Karbala, first of all do not tell me as a Journalist what should or should not do. As far as I know you are not a Journalist hence have little or no knowledge on my news analysis. Having said that, common sense dictates that any individual can be portrait as an angel for some and as evil for others (Bush, President of Iran, Blair, even Osama Bin Laden, etc).
Just because YOU and other people see this guy as a terrorist to the level of Bin Laden (yes, you compared him to him) does not mean I believe he is one. End of the story. So please back off on that little thing you always do that is to tell everyone what to do. It is annoying.
You get way too emotional in the discussions (as expressed in this last message of yours), and that's definitly not a good thing when you debate issues of this nature. Having said that, your assumptions that I hate the Iranian government are so silly. I do not hate it at all! Just because I do not agree with some of its policies, does not mean I "hate" it. *shaking head*
Your accusations that I hate the Iranian people is a HUGE insult to me and I am surprised you would say something of that nature as I am defending terrorists! That's the worst insult I ever got. It is hurtful.
Rather off topic, but... I will leave this thread for a while before things get really out of hand. I am extremely disappointed of such low and hurtful accusations you brought up against me. |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 1089 100%
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You get way too emotional in the discussions (as expressed in this last message of yours |
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Just because YOU and other people see this guy as a terrorist to the level of Bin Laden (yes, you compared him to him) does not mean I believe he is one. |
Rather off topic, but... Don't comment on this topic if you wish. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what possessed you to defend this organisation? |
Karbala:
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LDS_forever I try not to get emotional but what do you expect when you go around defending terrorist organisations. |
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Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs Analyst and the author of "The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water facility in August 2002. Prior to becoming a contributor for FOX, and until August 2003, Jafarzadeh acted for a dozen years as the chief congressional liaison and media spokesman for the U.S. representative office of Iran's parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. |
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I apologise if I offended you but do you realise how offensive it is to read someone defending a TERRORIST ORGANISATION which carried out bombings to which my own father was a witness to? |
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NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) a dissident group is a terrorist organization? Or you mean they are considered terrorists because they oppose the Iranian government? |
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So you are annoyed when I tell you not to defend an OFFICIAL TERRORIST ORGANISATION? |
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LDS_forever I don't think you realise what you have done, you just made a stand for an OFFICIAL TERRORIST ORGANISATION. It isnt just me who calls them terrorists its 99% of the Iranian people and most official state terrorist lists. |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 1089 100%
Karbala:
It must have been my mispelling of the word skepticism that didn't properly display my refrain from placing all my Iranian beliefs onto the teachings of this correspondent. Being a well informed adult, I mold my opinions myself from a multitude of sources, you are included but not to the exclusion of others.
As for "where there is smoke there is fire" comment, I mean that if you strip away some of the subjective verbage, there are some interesting facts in the article. In your earnest to condemn the author, you might have missed some of them. The article or blog entry, if you will, points out that there has been a minimum of 124 recorded executions in 2007 as recorded by Ammensty International. Is this false or a propaganda smear? Is this more or less government sanctioned killing than in the past few years? This would be the fire part. Now, to link this directly to Ahmadinejad is probably a stretch and would be the smoke part. Now considering that the world thinks the US executes tonnes of criminals each year, we should probably compare numbers. So far, the US has executed 32 people for crimes this year and none of them for treason. That means Iran has executed about 4 times more than the US. Also, this number is going up from the last couple of years where there were slightly under 100 executions. So, are more Iranians deciding to become criminals or has something changed. It is a interesting question and the correspondent gives his thoughts as to why, but all I take from it is that something is happening and there has been a change. What you cannot deny is more people are being killed...regardless of the correspondents current or previous affliations.
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One senior Iranian cleric, Ahmad Jannati, the leader of the regime's Council of Guardians, defended the increased executions in religious terms: "If it was Imam Ali (the first Shi"ite leader after Prophet Mohammad), he would have executed more people because he was not a man who would have compromised with those who disrupt [the] security of the society." President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended the executions as a way for Iran to protect society "with all its power." |
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The high priority of implementing these new 'security measures" was made clear in a July 2007 interview with the director of Iran's prison system, Ali Akbar Yessaqi, who spoke with Iran's state-controlled news agency (ISNA). In his interview, Yessaqi conceded the existence of the regime's secret prisons [torture centers] for political prisoners, the execution of juveniles and the policy of making arbitrary arrests, and also reported that Tehran is building 41 new prisons in Iran. |
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People are increasingly frustrated with the economy's poor growth, rising inflation and lack of distribution of oil wealth. In addition to rationing gasoline in late June, the world's second largest crude oil producer has seen both inflation and unemployment soar to 30 percent, housing prices double in one year and food prices skyrocket since U.N. sanctions were imposed last December. |
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University students, enraged at these actions and other "fascist" policies of Ahmadinejad's "dictatorship," continuously form campus protests that are met with bloody crackdowns by the authorities. Students carrying banners demanding "freedom of expression" are routinely beaten with chains, stabbed and arrested with no further word to their families. |
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Despite increased crackdowns on dissent during Ahmadinejad's presidency, protests continue to spring up among Iran's workers, teachers and bus drivers who repeatedly form demonstrations over their low and unpaid wages. In March, officials arrested 1,000 teachers among the 10,000 protesting their salaries outside the parliament in Tehran; the income of high school teachers in Iran - even though higher than that of many government workers - puts them below the poverty line. Bus drivers have gone on strike to protest the government's refusal to recognize their union rights, and thousands of them have been arrested. The regime also arrested the wives and children of union activists in order to compel the activists to come forward. Workers" riots and demonstrations reveal how profoundly Ahmadinejad has failed to deliver on his promises to be the champion of the Iranian worker and put the country's oil wealth "on people's tables." |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 863 86.3%
LDS_forever I do not want to just go back and forth with you. Read your own posts and try to view the matter from the POV of someone who lost an innocent brother/sister/mother/father/daughter/son at the hands of these murderers. Would it not be offensive? Please LDS_forever you may not like the way I argue or you may not like the way I interpret your statements. But as a good gesture just show me that you consider the MEK to be a terrorist organisation. Alireza Jafarzadeh is a spokesperson for this organisation. MEK + Spokesperson = Terrorist.
