1988 Massacre Archives - IAC Virginia

Despite Nuclear Talks, Iran Is Still Far from Moderation

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 01:13:14 +0000

Newsweek | TED POE, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE | 11/30/21

Negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Monday despite an uptick in the Islamic Republic’s malign activities. Earlier this month, Iranian forces seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and conducted comprehensive military exercises, showcasing various military assets including suicide drones like that used in the attempted assassination of Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Khadimi.

Mohammad Eslami, the new head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, recently boasted that the country had acquired even larger stockpiles of highly enriched uranium than the International Atomic Energy Agency had estimated in its most recent quarterly report. Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi surely appointed Eslami to the post on the understanding that he would antagonize Western adversaries and undermine the nuclear deal. He is only one of many appointees who embody the ultra-hardline stance of Iran’s new presidential administration.

Raisi’s own reputation and conduct make it extremely difficult to take seriously the announced return to nuclear talks. While some American policymakers are eager to take the proceedings in Vienna as a sign of the new administration’s cooperative tendencies, most know better. They have seen this before, and they know what the outcome will be.

Over 14 years in the U.S. Congress, I saw countless instances of Iranian officials receiving praise for their moderation only to later follow their hardline predecessors in threatening Western interests, undermining global security and violently repressing their own people. Most of my former colleagues have long since abandoned the notion that Iran’s behavior will change through the efforts of its own officials, and realized that such change is much more likely to come from pro-democracy activist groups within Iranian society.

At a Washington conference on Iran last month, former vice president Mike Pence identified some possible sources of change. He described Raisi’s appointment to the presidency as having been “intended to quash internal dissent and intimidate the people of Iran into remaining silent.” But he also noted that the choice of such an openly hardline leader is “a sign of the regime’s growing desperation and vulnerability” and its need to accelerate crackdowns on dissent.

As VP Pence stated, “one of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold the world is that there is no alternative to the status quo. But there is an alternative—a well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative called the MEK.” Pence described the leader of this opposition movement, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, as “an extraordinary woman” and “an inspiration to the world.” Pence is right. I dealt with this movement firsthand during my years in Congress, and I have personally met Mrs. Rajavi. It is time for America to invest in true partners in Iran, instead of pleading with the regime’s unpopular figureheads.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi speaks before parliament to defend his cabinet selection in the capital Tehran on August 21, 2021. – Iran’s parliament started reviewing ultraconservative President’s cabinet list in preparation for a vote of confidence expected next week, the assembly’s official media reported.

In January 2018, the Islamic Republic was rocked by a nationwide uprising that encompassed well over 100 cities and towns. Nearly 200 localities took part in another uprising in November 2019, and both movements featured slogans that condemned regime-approved “reformist” and “principlist” politicians as two sides of the same coin. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has since helped to keep a lid on large-scale unrest, Maryam Rajavi, who also addressed last month’s conference, has predicted that the era of the Raisi administration will be defined by an unprecedented increase in “hostility and enmity” between the Iranian regime and its people.

That “hostility and enmity” was on full display in the very election that brought Raisi to power in June 2021, as well as in the previous year’s parliamentary elections. The Iranian people conducted widespread electoral boycotts to show their dissatisfaction with Tehran’s hand-picked politicians.

By some accounts, less than 10 percent of Iran’s eligible voters actually cast votes for Raisi. Most avoided the sham process altogether while some deliberately submitted invalid ballots. The boycott reflected the same desire for change that had defined prior uprisings, but was further motivated by recognition of the leading candidate’s record of violating human rights and suppressing dissent. Raisi had a role in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 and in a crackdown on the 2019 uprising that killed at least 1,500 peaceful protesters.

As domestic conflict emerges in Iran, the international community will have to be prepared to take sides. Much of the world will look to the United States to demonstrate leadership in this regard. The U.S. should waste no time to show support for the Iranian people as they work to consolidate the legacy of the 2018 and 2019 uprisings, as well as the recent electoral boycotts.

Raisi’s past actions are clearly grounds for further sanctions on the Islamic Republic in general, and on the president in particular. They may also be grounds for prosecution at the International Criminal Court, in the event that the United Nations finally conducts a suitable investigation into 1988. The U.S. is in a strong position to take the lead on both issues.

The Western participants in the Iran nuclear deal recently met in Washington and reported having newfound confidence in their unity over Iran policy. Sadly, that unity will be wasted if it is solely directed toward negotiating with the Raisi administration in a futile attempt to foster moderate impulses within the current regime. Assertive policies from without, and pro-democracy pressure from within, are the only hope for wringing change from the Iranian government. Our goal should be to inspire the Iranian people to change that government, once and for all, from dictatorship to democracy.

