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U.S.: Iran officials involved in the human trafficking of women

NCRI – Officials of the regime in Iran are involved in the “sex trafficking of women and girls”, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report on human trafficking released this week.

“Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor,” the State Department said in its annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2015.’

“Organized groups reportedly subject Iranian women, boys, and girls to sex trafficking in Iran, as well as in the United Arab Emirates and Europe,” the TIP report said.

“In 2013, traffickers forced Iranian women and girls into prostitution in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. From 2009-2015, there was a reported increase in the transport of girls from and through Iran en route to the Gulf where organized groups sexually exploited or forced them into marriages. In Tehran, Tabriz, and Astara, the number of teenage girls in prostitution continues to increase.”

“Organized criminal groups force Iranian and immigrant children to work as beggars and in street vendor rings in cities, including Tehran. Physical and sexual abuse and drug addiction are the primary means of coercion. Some children are also forced to work in domestic workshops. Traffickers subject Afghan migrants, including boys, to forced labor in construction and agricultural sectors in Iran. Afghan boys are at high risk of experiencing sexual abuse by their employers and harassment or blackmailing by the Iranian security service and other government officials.”

“In previous years, there were reports government officials were involved in the sex trafficking of women and girls. Reports also indicated some officials operating shelters for runaway girls forced them into prostitution rings.”

“The Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. As in previous reporting periods, the government did not share information on its anti-trafficking efforts. Publicly available information from NGOs, the media, international organizations, and other governments indicates the Iranian government is not taking sufficient steps to address its extensive trafficking challenges, particularly with regard to the protection of trafficking victims.”

“Moreover, female victims of sexual abuse, including sex trafficking victims, are liable to be prosecuted for adultery, which is defined as sexual relations outside of marriage and is punishable by death,” the report added.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made a statement after the State Department released its 2015 TIP report which placed countries into one of four tiers to indicate “the extent of government action to combat trafficking.” Six countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, were placed on the Tier 3 List, the highest level of concern, while five additional countries in the region were placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said: “Iran’s inclusion again as a Tier 3 country in the TIP report is further evidence of the administration’s irresponsibility in pretending Iran’s nuclear program exists in a vacuum. The administration decided to negotiate with Iran exclusively on its nuclear program while ignoring Iran’s other illicit activity and human rights record and is incorrectly arguing that it is only lifting nuclear related sanctions. Despite the administration’s claims, the sanctions being lifted on Iran were never intended solely for its nuclear program but were also designed to address its human rights record, including human trafficking, among other issues. As Iran’s Tier 3 placement shows, human trafficking and human rights are not improving in Iran. We must not lift Iran’s human rights sanctions as part of this weak nuclear deal.”

Syria - Mig shot down by rebels in Jobar district

Syrian rebels and Assad forces were involved in major clashes in the Jobar district of Damascus on Monday, July 27, Al Jazeera reported.


It is said that Assad military forces have attempted to penetrate rebel-control areas near Damascus from the beginning of 2015, yet these attempts have been futile. Reports indicate that during attacks on the Jobar region of Damascus a number of Assad military personnel were killed by the rebels, of which two were high-ranking officers.
On the other hand, the spokesman of a rebel group said a MiG war plane belonging to Assad was shot down by the rebels in the Jobar district. This jet burst into flames before it was able to land in a military airport around the town of Soweida.
The Jobar district of Damascus, considered one of the oldest areas of the Syrian capital, has been under siege by Assad forces for more than two years.

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Seven People Killed by Lightning in Central Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Seven people died and two more were injured when struck by a lightning bolt in the Mesa Cuata community in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, said the state secretary of public safety, Alvar Cabeza de Vaca.

The official, cited by local media, said it was around 3:00 p.m. local time when the report came in that seven people were injured by lightning in that town.

It wasn’t until an hour later, however, that the deaths of seven people were confirmed and that two others were injured, all apparently belonging to the same family.

According to the official, members of the municipal and state emergency management services, as well as from the Public Safety Secretariat and the Red Cross, rushed to the scene to provide aid for the injured and determine exactly what happened.

“They were standing together or walking down a road – these were people who go out to work in the fields,” the official said.

The injured were described as a woman, 30, and an 8-year-old boy, both reportedly taken to Guanajuato General Hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.

Cabeza de Vaca repeated the rainy-season guidelines to the population.

“What people must do, above all those who live in the countryside, is take shelter during rainstorms, which can easily turn into electric storms, but they must not seek shelter under a tree or on high ground,” he said.

Colombian bus driver raped by 3 men ( 3,500 dollar reward ) people outraged

Colombian society reacted with indignation Friday over the case of a Bogota bus driver who was sexually assaulted by at least three individuals who got on the public transport vehicle she was driving along her usual route.

