DADA rary Iraq. about 70 miles south if " hese It graduate students Iran. V Dail, Ste Baghdad. than 70.0(81 detainees who have hich has always taken the Great would he important since are Adel students ii ho did not said Cyrus' manifesto stressed been held in Iraq and Afghanistan rap." 44 -year-old Kar in a the Persian king's name should lit into the more traditional -aged San Jose State t people's rights tii choose since the wars began. phone interview, referring to the be as familiar as Alexander or students Its ing in our other build- Although Kar was not tortured. 1979 hostage crisis and the depic- Augustus Caesar indeed it alumnus Cyrus Kar had ample their religion. to hai e personal reason to document the life or his property. to freely enter and exit ings." ( astihho said. he was denied access to his family tion of Persia as Greece's whip- used to be." " hes, is anted the older. more and lawyer. ping child in all the documentary Kar's documentary plans to namesake. the homeland and needs to en- years sure quiet iesklential i immunity that "He was kept in detention films that he saw on PBS or the reconstruct the culture of the About three thousand the renoiation 01 destroyed houses. to iiould :dim\ them to better focus in spite of being cleared by the Discovery and History channels. ago. Ci rig. the ( ;teat Kourosh-e make people satisfied list on !hell academies." Federal Bureau of Investigation," "It was now or never." he said. see KAR, Kahn the haemenid em- and happy. and to respect various page 3 Is now to:Rimini, customs. Its inure traditional -aged. said Ranjana Natarajan. a staff With this same passion, the peror, ruled what Iran as and a humanitarian. He Sonic experts consider Castillo means the younger resi- advocate for the American Civil 1990 graduate in mar- dents of Campus Village. Liberties Union. keting and economics founded and ruled the C'harter of Freedom of Berman said ihe staff and lac- Kar, who was released July watches Spartan sporting ancient Persia. Humankind issued by CyTUS the super lin to tilts housing is quieter. I. is continuing with his work, es ents. which he never 's on is as a Great the Human ,it Manifesto "I Ate is more communal for the which he plans to finish in the missed when he worked great leader. gen. Rights issued by the residents ot the other buildings: "..-+411 crow. ;ind compas- I is-tic h '11111011.111s, Ill their next eight months. in the Silicon Valley for they hang out in large and small Beheadings, war and elections 15 years before moving sionate. Ills pohcv iii 'I 11111011ill ii as to hi mg peace. ..ording 11;111 Chamber groups in the plaid. on the Loins, in Iraq had kept him and his cam- to Los Angeles. near the fountains.- Benuan said. lc is kiumn SO, the Chattel eraman Farshid Faraji away from It was in the Silicon nih ot I reedom - 1-1 tor Ins laimanitai tit appeais more s aluabie "We tend to either go home ut go visiting the country. Kar said. Valley after being laid- Off cattupus When We're ;". an itie,lsuurcs consideong done with Most of the documentary off, when the com- like its age, explicitness 44),000 and reiection \souk " was finished in Afghanistan. pany he worked for got freeing of the superso - nons of the ancient isisrld the undergraduate residents Tajikistan, Turkey and Iran in bought, that Kar started Jews by uhluss- than the Human Rights \ lainlesto of knosi him a, start trouble, like 2001, but since Cyrus the Great's reading about Persian tug them to lea%e the French National Xssembly throwing up in the halls or destroy- story takes place in Babylonia. history. Baby Ion and return and the Chai ter :plum cd the ing des :itots. Wollinan said. Kar said he wanted to go to Al- "There are more films to Palestine by s. Berman said older graduate made on Alexander. Hatis ion was the United N alums Hilla in !rag, which used to be an- students ould want to live in Cyrus Kar, left, takes a break with Farshid Faraji, his chic) in oh ancient 1.1 MAUI - cient Babylonia. Babylonia is the Caesar, Napoleon and "so the could get cameraman, near the Iran-Iraq border in 2004. Mesopi Ii amia. Nov Building ancient Mesopotamian kingdom, others," he said. Id to it is in contempo- see GREAT, page 3 some peace and quiet. want also known as one of the Seven History professor and use hen' it I ii ,s a Iliad student. - "Building A allm, s lacultv and TODAY IN PRINT -- PART ONE TOMORROW IN PRINT --- PART TWO FRIDAY ONI INF PART TI IREE staff to hie is ohm ii ;liking dis- /I tance of then is ork." I sastillo said. "The Arrest" "The Ordeal me Release", "Given the high price ot gas and the commuter traffic, thus becomes a huge perk." Berman likes that lie feels safe World peace day to culminate in jazz concert and poetry contest Its ihg at Campus Village. "Safety you don't walk by will to BY FARIDEH DADA be easier achieve. "Poems will be judged on "We are hoping that we can get 10 members including Chinese the Salvation Army or 15 halfway International their Daily Staff Writer The Day of creativity, poetic style, clar- this community and especially Americans, Indian Americans, houses to walk to class.- Berman Peace, celebrated on ity and relativity the Caucasians and blacks who play Sept. 21, to the subject," university to become a peace said. "You leave soul apartment Eddie Gale, San Jose's self-de- was first marked in 1981 by said Paul who is also the Cultural zone." Gale said. both old and new musical pieces. at any time of night or day, and scribed Ambassador of Jazz, and the United Nations General Heritage Center librarian. Gale said that since we are liv- Prince LaSha, a saxophonist, the worst thing that could happen his "inner peace orchestra" will Assembly as a day of nonviolence Debbie Erwin, one of the co- ing in the 21st century, there are and Diem loans, a local poet, are would be that some moronic skate- perform timir annual concerts and cease-fire.