Search Results for: namazi

What Would Make the Iran Lobby Stop Supporting the Iran Regime?

November 4, 2016 by admin

What Would Make the Iran Lobby Stop Supporting the Iran Regime?

One of the more interesting questions making the cocktail circuit in the Beltway is what would actually make the Iran lobby’s members, including the National Iranian American Council, Ploughshares Fund and others, stop supporting the Iranian regime?

While said mainly in jest and incredulity at the near slavish devotion maintained by the Iran lobby towards the regime, it does raise a legitimate question worth examination. Where would the NIAC for example draw a red line in the sand?

If we take the NIAC at its word in its own explanations and denials, we have to first start with the assumption that the NIAC’s very existence is not dependent on financial support from the regime or affiliated groups. That in of itself would make the question moot since you could not expect Trita Parsi, Reza Marashi or Tyler Cullis to kiss away their paychecks no matter how odious the source of the funding.

So assuming the NIAC is indeed funded through the generosity of independent-minded people who similarly are willing to overlook the excesses of the Iranian regime, what would make them change their minds?

It’s an important question since the mission statement of the NIAC reads that it supports Iranian-Americans and seeks to build bridges. We did not read anything about eliminating nuclear weapons in the mission statement, but we’ll let that slide.

From the NIAC’s own statements during the nuclear negotiations, it tried to sell the idea that reaching a nuclear agreement would usher in a new “moderate” Iran and this in turn would help Iranian-Americans. Indeed, one of the most compelling arguments used by the Iran lobby and echoed by Hassan Rouhani was the idea that Iranian-Americans and others in the Iranian diaspora could come home to help rebuild and revitalize their homeland.

How did that work out? The Iranian regime began arrested and sentencing dual national Iranians at a fast clip. In fact, Rouhani himself gave an interview in New York before his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly in which he emphatically pointed out that Iran did not recognize dual nationalities.

So for all of the Iranians yearning to come back home, the simple truth was that you were rolling the dice as to whether or not the Revolutionary Guard Corps was going to arrest you for visiting an ailing relative, toss you in prison, rush through a sham, secret trial and then sentence you to 18 years in prison as in the case of San Diegan, Reza “Robin” Shahini.

Obviously the arrest of Iranian-Americans and the statements made by regime officials to hold them hostage for a “few billion” dollars more isn’t enough to get NIAC off the regime wagon.

How about support for terrorism and proxy wars?

It has been well documented how the Iranian regime is now the primary supporter, sponsor and even combatant in three wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Its use of terrorist allies in Hezbollah, recruited Afghan mercenaries, Shiite militias and Houthi rebels has caused a refugee crisis, brought Russia and the US into conflict, threatened the stability of Turkey and pushed Saudi Arabia to the brink of war.

So even though groups such as Ploughshares Fund ostensibly fight against nuclear proliferation for fear of killing people on a global scale, apparently it’s okay to massacre people on a regional scale.

The hypocrisy is rank, but let us be generous and say that “low-intensity” conflicts do not rise to the level of nuclear war. Fine. How about the much talked about moderation from the Iranian regime?

Well, on the anniversary of the US embassy takeover in Tehran in 1979, top mullah Ali Khamenei offered a few pointed comments about the regime’s opinion of the US.

“Negotiations with the US will not resolve our problems, because firstly, it is a liar, disloyal, cheater and stabber in the back, and secondly, the US itself is crisis-stricken – and how can a crisis-hit country resolve another country’s problems?” he said at a gathering of school students and teachers.

It’s nice to see how the Iranian regime’s highest official preaches the children of Iran on the regime’s viewpoint on the US.

Since the NIAC has never condemned any of these or endlessly similar volatile statements we can only assume that Parsi et al operate under the childhood motto of “sticks and stones” when it comes to calling for the destruction of the US.

How about the misery being caused by the regime at home during a ruthless crackdown on human rights including the mass arrests of students and young people using the social media, beating of women for violating dress codes and the execution of nearly 3,000 people (most by grisly public hangings in which children are encouraged to watch) since Rouhani came to power?

Not a peep from the Iran lobby, probably because these were only “Iranians” and not “Iranian-Americans” so we can only assume their human rights are less valuable according to the NIAC.

About the only Iranian-American that has warranted anything resembling ongoing support has been Siamak Namazi, a long-time friend and associate of Parsi and Marashi, who was snatched up by the IRGC along with his father.

Ironically his association with the NIAC was cited by revolutionary courts as the reason he was arrested!

No, it seems there are no real red lines in the sand the NIAC and other members of the Iran lobby would not cross.

It’s a shame really. We were hoping there might be a spark of defiance somewhere there against the injustices being wrought by the regime.

Michael Tomlinson

Why is the Iran Lobby Silent About Ransom Demands?

October 28, 2016 by admin

Why is the Iran Lobby Silent About Ransom Demands?

One of the curious side notes during the increasing concerns over news streaming out of Iran about harsh prison sentences being imposed on Iranian-Americans is that the Iran lobby has been relatively silent on the issue as a whole.

Leading Iranian regime supporter, the National Iranian American Council, felt compelled to issue a statement when Siamak Namazi and his father received 10-year prison sentences. Earlier news reports detailed a personal friendship between Namazi and NIAC founder Trita Parsi which may explain the latter’s willingness to criticize the Iranian regime on this one issue.

But for the rest of the Iran lobby, leading sympathetic journalists and bloggers such as Jim Lobe of Lobelog.com have been virtually silent on the issue of hostage taking of dual nationals by Iran.