There were no other passengers on the bus at the time.

The Bogota Metropolitan Police said Friday that the gang rape occurred around 11 p.m. Thursday when the bus the woman was driving was going through the densely populated Kennedy district on the southwest side of the city.

There, according to preliminary accounts, two men and a woman got on the bus and threatened the driver with knives.

Later, according to police, one of them took control of the bus while the other two individuals took the driver to the back of the bus, where they beat her and sexually assaulted her.

Police officials cited in the media indicate that the rapists used "objects" to sexually assault the driver, who was left half-naked on the southwest side of the city.

Police Col. Luis Barrera told reporters that the woman, who is receiving medical care at Polyclinic Olaya, was able to tell officers what happened and help with the creation of sketches of the aggressors.

With these elements, Barrera said, citizens will be asked to help "provide information" about the suspects and their whereabouts, in exchanged for which the police force is offering a reward of 10 million pesos ($3,520).

After hearing what happened, Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said on Twitter that "there is a rapidly growing number of attacks on (bus) drivers" which "cannot go unpunished, even less because the victims are working women." EFE

Message of Maryam Rajavi to U S House of representatives briefing July 24, 2015

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Store owner " Slaps thief around ", don't ever come back!

Zoo in Peru Slaughters Some Animals to Feed Others

LIMA – Lima’s Legends Park zoo slaughtered some of its animals to feed others when food was scarce, Peruvian media reported Monday.

An internal zoo document, disclosed Sunday by the television news program “Cuarto Poder,” confirmed the slaughter of beasts in May and June to provide 433 kilos (953 pounds) of meat to feed other animals.

Sheep, goats, geese and deer were killed, along with a buffalo, according to documents cited in media accounts.

A previous report had raised the alarm about a food shortage at the zoo and requested assistance to prevent health problems among the animals.

The documents contradict Lima Mayor Luis Castañeda’s statement last week that the zoo’s residents “are fat and beautiful.”

Legends Park director Marco Villalobos denied on television that the zoo has any trouble with food and said the reports were aimed at discrediting him.

Early in July, however, Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service, known as Serfor, denounced shortages of food at the facility.

Serfor said that during a visit to the zoo in June, its personnel observed signs of malnutrition among sea lions and heard complaints from zoo employees about the underfeeding of penguins, seals and big cats.

Argentine Expert: Killer Washed His Hands in the Sink after Murdering Nisman

BUENOS AIRES – An expert hired by the family of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman to investigate his still-unsolved death says he is convinced the alleged killer used the sink to wash his hands, Clarin newspaper reported.

In his latest presentation to the lead prosecutor in the case, Viviana Fein, Daniel Salcedo said “the absence of certain blood stains” in the bathroom of Nisman’s apartment, where his body was found with a single shot to the temple on Jan. 18, shows that another person was with him at the time of his death.

Salcedo also presented Fein with a digital animation sequence to back his murder hypothesis, noting that the blood stains slanted downward and began at a height of 60 centimeters (23.5 inches), or almost 50 centimeters (20 inches) above the spot where the victim’s head was found, the daily said Tuesday.

The expert said the alleged killer was standing behind Nisman and to the right, while the prosecutor was down on one knee by his bathtub.

The blood stains could have occurred when the purported killer shook his hands before washing them, Salcedo said.

Salcedo’s latest hypotheses were presented a month after Fein received a report containing the analysis of Federal Police experts; an expert hired by the defense team of Diego Lagomarsino, an aide to Nisman who is accused of providing a firearm to the prosecutor; and Salcedo.

In that report, the different experts disagreed on the cause of death, with those from the Federal Police and Lagomarsino’s defense team ruling out the existence of another person inside Nisman’s apartment.

Nisman, the special prosecutor for a 1994 attack on a Jewish organization in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead, was found dead four days after he brought charges against Argentine President Cristina Fernandez of trying to conceal Iranian involvement in the bombing.

Many in the Argentine Jewish community believe the attack on the AMIA Jewish organization was ordered by Iran and carried out by Tehran’s Hezbollah allies.

Both the Iranian government and the Lebanese militia group deny any involvement and say the accusation relies heavily on information provided by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Prosecutors have yet to secure a single conviction in the bombing case.

The Argentine courts have dismissed Nisman’s charges against the president as baseless.

Experts: Regime change in Iran ultimate solution to nuclear crisis

NCRI - Former officials and policy experts in the United States took part in an online conference on Tuesday, pointing out that the world community should not be forced to choose only between war with the regime in Iran or giving Tehran undue concessions in a deal to curb its nuclear projects in return for an end to sanctions.

