U.S. targets Iranian human rights violators
By Jamie Crawford
The United States sanctioned 17 Iranian individuals and entities for their alleged roles in the Iranian government's human rights abuses and support of terrorism, the Treasury and State departments announced Thursday.
The actions were carried out under the authority of three separate executive orders that had already been put into effect.
In the first set of sanctions, the United States targeted four Iranian individuals and five entities for their roles in censoring or blocking citizen access to the internet and international media - including the jamming of international satellite broadcasts.
Among those targeted is Ali Fazli, deputy commander of the Basij militia, who participated in the brutal crackdown of civilian protestors in the aftermath of the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election.
Also: Iran fires on U.S. drone
Iran's minister of communications and information technology, and a number of other Iranian government officials were targeted as well.
"Today's designations further demonstrate our resolve to put a stop to the Iranian regime's continued efforts to deny the Iranian people access to information and the ability to speak freely," David S. Cohen, Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a written statement. "We will continue to expose this repressive behavior, as well as Iran's continued proliferation activities and support to terrorists worldwide."
In addition, Treasury also went after Iranian individuals and entities that allegedly support the terrorism and weapons proliferation activities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (ICRG), and the groups it supports.
Operatives with the ICRG who support Kata 'ib Hizballah (KH), a U.S.-designated terrorist group, were sanctioned for their work with KH to destabilize the Iraqi government through various violent attacks inside Iraq going back to 2007.
And the National Iranian Oil Company, already designated under previous actions by the Treasury Department, was singled out for its funding and equipping of ICRG's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
On a conference call with reporters on Thursday, a senior State Department official said the actions were taken pursuant to a sequence of actions and deadlines put forth in existing legislation signed by President Obama earlier this year.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
israel sign NPT yet?
The war drums are being pounded, oh wait that was Hitlery' breasts hitting the floor in excitement to use the excuse to of "targeting human rights violators."
Israel is behind all the world's problems and the US is their pawn.
So.. Does this mean that US will target its own human rights violators? How about those who committed war crimes when torturing prisoners? Thats its both a human rights crime and a war crime since it happened during a war.
We dont have a dog in the fight no business prosecuting them before throwing George Bush and Dick Cheney in jail. Obama has it right, no one should die for Israel.
As an Iranian, I thank the Obama administration for sanctioning the regime. Let's just hope that President Obama has learned from his mistakes in 2009 and stands with the Iranian people in real regime change. Until we remove this regime, this regime will only continue their belligerence. Hence, the threats posed by this regime to humanity will not only remain but will only get exponentially worse. Remember, this regime has been responsible for the deaths of more Americans than even Al Qaeda. Iran is the only country in the region that once liberated will become a true secular democracy. Let's all hope for humanity and for the national security interests of the free world that that day will be sooner than we can imagine.
you are a typical american not iranian.
americans are just dumb.
jorge, included are you.
I couldn't give a crap about Iran, but I do think we (the US) should mind our own human rights violations first before lecturing other folks...
What a cowardly statement. You have the mentality of a true moral coward. This is a regime that rap es young girls before executing them so that they don't "die as virg ins". Truly, shame on you.
Charity starts at home... Got our own messes to clean
totally agree with you! but as george said "Americans are just dumb." but I exclude you.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be tried for treason for knowing the attack on the Ambassador, the two Seals and the other man was going on and did nothing to protect them! Simple as that. Obama acts more like a rock star,so full of himself, not at all like a President of the United States. He rounded up all the high schoolers in the country to vote for him. This is the great tragedy of our country, like the fall of Rome. The ruination of America by Barack Obama.
shut up you looser, election is over.
Loser*.
why don't you shut up, Mr., dumdass.
As soon as you prosecute Di@k and Shrub for outing a CIA officer and falsifying WMD info to get us into Iraq. Oh and lets not forget all the no bid contracts to Haliburton and KBR. Make's Bermie Madoff's ponzi look like monolpoly money.
I wonder how such people ( mostly politicians) live with themselves. They must acknowledge in their hearts that they are responsible for the death of so many people.How do they sleep ?
