In an article on the Opportunity Lives website, Katrina Jorgensen shares the story of a former Iranian political prisoner who has a personal message for Americans.
Farzad Madadzadeh, a PMOI (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) supporter, was arrested in 2009. He was a member, not a leader of the PMOI, one of the main Iranian resistance movements and a member of the democratic opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Asharq Al-Awsat is one of the world’s most popular pan-Arab daily newspapers and is printed daily on four continents in 14 cities. Their most popular article on their website today was about the Free Iran rally held in Paris on 9th July.
In their article published on the 10th July they said that over 100,000 Iranians from all over the world attended to “voice their demand for regime change in Iran”. They also said that the gathering organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was the biggest of its kind with so many Iranian dissidents called for the toppling of the Iranian government.
An article published on The Express website reports that around 150 teenagers have been arrested in Iran for attending a mixed gender party. This is just the latest in the Iranian regime’s suppression of young people. Oliphant, the writer of the article, said that the young Iranians “were detained following a raid by police on a garden in Islamshahr, near the capital city of Tehran, after attending a birthday party”.
On Sunday the Iranian regime destroyed more than 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers according to an article published by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). This is the latest in the regime’s “widespread crackdown against the banned devices”.
“The destruction ceremony took place in Tehran in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of the Iranian regime’s Basij militia, who warned of the impact that satellite television was having in society.” He said that most satellite channels “deviate the society’s morality and culture”. He added that he believed that televisions cause more divorce, addiction and insecurity in society.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published an article detailing the latest executions carried out by the Iranian fundamentalist regime.
They said that three people were hanged on Saturday, and one on Monday. In Gilan Province, northern Iran, the regime’s judiciary said in a statement on Saturday that three prisoners were hanged in the presence of judicial officials in the Central Prison of Rasht. Their names were not released, just their initials and ages: F. B., 40; A. M., 32; and H. D., 31.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has published an article on their website regarding the remarks of Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir who responded to a statement from the Iranian regime’s General Consul. He spoke at an event about terrorism organized by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on 21st July and “pointed out the role of the mullahs’ regime in acts of international terrorism”.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported that Bahrain has dismantled an Iranian-linked cell. The cell is suspected of plotting attacks in Bahrain. Five suspects have been arrested and bomb-making materials, guns and knives were found in their houses.
The police said the five men had received military training in Iran and Iraq, according to a statement by Bahrain’s interior ministry.
Germany’s former Justice Minister, Ms. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, wrote an article for the German magazine “Focus” about the Iranian regime’s spies in Europe.
A recommended read for anyone wanting to know a little more about the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), is Michael J. Totten’s account of the MEK in his article ‘Hanging with the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran’, published in World Affairs.
Totten, a contributing editor for World Affairs, writes: “In 1997, US President Bill Clinton added Iran’s People’s Mujahadeen (Mujahideen Khalq in Persian, or MEK) to the list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and in 2012 his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took them off.”
Michael J. Totten wrote an article for the World Affairs website in which he discusses the Iranian Resistance, in particular the huge rally held every year in Paris which he attended.
He said the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (PMOI / MEK) were wrongly added to the list of designated foreign terrorist organisations by the US on the insistence of the Iranian regime. He said the Khomeinists assert that the PMOI is “contaminated” with atheism and the “Western plague.” They are also critical that the movement is led by a woman – Maryam Rajavi.
