UN expert concerned at condition of prisoners on hunger strike in Iran

GENEVA (31 August 2017) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, Asma Jahangir, today expressed her deep concern about the situation of a number of prisoners who have been on prolonged hunger strike to protest against their transfer to a high-security section of Rajai-Shahr prison in Karaj, West of Tehran, and about their treatment while in detention.

“I am deeply alarmed by reports about the deteriorating medical conditions of the prisoners on hunger strike, and that their torture and ill-treatment have continued since their transfer,” Ms. Jahangir said.

Over the past few weeks, 53 prisoners, including more than 15 Baha’is, were transferred without prior notice and without being informed of the reasons for their transfer. None of them was allowed to take their personal belongings, including their medicines. They have also reportedly been deprived of hygiene products, adequate clothing, adequate medical care and food they purchased with their own money.

“Depriving prisoners of having family contact, lawyers and adequate medical care is contrary to international law,” the rights expert said.

“I urge the Government of Iran to look for a prompt solution to the extreme situation created by the hunger strike through good faith dialogue about the grievances and underlying human rights violations, ensuring full respect for their dignity and autonomy,” the expert concluded.

This statement has been endorsed by the Special Rapporteurs on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Dainius Pûras, and on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed.

ENDS

Ms. Asma Jahangir (Pakistan) was designated as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of  human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Human Rights Council in September 2016 Ms. Jahangir was elected as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and as Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Over the years, she has been recognized both nationally and internationally for her contribution to the cause of human rights and is a recipient of major human rights awards. She has worked extensively in the field of women’s rights, protection of religious minorities and in eliminating bonded labour. She is a former Special Rapporteur on summary executions, and on freedom of religion.

The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

Iran President's 2nd Term Begins With Abuses, Hunger Strike by Political Prisoners

By Patrick Goodenough | August 29, 2017 | 4:18 AM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – Concerns are deepening for the well-being of more than 20 Iranian political prisoners on hunger strike, who reportedly are being denied medical care by authorities who triggered their protest in the first place by forcibly transferring them to accommodation where conditions are described as “unbearable.”

The incident comes in the early weeks of the second term of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, whose ostensibly “moderate” presidency has been characterized by ongoing repression at

home, include a 20-year high in executions.

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Some of those affected at the Gohardasht prison west of Tehran have been on hunger strike for a month now, and political prisoners at other jails have begun to voice support and in some cases have joined the protest action.

According to rights advocates the newly “renovated” section of the Gohardasht facility to which more than 50 prisoners were moved late last month lacks beds and clean drinking water, and the windows are covered by metal limiting air circulation and making it difficult to breathe freely.

The transfer – which was accompanied by guards’ assaults on prisoners unwilling to move – also reportedly deprived the inmates of privately-purchased prescribed medications and personal belongings they were unable to take with them, including personal photographs and letters.

In a penal system where inmates often have to buy food from canteens to supplement the inadequate meals provided, the political prisoners also lost food supplies, kitchenware and a refrigerator.

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“They are held in cells with windows covered by metal sheets, and deprived of access to clean drinking water, food and sufficient beds,” Amnesty International reported. “They are also barred from having in-person family visits and denied access to telephones, which are usually available in other parts of the prison.”

Some of the prisoners concerned were identified by Amnesty International as human rights defender Jafar Eghdami, journalist and blogger Saeed Pour Heydar, postgraduate student Hamid Babaei, and Baha’i prisoners Adel Naimi, Farhad Dahandaj and Peyman Koushak Baghi.

Iran: Plight Of Political Prisoners Signals Regime Turmoil

Heshmat Alavi

Iran is currently striving to manage a number of increasingly painstaking dilemmas. International spotlight is again on Tehran’s nuclear program, with the United States demanding United Nations inspectors be granted access to its military sites.

Equally troubling is Iran’s collaboration with North Korea to pursue their nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile capabilities. Such dossiers are enough to undermine the spirit of the JCPOA, Tehran now also considers its meddling in the Middle East indispensable in its effort to establish a regional empire reaching the Mediterranean.

As a result, receiving far less attention than it deserves is Iran’s Achilles Heel: human rights violations.

Despite pledges of reforms provided during May’s presidential election season, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has presided over more than 100 executions during the month of July alone. His first tenure, from 2013 to 2017 witnessed over 3,000 being sent to the gallows despite numerous calls for at least a temporary cessation.