I'm not sure that Mr. Obama -as awful as one might feel about him- is that powerful or scary. If you think of the major issues and challenges facing America, didn't they all exist before him?
It is so easy for all of you, while ignorantly blissful sitting at home or in your office safely, 8000 miles away from Iran to bang the war drum and concoct reasons why we should go to war with Iran. However, being stationed in Bahrain (which is only 150 miles from Iran) I have found very few reasons for us to be involved with them, or to even be over here to begin with. The only ones who are trying to start problems with Iran are US companies... please be aware that the real terrorists of the modern world wear $5000 business suits, hold private meetings, and spread a fear campaign so that they can profit in the end off of your manipulation. I would love to see them separated from their families, armed up, and standing by while other people play chess with their lives...
Well said troop. Like Ike said, the beware the military industrial complex.
IRAN IS IRRELEVANT ! ! !
Had they a nuke, WHAT could they DO with it ?
Were they to USE it, they would cease to exist within 48 hours ! !
IRAN is IRRELVANT ! ! !
Any Islamic country is a threat to the U.S
Don't speak a word about Islamic countries unless you actually know about the religion past what you have been led to believe by the media. Islam is not unlike Christianity, they both teach a positive message... That message just gets twisted by a few individuals who want to justify doing evil acts in the name of their religion. Look at the Crusades, the Christians were the worst terrorists of that time, but no one wants to think about that now do they? Its a threat to the ego to think that you might be very similar to the people who you hate so much. Haha, humanity is such a joke, it becomes more fearful, weak, and ignorant by the day, and people like you prove that to me daily!
So the Xtians evolved and the muslims didn't..
ALL.
So lets spend another couple trillion on every muslim nation ( 20-30 of them) to kill a few muslims and drive ourselves to poverty.... While we layoff teachers and borrow money from chinese.
Where were you on the night Americans waved Ole Glory and sang patriotic songs and chanted Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama? O' my bad! Where were you on the night Americans waved Ole Glory, sang patriotic songs and chanted Four More Years, Four More Years, Four more years??? Hehehe!
Congratulations President Obama! I can't wait to be at your inauguration on 1/21/13. God bless you Mr. President! Four more years baby!
More and more sanctions are not going to do anything but p**s off Iran more and more. Just leave them alone and they will leave us alone.
If only.
what about Africa and Somalia those places would really need help instead of engaging a war against a country that could mess up the oil and that would not be good for the united states, let Israel handle it they have good equipment.
See what the liberal media will never understand is they can band together to re-elect an ideologue that is inline with their politics and essentially manipulate a country. But unfortunately what you dummies don't get is you play into internationally competing forces that want to take our resources from and takedown America. Have you guys for a minute asked yourself why IRAN has fired on our drone the day after re-electing foreign diplomacy wimp? They want to pick a fight with us at Putin's directive so that Russia can bring a weak America shown by its willingness to re-elect a dove for a President into war. Then we as a world power dies. Don't any of you play poker?
Where were you on the night America waved Ole Glory and sand patriotic songs and chanted Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama??? My bad, where were you on the night America waved Ole Glory, sang patriotic songs and chanted...Four More Years, Four More Years, Four More Years??? Hehe.
Wow. Dummies? Apparently you need to learn how to read. That drone attack happened last week so you entire point is invalid. We tried that 'my gun is bigger than yours' crap with Bush. 2 wars and billions of dollars later Osama was still alive. But not anymore because Obama got Osama.
LOL!
I like your commens
Obama isnt going to to do anything. A little lip service and that's it. And he's got them bog ole lips too. Sho is busy eating fried chicken
On election night I called up my cousin Fleetwood Mac and I said how you doing sis? Well, she replied...LANDSLIDE! Hehe!
Congratulations President Obama. I can't wait to be at you inauguration on 1/21/13. God bless you Mr. Presdent! Four more years baby!
Let's just bomb them and get it over with. We have every single place of interest marked as pre-planned targets. We should just pound the hell out of them for about a month. So what if they say they will unleash jihad. They already have. I'm sure they have people in the US just waiting. It is going to happen anyway. Just bomb them, cripple them and give their people a better chance of tossing them out. If it doesn't work, bomb them more and more.