The officials and experts argued that a better option would be for the Obama administration and its allies to support the Iranian people and their organized Resistance to bring about regime change.

If the regime in Iran gets a nuclear bomb, “there will be a nuclear race in the Middle East,” said Ambassador Ken Blackwell, a former Cincinnati mayor and U.S. ambassador to the UN human rights commission.

   

“The regime has not negotiated in good faith. They have broken every promise they have made. Giving them resources that help them prop up their regime and continue human rights abuses will allow them to push through with their hegemony in the Middle East and financing of terrorism,” he added.

“We should continue the sanctions which have brought the regime to its knees,” Amb. Blackwell said.

Ms. Linda Chavez, a former White House Director of Public Liaison, said: “The only reason that the mullahs' regime accepted to come to the negotiating table is because the regime was in desperate straits. The Iranian economy is struggling. The Iranian people are fed up and they are taking part in protests at great risks to themselves.”

“What we have now is a very bad deal,” Ms. Chavez said, adding that the regime in Iran is the “chief sponsor of terrorism” and would use the resources provided to it as part of the deal with the international community to fund terrorism in the Middle East.

“This has made the world a very, very dangerous place. It is extremely important that Congress says no to the [U.S.] President”, she said.

The U.S. Congress received the Iran nuclear agreement on Sunday. From Monday it has 60 days to decide whether to approve or reject the deal.

“This is not a partisan issue ... this is an issue of grave importance for the world,” Ms. Chavez said.

She pointed out Tehran would likely cheat in the nuclear deal, referring to past revelations of secret Iranian nuclear activity exposed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

“The National Council of Resistance of Iran is exceedingly good at exposing the Iranian regime and the various secret facilities and the nuclear program in Iran. … We know that the Iranians do not intend to follow this agreement,” she said.

Professor Ivan Sascha Sheehan, director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Management Program at the University of Baltimore, told the online conference that the regime in Iran poses the “most significant security challenge of our time. Tehran is a major source of havoc in the region. They are the primary sponsor of Bashar Assad's murderous regime.”

Prof. Sheehan said that nuclear agreement last week by the world powers and the regime in Iran is full of "appeasement" of the regime.

“The Iranian regime is a weak and fragile state that is not in a position to demand concessions, but the U.S. has conceded too much.”

“What we see in this agreement is concession after concession after concession, and what we will have is a more dangerous Middle East.”

“The agreement put forth by Mr. Obama does not prevent the Iranian regime from having nuclear weapons capability.”

Prof. Sheehan said he was "astounded" that "anytime, anywhere" access to Iranian sites by UN weapons inspectors was not given as part of the deal. He pointed out that the world community knows about Tehran's secret nuclear sites "due to the revelations by the NCRI."

He added that US President Barack Obama is “creating a false choice of either war or concessions to the Iranian regime.”

“The regime will be ultimately brought down from within by the organized opposition. Regime change should be a third option to be considered,” he said.

“The discussion of the nuclear agreement should not be separate from simultaneous discussions on the regime’s human rights violations and sponsorship of terrorism.”

“Mr. Obama is ignoring the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom, liberty and human rights. But Congress need not make the same mistake”, he said. “We should reach out to the Iranian people and the organized resistance. Regime change from within is a possibility.”

The online panel, streamed live on NCR-Iran.org on Tuesday, was entitled “Iran: Nuclear Ambitions, the agreement, rights violations: Prospects & Challenges.”

Iran's opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said following last week's nuclear deal between world powers and the Iranian regime that the deal - which circumvents six UN Security Council resolutions - will not close the mullahs' path to deception and access to the nuclear bomb. Mrs. Rajavi added however that by retreating from his red lines, the mullahs' supreme leader Ali Khamenei had drank a ‘chalice of nuclear poison’ that would shatter his hegemony and undermine the entire regime.

Mrs. Rajavi is President-elect of the NCRI which was the first to expose the Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear sites in 2002 that triggered the investigation by the UN atomic watchdog.

The NCRI’s revelations about the Iranian regime’s nuclear program have been based on information smuggled out of Iran by the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin, PMOI (or Mujahedin-e-Khalq, MEK).

Child, 2 Adults Wounded by Grenade in Colombia

BOGOTA – A child and two adults were wounded when a grenade went off during a military operation in Norte de Santander, a Colombian province on the border with Venezuela, the army said Sunday.

The explosion occurred in La Gabarra, a community in the city of Tibu, the army said in a statement.

“An investigation has been opened” to determine what happened, the army said.

The grenade went off during an operation on Saturday night to “stop an imminent threat” from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla group, the army said.

