Family of U.S. War Reporter Slain in Syria, Sues the Bashar Al-Assad regime

American journalist Marie Colvin, who died in Syria in 2012

BEIRUT - The family of American journalist Marie Colvin, who died in Syria in 2012, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a U.S. court, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately killing her.
Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs in 2012 while reporting on the Syrian conflict, now in its sixth year.
The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad targeted and killed US reporter Marie Colvin in February 2012 to stop her from covering government atrocities, according to a lawsuit filed in US court.
The Syrian military intercepted Colvin's communications and unleashed a barrage of rocket fire on her position in the besieged city of Homs, according to documents filed in US district court in Washington.
Colvin, then reporting for the London Sunday Times, was killed with French photographer Remi Ochlik. British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier, and Syrian media defender Wael al-Omar were wounded in the same attack.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington on Saturday and seen by Reuters, said Syrian officials deliberately targeted rockets against a makeshift broadcast studio where Colvin and other reporters were living and working.
The suit alleged the attack was part of a plan orchestrated at the highest levels of the Syrian government to silence local and international media 'as part of its effort to crush political opposition'.
The lawsuit included as evidence a copy of an August 2011 fax which it alleges was sent from Syria's National Security Bureau instructing security bodies to launch military and intelligence campaigns against 'those who tarnish the image of Syria in foreign media and international organisations'.
Advocacy group Reporters With out Borders said it supported the lawsuit.
The group's secretary-general, Christophe Deloire, said the group 'hopes these efforts will help to expose the truth, namely that these journalists were deliberately targeted and killed because they were providing information about the Syrian army's crimes against civilians.'
A murder and attempted murder investigation was launched in France in 2012 into the death of Ochlik and wounding of another journalist, Edith Bouvier, in the same attack.
Reporters Without Borders, as an interested party in the case, said it will submit the Colvin family's U.S. lawsuit to the judge in charge of the French investigation on Monday.

Opposition groups’ agreement points to a way forward in Syria

Syrian opposition member, Suhair Al Atassi

The National, July 4, 2016 - An agreement between the Syrian and Iranian oppositions presents an opportunity to turn the tables on Iran in Syria.
In Paris last month, the exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) and the Syrian opposition movement, the Independent National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, cemented a relationship built in the past four years and created a plan for the battle against the Iranian regime.
The NCRI, established in 1981, is a political coalition of five Iranian opposition organizations representing all Iranian ethnic groups as a parliament in exile.
The two movements have already started a high level of coordination and collaboration to reach their twin targets: getting rid of the Assad regime as well as the Iranian presence in Syria.
The alliance presents an opportunity for the Gulf countries to increase pressure on the Iranian regime, which has been promoting instability in the region.
One of the main objectives of the alliance is to raise awareness in Iran about the increased numbers of Iranian soldiers being drafted to fight in Syria.
Syrian opposition member Suheir Al Atassi has described the partnership with NCRI as necessary: “We need to know our enemy and no one would know better how the clerical regime works, operates and strategises than the Iranian resistance,' she said.
What makes the NCRI valuable is that, over the past 35 years, it has employed a network of operatives within Iran collecting intelligence. It has been a fierce antagonist to the clerical establishment since 1981.
Its intelligence shows an Iranian presence exceeding 70,000 soldiers in Syria. NCRI documents from within Iran’s Revolutionary Guards show the surge started in February because of the deadlock in Aleppo.
One example of the NCRI’s network within Iran was its revelation in 2008 of two nuclear weapon development centers – countering US intelligence reports saying that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
The Gulf countries could also engage more proactively in resisting Iranian expansion in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
A recognition of the NCRI and Syrian opposition alliance would have to be political as well as logistical.
Politically, the Gulf Cooperation Council has not engaged with the Iranian opposition because their largest member group, The People’s Mojahedin of Iran or the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, was once designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union , the United States and Canada.
However, after a seven-year legal battle in European and American courts, it was dropped from that list and granted a protected persons designation in 2012.
Political engagement with the NCRI would represents a major boost for the opposition movements in Iran and Syria, and give them a stronger voice at the negotiating table in Geneva that is currently monopolized by the US and Russia. This hegemony exercised by Russia and the US has become a competition of interests by two powers that are looking to exert their control over the world using the Syrian cause as a card in their hands, according to Ms Al Atassi.
Gulf engagement with the NCRI would set the cornerstone for a relationship with the Iranian opposition to counter Iranian influence in the future beyond the Syrian conflict.

