Iran News ( Human Rights reporter granted prison release )

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17 April 2013

Nasim Soltan Beigi, journalist and student activist, granted prison release

Keywords : Political Prisoners

فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Journalist and former student activist Nasim Soltan Beigi who was on furlough for 25 days, was granted a pardon on April 11th when she went back to prison intending to serve the remainder of her prison term.

According to CHRR, imprisoned journalist Nasim Soltan Beigi was granted furlough for Nowruz on orders of judicial authorities on Monday March 18th. Soltan Beigi who has two previous arrests has worked for various news agencies including Shargh and Arman.

On November 30, 2010, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court handed the journalist and former student activist a 6-year prison sentence; 3 years on the charge of “acting against national security,” one year for “propaganda against the regime,” and a 2-year suspended term stemming from a prior arrest in 2006. Soltan Beigi appealed this ruling and it was sent to the Appeals Court.

Nasim Soltan Beigi was a leftist student who was among those arrested in a widespread crackdown on student activists in November 2007. She spent 56 days behind bars in ward 209 of Evin prison before being released on bail. She had previously been arrested on June 12, 2006 at a rally of women activists and at that time was handed a 2-year suspended prison sentence.

FBI ( WANTED - Boston murder suspects - See photos ) Check out photos

BOSTON (AP) — The FBI has released photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and is asking for the public's help in identifying them.

FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers (deh'-LOHR'-ee-ay) says one of the suspects is believed to have planted a device outside a restaurant near the finish line of the race. He says both suspects are considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Within moments of the FBI releasing the images on its website, the agency's website crashed.
The explosions Monday killed three people and injured more than 180.



The images were released hours after President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic cathedral in Boston to remember the victims, including an 8-year-old boy.

BOSTON News ( Saudi Man- Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi - Suspect that was cleared to be Deported ) OMG !

CENTER: Saudi ‘person of interest’ wearing sunglasses and a white schmatta on his head

Shoebat Tonight on Hannity, Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, reported that his sources are telling him that Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, the Saudi national who was a person of interest for less than 24 hours, is being deported to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Reuters is reporting that Obama met today with the Saudi Foreign Minister in an unscheduled meeting:

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal at the White House on Wednesday and discussed the conflict in Syria, a spokeswoman said.

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San Diego ( American Airlines - Verbal Fight 6 Iraqi men and passengers ) Plane grounded

AMERICAN AIRLINES flight grounded after passengers panic over Iraqis shouting to each other in Arabic

Passengers on an American Airlines flight from San Diego to Chicago were ordered off a plane on Tuesday night after complaints about a group of six Arabic-speaking Iraqi men.

Consumerist Details of what happened before American Flight 590′s scheduled departure late on Tuesday are sketchy. According to the Associated Press, an American Airlines flight was grounded after passengers complained about 6 men who were speaking Arabic.

American Airlines spokesperson Tim Wagner said that local law enforcement was called in to question the men but the TSA did not get involved. He also said that passenger traveling with two small children got into an argument with the men, but declined to say what it was about.

The plane returned to the terminal at 11:26 p.m. and was held overnight because of an 11:30 p.m. curfew at Lindbergh Field. The were 126 passengers booked on the flight. The flight left San Diego Wednesday morning and arrived in Chicago in the afternoon. (Without the Iraqis?)

Border Patrol ( Ex Agent and Prison Guard get 15 yrs in prison - Drug trafficking )

YUMA, AZ - A U.S. Border Patrol agent and an Arizona corrections officer face lengthy federal prison terms on allegations that they passed codes to unlock border gates, maps of hidden sensors and other sensitive information to smugglers before losing their jobs.
Ex-agent Ivhan Herrera-Chiang and former state Corrections Officer Michael Lopez-Garcia are to be sentenced Aug. 12 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Plea agreements with prosecutors call for each man to receive up to 15 years in prison


