American imprisoned in Iran

[BlackTerrel]

Well if you were going to actually follow the pattern you set up you'd say "When Iranian scientists die in Iran it is the work of the Iranian government as a false flag operation."

The point was that only Iran supposedly breaks the pattern. They're the only government that should be trusted apparently.

That said, while I don't think this guy was a spy (though I rule nothing out)

Who could he possibly have spied on? What sort of sensitive information was he going to get?

the "hikers" who haven't gotten caught in the past are definitely suspicious. Who the hell goes hiking in a war zone? (The border area between Iran and Iraq).

Not smart people. Again - hiking over the border as an American is going to be pretty damn difficult to embed yourself into the Iranian intelligence community. What sort of interesting intelligence are they going to find?

Anyhow, since you believe anything that officially comes from the government, what's your take on the fact that the Pentagon now says it has no record of Osama Bin Laden's DNA even though it initially said it used DNA evidence for proof of death?

Do you believe everything that was reported in 2003 as evidence that he died?

Haven't followed the latest. Link?

[BlackTerrel]

Christians are an officially protected religious minority in Iran, yet you are trying to tell me this guy is going to get the death sentence just for being a christian? Ya ok. Sure. I'm sure that's all he did.

The punishment for converting to Christianity from Islam in Iran is death. I don't even believe Iran denies this.

[pcosmar]

The punishment for converting to Christianity from Islam in Iran is death. I don't even believe Iran denies this.

Iran has some of the oldest Christian Communities in the world,, even mentioned in the bible.
There are several Christian Churches in Iran, (600 by the wiki count) and an estimated 300 000 practicing Christians.

The man was not arrested for being a Christian. (that is propaganda hype)
More likely was arrested on suspicion of being a spy or saboteur. And his arrest is being used to incite hatred by those that want WWIII.

[twomp]

Christians, Muslims, Jews.... Anyone else feel like the cause of our problems is religion? These are supposed to be religions of peace yet they are the first things mentioned when we are about to fight a war.

How else do you get some 60 yr old lady in the middle of Arkansas to support a war in a country thousands of miles away? Just tell her that there is a war on Christianity.

[pcosmar]

Christians, Muslims, Jews.... Anyone else feel like the cause of our problems is religion? These are supposed to be religions of peace yet they are the first things mentioned when we are about to fight a war.

Nope. but evil bastards have used religion for years to control and manipulate people.
They have twisted the message of all those to suit their ends.

They will use religion. they will use entertainment or they will use brute force.. whatever works.

[BlackTerrel]

Iran has some of the oldest Christian Communities in the world,, even mentioned in the bible.
There are several Christian Churches in Iran, (600 by the wiki count) and an estimated 300 000 practicing Christians.

Where is your 300,000 number coming from?

The man was not arrested for being a Christian. (that is propaganda hype)
More likely was arrested on suspicion of being a spy or saboteur.

Are you saying it is legal in Iran to convert from Islam to Christianity? Please be clear. Because not even Iran says this.

And his arrest is being used to incite hatred by those that want WWIII.

Yes this is a huge story all over the news and will likely start WWIII.

[BlackTerrel]

Sentenced to 8 years in prison for his beliefs Brave guy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2567051.html

Contrary to popular belief in posts above this did not start WW3.

[kcchiefs6465]

nvm

[BlackTerrel]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04...est=latestnews

The Iranian-American Christian pastor jailed in Iran for his faith again has been denied bail as he awaits proper medical treatment for serious injuries and internal bleeding sustained from brutal prison beatings, according to the family’s attorneys.

Saeed Abedini, the 32-year-old U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran since September, purportedly was taken to an external hospital, but he was not admitted for treatment, according to sources close to the pastor who report that the medical specialist who was supposed to examine him was not in. Instead of seeing a different doctor, Abedini was returned to Evin Prison without receiving any medical treatment.

“This is yet another example of psychological abuse,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, the organization representing Abedini’s U.S.-based family.

“They got his hopes up about getting medical help, and either the Iranian government is incompetent or just that ruthless that they would play with people’s emotions and health,” Sekulow told Fox News...

...Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two young children fear for Abedini’s life. They wait at their home in Boise, Idaho, for sporadic updates from family members in Iran.

More than a decade ago, Abedini worked as a Christian leader and community organizer developing Iran’s underground home church communities for Christian converts who are forbidden from praying in public churches. He was arrested in 2005 but released after pledging never to evangelize in Iran again.

