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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran invites Western journalists to tour notorious Evin Prison after Israeli strikes
2025-07-07
The propaganda tour. Demanding Israel fight a war without actually hurting people and breaking things.
[IsraelTimes] Analysis finds at least 43 prison staff, at least 4 civilians killed in attack that targeted administrative building, access gates, also hit hospital; NGO says 2 prisoners among dead

Some two weeks after Israel attacked the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
invited Western journalists on an unprecedented tour of the site, known for housing political prisoners and foreigners in harrowing conditions.

Footage captured by Sky News showed damage to the prison hospital, with the windows blown out, damaged equipment covered in debris, and exposed wires hanging from the ceiling.

The outlet also showed the exterior of what Iran said was the heavily damaged visitors center, and noted that there were several other damaged buildings in the vicinity of the courtyard, but that filming was not allowed there.

NBC News, which also sent a correspondent to tour the prison, showed a brief clip of one of the damaged administrative buildings.

The strike — which came on the penultimate day of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last month — sparked concern among family members of those incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
at Evin, who include prominent Iranian dissidents as well as two Frenchies considered hostages by their home country.

The attack, which came alongside a strike on Tehran’s "countdown clock" anticipating Israel’s destruction, was widely taken as a signal that Israel was expanding its targets to symbols of the regime, after an initial focus on military and nuclear targets. The next day, a US-brokered ceasefire stopped the fighting.

ATTACK KILLED AT LEAST 43 PRISON STAFF, TWO PRISONERS – REPORTS
Whether Evin Prison’s staff is hired because they enjoy what they are required to do, or if they merely learn to acceot the requirement to do it, they deserve to die more horribly than they did. Their deaths are no loss to humanity.
A Washington Post analysis published Saturday — separate from the journalists’ tours of the site — indicated that the strike involved some four-to-six separate munitions, and targeted four different areas of the complex.

The targets appear to have included an administrative building, a visitation area, a medical center, and a solitary confinement ward.

According to the analysis — based on online death notices, prison records, and interviews — at least 43 prison staffers were killed in the strike, including several high-ranking officials, as well as two conscripted soldiers; at least four civilians who did not work at the prison were killed, two of them children.
What were the non-working civilians doing there, and why did they bring childr
Among the dead were two prisoners, according to the Washington-based Human Rights Activists in Iran group.

Iran said at least 71 people total were killed in the attack, though that figure has not been independently verified. Iran also said that prisoners were killed in the strike, but has not said who or how many.

Among the buildings hit was Ward 209, a solitary confinement cell block where prisoners are often blindfolded. One inmate told a friend, who then told the Post, that he saw blindfolded prisoners walking around after the strike, with no guards present.

A man who said he was at the prison gate shortly after the strike told the newspaper that he saw prisoners trying to escape, and that guards shot at their feet.

ISRAEL DROPPED 4-6 MUNITIONS, ON DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE SITE
An analyst who specializes in satellite images taken during wars told the Post that the attack on Evin seemed to have two targets: access points to the prison — possibly to enable a jailbreak, though no prisoners are believed to have escaped as a result of the attack — and prison staff in the complex’s central buildings.

Images indicate that a “lower yield munition was used [rather] than larger-scale airstrikes where the intent is to level the building,” said the analyst, William Goodhind, of the Contested Ground group.

He estimated at least six different bombs were used, echoing another analyst with the same specialty, who told the Post, “There must have been at least four separate munitions.”

The report estimated the attack destroyed or damaged 17 buildings within the sprawling prison complex. It noted that some 60 acres of surrounding vegetation was burned in fires caused by the strike, which may account for some of the damage.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment for the Post report, or to answer questions about its targets in the strike.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin has previously stated that “within the prison compound, intelligence activity was carried out against Israel, including counter-espionage,” and that the strike was carried out “in a pinpoint manner, to avoid harm to those uninvolved.”

PRISONERS SAID TRANSFERRED TO OVERCROWDED FACILITIES
Recent reports have also shed light on where prisoners have been transferred after the strike, with some men moved to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary and other men moved to the Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Women have reportedly been moved to Qarchak Prison.

Transferred prisoners have dealt with overcrowding, shortages of basic necessities like toilets and showers, and severe restrictions on communicating with family, according to relatives.

At the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, “They locked everyone up in a large hall that can hold a maximum of 30 or 40 people, but now they are keeping more than 120 people there,” a family member of a prisoner transferred there told the Post.

Prisoners’ relatives told Human Rights Activists in Iran that prisoners in Greater Tehran Prison and at Qarchak have been denied medical care. At Qarchak, women are held “in security conditions without sanitary support,” the group said.
There were similar reports about Evin Prison, which sounds like a theme.
Related:
Evin Prison: 2025-07-01 Iran says 935 people killed in Israeli strikes during 12-day conflict
Evin Prison: 2025-06-30 Iran claims 71 were killed in Israeli strike on Evin prison
Evin Prison: 2025-06-25 Iran transfers prisoners from Evin prison following Israeli attack
Related:
Greater Tehran Penitentiary: 2021-04-05 Five city council members sentenced to lashes in Tehran for 'economic crimes'
Related:
Ghezel Hesar Prison: 2024-12-22 US imposes new sanctions on Iran’s oil trade, prison
Related:
Qarchak Prison: 2019-11-03 Iranian police arrest more women for the 'crime' of dancing
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says 935 people killed in Israeli strikes during 12-day conflict
2025-07-01
[IsraelTimes] State media claims 170 women and children among dead in 12-day war, in which Iranian missiles killed 28 in Israel

Iran raised the official death toll from its war with Israel on Monday, with regime-controlled media reporting that 935 people were killed in the country during the 12-day conflict.