Considering the goals and aims of the Iran lobby to preserve a badly flawed nuclear agreement and combat negative stories about the regime, it’s understandable why this practice hasn’t received much defense from them because it really is an indefensible action.

What compounds the problem for the Iran lobby has been the open statements being made by Iranian regime officials speculating on the amount of ransom they can extort from the US and other nations it has arrested, calling it many “billions of dollars.”

The issue of ransom and hostage-taking is deeply troubling and likely to only increase since the Obama administration has made it clear it will do nothing to jeopardize the nuclear agreement which it considers its signature foreign policy agreement.

But while the administration does not consider the shipment of $1.7 billion in pallets of cash to be a “ransom” for the release of five Americans last year, the mullahs in Tehran certainly and eagerly perceive it that way; all of which presents a problem for the arguments made by the Iran lobby of a newly moderate Iran.

If the US does not call this hostage taking and ransom payments, but Iran does, then in whose scenario should we be more worried about? The US government for acting as if these are part of the normal diplomatic process or a regime that views this as a new form of commerce?

For many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the distinction is not difficult to discern. For many Republicans and Democrats, the practice of hostage taking, sham secret trials, lengthy prison sentences and demands for cash are to be taken seriously and dealt with strongly.
“President Obama’s cash ransom payment to Iran makes Americans more vulnerable and encourages unjustified prison sentences and blatant kidnapping like this,” Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.
“Senior Justice Department officials warned the White House that Iran would view the pallets of cash as ransom, but the president didn’t listen, and now Iran is taking more hostages and demanding more money,” he added.
“Once again Iran has made a mockery of its own legal system in convicting wrongfully detained Iranian-Americans,” California GOP Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, said after reports of the Namazis’ sentencing.
The State Department last week said the Namazis were “unjustly detained” and called for their immediate release.
The department also said U.S. officials are especially concerned by reports of the elder Namazi’s “declining health and well-being.”
Lawmakers also have suggested that Iran has been further empowered by the U.S.-led international pact signed in July 2015 in which Tehran agreed to curb its development of a nuclear weapon in exchange for countries lifting billions in sanctions.
Most distressing were reports from Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and permanent resident of the United States, who said through his attorney Tuesday that Iranian officials in April told him it would take as much as $2 billion to ensure his release from captivity.

In September, Iranian officials lowered that amount to $4 million, and told him that he was spared the death penalty but would remain in prison for 10 years until the payments are made.
“This is a grave breach of, among [other international laws and treaties], the Geneva Conventions against hostage-taking,” his lawyer, Jason Poblete, said in a statement Tuesday. “Iran is using Nizar, other Americans and dual nationals, as political chattel to exact concessions from the U.S. and other powers.”
“On behalf of Nizar, we request that all be done by the U.S. and other governments to secure his unconditional release from captivity on humanitarian grounds,” he added.
Zakka, an advocate for Internet freedom whose nonprofit group did work for the U.S. government, denies the spying charges. He believes the Iranian government, lured him to Tehran in order to seize and imprison him. He was arrested in Iran after traveling there to attend an International Conference and Exhibition on Women in Sustainable Development at the invitation of an Iranian office who asked him to serve as one of the events speakers.

If this is true, it is even more disturbing since it implies the regime is now actively targeting dual nationals and working to bring them back to Iran for arrest and imprisonment.

In the case, of Reza “Robin” Shahini, the San Diego, California resident just sentenced to 18 years in prison, regime officials indicated he was being sentenced based on posts he made on his Facebook page during the protests against the 2009 elections, which were widely considered fraudulent and condemned by international observers.

If so, that would indicate the regime’s active scouring of social media to pick up tidbits that could be used as justification to arresting any dual national, even though those just coming to Iran to visit relatives.

It is a disservice for the Iran lobby to remain mute on this subject. Every day the NIAC and other supporters stay silent, it only heightens the legitimate criticisms of them being tools and puppets of the mullahs.
Michael Tomlinson

Human Rights in Iran Spiraling Down the Drain

October 27, 2016 by admin

Human Rights in Iran Spiraling Down the Drain

Reza “Robin” Shahini, 46, from San Diego, California, was visiting his ailing mother in Iran when he was snatched up by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officials and thrown into prison. He joined a growing list of dual national citizens arrested, imprisoned and sentenced by the Iranian regime without so much as a reasonable facsimile of a legitimate trial.

“It was a terrifying moment, and they blindfolded me and they took me to the custody and I did not know where I was,” Shahini said, speaking to VICE News via phone from prison. “They were interrogating me every morning, every afternoon, and I was always by myself in my cell.”

During his interrogation, he said he asked to see the evidence against him. “They don’t answer such questions,” he said. “The thing is they are all brainwashed [to think] that the U.S. is a hostile government. Even the judge.”

Shahini joins several other dual nationals from the UK, Canada and fellow Americans in Iranian prisons with each being sentenced ever more harsher prison sentences. In Shahini’s case, he received a penalty of 18 years for “collaborating with a hostile government.”

Since September 2015, Iranian authorities appear to have been targeting citizens who they believe could upset the status quo, such as human rights activists, charity workers, or foreign journalists.

But it is the arresting of Americans, Canadians, Brits and other nationalities that has sent ripples around the world as governments who naively thought the Iranian nuclear agreement would bring about a more moderate regime are now being confronted by a newly aggressive one.

In the case of two British subjects being held by the Iranian regime, their families have allied with international human rights groups to try and put more pressure on the British government to force their loved ones release.

