Iran: Many families are tonight mourning the brutal and vicious mass execution of their loved ones

Iran mass execution of Sunni prisoners

Following the mass execution of about two dozen Sunni prisoners in the notorious Gohardasht Prison in, north-west of Tehran, by the anti-human mullahs' regime, families of these victims are mourning tonight.
The families were informed to go to the prison before 15.00 (local time) Tuesday to visit their loved ones for a last time.
One of the families who were on route to the prison to say farewell for the last time to their young son said they received a call from prison authorities in the middle of the road telling them to go and pick up the body of their loved one from the morgue victim instead of visiting their son.
Another report from the family of a victim said the families were told to visit their loved ones for a final time in the prison before 15.00. But when the family arrived at the prison, they were told to go instead to the coroner's office to collect the body of their loved one who had already been executed.
List of names of 28 Sunni prisoners who had been forcibly moved out of Hall 10 of Ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison on Monday afternoon, August 1, 2016 are as follows:
1. Kaveh Veysi
2. Taleb Molki
3. Behrouz Shah-Nazari
4. Barzan Nosratollah-Zadeh
5. Farzad Shah-Nazari
6. Varya Qaderi-Fard
7. Keyvan Momeni-Fard
8. Alam Bamashti
9. Seyyed Jamal Seyyed-Moussavi
10. Edris Ne'mati
11. Ahmad Nasiri
12. Mokhtar Rahimi
13. Yavar Rahimi
14. Pourya Mohammadi
15. Farzad Honarjou
16. Shahram Ahmadi
17. Farshid Nasseri
18. Amjad Salehi
19. Omid Peyvand
20. Arash Sharifi
21. Kaveh Sharifi
22. Shahu Ebrahimi
23. Abdollah Sharifi
24. Jamal Qaderi
25. Omid Mahmoudi
26. Mohammad Gharibi
27. Fouad Yousefi
28. Keyvan Karimi

Then NCRI had already called on International organizations to do their utmost to prevent this heinous mass executions. In a statement issued on August 1st, the NCRI had said
The Iranian Resistance makes a call to save the lives of a large number of Sunni prisoners on death row, requesting urgent intervention by the United Nations Security Council and Member States, and international human rights organizations, especially the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Rapporteur to prevent the implementation of these criminal and inhumane rulings.
A large number of special Revolutionary Guards forces raided hall 10 of ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj (west of Tehran) in the afternoon of Monday, August 1. These repressive forces apprehended dozens of Sunni prisoners as their hands and feet were chained, mouths shut with tape and heads covered with plastic bags. These prisoners were transferred outside of the ward to an undisclosed location.
Hours prior to this transfer the regime’s forces and IRGC members had closed all wards and open-air areas, imposing special conditions in the jail. Gohardasht Prison is under the complete IRGC control.
Appeasement vis-à-vis the criminal rulers of Iran, with the execution of 120,000 political prisoners in their report card, and sending more youths to the gallows with each passing day, is nothing but collaborating and encouraging the continuation of these crimes. All political and economic relations with this regime must be conditioned to the complete halt of all executions in Iran, and this regime’s officials must be placed before justice for their crimes against humanity.

VIDEO: IRAN'S MARYAM RAJAVI MEETS PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS

 The following video clip of the meeting was published on the YouTube account of President Mahmoud Abbas:

 The following is the text of the statement by the NCRI Secretariat:

 Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, meets President Mahmoud Abbas

  On Saturday evening, July 30, 2016, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, met with Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, and they discussed the crises in the region.

  President Mahmoud Abbas, at the meeting, reiterated the need to combat fundamentalism and terrorism in the region and informed Mrs. Rajavi of the latest developments in the Middle East, in particular regarding Palestine and France's initiative.

  Mrs. Rajavi expressed gratitude for the solidarity of the Palestinian resistance and its leader with the Iranian people and Resistance. She congratulated the Palestinian government on its victories and expressed hope that the goal of the Palestinian people would be achieved. She reiterated that the Iranian regime is the main instigator of sectarian discord, fundamentalism and terrorism in the entire region, in particular in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine, but she added that today the mullahs' regime is at its weakest and most fragile and vulnerable state. This reality can be seen clearly in the hysteric reaction of the regime's officials and state media to the Iranian Resistance's July 9 gathering.