The three wounded civilians were treated at the scene and later flown to Cucuta, the capital of Norte de Santander, so they could receive specialized medical care.

The government and the FARC have been holding peace talks in Havana since November 2012.

Earlier this month, the FARC declared a one-month cease-fire that takes effect on Monday.

7 yr old Nahua Indian boy "shot and killed by Mexican Soldiers", in Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico – A 7-year-old boy was killed and four other people, including two children, were wounded in a shootout on a highway in the western Mexican state of Michoacan following the arrest of a vigilante leader, security officials said.

The boy, identified as Heriberto Reyes Garcia, was shot in the head Sunday on the highway that links the Pacific coast cities of Aquila and Coahuayana, the Michoacan Coordination Group said.

Soldiers manning a checkpoint opened fire in the village of Ixtapilla on some Nahua Indians who were protesting the arrest a few hours earlier of vigilante leader Semei Verdia Zepeda, residents said.

Verdia is the main leader of the community self-defense group in Aquila, where residents took up arms in February 2013 to fight the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

The vigilante leader was arrested on Sunday morning for allegedly carrying two assault rifles and a pistol.

Members of an unidentified armed group opened fire on residents and soldiers, said the Michoacan Coordination Group, which is under the command of XII Military Region chief Gen. Pedro Felipe Gurrola Ramirez.

Residents in several towns and cities formed vigilante groups to fight the Caballeros Templarios in Michoacan, where the federal government has deployed police and army troops to restore order.

President Enrique Peña Nieto legalized the community self-defense groups, incorporating them into the Rural Force, a law enforcement agency overseen by the state Public Safety Secretariat.

Aquila, one of three cities in Michoacan that lie on the Pacific coast, is mainly inhabited by Nahua Indians who earn a living from mining in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains.

The Caballeros Templarios cartel was created in 2010 by former members of the Familia Michoacana organization.

The cartel, which deals in both synthetic and natural drugs, commits murders, stages kidnappings and runs extortion rackets that target business owners and transport companies in Michoacan.

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Today: Alejo Vidal-Quadras to hold online Q&A on Camp Liberty siege

The former Vice President of the European Parliament, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, will hold an urgent online conference and Q&A later today on the Iraqi government’s blockade on entry of food, fuel and septic tankers in Camp Liberty, which houses thousands of members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, or MEK).

On the orders of Iraq’s National Security Advisor Faleh Fayaz, despite the scorching 50°C heat, in an attempt to torment Camp Liberty residents, Iraqi forces at Gate 4 of Baghdad International Airport since Tuesday have prevented the entry of diesel fuel, petrol and septic tankers and food trucks into the camp.

Iraqi forces at the gate said they had received orders from the Office of National Security not to allow any vehicles, including food, fuel and septic vehicles, into Camp Liberty from now on.

Preventing the entry of fuel is causing interruptions for most of the camp’s basic services including drinking water, black-water, and catering and cooling systems which run on electricity provided by fuel-based power generators.

The conference will be broadcast live on ncr-iran.org

Time: 20:30 European time, Thursday, July 16, 2015

Feature guest: Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament

Send questions via Twitter to @iran_policy and use #IranFreedom .

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214 Kilos of Cocaine Seized from Ambulance in Northeast Colombia

BOGOTA – Colombian police reported Tuesday the arrest of five people who were riding in an ambulance as if on a medical mission, while the true purpose of their trip was to transport 214 kilos (470 pounds) of cocaine to the northern part of the country.

“Inside the ambulance, assigned to the southwestern municipality of Puerto Caicedo, was the driver with a doctor, an operating room nurse, a general nurse and a patient; we can say it came with the whole kit,” the chief of police, Gen. Rodolfo Palomino, told a press conference in Bogota.

The operation was carried out in a rural area of Cimitarra municipality in the northeastern province of Santander.

Found riding in the ambulance, which had started out from Putumayo province on the Ecuadorian border, was Dr. Edgardo Figueroa, candidate for mayor of Puerto Caicedo in the upcoming Oct. 25 elections, according to a police communique.

Palomino said the cops’ suspicions were aroused because it is unusual to find an ambulance on a route that “practically crosses the whole country.”

The police chief added that upon inspecting the vehicle they found the drug cache inside it.

The ambulance was identified with Medical Mission emblems that made it easier to get past the authorities and through traffic, the authorities said.

“All the occupants knew what kind of cargo they were hiding, and though the whole act seemed perfect, they failed to tell the same story during the search,” the police said in a communique.

Mexican Officials Seize Camel Put on Sale at Market

MEXICO CITY – A dromedary, or Arabian camel, that was being sold at a street market in the central Mexican city of Almoloya de Juarez has been seized, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said.

