Holding Iran's Islamic radicals accountable

 Town Hall:

The appeals trial of a former Iranian regime prison official implicated in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners recently unfolded in Sweden as a consequential chapter in the ongoing struggle for accountability.

The proceedings not only laid bare the gruesome events of that dark period but also underscored the protracted conflict between the main Iranian opposition and the Iranian regime. Kenneth Lewis, serving as the attorney for multiple plaintiffs in the trial, argued that the clash between the opposition and the Iranian regime should not be classified as an international armed conflict as claimed by the Iranian regime and its proponents. Instead, he described it as a non-international armed conflict dating back to June 20, 1981.

This date marked the beginning of the Iranian regime's brutal suppression of peaceful protests, leading to widespread detentions and executions. According to Lewis, these oppressive actions by the regime left the MEK with no option other than to shift toward armed resistance as a form of self-defense against the regime's tyranny. Lewis’s arguments highlighted the long-standing conflict between the Iranian resistance and the regime. The basis of this conflict was emphasized as being rooted in the pursuit of democratic principles and the defense of human rights for Iranian citizens. Furthermore, he strongly countered the regime's narrative, which accused the MEK of collaborating with the Iraqi army during its operations against the Revolutionary Guards. He refuted this claim as propaganda, underscoring the MEK's independent stance in its struggle against the regime's oppressive policies.

The regime's narratives have been perpetuated in the West by individuals presenting themselves as experts but who have open or clandestine ties to Tehran. The "Iranian Experts Initiative" recently showed active communications with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lewis presented documents and evidence dated December 9, 2002, issued by Iraqi authorities to the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNSCOM) to underscore the oppositional group's independence from Iraq. These documents indicate that MEK facilities in Iraq were not under Iraqi control. This evidence, alongside banking records illustrating the MEK's financial autonomy during its time in Iraq, underscores the MEK's independence from Iraqi influence.

At the heart of this saga lies the tragic events of the summer of 1988, when, under the religious decree of former regime Supreme Leader Khomeini, an estimated 30,000 political prisoners were systematically executed. This atrocity, over 90% of whose victims were members of the MEK, stands as a glaring testament to the extremes to which the Iranian theocracy will go to silence dissent. Over 100 prisons were scenes of the killings across Iran. The victims were buried in mass graves.
...

The current Iranian leadership is intolerant of dissent and willing to kill those who openly disagree with it.  They should be held accountable.

 See also:

Amid Israel-Hamas conflict, 'information war' plays out on social media, experts say

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more