  Mrs. Rajavi reiterated that the regime is above all fearful of the solidarity and unity between the Iranian people and Resistance and the countries and nations of the region. Therefore, the countries of the region and the Iranian people and Resistance ought to take the initiative to free the region from the scourge of fundamentalism.

Kuwaiti court upholds death sentence for member of Iran spy cell

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A Kuwaiti appeals court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of spying for Iran as part of a cell which Kuwait said was trying to destabilise the Gulf Arab state on behalf of Tehran.
Kuwait and some other Gulf Arab countries, have long accused Tehran of seeking to weaken them by infiltrating local Shi'ite communities and stirring up local politics.
The so-called 'Abdali cell' was uncovered when security forces raided a farmhouse in Abdali outside Kuwait City last year and found a vast cache of guns and explosives.
Kuwait charged 25 of its nationals – all of them Shi'ites – and an Iranian with spying for Iran and Lebanese group Hezbollah. Of those charged, 23 were found guilty of various crimes including intent to carry out 'hostile acts' against Kuwait and possessing weapons.
Hassan Abdul Hadi Hajiya was sentenced to death in January along with the Iranian citizen charged in absentia.
Citing his 'fugitive' status, the court gave no ruling on the Iranian defendant on Thursday.
The court also ruled as 'not guilty' ten defendants who had originally received 15-year prison terms and reduced the sentences of nine others or lessened them to fines.

Source: Reuters, 21 July 2016

 Iran Nuclear Deal Failure: How Obama Abandoned the Iranian Resistance

July 14 marks the one-year anniversary of the end of nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The deal was an abject failure in that it did nothing to alleviate concerns in America and abroad about Iran’s prospective path to a nuclear weapon, nor discourage Iran’s aggressive and destabilizing behavior.

Nevertheless, in January, Congress still went forward with this deal. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Obama administration went further, and encouraged European investment in Iran.

Iran’s behavior both in the run-up to the agreement – known as JCPOA – and in the aftermath was incredulous. Only Obama would not recognize what Iran did as total disdain for him and America.

For example, Iran has performed several test-launches of nuclear capable ballistic missiles, in clear violation of the agreement. Next was the seizure of 10 American sailors in January, an act for which America was made to apologize.

Since Obama’s red line, Iran has grown its Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah forces in Syria. As if that wasn’t enough of an affront to the Obama ultimatum, direct statements by Iranian officials suggest that the Islamic Republic is ready, willing, and able to engage in open conflict with the US and its allies.

One can only wonder if Obama still believes that Iran is tiny, a comment he made in underscoring their ability to be a military threat.

Iran’s domestic behavior has followed the same trajectory. International human rights observers have determined that the rate of executions is the worst it has been in 27 years. Iranian authorities continue their crackdown on political dissidents, artists, activists, and anyone who appears sympathetic to Western or secular views. This has led to a number of high profile arrests, along with untold many others that have failed to make international headlines. With the exception of the JCPOA itself, virtually every news story that has emerged from the Islamic Republic over the last year has been further confirmation of Iran’s continued foreign aggression and domestic repression.

In spite of this however, the White House’s emphasis on the “success” of the nuclear agreement has made the past year yet another year of lack-luster Iran policy, embarrassingly what will undoubtedly be one of the legacies of Obama. The Iran nuclear agreement appears to have been done solely so the administration can justify its refusal to confront Iranian abuses and provocations. Further, the agreement has helped to justify the refusal to take any proactive steps regarding the broader Middle East, which can only be described as a disaster of (former Secretary of State) “Clintonian” proportions.

As recently as last week, Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Iran’s influence in the fight against ISIS has been a net positive. With 65+ million refugees on the run worldwide mostly from Muslim countries, and ISIS committing atrocities routinely, Kerry’s comments can only be seen as a misinformation campaign. Iran’s intervention has escalated sectarian tensions, and driven recruitment to both Sunni and Shiite militant groups. Yet Obama blames the growth of ISIS and other terrorist groups on Donald Trump.

