Posted on 07/22/2015 2:45:14 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
The rally is scheduled for Thursday, 12 to 1 in Lafayette Park. Speakers include Senator Ted Cruz, Gary Bauer and Faith McDonnell. It's sponsored by CWA, Concerned Women for America. If you're in the D.C. area, maybe you'll find the time to stop by and show your support for the Americans abandoned by Obama to his new Iranian buddies.
Here are some of their stories
The wife of imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini sent a letter to her husband on the day of their 11th wedding anniversary, describing the "excruciating pain" she's in without him while he's being held inside an Iranian prison because of his Christian faith.
"For 1,007 days I have remembered you in prayer and felt your pain. For 1,007 days I have been in prison with you as your wife and soul mate. Each night I have struggled with anxiety and a sense of urgency that we need to get you out," Naghmeh's letter reads.
"Each night that I have laid my head on our bed, I have hugged your empty spot and have wept myself to sleep. Each morning I have woken up with an excruciating pain to my new reality without you. I have prayed. Oh how I have prayed."
She adds that she has held prayer vigils every year on their anniversary while the pastor has been held in an Iranian prison, to let him know that he is not forgotten.
Amir Hekmati, a U.S. Marine veteran held by Iran since August 2011, has begun a hunger strike to protest his captivity, his family says.
The family was informed of his plans Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Hekmati, a dual citizen of Iran and the United States, was captured while visiting his grandmother in Iran, his family says. Tehran has accused him of being a CIA spy, something Hekmati and the U.S. government deny.
On July 22, 2014, Iranian authorities crashed into the Tehran home of Washington Post Iran correspondent Jason Rezaian and arrested him and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, also a journalist. Rezaian was taken to Iran’s infamous Evin Prison, where he was put in solitary confinement for months, without a word of explanation to his family or to the outside world. Salehi, an Iranian citizen, was released on bail last fall.
On Wednesday, Rezaian begins his second year behind bars. His incarceration is the longest, by far, for a Western journalist in Iran since the 1979 revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power.
Throughout his captivity, the 39-year-old California native has been subjected to grueling interrogations and repeated deprivations, forced to stay for weeks in a bare cell without a mattress or even a toilet, family members said after they were allowed to speak with him. He was held for nearly five months before being formally charged with espionage and other crimes and held for almost 10 months without a trial.
Rezaian has been periodically deprived of medicine for his high blood pressure, family members said, and his physical condition has deteriorated, with dramatic weight loss, back pain and chronic eye and groin infections.
Less than a year later, we received photos of him in an orange jumpsuit, holding up messagesmocking our helpless attempts to return him home. When I first saw these photos, I realized how unrecognizable my father had become; that same confident, smiling man who I shared lunch with that day 10 years ago had been transformed completely. It was clear that on a daily level, he has been living through hell.
A few weeks ago, my brother, Dan, spoke in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,imploring them to do everything they could to help our Dad, especially as negotiations remain ongoing for a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran.
“Crunch time,” my brother called it. I couldn’t agree more, but for some additional reasons. This October, I’ll become the first of my father’s three sons to get married, as I’ve found a partner who I can only describe as the woman of my dreams.
It would be amazing to have my father front and center for the ceremony, as he has already missed walking two of my sisters down the aisle for their weddings. But most of all, I just want him to be able to meet my fiancee. I know he would love her, that he would see how much I love her, and that he would share a few words of advice to guide me through the nerves of wedding preparation.
I believe in my father, and I know how determined he is to get home. There is no doubt in my mind that one day he will succeed, that one day we will see each other again and he will meet my future wife. She is hopeful for that day as well, and longs to meet the man I am constantly trying to emulate each day.
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Ted Cruz Ping! Were the hostages brought up by Cruz BEFORE cruz voted for the legislation to review the Iran deal?
Funny, all these radio and tv commercials I hear and see from the Conservative Solutions Project tell me “Marco Rubio is leading the fight against the Iran deal”, but then I never see him actually showing up anywhere to lead said fight. It seems that others are doing quite a bit more to draw attention to this horrible deal.
It is good to see Cruz in the news. I don’t recall this being an issue until the deal was done. This is a good strategic move. Cruz seems to be following in the wake of The Donald. If, or when Trump stumbles Cruz will pick up his supporters.
Now it’s complete for Carter II, an Iranian hostage crisis.
Are you saying this event is not a good strategic move by Senator Cruz?
He is too busy raising money. And dissin top candidates to elevate himself
Senator Cruz read Trumps book. And Sun Tzu. That is what I mean when I say Cruz is following in Trumps wake.
He = RUbio
I like Sen. Cruz, but I very much doubt he would be doing this if not for the influence of Donald Trump.
I’m pretty sure that Ted Cruz would be doing this in spite of Donald Trump.
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