Profepa inspectors went to the San Bernabe street market at the request of the State Public Safety Commission in Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, and “found a person who was trying to sell wildlife without the proper legal documents,” the agency said.

The camel had been the subject of an administrative case against the King Black Circus because the attraction’s operators could not document how they obtained the animal.

Officials were unable to seize the animal because the circus could not be located.

Mexico state environmental officials confirmed, thanks to microchips implanted in the animals, that the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) and some llamas had belonged to the circus.

The camel was taken to the wildlife management unit in Jocotitlan, a city in Mexico state, where it will be cared for, the agency said.

Mexico City approved a law on July 8 that prohibits circuses from using wild animals, prompting the attractions to rid themselves of the creatures because they cannot afford to care for them.

By coincidence, Almoyola de Juarez is home to the Altiplano I federal prison, where drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman escaped on Saturday night.

Iran Nuclear Deal Feeds The Roots Of Regional Terrorism

Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal today, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that could potentially transform the Middle East. (CARLOS BARRIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Maryam Rajavi

Against the backdrop of daily reports of atrocities at the hands of terror groups in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, the world now has word of a nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and the Iranian regime, which–even in the most optimistic reading–not only fails to block Tehran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb, but will provide it with tens of billions of dollars to add to its war chest.

Some may view the concessions to Tehran as an attempt by the Obama administration to secure Iran’s cooperation to counter and defeat the insidious danger of Islamic fundamentalism. This would misread the regime’s history and stated intentions.  Tehran’s nuclear program is explicitly tied to its revolutionary, imperialist impulse. As former President and current head of the Expediency Council Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani once boasted, if the regime acquires nuclear weapons, who could prevent the export of the “revolution”?

The agreement comes as the increasingly fragile regime is reeling from a multitude of crises. Under such circumstances, the P5+1 could have easily compelled the regime to abandon its nuclear projects had it adopted a decisive policy. In reality, the international community has lost an exceptional opportunity to stop the regime from acquiring the bomb.

Regime in Tehran has acted as the driving force of the modern Islamic caliphate

Similarly, when the United States fights terrorism it opts for costly and ultimately counterproductive efforts to pick at dandelions. A drone strike here, token training and small arms shipments there. Lest the garden of civilization–from the Fertile Crescent to the Nile River Valley–be overrun, we must eliminate this ominous phenomenon at its source. To do so we must gain a better grasp of its roots: Tehran. Indeed, the nuclear deal will legitimize and empower the most potent source of radical Islamic fundamentalism in the world.

It is true that both Shia and Sunni extremists, although disparate in tactics and sects, seek to impose an Islamic caliphate–a state based on repressive, regressive and false interpretations of Islam. But the modern vision of an Islamic caliphate in fact emerged four decades ago, in 1979, when Khomeini’s religious dictatorship–based on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or absolute rule of the clergy–came to power in Iran. Since then, the regime in Tehran has acted as the driving force and epicenter of this menacing threat both in the region and worldwide.

The ultimate, stated goal of this brand of fundamentalist extremism, as codified in the Iranian regime’s Constitution, is to establish a caliphate and impose Sharia law by force. It recognizes no sovereign borders in its quest for establishing an Islamic Empire and is primarily characterized by the subjugation of women, complete intolerance for ethnic or religious minorities, and predilections for brutality and violence. Sound familiar? This repressive, expansionist agenda, first institutionalized in Iran, is likewise the primary objective of fellow Islamic extremists including ISIS.

The mullahs will not be part of the solution to Islamic fundamentalism

Tehran has continually sought to export its reactionary ideology abroad in order to destabilize other regional powers and acquire or develop nuclear weapons as a guarantee of its own survival. According to the Constitution, the mandate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is to protect and extend Iran’s “Islamic revolution,” and the IRGC in turn formed the Quds Force, a special unit that has played a central role in perpetrating terrorism around the world. The Quds Force has played a particularly destructive function in Iraq and Syria over the past several years, sowing the sectarian violence that facilitated the vicious backlash of ISIS terrorists.

There is little nuance in the upper echelons of the regime. So-called “moderates” in Tehran, such as President Hassan Rouhani, share the views of other factions regarding the regime’s goals, including the totalitarian rule of the Supreme Leader and policies pertaining to terrorism and fundamentalism. These figureheads are not a force for change, but rather partners promoting the velayat-e faqih regime, which in turn stands as a major inspiration, model and active funder and backer of terrorist groups and cells all over the world. The mullahs will not be part of the solution to Islamic fundamentalism and extremism–they are at the very heart of the problem.