Iran’s influence in Iraq has encouraged an ongoing blockade and several attacks – using Iranian weapons – against the former US military base of Camp Liberty, a territory near the Baghdad airport that is now occupied by members of the Iranian resistance group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK). This group was relocated to that area under an agreement with the US, the UN, and Iraq, as the area was established to facilitate speedy relocation of the PMOI members to foreign territory.

Four years later, dozens more Camp Liberty residents have been killed as their need for refuge has been largely neglected. It seems the Obama administration has little regard that its lack of protection violates the Protected Persons Status given to these residents by the US during the Iraq War. This atrocity alone showcases the shocking betrayal of American values that Obama references so often: “That’s not who we are.”

The US government is making no serious efforts to relocate members of the PMOI, but that’s not the worst part. Far worse is the fact that the United States government is now actively cooperating with a regime that attacks Iranian expatriates on foreign territory and prevents them from returning to their Persian homeland.

Not everyone in US government has neglected the plight of the PMOI, however. Some congressmen have been constant advocates for the Iranian resistance. Other politicians and advocates have shown their earnest support each summer in Paris, when the PMOI’s parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran holds its Iran Freedom rally.

This year’s event is scheduled for July 9, and its participants will certainly make an effort to more definitively undermine the Obama administration’s narrative of Iranian moderation.

The purpose of the event and ongoing efforts is to provide a clear understanding of why the JCPOA has had no impact on the Iranian people’s prospects for freedom from a repressive, theocratic regime. The NCRI leadership will outline the reasons why Obama’s successor must take proactive steps to put renewed pressure on Tehran.

The next president of the United States must exert this pressure. This pressure should not be singularly focused on the still-unresolved nuclear issue. He must also deal with Iran’s extraordinary human rights abuses, include its world-leading misuse of the death penalty, its aggressive censorship of media and the internet, and its dangerous interventions in places like Iraq and Syria.

Hopefully the next president of the United States will take the bolder and even more essential move of endorsing the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group that is much like the Tea Party movement in America. NCRI wants to change the government of Iran, and give it back to the people.

The July 9 gathering, expected to attract upwards of 100,000 people, will go a long way toward highlighting the grassroots appeal that the resistance enjoys both internationally and inside the Islamic Republic. This event is evidence that the opportunity exists for regime change to be facilitated by the Iranian people themselves, through a larger repeat of the 2009 uprising.

There is no risk to the United States, no risk to American lives or American wealth in the proposal of the NCRI. The question is why does the Obama administration cooperate and negotiate with such a Iran, and wholly neglect the wishes of the people? The answer likely lies in how Obama views the Tea Party Community in America. For Obama, government is the answer, no matter how tyrannical.

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom hosted a conference in parliament on UK policy toward Iran attended by MPs and peers.

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Nearly 400 British MPs and Peers outline new Iran policy

Written by: 

• British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom

• PoliticsHome

Posted On: 

1st July 2016

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom hosted a conference in parliament on UK policy toward Iran attended by MPs and peers.

MPs and peers attending the meeting of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom on 30th June 2016

Credit: 

BPCIF

At a conference in the House of Commons on Thursday, June 30, UK policy toward Iran was discussed by a panel consisting of experts on Iranian affairs and parliamentarians from both Houses of Parliament and each major political party.

The parliamentarians expressed their concern over recent increases in the number of executions in Iran, the use of barbaric punishments, such as flogging and amputations by Iranian authorities, and arbitrary arrests under bogus charges like undermining “national security” or “Mohareb (enmity towards God)“.

Speakers pointed out that the intensified crackdown on civil society, suggest that the regime has no other answer to the legitimate democratic aspiration of the Iranian people or the increasing levels of popular dissent.

The Rt Hon David Jones MP presented an initiative supported by nearly 400 members of all major parties in both Houses of Parliament. The initiative urges the UK Government to adopt a firm, responsible  policy towards Tehran. It laid out the following recommendations as the base of such policy:

1. Strongly condemning human rights violations and demanding a halt to executions.

2. Requiring Iran to remove its Revolutionary Guards and mercenary forces from other countries, especially Syria and Iraq.

3. Guaranteeing the safety and protection of Iranian dissident exiles residing at Camp Liberty until they all depart from Iraq and reach supporting host countries, especially Albania.

