US Senators move against foreign countries financing terror plots such as Iran

 This bill will enable-the United States and 

In the wake of a spate of terrorist attacks around the globe, a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators is pitching a new law expanding the country’s powers to penalize foreign countries that finance the attacks.
Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Democrat Bob Casey of Pennsylvania announced to reporters on Thursday the Stop Terrorists Operational Resources and Money (STORM) Act, which would expand leverage for President Barack Obama and his successors against such rogue countries.
Under the bill, a U.S. president would be authorized to designate a country that is not doing enough on terrorism financing as a “Jurisdiction of Terrorism Financing Concern,” which would introduce a broader array of sanctions and penalties than those currently available.





“This legislation ensures that all partners in the fight against terrorist groups, especially ISIL, pull their weight when it comes to stopping terrorist financiers and facilitators,” Casey said. “Cutting off the money that terrorist groups use to pay fighters’ salaries, buy weapons and IED components, and control territory, is essential to the strategy to degrade and ultimately defeat these groups.”





Sen. Isakson said “Cutting off financial resources from terrorist groups is essential in our efforts to degrade and defeat them,”.
He added “This bill will enable the United States and our partners to crack down on those involved in financing the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, effectively adding another dimension to our fight against terrorism.”
Under current law, the U.S. has limited authority to impose sanctions or freeze assets to ensure that other countries are properly preventing the financing of terrorists. There is also limited power to penalize foreign banks for doing business with terror groups such as the Islamic State.
If the bill passes, a U.S. president who identifies and designates foreign countries it believes is financing terror would do so in a report to Congress. Then, U.S. agencies could be directed to withhold certain export licenses or authorities to such countries; development and security assistance could be withdrawn, limited or suspended; foreign loans could be prohibited, and the U.S. government could be blocked from carrying out any business contracts with the country.
Separately, Casey and eight other Senate Democrats have written Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to protest a decision by the independent, international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to suspend for a year sanctions that were in place against Iran to crack down on money laundering and terror financing. The letter to the Treasury Department — which formally represents the U.S. in the FATF — asks that any further such actions that benefit Iran be prevented.
“Iran continues to support a swath of terrorist activities by funding its terrorist proxies and partners, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Assad regime,” the senators wrote. “International financial institutions should not embolden Iran’s illegal activities that threaten the national security of the U.S. and our allies, particularly our major strategic partner Israel – the target of much of Iran’s terrorist financing in the region.
  Source: Ami News Wire, 7 July 2016

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Ex-White House official: Iran regime cannot be considered moderate while it contributes to terrorism

Amb.  Marc Ginsberg 

London, Jul 8 - Marc Ginsberg, the former White House Middle East Adviser, has dismissed the idea that Iran’s nuclear agreement could lead to a moderate Iran. He said that there the oppressive military dictatorship is anything but moderate.
In an article for the World Post, he said: “Iran is undeniably under the control of the Revolutionary Guards and their political hacks within the Ayatollah Khamenei’s clerical politburo.”
Ginsberg highlights increased the levels of terrorism and interference in other middle-eastern states’ affairs. In Iraq, they sponsor violent sectarian militias, in Syria they prop up Assad’s regime and in Yemen, Iran instigated a rebellion causing chaos and bloodshed. In addition, the Iranian regime continues to carry out ballistic missile tests in defiance of resolutions by the U.N. Security Council in order to destabilise the Western allies in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
He said: “And let us not forget, the “atomic ayatollahs” have never ever given up on their ambition to build a bomb; the nuclear agreement merely postpones its capacity for doing so for ten years, and will have all arms sanctions lifted against it in about 7 years.”
Ginsberg, the former US Ambassador to Morocco, expressed concern over Iran’s funding of Hezbollah, since the sanctions on Iran were lifted last year.
He discussed the anti-Jewish, Holocaust-denying tirade that had resurfaced among hardliners since the passing of Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor who worked to improve human rights.
He said: “The incendiary and venomous anti-Israel/anti-Semitic rhetoric emanating from the highest reaches of the regime have become more dangerous and more provocative than ever.”
Still the West proclaims that this is a moderate regime, arguing that Iran will eventually acquiesce to democracy. Ginsberg accuses John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, of sugar-coating any criticism of Iran including dismissing the concerns of U.S. commanders fighting ISIS in Falluja and Ramadi, who report that after ISIS has been pushed back, rogue Iranian-commanded Shiite militias invade to supress the Sunnis which contributes to the increased support for ISIS in these areas.
He said: “Time will tell whether U.S. national security interests can sustain the gamble, but given Iran’s international and regional conduct in recent months, Mr. Kerry may need to adjust his assessment if Iraq’s future stability is of consequence to the U.S.”
He talks about the escalation of violence against political dissidents, earlier this week the residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq were subjected to a horrific rocket attack from the Iranian government which injured 40 people.
Ginsberg said: “Iran is determined to resist a revitalized and reinvigorated American effort to politically, militarily, and financially stabilize a pro-secular, reform-minded Iraqi central government. Iran takes an extraordinarily dim view of national Iraqi reconciliation, and will apparently do everything possible to sabotage that goal - a goal 180 degrees opposite to U.S. policy.”
In terms of its own citizens, Iran’s abuse is, if possible, even crueler. They hang political opponents, imprison women’s rights activists, and torture minorities; in 2015, Amnesty International estimates that nearly 1,000 political opponents were murdered by the state.
Ginsberg said: “Oppression has escalated against average Iranians as the regime stomps hard on any effort to leverage assets relief for fear of breathing new life into Iran’s suppressed democratic movement.”
Ginsberg said that the next US president faces an extraordinary challenge with regards to Iran and Iraq.
The only real opposition to the regime, comes from forces like the NCRI and its leader Maryam Rajaviwho envisage a transparent and modern democracy within Iran.



