The Cowardice of Iran

Act of Cowardice

Iranian Cowardice

Editorial

Iran’s ruling tyrants have executed yet another political prisoner. 49-year-old Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was hanged by authorities at a prison in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran at dawn, Sunday, June 1. The news came despite widespread international calls to halt the hanging. A day earlier, Canada’s Foreign Minister had condemned the regime, and Amnesty International had issued an urgent call, saying that Mr. Khosravi had been deprived of fair trial “in total disregard of both international law and the Iranian law.” And the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed said he was, “Shocked and saddened by Iran’s execution of a political prisoner in flagrant violation of international law!”

Since his second arrest in 2008, Mr. Khosravi was reportedly held for over 40 months in solitary confinement. Neither his family nor his lawyers were informed of his imminent execution. He is survived by his 17-year-old son.

Since the mass uprisings that swept the country in 2009, Tehran has hanged a number of dissidents on bogus charges. Mr. Khosravi, an average Iranian family man and a welder on oil rigs in the Persian Gulf, was accused of “enmity against God.” The prosecutors alleged that he provided financial support to the main Iranian opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which Tehran sees as an existential threat. Some observers point to this and dozens of similar cases to underline both the regime’s brutal nature as well as the popular support the MEK enjoys among average Iranians, who are willing to provide financial and other forms of support to the organization while fully aware of the deadly consequences.

Mr. Khosravi was reportedly placed under torture to speak against the MEK on television, but had firmly refused. He was initially sentenced to three years in prison but was later inexplicably and quite suddenly sentenced to execution. Some analysts see this as an indication that the regime is worried about the MEK’s growing reach and apeal inside Iran and intends to dissuade others from supporting the movement. Tehran apparently decided that fighting the MEK at home is more sensible than avoiding a diplomatic backlash internationally.

Indeed, there is sufficient evidence to show that Iranian rulers are worried about domestic crises. Amnesty says reliable reports indicate that the regime has executed “at least 180″ people in addition to “151 executions acknolwedeged by the authorites or state-sanctioned media” this year alone. Almost 800 have been executed since the so-called “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani took office last year. That is a terrifying statistic by any standards, and belies the regime’s claims of moderation. Indeed, Tehran’s actions speak louder than its rhetoric.

Why is the West ignoring abhorrent human rights violations in Iran? The ongoing nuclear negotiations with Tehran are simply not an excuse.

A regime that says something and openly does the opposite is plainly saying to the world that it is profoundly untrustworthy. Rouhani has found it opportune to use the atmosphere of negotiations abroad to settle the score with the opposition at home. With every passing day, the decision by the West to ignore that, and engage such a government in talks, without even raising the human rights situation, appears more politically unjustifiable, and even worse, immoral.

Mankind Will Also Be Wiped Out By A Nuclear Winter

‘Nuclear winter’ wiped out dinosaurs 66 mn years ago: Study

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 13:12

Revelation 16: Nuclear Winter

London: In a first physical evidence that a sudden dip in temperatures wiped out dinosaurs, a team of scientists has revealed that a massive asteroid hit the earth 66 million years ago, causing “nuclear winter” and the ultimate demise of giant animals.

Global temperatures suddenly plummeted following the “Chicxulub” impact off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, researchers said.

The “Chicxulub” impact is likely to have lowered global sea surface temperatures by as much as seven degrees Celsius.

The evidence was hidden in Brazos River region of Texas. Sedimentary rocks were analysed from the same age as the asteroid impact, containing layers of broken shells.

“The global ‘impact winter’ perturbed a relatively stable, warm climate and likely represented a major stress factor for life on earth,” said Johan Vellekoop from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

The “winter” is thought to have lasted no more than two to three decades but that was long enough to wipe out the dinosaurs, flying and swimming reptiles, and many other forms of life, researchers noted.

As seen in computer simulations, sunlight reaching the earth’s surface might have been reduced to around 20 percent of its normal level after the impact.

The first hours of the impact were marked by earthquakes, tsunamis and global wildfires. Next, dust and sulphur droplets would have collected in the atmosphere and blocked out the sun’s rays.

The ‘dark phase‘ would have caused a global collapse of terrestrial and marine food webs, said the study that appeared in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences.