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MEAN STREETS MEDIA

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Russia Curtails Crimean Free Speech

Many journalists of Crimea’s independent television station ATR broke into tears on air during their last live show at midnight on March 31.
A year after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula, a censorship and harassment campaign on the part of authorities has become a part of daily life in Crimea. The world’s only TV channel that served Crimean Tatars, a native people, went silent on April 1 because it could not overcome the bureaucracy and other obstacles to continue broadcasting.
Ostensibly, every news outlet had to re-register in Crimea by April 1, the deadline set by Russian regulators. Some 232 media outlets got the license, including the only Crimean Tatar newspaper Yeni Dunya.
Those who did not include FM radio stations Meydan and Lider, children’s television channel Lale, news website 15 Minutes; Crimean Tatar news agency QHA, and newspapers Avdet and Yildiz.
ATR, which had broadcast in Crimean Tatar, Ukrainian and Russian languages since 2006, tried three times to obtain licenses. Each time the regulator rejected the applications citing mistakes and inaccuracies.
Dunja Mijatovic the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe representative on media freedom, voiced concerns that Crimean Tatar media outlets are having their registration rejected for “subjective reasons.”
In an emailed statement, Mijatovic said “this is yet more proof that the politically selective censorship of free and independent voices in Crimea is continuing.
For Lilya Budzhurova, deputy head of information policy at ATR, it was a “political attack” since the occupying authority often blamed the channel for “giving hope for the return of Crimea to Ukraine.” 
Budzhurova said they had little hope of obtaining a license.
“We thought that the Crimean authorities would take into account the needs of Crimean Tatars, but we were too naïve,” Budzhurova said, adding that the channel tried to be objective, a policy that rarely pleased the authorities.

IRAN - Maryam Rajavi: Fearful mullahs reluctantly take one more step backward toward drinking the chalice of nuclear poison

A statement of generalities, without Khamenei’s signature and official approval, does not block the path to a nuclear bomb
• Continuing talks with religious fascism ruling Iran in the framework of appeasing will not secure the region and world from the threat of nuclear proliferation
• Complying with UN Security Council resolutions is simply the only way to block the mullahs from obtaining nuclear weapons


NCRI - Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance’s President-elect, said the following concerning the joint statement between the Iranian regime and the P5+1:
“Decisive Storm” and the regional coalition against the expansion and aggression of the religious fascism ruling Iran in Yemen, the crippling impact of the sanctions and Iranian society’s explosive state as well as successive warnings by the United States Congress that it will confront this regime and will ratchet up the sanctions finally compelled the clerical regime to reluctantly take one more step back after 16 months of talks, which had gone into overtime in Lausanne. A step toward drinking the chalice of nuclear poison, this retreat was prompted by fear and pressure and blatantly contradicts the foundations and guidelines the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had announced personally two weeks ago.
Nevertheless, a statement of generalities, lacking Khamenei’s signature and official approval, will never block the path to the regime obtaining nuclear weapons nor prevent its intrinsic deception.
Continuing negotiations with the religious fascism in the framework of appeasement will not make the region and the world secure from the threat of nuclear proliferation. Compelling the regime to abide by United Nations Security Council resolutions is simply the only way to prevent the mullahs from obtaining nuclear weapons.
The process of negotiations since 2002 until now, in particular the marathon of talks in the 18 months, palpably affirms the reality that the clerical regime only understands the language of firmness and power.
Leniency and unwarranted concessions by the P5+1 to the least trustworthy regime in the world today only grants it more time and further aggravates the dangers it poses to the Iranian people, to the region and to the wider world.
It is common knowledge that the religious fascism ruling Iran has heavily invested in obtaining nuclear weapons to guarantee its survival. The search for an alternative to fundamentalism and the central banker of terrorism within this regime will get nowhere. The alternative is a democratic and non-nuclear Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 2, 2015

US Charges Senator Menendez with Bribery, Conspiracy & Fraud



WASHINGTON,D.C. — U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and his long-time friend, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, were indicted today in connection with a bribery scheme in which Menendez allegedly accepted gifts from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to benefit Melgen’s financial and personal interests.

The charges were announced by Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel of the FBI’s Newark, New Jersey, Division.