The Iranian public want, and need, a government that is secular, nuclear-free and respectful of human rights. Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan lays out how this dream can be achieved, including freedom of expression, the abolition of torture and death penalty, and a commitment to Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The NCRI are holding a major gathering of Iranian resistance supporters in Paris on July, 9, to address the issue of human rights and try to offer solutions to the problems. Public figures from around the world will be in attendance.
  Source: Iran Focus, 8 July 2016

Al Arabiya says Iranians to flock to major opposition gathering in Paris

 Grand Iranian Gathering-in Paris 

London, 8 Jul - The annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance, to be held in Paris this Saturday, July 9, is expected to attract thousands of Iranian opposition members, Al Arabiya English reported on Thursday.
The rally, organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ), is expected to attract many dignitaries and political activists from around the world including former Algerian Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Palestinian Fateh movement’s member Azzam Al Ahmad. 
It aims to promote human rights within Iran and dismiss the notion that Iran, as it stands, is a moderate country. In fact, the NCRI says that the human rights situation is actually deteriorating and the regime is becoming more closed off and introverted.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 1000 people were executed in 2015 alone in Iran; not only does the country have the highest per capita execution rate in the world, they also execute minors. Their human rights abuses are especially brutal to women and minorities.
The Iranian regime is also a proponent of sham democracy. Ahmad Jannati, 90, was recently ‘elected’ to the head of the Assembly of Experts; he was already the head of the Guardian Council and is a strong supporter of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The NCRI said: “He now heads two key bodies, which shows that elections under this regime are meaningless and the regime’s choices are ever more limited”.
The mullahs’ regime has interfered in other middle-eastern countries, like Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iraq. Iran is also continuing to test nuclear weapons in spite of the United Nation Security Council Resolution.
The NCRI states that “the Iranian regime is institutionally sowing discord in the [middle east] especially in Syria and is continuing to export Islamic fundamentalism”. According to intelligence obtained by the opposition group, People’s Mujahidin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), Tehran has dispatched more than 70,000 revolutionary guards, regular army, and foreign units to fight in Syria.
The rally aims to promote the 10-point plan of Maryam Rajavi , president-elect of the NCRI which calls for the introduction of full democracy, gender equality, the abolition of torture and the death penalty and the separation of religion and state.
You can follow the hashtag #FreeIran on social media to see the truly staggering support, the rally is achieving.