Richard Ratcliffe and Kamran Foroughi handed over a 72,000 signature petition from Amnesty International to Downing Street and the Foreign Office on behalf of Ratcliffe’s wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and Foroughi’s father, Kamal Foroughi.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker, was sentenced to five years in prison last month after a conviction on unspecified “national security-related” offences following another sham trial before a revolutionary court in the capital Tehran.

Amnesty International UK’s Individuals At Risk campaign manager, Kathy Voss, said: “There’s been a lot of talk recently about ‘thawing relations’ between the UK and Iran, but these two cases lend the lie to that. It looks very much like Nazanin and Kamal are being treated like pawns by the Iranian authorities and we’d like to see the UK seriously raising its game over securing proper justice for these British nationals. Boris Johnson needs to make sure these two cases are right near the top of his in-tray. We can’t let this drop.”

Voss is correct that all pretense of a new moderate Iran pushed by the Iran lobby have been proven false over and over again. The sheer volume of inhumane acts and criminal steps taken by the regime over the past year leave no doubts.

Even the most persistent supporters of the regime, including the National Iranian American Council, had to concede the obvious and issued a press statement critical of the 10 year prison sentences levied on Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi and his father.

Meanwhile the regime continues on its brisk pace of executions with three more men hanged in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz. Although the regime ostensibly executes prisoners for crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, it broadly applies the death penalty to include political dissidents and crimes against the regime which serves as a catch-all definition suitable for any offense the mullahs see fit.

But death sentences are not the only way the regime muzzles its critics. Amnesty International reported on the arrest of writer and human rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee who had recently written about the regime’s use of stoning as punishment.

Despite the fact that no official summons has been issued, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee’s home was raided this morning by officials, who violently broke through her front door before taking her to Evin Prison in Tehran. It appears that she has been taken to the women’s ward to begin serving her six-year sentence.

She has been convicted of charges including “insulting Islamic sanctities,” for writing an unpublished story about the horrific practice of stoning in Iran. Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee’s husband, Arash Sadeghi, a human rights activist and prisoner of conscience, has since started a hunger strike in protest at her imprisonment.

“Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee is the latest young writer and activist to be caught up in Iran’s relentless crackdown on artistic expression. Her imprisonment for peacefully voicing her opposition to stoning is a terrible injustice and an outrageous assault on freedom of expression. It is also a shocking and deeply disturbing display of support for the cruel and inhuman punishment of stoning,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“The Iranian authorities must break this cycle of injustice and immediately and unconditionally release Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee. We also urge them to ensure that her conviction is quashed.”

The unpublished fictional story, for which Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has been convicted of “insulting Islamic sanctities,” describes the emotional reaction of a young woman who watches the film The Stoning of Soraya M – which tells the true story of a young woman stoned to death for adultery – and becomes so enraged that she burns a copy of the Qur’an according to Amnesty.

In essence the regime arrested and sentenced her for writing something that wasn’t even published. If the mullahs could figure out a way to detect dissident brainwaves, they would probably start arresting anyone for thinking improperly, but such is the sad state of human rights in Iran today.

Michael Tomlinson

Iran Regime Taunts US for More Ransom Payments to Free Americans

October 21, 2016 by admin

Iran Regime Taunts US for More Ransom Payments to Free Americans

Who actually runs Iran?

It’s not a silly question. It’s an important one because it goes to the heart of the central assertions made repeatedly by the Iran lobby that there is an internal struggle between “moderates” and “hardliners” for the future of Iran.

If you listened to people such as Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council or bloggers such as Jim Lobe or Ali Gharib, the struggle was a titanic war being waged between good and evil with Hassan Rouhani carrying the banner for all the true moderates in Iran seeking a better life for every Iranian.

What a load of fragrant cattle by-products to put it nicely.

The reality has been quite starkly different as the Iranian regime now controls conflicts in three countries, woos foreign nations and countries to invest and snatches up even more dual national citizens from around the world.

The latest provocation was the sentencing of several Americans to extended prison sentences in secret trials, which earned condemnation from almost every quarter of the political and diplomatic spectrum, but instead of offering any olive branches, the Iranian regime went deeper into its extremism.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Iranian regime is seeking “many billions of dollars” in payments from the US in exchange for the release of several American hostages still being detained in Iran, according to reports by Iran’s state-controlled press that are reigniting debate over the Obama administration’s decision earlier this year to pay Iran $1.7 billion in cash.

Senior Iranian officials, including the Rouhani, have been floating the possibility of further payments from the US for months. Since the White House agreed to pay Tehran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year as part of a deal bound up in the release of American hostages, Iran has captured several more U.S. citizens.

Future payments to Iran could reach as much as $2 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter, who said that Iran is detaining U.S. citizens in Iran’s notorious Evin prison where inmates are routinely tortured and abused.

Iranian news sources close to the regime’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which has been handling prisoner swaps with the United States, reported on Tuesday that Iran expects “many billions of dollars to release” those U.S. citizens still being detained.”

Which leads us to the question we started with: Who’s calling the shots in Iran? Rouhani, who previously has served as a regime cheerleader for moderation now openly admits in interviews with Western journalists that Iran does not recognize dual nationalities, even though he previously issued a call for ex-pat Iranians to return and help rebuild its shattered economy.

“We should wait and see, the U.S. will offer … many billions of dollars to release” American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer, who was abducted by Iran after the United States paid Iran the $1.7 billion, according to the country’s Mashregh News outlet, which has close ties to the IRGC’s intelligence apparatus.

The Persian language news report was independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.

Six hostages have been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Iran in the past months, including the Namazis.

One senior congressional adviser familiar with the issue told the Free Beacon that Iranian officials have been pressing for another $2 billion from the United States for months.

