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Here's a timely New Year's resolution the president might do well to deliver to his National Security Council: "When it comes to nasty regimes that brutalize their people, we will never again forget that the most powerful weapon in a president's arsenal is a White House photo-op." The December headlines remind us that we have no shortage of these nasty regimes. In China, the government sentences Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for writing a letter calling for legal and political reforms. In Iran, security forces fire on citizens marching in the streets. In Cuba, pro-government goons intimidate a...

According to the Associated Press, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev wants to get outside of the DC beltway in his next trip to the USA: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he would like to meet with "dissidents" when he visits the U.S. next week. Russian news agencies quote him as telling a group of visiting foreign experts that "I believe there are dissidents in the United States." ITAR-Tass quotes him as saying: "Let them tell me what problems the United States has. That won't be bad, considering the Soviet experience." I think that this is a fantastic idea, when one considers...

An ad campaign featured on a U.S. Army website seeking those who would be interested in being an "Internment/Resettlement" specialist is raising alarms across the country, generating concerns that there is some truth in those theories about domestic detention camps, a roundup of dissidents and a crackdown on "threatening" conservatives. The ads, at the GoArmy.com website as well as others including Monster.com, cite the need for: "Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a...

A prisoner forced to confess tries to speak with his eyes - to tell those watching that he's admitting to crimes he never committed because he's been broken by days alone in a cell and interrogators' threats to his family and loved ones. And because it's the only way to get free, said Ebrahim Nabavi, a popular Iranian satirist whose televised confession came after he spent more than three months in prison in 2000 for his written jabs at the ruling clerics. Nabavi believes he saw the same thing happen as he watched two of Iran's most prominent pro-reform politicians...

A young Iranian soldier, arrested late last week for allegedly stealing weapons for opposition groups, was killed in custody and his body returned to his family on Saturday, sources in Teheran said. The sources said the bodies of several dissidents, arrested in the course of anti-regime protests in Iran in recent weeks and evidently killed in detention, had also been returned to their families in the past few days. Several of the bodies bore signs of beatings, the sources said.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations. The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany. The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order...

At a time when Democrats were insisting that Human Rights be a primary issue in the Salt II negotiations, Biden throws the dissidents and refuseniks under the bus, not to mention downplaying our security relationship with Europe - almost inviting the Soviets to invade.

China has said it hopes the Nobel Peace Prize will reward what it called "the right person", amid reports that jailed dissidents top the list of favourites. The Prize is to be announced on Friday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The Chinese foreign ministry said some past choices had gone against the prize's original purpose of promoting world peace and human progress. The award went to the Dalai Lama 19 years ago, and dissidents Hu Jia and Gao Zhisheng are on this year's list. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of...

(English-language translation) HAVANA (AP) - Cuban dissidents sent U.S. President George Bush a letter asking him to temporarily suspend some of the sanctions against the island so aid may be sent following hurricane Gustav. "We ask you that, at least for two months, you lift the restrictions of the embargo that concern the relations between the exiled Cubans and those who live in the island," read a letter signed by Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roca on behalf of a small group called Agenda for the Transition. The dissidents asked for permission to send money and packages and for Cuban-Americans...

The trial of 12 dissidents has started in the Syrian capital Damascus. The suspects signed a petition which called for democratic reforms. Human rights activists say this is the first time that the authorities hold a mass trial of so many dissidents. The twelve are accused of spreading false information, undermining national morals and instigating racial and sectarian unrest.

Arrests, Jailings Of Political And Rights Activists Continue April 14, 2008 Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty Farangis Najibullah The Iranian authorities this month have added several more names to the list of political activists, human rights campaigners, and journalists who have been imprisoned for voicing dissent. The leader of the unregistered Democratic Party of Iran, Abbas Khorsandi, is among the latest targets of the Iranian security services. Khorsandi was sentenced last week to eight years in prison after being found guilty of threatening Iranian state security by setting up "an illegal political group." A 50-year-old economics professor in the northern town of...

