Maryam Rajavi’s Remarks Hearing at US Congress– 29 April 2015

Convicted child rapist Adrian Cruz arrested in Mexico

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Four Israeli soldiers arrested for suspected gang rape

Four IDF soldier serving on an airbase in the south are under arrest after a female soldier said she was gang raped by the men.



Military Police arrested the suspects, who served at the Hatzerim airbase west of Beersheba, and launched an immediate investigation, the IDF said. 

Military sources said the female soldier's commanders have closely supported her as she filed the complaint, and accompanied her throughout the aftermath of the alleged attack.

According to a Channel 2 report, the attack occurred two weeks ago, as the soldiers completed a shift and entered the female soldier's room, where they allegedly raped her in succession.

She filed a complaint to the Military Police on Tuesday, leading to their immediate arrest.

One of the suspects denied the suspicions during questioning, claiming that sexual relations were consensual.

"After receiving the complaint, Military Police launched an investigation and arrested the soldiers," the IDF Spokesman said in a statement. 

At the same time, the female soldier is being cared for by the Center For Support And Coping, a military center that assists female soldiers who fall victim to sexual offenses, and her commanders are closely accompanying her.

Ex- Senior U.S. officials: Maryam Rajavi’s congressional appearance, a right move

 Wednesday, 29 April 2015 15:50

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In a rare bipartisan initiative, 20 prominent former US Government national security, and foreign policy officials as well as Military leaders in a joint letter expressed their support for the Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) testifying before the US Congress.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is scheduled to testify in a hearing “ISIS: Defining the Enemy” via videoconference on Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, chaired by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX).

The former senior US officials said:“As a Muslim women advocating a tolerant and democratic interpretation of Islam, individual freedom, separation of religion and state, gender equality, and rejecting the implementation of Sharia law, Mrs. Rajavi represent the opposite of the misogynous Iranian regime’s rules and all Islamic fundamentalists and extremists.”

“Mrs. Rajavi’s personal experience in leading a popular movement against the religious dictatorship ruling Iran make her the right person to give testimony on this important issue,” they added.

The signatories of the statement included Rudy Giuliani - former NYC Mayor, Presidential Candidate; Howard Dean - former VT Governor, DNC Chairman, Presidential Candidate; Louis J. Freeh – former FBI Director, Edward Rendell - Former PA Governor, DNC Chairman; Tom Ridge – former PA Governor, Secretary Homeland Security; Mitchell B. Reiss - former Ambassador, Special Envoy to the Northern Ireland Peace Process; Michael B. Mukasey - former US Attorney General; John Bolton- former UN Ambassador; Frances Townsend – former Homeland Security Advisor to the President; General (Ret.) Charles (Chuck) Wald- former Deputy Commander U.S. European Command; Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David Deptula – former Deputy COS For Intel, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, U.S. Air Force; Linda Chavez -former Assistant to the President For Public Liaison; Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security; Patrick Kennedy – former Rhode Island Congressman; and John Sano - former Deputy Director CIA National Clandestine Security.

In another statement, Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield, strongly defended the scheduled testimony of Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi before the US Congress.

Bloomfield, the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs in the George W. Bush administration in a statement said: “It was predictable that with the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its component entities including the MEK having successfully challenged and removed all terrorism listings in Europe and North America, NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi would at some point be given the opportunity to be heard in Washington; it was perhaps equally predictable that longstanding allegations of terrorism and cult-like behavior by this group would be revived.”

Bloomfield has conducted exhaustive reviews and research on the Mek and has authored a couple of books and studies on the subject. He rebuked allegations against the Iranian opposition and while pointing to extensive demonizing campaign of Tehran regarding its arch opponents said: “Western governments have for many years been asked by the Iranian regime to restrict the MEK as a terror organization. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has repeatedly been revealed paying agents or seeking to pay trusted sources in several countries to propagate allegations against the MEK that are unsupported by any historical records. Yet many of these defamatory allegations continue to be repeated by the American media and current or former U.S. officials, none of whom have produced credible evidence to back them up. “

Former member of U.S. House of Representative Tom Tancredo wrote in The Hill on Wednesday: “I commend my former colleagues, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), and chair of subcommittee on Terrorism, non-proliferation and Trade, Judge Ted Poe (R-Texas) for doing the right thing and affording the U.S. Congress the opportunity to examine facts and hear from those in the field, rather than relying only on experts within the beltway.

Maryam Rajavi’s testimony before Congress is long overdue, Mr. Tancredo said.

“Rajavi’s movement alerted the world about Iran’s clandestine nuclear project, exposed Iran’s pervasive presence in Iraq and its operation of terror networks that exported improvised explosive devices to Iraq to kill American servicemen. The opposition has also waged a cultural and political war against Islamic fundamentalism emanating from Iran. Its ubiquitous representatives have galvanized a global campaign against human rights offenses, in particular against women within Iran."