4. Calling on the EU, US and world leaders to support the 10 point plan for the future of Iran, presented by the Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, which emphasises the establishment of a secular democratic republic, free elections, gender equality in all fields, prohibition of discrimination, abolition of the death penalty, and peace and coexistence in the region and the world.

In her message to the conference, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), thanked the MPs and Peers for their initiative and support and said, the Supreme Leader “Khamenei and other leaders of the regime have acknowledged that if they do not fight in Syria, in Iraq and in Yemen, their power base in Tehran would be undermined. This explains why Iran's ruling regime has turned into the main source of instability in the region … Because the mullahs’ warmongering in the region is contrary to the highest interests of the Iranian people, prevents Iranian Resistance from establishing freedom and democracy in Iran, and has also destroyed the Iranian economy.”

Struan Stevenson, a former MEP who chaired the Friends of a Free Iran intergroup (caucus) in the European Parliament for over 10 years, added: “Iran cannot be part of the solution to the conflicts raging in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. It is part of the problem. Iran exports terror … the West should be entering into dialogue with the political coalition that is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), rather than pussyfooting around with the mullahs in Tehran”.

Other speakers at the conference included, Mark Williams MP; Steve McCabe MP; Bob Blackman MP; Lord Clarke of Hampstead CBE; Lord Alton of Liverpool; Lord Cotter; Professor Sara Chandler, Vice President of European Bars Federation and member of the Law Society; Mr Masoud Zabeti, president of the Committee of Anglo-Iranian lawyers; Ms Naghmeh Rajabi, Representative of the Anglo-Iranian Youth and Women Society.

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U.S. Identifies Nine Training Camps in Iran for Afghans

Afghan fighters used in Syria by Tehran as proxies

IRGC graduation  ceremon

U.S. intelligence agencies recently identified nine training camps inside Iran where jihadists from Afghanistan are being schooled for fighting in Syria, according to U.S. defense officials.

The camps are part of a large-scale paramilitary training program run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Islamic shock troops, to battle Syrian rebels opposing the regime of Bashar al Assad that Tehran is backing.

The camps were identified in satellite photographs located in areas of northeastern Iran close to the Iraqi border, said officials familiar with intelligence reports of the training.

Iran is predominantly Shiite Islam and the Afghan fighters are mostly Shiite refugees who settled in Iran over the past several years.

A State Department official said he was aware of the reports. “If true, it would be a cruel exploitation of a group of vulnerable people already living in a precarious situation as refugees,” the official said. “And it would be another unfortunate reminder of the depths to which Iran is willing to go to continue to prop up the Assad regime.”

Few details were available on the Afghan fighters’ training that is said to include practice in the use of weapons and explosives, and basic military training techniques.

Rep. Mike Pompeo, (R.-Kan.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Iran has been expanding military operations using cash obtained under the Obama administration’s nuclear deal.

“After the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a wave of cash flooded into the Islamic Republic of Iran, allowing the regime to dramatically increase its military budget,” Pompeo said.

“As a result, Iran’s malign influence in the region is growing quickly,” he added. “The IRGC is increasingly the most powerful force in many Middle Eastern capitals, including Damascus.”

Pompeo said the Iranian people “would be better served if their leaders spent funds on domestic improvement, instead of supporting international terrorist groups.”

Security affairs analysts said the camps are part of an Iranian program to promote its brand of Islamic jihad, or holy war, toward creation of an Iran-dominated Islamic region or caliphate.

Sebastian Gorka, Horner professor of military theory at Marine Corps University, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accurately described the Middle East today in a recent address to Congress as a two-way “Game of Thrones” in creating an Islamic caliphate.

“The murder and mayhem is not simply about Sunni jihadis like al Qaeda or the Islamic State,” Gorka said. “It is also about the competing Shia vision of their own expanding caliphate which has succeeded and is now gaining ground in Syria.”

If reports of the training camps for Afghans in Iran are confirmed, “then the mullahs have upped their game,” Gorka said.

“It is no longer about deploying Quds Force operators or IRGC units into the battlespace, but also sponsoring proxies and now actually training deniable force-multipliers such as these Afghan jihadis,” he said.

“The war for theocratic hegemony in the Middle East is escalating and America is conspicuously absent.”