Iran: Tension in province of Bushehr following the killing of a youth by security

 Tension in Iranian Capital of Gas Security 

 Popular demonstrations erupted in Asaluyeh in the Bushehr Province after a security official killed an Arab youth on Wednesday.
Authorities confirmed on Thursday media reports about wide confrontations between demonstrators and security forces in the Sunni-majority province of Bushehr, south of Iran.
The events in Asaluyeh, which includes the largest gas complex in South Iran, came one day after 18 regime parliamentarians had presented a warning to Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli against the mistreatment of Sunnis, and the closure of their mosques to prevent worshippers from praying.
Local sources said that security members had killed a young man after a dispute started between him and coast guard forces at the port, where the victim was returning in his fishing boat.
Meanwhile, according to news agencies the protestors had fired at Iranian police vehicles when the latter tried to stop demonstrations by firing at protestors who were angry over the killing of a young man at the Eid al-Fitr Holiday.
witnesses were quoted as saying that security forces injured a number of protestors in the Bushehr province.
According to the sources, the demonstrations expanded after “a peaceful gathering” near a police station in Asaluyeh was crushed. Police injured five protestors, two of them in critical conditions.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-linked Tsanim news agency said that security forces had controlled the tense villages of Naimiyeh and Asaluyeh. The news agency said that “protestors had demanded the resignation of security officials in the city and the trial of those behind the incident to put a limit to all security breaches.”
Asaluyeh’s name was linked last year to the wide labor strikes against the dire economic situation and the authorities’ delay in paying wages.
Residents living in the area, similar to other Arabs in Iran, are harassed by the authorities due to their ethnic affiliations.
In parallel, Iranian regime news agency had reported a story different from that carried on social media. Mehr and Fars news agencies said that clashes erupted in Asaluyeh between security members and smugglers.
In a linked development, a huge fire erupted at a petrochemical refinery factory in Mahshahr, considered the largest refinery located in southwestern Iran.
The reasons behind the blaze, which erupted two days ago, were not immediately identified. However, authorities said the fire was caused by an explosion due to high temperatures registered in the last two days.
Official news agencies also reported the renewal of a blaze at the Bu Ali Sina factory in the southern port of Mahshahr, after earlier reports said firefighters had managed to put out the flames.
The company’s executive director, Adel Selim Nejad said: “The fire will last at least another two days and firefighters would be unable to put out the fire before the tank in which the blaze started, is emptied.”
  Source:  ASHARQ AL-AWSAT    , 8 July 2016

Islam Needs a Reformation

By Linda Chavez

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Islamic terrorism has become the single biggest threat to stability in the world. Attacks killing many hundreds have occurred over the past 18 months in Bangladesh, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France, the United States and elsewhere. But fighting this threat will require more than drone attacks to take out leaders of groups such as the Islamic State — or even full-scale assaults to recapture territory claimed by the terrorists, as we did recently in Iraq.
As the terrorist killings in San Bernardino, Orlando and Paris prove, Islamists' poison can reach into the very heart of the West to infect those born and raised in nations that value freedom, promoting attacks on their fellow countrymen and neighbors. What is to be done?
Military action is clearly part of the solution where Islamic terrorists control actual territory from which to launch further attacks, but it is insufficient to root out the threat. President Barack Obama has dangerously refused to acknowledge that a radical, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam drives the terrorists. Indeed, fundamentalist Islam is gaining adherents throughout the world, and autocratic regimes in Iran and the Persian Gulf States already enforce it throughout their populations. If we are to be successful in the fight against Islamic terrorism, we must look to the Muslim world itself for a Reformation.
Unfortunately, there are few bright lights in that firmament. The two major sects of Islam, Sunni and Shiite, have both spawned terrorist movements; and whatever their differences, they share a common enemy in modernism and Western values. And in both, the denigration and subjugation of women plays a fundamental role. But there are glimmers of hope, one of which will be on display in Paris on July 9.
As I have for the past few years, I will be emceeing an event that brings together tens of thousands of opponents of the Iranian regime, in addition to representatives from around the world who oppose Islamic fundamentalism. Addressing the group will be a broad range of dignitaries from various nations, including a bipartisan group of Americans composed of, among others, former governors, Cabinet members, ambassadors and White House officials.

