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MEAN STREETS MEDIA
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Monday, January 11, 2016
Maryam Rajavi meets French supporters of Iranian Resistance
NCRI - Text of speech by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, in a New Year ceremony with French supporters of the Resistance at the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris:
10 January 2016
Dear friends and neighbors,
My best wishes for the New Year 2016. On behalf of the Iranian people and Resistance, I wish a year filled with happiness and fraternity for the people of France.
I hope it will be a year of progress, prosperity and security for France, and the year of freedom for my people in Iran.
In the words of the great Persian poet Hafez, "We are going to paint a new design of the sky!"
Like most Iranian poets, Hafez was strongly opposed to religious fanaticism and extremism. So, in the dark era of the Mongol attack on Iran, he wrote poems that are eternally full of hope for freedom and humanity. It is the same spirit that is felt here in the beginning of the New Year.
Now that our world is targeted by extremism under the banner of Islam, like Hafez, we invite everyone to a new drive to build a world free of religious fascism of the Iranian mullahs and fundamentalists of the same nature, like DAESH. A world based on tolerance and freedom.
Last year was a harsh one for the Middle East because of the persistence of bloodbaths in Syria and Iraq, and the continuation of suffering, displacement and repression.
It was also a difficult year for Iran because of stepped up suppression of women and followers of other religions and because of nearly one thousand executions under the so-called moderate Rouhani government. He also had a rocket attack launched on Camp Liberty which left dozens killed.
In the depth of this darkness, however, the flame of hope is brighter than ever.
Contrary to the mullahs of Iran who could not hide their pleasure over the Paris massacres by DAESH (ISIS or ISIL) extremists, we saw the beautiful flame of hope in the beautiful solidarity with the Iranian Resistance after the rocket attack on Camp Liberty.
We also saw that hope is ever livelier in Iran when Iranian teachers took to the streets and staged protests all across the country. We saw it in the demonstrations of the people of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, and in the gatherings of angry families of political prisoners and victims of executions outside Tehran’s Evin Prison.
And finally, we can see this flame in the wave of protests by the people of France against human rights abuses in Iran on the eve of Rouhani’s visit to Paris at the end of this month.
Rouhani seeks to conceal the detestable image of the Iranian regime. This duplicity, on his part and on the part of other mullahs, is an affront to human conscience the world over.
On the one hand, the mullahs rejoice the November 13th massacre in Paris; on the other hand, Rouhani ostensibly condemns the attack.
This is a division of role that must not deceive anyone.
Rouhani defends the executions in Iran. Under his government, more than two thousand people have been executed. Rouhani explicitly supports Bashar Assad's dictatorship. He has done his utmost to support the IRGC's war machine. Two weeks ago, he issued an order for the expansion of the IRGC missile system.
Surely, everyone is appalled by all these things.
Dear friends,
Despite their atrocities, the mullahs and DAESH experienced some bitter setbacks in 2015.
The mullahs’ retreat from building the atomic bomb is a defeat for the regime. The Iranian Resistance is proud to have exposed this program which drove the mullahs into a deadlock. Fortunately, France’s decisiveness in the negotiations prevented giving more concessions to the mullahs.
The Iranian regime also experienced a strategic setback in Syria and the coalition of Arab and Muslim countries has in effect isolated it in the region.
It was a major achievement that the world got united against extremism under the banner of Islam, because the epicenter of this extremism is in Tehran.
So, we are beginning 2016 with these great achievements.
The more France and the world focus on the Tehran regime and its allies as the source of fundamentalism, the closer they get to peace and security.
DAESH can be conquered. However, the first step in doing so, is to defeat Assad’s dictatorship that fosters DAESH with the backing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
We call on the international community and especially France to adopt a firm policy to expel the Iranian regime from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
The world can free itself from fundamentalism only when the clerical regime in Iran, that is the epicenter of fundamentalism, is overthrown. We call on the world community to respect the Iranian people’s struggle for the overthrow of the mullahs.
The Iranian Resistance advocates a tolerant republic based on the separation of religion and state, abolition of the death penalty, and women’s equality in tomorrow’s Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have come a long and difficult way together. We passed the test of June 17, 2003. We defeated the mullahs and their lobbies’ demonization of the Resistance. We put an end in a 15-year quest to the legal case they had made up against the Resistance.
Thanks to our solidarity, we have had the very positive experience of coexistence between two cultures and two religions.
The mullahs and fundamentalists advance their objectives by provoking enmity towards followers of other religions.