The Iranian people yearn for a democratic, tolerant and pluralist state

Islamic fundamentalism nevertheless can and must be defeated. But it must be torn out at its root: Tehran. This includes expelling the Quds Force and defanging the Shiite militias and other Iranian proxies in Iraq while enabling the genuine participation of Sunnis in governance. The U.S. should empower Sunni tribes by arming and backing them to provide security for their own communities. This is the only way to defeat ISIS. We must drain the swamp of their grievances and their new recruits.

In Syria, Iran’s patronage of President Bashar al-Assad must cease, which entails providing assistance to the moderate opposition’s efforts to overthrow Assad’s tyrannical rule and to establish democracy in that country.

These measures will be significantly diminished, however, if the regime in Tehran is able to preserve or expand its nuclear programs. All pathways toward the attainment of nuclear weapons by this regime must be blocked, something which the nuclear agreement does not do.

In the end, so long as the mullahs remain in power in Iran, Islamic fundamentalism will persist, mutate and spread. Regime change in Iran–through the courage and resolve of the Iranian people and the organized opposition–yanks at the root of the problem. As evidenced in the popular uprisings of 2009, the Iranian people yearn for a democratic, tolerant and pluralist state to grow in place of the velayat-e faqih system that chokes them.

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Maryam Rajavi’s statement on Iran nuclear deal

Maryam Rajavi: Circumventing six UN Security Council resolutions, an unsigned agreement will not close the mullahs' path to deception and access to nuclear bomb, but the ‘chalice of nuclear poison’ and Khamenei's retreat from his red lines will shatter his hegemony and undermine the entire regime

NCRI - Despite many shortcomings and unwarranted concessions to the mullahs, the nuclear deal struck between P5+1 and the Iranian regime represents a reluctant retreat by Khamenei and a violation of red lines upon which he had repeatedly insisted over the past 12 years, including in recent weeks, said the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi.

Mrs. Rajavi reiterated that circumventing the six UN Security Council resolutions and an unsigned agreement, which lacks the requirements of an official international treaty, would neither block the mullahs' pathways to deception nor their access to a nuclear bomb. Nevertheless, as the Iranian Resistance had pointed out, such a retreat will shatter Khamenei's hegemony (within the regime) and weaken and undermine the ruling religious fascism in its entirety, she added.

Mrs. Rajavi said: The retreat, which regime officials have described as a ‘chalice of nuclear poison’, will inevitably aggravate the power struggle at the top, upset the internal balance of power to the detriment of Khamenei and permeate the entire regime hierarchy. As such, in a nutshell, one can describe this nuclear agreement as a lose-lose outcome as far as its substance and structure are concerned, she stressed.

Recalling that the Iranian Resistance was first to expose the clerical regime's clandestine nuclear projects and facilities during the past three decades, Mrs. Rajavi added: Khamenei and his regime capitulated to this agreement out of concern over Iranian society’s explosive state, the debilitating impact of the sanctions, their impasse in the region and the prospects for a toughening in the terms of the agreement by the U.S. Congress.

Pointing to the regime’s extremely fragile and vulnerable state, Mrs. Rajavi stressed: Had the P5+1 been more decisive, the Iranian regime would have had no choice but to fully retreat from and permanently abandon its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Specifically, it would have been compelled to halt all uranium enrichment and completely shut down its bomb-making projects.

Mrs. Rajavi added: The P5+1 should now insist on evicting the regime from the Middle East and prevent its regional meddling. This is a fundamental principle that needs to be included in any agreement; otherwise every country in this war-torn and volatile region will have the right to demand all the concessions given to the clerical regime, which would only result in a catastrophic escalation of the nuclear arms race in that part of the world.

Another important point, Mrs. Rajavi noted, is that the money poured into the regime’s coffers must be placed under strict United Nations monitoring to ensure that it addresses the Iranian people's urgent needs, especially the unpaid meager salaries of workers, teachers, and nurses, and is used to provide food and medicine to citizens. Otherwise, Khamenei will use these funds to further the regime’s policy of export of terrorism and fundamentalism in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon as well as to fill the coffers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

It is the Iranian people's right to know what they will get out of this agreement, upon which the mullahs' president claimed their water, bread and environment depended, Mrs. Rajavi said. She added: Any agreement that disregards and fails to underscore the Iranian people's human rights will only embolden the regime in its suppression and relentless executions, abuse of the rights of the Iranian people, and violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter.