Bill Roggio, editor of the online Long War Journal, said Iran has a history of providing direct support to both the Taliban and al Qaeda. “In this case, Iran is training Shia Afghans to fight in Syria and Iraq,” he said, noting that his journal has documented the deaths of some of the fighters.

Tehran is leveraging Shiites throughout the Middle East and South Asia to wage proxy wars in Iraq and Syria. “In the process it is indoctrinating the vanguard of Iranian power in these countries,” Roggio said. “The repercussions of Iran’s expansion of influence via the militias will be felt for generations.”

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official now with the American Enterprise Institute, said Iran’s Qods Force last year posted an online notice of the death of a Hazara commander, as Afghan Shiites are called.

The use of Afghans is a troubling development because Iran is home to around 1 million Afghan refugees.

“Should they become indoctrinated and fodder for Qods Force recruitment, this would expand Iran’s ability to fight by proxy not only in battlegrounds like Syria, but also in Afghanistan itself,” he said.

Iran is using non-Iranian Shiites because they view the Syrian conflict as a religious, sectarian war that is not just about Syria but defeating Sunni Muslims.

“Second, Iran has been taking far greater casualties than it expected and so it is supplementing its fight with Shiite recruits from outside Iran,” Rubin said. “From the Iranian point of view, why not fight in Syria to the last Afghan or Iraqi?”

Earlier this month, the Iranian exile group National Council of Resistance of Iran posted online a video clip used by Iran to recruit Afghans to fight in Syria. It includes images of Afghans who have died in Syria.

The Iranian exile group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, known as MEK, estimates Tehran has dispatched more than 70,000 fighters, including both Iranians and foreign fighters, to the conflict.

They include between 15,000 and 20,000 fighters of a group called the Fatemiyoun, an Afghan militia set up by IRGC Quds Force.

The plight of the estimated 1.5 million Afghan refugees in Iran is said to include lack of personal or legal identity and poverty.

The MEK stated that Qods Force training for the Afghans includes two to four weeks of basic military training. Upon completion of the training, the Afghans are paid the equivalent of $500 and sent to Syria in groups of 200 fighters.

Transport aircraft send the Afghans to Damascus and missions typically last for 60 days. All commanders and trainers are IRGC members.

The group Human Rights Watch reported in January that Iran is sending thousands of Afghans to Syria.

This entry was posted in National Security and tagged Afghanistan, Iran, Syria. Bookmark the permalink.