Ask Israel. Iran = not a threat to US!
You really need to see a head shrinker. After Iraq and Afghanistan, if the Yanks still do not learn their lessons then they deserve to suffer more war casualties and deaths.
It is funny to see how US is getting and being made desperate for Iran when there is practically no need for it.. If Iran is getting sanctioned for terrorism than what about Pakistan ? The terrorism factory of the world that should have been declared as a terrorist nation by now.
Why double standards ? and different definition of terrorism for Iran only ? Iran never attacked any nation, have been a sovereign country doing its own business.
US should definitely try to stop Iran from making nuclear bomb but should not get provocated by Israel to attack Iran. We do have enough expenses and political will needed to fix things at home instead of opening another war front !!!!!!!!!!!
Why should we stop them from making nuclear bombs? The fact is that NO nation in the world has used them on another nation except? Yep, the United States. We are sitting in the 'dummy chair' on that issue.
Iran just wants nukes so that the United States doesn't keep on trying to push them around.
Coz we still want to play as a a boss 🙂
LOL! Bunch of boy scouts in ski mask. LOL! LOL! LOL!
Lol so true ....
I see that the right-wing thugs in Washington are going ballistic on the human rights "violations" by the current Iranian leaders but during the reign of the horrific Shah Reza Pahlavi(1953-1978) they remained dead silent! This is American hypocrisy at it's very worst!
The Shah while imperfect and having many faults did not massacre his people. Nice try comparing apples with oranges.
The Shah imprisoned, tortured, and then killed a huge number of freedom-seeking Iranians.
so, what do you suggest, Mr. McCarthy? DEATH TO AMERICA?????
Recently-released video footage has shown insurgent execution of another captured Syrian, raising further concern about insurgent brutality in Syria.
The shocking footage shows a captured Syrian man pleading for his life as insurgent gunfire is heard blasting for some seconds. The man then falls on the ground before an insurgent shoots another bullet at him.
This is not the first time evidence points to the armed insurgents fighting Damascus’ committing crimes against humanity.
In recent weeks, many videos have emerged of insurgents killing unarmed Syrians.
Despite widespread international condemnation, the so-called Free Syrian Army continues to kill captives and kidnap civilians.
Last week, a video showed Syrian insurgents beating around 10 government soldiers before forcing them to lie on the ground and executing them with automatic rifles near the town of Saraqeb in northwestern Syria.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the insurgents are foreign nationals.
Hilarious to see someone paid by the Syrian or Iranian government accuse insurgents and foreign nationals for doing what their own paramilitary forces have been doing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and "Palestine" for over a decade while feigning outrage. But let me guess, these "brutal" acts are perfectly okay if you're slaughtering those that sympathize with Western powers, right?
Hey ! I wasn't screened out and censored! Somebody must be asleep at CNN!
The only effect these sanctions will have is for Obama to give himself a pat on the back for taking what will be portrayed as serious step when in fact it will accomplish nothing. Pathetic that this is even news.
After Kim died, Khameni is the last evil left on Earth.
oh right like all the previous sanctions have really worked out so well.
The sanctions have had a very strong effect on Iran. But you wouldn't know, you get your "news" from Fox. Bad news sourse leads to very dumb person - like yourself.
Khameni should be put on trial for the sponsor of terrorism worldwide. Then hang ala Hussein.
Iran is a terrorist regime that will stop at nothing to acquire nuclear weapons. The supporters of the regime need to learn from Gaddafi .
IRAN has been buying jets, rockets, and other weapons from Russia for yrs. Do you really believe they do not already have weapons grade uranium? You must be Jewish! Israels credibility is S@#%$T in America! Jewish media mafia is just trying to hide it! Israel is its own worse enemy! Educate yourself! Stop relying on Zionists for your info!
Gaddafi`s biggest mistake? Giving up his nuclear program. A lesson for Iran!
Really, last time Iran was sanctioned 500,000 people died IRAN! It is getting harder for true Americans to believe your Zionist BS!
500,000 people died because of some sanctions? I guess Iran's too busy spending all its money on funding paramilitary activities in a half dozen countries to feed its own people or something?
More illegal sanctions against a nation that has done nothing...