Judge Ted Poe represented the Second district of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2005 to 2019 and is the former chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

https://www.newsweek.com/despite-nuclear-talks-iran-still-far-moderation-opinion-1653938

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Prosecute Raisi For Crimes Against Humanity In Iran

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 23:31:43 +0000

Townhall | Ken Blackwell | Oct 30, 202

Human rights usually feature prominently in America’s political rhetoric but fade insignificance when it comes to concrete action. That trend can take a historic turn when it comes to Iran, where a genocidal madman has taken the presidency. That the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran hasn’t galvanized governments in the West and in the U.S. in particular to pursue his prosecution is still a mystery.

Human rights groups, UN experts, Nobel laureates, scores of elected officials, lawmakers, and journalists have already expressed outrage over Raisi’s rise to power. And justifiably so.

In 1988, Raisi was one of the members of a death squad that systematically implemented the theocracy’s orders to eradicate opponents of the state’s extremist and misogynist interpretation of Islam. Women as young as 13 were put to death because they demanded a secular democracy. And their blood drips from Raisi’s hands.

In the end, 30,000 women and men, imprisoned at the time on political charges, were executed across Iran. Legal experts have described it as a crime against humanity and genocide. The majority of the victims, according to Amnesty International, were members of the main democratic opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

In the 117th U.S. Congress, H.Res.118 referred to the massacre as a crime against humanity and called for accountability. The resolution had 250 co-sponsors, a tremendous sign of bipartisan unity when it comes to America’s moral orientation on human rights.

But that admirable voice must find an expression in concrete action by our government. Otherwise, the Iranian regime and Raisi will thrive on a sense of international impunity by committing more heinous crimes and massacres against innocent civilians.

What does concrete action look like?

For starters, the press and the public must get to know the victims of the heinous massacre that took place in 1988. Many of them are currently in Ashraf 3, in Albania.

Many grieving families of the victims report that they still do not know where their loved ones have been buried. According to Amnesty, the regime is systematically destroying the mass graves that hold these people’s loved ones in order to erase all traces of criminality.

There are also some survivors who recently testified in court in Sweden, where a regime agent is currently on trial for his involvement in the 1988 massacre. Their stories and eyewitness accounts must be told to a wider audience in the U.S.

Second, Washington must heed the calls by UN experts and human rights advocates to immediately start the process of prosecuting Raisi. He should be prosecuted not next year, but today. Justice delayed is justice denied. And justice has been delayed long enough. The appropriate mechanisms of the UN and other international tribunals should be activated immediately, and the accounts of survivors and eyewitnesses need to be documented and publicized.

Third, the voice of Iranian Americans working toward a free and democratic secular republic that respects human rights must be heard. Instead of shaking Raisi’s hands, American officials need to engage the Iranian people.

On Thursday, and on the heels of the G20 summit, hundreds of Iranian American community leaders joined victims of Raisi’s crimes against humanity in Washington, D.C. This extraordinary conference, organized by OIAC, urged the U.S. to lead a decisive policy against the genocidal regime in Tehran.

One of the main speakers was former Vice President Mike Pence. He described Raisi as “a brutal mass murderer responsible in 1988 for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. His selection as President is clearly intended to quash internal dissent and intimidate the people of Iran into remaining silent.”

“Raisi … must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide,” he added.

That is exactly the demand made by the prominent opposition leader and President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, who also spoke at Thursday’s summit. She said that since the regime is engulfed by a number of existential crises, Raisi was installed to silence all forms of opposition. But, change is inevitable in Iran as a series of nationwide protests in Iran have clearly demonstrated.

Mrs. Rajavi added: “The Iranian people are ready for the regime’s overthrow more than at any other time. It is time for the international community to side with the people of Iran and their desire for change.”

Her point was underlined by Vice President Pence: “There is an alternative, well organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative called the MEK. … The MEK is committed to democracy, human rights and freedom for every citizen of Iran, and it’s led by an extraordinary woman. Mrs. Rajavi is an inspiration to the world.”

Time is running out. When it comes to human rights, America’s actions should match its rhetoric. Raisi should be prosecuted for his heinous crimes against the freedom-seeking people of Iran. Not tomorrow, but today.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kenblackwell/2021/10/30/prosecuted-raisi-for-crimes-against-humanity-in-iran-n2598279

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The ‘Butcher of Tehran’ is Terrified of Stepping Foot in the West

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 20:19:44 +0000

Newsweek | Struan Stevenson | 10/1/21

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, dubbed the “butcher of Tehran” due to his involvement in murder, genocide and human rights violations, ducked out of attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York and instead sent a pre-recorded message. Raisi is on the U.S. sanctions list because of his leading role in the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in Iran. It seems likely he chose to stay in Tehran rather than risk causing outrage to tens of thousands of ex-pat Iranians, had he come in person to New York. His predecessors as presidents of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, both attended the New York U.N. General Assembly meetings in person, but Raisi is clearly afraid of his murderous past catching up with him if he dares to set foot in the West.