Addressing the Iranian people, who have been the prime victims of the ruling religious dictatorship and a majority of whom live below the poverty line while the regime spends billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth on its ominous nuclear program to maintain its grip on power, Mrs. Rajavi said: The time has come to hold the anti-Iranian regime accountable and to rise up to overthrow the mullahs' illegitimate regime and establish a free, democratic and non-nuclear Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 14, 2015

Cristina Fernandez Thinks that "Iran was Involved" in 1994 AMIA Attack

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez thinks that "Iran was involved" in the 1994 attack against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA, building in Buenos Aires, according to an interview that was released on Sunday.

Fernandez published the entire transcription of her interview in March with the U.S. magazine 'The New Yorker', on her official website on Sunday.

In the interview with journalist Dexter Filkins, Fernandez stressed that after 21 years of the attack against AMIA -that left 85 dead and perpetrators of which still remain unknown- only her government has made progress by signing the memorandum of understanding with Iran in 2013.

"If it hadn't been adjudged unconstitutional by the Judiciary of Argentina, we would be in a condition to demand at the UN that Iran perform under their agreement, to perform under the agreement by the Truth Committee, which comprises 7 internationally renowned legal experts, for the Argentinean judge to go to Teheran," she highlighted.

"Once the depositions of the Iranians are taken in Teheran, the proceedings may continue, people may be processed, evidence can be taken. Now we are in the same position we were 21 years ago, without anyone convicted, anyone in prison," she added.

When asked about Iran's involvement in the attack she confirmed that "according to the statements of the Argentinean Judiciary, I have to say yes."

"Obviously I think that Iran was actually involved. Or else, how could I ask for people to be extradited? I have to abide by the orders of the judge that directs that someone be extradited, being an Iranian citizen, obviously. Or else, it would almost be absurd," she said.

The president also rejected allegations made by Alberto Nisman, late prosecutor investigating the attack on AMIA, who had filed a complaint against her for allegedly covering up Iran's involvement in the attack, four days before his death in inexplicable circumstances.

In the lawsuit, which was dismissed by the Argentine judiciary, Nisman said that the memorandum of understanding was a tool to exonerate suspects of the attack in exchange for strengthening trade relations with Iran.

For Fernandez, the lawsuit and the death of Nisman was "a big political operation against the government, with nation-wide implications and also a global impact on the current situation in the Middle East, in the United States and elsewhere."

The president also discussed other controversial topics, like the Argentine foreign policy which in 12 years has grown closer to Venezuela, Russia and China while distancing itself with United States.

"We are not distancing ourselves from the United States to approach Russia or China, there's simply an acknowledgement of a multi-polar world."

Two Police Academy Officials, Federal Police Officer Shot in Mexico

CANCUN, Mexico – Two police academy officials from western Mexico and a Federal Police officer were shot several times in the hotel zone in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun in an apparent fight, state prosecutors said.

The shooting occurred around 3:00 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Teatro de Cancun, the Quintana Roo state Attorney General’s Office said.

A red alert was issued for all security forces, including the army.

Two of the wounded men are officials of the Western Regional Public Safety Academy in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan state, said the Federal Police coordinator in Quintana Roo, Hector Gonzalez Valdepeña.

The police academy’s director, Gerardo Enrique Escarcega Hernandez, 57, deputy director, Aaron Ramirez Vargas, 40, and Federal Police officer Enrique Escarcega Mata, no age given, were wounded in the incident.

Escarcega Hernandez is the father of the Federal Police officer.

“A person who said he was a soldier attacked them with a firearm apparently because the son was urinating in the street. That’s what eyewitnesses stated,” Gonzalez Valdepeña said.

Escarcega Hernandez and Ramirez Vargas are listed in stable condition, while the Federal Police officer, who underwent surgery, is in serious condition, Gonzalez Valdepeña said.

Investigators found six bullet casings at the shooting scene, Quintana Roo Deputy Attorney General Carlos Arturo Alvarez Escalera said.

“We’ve questioned the wounded, they said it was a fight,” the deputy state AG said. “The eyewitnesses said a woman was with the assailant.”

4 men lashed in public in Iran for smoking water pipe

NCRI – Four young men were flogged in public earlier this week in the town of Torqabeh, north-eastern Iran.

The four men each received 74 lashes for smoking a traditional Iranian ghelyoon, or water pipe, in public during the daytime fasting hours in the holy month of Ramadan.

The brutal and degrading sentence was carried out in public Thursday afternoon in a garden, the state-run daily Khorasan wrote on Saturday.

The mullahs’ regime has stepped up the use of degrading punishments such as public floggings during Ramadan. Its main intention is to increase suppression of dissent and spread fear at a time when the regime is negotiating with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for an end to international sanctions.

Anyone in Iran caught eating, drinking or smoking in public during daytime in Ramadan may receive 74 lashes in addition to a jail term of up to two months, judiciary officials of the regime have threatened. Special patrols are stationed at streets and public parks to deal with those who drink, eat or smoke in public.