HAVANA (AP) - Ailing former leader Fidel Castro made a rare mention of his government's crackdown on political opponents five years ago, defending the action and exhorting the United States to treat its prisoners with the same humanity he said Cuba uses with its inmates. "What an enormous difference between the methods of the United States and of Cuba!" Castro wrote in an essay published Monday in state media, apparently referring to how the U.S. government treats terror suspects. "None of the mercenaries were tortured or deprived of attorney or trial," Castro said of the 75 dissidents rounded up beginning...

BRUSSELS - An Iranian opposition group called on Wednesday for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to immediately inspect facilities in Iran which it said were at the core of an accelerated nuclear weapons programme. The National Council of Resistance of Iran dismissed a December U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that Tehran stopped trying to make a nuclear warhead in 2003, shortly after the group first revealed the country's nuclear enrichment activity. It charged that Iran had established a new command and control centre for the programme coded-named Lavizan-2 at Mojdeh on the southeastern outskirts of Tehran last April, near the site of...

A PETITION TO SUPPORT CUBAN DISSIDENTS, from Lech Walesa.

Suspicious Death in Iran Prison January 22, 2008 The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) FIDH The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI) urge the Iranian authorities to investigate the death in prison of Mr. Ebrahim Lotfollahi. FIDH and LDDHI furthermore express their deep concern over the increasingly frequent arrests of student activists and women’s rights defenders over the past months. Mr. Ebrahim Lotfollahi, a Kurdish law student, died in the prison of Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on January 15th, 2008. Mr Lotfollahi was arrested, for unknown...

Do Van Phuc - Thu Hien (Ha Noi - Vietnam) An Exile group, Vietland’s underground sources in Ha Noi reported that the Communist Vietnamese Authorities have been poisoning Novelist and journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (pen names Nguyen Thai Hoang and Nguyen Thi Hien) by adding little amount of poison to her meals in order to gradually kill the human rights activist instead of bringing her to the court. For several months Thuy has been coughing up blood.

As I write this, close friends of mine are sitting in cells of Evin prison in Iran. They are suffering from torture, solitary confinement and denial of medical care. Despite their suffering, they write and smuggle out of prison essays about the brutality of Iran's government and about how the democracy movement can stay resilient despite mounting repression. [Illustration] Here in America, where I have been living since 2005 as an exiled activist, a controversy has emerged over the Bush administration's pledge to provide $75 million in democracy and human-rights assistance to Iranians. Critics of the funding, among them some...

Washington - The United States warned Belarus on Tuesday that more sanctions are possible if the government continues arresting and intimidating political dissidents. "As long as the Belarusian authorities are not ready to abide by democratic norms, the United States will continue to maintain and strengthen sanctions on those responsible," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The United States has already banned US firms from doing business with top Belarussian officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, over crackdowns on political opponents for rigging elections in March 2006. He has been banned from travelling to the United States. The latest warning...

Stonings, hangings, floggings, purges. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might claim that United Nations sanctions can't hurt his country, but that is not how it feels for Iran's long-suffering population which now finds itself on the receiving end of one of the most brutal purges witnessed since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The most visible manifestation of the new oppression sweeping Iran has been the wave of public executions and floggings carried out in Teheran and provincial capitals over recent weeks in a blatant attempt by the regime to intimidate political opponents. The official government line is that the punishments are part of...

MURMANSK, Russia - Heavy sedatives keep Larisa Arap languishing in a woozy haze at a mental asylum, the victim not of a troubled mind, her family says, but of a Soviet-era practice that continues to muzzle and punish dissent in today's Russia. Earlier this summer, Arap, an activist with former chess champion Garry Kasparov's opposition movement, co-wrote an article that alleged abusive practices at local psychiatric clinics. When Arap appeared at a Murmansk clinic to pick up a routine medical certificate July 5, a doctor called police and had her taken to a local asylum. The doctors handling Arap's case...

Activists' Parents Accuse Tehran of Torturing Their Sons July 26, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Robert Tait in Tehran Fears that Iran is systematically mistreating political prisoners and dissidents have been further fuelled after the parents of three detained student activists claimed their sons had been tortured. In a letter to the country's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the parents alleged that the students have suffered a catalogue of physical and psychological abuses since being incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison in May. The students - Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Ghasaban and Ehsan Mansouri - were among eight from Amir Kabir University arrested...