Iran Nuclear Deal— Regional Instability, Unknown Compliance, and the Way Forward

Lawmakers working-to force full disclosure about US

The Hidden Fact Presents Terrorism

The Town Hall, June 30, 2016 - Agreed to on July 14, 2015, we are fast approaching the first year anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the world powers. The next couple of weeks are an ideal time to evaluate what changes have occurred in the interim.
Regional Instability
According to Matthew McGinnis, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, about a year after the nuclear deal with Iran, it is embroiled in several major regional conflicts. Two are “hot” ones: against opposition and Islamist groups in Syria and Islamic State in Iraq. The more are “colder” ones: a regional feud with Saudi Arabia and efforts against Israel in southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights, which are shaped by the Syrian Civil War.
On Apr. 3, 2016, United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef al Otaiba stated in the Wall Street Journal that, “One Year after the Iran Nuclear Deal—don’t be fooled. The Iran we have long known—hostile, expansionist, violent—is alive and well.” On June 29, he was on a panel I attended in Washington and elaborated on the argument in the WSJ. In October, November and in early March, Tehran conducted ballistic-missile tests in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Regarding March fighting in Yemen, the French navy seized a large cache of weapons en route from Iran to the Houthis in rebellion against the UN-backed legitimate government. In late February, Australia intercepted a ship off the coast of Oman with thousands of rocket-propelled grenades. In December, Tehran fired rockets dangerously close to a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, a few weeks before detaining a group of American sailors.
Unknown Compliance
What about an International Atomic Energy Agency May 27, 2016 report on Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal? Seeing the best in the nuclear agreement requires ignoring the obvious weaknesses in the IAEA report, which does not even specify how much low-enriched uranium the Islamic Republic has stockpiled, how many centrifuges are running at the Natanz enrichment site or whether enrichment activities have actually stopped at Fordow. That’s because under the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran only needs to demonstrate minimum openness. The head of the UN watchdog nuclear agency says that although Iran seems to be adhering to the letter of the deal, “his inspectors are stretched thin by the task of monitoring compliance across a country the size of Alaska.”
The Way Forward
Considering lack of real compromise from Iran and its posture toward the rest of the world, the forthcoming anniversary is a fine time to admit that it is time to consider removal of Iran’s theocratic dictatorship and establishment of a popularly-elected democratic government.
Mid-July will be doubly fortuitous. Even before we mark the anniversary of the nuclear deal, the world will have an opportunity to hear from the resistance against the unelected Iranian theocracy and a plan of the oppositionists for a democratic alternative: There is to be a rally of supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ), called “Iran Freedom” rally in Paris on July 9. Last year’s event drew over 100,000 people.
One path forward is to recognize that a core argument of the Obama administration’s case for marketing the Iran nuclear deal is the narrative that the election of Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian “moderates” made the deal possible. White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes admitted, that such a story was “the center of the arc” of a false narrative that was “largely manufactured” for the purpose of selling the deal.
The NCRI rejects the idea that the nuclear deal will lead to a more moderate Iran, or strengthen the role of “moderates” in Tehran. Moreover, Iranian dissidents do not accept the conventional wisdom that the regime is immune to regime change from within. The trend of events in Iran since last year lends credence to view that regime change by Iranians is within reach.
In view of regional instability and unknown compliance in the aftermath of the nuclear deal with Iran, anyone who is still on the fence about the way forward for U.S. policy toward Iran would be well-advised to listen to what the NCRI and its American, European and Middle Eastern allies have to say at their rally. Once their voices have been heard, the international community should have a clearer idea how to bring about regime change from within. In this regard, my research suggests supporting the democratic alternative to the Iranian regime is the road to regional stability and nuclear compliance.

 

Raymond Tanter, former National security advisor to the White House and currently professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC

Obama Admin withholding Info from Congress 
On $1.7B ‘Ransom Payment’ to Iranian regime

Lawmakers working to-force full disclosure about US 

Lawmakers working to force full disclosure about US taxpayer cash for Tehran

The Obama administration is withholding from congressional leaders documents and information related to a $1.7 billion U.S. taxpayer funded payout to Iran earlier this year, furthering accusations the cash was part of a “ransom payment” to free U.S. hostages from Iranian custody, according to communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and conversations with lawmakers.
The controversy over this payment—which arose from the settlement of a longstanding legal dispute with Iran—has deepened in recent weeks after Iranian officials disclosed that nearly all of the U.S. money had been spent to strengthen Iran’s military.
Congressional efforts to compel the Obama administration to come clean about the payment have yet to yield results, prompting a separate effort to determine whether the White House overpaid Iran and is now withholding information that would prove this claim, according to documents obtained by the Free Beacon.
Lawmakers suspect that key records relating to the $1.7 billion payout were not properly maintained over the years and are now seeking to force the Obama administration to hand over the evidence.
The timing of the March legal settlement has raised questions on Capitol Hill among lawmakers who view it as part of the Obama administration’s effort to free 10 U.S. sailors who had been abducted by Iran. It also is suspected that the payout was another byproduct of last summer’s nuclear agreement with Iran.
“Earlier this year, the administration announced a $1.7 billion settlement to a case that had been pending for 35 years before the [International Claims] Tribunal, claiming it was in the American public’s best interest to settle,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), one of the lawmakers spearheading the disclosure effort, told the Free Beacon. “But we’ve never seen the documents and we don’t know why a settlement was announced, conveniently, the day after restrictions were lifted on Iran’s Central Bank.”
The Obama administration denies all charges that the payment was related to Iran’s release of the U.S. hostages. The settlement, the administration maintains, was part of an effort to resolve decades-old legal disputes with Iran over several arms deals that were canceled in 1979, following the installation of Iran’s hardline Islamic government.
One congressional adviser who has worked on the issue told the Free Beacon that the Obama administration continues to hide information about the source of the $1.7 billion payout, which was taken from a taxpayer-funded legal account maintained by the Treasury Department.
“The entire payment has been shrouded in mystery from the beginning,” the source said. “The administration had to be badgered into even revealing where the money was coming from, and only now we’re finding out why they were so reluctant to reveal details: half of what they’re claiming contradicts the other half. But they can’t admit they paid a ransom to Iranian hostage-takers, because that would undermine their claims about how diplomacy with Iran works.”