Hunger strike that shames Iran's so_called moderates

Dr:Majid Rafizadeh
Protecting and promoting human rights is one of the major promises that Hassan Rouhani and the so-called moderates continue to give to the people of Iran. As Rouhani enters his fifth year as president, however, not only has Iran’s human rights record not improved, evidence suggests it has significantly deteriorated, particularly when it comes to the situation of minorities such as Sunnis.   
A major area that requires more global attention is the plight of political prisoners, journalists and human rights activists in jail. Specifically, what is happening to them behind the walls of Iran’s prisons?
Last month, inmates in Hall 12 of Gohardasht prison, also known as Rajai Shahr, 20km west of Tehran, were subjected to a violent and unexplained raid that led to more than 50 prisoners being transferred to Hall 10, where conditions and treatment were even worse.
Hall 10 had been newly renovated before the raid, apparently with the explicit intention of putting more pressure on the prisoners of conscience who the Iranian regime was planning to transfer there.The prisoners are subject to 24-hour video and audio surveillance, even inside private cells and bathrooms. Windows have been covered over with metal sheeting, reducing airflow during summer in a place already known for its inhumane and unhygienic conditions.
In addition, the raid involved the confiscation or outright theft of virtually all the inmates’ personal belongings, including prescription medication. Since then, prison authorities have denied the prisoners access to medical treatment and have even blocked the delivery of expensive medication purchased for them by families outside the prison. Withholding medical treatment is a well-established tactic by Iranian authorities to exert pressure on political prisoners, especially those who continue activism from jail or strive to expose the conditions that political prisoners and other detainees face.
Despite the fact that their newfound stress and lack of sanitation already threatened to have a severe impact on their health, more than a dozen of the raid’s victims immediately organized a hunger strike and declared that the protest would continue until they were transferred back to their former surroundings and had their belongings returned to them.
Others joined the protest, and at the last count 22 detainees were participating in the hunger strike, most of them serving sentences for political crimes such as supporting the leading banned opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The core group have been starving themselves for approximately a month now, and their health has predictably deteriorated.

Political prisoners' hunger strike - Number 6

Political prisoners in Gohardasht prison in Karaj called on their fellow citizens to declare their solidarity with their justice seeking move and asked them to help them in standing up against abuses and law breakings in religious despotism ruling Iran. The prisoners, who are now on their 30th day of hunger strike, urged all international human rights bodies and organizations to visit all political prisoners and striking prisoners to work toward securing their rights.

"Close to four decades of repression and aggression and violations of our human rights has been going on," said the strikers in the statement. Right now, we and some of our cellmate brothers in prison over the age of 70 are witnessing a clear violation of the rights of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners and of the tyranny of the officials and heads of the judiciary, the intelligence and the guards of this regime. We defenceless prisoners by embracing the most dangerous attitudes of the agents, and torture during the transition to solitary confinement, with resistance and steadfastness, have gone on hunger strike and we are all united in this legitimate move."

The strikers in Hall 10 of Section 4 of Gohardasht Prison, who are in critical condition, in exposing the thugs who committed this conspiracy and a criminal plot against the lives of political prisoners, write: "Those who have looted and plundered the minimum living requirements of us, the prisoners, who have paid and purchased them at our own cost, were agents such as the terrorist guard Mohammad Mardani, the head of the Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, known as Rajai Shahr, Ghobadi, the deputy of the prison, Major Zolfali, the commander of the repressive prison guard, Yusef Mardi, the head of the Intelligence protection and Bagheri, head of the department, as well as Azimi, deputy of the Intelligence Protection of the IRGC in the prison, who must be held accountable for these crimes in international and people’s courts along with their commanders and enablers.”

Political prisoner, Shahin Zoghi Tabar, a political prisoner on hunger strike, also emphasized in a released letter: "I and the other political prisoners will continue our hunger strike until the last drop of our blood and until our demands are accepted. Future generations will give as an example the mullahs' regime as criminal in history. A regime that has massacred thousands in the 1980s, especially in 1988, and for years has been dealing with ordinary prisoners like a slave and continues to repress people for its own survival."

Ardebil political prisoners, in solidarity with striking prisoners in Gohardasht, announced a week-long hunger strike. Ali Moezzi, a political prisoner in Tehran's Great Prison, and Arash Sadeqi, a prisoner at Evin Prison Ward 350, also supported striking prisoners in Gohardasht in statements.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

Iran: Elham Rasouli Baghi sentenced to prison

 Created: 28 August 2017

Iranian civil rights activist Elham Rasouli Baghi was sentenced to one year of imprisonment by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.