But you and we have demonstrated an exemplary coexistence and friendship.
You have found that the presence of Iranian Resistance members here has brought about friendship and fraternity. And we found that the people of France are friends of Iranians and friends of democratic and tolerant Muslims.
We are capable of doing a lot together. We can do things that are essential to freedom and human rights in Iran, things that are vital to overcome extremism under the banner of Islam, and necessary to protect Camp Liberty residents.
So, we have to multiply our efforts this year.
Thank you and once again, Happy New Year!
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons ‘concerned’ by delay in Iran sanctions
United States Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) is calling for President Barack Obama to move forward with new sanctions against Iran's regime over a pair of recent ballistic missile tests, The Hill reported on Monday.
"I don't know why the administration has hesitated, but I am urging them publicly and privately to move ahead with those designations," he told reporters. "I am concerned with the hesitation to move forward with the ballistic missile related designations."
Sen. Coons is among a growing number of Democrats, including some who supported the Iran nuclear deal, who have called on the president to take a firm response to two missile tests late last year. They argue that the administration's response should show Iran's regime that it will not be able to cheat on the nuclear agreement.
The Obama administration suggested late last year that it was preparing new sanctions against individuals tied to the Iranian regime's missile program, before walking back those statements.
Sen. Coons, who supported the Iran nuclear deal, said it was "very clearly communicated and it played a role in my decision" to support the nuclear agreement that the United States was still able to sanction Iran's regime on non-nuclear issues including its missile program or support for terrorist groups.
The administration has gotten bipartisan criticism over its handling of the Iranian missile tests, which lawmakers say violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Senate Republicans are calling on Obama to block lifting sanctions under the Iran nuclear deal because of the recent ballistic missile tests, rejecting the administration's argument that the two are separate issues. The move would likely undermine the nuclear agreement.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
ROME , Italy - American woman found murdered
ROME, Italy — A murder investigation was underway Sunday after the body of an American woman was found in her apartment in Florence, Italian police said.
Ashley Olsen, who is originally from Florida, was found with bruises around her neck, Florence prosecutor's office spokeswoman Maddalena Carosi told NBC News.
Her Italian boyfriend is not a suspect at present, Carosi said.
Local media reports said the 35-year-old's body was found on a bed in the apartment, which is located in Florence's historic center.
According to the AP, Olsen's body was identified by the her father, who reportedly teaches at a Florence school.
La Repubblica daily said Olsen loved art and had organized events connected to the art world.
Rowena Bernardo, a coworker and friend of Olsen's in Florence, remembered Ashley as one of the most wonderful people she had ever met. Bernardo and Olsen worked together in Florence's fashion industry.
"She can come out with great styling in a matter of minutes. All of our shoots, she styled herself," Bernardo wrote to NBC News in an email. "She is very smart and naturally cool. We would have drinks and would confide with each other on life and all.
"She is very dear to me, she is great as a friend and I consider her more of a younger sister."
Iran’s chess grandmaster refused to play against the Zionist player
TEHRAN, Jan. 05 (MNA) – Iran’s chess grandmaster refused to play against the Zionist player in the fifth round of international chess tournaments in Switzerland.
Once again, an Iranian athlete rejected the existence of the Zionist state to announce to the world the voice of justice and support for the oppressed people of Palestine.
The Iranian grandmaster, Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami withdrew from competing against the Israeli chess player at 2016 Basel Schachfestival chess tournament.
Basel Schachfestival 2016 kicked off on January 1 in the city of Basel in Switzerland and will wrap up today January 5.
The Iranian chess players present at the event include Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami, Dorsa Derakhshani and Borna Derakhshani.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Saudi soccer clubs will not play Asian Champions League matches in Iran
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia- Saudi Arabia’s soccer federation has said its clubs will not play Asian Champions League matches in Iran amid rising diplomatic tension, Associated Press reported JAN 8, 2016.
The decision at a SAFF executive meeting comes days after individual clubs refused to travel to Iran for safety reasons when the competition kicks off next month.
Two Saudi clubs are already scheduled to play in Iran and a playoff round could create two more matches there.
Sporting tensions increased days before the countries’ national under-23 teams begin the 2016 Olympic qualifying tournament in Qatar.
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Saudi soccer body said it awaits an Asian Football Confederation response to its request to order matches for its clubs in Iran moved to neutral countries.
An AFC spokesman said Thursday it is “monitoring the situation.”
The Asian body’s president, and FIFA presidential candidate, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa is a royal family member in Bahrain which has also cut ties with Iran.
