July 2010
25 posts
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Ahmadinejad Expects US to Attack MidEast Soon →
Iran expects the United States to launch a military strike on “at least two countries” in the Middle East in the next three months, Ahmadinejad told state-run Press TV. He did not specify whether he thought Iran itself would be attacked nor did he say what intelligence led him to expect such a move.
“While there are individuals in the Obama administration who are flirting with...”
– Steve Clemons via/ Andrew Sullivan: Chill on Iran
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CNN: Wife and Brother of Lawyer Activists in Iran... →
Mina Ahadi, chairwoman of the International Committee Against Stoning, said the wife and brother are being held in Evin Prison and police have closed the Tehran office of lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei. The location of the lawyer himself remains unknown, Ahadi said.
Earlier this month, Mostafaei told CNN that his client confessed to the crime after being subjected to 99 lashes. She later...
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Stoning, Rape and Execution of Women is Bad Gender... →
Pressure groups led by Iranian exiles are demanding that the country be thrown out of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
“Such a regime has no place at the table when it comes to setting global gender policy in the 21st century,” said Maria Rohaly, coordinator of Mission Free Iran. “By defending the practice of stoning, the Islamic Republic has itself publicly and on the...
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House Republicans Introduce Measure Green-Lighting... →
The resolution, H.Res. 1553 (in full below), provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel’s use of “all means necessary” against Iran “including the use of military force”. US military leaders have warned that strikes could be catastrophic to US national security interests and could engulf the Middle East in...
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Newsweek: Global Attention Forced Iran to Stop... →
One of them is sixteen-year-old Nabizada, a villager from northern Afghanistan, who was sentenced to death at the Iranian-Afghan border after being caught carrying 200-300 grams of narcotics, according to an interview conducted by Radio Free Europe by phone in March. He is one of thousands of Afghans who have found themselves on death row in Iran, mostly as a result of drug smuggling. In Iran,...
Why Iran is Bombing Iraq, and Why the U.S. Isn't... →
azspot:
In the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Iran - Iraq border, Iran is lobbing artillery shells into Iraqi territory with increasing, and troubling, regularity. Their claimed target? A Kurdish militant group called PJAK (the Free Life Party of Kurdistan). PJAK controls a broad swath of northern Iraq, beyond the reach of Baghdad and the the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government...
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Iranian Scientist Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No... →
Contrary to a news media narrative that Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri has provided intelligence on covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons program.
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BBC: 'More than 20 dead' in suicide bomb blasts in... →
More than 20 people are feared dead and 100 injured in a suspected twin suicide bomb attack at the Jamia mosque in the south-eastern city of Zahedan. Thursday’s attacks at a Shia mosque in a largely Sunni area were the work of suicide bombers, Iranian media said.
Members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard were reportedly killed in the blast.
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Nuclear Scientist Heads Back to Iran →
After a series of confusing and contradictory statements, Shahram Amiri claims that he was kidnapped by U.S. intelligence officials and subjected to “psychological warfare and pressure that are much worse than being in prison” over the past 14 months.
US officials disputed Amiri’s account, insisting that he defected voluntarily and provided valuable intelligence about...
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The Evils of Islamic Fundamentalism
“Three Basij members have been arrested in Tabriz for raping and killing a 26-year-old woman they arrested for bad Hejab (strands of hair sticking out of the veil). Her body was found near a cemetery. Autopsy showed she had been beaten, raped and shot 3 times in the chest. She had been missing for a week and her family’s search found her in the coroner office. The group’s...
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EU slaps ban on Iran Air for safety →
The EU has banned most of Iran Air’s fleet from entering European airspace due to safety concerns. The European Commission said it would affect three type of aircraft operated by the Iranian carrier but denied it was a sanction related to the country’s nuclear program. “… that means effectively two thirds of the Iran Air fleet is not allowed to fly into EU airspace.” Meanwhile, the...
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Riddle me this:
If extreme and brutal punishments such as stoning for adultery and cutting off the hands of thieves are used as scare tactics for the populace and crime control (Islamic explanation), then what purpose does it serve, other than sadism, to stone a woman to death in secrecy while banning all media coverage??!
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Guardian: Iran imposes media blackout over stoning... →
Newspapers, agencies and TV channels in Iran have been banned from reporting the case of a 43-year-old mother of two, Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose fate is still unclear despite an apparent “reprieve” and an international campaign launched by her children, which has been joined by politicians and celebrities from all over the world. “It’s not the first time we are banned from...
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Free Sakineh →
via/ shapeandcolour
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RE: *Small Victory* for Human Rights in Iran →
I agree with everyone who thinks it’s “preposterous” and “disgusting” to claim a small victory in the stoning case of the 43-yr-old Iranian woman, Sakineh Ashtiani and I appreciate all the reblogs, comments and support.
But my dear friends, you must keep things in perspective: Iran has executed 388 people (on the record) in the post-election frenzy, when the...
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Iran: woman 'adulterer' will not face stoning →
The Iranian Embassy in London has confirmed to Channel 4 News that she will no longer face the death penalty by stoning, but said she was still sentenced to death by other means.
Today, Iran’s human rights movement achieved a small victory.
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Mullets Are Now Officially Illegal in Iran →
In an attempt to rid the country of “decadent Western cuts”, Iran’s culture ministry has produced a catalogue of haircuts that meet government approval.
The list of banned styles includes ponytails, mullets and elaborate spikes. However,quiffs appear to be acceptable, as are fashioning one’s hair in the style of Simon Cowell or cultivating a 1980s-style...
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Guardian: Iranian Woman Convicted of Adultery... →
A 43-year-old Iranian woman is facing death by stoning unless an international campaign launched by her children forces the authorities to quash what her lawyer calls a bogus conviction. In a case that highlights the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has already executed more than 100 people this year, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an...
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Obama says new U.S. sanctions on Iran toughest... →
“There should be no doubt — the United States and the international community are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Obama said at the signing of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act at the White House.
European Union leaders agreed last month to tighten U.N. sanctions on Iran with additional measures targeting...