Ms. Rasouli Baghi had been arrested on May 12, 2016, in a gathering outside the Dena Tire Company building in Tehran in protest to the corrupt bureaucracy in Iran. She was interrogated by agents of the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Sarallah Garrison.

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یک دستاورد ذیقیمت، برای تقدیم به مردم ایران و همه مبارزان جنبش دادخواهی

MESSAGE OF MARYAM RAJAVI TO A CONFERENCE ON THE 1988 MASSACRE OF POLITIC...

Iran on the path of North Korea

By Keyvan Salami

Iran can enrich uranium within five days if the U.S. imposes more sanctions on Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's atomic agency head, warned this week. He claimed that Iran could achieve 20% enriched uranium in five days – a level at which it could then quickly be processed further into weapons-grade nuclear material.

Last week, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers "within hours" if the United States imposes any more new sanctions.

"If America wants to go back to the experience of imposing sanctions, Iran would certainly return in a short time – not a week or a month, but within hours - to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations," Rouhani told a session of parliament broadcast live on state television.

In response, U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley said Iran should not be allowed "to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage."

The Obama administration argued that there was no better alternative to its controversial nuclear agreement with Iran.  The argument was that the deal is good, as it potentially delays Iran's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons for at least ten years; it requires Tehran to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent, disables the Arak facility from producing weapons-grade plutonium, reduces the number of centrifuges by two thirds, converts the Fordow facility into a research center, and allows for unprecedented intrusive inspections.

In addition, the deal would lengthen, from a few months to a year, the time frame in which Iran could reach the breakout point, providing the U.S. more time to act, even militarily.  Finally, the Obama administration suggested that a more prosperous and secure Iran might give up its drive to obtain nuclear weapons and may even become a constructive player in the community of nations.

Two years after the deal, the question is, will those claims still hold?  Did the deal "potentially" delay Iran's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons for at least ten years?  And did it make Iran "more prosperous and secure to give up its drive to obtain nuclear weapons and may even become a constructive player in the community of nations"?

The reality is that the deal not only has not curbed Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons, but also granted billions of dollars to Iran's malicious activities.  Two years after the deal, it is Rouhani who is confessing to this fact and saying Iran is capable of reaching the same point and even "conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations" in a matter of few days.

"In an hour and a day, Iran could return to a more advanced [nuclear] level than at the beginning of the negotiations," Rouhani told a parliamentary session.

At the same session, a new bill was passed, a testament to the hollow claims of Iran's change of behavior as "a constructive player in the community of nations." 

In retaliation to new U.S. sanctions, with lawmakers chanting "Death to America," the state's military budget will be increased by almost $500 million, and $260 million will be pumped into the missile program alone.

A further $300 million will be added to the Quds Force's budget.  The bill charges the government to confront "threats, malicious, hegemonic and divisive activities of America in the region."

One might argue that their action is in reaction to new U.S. sanctions.  This might be true, yet it doesn't change the fact that Iran has maintained its capability of advancing its nuclear program, as Rouhani acknowledged.

The Iran apologists' take from Rouhani's threat is more concessions and to stop placing pressure on Iran.  A realistic approach, however, would be to take Rouhani's words seriously and put more pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program once and for all.

Iran is following the same path as North Korea, and the nuclear deal with Iran must not fool us into imagining that the Iranians have stopped their ambition of becoming a nuclear power.

For the mullahs in Iran, the atomic bomb is the only guarantor of survival.  That is why they will never relinquish their ambition of becoming a nuclear power.

The only means to stop Iran is to support the Iranian people and their organized opposition for a regime change

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/08/iran_on_the_path_of_north_korea_.html#ixzz4qebQflxM
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یک دستاورد ذیقیمت، برای تقدیم به مردم ایران و همه مبارزان جنبش دادخواهی

Maryam Rajavi addresses “Interfaith Solidarity Against Extremism”

Top former U.S. officials present joint Iran policy statement to Maryam ...

Iran news in brief, 21 August 2017

August 2017 Conference Commemorates 1988 massacre of Iranian political p...

