Posted on 07/14/2005 10:31:52 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
Kofi Annan Claims Ignorance on Iran Dissident
ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 14, 2005
WASHINGTON - As three senators joined President Bush's call for the Iranian regime to release dissident journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, yesterday refused to comment when pressed, claiming ignorance on the matter.
When asked by a New York Sun reporter if he would speak out on behalf of Mr. Ganji in light of the president's statement Tuesday, Mr. Annan said, "I don't know enough about the case, so I'd prefer not to comment."
Iranian authorities initially arrested Mr. Ganji in 2000 for publishing a book and writing news stories charging his country's political leaders with playing a role in the murder of dissident intellectuals in the late 1990s. Since June 11, when he was sent back to Evin prison after a brief release for medical treatment, Mr. Ganji has been on hunger strike, subsisting on a diet of sugar cubes and water.
In separate statements, Senator Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, and Senators Brownback and Santorum, Republicans of Kansas and Pennsylvania, respectively, called for the mullahs to release Mr. Ganji, whose health is failing, according to his wife. A press secretary for the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, had no comment when asked yesterday.
On Tuesday, Mr. Bush specifically called on the United Nations to come out against Mr. Ganji's detention as his medical condition has deteriorated significantly. In a letter smuggled out of Evin last month, the writer reported that he had lost more than 40 pounds on his hunger strike.
Yesterday, 33 Iranian political activists wrote Mr. Annan requesting that the secretary-general personally press Mr. Ganji's case with the Iranian regime, according to the Associated Press. In an open letter the activists wrote, "For the sake of human rights, [we] ask you to intervene directly in Ganji's case and follow it as an urgent human rights issue," according to the AP.
Mr. Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told the Sun yesterday that the activists' letter had not yet landed at Mr. Annan's office.
A liaison of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, Greg Mokhaiber, told the Sun yesterday that any call for U.N. aid to a jailed journalist, including one from the American president, is referred to the commission, the membership of which includes repeated rights violators such as Sudan and Libya.
"A statement to the press is not the most direct route to the United Nations," Mr. Mokhaiber said. A secretary-general is not bound to respond, he said, adding that in the past Mr. Annan has raised publicly specific cases of victims of human rights abuse. In his report on reform earlier this year, Mr. Annan recommended replacing the 53-member Human Rights Commission with a smaller council that would bar membership to rights offenders.
Iran's foreign ministry yesterday criticized Mr. Bush for raising Mr. Ganji's case in light of reported abuses of detainees at the American detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Calling the statement from the president "interventionist," the ministry's spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told state-run radio yesterday, "The White House talks about violations of human rights in Iran while the world hates the U.S. violations of human rights in both Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons."
Mr. Ganji's case is attracting attention from both sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Biden, who has favored direct negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programs, responded yesterday to the Sun's query about Mr. Ganji with a tough statement: "The Iranian government should release Akbar Ganji immediately and unconditionally. Ganji is a symbol of courage and a source of inspiration as he defies the forces of repression and intimidation that keep the hard-line mullahs in power."
Senator Brownback, who personally attached amendments to the 2004 and 2005 budgets authorizing the expenditure of American funds for Iranian democracy organizations in the country, yesterday offered his prayers for Mr. Ganji.
"Mr. Ganji represents many other political prisoners who are denied of their basic rights. Many Iranians claim that they live their daily lives as prisoners to the regime where they are denied most every fundamental human right," he said in a statement.
Mr. Santorum's communications director, Robert Traynham, yesterday said, "Mr. Ganji is in jail because he dared to criticize the hostile regime and expose the serial murders of intellectuals and journalists who have also spoken out for Iranian freedom. He and the others should be released immediately and given the same rights that all human beings deserve." Mr. Santorum has sponsored legislation that would offer international monitoring for a constitutional referendum in Iran, a campaign Mr. Ganji has helped organize.
- The Daily Demarche reminded us "freedom isn't free" and some imprisoned are paying the price such as "our brethren... Akbar Ganji."
- Michael Ledeen, National Review explains Blair's strange omission of Israel and Iraq from his list to nations facing terrorism. A must read.
- Jeffrey Gedmin, The Weekly Standard argued that if the United States is serious about preventing the mullahs from getting the bomb, we have two choices: either preemption or regime change.
- Iran Focus published an interview with a defector from Iran’s secretive nuclear establishment, who says that Iran is close to a nuclear bomb.
- Daily Times top negotiator Hassan Rowhani was quoted as saying, with the end of the mandate of the current government; my tenure will come to an end just as is the case for other ministers.
- The Washington Post reported that an administration source who is close to John Bolton said that Bolton is prepared to accept a recess appointment, as UN ambassador, next month.
- Kurdmedia reported that thousands of Kurds protested the murder of the Kurdish youth by Iranian Pasdarans in the city of Mahabad.
- Yahoo News reported the White Houseas saying, there needs to be a permanent end to Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. We have made that very clear."
- The Financial Times reported that Curt Weldon, a senior Republican politician will ask the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate whether a former agent endangered US national security by allegedly leaking the identity of an Iranian dissident to journalists.
- WorldNetDaily reported that the Iranian Mullah's goal is nuclear terror in the U.S.
- Tehran Times reported that Iran’s new national police chief said, Our society is a young one... we must deal with them patiently.
- Islamic Republic News Agency reported that South African backs Iran's peaceful application of nuclear technology and wants to buy Iranian oil.
- Gooya News published an urgent call to action in support of Akbar Ganji. A good brief on Ganji.
- Iran Press Service reported that an Iranian MP was “advising” Mr. Ganji to continue his hunger strike until he dies.
- Yahoo News reported that Iran's government said Wednesday that President Bush shouldn't intervene in the case of a jailed Iranian dissident, particularly given allegations of U.S. human rights violations.
- BBC News reported that five Iranian MPs say they want to meet the jailed dissident Akbar Ganji, soon.
- Human Rights Watch claimed in Iran a leading dissident’s life is in danger.
- And finally, Iranian.com published photos of Ganji on his 33rd day of his hunger strike.
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You could have stopped the headline at that point.
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Hence he is known as "Famous Anus".
True..
But what about Lugar's "no comment?"
TRANSLATION: "I don't have any balls, so I'd prefer not to comment."
No "new news" here. The UN=Uselss Numbskulls
Hasn't stopped him before, but that was mostly anti US crap.
Doesn't Kofi claim ignorance just about everytime a mojor catastrophy happens in the world, (i.e. India, Pakistan, Sudan/Rwanda genocides, U.N. rape of Congo women, Yassir Arafat's terrorism, Mugabe, etc.)? And in particular when he is accused of being connected to said catastrophies?
YOU GO TO HELL KOFI, YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE!!!
I could swear I read an article a couple of weeks ago, which spoke of a letter sent to Annan/UN months ago if not a year ago regarding Ganji.
Maybe the heat's getting to me, but that's what I remember
UN is a useless piece of $hi#
I doubt the Hell residents would let him in ;-)
He isn't deserved to be there too!
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