“Iranian officials including Foreign Minister [Mohammad Javad] Zarif have been bragging for months that they’re going to force the U.S. to pay them several billion dollars more,” the source said. “Now officials across the spectrum in Iran—from IRGC hardliners to the ostensibly moderate President Rouhani—are talking about those billions, and maybe several more, alongside chatter about the U.S. hostages.”

The Washington Post editorial board acknowledged the true nature of the regime with the harsh sentences handed down.

“The government of Hassan Rouhani, which negotiated the nuclear deal with the Obama administration, is often portrayed as opposed to this de facto hostage-taking. If so, the government appears powerless to prevent it. Instead, officials complain about the relatively slow return of Western investment and trade following the lifting of United Nations sanctions, even as some of those who promote the opening are unjustly imprisoned,” the Post said.

“Though it was officially part of a separate claims settlement, the Obama administration’s delivery of $400 million in cash to the Iranian regime at the time of the release of (Washington Post reporter Jason) Rezaian and other prisoners may have whetted the appetites of Tehran’s jailers.”

Clearly now, everyone can see Rouhani is not a moderate. When it comes to main policies of the regime, he was and still is merely no different than the top mullah Ali Khamenei and his Revolutionary Guard Corps which controls Iran and its people as tightly as a hangman’s noose wraps around a condemned prisoner’s neck.

Michael Tomlinson

Even Iran Lobby Is Not Immune From Regime Extremism

October 19, 2016 by admin

Even Iran Lobby Is Not Immune From Regime Extremism

Siamak Namazi, a 45-year-old Iranian-American businessman who enjoyed close ties and access to one of the Iran lobby’s leading advocates in the National Iranian American Council, found himself on the wrong end of a 10-year prison sentence handed down by an Iranian court.

Sentenced alongside his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian provincial governor and former UNICEF official who also has dual Iranian-American citizenship, Siamak has become another hostage pawn in the Iranian regime’s schemes to angle for more cash, more accommodation and more appeasement from the US.

Both men were sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying and cooperating with the U.S. government, said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, according to the Fars news website, without specifying when exactly the sentences had been handed down.

The U.S. State Department’s deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, said the father and son had been “unjustly detained” in Iran, and called for their immediate release.

Babak Namazi, Siamak’s brother and Baquer’s son, called the sentences unjust.

“My father has been handed practically a death sentence,” Babak Namazi said in a statement.

Baquer Namazi has a serious heart condition and other medical issues requiring special medication, his wife wrote on Facebook in February. On Tuesday, UNICEF called for his release on “humanitarian grounds.”

The pleas for the Namazis echoed similar pleas made by desperate family members of previous regime hostages such as Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former US Marine Amir Hekmati and former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who still remains unaccounted for in Iran.

One significant difference though is that Siamak Namazi has been reported to have worked alongside long-time friend Trita Parsi in launching the NIAC with the idea of forming an advocate within the US to help push the Iranian agenda in the hopes of gaining a lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

For Parsi, the creation of NIAC and its companion lobbying arm, NIAC Action, has provided him and his colleagues with a comfortable living, access to influential power brokers and a platform to extol their support for the mullahs in Tehran.

Yet, Namazi was still snatched up by regime officials along with his father and sentenced to a long prison term without much disclosure as to why.

Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news site, published on Sunday video images of Siamak, set to dramatic music and spliced together with images of President Barack Obama and Rezaian, who was released from an Iranian jail in January after more than 18 months in detention.

The video showed Siamak’s U.S. passport and identification card from the United Arab Emirates, where he previously lived. It then showed him standing and holding his arms outstretched, as if being searched, while being filmed by at least one other cameraman. The website said the video depicted “the first images of the moment of Siamak Namazi’s arrest.”

It is a stark and disturbing reminder to other supporters of the regime that their utility only goes so far and should be a sharp slap in the face for folks like Parsi who urged support for a more “moderate” Iran, but now find their associates as easily punished as anyone else; without any special status or immunity for their previous support for mullahs.

The arrests also expose the folly of regime president Hassan Rouhani’s much-touted visit to the United Nations in 2013 in which he famously urged Iranian ex-pats to come back to Iran and help their country; only to find virtually all dual national citizens are fair game for arrest.

In his most recent trip back to the UN last month, Rouhani remarked on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program that the Iranian regime did not even recognize dual national status.

It’s an amazing turnaround in only two years and mirrors the sharp reversal of by the regime after getting its promised nuclear deal; leaving it free to deal harshly with its enemies both foreign and domestic in a broad and harsh crackdown.

The arrest and sentencing of such a close associate of Parsi and the NIAC, finally motivated Parsi to issue a press release with unusually tough language more in line with what his staunchest critics have said about the regime in the past.

“Both Siamak and Baquer Namazi have been denied basic due process and all indications are that the Iranian government has been using them as political pawns in violation of its own laws and basic human decency,” Parsi said.

“For the United States, the sentencing is a clear signal that more political capital and attention needs to be dedicated to securing the release of the Namazis and other Americans imprisoned in Iran. The United States should leave no stone unturned in utilizing diplomatic channels to press the Iranians to secure their release.”

If you didn’t know the statement came from Parsi, you might have mistaken it from a long-time Iranian regime critic from Congress or the pages of the Washington Examiner.

The irony should not be lost on anyone.

For all of its efforts to promote the regime and boost the lifting of economic sanctions and flood the regime with billions in cash that the mullahs are now using in three proxy wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the NIAC and other Iran lobby members are faced with the inconvenient truth that supporting Iran is no guarantee of future safety or security from the same extremists actions against others.