The decision at a SAFF executive meeting comes days after individual clubs refused to travel to Iran for safety reasons when the competition kicks off next month.
Two Saudi clubs are already scheduled to play in Iran and a playoff round could create two more matches there.
Sporting tensions increased days before the countries’ national under-23 teams begin the 2016 Olympic qualifying tournament in Qatar.
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Saudi soccer body said it awaits an Asian Football Confederation response to its request to order matches for its clubs in Iran moved to neutral countries.
An AFC spokesman said Thursday it is “monitoring the situation.”
The Asian body’s president, and FIFA presidential candidate, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa is a royal family member in Bahrain which has also cut ties with Iran.
No to Rouhani – Iranians rally in Paris on Saturday
NCRI - Iranians in central Paris on Saturday held a protest against human rights abuses by the mullahs' regime.
The Iranian supporters of the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) pointed out that executions have significantly increased under the presidency of mullah Hassan Rouhani.
They denounced Rouhani's planned trip to Paris on 28 January, and they urged the French government and European Union to base their relations with Iran's regime on an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran.
The Iranian protestors in Paris' Trocadero Square also held up banners with Twitter hashtags #No2Rouhani and #StopExecutionsIran.
Many Parisians were drawn to the rally and participated in Tweeting photographs of themselves holding up signs denouncing Rouhani's appalling human rights record.
The human rights situation has been deteriorating rapidly in Iran. More than 2,000 individuals have been executed during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President of the regime. This is the highest rate of executions in the past 25 years, and it reflects an increase over figures that had already secured Iran’s place as the nation with the most executions per capita.
On December 17, 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, in particular the mass and arbitrary executions, increasing violence and discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities.
Following the adoption of the 62nd UN resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on the UN Security Council to hold the leaders of the clerical regime accountable and prosecute them for crimes against humanity. She underlined that this is a necessary step towards respecting the international community's vote that condemned the systematic and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Reporter stabbed when knife test goes wrong ?
Mr Lachover said that he had not been seriously injured in the accident on Wednesday.“Superficial stab wounds, had some stitches and was released back home,” he wrote on Twitter. “Many thanks to everyone for your concern!”
Thursday, January 7, 2016
El Chapo , threatens ISIS for destroying drug shipment
El Chapo (aka “Shorty”) delivered the threat to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi via an encrypted email which was later leaked by cartelblog.com.
The Mexican drug baron, who runs the notorious Sinaloa cartel, made it clear IS had “made a mistake” by destroying the cartel’s drug shipment.
"You [IS] are not soldiers,” El Chapo wrote, according to the unnamed blogger cited by cartelblog.com. “My men will destroy you…” he promised Al Baghdadi.
“Your god cannot save you from the true terror that my men will levy at you if you continue to impact my operation,” it said.
El Chapo became Mexico's top drug lord in 2003. He was believed in 2011 to have surpassed infamous “cocaine king” Pablo Escobar, with the US Drug Enforcement Administration calling El Chapo the biggest drug tycoon ever.
El Chapo is wanted by Mexico, Interpol and the US, which has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Guzman was first arrested in 1993 and spent a decade in a maximum-security prison in Mexico before escaping. He spent 13 years on the run before his recapture in 2014.
In 2015, El Chapo made a prison break through a 1.5-kilometer long, 10-meter deep underground tunnel dug from his cell, reportedly having paid as much as $50 million in bribes to facilitate his escape.
ISIS Prohibits Sale of Female Captives to Non-Jihadists (Hmm)
BEIRUT - The Islamic State has banned the sale of female captives to other people, only allowing dealings between jihadists who belong to the radical group.
The jihadists threatened to punish whoever violates this order in the IS-dominated territories in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, or SOHR, said, citing activists.
SOHR added that IS released this statement after an Iraqi man "bought two Yazidi captives from an IS jihadist for $12,000 each and then returned them to their families."
The radicals vowed afterwards to retaliate against those involved in the escape of the two Yazidi captives or anyone withholding information.
The sale of female captives in Syria and Iraq has become one of the terrorist group's most important sources of profit.
Cop shoots other cop in front of his mom and dad.
Chilean Police Officer Slain by Fellow Cop
SANTIAGO – A member of Chile’s militarized national police, the Carabineros, was fatally shot by another cop in the southern town of Chillan Viejo, authorities said Wednesday.
The killing took place late Tuesday, as Cpl. Daniel Aravena Rodriguez, 26, and his parents were walking near a checkpoint on their way to the wake of a recently deceased relative.