Raisi has publicly admitted and even boasted about his involvement in the 1988 massacre, involving mostly members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran / Mojahedin e-Khalq (PMOI/MEK), the main democratic opposition to the despotic mullahs. In fact, in 2009, following a nationwide uprising in protest at the rigged election of Ahmadinejad as president, Raisi said: “As long as the MEK leadership is alive, anyone who supports the group in any way deserves to be executed.” By this, he meant that extermination of the MEK members and supporters is a must without any legal basis, simply because they think differently from the mullahs and because their different approach is more appealing to ordinary Iranians, particularly young people, women and intellectuals. There can be no clearer indication of his involvement in the international crime of genocide.

Now, Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, has called for Raisi to be investigated for crimes against humanity and for his involvement in murder, enforced disappearance and torture. The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has also issued a damning report on the grave human rights violations that have occurred in Iran. His report expressed concern at the inhumane treatment and torture of supporters of opposition groups and their arbitrary conviction by revolutionary courts for the alleged crime of moharebeh or waging war against God, which carries the automatic death penalty. The opposition groups referred to by Guterres are mainly the PMOI/MEK, again showing that the U.N. has recognized the crime of genocide. In his report, António Guterres also expresses his concern over impunity from past violations such as the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, accusing the Iranian regime of “destroying evidence of the execution of political dissidents and harassment and criminal prosecution of families of victims calling for truth and accountability.”

In his pre-recorded video speech, filled with lies, cynical abuse, insults, praise of terrorism and threats to global peace and security, Raisi accused the U.S. of using sanctions as an act of war against Iran. He falsely claimed that U.S. sanctions had prevented medicines and COVID-19 vaccines from reaching the Iranian people, despite the fact that sanctions have never affected food, medicines, agricultural items and humanitarian products. It is only the criminal incompetence of the mullahs who ruled against utilizing any COVID-19 vaccines from the West and then defaulted on payments for Sinopharm and Sputnik vaccines from China and Russia, that has led to the appalling tragedy of over 440,000 deaths from the virus in Iran.

Claiming to be keen to send a message of “rationality, justice and freedom” to the world, Raisi, the hanging prosecutor, whose hands are dripping with the blood of his murdered victims, carefully avoided any mention of the mullahs’ massive financial and military support for proxy wars across the Middle East. As the key sponsors of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the brutal Shiite militias in Iraq, the terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, the mullahs do nothing for rationality, justice and freedom. Raisi even heaped praise on the terrorist godfather Qasem Soleimani, killed by a U.S. drone strike.

Raisi predictably also called for all the signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement, to uphold their obligations under the terms of the deal. He omitted to remind the U.N. how his regime has repeatedly boasted of their serial breach of the agreement as they accelerate their enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade status. Raisi demanded the lifting of U.S. sanctions as the only way of ensuring the Iranian regime’s return to the terms of the JCPOA, despite widespread intelligence that the mullahs’ adherence to the nuclear agreement was always a fraud and their race to develop a nuclear bomb never faltered.

Raisi, as a genocidal murderer, presides over a government of assassins, terrorists and thieves. He must never be allowed to set foot in the West and he should be prevented from addressing international conferences, even remotely. The U.N. Security Council must now facilitate the prosecution of Ebrahim Raisi and other officials responsible for decades of atrocities and human rights violations, particularly the genocidal massacre of political prisoners in 1988. There must be no impunity for mass murderers like Raisi. The recent news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has launched a full probe into Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, for his involvement in crimes against humanity and murder will send shockwaves to Tehran. Duterte’s extra-judicial killings in his so-called war on drugs may now lead to his indictment, arrest and appearance in the ICC. Surely this must pave the way for a similar indictment against Raisi.
Today, we should send the clearest possible message to Ebrahim Raisi. His crimes will not be forgotten or forgiven. His victims and their families demand justice. He will be held to account for crimes against humanity, murder, human rights violation and genocide. There is a prison cell in The Hague waiting for him.

https://www.newsweek.com/butcher-tehran-terrified-stepping-foot-west-opinion-1633978

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In Remembrance of 120,000 Fallen for Freedom, Iranian People Rising

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 06:31:18 +0000

Iranian Americans Hold Photo Exhibition and Rally Outside State Department, Call for Accountability

WASHINGTON, DC, October 21, 2020 – In an elaborate photo exhibition held by the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) outside the U.S. Department of State building in Washington, DC, prominent speakers and supporters of democratic opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), highlighted four decades of systemic arrests, torture and executions in Iran and called on the international community to hold perpetrators of these crimes accountable.