Can you imagine the uproar I could cause if I did the same for AL-Qaeda?
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AlQaeda is a terrorist organization? Or you mean they are considered terrorists because they oppose the US government? |
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Interesting that Fox News and the US will have such a low-life terrorist working for them, no? How come he is not in the Most Wanted List as Osama Bin Laden? Could you explain that for me? |
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What I said about Jafarzadeh and his discovery (nuclear facilities in Iran) is a fact., whether you want to admit it or not. |
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most of the world condemns the actions of the President of Iran and YOU defend them all the time. Same guy who thinks Israel should be wiped off the map and hold conventions and invites Anti-Semites, who does not even believe the Holocaust ever took place... who continue ignoring the UN. You should be the LEAST of all the people to point out fingers when yourself defend such a man. |
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Read your own posts and try to view the matter from the POV of someone who lost an innocent brother/sister/mother/father/daughter/son at the hands of these murderers. Would it not be offensive? |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 1089 100%
Vincenzo:
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So, there are secret prisions for political prisoners, juveniles have been executed, arbitrary arrest have been prescribed and there are going to be 41 new prisions in Iran. Why is there a need for 41 new prisons? Are people turning to crime at unprecidented levels? If so, why? Have the laws changed that made more people criminals now? Has there been enforcement of old laws that have resulted in more arrest? I don't know, but I do know more people in Iran are being planned to enter prisons. |
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For three days, their captors treated them politely and fed them well, although they could get no information and were not allowed to speak with each other, Lherbier said. On the fourth day, Lherbier was awakened at 2 a.m. and taken to a room. The solidly built former factory worker was placed in a chair in a corner, facing the wall. He estimates there was silence for 15 minutes. Some people entered the room. Lherbier could not see faces as they began speaking in Persian to him. Suddenly, someone pinched the back of his neck very hard and began screaming into his ear. Lherbier thought he heard a gun cock. He winced in pain and cried for mercy. Everyone seemingly was speaking at once. Through the chaos, a voice spoke in English, the first words Lherbier had been able to understand since he was arrested. "He wants to kill you," the voice told Lherbier. "He wants to cut your head off. And you can be sure that nobody will find your body." With that, the interrogations began.... ...The two men were stuffed into a single cell roughly 6 1/2 feet long by 6 feet wide. They tried to sleep on the cold concrete floor despite a light that was on 24 hours a day. A video camera was trained on them. Someone shoved food through the door three times a day; it was always rice. A hole behind a partition at one end of the room served as a toilet. The pair took turns shuffling back and forth. "It was impossible to breathe," Lherbier said. "I thought I would die." After a week, a doctor examined them and told them the judge had rejected their appeal. They were fingerprinted and put for two days in a dank holding cell filled with violent criminals. "Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian?" one prisoner asked Lherbier. "Pray for me! I am sentenced to death because I had an affair with a woman. Please pray for me!" ...They quickly discovered one could buy anything in Evin, including contraband. "Opium, crack, ecstasy, cocaine - everything you want," Lherbier recalled. For a fee, prison guards could arrange sexual encounters with female prisoners staying in another section of Evin, Lherbier said. "Iran is terrible," Lherbier said, "because you don't know who decides." |
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 1089 100%
That is the part that really got me when I first read the blog. 41 new prisons...not jails. A prison is a fairly good sized complex that holds more than just a few people. I am trying to find data on how many prisons we have in the US and the amount that are added each year, but I am certain that this number is much lower than 41. I can only remember 1 time when we voted on funding for a new prison in the state I lived at the time. You don't build prisons unless you plan on filling them... Otherwise, it is just wasted money and with the economy what it is in Iran, I cannot believe that waste would be tolerated well.
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 863 86.3%