This year's event marks the anniversary of the U.S.-Iran nuclear arms deal, which has strengthened the Iranian regime by infusing much-needed cash into the hands of the ruling mullahs. Iran continues to be a major state sponsor of terrorism, as well as ruthlessly suppressing freedom for its own populace. The chief opposition to the regime is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose president-elect, Maryam Rajavi, is an outspoken critic of fundamentalism and the convener of the Paris conference.
"A political, religious and cultural antidote is required to uproot this cancerous tumor permanently," Rajavi said last year in front of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade. "In absence of an alternative interpretation of Islam ... extremist ringleaders will portray the war against fundamentalism as a fight against Islam itself. By doing so, they will then create the most important source of nourishment for this ominous phenomenon."
In Paris this weekend, Muslims — as well as Christians, Jews and others — will stand up for the belief that freedom of religious practice is fundamental to reform.
"We reject compulsory religion and any form of compulsion in religion," Rajavi has said. She has spoken out against mandatory veiling laws and against the mistreatment of women and denial of their rights in the name of Islam.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration not only does not support the efforts of Rajavi and her group but also has opposed them at every opportunity. But equal rights for women and freedom of conscience for religious practice are the best way to combat radical Islamic fundamentalism. We can continue to fight the Islamic State group, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups on the battlefield and from the air. We can capture or kill their leaders and their foot soldiers. But until we battle the ideology that has spread around the world, we will not succeed. And the most effective way to do that is to work with those, like Rajavi, who have been doing it for decades. If she is not afraid to name the danger for what it is, why should we hesitate to say that Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to us all?
Linda Chavez is the author of "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal." To find out more about Linda Chavez, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Photo credit: Rod Waddington

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Essential to Counter to Iran’s Regional Misconduct

• An independent member of the UK House of Lords and member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF),www.iraLord Maginnis
• n-freedom.org

As we approach the first anniversary of the Iranian nuclear deal, tens of thousands of activists and Iranian dissidents are set to rally this Saturday in Paris, calling for Tehran’s nefarious conduct at home and in the region to be tackled. One of the primary messages at this rally will be to condemn Iran’s role in the massacre of the Syrian people and to demand an end to its assistance to the Assad government.

Little attention has been paid to Iran’s role in not only propping up a dictatorship in Syria, but in fuelling a sectarian strife there and in Iraq that has created and sustains groups like Daesh. Iran’s behaviour has been nothing short of criminal, and its ongoing involvement in the spread of terror has to be confronted in order to obtain a durable peace in the region.

Iran’s policy of aggressive expansion has not slowed down after the nuclear deal, but has in fact intensified during the Presidency of that over-rated and so-called “moderate” Hassan Rouhani. Besides the continuing military and logistical involvement in support of the Syrian dictatorship, there is support of Shiite militias in Iraq, and ongoing support for armed groups in Yemen. Behind each of these conflicts is a callous strategy by Tehran designed to expand its sphere of influence and gain a stronger foothold throughout the Middle East.

In Iraq, Tehran has taken advantage of the calamity created by Daesh in order to reassert its hegemony in the country. Despite the removal of its chief ally in Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, the rampant sectarian repression inflicted by his government continues and Iran continues to pour its military and logistical strength into the conflict. This includes armed forces, and the presence of IRGC commanders to lead Shiite militias, many of whom should clearly be deemed guilty of war crimes.

It’s fairly obvious that, had Iran not propped up the dictatorship of Assad, the chaos from that country would not have spilled over into Iraq and Daesh would be virtually non-existent. Instead, we are left with a bloodbath in Syria, genocide in Iraq, and a crisis in Yemen, as Iranian backed rebels march across the country.

Iran’s policy of “exporting the revolution” is intended to re-energise a demoralised base, to maximise whatever is left out of its legitimacy abroad and to cover up its failures at home. The regime has sought to create icons out of its war heroes by popularising their exploits abroad, as evidenced by the fervour surrounding its General Qassem Soleimani. The regime recognises its diminishing appeal at home, particularly among Iran’s youth. It uses, therefore, an aggressive foreign policy in order to maintain a perpetual state of crisis internally - a strategy it employed to prolong the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980’s, and to excuse its crack-down on dissent and opposition internally.

Long past is the time to end the West’s policy of appeasement towards the mullahs in Tehran. It only emboldens their lust for power and expansion. The international community must meet its responsibility to effect an end to Tehran’s inflammatory actions in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. The U.S., with the U.K., has surely some obligation to identify with the Iranian people and with their organized resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Its President, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, has for decades been unwavering in her promotion of NCRI’s 10 point plan for a democratic Iranian future. As common dissent grows within Iran, the ayatollahs would become more vulnerable to domestic pressure if that were able to display more evidence of international sympathy. Their extreme sensitivity to the activities of the Resistance in general and Mrs. Rajavi in particular points toward Tehran’s Achilles heel.

Three years after the emergence of the Rouhani front it is ever more evident that finding “moderates” in his ruling theocracy is mere wishful thinking - a dangerous delusion. Confronting Iran for its egregious conduct at home and its belligerence in the region is an essential first step to avoiding further sectarian bloodshed and future warfare. The Western governments should surely recognise this reality.