Carabineros Cpl. Sebastian Fuentealba Toro approached Aravena and spoke to him, but the other man did not answer.
Within seconds, Fuentealba drew his gun and shot Aravena five times, killing him instantaneously.
“Daniel was going to the wake of another family member with his mom and dad. Then this person appeared, who is also a Carabinero, practically the same age ... he came, he pulled his weapon and he fired. He didn’t give him time for anything. He killed him in front of his mom and dad,” the victim’s aunt, Paula Vejar, told Radio Cooperativa.
Fuentealba fled the scene after the shooting, but later surrendered to authorities, who suggested the murder was the result of a personal dispute between the two men.
SANTIAGO – A member of Chile’s militarized national police, the Carabineros, was fatally shot by another cop in the southern town of Chillan Viejo, authorities said Wednesday.
The killing took place late Tuesday, as Cpl. Daniel Aravena Rodriguez, 26, and his parents were walking near a checkpoint on their way to the wake of a recently deceased relative.
Carabineros Cpl. Sebastian Fuentealba Toro approached Aravena and spoke to him, but the other man did not answer.
Within seconds, Fuentealba drew his gun and shot Aravena five times, killing him instantaneously.
“Daniel was going to the wake of another family member with his mom and dad. Then this person appeared, who is also a Carabinero, practically the same age ... he came, he pulled his weapon and he fired. He didn’t give him time for anything. He killed him in front of his mom and dad,” the victim’s aunt, Paula Vejar, told Radio Cooperativa.
Fuentealba fled the scene after the shooting, but later surrendered to authorities, who suggested the murder was the result of a personal dispute between the two men.
Police Rescue 45 Central American Migrants in Northeast Mexico
MEXICO CITY – Police officers in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas rescued 45 migrants from Guatemala and Honduras in Reynosa, located across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.State police officers responding to a tip from the public went to a house in the border city’s Puertas del Sol district, where people were being held against their will, the joint state-federal agency said in a statement.
Officers found 42 men and three women at the house, of whom 44 were from Guatemala and one from Honduras, the agency said, adding that the migrants were headed for the United States.
No arrests were made during the operation, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.
The migrants were turned over to the National Migration Institute, or INM, for processing.
Tens of thousands of Central Americans undertake the hazardous journey across Mexico each year on their way to the United States.
The trek is a dangerous one, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants.
Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.
In 2010, 72 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil and Ecuador were murdered in Tamaulipas.
Mexican marines found the migrants’ bodies at a ranch in the city of San Fernando on Aug. 24, 2010, marking the worst massacre of migrants in Mexico’s history.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Border Patrol finds 31 immigrants in a ( one bedroom apt)
U.S. Border Patrol agents say they found 31 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally hiding in a single apartment in a small town on the Texas-Mexico border.
The Border Patrol said Wednesday that those arrested included immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Agents also arrested a Mexican woman they say was the caretaker of the apartment.
Also Wednesday, the Border Patrol said 10 undocumented immigrants were hidden behind a fake wall inside a commercial truck at a checkpoint in Falfurrias, about 90 miles north of the border. Agents arrested the driver, who was not identified.
Border crossings of children and family members in particular have spiked in recent months. Experts blame gang violence in Central America for driving citizens north at numbers that are approaching last summer's surge.
Four Chilean Cops Indicted for Torturing Teen Protester
SANTIAGO – Four Chilean police were charged Monday with violently attacking a 14-year-old boy during a 2014 student demonstration in downtown Santiago.
The four cops were charged with the crime of torturing the student from the National Barros Arana Boarding School when he was taking part in a protest on March 28, 2014.
Prosecutors said the youth was abusively attacked by the police, after first being searched.
When the student opposed the search, he was knocked around by four members of the Carabineros, Chile’s militarized national police – a lieutenant, two sergeants and a corporal.
According to the medical report, the youth suffered injuries to the face, head and neck.
The cops on trial are Lt. Juan Valdivia Cisterna, Sgts. Edgardo Ortega Ahumada and Patricio Alarcon Vasquez, and Cpl. Geraldine Haarmann Ruiz.
The four police are barred from leaving the country and cannot approach the victim, who remains under psychological care “following the brutal attack he suffered at the hands of the police force,” the indictment says.
The World Organization Against Torture said in 2013 that the number of torture and mistreatment cases as part of the criminalization of social protest in Chile “is worrying.”