August 2017 Commemorating 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran

Senior U.S. Senate Delegation Meets with NCRI President-elect Rajavi

In a move that must frustrate the Iranian regime and its mullahs, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Maryam Rajavi hosted a senior Senate delegation from the United States on August 12, 2017. The meeting was held in the Albanian capital of Tirana. During the gathering, the two groups discussed the current situation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Albania, the latest developments in Iran and the Middle East, and solutions to end the current crisis sweeping that region.

The Senate delegation was comprised of Senators Roy Blunt, Vice President of the Republican Conference, and member of the Appropriation, Select Intelligence, Rules and Administration, and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees; John Cornyn, the Majority Whip, and a member of the Judiciary, Select Intelligence, and Finance committees; and Thom Tillis, a member of the Armed Services, Judiciary, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Veterans’ Affairs committees.

The meeting was initiated by Senator Roy Blunt, who led the delegation in congratulating the MEK for the safe and secure relocation of all Camp Liberty residents out of Iraq. They also wished the group well in its efforts to secure democracy and human rights in Iran.

Mrs. Rajavi, after thanking the senators for their decisive position on the Iranian regime, emphasized that contrary to the propaganda by the Iranian regime’s apologists, the ruling theocracy was rotten to the core and very fragile. Without foreign support, especially the policy of appeasement pursued in the U.S. and Europe, it would not have survived so long. She added that regime change in Iran is necessary and a viable and democratic alternative exists that could make a successful regime change possible. Mrs. Rajavi said equating regime change by the Iranian people for democracy with war and instability in the region is a sheer lie, the source of which is the Iranian regime’s lobby in western capitals. They demagogically turn the truth on its head, she noted, adding that the overthrow of the Tehran regime was a prerequisite to ending crisis and war in the Middle East.

As part of the meeting, some steps that the NCRI believes necessary for the international community to undertake regarding Iran were discussed. These included imposing comprehensive sanctions on the Iranian regime’s banking and oil sector, expelling the IRGC and its affiliated militias from the Middle East, and taking urgent steps to punish the regime for the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.

The Senate delegation also met with MEK members that witnessed or were victims of the regime in Iran and within Iraq at Camps Liberty and Ashraf.

US ties with Iranian opposition strengthening

The Iranian opposition is gaining momentum due to a growing consensus in the US Congress over the necessity for regime change in Iran. A senior delegation of US senators went to Albania’s capital Tirana this week to meet Maryam Rajavi, who heads the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a political coalition calling for regime change in Iran and considered the main threat to the ruling mullahs. 
They also met members of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (MEK), the main member of this varied coalition of groups and individuals. The high-profile visit comes at a time when Washington has slapped major new sanctions on Iran, including its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for its ballistic missile drive, its support for terrorism and its human rights violations. Given that the IRGC controls over 40 percent of Iran’s economy, these new sanctions are a heavy blow to Tehran’s ambitions.
Ties between Iran’s opposition and US officials are strengthening, and the number of high-level officials supporting the opposition is rising. They recognize the opposition as a legitimate representative of many Iranians who seek democracy in their country. Rajavi expressed her gratitude for the US Senate’s tireless efforts to protect thousands of MEK members in Iraq and relocate them to Albania.
Previously, in a Senate briefing, several US officials strongly condemned Iran’s destructive role in Iraq. Sen. Roy Blunt joined an initiative demanding the urgent transfer of MEK members stationed in a former US military base known as Camp Liberty near Baghdad. 

In April, Sen. John McCain, a longtime supporter of the Iranian opposition, visited the MEK in Albania and met with Rajavi. MEK members were able to leave Iraq after a four-and-a-half-year ordeal in Camp Liberty following their forced transfer from their 26-year home in Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad. 
From 2009, following the transfer of security from the US military to the Iraqi government, the MEK came under eight major ground and rocket attacks by Iran-backed proxies against Ashraf and Liberty. This was in parallel with a seven-year siege. After losing more than 160 of their colleagues to the attacks and blockade, MEK members were finally able to leave Iraq for European countries, mainly Albania.
This latest visit sends a strong signal to Tehran that the NCRI is gaining momentum. This time last year, Tehran was hell-bent on destroying the MEK. Now the tide has turned, with the opposition on the offensive. 
Tehran fears the opposition’s soft power more than the hard power of foreign governments. That is why Iranian leaders and media outlets react forcefully and anxiously to such visits and opposition activities. The opposition can be a very powerful tool to pressure Tehran without the need for direct military confrontation.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated, Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. He serves on the boards of the Harvard International Review, the Harvard International Relations Council and the US-Middle East Chamber for Commerce and Business. He can be reached on Twitter @Dr_Rafizadeh. 

