Iran sanctions: BHO administration says the right thing but...

THIS just in over the BBC:

29 September 2010 Last updated at 14:59 ET

US imposes sanctions on Iranian officials for 'abuses'

US President Barack Obama has ordered for the first time sanctions against senior Iranian officials for "sustained and severe violations of human rights".

The eight men include the head of the Revolutionary Guards, a former interior minister and the prosecutor general.

The treasury department said they would face a travel ban and asset freeze.

The alleged abuses include the killings and beatings of anti-government protesters after the disputed presidential election in June 2009.

Millions of Iranians defied official warnings and participated in mass rallies that drew the largest crowds since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The authorities launched a brutal crackdown, during which opposition and human rights groups accused the security forces of extra-judicial killings, rapes and torture. Thousands were held without charge.

Over the subsequent six months, at least 40 protesters were killed, although the opposition says more than 70 died. At least two people have been executed for related offences, and dozens imprisoned.

[...]

In a statement, the White House said: "As the president noted in his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, human rights are a matter of moral and pragmatic necessity for the United States."

"The United States will always stand with those in Iran who aspire to have their voices heard. We will be a voice for those aspirations that are universal, and we continue to call upon the Iranian government to respect the rights of its people."

All of those named in the US sanctions list served in Iran's military, law enforcement and justice system around the time of the 2009 protests:...

There follows a list of those named in the sanctions, and a video clip of Secretary of State Clinton.

Check it out on the BBC here.

This declaration follows on the most recent symbol of disapproval of Iran, when the US and other nations walked out of the UN as the Iranian despot did his usual anti-Israel, anti-all- things-not-Iranian screed this past week.

My two questions are this:

1) what took you so long? and 2) what is the US actually going to do?

We have all watched the horrific videos and read the desperate emails/twitters that the Iranian people bravely got out to the watching west following the farce of an election last June. Who can forget grotesque images like this? (Yes, I have chosen to show the obscenity of Neda's death, as a reminder.)



The BBC story above quotes the official number as 40 killed and thousands were arrested. I would suggest that both numbers are grossly under-estimated, since at least one other story sated that 70 Iranian professors were arrested in the horrific days following June 2009. Many of those Iranians arrested were never heard of again, and we know that there were many who were beaten and tortured. There was also executions of those who dared to protest and demand a democratic vote.

Iranian 'leaders' have continued to laugh at the west's demands about their nuclear programme, and the UN has allowed Ahmadinejad to continue his unfettered mockery of the condemnation by the rest of the world. Since 1979, Iran has consistently ignored any rhetoric expressing disappointment, disapproval and even 'outrage,' spouted from the rest of the world. We also know that Iran has aided and abetted enemies of the west in this current Global War on Terror, as we hear of Islamic terrorists being trained and supplied with weaponry by the Iranian regime.

Since 1979, all the west has offered IS rhetoric, and empty words, symbols. Back in June 2009, the Iranian people were dying on their streets, and begging the world to hear them, to help them.

It appears that the wheels of diplomatic solutions turn really, REALLY slowly, but this pronouncement of sanctions today - unless backed up with real action and consequences for the Iranian despots - will accomplish nothing, except more mockery from Ahmadinejad.

Since BHO took office, he has talked a good talk (usually ad nauseum,) about human rights, but he has yet to prove - unequivocally - that he is prepared to walk the walk, and back his words with action.

Today's statement about sanctions is a good thing, a good first step. It also makes for a good soundbite on the evening news. However, if these words, these sanctions, are not backed up with actions that mean more than empty noise, we will have failed the people of Iran - again.

Mr President: the people of Iran, and the rest of us, are watching. The "always" you spoke of is NOW! It is long time past for the talking to stop, and for the people of Iran to know that we DO stand with them, whatever the cost.

To quote JFK of January 1961 (another Democrat president):

Let every nation know, [...] that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

The Resistance of Iranian Women: We Are All a ‘Neda’ Now

From Family Security Matters:

March 9, 2010

Exclusive: The Resistance of Iranian Women: We Are All a ‘Neda’ Now

Sara Ahmadi

When it comes to Iran, it is important for one to understand many things, especially considering the events of the last few months. I always think that nobody will know what our people – especially women – have gone through here in Tehran, the heart of Iran.

The bitterest reality is the presence of the mullahs who have imposed their rules on us. I was lucky to see a few years less of the misery these mullahs have brought for us because I was born a few years after the beginning of their rule!

Iran has attracted the attention of the world after the righteous uprising of its people for freedom and democracy; the decisive right of the people.

What is most outstanding in this uprising is the presence of the women of my homeland – the uprising that introduced the innocence of Iranians, especially Iranian women, to the world by the name of Neda (Neda Aghasultan) and the last scenes of her life in this world.

Though my friends and I had gone to her grave for several times and cried over it, we still feel national pride for introducing such a symbol to the world because all of us, the Iranian women, are all a “Neda.”

