Free Republic

SNIPPET: "The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan." SNIPPET: "General Hossein Musavi is the commander Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," the Treasury stated. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban." Colonel Hasan Mortezavi is described as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban." Qods Forces' Ansar Corps is the command that is assigned...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned what it called "the criminal attitude" of Iran's top leaders in refusing to release journalist Akbar Ganji, who has now been on hunger-strike for nearly 50 days. "They must release him for humanitarian reasons. He has been unjustly detained for more than five years but he is a determined man," the worldwide press freedom organisation said, calling on the international community and journalists everywhere to join in exerting pressure on the Iranian government. Ganji will begin his 50th day without food on 31 July. He now weighs only 52 kg and is unconscious much of...

“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is no more the leader, having overstepped his legitimacy by not responding to his Islamic duties. He must step down”, says Iran’s most prominent political dissident Akbar Ganji. In a pathetic letter to the nation’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hoseynali Montazeri, Mr. Ganji cites a statement by the fonder of the Islamic Republic Grand Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini saying “every member of the population has the right to impeach publicly the ruling officials and if the impeached one has no satisfactory answer, otherwise and if having acted against his Islamic obligations, he must step down and...

Nineteen days have passed since I began my hunger strike. I have lost nineteen kilograms. I am imprisoned. I do not have permission to make phone calls or read newspapers. I have been denied visitation. I cannot walk outside my cell. The liars say they have no political prisoners. They say the political prisoners are not on hunger strike. They distort the facts by calling a cell a suite, saying that prisons are as comfortable as they can be in a hotel! Calling a donkey a parrot does not miraculously turn the donkey into a parrot! Prisoner is someone whose...

(New York, January 6, 2005) -- After testifying to a presidential commission about their torture during detention, a group of Iranian journalists have received death threats from judicial officials under Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch is extremely concerned about the safety of the journalists, whose testimony to a presidential commission, tasked with investigating mistreatment of detainees, provided detailed information on their torture and mistreatment while they were detained, without being charged, by secret squads operating under the authority of the judiciary. “We want the Iranian government to know that the world is...