Posted on 07/06/2005 9:56:21 PM PDT by freedom44
Top News Story
Adnoki
The well-known Iranian writer and journalist Akbar Ganji, who has been in prison for more than four years, is in a critical condition after being on a hunger strike for the past 23 days. His wife, who met him in an Iranian jail, confirmed that the renowned dissident's life was in danger. "My husband, before beginning the hunger strike weighed 77 kilograms, but today his weight has fallen to 58 kilograms and he can no longer stand on his feet," Massoumeh Shafii, said in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
Shafii told AKI that her husband was in solitary confinement and that he was kept in isolation even during the period of open-air time allocated to prisoners. In the last letter that Ganji succeeded in releasing from prison, the journalist indicated that the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, was the “mastermind of the operation" behind his physical annihilation.
In the letter, Ganji also accused Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saiid Mortazavi, of "being the material executor of this diabolical plan.". Human rights activists suspect Mortazavi was behind the death Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian journalist of Iranian origin who was killed while in custody in an Iranian jail.
Ganji, who in the past published articles allegedly exposing the involvement of government officials in the murder of intellectuals and journalists in the 1990s was jailed in April 2000, charged with "acting against national security." Ganji, who has already served 62 months in prison, suffers from acute asthma and is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran's Evin prison.
In his letter, the journalist said that in order to achieve justice, he had to take it upon himself to do something about the situation.
"If I die, if I achieve justice, I can at least tell myself with satisfaction that I have attracted the attention of international public opinion to the Iranian situation," he wrote in the letter.
In the past few days the White House has also weighed in on Ganji's plight, demanding the immediate release of Ganji as well as Naser Zarafshan, a lawyer who represented the families of intellectuals and journalists allegedly murdered by the Iranian intelligence ministry agents in 1998. Zarafshan has served two of the five years he received after being convicted for for "dissemination of confidential information".
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Congress Should Sign an Immediate Resolution in Support of Ganji
July
Posted on 07/06/2005 6:44:30 PM EDT by nuconvert
On June 29, 2005, the State Dept. released a statement calling for the immediate release of Akbar Ganji who is imprisoned in Iran and near death on a hunger strike.
(see link here)
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Jun/30-278123.html
Congress should back up this statement with an immediate resolution in support of Ganji.
I encourage everyone to write to their representatives, to sign a resolution and thereby send a message to the world regarding the human rights violations in Iran.
We need to show support for a democratic movement in Iran and the Iranian people need to know we are behind them.
"We need to show support for a democratic movement in Iran and the Iranian people need to know we are behind them."
The Iranian people need to do something powerful and violent themselves, but I doubt they will.
Demonstrations and hunger strikes are laughed off by such oppressors.
I am not aware of a single muslim land, that rose up against any oppressive regime, EXCEPT Iranians when they got rid of the Shah.
The fact is that a substantial percentage of muslims WANT strong religious dictatorships. Those among them that don't are for the most part unwilling to lay their lives down for freedom.
To get freedom, many before have risked the ultimate cost. Apparently more muslims will die by suicide murder of innocent civilians, than will die for freedom.
That is the equation.
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I agree!
Now is the time to act.
Write congress, now!
Mr. Ganji is a treasure for Iranian pro-Democracy movement.
His loss will be a huge set back for those who fight for the freedom in Iran
U.S. Calls on Iran To Release Imprisoned Journalist Akbar Ganji
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Jun/30-278123.html
"Mr. Ganji is a treasure for Iranian pro-Democracy movement.
His loss will be a huge set back for those who fight for the freedom in Iran"
You ignore my main comments.
The US did NOT get freedom by a few intellectuals sitting in jail, doing hunger strikes.
We fought with guns, for years.
Something absent in Iran.
I repeat, I see no evidence that muslims have, in their core being, the "stuff" to put many lives on the line, for years, for freedom.
I see evidence a few will do suicide bombings, to kill innocent civilians.
If what I say pisses you off, show me examples where many muslims risked their lives, for the goal of freedom. Show me.
You should not mention ISLAM and IRAN together. They are two separate things. They are totally different.
Iran might have an Islamic government but Islam is not a strong religion in Iran any more.
I do not know what Muslims do but I do know that Iranians are brave enough to talk against their rulers and demand freedom.
Shirin Ebadi has announced that Mr. Ganj is about to die and he wont stop his hunger strike until the regime releases him .
from... http://www.emrouz.info/ShowItem.aspx?ID=3915&p=1
Ahmadinejad meets with IRGC commanders
Ahmadinejad, president-select of Mullahs in a meeting with IRGC high command
I would direct your attention to the January 30th elections in Iraq, where over 8 million Iraqi civilians risked their lives to vote. Such a high proportion of adult Americans never risked their lives in our Revolution.
Zarivar lake in west of Iran
This is to refresh your minds after a horrible day!
It has been a horrible day. I can not help but wonder how the Brits will react. Will they be like the Spanish and cower in fear, or will they be like us and come roaring back to their feet?
"I would direct your attention to the January 30th elections in Iraq, where over 8 million Iraqi civilians risked their lives to vote. Such a high proportion of adult Americans never risked their lives in our Revolution."
Alright, I concede you make a valid point.
I have been posting such a challenge and yours is the first such reply. I do have in mind something where the people rise up, on their own, to fight for their freedom.
Perhaps Lebanon qualifies, to a degree. They have a much more westward, and secular heritage...Christians among them, too.
It just doesn't appear part of islamic culture to yearn to be free of dictators, despots and the like. Least of all, to shed blood for it.
But murdering innocent non-combatants...that is a very islamic trait, as London proves. Along with virtually EVERYWHERE they go.
There will be peace in the valley, someday.
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