Ex-Palestinian Chief Justice expresses solidarity with ‘Free Iran’ gathering

Palestine Chief Justice, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi

Former Palestine Chief Justice, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi sent a video message of solidarity to the upcoming Grand Gathering of “Free Iran” which will be held in Paris on July 9.
In his message, broadcasted by the Iranian opposition satellite channel Simaye Azadi, Sheikh al-Tamimi condemned the mullahs’ regime in Iran for mass executions and in particular for its export of terrorism and complicity with Bashar al-Assad in the mass killing of Syrian people.
In his message Sheikh al-Tamimi said:
'As we know, tens of thousands of people in Iran have been tortured, imprisoned and killed by the Velayat-e Faqih (clerical) regime. Assad and the mullahs' regime have agreed to suppress and kill their people in autarchy. Yet, the people of Iran and Syria are united as brothers against the oppression by the mullahs' and Assad's regime, and by God's will these autocratic regimes will collapse and the people of Iran and Syria will celebrate their victory.”
“The mullahs' regime believes that its survival is dependent on the survival of Assad's regime and equally that the destruction of Assad's regime would mean its destruction as well. Therefore, the mullahs’ regime kills their people and spreads war to the entire region. They want to impose their tyranny and oppression while they are afraid of justice and democracy. They believe if the people score a victory, their regime will definitely collapse.”
“I say that the meeting to be held in Paris will demonstrate the readiness of the Iranian's Resistance, the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), to overthrow the mullahs' regime. The Iranian people, themselves must rule their country with liberty and democracy. As I heard Maryam Rajavi 's speech about the massive rise of Iranian people outside of Iran in solidarity with the people of the world. I am certain that she supports women’s rights by citing the verses of the Quran and quotes of the Prophet Muhammad. As she mentioned, the God Almighty emphasizes in the Quran that women are the counterpart of men and this is what Maryam Rajavi has promoted while on the other hand the Velayat-e Faqih relies on terrorism, murder and fundamentalism, and the fundamentalist groups that kill people everywhere have their roots in the regime of the Velayat-e Faqih,' he added.

The Iranian regime will blind 5 prisoners with acid

These eyes will be blinded  by the Iranian regime

The horrible law of retribution, or as it is called by the mullahs’ regime in Iran as Qisas, which is based on the old saying of “an eye for an eye”, the Iranian regime is to blind at least five prisoners in Iran’s notorious Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, northwest of the capital Tehran. This barbaric punishment also includes to deafen the prisoners as well.
According to reports from inside the prison, some 40 kilometers from the Iranian capital Tehran, the Iranian regime’s judiciary is pushing for the sentences to be implemented quickly; however prison doctors have thus far refused to carry out the draconian procedures.
Mojtaba Saheli (Yasaveli), 31, who was previously blinded in his left eye by the regime, was recently informed by prison officials that he is to be blinded in the right eye with acid.
On March 3, 2015 he was blinded in one eye with acid in Gohardasht Prison in the presence of the regime’s deputy prosecutor in Tehran Mohammad Shahriari and prison officials after the draconian sentence was upheld by the regime’s Supreme Court.
On August 3, 2009 he allegedly blinded a driver in Qom, south of Tehran, with acid. The regime’s court in Qom sentenced Mr. Saheli to be blinded in both eyes with acid, pay blood money and serve a 10-year prison term as part of the regime’s inhumane law of retribution.
Mr. Saheli is currently imprisoned in Ward 2 of Hall 4 of Gohardasht Prison. He had been told to pay blood money to avoid the new blinding sentence from being implemented on his right eye.
According to one report, Mr. Saheli recently inquired from the prison’s office of implementations about his sentence and was informed that the implementation order for his sentence had been received, but until now no physician had been willing to break their doctor’s oath to carry out the sentence.
He was furthermore informed that the regime’s judiciary is pressing for the sentence to be carried out and that at any moment one of the doctors may decide to set aside their oath and carry out the blinding sentence.
Five prisoners are currently awaiting to be administered acid on to their eyes and ears. They are:
• Mojtaba Saheli (Yasaveli), 31, whose left eye has already been blinded, and who is awaiting implementation of a sentence to be blinded in the right eye.
• Fatollah Khojasteh, sentenced to be blinded in one eye and made deaf in one ear with acid.
• An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in both eyes with acid.
• An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in one eye and made deaf in one ear with acid.
• An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in one eye with acid.
Dr. Sanabargh Zahedi, chairman of the Judicial Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ), earlier this month said: “The inhumane law of retribution (qisas) has been implemented against the Iranian people for the past 37 years. These punishments date back to the medieval ages and show the clerical regime’s reactionary nature. These inhuman punishments are clear violations of all principles and norms of a modern judiciary, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and all civil and political covenants. Such punishments undoubtedly constitute a savage form of torture and should be condemned by any freedom-seeking person. The Iranian Resistance and NCRI members have since 1980 condemned the regime’s qisas law as anti-human.”“According to the logic of the Quran and modern democratic Islam the first principle which applies to the penal code is dynamism. Thus the Islamic penal provision should be interpreted within the context of social and economic conditions and scientific progress. The clerical regime is centuries away from this logic, and as such it is clear that there is no possibility of reform within this regime,” he added.
Amnesty International in a statement on March 5, 2015 condemned the Iranian regime for blinding Mr. Saheli in his left eye two days earlier.
“Punishing someone by deliberately blinding them is an unspeakably cruel and shocking act,' said Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International's Iran Researcher.
'This punishment exposes the utter brutality of Iran’s justice system and underlines the Iranian authorities' shocking disregard for basic humanity. Meting out cruel and inhuman retribution punishments is not justice. Blinding, like stoning, amputation and flogging, is a form of corporal punishment prohibited by international law. Such punishments should not be carried out under any circumstances.”