LONDON Mar 31, 2007 (AP) — An Iranian opposition group claimed Saturday that Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines was planned in advance and carried out in retaliation for the U.N. sanctions imposed against the country, as an Iranian diplomat said the case had entered a legal phase. Gholam-Reza Ansari, the Iranian ambassador to Russia, made his comments to Russian television Vesti-24 on Friday and was quoted by IRNA on its Web site as saying, "the case of the detention of British sailors has taken on a judicial form." IRNA originally quoted the ambassador Saturday morning as saying...

Wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners urged U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan on Monday to visit the island's state-run jails during her weeklong trip to Cuba to call for the closure of the U.S.-operated Guantanamo prison. The Ladies in White, a group of women demanding the release of their loved ones, described what they called "inhumane" conditions at Cuba's prisons in a letter for Sheehan that was sent to international reporters. The group said it was trying to get a copy to Sheehan as well. "At the same time you and your noble followers fight for the closure of...

A secret assassination squad was set up to poison former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, it was claimed today.The allegations are contained in two letters smuggled out of a Russian jail and passed to a close friend of Mr Litvinenko. The letters were apparently written in jail by Mikhail Trepashkin, a former Russian intelligence officer. In one, Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk. Mr Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession yesterday and he passed them to Scotland Yard. In 2004 Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's...

THE HAGUE -- When Geert Wilders rose from his desk, his head almost touched the narrow ceiling. The tiny corner office underneath the parliament's roof wasn't selected for space but security. Possible assassins can only come from one direction, making life easier for the two bodyguards outside. Mr. Wilders has been living under 24-hour police protection ever since the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh two years ago. The Dutch-Moroccan who stabbed and shot van Gogh in Amsterdam left death threats behind against him and the Netherlands' other, more famous critic of Islam: Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Like the Somali-born...

Top News Story Western military buildup underway in the Middle East. Global Research published a major report on the military build-up of conventional, ground, air, naval, and nuclear forces in and around the Middle East and Central Asia. The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post reported that the clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.   US confident Russia and China will join in sanctions on Iran. The Washington Times reported that the United...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad to shake up his cabinet. Iran Press News reported that a source close to Ahmadinejad's cabinet said that in the coming days vast changes will be taking place within the administration. The first to leave will be the oil minister; Vaziri Hamaneh is expected to be dismissed from the cabinet.   Ahmadinejad fails to deliver his economic miracle. Inter Press Service reported that Iranian citizens are wondering if Ahmadinejad will ever make good on an election promise to crack down on the corrupt and distribute Iran's vast oil revenues more equitably.BBC News reported that Iran's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad plans huge increase in uranium enrichment. ABC News reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they want to install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. Bush pleased with the Iran Freedom and Support Act The White House, Office of the Press Secretary reported that President Bush said "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act." Here are a few other news items you may have missed. The International Herald Tribune reported...

Top News Story Bush signs Iran Freedom and Support Act! The Washington Post reported that President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs.The Associated Press reported that the US Senate finally passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act.The Library of Congress published the full text of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   But does Condi support a change of regime in Iran? The Wall Street Journal reexamined their recent interview with Condi Rice in which he concludes: Her primary method for dealing with the...

Top News Story Photo evidence of the Islamic Republic's coordinating Iraq's insurgency. Roads to Iraq and Iraqi blog reported that after a fierce battle in “Khan Bani Sa’ad� Diyala governorate north of Baghdad with “Mahdi Army�, Iraqi resistance succeeded to capture one of the “Mahdi Army�. They found a complete modern communications system manufacturing in the Ministry of Defense of Iran believed to be used as a direct contact with the Iranians. Photos.CNN News reported that a Shiite Muslim militia involved in the warfare between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq has received "millions of dollars" and an assortment of...

Top News Story Iran wins another round in the nuclear crisis with the West. ISN Security Watch reported that while a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment would boost diplomatic efforts with Iran, the UN and EU seem to have thrown in the towel, offering talks without suspension and betraying their weak position.Reuters reported that president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, said on that Tehran would not suspend nuclear enrichment despite pressure from the West. He said: "Today, Western countries want us to suspend our nuclear technology, but we say to them that we will never give it up."Bill Gertz,...

