Ban Iranian Regime Human Rights Violators From Entering the United States

Aug 23, 2022 | World

"Raisi's Death Commission executed children as young as 15."

July 27, 2021President Joseph R. Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500Dear President Biden,We are writing to express our concern about the prospect of incoming Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, visiting the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly.Raisi's record as a violator of human rights is long-standing and clear. In 1988, during his tenure as the deputy prosecutor of Tehran, Raisi served on a four-member Death Commission which oversaw the killing of over 5,000 prisoners, including women and children. The Death Commission conducted interviews that lasted only minutes to determine a prisoner's loyalty to the Islamic Republic of Iran, then sentenced them to death without a lawyer, right to appeal, or fair trial. The executions, conducted by hanging or firing squad, often occurred on the same day as the Death Commission's interrogations. After burying the dead in unmarked mass graves, Iranian officials refused to notify families for months and never shared with them the locations of their graves. Raisi's Death Commission executed children as young as 15.Ebrahim Raisi is proud of his record. In 2018, Raisi defended his role on the 1988 Death Commission, calling it "divine punishment" and "one of the proud achievements of the system." In the thirty years since the commission, Raisi continued to subject the Iranian people to extrajudicial prosecution, torture, and execution. During the 2009 Green Revolution, when Iranians protested the rigged presidential election, Raisi served as Iran's deputy chief justice. In this role, Raisi was directly involved in the regime's prosecution and death sentences of peaceful protesters. Years after, when Raisi served as prosecutor general, he advocated for maintaining Iran's house arrests on Green Revolution leaders.Raisi also consistently supports inhumane punishment against the Iranian people. In 2010, Raisi celebrated the Iranian judiciary's amputation of a prisoner's hand for stealing as "a source of pride for us." More recently, Ebrahim Raisi led Iran's judiciary from 2019 to 2021. During his tenure, the judiciary regularly tortured its prisoners.Recently, the United States designated Raisi for his role as head of Iran's judiciary in facilitating the Supreme Leader of Iran's tyrannical agenda, where he oversaw the state's crackdown and murder of non-violent protesters. In 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Raisi, pursuant to Executive Order 13876, for his oversight over the executions of juveniles, torture, and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Iranian prisoners, including amputations.Ebrahim Raisi should remain sanctioned under U.S. law. If the United Nations General Assembly maintains its current plans to allow some in-person attendance, the White House should deny Raisi and other Iranian leaders visas to attend. Allowing Raisi to travel to the United States-to the same city where the Iranian regime just tried to kidnap a U.S. citizen-would legitimize his repression, undermine America's moral leadership, and potentially endanger our national security, given the likely presence of intelligence agents in the Iranian traveling party.There is strong precedent for denying an entry visa to a foreign leader. In 1988, the United States barred PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from entering the United States to attend a meeting of the United Nations. In 2014, President Obama denied an entry visa to Iranian Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, who was involved in taking American diplomats hostage in 1979. In 2020, the United States declined to issue a visa for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Ebrahim Raisi's role in the Death Commissions, brutal crackdowns on Iranian protesters, and his association with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should disqualify him from receiving a visa to the United States.Thank you for considering this important matter. We look forward to hearing from you.Sincerely,/s/ 

Vergara Cid on Biden’s Friendly Fist Bump with Saudi Arabia

Aug 16, 2022 | World

...In an op-ed for the Washington Post, the president claimed that the goal of his visit was “to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values.” But this is a fantasy: everything about the Saudi regime is hostile to fundamental American values.Saudi Arabia is an absolute Islamic monarchy. The ultimate authority, even on judicial matters, is the king. Citizens have no rights or due process — the legal system is based on Sharia law, which empowers the state to control every aspect of people’s lives, including what they can think and say.... Just as there’s no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of thought: those who renounce Islam are subject to public decapitation. Dissent is punished by lashings, torture, wrongful imprisonment, kidnapping (see the case of Loujain al-Hathloul) and murder....Biden said that he is “not going to remain silent” when it comes to “a clear violation of human rights.” But what does that lack of silence mean if it has no implications for how he acts towards the perpetrators? Is empty finger wagging what Biden means by “holding true to fundamental American values”?By the very act of sitting at the table with the Saudis, President Biden has whitewashed the regime’s despotic nature and crimes. He has empowered the regime by giving it a moral sanction.

A Good Old Canadian Book Burning

Jun 7, 2022 | World

An Ontario school board has said that they now “regret” a 2019 educational program that saw books burned and used as fertilizer in the spirit of “reconciliation” — a program that was, in part, led by the co-chair of the Indigenous peoples' commission of the Liberal Party of Canada, ...[...]Titles such as Tintin in America, which was withdrawn for its negative portrayal of Indigenous peoples, alongside biographies of various geographers and explorers were discarded, burned, and used as fertilizer to aid in growing a tree on school property.The program has been ongoing since 2019, but only recently drew criticism.

Chinese Troops Fire on Protesters in Tiananmen Square (Video)

Jun 4, 2022 | World

Mark Levin: Appeasement of Putin Encourages Genocide

Mar 7, 2022 | World

Daniel Duffy: Lack of Moral Clarity About Putin Dilutes Thinking

Mar 5, 2022 | World

In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia.  Shortly after, President Obama announced a "reset" policy with Russia.  This was consistent with President Bush, who found Putin "straightforward and trustworthy."  In 2014, Putin punished Ukraine for ousting its pro-Russian puppet president by annexing Crimea.  The West responded with tepid sanctions.  President Trump equated Putin's killings of journalists and dissidents with the actions of the United States not once, but twice.  "There are a lot of killers," Trump told Bill O'Reilly in a 2017 interview.  "You think our country's so innocent?"  In 2015, he said, "I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know."  He continued to describe Putin as a leader and someone whom he respects.No, the United States isn't perfect. But the lack of moral clarity when equating a country that has representational government, freedom of speech, real elections, a mostly free economy, and a separation of church and state with the monstrosity of a dictator like Putin emboldens the Kremlin and does real damage. Putting Putin on an equal footing affects the way we think of our relations with him.If someone were your moral equal, why would you hesitate to become largely dependent on him for natural gas? To Trump's credit, he did in fact warn Europe that this was not a good idea. But the point is that the lack of moral clarity dilutes our thinking.[...] So what's wrong with the precedents set by all these administrations? The common denominator is that they negate the nature of Russia. The West views these events — the invasion of Georgia here, attacking American troops there — as episodic. Westerners haven't connected the dots.