When he left his wife and two kids in Idaho last summer to return to Iran to help build a state-run, secular orphanage, Iranian police pulled him off a bus and imprisoned him.

After months of imprisonment without any notice of charges, Abedini was sentenced in January to eight years in prison, as his family and attorneys continue to pressure the State Department and other public and private groups to facilitate his release.

Late last month Secretary of State John Kerry made a public statement calling for Abedinit to be “immediately released” and said he is “disturbed” by detailed reports on the psychological and physical abuse the pastor is sustaining in prison.

This statement from the State Department came after months of criticism that the Obama administration wasn't doing enough for Abedini.

The ACLJ’s #SaveSaeed campaign and petition continue to gather momentum, with over 550,000 signatures from 180 countries around the world in a global effort to use social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to keep international pressure on this case.

[kcchiefs6465]

“This is yet another example of psychological abuse,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, the organization representing Abedini’s U.S.-based family.

First, this is a sad story. Second, have you ever heard of the SAVAK?

The people themselves are very well educated and pro-western- nowhere near the anti-Americanism seen in 1979 during the Revolution and hostage crisis.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will lose his job following elections in June of this year (he is not elgible to run) so they will definately have a new President. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian...election,_2013

Well many of the people who were oppressed and tortured under the Shah are no longer around. Many of the people who remembered the United States assisting the SAVAK with 'useful' torture instructionals have forgotten as well. I am sure there is still some resentment over there. I'd be pretty pissed off as well if I were in their shoes.

The younger generation just wants freedom. It's a shame a lot of our policies have hindered their efforts.

With regards to the SAVAK-

Brute force was supplemented with the bastinado; sleep deprivation; extensive solitary confinement; glaring searchlights; standing in one place for hours on end; nail extractions; snakes (favored for use with women); electrical shocks with cattle prods, often into the rectum; cigarette burns; sitting on hot grills; acid dripped into nostrils; near-drownings; mock executions; and an electric chair with a large metal mask to muffle screams while amplifying them for the victim. This latter contraption was dubbed the Apollo—an allusion to the American space capsules. Prisoners were also humiliated by being raped, urinated on, and forced to stand naked.[15] Despite the new 'scientific' methods, the torture of choice remained the traditional bastinado used to beat soles of the feet.

During the height of its power, SAVAK had virtually unlimited powers. It operated its own detention centers, like Evin Prison. In addition to domestic security the service's tasks extended to the surveillance of Iranians abroad, notably in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and especially students on government stipends. The agency also closely collaborated with the American CIA by sending their agents to an air force base in New York to share and discuss interrogation tactics.[20]

The Federation of American Scientists also found it guilty of "the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners" and symbolizing "the Shah's rule from 1963-79." The FAS list of SAVAK torture methods included "electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails."

Correct me if I am wrong but was there not a video demonstrating various torture methods made by the CIA that was found in Iran? This was a little before the taking of the hostages, IIRC.

The notorious Iranian security service, SAVAK, which employed torture routinely, was created under the guidance of the CIA and Israel in the 1950s.9 According to a former CIA analyst on Iran, Jesse J. Leaf, SAVAK was instructed in torture techniques by the Agency.10 After the 1979 revolution, the Iranians found CIA film made for SAVAK on how to torture women. 11

Here's the sources

9 Kermit Roosevelt, Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran (McGraw-Hill paperback, 1981), p.9. Roosevelt was a CIA officer operating in Iran in the 1950s.

10 Leaf was chief CIA analyst on Iran for five years before resigning in 1973, interviewed by Seymour Hersh in the New York Times, January 7,1979.

11 Robert Fisk, article in The Independent (London), August 9,1998, p. 19

Excerpted from Rogue State, by William Blum

According to author Charles Kurzman, SAVAK was never dismantled but rather changed its name and leadership and continued on with the same codes of operation, and a relatively unchanged "staff." [3][26]

Hossein Fardoust, a former classmate of the Shah, was a deputy director of SAVAK until he was appointed head of the Imperial Inspectorate, also known as the Special Intelligence Bureau, to watch over high-level government officials, including SAVAK directors. Fardoust later is rumoured to have become director of SAVAMA, the post-revolution incarnation of the original SAVAK organization.[27]

I wonder who taught them their psychological warfare?