Maryam Rajavi: If Assad falls in Damascus, the Iranian regime will collapse in Tehran

Mrs. Rajav; Tehran strategy is based on interference in the internal affairs of others, warmongering and export of terrorism

Maryam Rajavi , President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, told pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday, 17 April 2016 that the mullahs’ regime in Iran will collapse once the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is toppled in Damascus.
In a full page interview of the newspaper, Mrs. Rajavi said that the Iranian regime is founded on three main pillars: obtaining a nuclear bomb, absolute domestic suppression and export of terrorism and extremism abroad.
Mrs. Rajavi pointed out that Tehran’s strategy is based on interference in the internal affairs of other countries, warmongering and export of terrorism; however, the regime’s regional plots failed after the start of the Decisive Storm operation against its proxies.
“The Iranian regime can be defeated once and for all in Bahrain if it is confronted with a decisive alliance formed by regional countries,” Mrs. Rajavi said, adding that the Iranian regime is close to drowning in the quagmire of Syria’s civil war.
Mrs. Rajavi pointed out that the Iranian regime would collapse consequentially should al-Assad be toppled in Syria, which is why Iran’s regime has been trying to keep Assad in power at any cost.
“If Assad falls out of power in Damascus, then the Iranian regime will evidently follow and collapse in Tehran,” Mrs. Rajavi said. more

IRAN: Execution of 5 prisoners in Gohardasht Prison

The anti-human clerical regime ruling Iran has sent five more prisoners to the gallows again. Among the five is Alireza Shahi whose death sentence was condemned by Amnesty International. The execution took place in Gohardasht Prison in the city of Karaj last Tuesday. 
Five men were part of a group of at least ten prisoners that their execution had been scheduled for 24 November.
The five victims, Said Najafi, Farshad Haqi, Mohammad Baygi, Mohammad Polombeh and Alireza Shahi had been transferred to isolation on Saturday.
There has been no public announcement of these executions by prison officials.
Amnesty International said on Monday that Alireza Shahi did not have a fair trial and “after his arrest he was placed in detention for two weeks where he says he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated to confess. He was also denied access to both a lawyer and his family.”
“It is always cruel and inhumane to take away an individual’s life by hanging but the cruelty is compounded when the execution follows an unfair trial which has relied on coerced confessions, and ignored allegations of torture and other ill-treatment,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.
“The rate of executions in Iran is deplorable which, if they continue at the current rate, could reach more than 1,000 this year. In case after case we hear allegations of torture, fundamentally flawed trials, all in breach of international law and standards,” Amnesty International said.

Iran: Zanjani’s wives! visiting him in Evin prison prevented women political prisoners in to see their children

Iranian regime authorities in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran have prevented children from visiting their mothers who are held there as political prisoners. The reason given by the Khamenei point man in this nefarious prison is that Babak Zanjani, a corrupt middleman working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to circumvent sanctions, has visitors. And who might these visitors be? His 3 wives!