US Rep. Juan Vargas (D., Calif.)

Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Juan Vargas (D., Calif.) are now pushing the administration to produce all government documents detailing the legal dispute, which sat open before the claims tribunal for more than 30 years.
“It’s important to conduct proper oversight and get to the bottom of this because the results could help inform future claims before the tribunal that Iran continues to pursue,” Ros-Lehtinen said, referencing a slew of other legal claims by Iran against the United States that still remain outstanding.
“We want to make sure the taxpayers are not on the hook for any false claims and that we are not inadvertently helping to fund any more of Iran’s illicit behavior—as we saw this $1.7 billion is going to boost Iran’s military, according to the regime,” she said.
“For the case to have been before the tribunal for so long, it must have been the position of the United States government that we do not owe Iran this money as the regime claimed,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “We know that the Foreign Military Sales program for decades was riddled with accounting and management errors and we also know that Iran cancelled at least $10 billion in undelivered foreign military sales orders after the revolution, leaving the United States potentially liable for termination costs and lawsuits from contractors.”
Ros-Lehtinen and Vargas, in a letter sent last week to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, are requesting information about how Iran received the $1.7 billion and how the payment was calculated.
“How was the settlement paid out, was it in U.S. dollars and which U.S. bank was it transferred to and to which Iranian financial institution?” the lawmakers asked, according to a copy of the letterobtained by the Free Beacon.
The issue of U.S. dollar access for Iran remains another hot button topic, as Congress works to stop the administration from opening up the U.S. financial system to Iran.
The lawmakers also seek information about the timing of the settlement, asking if it was necessary for the deal to be implemented “in order for the settlement to be finalized.”
Other government documents could help the lawmakers determine if the United States overpaid Iran as part of the settlement.

Source: The Washington Free Beacon,30 June 2016

Ex-Iran ambassador supports rally for a ‘Free Iran’ On July 9 in Paris

 Perviz Khazaii says I will travel to Paris to

Perviz Khazaii says, I will travel to Paris to take part in the organization’s “Free Iran” rally on 9 July 2016, which is expected to over 100,000 people.

The former Iranian ambassador to Sweden and Norway, and representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) in Nordic countries, Perviz Khazaii, states that “Throughout the three years of Hassan Rouhani ’s presidency, some in the West have maintained hope that it would herald an era of moderation and reform in Iran.”But in fact, the human rights situation is deteriorating at a fast pace.  There have been over 2,400 executions in Iran in just under three years. Victims include political dissidents, most notably the activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.In a shocking act of violence, the Iranian regime carried out at least 21 hangings in a 48-hour period in the second week of May.  Amnesty International underscored in its annual report that Iran has the highest number of executions per capita. Those who are not put to death may be subject to other cruel punishments.  More information about these atrocities may be found in Perviz Khazaii's article in The Diplomat. “Despite the persistent danger, I remain active in the NCRI to this day.” says Khazaii.  “I am no stranger to diplomatic relations. I was one of three senior Iranian diplomats who resigned from our ambassadorships in protest against an unbridled wave of executions in Iran in the early 1980s and joined the National Council of Resistance of Iran, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi . Doing so came at great personal cost. Two of us were gunned down in broad daylight in Geneva and in Rome by terrorists dispatched from Tehran, the first in 1990 and the second in 1993. I am the sole survivor.”On July 9, I will travel to Paris to take part in the organization’s “Free Iran” rally, which is expected to over 100,000 people, comprised not only of Iranian exiles but also their supporters, including hundreds of senior political dignitaries, parliamentarians, human rights and women's rights activists, as well as religious leaders from the United States, Europe, and Islamic activist communities, to highlight Tehran’s nefarious conduct at home and abroad, calling for a new policy that sides with the Iranian people and their desire for freedom.Source:  stop Fundamentalism, 30 June 2016

Tags:Iranian Resistance rally in Paris

Obama and stretching the appeasement to the breaking point with the Mullahs

A Bad Iran Investment The Obama administratio

A Bad Iran Investment, The Obama administrations promotion of Irans economy has prompted no change in Iranian behavior.