Top News Story Pentagon report critical of US broadcasts into Iran.   Mercury News reported that a Pentagon unit has drafted a report charging that U.S. international broadcasts into Iran aren't tough enough on the Islamic regime.   The US military on the Islamic Republic's military.   Middle East Newsline reported that the US military officials have assessed that Iran's military was the second most powerful in the Middle East.   Russia finally sets a startup date for Iran's nuclear power plant.   Bloomberg reported that Iran's first nuclear power plant, a Russian-built project, will begin operating by September...

Top News Story "Islam is not compatible with democracy.� - The next Supreme Leader? The New York Times reported concern that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, is trying to expand his already growing power by packing the "assembly of experts" (which has the power to elect the Supreme Leader) with his loyalists. He said: “Democracy means if the people want something that is against God’s will, then they should forget about God and religion.�   BBC radio's pro-Islamic Republic campaign of misinformation. Ardeshir Dolat reported that the BBC radio 4 in Britain has started a campaign of misinformation on Iran. Its...

Top News Story Is Iran about to launch a war in northern Iraq? DEBKAfile reported that a new Middle East war is in the offing with Turkish and Iranian air units are poised for an imminent coordinated invasion of the northern Iraqi Kurdistan. The report claimed Iranian and Turkish assault troops are already deployed 7-8 km deep inside Iraqi territory.   The EU/Iran have weeks to agree on an agenda for more talks. Reuters reported that France said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran had weeks rather than months to agree an agenda for talks about...

Top News Story EU3 cave into Iran. Reuters reported that France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment program first, but Washington would not take part.   Islamic Republic tries to crush new Azeri dissent. Regnum reported the arrest of five Azeri after troops were deployed by the authorities in order to prevent massive rallies by Azeri’s against opening new schools in Farsi.   Pakistan surrenders region to Taliban and Al Qaeda? Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Bill Roggio, The Weekly Standard reported that the government of Pakistan...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, September 23 (IranMania) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said rabbis are criticising the 'Zionist' regime more than the Islamic Republic of Iran, IRNA reported. Speaking to reporters after his 10-day visit to Senegal, Cuba, Venezuela and the UN General Assembly in New York, the president said he held a lengthy meeting with Jewish clerics in the US. "They expressed their concerns to us over the behaviour of the Zionists," he added. The president also said that during the visit, he explained Iran's principled stand on a host of issues during meetings with various groups...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad crushes CFR hopes for a "grand bargain." The New York Times reported that Ahmadinejad met with two dozen members of the Council on Foreign Relations, then ending the evening by asking whether they were simply shills for the Bush administration.Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com reported that while the CFR has consistently promoted a "grand bargain" with the regime in Tehran and ex-CFR staffer Susan Maloney at the State Department has vetoed funding of the Iranian opposition radio and TV broadcasts, and training for opposition groups inside Iran, on the grounds that it might offend the Tehran...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad tells big lies but is largely unchallenged by the media. MSNBC and NBC News published an interview with Ahmadinejad in which he claimed that while the US “... speak of war so easily, as if it’s on their daily agenda. We never speak of war.�Los Angeles Times reported that Iran's president told the United Nations that the organization had become a tool used by the world's powerful to oppress the weak, and call.   Chavez calls Bush "the devil." Drudge Report published the full text of Venezuelan President Chavez remarks at the UN General Assembly....

Top News Story Ahmadinejad attempts to rally the world against the US. Vital Perspective published the full translated text of Ahmadinejad's UN speech. A few excerpts... On the nuclear issue: "All our nuclear activities are transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eyes of IAEA inspectors." On the US and Britain: "They consider themselves the masters and rulers of the entire world." On human rights: "Should respect for the rights of human beings become the predominant objective, then injustice, ill temperament, aggression and war will fade away." He ended with: "Oh, Almighty God... upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad invited to speak to the CFR in NYC. One Jerusalem has confirmed that the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Left-leaning establishment organization in New York, is inviting major civic, business, and political leaders to meet Iran's tyrannical President Ahmadinejad this week, when he is in New York. They asked for your help.Eli Lake, New York Sun reported that Jewish leaders in New York are spurning a request from the Council on Foreign Relations to meet with the president of Iran when he arrives for the U.N. General Assembly.Ken Timmerman, Iran.org reported a...