You know that you are living under the rule of the mullahs if you [cannot] walk in the streets of Tehran the way you wish to walk. When you step outside of your home, you are forced to be something else. The eyes of these criminals watch you everywhere, watch all your moves, controlling everything from the way you dress to a sudden smile that forms on your lips. Your presence is like a dagger landing in their dirty minds; they cannot bear the free presence of even one woman on the street.

Before the years when I attended university, they only controlled the color of my dress, an extra band of my hair coming out of the compulsory veil and the length of my dress. Yet now they control everything – most of all, they wish to control my thoughts!...

There is much more, in graphic detail, from this courageous Iranian woman here. This woman speaks for all women of Iran as she describes the brutal repression they all live under, every single day. READ IT ALL!

Be sure to read the comments that follow, too. One in particular bears repeating here:

This story must be told friend to friend so that everyone in the world and all those millions who saw Neda's last moments of life should hear this. Neda did not die. She is alive in every human being who cares about other fellow human beings.
This is a moving story of resolve, determination, courage and most of all readiness to pay the price of freedom. With such women the brutal regime has no future and its place is, no doubt, in dustbin of history. The question remains what the western governments are willing to do to reduce the bloodshed...[...]

Hail to brave women of Iran.

Indeed. Go read every word.

Surely I am not the only reader of this gut-wrenching piece who sees the irony here? While the pampered women of the west celebrate International Women's Day, women like Sara here, and Neda; the women of Afghanistan; they ask if we will forget them and their plight. Young girls under the boots of barbaric regimes of the world who suffer horrific rituals; women regularly subjected to rape as a weapon of war; denied a decent education, where are the cries of outrage from the rest of the world?

I hear no raising of voices from the educated, 'enlightened' women of the west? Do they speak up for their sisters who can only dream of the luxury of freedom that we in the west take so much for granted?

The silence from the west in defence of - in solidarity with - these women is deafening.The Neda's of our world deserve so much better, and we say nothing, we do nothing. Nothing.

"And when they came for me, there was no-one left to speak."

"She died on the streets to say something."

The header is part of an interview Dr Arash Hejazi gave about the death of Neda on the bloody streets of Iran. He is the man who tried to save her, as her blood ran through his fingers:

Iran doctor tells of Neda's death

"We heard a gunshot. Neda was standing a metre away from me... I saw blood gushing out of her chest"

The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments.

Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, said he ran to Neda Agha-Soltan's aid after seeing she had been shot in the chest.

Despite his attempts to stop the bleeding she died in less than a minute, he said.

Video of Ms Soltan's death was posted on the internet and images of her have become a rallying point for Iranian opposition supporters around the world.

Dr Hejazi also told how passers-by then seized an armed Basij militia volunteer who appeared to admit shooting Ms Soltan.

Dr Hejazi said he had not slept for three nights following the incident, but he wanted to speak out so that her death was not in vain.

He doubted that he would be able to return to Iran after talking openly about Ms Soltan's killing....

Dr Hejazi is a brave man for breaking the deafening silence that the regime is trying to impose on the people of Iran. Go watch a video of his interview, and read text excerpts, on the BBC here.

Stay tuned. TRUTH will not be silenced.

H/T Blake

Voices of Iran : Neda

I really don't know where to begin with commentary about all that is going on in Iran today. Some would say I don't need to say anything, since the video above that I found on YouTube yesterday speaks far more forcefully than I ever could. THIS is what the face of Iran looks like today.

And the rest of us? Well, reports say that the Canadian Embassy in Tehran is closed for the weekend, and therefore not taking in the injured from Tehran streets as other embassies are reportedly doing. I don't know if this is true, but if it is I have to ask "why?":... Yes, embassies typically offer assistance to their own nationals abroad, BUT since when did non-political compassion need mandating for ANY embassy for ANY in need?

Of course, I am old enough to remember 1979 when our Ken Taylor quietly took in US citizens to the Canadian embassy. This was as Iranian "students" took over the US embassy. There was no public announcement of what Mr Taylor was doing, or the role of Canadian helping our allies. Only later did the world get to hear the harrowing details about what Canada had actually done to help. I hope and pray the Canadian embassy in Tehran IS stepping forward - even discreetly - to help the Iranian population. Compassion needs no national flag.

Then we come to the CBC. Yes, again. Turned on my radio to check out the content of the Sunday Morning national current affairs programme. Not one mention of Tehran or what is going on there. This may be a good thing, given the fuzzy commentary that comes from the CBC some days, but hello? Not even a five second acknowledgement, on a three hour programme, that blood is running in the streets of Tehran? My tax dollars at work.

Meanwhile, Neda becomes the human face of the brutality of the Iranian regime. As you all probably know by now, Neda means "voice" in Farsi, and these pictures of Neda gunned down in the streets will - I suspect - resonate as the "voice" of freedom for many Iranians.

Today, "they" came for the Iranians, and the president of the USA went for ice cream. Tomorrow? The insanity continues.

[Addendum: Be sure and check out FaultlineUSA's post here.]

And then there is this from today:

protests in tehran 21 june