WHY IS TEHRAN TERRIFIED OF US SENATORS MEETING WITH THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION?

by Amir Basiri

Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., met with National Council of Resistance of Iran President Maryam Rajavi and members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Rajavi thanked the senators for their firm position toward Iran, especially the adoption of new sanctions against the ruling regime and the Revolutionary Guards for their human rights abuses, Iran's ballistic missile program, and the export of terrorism.

The Iranian regime has constantly tried to downplay the role and influence of the opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and its main constituent, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), by portraying them as marginal and insignificant. Yet, its mainstream media a

nd top officials are constantly betraying the regime's real feelings and fear of the group.

The latest episode came after U.S. senators visited the organization's headquarters in Tirana, Albania. Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., met with NCRI President Maryam Rajavi and members of the MEK, and discussed the latest developments in Iran and the Middle East as well as solutions to end the current crisis in that region.

Rajavi thanked the senators for their firm position toward Iran, especially the adoption of new sanctions against the ruling regime and the Revolutionary Guards for their human rights abuses, Iran's ballistic missile program, and the export of terrorism.

Less than a day later, dozens of mainstream media outlets representing all factions and branches of the Iranian regime expressed concern about the lawmakers' visit, calling it a provocative move meant to cause instability in Iran.

The visit comes as the Trump administration is reviewing its policy toward Iran's nefarious activities, and cabinet officials have hinted at supporting regime change, a goal that the MEK and NCRI have been calling for since 1981.

The Iranian regime and its backers in the West try to portray support for regime change as a path that will lead to another military invasion in the region, and a possible repeat of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. However, the NCRI believes that the Iranian people and their resistance movement are fully capable of achieving regime change without the need for a foreign intervention.

In her meeting with the senators, Rajavi emphasized that contrary to the propaganda by the Iranian regime's apologists, the ruling theocracy is rotten to the core and very fragile. Without foreign support, especially the policy of appeasement pursued in the U.S. and Europe, it would not have survived so long.

She added that regime change in Iran is necessary and within reach because a viable and democratic alternative exists.

The Iranian regime is increasingly extremely worried about the momentum that is building around the NCRI's goal. In April, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made a similar trip to Albania and met with the MEK and NCRI's leadership. Other U.S. dignitaries and politicians attended the group's annual rally in Paris last month, where they underlined the necessity for regime change in Iran.

The regime is also having trouble containing MEK's increased activism inside Iran. In the run-up to the May's presidential elections, despite the numerous threats issued by regime officials and Iran's security apparatus, the group's supporters carried out widespread campaigns across Iran, denouncing the undemocratic nature of the elections and exposing the criminal history of the candidates.

The trip of U.S. lawmakers to Tirana is one more problem the Iranian regime will have to deal with as it is faced with an opposition that is growing in influence and support, and it no longer has the advantage of a U.S. administration geared toward appeasement and concessions.

MICHAEL REAGAN: THE FOLLIES OF APPEASEMENT

By Michael Reagan
  
Record Courier, Aug. 14, 2017 - Haven’t we learned yet that appeasement doesn’t work? I’m not talking about when the weak-kneed leaders of Britain and France went to Munich in 1938 and essentially gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler to buy a brief period of peace before Europe and the rest of the world went to war.
I’m talking about our more recent dealings with Russian, Iran and North Korea.