Michael Tomlinson

Hassan Rouhani Tries to Fool the World

September 23, 2016 by admin

Hassan Rouhani Tries to Fool the World

In each prior appearance before the United Nations General Assembly session, the Iranian regime’s Hassan Rouhani has sought to project an image of moderation and openness. His entourage usually consisted of large swarms of advisers, economic aides and other dignitaries.

His schedule usually consisted of media interviews with network anchors and newspapers in which he offered a beguiling smile and chuckle to preserve the image of some kind of avuncular uncle.

But in his fourth and most recent appearance the other day, his schedule was a limited two day layover and consisted of few meetings on the sidelines with only one network interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. Gone was the large retinue, but wasn’t missing was the same sly effort to try and conceal the truth behind Iran’s moves.

The Wall Street Journal noted the distinct change in this visit by Rouhani.

“Iran’s posture and agenda this year at the U.N. stands in contrast to years past, when the president brought large teams of advisers and ministers and capitalized on the trip by holding meetings with scholars, editors, Iranian-American business moguls and ordinary citizens,” wrote the Journal.

“The Iranian-American business community, which was heavily courted by Mr. Rouhani and his team during previous U.N. summits, kept its distance this year. Iran’s arrests of dual nationals, particularly Iranian-American businessman Saimak Namazi and his father, Baqir Namazi, who was formerly a U.N. official, sent chills through businesses considering investing in Iran,” the Journal added.

The circumstances have changed dramatically for Iran and the rest of the world in just one year with the nuclear agreement reached last year. Wars now rage throughout the region in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen and bloody extremist Islamic attacks of all stripes have peppered the world from Australia to Canada and the U.S. to throughout Europe and Africa.

Also, with the nuclear deal in hand, the mullahs in Tehran have focused their efforts on trying to press for more concessions before the window closes and either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are elected since both have expressed varying degrees of skepticism of the regime and the nuclear deal.

The hotly disputed ransom payment made by the US of $1.7 billion in cash for American hostages earlier this year emboldened the regime and spurred another round of hostage taking of dual national citizens, which Rouhani noted in an interview, Iran does not recognize.

Iran is currently detaining five British dual nationals, a Canadian-Iranian professor and four Iranian-Americans. In the past, Iran has jailed dual nationals as leverage to swap prisoners.

When asked about the case of the British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was sentenced to five years in prison in August, Rouhani simply said Iran doesn’t recognize dual nationals and denied using them as pawns. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has said Iran hasn’t revealed specific charges against his wife.

What hasn’t changed is the drivel that spewed out of Rouhani in his speech in which he heaped one absurd notion on top of another, first blaming sectarian violence in the region solely on Saudi Arabia, its chief regional rival, and assuring the world Iran supported inclusive, democratic governments.

It’s an appalling statement to make for Rouhani considering the Iranian regime is the most brutal nation in the Middle East, unless you count ISIS as a separate entity. His statement that Syria’s unrest could only be resolved by rooting out terrorist groups, neglected to mention that Iran’s military support of the brutal Assad regime has not targeted terror groups such as ISIS, but rather Syrian rebel groups opposed to Assad.

“If the Saudi government is serious about its vision for development and regional security, it must cease and desist from divisive policies, spread of hate ideology and trampling upon the rights of neighbors,” Rouhani said.

His blaming of the Saudi’s is beyond incredulous considering Iran’s mullahs run a 24/7 hate mongering propaganda machines through its state-owned media, cyberattacks and lobbying groups all aimed at pushing its own peculiar brand of extremist ideology.

In his speech, Rouhani criticized the United States for its “lack of compliance” with a landmark nuclear deal reached with six major powers and Iran in 2015 aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, which is the crux of the issue most concerning Rouhani and his cohorts.

The Iranian economy is stalled and unemployment, wage growth and household incomes have all stayed persistently below the targets Rouhani promised when he gained office. Making matters worse, the perception that Iranians would receive economic benefits from the nuclear deal have failed to materialize making ordinary Iranians restless and angry at their continued plight.

With the financial drains of supporting three proxy wars emptying the regime treasury, the money it has received from unfrozen assets and the hostage payment have principally been used to replenish its depleted military stores.

The irony of Rouhani praising peace while the Revolutionary Guard Corps showed off new long-range ballistic missiles with cluster bomb warheads against the backdrop of mass demonstrations and protests in Iran of people frustrated with deep seated corruption was not lost on most observers.

Nor did the thousands of protesters outside of the UN made up of human rights groups and Iranian dissidents let UN delegations forget that Rouhani should not be getting a free ride and ought to be held accountable for the lies he pedaled at the General Assembly.

As the hashtag said, #No2Rouhani on hundreds of signs, the world should say no more to his deceptions.

By Michael Tomlinson

Rouhani UN Appearance Protested as Terror Strikes Again

September 20, 2016 by admin

Rouhani UN Appearance Protested as Terror Strikes Again

A coalition of Iranian dissident and human rights groups held a protest outside of the United Nations in advance of a speech by the Iranian regime’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who is currently wrapping up a tour of countries that have all been hostile to the U.S.

The anticipated speech by Rouhani comes at a precarious time in the tri-state area, which is recovering from bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey allegedly committed by Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan immigrant who was captured after being wounded in a shootout with police.

Coupled with the stabbing attack at a Minnesota shopping mall by a man who was claimed by ISIS as a “soldier of the Islamic State,” these attacks have reminded the U.S. and the world of the ever present danger of radicalized individuals, lured by the seductive siren call of Islamic extremism.