Herrera-Chiang pleaded guilty Friday to bribery of a public official, the Yuma Sun reported Tuesday.
Federal court records indicate Lopez-Garcia pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and to conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute.
Both men were charged in early 2012 with conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to distribute.
As a Border Patrol agent, Herrera-Chiang, 29, was stationed in Yuma, while Lopez-Garcia, 28, worked at the state prison in San Luis, Ariz.
In his plea agreement, Herrera-Chiang said he provided maps and combinations to border gates to Lopez-Garcia to give to smugglers. The maps showed the locations of sensors hidden along the border to detect people entering the country illegally.
Herrera-Chiang said he also used a law enforcement database to look up confidential information about a drug load for Lopez-Garcia.
Lopez-Garcia said he was paid $5,000 for the gate combinations and that he shared the money with Herrera-Chiang.
Lopez-Garcia said he provided the information to smugglers and also acted as a lookout for smugglers and twice smuggled methamphetamine into the United States.
Lopez-Garcia admitted selling the smuggled methamphetamine as well as smuggled cocaine to a drug trafficker, but the buyer was an undercover agent.
In his plea agreement, Lopez-Garcia also admitted asking someone in a drug trafficking organization to arrange the murder of a government informant whom Lopez-Garcia thought had incriminating evidence about him and his activities.

Phoenix Az ( Police looking for man who Sexually Assaulted - 89 yr old woman )

 

 

PHOENIX - Phoenix police are asking for the public's help identifying a man who sexually assaulted an 89-year-old woman in her home early Sunday morning.

Police spokesman Sergeant Steve Martos said the attack happened between 5:30 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. near 59th Avenue and Thomas Road.
Martos said the suspect knocked on the woman's door, and when she opened the door, he forced his way in and sexually assaulted her.
Police have little information to go on and believe someone from the community might recognize the suspect.
Police said he is described as a Hispanic male, 35 years old, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, 130-135 pounds with dark hair and dark eyes. Investigators also say the suspect has a large stud earrings in both ears.
The victim is not being identified at this time.
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6141. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.

Euro Court of Human Rights ( CIA guilty of torture - and beating man ) World News

Euro-Court Testimony Reveals U.S. Guilty of Ruthless Torture

December 26, 2012 AFP

By Richard Walker

On December 13, the European Court of Human Rights found Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents guilty of beating and torturing a German citizen, who had been kidnapped and placed in the CIA’s rendition program. They also sodomized him in front of others and held him at a secret detention site for months.

Never before had the European Court of Human Rights defined CIA activities as torture or gone to the extent of explaining in graphic detail what had happened to 49-year-old Khaled al-Masri.

In January 2004, al-Masri was dragged from a hotel by police in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. After 14 days of questioning, he was handed over to the CIA. His crime was that his name was similar to that of an Arab revolutionary.

In the landmark ruling, the European court singled out Macedonia as one of the guilty parties in the torture and eventual rendition of al-Masri to the “Salt Pit,” a special CIA interrogation site in Afghanistan. Leading judicial figures in Europe are now calling on the Obama administration to compensate all those caught up in the rendition program since 2001.

The court’s ruling was remarkable because it highlighted the fact that the American court system has turned a blind eye to the issue of torture and has used the cover of “state secrets” to avoid dealing with cases like al-Masri’s.

Macedonia will certainly have to answer to the court and to other European Union institutions for its role in permitting torture on its soil. According to the evidence, a CIA “black snatch team,” under orders from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, transferred him from Macedonia by way of Iraq to Afghanistan. Al-Masri was actually sodomized in front of Macedonian officials before he was drugged, diapered and moved to Afghanistan.

While al-Masri was being tortured in Afghanistan, the CIA’s Office of Technical Services, responsible for “gadgets, disguises, forgeries, secret writings, weapons and assassinations,” realized they had the wrong man. Still, they continued to allow him to be treated horrifically until his release. The CIA eventually flew al-Masri to Albania and dumped him on a desolate border road, forcing him to make his own way back to Germany. Two of the CIA officials in Langley who authorized his rendition were female operatives. They were never disciplined.

But Macedonia is not the only country in the European judges’ crosshairs. The CIA had secret interrogation facilities in Poland, Lithuania and Romania. In 2009, Italy found 22 CIA agents guilty of kidnapping an Italian citizen and carting him off to Egypt where he was tortured.

Rendition secrets are beginning to unravel. On December 13, the British government paid a Libyan dissident almost $5M. He and his wife and child had been kidnapped by Britain’s MI6. While in custody the husband was tortured. There are other torture cases presently being examined by the British judicial system.