“In that sense, if the issue is ISIS and defining the enemy, Rajavi is certainly qualified to speak as her movement has been fighting a regime that pursued sectarian violence in Iraq and supported Assad, which led to the rise of ISIS. If it is Islamic fundamentalism and Tehran’s role, Rajavi is more than qualified to speak. If it is Iran’s nuclear program, her movement has had its finger on the pulse of that issue throughout the past decade. On human rights abuses by those with ISIS mentality, her movement has endured the brunt of suppression and executions in Iran. As many as 120,000 activists of her movement have been executed in Iran over the past three decades in the hands of those who were the de facto mentors of ISIS.”

“To avoid the voices about Iran to be monolithic in Washington, Iranian people should be brought into the equation and Rajavi provides a serious, viable voice. That is not a matter of dispute.“

Gangs Target Purebred Dogs in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES – Purebred and expensive dogs, preferably small ones, are the latest victims of gangs in Argentina, where the snatching of canines has increased in the past year.

Public parks and shopping centers in upscale neighborhoods are the areas targeted by dog snatchers, attorney Javier Miglino told Efe.


The largest number of stolen dog reports - more than 1,000 in the past year - were filed in Buenos Aires province, where gated communities and high-income suburbs dot the land.

But the crime, first detected some five years ago on a much smaller scale, has spread to provincial capitals across the country, Miglino said.

The attorney is the founder of Defendamos Buenos Aires (Let’s Defend Buenos Aires), a non-governmental organization helping dog owners file police reports and start campaigns to find lost pets.

“These are among the most expensive and small dogs on the market,” Miglino said, adding that “sadly” only about 8 percent of stolen pooches have been recovered.

The breeds most sought by criminals are the French Bull Dog, Pug, Cocker Spaniel and Toy Poodles worth between 12,000 and 14,000 pesos ($1,350 and $1,580) that can be “sold easily for half the price” in traveling fairs or online auctions, Miglino said.

A major source of stolen dogs is La Salada, located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and considered the largest black market in Latin America, where no dogs snatched by criminals have been recovered because it is “a criminal ghetto where police don’t go,” Miglino said.

The attorney has met with prosecutors and judges to discuss the situation, but he has not been able to identify who is behind the crimes, which are occurring as unsafe conditions and impunity in the region increase, and because it is quite easy to snatch, cage and sell puppies.
The dognappings are not the work of isolated robbers but of gangs that organize their operations - some scan public places for purebred dogs, others take the animals away on pickup trucks or a motorcycle, keeping them until they are sold, Miglino said.

About 10 percent of dog owners who have sought help from Miglino’s group were pressured by gangs into paying ransom and these cases are investigated as extortion rackets.

Two New Gangs Behind Violence in Northeast Mexico, Security Official Says

MEXICO CITY – Two small gangs formed following the break-up of a drug cartel are behind the violence in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexican National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido on Tuesday.

The Ciclones and Metros gangs “are the ones clashing in the border region” with the United States, Rubido told Radio Formula.

One gang is based in Matamoros, located across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and the other operates out of Reynosa, across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, Rubido said.

The gangs’ current power “cannot remotely be compared with the organizations’ capabilities when the leaders who are under arrest or neutralized were around,” the national security commissioner said.

“The 15 principal criminals who were sowing fear, who were attacking the citizens ... today 14 have been neutralized,” Rubido said, adding that 13 gang leaders were under arrest and one was dead.

Progress has been made in Tamaulipas in terms of security in the past year, but “we have still not turned” the situation around, Rubido said.

Tamaulipas “has 17 border crossings with the United States, three ports, five international airports,” making it the only Mexican state with that many airports, the national security commissioner said.

Last Thursday, marines arrested nine suspects in connection with a wave of violence in Tamaulipas that left a police officer dead.

Four other suspects, including the purported head of the gang, were arrested a day earlier.

Suspected members of the same unidentified gang responded to the four arrests by mounting roadblocks, burning vehicles and carrying out armed attacks against federal and state security forces, actions that left a police officer dead and two suspected gang members wounded.

Tamaulipas has been for years a battleground between the Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels, and it is regularly among the states with the highest numbers of homicides.

President Enrique Peña Nieto sent additional Federal Police and military personnel to Tamaulipas last May and ordered a thorough vetting of the state and municipal police forces to root out corrupt officers.

Mexican Woman Escapes from Laundry Where She Was Forced to Work for 2 Years

MEXICO CITY – A 22-year-old woman managed to escape from the Mexico City laundry where she was chained, beaten and forced to work for two years, the Federal District Attorney’s Office said.

The unidentified woman applied for a job at the business in Lomas de Padierna, a district in the southern Mexico City borough of Tlalpan, and “was chained by her employers, and to make her keep working they beat her until she bled, and when the cuts started to heal they tore off the scabs,” the DA’s office said.

“That allowed them to hold her for two years until she managed to escape and seek help. The Federal District Attorney’s Office requested search warrants for the establishment, where they arrested the five people likely responsible” for keeping the woman as a slave, prosecutors said.

The suspects have been identified as Jose de Jesus Sanchez Vera, Leticia Molina Ochoa, Fani Molina Ochoa, Ivette Hernandez Molina and Jannet Hernandez Molina, the DA’s office said.

“This is the first case of this kind to occur in Mexico City,” the DA’s office said.

The victim told investigators that she was fed a small amount of food once a day and chewed on the plastic bags used to cover garments to stave off hunger, prosecutors said.