These attacks have left nearly 40 people injured, fortunately none were killed, but in light of the growing list of terror-related attacks stretching from Boston to San Bernardino to Chattanooga to Dallas and to Orlando, it is clear that the U.S. is being subjected to the kind of waves of attacks that have become commonplace in the Middle East and increasingly in Europe.

What is becomingly increasingly clear is that radicalization of these new wave of would-be terrorists is coming rapidly through the easy access of materials online and the propaganda efforts of regimes such as ISIS and Iran to make their radical messages appealing to disaffected young people.

The protest takes a stand against the long running support of terrorism by the Iranian regime and its cruel indifference for human rights both at home and abroad. According to the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), the demonstrators called for a halt in Tehran’s extensive funding and sponsoring of terrorism in the region and demanded a halt in the executions in Iran, and urge the prosecution of the regime’s leaders.

According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Iranian people have been the main domestic victims of the Iranian regime’s political violence. More than 2,500 have been hanged during Rouhani’s tenure, including dozens of dissidents, women, minors, ethnic and religious minorities.

Also new evidence implicates Rouhani’s cabinet ministers, in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran. The demonstrators held a symbolic enactment of the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in Iran.

The Hon. Joe Lieberman, former Senator from Connecticut, Pastor Saeed Abedini, recently released from prison in Iran, and Sir Geoffrey Robertson, QC, President of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, were among the speakers alongside young Iranian-Americans.

Rouhani has been on a tour of some countries prior to his arrival in New York this week, including a meeting with Raul Castro in Havana. His stopover in Cuba came after a meeting of only a dozen heads of state of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement on the Caribbean island of Margarita off Venezuela’s coast. The meeting was a who’s who of some of the world’s most unpopular leaders including Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Rouhani.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja’afari, used the forum to denounce U.S.-led air strikes he said had killed 83 Syrian soldiers, saying they were aimed at sinking a fragile U.S.-Russia ceasefire plan.

About the only dictators missing were North Korea’s leader and Syria’s Assad himself.

Far from burnishing his foreign policy credentials, Rouhani’s trip only highlights the isolation of the Iranian regime and inability to build any kind of legitimate diplomatic support; especially in light of worsening human rights moves by the regime and increased confrontations in the Persian Gulf.

Sadra Mohaqeq, a journalist with Iran’s reformist Sharq daily, was arrested in Tehran this week with no explanation by regime officials. Mohaqeq was also arrested in 2013 in a crackdown on media.

The semi-official Mehr news agency reported that Mohaqeq was arrested by a “security body.”

In April, four journalists arrested in November 2015 were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for “colluding” with foreign governments and acting against “national security”.

Media watchdogs say journalists in Iran have to work in a climate of fear and censorship.

In another example of how the regime cares little about world opinion, it also announced the sentencing of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and U.S. permanent resident, to 10 years in prison as part of a wide crackdown on those with any foreign ties. Zakka advocates for Internet freedom and whose nonprofit group did work for the U.S. government.

“There’s no regard for any international order, any international agreement or any international state of relations that they care about,” said David Ramadan, a former Virginia state legislator who co-founded a group called Friends of Nizar Zakka.

A statement early Tuesday from Jason Poblete, a U.S. lawyer representing Zakka, said a Revolutionary Court in Tehran handed down the sentence in a 60-page verdict that Zakka’s supporters have yet to see. Amnesty International has said Zakka had only two court hearings before the ruling and received only limited legal assistance before the court, a closed-door tribunal which handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government.

Other known to have been detained in Iran since the nuclear deal include:

— Homa Hoodfar , an Iranian-Canadian woman who is a retired professor at Montreal’s Concordia University;

— Siamak Namazi , an Iranian-American businessman who has advocated for closer ties between the two countries and whose father is also held in Tehran;

— Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian and U.N. official in his 80s who is the father of Siamak;

— Robin Shahini , an Iranian-American detained while visiting family who previously had made online comments criticizing Iran’s human rights record; and

— Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe , a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in prison on allegations of planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling with her young daughter.

Obviously it is not a priority of Rouhani’s to release any of these people, but only to hob nob with dictators. The world should listen to his speech at the UN with a critical ear.

By Michael Tomlinson

How Much Are Four Americans Worth to Iran? $400 Million

August 3, 2016 by admin

How Much Are Four Americans Worth to Iran? $400 Million

How much are four Americans worth to the Iranian regime? Apparently $400 million since news reports indicate the Obama administration secretly shipped $400 million worth of cash to Iran coinciding with the release of four Americans detained in Tehran and released as part of the nuclear agreement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.

The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

While Obama officials denied any quid pro quo of cash for the prisoners, U.S. officials also acknowledged that Iranian regime negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a fierce foe of the Iran nuclear deal, accused the Obama administration of paying “a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages.”

“This break with longstanding U.S. policy put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures” of Americans, he said.

Since the cash shipment, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.

The Iranian regime’s news media quoted senior regime defense officials who described the cash as a ransom payment themselves putting into proper focus how they perceive the cash payment.

Ironically, the $400 million was paid in foreign currency because any transaction with Iran in U.S. dollars is still illegal under existing sanctions not related to the nuclear agreement for violations of human rights and sponsorship of terrorism.

A report by an Iranian news site close to the Revolutionary Guard, the Tasnim agency, said the cash arrived in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on the same day the Americans departed.

Revolutionary Guard commanders boasted at the time that the Americans had succumbed to Iranian pressure. “Taking this much money back was in return for the release of the American spies,” said Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi, commander of the Guard’s Basij militia, on state media.