At least 500 people have been arrested and the majority sentenced to flogging in Shiraz, southern Iran, for failing to observe a fast during daytime in Ramadan, the regime's deputy prosecutor general in the city has said.

Last year, a Christian man in Iran had his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in Ramadan. The savage punishment was carried out in public in the city of Kermanshah.

The number of floggings across Iran is much higher than officially announced.

Trump Predicts He’ll Win Hispanic Vote Despite Controversial Remarks

WASHINGTON – Real-estate magnate and TV personality Donald Trump promises he will win the Hispanic vote to become the Republican candidate and then the elected president of the United States, despite his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants.

Trump made that prediction at a press conference in Los Angeles, where he again defended his opinion about the harm undocumented immigrants are doing to the United States, the daily Los Angeles Times reported.

“When it’s all said and done, I will win the Hispanic vote. I will win the Hispanic vote because I’m going to create jobs. I’m going to take them away from China,” Trump said.

The Republican hopeful has been widely censured for his comments last June 16 when he announced his run for the presidency and at the same time harshly criticized Mexican immigrants and proposed building a “great wall on our southern border.”

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people!” the magnate said as he launched his campaign.

On Saturday, the billionaire businessman backed his stand by surrounded himself with supporters who said they had lost loved ones in crimes and traffic accidents involving undocumented immigrants.

“People came into the country illegally and killed their children. The illegals come in and the illegals kill their children,” Trump told the press conference.

The magnate added that other countries like Mexico are “sending criminals to us and we’re putting those criminals in jails, often times after they’ve hurt somebody or killed somebody.”

About 150 protesters gathered outside the building where Trump was speaking to blast his remarks, while a smaller group of his sympathizers were also on hand holding up posters that said “Trump tells the truth,” according to the Angeleno daily.

Trump’s statements have lost him several contracts, including those with TV networks Univision, ESPN and NBC, the Macy’s department store chain, Spanish chef Jose Andres and car-race organizer NASCAR.

Republican hopefuls for the U.S. presidency who have distanced themselves from Trump’s comments include Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Rick Perry.

Five Slain by Gang in Northern Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Members of a criminal gang operating in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas killed a grandmother and four members of her family after interrogating them about a rival outfit, authorities said.

The Tamaulipas Coordination Group, a federal-state task force, said the killings took place shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday at the family’s home in La Soledad, a community on the Reynosa-Matamoros highway.

The dead were identified as Vicenta Garcia Sanchez, 65, son Fidel Martinez Garcia, 39, and grandsons Fidel, Alexis and Pedro Antonio, ages 19, 15 and 10, respectively.

Criminals dragged the family out of their home and questioned them about two suspected members of a rival gang, according to investigators. Unsatisfied with their responses, the assailants fatally shot the Garcias and sacked the house, taking a computer, cellphones and other items.

The attackers also took a car and a pickup truck, but abandoned them a few hundred meters (yards) down the road at a deserted residence, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.

State and federal police were joined by military personnel in the search for the killers.

Separately, the Coordination Group said that army troops removed 18 clandestine video cameras installed by a criminal organization in Reynosa, a city just across the border from McAllen, Texas.

State and federal forces dismantled a total of 136 illicit video surveillance devices in Reynosa between May 18 and July 8.

The apparent purpose of the cameras was to allow the criminals to monitor the movements of the security forces.

Tamaulipas has suffered from years of violence associated with a turf battle between the Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels.

Mexico’s federal government launched in May 2014 a new strategy involving a larger deployment of federal security forces in Tamaulipas and a systematic purge of corrupt officers from state and local law enforcement agencies.

California prison riot - inmate found sawed nearly in two

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Nearly 15 hours after a riot at a Northern California prison, guards found a missing inmate sawed nearly in two, with his abdominal organs and most chest organs removed, his body folded and stuffed into a garbage can in a shower stall a few doors from his cell.

Details of the gruesome May killing at the medium-security California State Prison, Solano, are laid out in an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request.

The grisly discovery raises obvious questions about the prison's security: How could such a gruesome killing happen inside a locked facility with security and surveillance? How could someone obtain weapons sharp enough to dissect a body? And why did it take so long to uncover?

Homicides are distressingly common in California prisons. More than 160 inmates have been killed in the last 15 years, and the state has one of the nation's highest inmate homicide rates. Yet the death of 24-year-old Nicholas Anthony Rodriguez stands out.

Rodriguez's missing organs are "still part of the investigation" at the prison in Vacaville, 40 miles southwest of Sacramento, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Friday.