Link Found between Mexican Mayor’s Killing and Cartel Dispute
MEXICO CITY – The murder of Gisela Mota, mayor of the central Mexican city of Temixco, is linked to a dispute between rival gangs for control of police departments ahead of the implementation of a unified command system, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez said.“In the past few weeks, the threats increased” against mayors who supported having their local departments assigned to a unified command under the Morelos state police, the governor told Radio Formula.
The threats were made by the Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos gangs, which have been fighting for control of the state and “are determined to take advantage of this political situation (the start of the terms of several mayors) and again take, like before, control of the police,” Ramirez said.
The disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School students on Sept. 26, 2014, in Iguala, a city in neighboring Guerrero state, has been linked to the gang war.
The official version of events, which has been challenged by relatives of the victims, is that Iguala municipal police officers detained the students and then handed them over to Guerreros Unidos members, who thought they belonged to Los Rojos, murdered them and burned the bodies.
The 33-year-old Mota was gunned down in front of her family last Saturday by hitmen who burst into her house a day after she was sworn in as mayor.
“It’s with the monitoring of the (security) cameras that (the assailants) are spotted trying to get away and they are found around some paths heading toward the Temixco airport, and that’s where the police engaged them” in a shootout, said the governor, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.
Two of the suspects, one identified as a gang boss with a prior criminal record in Guerrero and Mexico states, were killed, Ramirez said.
“He was a very important hitman in the Los Rojos group and this same cell was the one that dumped a mutilated body in front of the state police offices on Dec. 29 in an act of provocation,” the governor said.
Three suspects have been arrested in the case – a minor, an 18-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman – and more arrests will likely be made, Ramirez said.
Ramirez signed an executive order imposing a unified police command in 15 cities that had been resisting the policy on Sunday.
Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, has refused to replace its local police department with a unified state command and Mayor Cuauhtemoc Blanco has clashed with the governor over the policy
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Monday, January 4, 2016
Mexican Mayor Killed a Day after Taking Office
MEXICO CITY – The newly installed mayor of the central Mexican city of Temixco was killed Saturday, a day after she took office, officials said.“They’ve informed me of the attack on the mayor of Temixco, Gisela Mota, a young and dear colleague. This a challenge by organized crime. We won’t give in,” Graco Ramirez – the governor of the central state of Morelos, where Temixco is located – said on Twitter.
Ramirez, like Mota a member of the center-left PRD party, said the suspected perpetrators of the attack – which local media said also left two others dead at the mayor’s home – had already been arrested.
The PRD’s chairman, Agustin Basave, lamented the mayor’s murder, demanded justice and expressed his condolences to the family of the victim.
The politician’s bodyguards requested police assistance after the gunmen opened fire at her home, media reports said, adding that after they caught up to them a shootout ensued that left two of the assailants dead and two others arrested.
Mota was killed a day after the state government launched a public safety operation involving the participation of federal forces.
A study released in 2015 by the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, a non-governmental organization, said Morelos’ capital, Cuernavaca, located just north of Temixco, had replaced Acapulco as Mexico’s most violent city.
Morelos, which borders Mexico City to the south, has the highest violent crime rates among Mexico’s 32 federal entities, the same study showed.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Iran - regime seized "Catholic Church", only to make it a Islamic prayer center?
NCRI – Authorities in Tehran are planning to transform illegally-confiscated church grounds into an ‘Islamic prayer center.’
The land belonging to the Iranian Assyrian community’s Chaldean Catholic Church in Tehran’s Patrice Lumumba Street (in Western Tehran) was illegally confiscated two years ago under the pretext of constructing an Islamic prayer hall and the authorities have refused to hand it back, a member of the regime's Majlis (Parliament) was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper Sharq on Wednesday, December 30.NCRI – Authorities in Tehran are planning to transform illegally-confiscated church grounds into an ‘Islamic prayer center.’
The land belonging to the Iranian Assyrian community’s Chaldean Catholic Church in Tehran’s Patrice Lumumba Street (in Western Tehran) was illegally confiscated two years ago under the pretext of constructing an Islamic prayer hall and the authorities have refused to hand it back, a member of the regime's Majlis (Parliament) was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper Sharq on Wednesday, December 30.NCRI – Authorities in Tehran are planning to transform illegally-confiscated church grounds into an ‘Islamic prayer center.’
Repeated complaints about the illegal confiscation of the church grounds have fallen on deaf ears despite repeated pleas by the representatives of the Christian minority, said Jonathan Bet-Kelia, a member of the regime’s Majlis.