Prominent political personalities and former political prisoners spoke about the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, majority of whom were members of Mujahedin-e-Khalgh (MEK), the November 2019 murder of 1,500 protesters, and the assassination of dozens of political dissidents abroad. Speakers included former U.S. Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, former Senator Robert Torricelli, as well as former State Department officials Ambassadors Mitchell Reiss and Marc Ginsberg. Former Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) and former White House official Linda Chavez also addressed the rally.

Judge Mukasey reminded global leaders that, “this regime is not going to change. Rather, it has to be changed. The people who must do that are the Iranian people and it is our job to support them in any way that we can in this struggle.” Former Senator Robert Torricelli noted that, “the tactics of America of how to help the Iranian people to get to this in the future may or may not change, but the goal does not. The mullahs must fall, and freedom must return to the Iranian people in any form of government that they choose that defends basic liberties.” “As we look today at the faces of the martyrs,” Mr. Torricelli said, we are “remembering those who lost their lives either in the slaughter of 1988 or on the streets of Tehran and other cities around Iran.”

Ambassador Mitchell Reiss referenced the qualifications of the NCRI leadership and said, “Under the leadership of Madam Rajavi, the MEK offers the Iranian people and the world a different future. She offers a democratic alternative based on individual freedom and human dignity, a vision that could not be more different from the dictatorship that now controls Iran.”

Highlighting the necessity to hold Iranian regime officials accountable, Mrs. Linda Chavez said, “it’s important that the State Department focus on what is happening in Iran because this is something that needs to be brought to the international community’s attention. And the United States has the opportunity to go to the United Nations Security Council and to demand that

justice be brought in these horrendous killings.”

Former Congressman and Judge Ted Poe (R-TX) also lamented the notion that Iranian leaders are yet to face accountability for their crimes and added, “no one has been held accountable, not even the attacks and the plots, the plots of assassination in Albania, Paris and other places. Not even the assassination of Kazem Rajavi in Switzerland.”

Three former political prisoners, Mrs. Roya Johnson, Mrs. Shirin Nariman and renowned surgeon, Dr. Firouz Daneshgari, addressed the event and provided firsthand accounts of the human rights violations they were subjected to, and witnessed. In her remarks, Hannaneh Amanpour said, “I was only five years old when my father was killed by the Khomeini regime in 1988.” Roya Johnson, spoke about Navid Afkari, a wrestling champion who was executed in Iran on September 12, 2020 and added, “Navid is from the same city that I am from. Shiraz. He was held in the same prison where I was held for 2 years, the notorious prison of Adel Abad. He was probably tortured in the same torture chambers where I was tortured too.”

Event participants and speakers called for:

Urgent attention to the rising gross violations of human rights in Iran and ongoing crimes against the political prisoners and protesters.
Urgent call to implement further sanctions against the officials responsible for human rights violations in Iran.
Call for accountability for those involved in the torture and executions in Iran and terrorism abroad.

The exhibit displayed thousands of pictures killed in Iran since 1979, and called on the United Nations to move beyond the dozens of resolutions deploring the state of human rights, but to appoint a body to investigate its crimes, including the “ongoing crimes against humanity in Iran.”

By1988, Iran’s prisons were packed with thousands of political prisoners, mainly belonging to the main opposition, the MEK.

The UN peace accord, and the reluctancy of the masses to go to the Iran-Iraq war front line cornered Khomeini, the Supreme Leader at the time, forcing him to drink the “poison chalice” as he called it, and accept his inevitable warmongering defeat.

In order to prevent post war unrest and take revenge on the opposition, Khomeini issued a religious decree ordering the execution of any political prisoners who had not “repented” and who was not willing to collaborate utterly with the regime.

Suddenly, all family visitation to prisons were banned; kangaroo courts were held, and summary execution sentences were issued. Over 30,000 political prisoners who were serving their sentences, or even finished theirs, were executed in the summer of 1988. To this date, the Iranian regime has never officially admitted this massacre, and many victims’ family members who have questioned the massacre are sitting in prisons. Many previous or current senior officials from both sides of the regime, the so-called hardliners, and reformers, were directly involved in this massacre.

The most recent bloody uprising occurred in November 2019 when people poured to the streets to protest the multifold fuel price hike. Quickly, this unrest turned into an anti-government uprising and spread to more than 200 cities, and every single province in the country. The Iranian regime, in fear of being toppled by the people, shut down the internet for weeks and started a killing spree. Snipers were placed at roof tops and government security forces were shooting protesters from close range on the streets. In the matter of few days, the regime killed more than 1,500 protesters and arrested more than ten thousand.

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