“Government corruption—at any level of elected office—corrodes the public trust and weakens our democratic system,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “It is the fundamental responsibility of the Department of Justice to hold public officials accountable by conducting thorough investigations and seeking an indictment when the facts and the law support it.”

Menendez, 61, of Union City, New Jersey, and Melgen, 61, of West Palm Beach, Florida, were indicted in the District of New Jersey for one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements.

According to allegations in the indictment, between January 2006 and January 2013, Menendez accepted close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications of several of Melgen’s girlfriends.

“The job of an elected official is to serve the people,” said Special Agent in Charge Frankel. “The citizens of New Jersey have the right to demand honest, unbiased service and representation from their elected officials at all levels of government. The charges and activity alleged in this indictment are another example of the FBI’s commitment to aggressively and tenaciously pursue public corruption in the state of New Jersey.”

Specifically, the indictment alleges that, among other gifts, Menendez accepted flights on Melgen’s private jet, a first-class commercial flight and a flight on a chartered jet; numerous vacations at Melgen’s Caribbean villa in the Dominican Republic and at a hotel room in Paris; and $40,000 in contributions to his legal defense fund and over $750,000 in campaign contributions. Menendez never disclosed any of the reportable gifts that he received from Melgen on his financial disclosure forms.

According to allegations in the indictment, during this same time period, Menendez allegedly engaged in three efforts to use his Senate office and staff to advocate on behalf of Melgen’s personal and financial interests.

First, Menendez allegedly pressured executive agencies in connection with a conflict between Melgen and the government of the Dominican Republic relating to a disputed contract that Melgen purchased to provide exclusive screening of containers coming through Dominican ports.

Second, Menendez allegedly advocated on behalf of Melgen in connection with a Medicare billing dispute worth approximately $8.9 million to Melgen.

Third, Menendez allegedly took active steps to support the tourist and student visa applications of three of Melgen’s girlfriends, as well as the visa application of the younger sister of one of Melgen’s girlfriends.

Throughout these efforts, Menendez allegedly engaged in advocacy for Melgen all the way up to the highest levels of the U.S. government, including meeting with a U.S. cabinet secretary, contacting a U.S. Ambassador, meeting with the heads of executive agencies and other senior executive officials and soliciting other U.S. Senators, all in order to assist Melgen’s personal and pecuniary interests.

The charges contained in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chiefs Peter Koski and J.P. Cooney, and Trial Attorney Monique Abrishami of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

Border Patrol Agent Accused of Child Molestation



TUCSON – Jeremy Tyler Cole, a Border Patrol agent in Douglas, Arizona, was arrested and charged with child molestation, authorities said Wednesday.

“The agent is being charged with one count of child molestation, and is currently in a leave with pay status pending additional criminal proceedings,” Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.

Cole was arrested last Friday in Phoenix in a joint operation by the Chandler Police Criminal Apprehension Team and the Peoria Police Department.

The mother of one of the girls, who evidently was having a romantic relationship with the alleged molester, complained to the authorities that she saw Cole leave the room of one of her three daughters, ages 5, 12 and 14.

The 5-year-old girl told her mother that a bald man asked her to take off her underwear and afterwards she described to police how the man touched her private parts with an object.

Meanwhile, the 14-year-old girl also said she felt the presence of a man in her room.

Families of Missing Mexican Students Ask Drug Trafficker for Information



MEXICO CITY – Some of the relatives of the 43 education students who disappeared in southern Mexico more than six months ago have asked the suspected leader of the Los Rojos drug cartel, Santiago Mazari Hernandez, to reveal what he knows about the case.

The request was made in a message written on a poster in Iguala, the city where the students went missing on Sept. 26.

The missing students’ relatives told the drug trafficker, who is the subject of an arrest warrant, that they were willing to meet with him.

The poster was a response to several banners, known as “narcomantas” in Mexico, that appeared a few weeks ago bearing messages from Mazari, who said he was not involved in the students’ disappearance and blamed the government for covering up the truth.

“We ask you to please help us find the whereabouts of our children because this bad government has not been serious with us. On the contrary, it has hurt us with its lies. We are poor people and they have trampled our dignity,” the poster said.

Bernabe Abrajan, the father of one of the missing students, told Efe the poster was legitimate and no response had been received from the cartel.