Among the Americans currently being held are an energy executive named Siamak Namazi and his 80-year old father, Baqer, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. Iran’s judiciary spokesman last month confirmed Tehran had arrested the third American, believed to be a San Diego resident named Reza “Robin” Shahini.

Friends and family of the Namazis believe the Iranians are seeking to increase their leverage to force another prisoner exchange or cash payment in the final six months of the Obama administration. Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. officials have been raising their case with Iranian diplomats, U.S. officials say.

Iranian officials have demanded in recent weeks the U.S. return $2 billion in Iranian funds that were frozen in New York in 2009. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the money should be given to victims of Iranian-sponsored terror attacks.

Clearly the Iranian regime expects to use the same tried and true tactics to squeeze more cash out of the Obama administration in its waning days as the three proxy wars it funds in Syria, Iraq and Yemen drain it of cash as fast as it can replenish it.

The $100 million value per American hostage is a stunning amount. As a point of comparison, the four highest paid professional athletes in the world make less money: Soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi make $88 and $81.4 million respectively, basketball star LeBron James banks $77.2 million and tennis great Roger Federer brings in a paltry $67.8 million compared to what the Iranian regime received.

The fact that the last days of the Obama administration are coming and with both presidential candidates—Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—promising to hold the Iranian regime more accountable, the regime’s leaders may be seeing the end of the road to the usefulness of the nuclear deal.

Top mullah Ali Khamenei harshly denounced the Iran nuclear deal Monday, referring to the negotiations as a “lethal poison” that will prevent his country from negotiating with the U.S. in the future.

“They [the U.S.] want us to negotiate with them on the regional issues but the nuclear deal experience tells us that this is a lethal poison and we cannot trust the Americans’ words in any issue,” Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian citizens Monday.

Various officials within the Islamic Republic have criticized the U.S. for implementing new sanctions against Iran since the JCPOA went into effect in January. They claim the deal prevents the U.S. from implementing any new sanctions against their country, however, the deal only pertains to nuclear related sanctions that existed before the accord was signed. Khamenei threatened to “set fire” to the deal in June should the West violate it, he did not elaborate on what exactly entailed a violation.

It’s a silly claim since the Iranians specifically demanded the deal be de-linked from non-nuclear issues such as human rights and terrorism. In essence, the mullahs have trapped themselves.

Khamenei cautioned against talks with the United States on other regional crises, presumably including the wars in Syria and Yemen and the Islamic State extremist group. The experience of the nuclear deal, he said, “tells us that taking this step would be a deadly poison and that the Americans’ remarks cannot be trusted on any issue.”

His remarks are a verbal backflip from the original promises made by the Iran lobby, especially the National Iranian American Council, that passage of the agreement would help in moderating the various conflicts going on in the region with Iran’s help.

Those claims, like most made in support of the Iranian regime, have proven false.

By Michael Tomlinson

July 14th Proves Infamous in More Ways Than One

July 16, 2016 by admin

July 14th Proves Infamous in More Ways Than One

July 14 is traditionally celebrated throughout France as Bastille Day, the national day of independence for the French republic. The nation marks it with parades, family outings, fireworks and all the trappings of a national holiday; not dissimilar to the 4^th of July in the U.S.

July 14, 2016 also marks the one year point since the Iran nuclear deal was reached by the P5+1 group of nations. Both milestones were joined by a more dubious one last night in which a purported terrorist attack struck the tony waterfront promenade of the French seaside resort of Nice where a man drive a large panel truck down a street packed with thousands of revelers watching a fireworks display.

As the large white truck veered widely left and right—appearing to aim at hapless bystanders—scores of people were flung like rag dolls or dragged and crushed underneath. Initial reports by French officials cited 80 killed, including two Americans, and another 20 critically injured with many more wounded.

French President Francois Hollande declared it a terrorist attack after a cache of grenades and weapons were also found in the struck after the driver engaged with police in a firefight before being killed.

This attack follows the Charlie Hebdo killings and the massive Paris attacks, bringing the specter of terrorism to the people of France three times now in only 18 months. The sheer brutality of this attack was captured throughout social media as people recorded the carnage, which was celebrated and welcomed on the social media profiles of Islamic extremists and their sympathizers.

Nice now joins the long list of cities victimized by the rapid spread of Islamic extremism including Boston, Sydney, Ottawa, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando, Bangladesh and Istanbul.

Those cities now join the wars raging in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The reach of Islamic terror now cuts across all religions, continents, ethnicities and governments. It respects no boundaries; murdering Muslims next to Christians, Hindus and Jews.

It is a world much different than the one promised by supporters of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran lobby participants such as Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council pushed a pile of lies, the foremost amongst them was the promise of a newly-empowered moderate Iran to help stabilize the region and aid in the fight against Islamic extremists and terrorism.

It is noteworthy though that the one year anniversary statement issued by Parsi neglected mention anything about terrorism and its global impact.

“There are a whole host of opportunities that can strengthen U.S.-Iran diplomatic channels and insulate the deal from political opposition – including via efforts to fix sanctions relief complications; pursue sustainable diplomatic solutions in Syria and Yemen; enabling enhanced U.S.-Iran academic exchanges; establishing a permanent diplomatic channel; and by securing the freedom of imprisoned dual nationals like Siamak and Baquer Namazi,” Parsi said.

To say the opposite has happened would be an understatement of monumental proportions. Iran’s intervention in Syria to save the Assad regime from falling set the stage for the rise of ISIS and the expansion of a war that now includes Iraq and Yemen and helped build a terror network that stretches from Lebanon to Nigeria to Libya to Bangladesh.