Bet-Kelia told Sharq that he had approached Ali Younesi, special assistant to the regime's President Hassan Rouhani on ethnic minorities affairs, on this matter but was told that nothing could be done about it. Younesi is a former Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is personally responsible for ordering numerous arrests and assassinations of dissidents.
Commenting on the regime's admission that it had usurped church grounds to build its own prayer hall, Ali Safavi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: “The brazen admission displays first and foremost the discriminatory and sectarian policies of the regime vis-Ã -vis Iran’s religious minorities. At the same time, it speaks to the failure of Western policy to accommodate the regime in the futile hope that it will promote moderation and tolerance on the domestic front.”
Under the banner of Shiite Islam, the ruling clerics have systematically suppressed people of different faiths and even denied the minority Sunni Muslim population their basic rights.
On July 29, the regime destroyed a Sunni prayer hall in the capital Tehran.
Officials from the Tehran municipality, backed by state suppressive forces (police), raided and destroyed the Sunni ‘Pounak’ prayer hall. They also searched the premises of the mosque’s Sunni imam Abdullah Moussa-Zadeh and confiscated his mobile phone.
The Tehran municipality had shut down the Pounak prayer hall and placed seals on its entrance earlier in the year. Although the seals were later removed, Sunni Muslims had been prevented from praying in the center.
At the time, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described the destruction of the Sunni prayer hall in the Pounak district of Tehran as an anti-Islamic, sectarian and criminal act, and she called on all defenders of human rights and freedom of religion and belief and the international community, especially Muslim countries, Europe and the US, to protest against it.
The prayer hall’s destruction also drew immediate criticisms from Iranian Sunni leaders. Mowlavi Abdulhamid, the Sunni imam in the city of Zahedan, south-eastern Iran, sent letters of protest to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and to Hassan Rouhani condemning the raid.
In his letter to Rouhani, Abdulhamid wrote: “Intolerance towards even a single ordinary prayer hall and its destruction in a city that does not allow Sunnis to build a mosque ... not only hurts the sentiments of Iran’s Sunni community, but also offends all Muslims of the world.”
The regime’s security forces have on numerous occasions prevented Sunni Iranians from holding prayers in particular during the religious Eid festivals.
Friday, January 1, 2016
U.S. Jobless Claims Increase 20,000
WASHINGTON – Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States increased by 20,000 last week to 287,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The figure surpassed analysts’ forecasts and represents the largest weekly jump since February, while total claims reached their highest level since the first week of July.
The rolling four-week average of claims, a more reliable indicator of trends in the labor market, increased last week by 4,500 to 277,000, the highest in more than five months.
The four-week average has been below or just slightly above 300,000 since last September.
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits increased by 3,000 to 2.21 million during the week that ended Dec. 19.
Unemployment remained unchanged in November at 5 percent as the economy created 211,000 jobs, the Labor Department said early this month in a report that also adjusted the numbers for September and October to show that 35,000 more jobs were created than initially estimated.
The Labor Department’s broader U6 measure of unemployment, which includes people working part-time who would prefer full-time and workers who have given up looking for a job, remained near double digits in November, at 9.9 percent.
The labor-force participation rate came in last month at 62.5 percent, the lowest since October 1977.
FBI Arrests Islamic State Sympathizer on Terror Charges
NEW YORK – A 25-year-old man was arrested in New York state for allegedly intending to commit a terrorist act on New Year’s Eve, inspired by the Islamic State jihadist group, authorities said Thursday.The man was identified as Emanuel L. Lutchman of Rochester, a convert to Islam with a criminal record and mental problems, and he said he was instructed by the IS to carry out a terrorist operation.
In a communique, federal prosecutors and the FBI said that Lutchman stands accused of intending to provide material support to the IS, including aiming to murder civilians on New Year’s Eve “in the name of that terrorist organization.”
According to the criminal complaint, Lutchman said that he received instructions from an IS member located outside the United States to carry out the attack as a first step in joining that group.
Since November, he had been in contact with an informant to whom he expressed “firm support” for the IS and his desire to join the jihadist group in Syria.
According to the court document, one of Lutchman’s contacts was located in Syria and he told him he wanted to leave the United States and join the IS fight to establish a Muslim caliphate.
Lutchman last weekend sent an audio tape to another police informant in which he swore loyalty to the IS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He also said that he was intending to use a pressure cooker and a machete to harm people after taking them hostage in a restaurant.
Lutchman and one of the informants bought knives, a machete, latex gloves and other items and decided to tape a video before staging the attack.
He could face a maximum prison term of 20 years on the charges against him.
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