We’re in the trouble we’re in with North Korea today because of our continual policy of appeasing the thugs who rule that oppressed and starving Communist paradise.
Most people don’t remember, but we started appeasing North Korea’s dictators in the 1990s when Jimmy Carter was out office and still felt he needed to play global peacemaker.
Carter went to North Korea behind the back of the sitting president, Bill Clinton, and sat down to negotiate a deal to stop them from building nuclear weapons.
He promised North Korea leaders two nuclear reactors and $5 billion in aid if they’d agree to the no-nukes deal and Clinton, not wanting to embarrass a former Democrat president, approved the deal.
Of course it took North Korea about 24 hours to break their promises.
They’ve been working on their nukes ever since, and our presidents have been appeasing them ever since — when they’re not busy appeasing Iran’s religious thugs or Russia’s virtual dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Remember Iran and its nuclear program? Remember how President Obama and everyone on the left fell over each trying to appease the ayatollahs?
How’s that been working out?
Obama basically told the Iranians “We don’t want you to have nuclear weapons today, but it’ll be OK for you to have them 20 years from now — when I’m out of office and it’ll be some other sucker’s problem.”
Now we have Iran and North Korea helping each other perfect their nuclear weapons programs.
And let’s not forget how well our policy of appeasement worked with Russia.
In 2009, President Obama pleased Putin by scrapping the Bush administration’s proposed missile defense system in Poland. In 2014, the Russia army invaded Ukraine and Russia was becoming the regime in Syria’s best friend and military benefactor.
Now we’re at a boiling point with North Korea and it makes for a very, very, very scary world.
You hope and pray we have the right people in office to make the right decisions and not go off the rails.
People are always praising my father for winning the Cold War without firing a shot or blowing up the world.
But he was able to defeat the Evil Empire with diplomacy because when he was dealing the Soviets the word “appeasement” was never in his vocabulary.
His way of describing his negotiating policy vis-a-vis the USSR and its nuclear arsenal was — “We win, they lose.”
I’m fearful, as many people are, by what might happen if we learn that the North Koreans truly have developed miniaturized nuclear weapons that could ride on their primitive ICBMs.
But I’m also concerned that we’ll just appease them again and we’ll find ourselves in this same scary spot next week or next year.
What we need to do is follow my father’s example and get “appeasement” out of our vocabulary.
While we practice smart diplomacy, we need to start putting anti-missile defense systems in areas the Russians or Chinese don’t like, like in South Korea — and too bad if it makes them nervous or mad.
As for President Trump, he needs to get off building a border wall and start building a homeland missile defense system that will protect us from the rogue powers our appeasers have turned into world powers.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press).

Before Anyone Further Appeases Iran...

By:Heshmat Alavi

The pro-Iran deal camp is recently making much noise about how the Trump administration and critics of the pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are making rightful complaints of the text failing to address Iran’s destructive belligerence in the Middle East.

These are valid concerns, considering the fact that even if the deal remains intact come October’s decision by President Donald Trump to find Iran in compliance or not, the mullahs are hell-bent to continue wreaking havoc and expanding influence across the region.

The pro-Iran deal camp claim Washington has no evidence to hold Tehran in violation of the JCPOA terms. Not true.

• Tehran has exceeded its heavy water production cap, necessary for a plutonium nuclear bomb,
• testing more advanced centrifuges,
• illicitly procuring highly sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile technology in Germany, according to Berlin’s intelligence services,
• surpassing its uranium enrichment cap, another key non-compliance factor

The pro-JCPOA camp also argues this deal has prevented Iran from becoming the next North Korea. This is partially true and misleads only the uninformed reader. A deal very similar to the JCPOA, led by the Clinton administration, was signed with North Korea and ended up in dismal failure. This left the world with a rogue state now equipped with at least 20 nuclear bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles and the technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead in its payload.

While the JCPOA was intended to keep Iran away from nuclear weapons, why shouldn’t Washington lead the West in demanding Iran curb its further belligerence, such as advances in its ballistic missile drive, increasing executions and atrocious human rights violations, and stirring mayhem in the Middle East?

Iran: Women actively participated in protest rally in Dezful

Sunday, August 13, 2017, the people and particularly women of Dezful, in southwestern Iran, staged a gathering in front of the Governor’s Office to protest against construction of a water channel which transfers water from the Dez River to Andimeshk.

The State Security forces attacked the protesters and used pepper gas. They also arrested a number of demonstrators.

The women participating in the protest, chanted: "SSF, SSF, shame on you, shame on you.”

Iran: The Lives of the Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Danger

The Iranian Resistance expresses grave concern over the health and security of political prisoners on hunger strike in solitary confinement of ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran. All international human rights organizations, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur of Human Rights in Iran, Special Rapporteur on Torture are called upon to take urgent action to save the lives of these political prisoners.

Misters Abolqassem Fouladvand, Hassan Sadeghi, Saeed Masouri, Reza Akbari Monfared, Jafar Eqdami, Amir Qaziyan, Khaled Heradani, Zaniyar and Loqman Moradi who are in solitary confinement. A number of other ward 4 prisoners, including Misters Mohammad Banazadeh Amir Khizi, Pirouz Mansouri, Majid Assadi and Payam Shakiba are amongst the inmates who are also on hunger strike protesting repressive measures against ward 4 political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison. The authorities have banned these political prisoners from any family visits and placed them under pressures to end their hunger strikes.