Stretching appeasement to the breaking point, Washington is working overtime to convince global institutions, nations, banks and companies to dismiss their well-founded concerns and do business with the America-hating, terror-sponsoring, nuclear weapons-pursuing regime in Tehran.
Washington's efforts – which are coming despite no discernable change in Iranian behavior – extend a familiar script of recent years, in which the Obama administration kowtows to the regime, ignores the concerns of America's regional allies and breaks its promises to monitor Iranian activities closely and act accordingly.
It's an embarrassing spectacle that diminishes U.S. leadership and credibility in the region and beyond.
Nevertheless, the U.S. effort is having an impact. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, which sets global standards for fighting money laundering and terror financing, responded to U.S. pressure by deciding last week to suspend for a year its measures to combat Iranian terror sponsorship because Iran has adopted a plan to address the problem – even though Tehran hasn't actually implemented it. And the plan is meaningless to begin with because it excludes from 'terrorism' any group that Iran says is 'attempting to end foreign occupation, colonialism, and racism,' as Iran surely would say of its terrorist proxies Hezbollah and...
The Financial Action Task Force has long labeled Iran and North Korea 'high-risk or uncooperative jurisdictions' and urged other countries to take 'counter-measures' to protect their financial systems. As recently as February, it said it was 'particularly and exceptionally concerned about Iran's failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system.'
Whether the group's change of heart will generate much new business for Iran, however, remains unclear. 'Practically speaking,' the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, has noted, 'there is no change since, given the continued concerns over Iran's illicit conduct, financial institutions will continue to voluntarily implement strict countermeasures … Businesses considering ties to Iran will have to conduct enhanced due diligence that will prove a nightmare for them.'
That's because Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp controls nearly a third of Iran's economy, many of Iran's companies hide their ties to the guard, the country ranked 130 out of 168 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, and it continues to bolster Bashar Assad, Syria's brutal dictator, and to support Hezbollah… and other terrorist groups.
'Most large banks that care about long-term protection of their assets,' the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote, 'are not rushing back into Iran because they understand it has a long way to go before it's safe to do business there. Ultimately they are looking to avoid the massive sanctions, money-laundering, and corruption risk Iran poses to their stakeholders.'
The Obama administration is conceding one thing after another to Tehran, just to keep its nuclear deal afloat.
On the other hand, Boeing recently announced that it will sell 100 jets to Iran Air in a $25 billion deal that the State Department said it 'welcomes,' adding that Boeing was in 'close contact' with the department on the deal. To facilitate it, the administration dropped the sanctions that it had slapped on Iran Air in 2011 for using its passenger and cargo planes to send rockets and missiles to Syria, disguising those shipments as medicine or spare parts, and enabling the Revolutionary Guard to control some of the flights.
Whether pressuring the Financial Action Task Force, facilitating Boeing or promoting Iran as a place to do business, the administration admits that it's going well beyond its obligations under the U.S.-led global nuclear deal with Iran.
'I have personally gone beyond the absolute requirements of the lifting of sanctions,' Secretary of State John Kerry said recently, 'to personally engage with banks and businesses and others who have a natural reluctance after several years of sanctions to move without fully understanding what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.'
Iran's recent missile test highlights one more weakness in the Obama administration's nuclear accord.
Administration officials say they're driven by two motives. First, President Barack Obama is doubling down on his hopes that – whether through the $100 billion-plus in sanctions relief provided under the nuclear deal, or because of U.S. promotion of Iran as a place for business – Iran's economic progress will convince the regime to abandon its militancy and become a responsible global actor.
Second, by expanding U.S. ties to and investment in Iran, Obama hopes to make it harder for his successor to undo his nuclear deal, which he considers among his top achievements. To achieve this goal, in his remaining months in office, he's reportedly pushing for such additional steps as Iranian entry into the World Trade Organization and facilitating Iranian access to the dollar.
But U.S. efforts to nourish Iran's economy have prompted no change in Iranian behavior. Unless they eventually do, a more prosperous Tehran will pose greater risks for the United States on the world stage.
A president focused on his legacy, however, doesn't seem to worry.

Source: US News, 29 June 2016