Human rights activists on Wednesday Nov. 25th reported that Zanjani was expecting to meet with his 3 wives in the visiting hall of the Evin Prison, asked not to be disturbed by other visitors coming to visit their loved ones. So the children, who already were granted visit with their political prisoner mothers, were told the visits were canceled. And the children were forced to leave the area while crying and asking for their mothers. Reports continue to say that mothers who were counting days and hours to see their children were told the visits were off and were hauled back to their cells.
After a short while these courageous and brave women protested and condemned the clerical regime for denying their basic and minimum rights of visiting their loved ones.
It should be noted that in the misogynist and perverted mullahs’ interpretation of Islam, bigamy is allowed and practiced routinely and a man can have up to 4 legal and official wives and dozens more still legally but unofficially. 

Watch Where Your Money Goes in Iran, Exiles Say to US

the word Iranian exiles say no to US nuclear deal with Iran

“Don’t” is the word Iranian exiles have for US businesses looking to open their doors in Iran.
To a person, they are warning that doing business with the theocratic regime of Iran’s Khamenei was fraught with risk.
“Americans who develop a business in Iran will find that not a penny they pay in fees to the government will go to help the poor, the 70 percent-plus of Iranians in their teens and 20s who are unemployed, or the teachers who haven’t been paid in six months,” said Allen Tasslimi, New Jersey venture capitalist and president of the Association of Iranian-Americans of New Jersey, whose younger brother was executed by the clerical regime in the 1980s.
Tasslimi predicted that money paid to the Tehran regime by U.S. businesses for opportunities in Iran “would go to [Iran’s] Quds Force,” its brutal branch blamed for spreading terror throughout the region.
The Quds are headed by the notorious Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, branded “a cold-blooded killer” by Sen. John McCain for overseeing the manufacture of armor-piercing bullets that have killed more than 500 U.S. Marines.
Tasslimi, along with other exiles, strongly believes that an enhanced Iranian elite military unit “will provide even greater assistance to the terrorist clients that Khamenei and the regime already service: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis who have toppled the government of Yemen, and Assad’s murderous regime, which has forced tens of thousands to flee to Europe.”
The shot at American companies was loudly voiced on Saturday by Iranians among the more than 200 guests attending the 50th anniversary celebration Saturday of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) — known formerly as MEK and the largest Iranian opposition group — in Washington, D.C.
Now that President Obama’s controversial Iran deal is sure to clear Congress, many businesses are poised to open operations in the country long off limits to them after sanctions are lifted.
A voice from the past is driving their pleas. A book written before the U.S. was at war with Germany admonishing American entrepreneurs might be read as a cautionary tale.more

NO “moderates” in Iran stop the nuke deal with them

 

they all think about just one single thing

 The following is an article written by Majid Sadeghpour, a political director of the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC-US), and published in The Hill on Monday, August 24th: i have changed its title! He sais“I think we all share a simple, basic premise, which is that the United States must not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. A nuclear-armed Iran would threaten our national security,” so said Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), adding that he would support the nuclear deal struck between the P5+1 and Iran, “only if I’m convinced it sufficiently freezes every Iranian pathway to a nuclear weapon.” He could not have said it any better.
Although the administration insists that this agreement is not based on trust but on verification, the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his underlings have already rejected inspections of military sites, a critical part of the inspections regime envisioned in the comprehensive long-term deal with Iran.  Tehran’s interlocutors, it appears, have made a series of unnecessary concessions in the agreement. Meanwhile, the regime has sensed that it can win even more compromises if it digs in deep enough.
As part of their sale’s pitch to unconvinced and concerned lawmakers and the public at large, President Obama and others in the administration have highlighted comments by “hardliners” in Tehran in opposition to the deal. It seems that they have bought into the myth of moderation, believing that the “moderates” will create a better future.
Indeed, the theatrics by “hardliners” in Iran’s parliament, or the anti-negotiation demonstrations by “ultra-hardliners” in Tehran’s street, coupled with the supreme leader’s rejection of military site inspections made it sound like the mullahs really did not need a deal as bad as the West. At the very least, it seemed like a “faction” of the mullahs is against the deal, while the “moderates”, including the regime’s foreign minister Javad Zarif and president Hassan Rouhani , are trying to convince the “ultra-hardliners” and Khamenei to accept some sort of agreement....more