Dozens of suspects, including police officers and public officials, have been arrested in connection with the events in Iguala on the night of Sept. 26, when municipal police fired gunshots at students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a nearby teacher-training facility.

Six people died that night, 25 were wounded and 43 students were detained by police and then handed over to members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.

Three suspects in the case – Patricio Reyes, Jhonatan Osorio and Agustin Garcia – confessed to having killed the students and burned their bodies.

Reyes, Osorio and Garcia told investigators they took the 43 students to the Cocula dump and set them on fire.

Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said in a press conference on Jan. 27 that there was sufficient scientific evidence to conclude that the students were murdered and their bodies burned by Guerreros Unidos drug cartel members at the dump in Cocula, with the ashes dumped in the San Juan River.

The Guerreros Unidos gang mistook the students for members of the Los Rojos cartel, said Murillo Karam, who left office on Feb. 26

Sweden: Iranians protest regime’s executions and repression of women during football match

The friendly match in Stockholm between Sweden and Iran on Tuesday was an opportunity for the Iranian community in Sweden to challenge the legitimacy of the Iranian regime.

 
Zlatan Ibrahimović scored for Sweden during his team’s victory against Iran (3-1) in a stage marked by the presence of Iranians and Swedes hostile to the Iranian regime.
Many demonstrators protested outside Friends Arena in Solna before the game. The slogans turned against the oppression of women and the many executions of political prisoners.
According to AFP, the match between Sweden and Iran was played in a playful and political atmosphere, as members of the Iranian community in Sweden were demonstrating for the right of women to go to the stadium and featuring the flag before the Islamic Revolution.
The protestors carried green, white and red flags without the symbol of the clerical regime, which was instead was replaced by lion and sun symbols of Iran, which is considered the national flag by most Iranian dissidents. The protestors were there to express their opposition to the regime.
One Iranian protester told Swedish TV: “We have gathered here to show our opposition to repression in Iran and to show that Iranians all over the world condemn violations of human rights in Iran.”
Svenska Dagbladet reported that there were big protests outside the stadium in the city of Stockholm in which protesters chanted “Down with the terrorism regime in Iran.”
The Swedish news agency reported that one of the placards addressed to the Iranian regime criticized the numerous executions of political prisoners carried out in Iran, among them former football team captain Habib Khabiri.
Habib Khabiri was Iran's rising star. Some have compared him to US basketball star Kobe Bryant. He was called up to play for Iran when he was only 20. Habib scored a dramatic goal from 40 yards out during a December 1977 qualifier against Kuwait, according to Hassan Nayeb-Agha, a member of NCRI, who played for Iran at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.
After the revolution in 1979, he became the captain of the national team in 1980. Yet he was arrested in 1983 by the clerical regime for supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main Iranian resistance movement.
Habib was executed alongside 40 other dissidents in July 1984. He was only 29 years old and was tortured before his execution. There has never been official acknowledgement of his execution.
Many Iranian sportsmen, including former members of the national soccer team, are among the 120,000 who have been executed for supporting the resistance and its aspiration to establish democracy and human rights over the past three decades.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Amnesty: Iran regime carried out highest number of reported executions in 2014

The latest report on the death penalty by Amnesty International indicates that 607 recorded executions have been carried out in 22 countries around the world in 2014, a reduction of almost 22 percent compared to the previous year.

The reported executions were carried out in Iran more than any country in the world.
In Iran the authorities officially announced 289 executions, but hundreds more were carried out which were not officially acknowledged, Amnesty report said.
Execution methods employed around the world included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.
Iran is among the countries highlighted by Amnesty International as having used the death penalty "as a tool to suppress political dissent".
At least 2,466 people in 55 countries are known to have been sentenced to death in 2014, according to the latest Amnesty International report on the death penalty.
This represents an increase of 28% compared with 2013, when 1,925 death sentences were recorded in 57 countries.
At least 19,094 people were believed to be under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2014.
Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, reported on March 25 that some 1000 executions had been carried out during the past 15 months in Iran. Prior to that, on March 16, he told a news briefing in Geneva: "There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion."
The U.N.'s special investigator added that the human rights situation and repression in Iran has worsened since Hassan Rouhani became president.