The protesting political prisoners are amongst the inmates of hall 12 of ward 4 in Gohardasht Prison who were attacked on Sunday, July 30, insulted and beaten by prison guards, and forcefully transferred to hall 10 of this ward (NCRI Statement – August 1). Prison authorities have deprived these political prisoners of minimum hygiene products and decent clothing.

The religious fascism ruling Iran exerts its authority through executions, torture and detentions. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, with his “moderate” mask, are two sides of this medieval regime’s coin.

Senior Iranian regime officials must be placed before justice for their continuous and increasing crimes against the Iranian people. Any relation with Tehran must hinge on the mullahs’ improving the disastrous human rights situation and releasing all political prisoners without any preconditions.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

Iran: Call to Save 7 Prisoners on the Verge of Execution

One of the prisoners

was 17 when he committed the alleged "crime"

Seven prisoners sentenced to death in Gohar Dasht (Rajaieh Shahr) Prison in Karaj, have been transferred to solitary confinement. These victims are faced with an imminent death threat. Mehdi Bohlouli, who is now on the verge of execution after serving 15 years of imprisonment, was only 17 when arrested and this is the fourth time he has been transferred to solitary confinement for implementation of the death sentence.

Taking prisoners to the gallows to witness the shocking scene of the execution of other prisoners is a common practice of torture in the prisons of Iranian regime.

Transferring the young prisoner, Mehdi Bohlouli for execution is taking place while the execution of Alireza Tajiki, a young prisoner who was 15 years old at the time of his arrest, sparked a wave of hatred inside and outside of Iran, and international human rights organizations called it shameful and shocking. Alireza Tajiki was hanged on August 10 after serving six years in prison under torture for compulsory confessions, and while his family's repeated requests for a retrial was ignored.

The execution and torture machine of the regime, which is a world record holder, on the number of executions per capita and one of the few juvenile executioners, has accelerated after the sham presidential election. Only in July 2017 there has been a rare record of 101 recorded hangings. The actual number of executions is likely to be higher, since it does not include the number of secret executions.

The Iranian resistance calls for urgent intervention and action of the international bodies and human rights organizations to stop the death sentences of these seven victims and the abolition of their death sentences, as well as the protest and condemnation of governments to the new wave of executions in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

Senior US Senators meet Iran opposition leader in Albania

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While August seems usually a passive time of the year in politics, it has been quite the opposite for Iran and the wide variety of developments around this controversial international dossier.

A senior delegation of United States Senators travelled to Tirana, the capital of Albania, today, August 12, 2017, to meet the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, who heads the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

The delegation, Senators Roy Blunt, Vice President of the Republican Conference, and member of the Appropriation, Select Intelligence, Rules and Administration, and Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees; John Cornyn, the Majority Whip, and a member of the Judiciary, Select Intelligence, and Finance committees; and Thom Tillis, a member of the Armed Services, Judiciary, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Veterans’ Affairs committees, also visited members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in the Albanian capital.

The NCRI is a political coalition calling for regime change in Iran and considered the main threat to Tehran’s mullahs. The MEK is the main member of this coalition of a variety of Iranian dissident groups and individuals.

“Led by Senator Blunt, the delegation congratulated the safe and secure relocation of all Camp Liberty residents outside of Iraq and wished them success in their struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran,” according to an NCRI statement.

Rajavi expressed her gratitude for the tireless efforts of the U.S. Senate, particularly Senator Blunt, regarding the protection of thousands of MEK members in Iraq, and their safe relocation to Albania.

Senator Blunt was among several American dignitaries, including senior former officials, who at a July 2014 Senate briefing strongly condemned Iran’s highly destructive role in Iraq. While describing Tehran as part of the problem plaguing Baghdad and the entire country, Senator Blunt joined the initiative in demanding the urgent transfer of PMOI/MEK members stationed in a former US military base known as Camp Liberty near the Iraqi capital.

Senator Blunt and his colleagues John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and former Senator Carl Levin had urged former Secretary of State John Kerry to “press for the protection of Camp Liberty and to expedite the resettlement of the Camp Residents to countries outside Iraq, including the United States.”