It is also interesting that Parsi has mentioned the plight of father and son team Siamak and Baquer Namazi; since Siamak is a close personal friend of Parsi and helped found the basis of the Iran lobby and NIAC, without mentioning the despicable practice of the Iran regime to illegal arrest and hold dual nationals such as several Canadians and British citizens now.

The greatest failing of the nuclear deal was the complete separation of holding Iran’s conduct accountable in a whole host of related issues such as missile testing, human rights violations and the sponsorship of terrorism. These issues have fed into the Iranian regime policy of provocation and export of its extremist Islamic theology which has helped set the template for much of the global terrorism we are now experiencing.

Iran does not actively combat ISIS in Syria or anywhere else. Its forces have largely targeted Western-backed rebel groups in Syria, while its Shiite militias in Iraq have greatly aided ISIS by driving Sunni tribes to join its ranks as the result of sectarian conflict and tribal score settling.

Let’s also not forget that the nuclear deal fails at what it is purported to do in the first place which is prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

In the year since its approval, international monitoring agencies have detected uranium particles at Iran’s Parchin facility even after it was thoroughly scrubbed clean by Iran. Its nuclear infrastructure such as centrifuges remain intact in storage and ready to be reactivated, while the regime continues testing new, improved nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) put it succinctly in a Fox News editorial saying that “one year on, the region is far less stable as well. Iran increasingly controls Baghdad, Damascus, Sanaa, and Beirut. Terror attacks have increased. While the deal itself is problematic, also devastating is the fact that America is no longer viewed as a reliable partner to our traditional regional allies.”

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, writing for Breitbart, made the case that Iran is an even greater threat that ISIS noting that Iran already possesses a nuclear program which ISIS does not that be easily restarted.

While ISIS has significant reach especially in its ability to spread extremism among locals through social media, Iranian regime possesses and funds a global network of terror groups it supplies with its own intelligence, fighters, weapons and cash; something that ISIS only aspires to build.

Lastly, while ISIS has called upon its followers to strike at foreigners, the Iran regime has pursued that policy as a military objective for decades from orchestrating the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 to the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia to the killing of U.S. service personnel in Iraq. Iran has been at the center of instituting policies directly leading to the death of Americans.

Ultimately, the attacks in Nice is just another bloody reminder of how Iran’s full-fledged support for Islamic terrorism has set the stage for even more bloodshed and death unless the West acts to support regime change through the Iranian people.

By Michael Tomlinson

Iran Accuses British Mother of Trying to Overthrow Regime

June 16, 2016 by admin

Iran Accuses British Mother of Trying to Overthrow Regime

There are many perceived threats that the mullahs in Tehran see around them. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an aid worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was accused of trying to “overthrow” the government in a statement published Wednesday after having been arrested since April 3, 2016 on the day she was to leave to go back home in Britain.

“This person had membership in foreign companies and organizations and planned and carried out media and cyber projects with the intent of a soft overthrow of the holy Islamic Republic government,” the statement said. It was published by a Revolutionary Guard office in Kerman province, where Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe “carried out criminal activities with the guidance and protection of media and spy services of foreign governments,” according to the statement. She was arrested after “massive intelligence operations” by the Guard.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe dismissed the accusation that Nazanin was trying to bring down the government as “preposterous.”

“To my understanding there are still no formal charges. It seems like this is a political case,” he said.

The Revolutionary Guards statement seemed directed at the Thomson Reuters company, a global media powerhouse regarded with suspicion and hostility in Iran because of its British foundations. Reuters merged with Canada’s Thomson company in 2008.

“The media corporations of hegemonic governments, especially the evil-minded British media, have made their best efforts in the recent months to support her in order to weaken the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ determination but this false hope will never come true,” the statement added.

The fact that Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for the Thompson Reuters Foundation and not the news company may indicate that the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit is not so intelligent, but didn’t read the fine print and arrested her thinking she worked for the news organization in an effort to replicate the Rezaian snatch and grab with the Washington Post.

Ratcliffe said the family had contact with Zaghari-Ratcliffe earlier this week and she’d been moved to the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

Monique Villa, the Chief Executive of the Foundation, said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been employed for four years as a project coordinator in charge of grant applications and training, and had no dealing with Iran in her professional capacity.

“The Thomson Reuters Foundation has no dealings with Iran whatsoever,” she said, and has no plans to.

Villa said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe “had traveled to Iran in a personal capacity. She was on a family holiday with her two-year-old-daughter Gabriella.”

Since Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a dual British-Iranian citizen, it should come as no surprise that regime officials scooped her up since it does not recognize dual status and has regularly arrested and imprisoned large numbers of dual citizens to be used as political pawns for prisoner swaps for example such as what the U.S. did for Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati as a result of the nuclear agreement.

The Iranian regime has already plucked other dual citizens to replenish its prison cells including Siamak Namazi, a longtime supporter of the Iran lobby and Homa Hoodfor, a Canadian university professor, and now Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

No charges have been filed in the case, but Zaghari-Ratcliffe has told family members in Iran that she was forced to sign a confession under duress, her husband said last month.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s file has been sent to Tehran to begin judicial proceedings but officials from the intelligence wing of the Revolutionary Guard are still interrogating her, according to the statement.

The all-too-familiar pattern by the Iranian regime is being repeated here:

Step 1) Arrest a dual citizen;
Step 2) Apply pressure and even torture to get them to confess to a false crime;
Step 3) Try them as an Iranian citizen in a show court;
Step 4) Begin negotiations to get something in return for them.

For the regime, it has been a recipe for success and until the rest of the world puts a halt to this despicable practice, it will continue.

By Laura Carnahan