Top News Story The Islamic Republic's media campaign in the US. Daniel M. Zucker, Global Politician reported on the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (VEVAK) sophisticated campaign of disinformation, learned from the Soviet KGB, and its work in the United States. A must read.   UNSC to act this week on Iran? CNN News reported that Condoleezza Rice said the United States expects to "make some movement forward" on a sanctions resolution when U.N. diplomats convene in New York next week.The New York Times reported that after intense talks about Iran's nuclear program, the United States and...

Top News Story A mini cold war is starting in the Middle East. Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat argued that a mini cold war in the Middle East is likely to begin with a Western push for regime change in Syria.   Bush won't meet Ahmadinejad at the UN. He has other plans. Iran Focus reported that United States President George W. Bush ruled out meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York where world leaders will gather next week.   Another meaningless meeting of the major powers and...

Top News Story Pakistan releases 2500 Al Qaeda and Taliban. The Telegrah reported that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government had authorized the release from jail of 2,500 Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters caught fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.   Krauthammer: Bush preparing for war with Iran. Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post reported that President Bush said "It's very important for the American people to see the president try to solve problems diplomatically before resorting to military force." "Before" implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable.The Washington Post asked President Bush what he would say to...

Top News Story Xinhua TEHRAN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran denounced Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday for his recent comments on Islam and requested a apology, the official IRNA news agency reported The pope's remarks were "contradictory to his status as the leader of one of the world's divine faiths," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying. The remarks made by the pope, "emanate from political interpretations and are contrary to the divine notions, we consider it's a big mistake... and we condemn them," he added "In order to prevent the indignation of the Muslim's world,...

Top News Story The lies Khatami spoke in the US. Amir Taheri, New York Post reported that in his recent speeches in the US, Khatami used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience. A must read.   The West is still divided on what to do next with Iran. New Press reported that key European nations called on Iran to negotiate its nuclear dispute with the international community,...

Top News Story Sharansky: A troubling story from Putin. Natan Sharansky, Los Angeles Times reported that in 2000, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin told me a story that he has been unable to get out of his mind. The story involves a nephew, a suitcase, a train to Manhattan and a nuclear bomb.   France's Sarkozy: Iran is an outlaw nation. NDTV reported that French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that Iran had "made itself into an outlaw nation" and must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.   Did Bush promise a pre-emptive attack on Iran? Mario Loyola,...

Top News Story Khatami questioned at Harvard and slips. Russell Berman, Telos reported on a Khatami's response at Harvard to a question from an Iranian in the audience who questioned him about the case of the suppression of free speech: the arrest, rape and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi. Khatami's answer was very revealing.Yahoo News reported Khatami was met by protesters when he arrived at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Many angrily called on him to stand up for human rights where Harvard College Democrats teamed with their Republican peers for the protest.   Blair warns the West...

Top News Story Islamic Republic's sub missile launch a fake. Los Angeles Times reported that U.S. military intelligence has determined that a video released by the Iranian government purporting to show a test of a new submarine missile is bogus. it matched a video of an earlier Chinese test. "It's the identical launch," a Pentagon official said. "The plume, everything, is the same."   Ahmadinejad visits Venezuela and Cuba. IranMania reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to hold talks next week in Venezuela to meet with Chavez who recently told cheering students that "we should unite and save...

Top News Story Khatami served with a court summons at CAIR reception. PRNewswire reported that seven Jewish-Iranian families have filed suit in an American federal court against former President Mohammad Khatami over charges that he is responsible for the kidnapping and torture of their missing family members. The summons was served on Khatami at a reception hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.   Bush personally signed off on Khatami's visit. Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal interviewed President Bush on Iran who said he personally signed off on the U.S. visit this week by former Iranian President Mohammad...