The state-run IRNA news agency did not give a breakdown between military and civilian casualties, but said of the 935 people, 38 were children and 132 were women, quoting judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir. Its previous report last week said 627 people had been killed.

Jahangir also said 79 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for political dissidents. The previous casualty figure for the Evin strike was 71.

Israel began its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program on June 13 with the aim of preventing the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons and amassing long-range weapons.

Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 28 people, all but one of them civilians, and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. In all, there were 36 missile impacts and one drone strike in populated areas, causing damage to 2,305 homes in 240 buildings, along with two universities and a hospital, and leaving over 13,000 Israelis displaced.

A ceasefire between the two countries went into effect on June 24, shortly after the United States joined the campaign with a strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment centers, including the underground facility at Fordo.

The US-based Human Rights Activists, which focuses on Iran, said over the weekend that 1,190 people had been killed, according to data collected by the agency’s network of medical and local volunteers. Of those, it said 436 were civilians, 435 military and 319 have not yet been identified.

The group has consistently reported higher casualties than the official reports from Iran.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Dozens of Iranian Jews said summoned for questioning on suspicion of having ties to Israel
2025-06-29
[IsraelTimes] Iranian woman tells Israeli news outlet that she witnessed the arrest of 10 Jewish neighbors, says women were released but men still in custody

Iranian authorities have summoned at least 35 Jews for questioning about their ties to Israel in the aftermath of the 12-day conflict between the two countries, a human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
organization reported on Saturday, amid unconfirmed reports that several Jewish community leaders had been arrested on suspicion of having ties to Israel.

Iranian authorities have cracked down on anyone they suspect of having ties to Israel in the wake of the war it launched against the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s nuclear program on June 13. Since then, more than 700 people have been arrested, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 35 Jews from Tehran and Shiraz have been called in for questioning since June 23 — the day before the US announced that a ceasefire deal had been reached.

It said that those called in for questioning were primarily interrogated about relatives who live in Israel and were warned not to contact them, or anyone else abroad, for the time being.

An unnamed member of the Iranian Jewish community told HRANA that the number of people from the community who had been summoned for questioning was "unprecedented" and that there were concerns about "the psychological and social well-being" of the community as a result.

Also on Saturday, an Iranian woman told Israel’s Channel 12 news outlet that she had witnessed the arrest of 10 Iranian Jews in recent days.

The woman, identified only as Miriam, told the news outlet that she saw six Jewish women and four Jewish men being arrested at 1:30 am on a recent morning.

Miriam, whom Channel 12 says it has spoken with in the past for reports on life in Iran, said that gunnies "jumped over the wall" into the courtyard of the area where she lives, threatened residents and told them to hand over their phones.

"I had hidden mine under the carpet as soon as I heard their voices," she said.

"They took away 10 people simply because they are Jewish... loading them like sheep into the car," she said.

The six women have since been released on bail, she said.

Miriam’s account appeared to correspond with unconfirmed reports from Friday which claimed that several Jewish community leaders had been arrested on suspicion of having ties to Israel.

The French-Iranian women’s rights group Femme Azadi reported that rabbis and other religious leaders in both Tehran and Shiraz were accused of having a connection to Israel without any evidence.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, Agent 49 felt gingerly for his head. It was still there. He had been hoping differently...
Israel’s Ynet news outlet had reported that Iranian authorities arrested multiple members of one family and confiscated their electronic devices.

It said that the women were later released from custody, but the men, one of whom it said is a rabbi, remained in detention.

Rani Amrani, from an Israeli radio station called Ran Radio, said on Saturday that the Iranian Jewish community had recently organized a gathering, attended by its rabbis and by many Iranian Jews who serve in the Iranian army, designed to "avert any suspicion of spying or, heaven forbid, betrayal."

It was unclear if the event she was talking about was the same event publicized by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, which on Thursday published photos of the Jewish community in Tehran gathering at the Abrishami Synagogue for an event in support of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
and the Iranian military after the war with Israel.

Between 8,000 to 10,000 Jews are believed to live in Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
— meaning the Islamic Theocratic Republic has the second-largest Jewish population of any country in the Middle East, after Israel.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran’s internet blackout leaves public in dark, creates uneven picture of war with Israel
2025-06-21
Q: Didn’t Elon Musk recently offer limited but free Starlink to Iranians to enable them to communicate despite the government internet blackout?
A: Yes he did — we had the story here a week ago.
[IsraelTimes] Iranians seeing only images of missiles hitting Israel amid fears from the regime that the public could rise up when they see how the leadership has been weakened

As the war between Israel and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
hits the one-week mark, Iranians have spent nearly half of the conflict in a near-communication blackout, unable to connect not only with the outside world but also with their neighbors and loved ones across the country.

Civilians are left unaware of when and where Israel will strike next, despite Israeli forces issuing evacuation warnings through their Persian-language online channels.

When the strikes hit, disconnected phone and web services mean not knowing for hours or days if their family or friends are among the victims, even though Israelis jets have been targeting Iran’s military leadership, air defenses, nuclear and missile programs and not firing into random civilian areas like Iran’s missile strikes on Israel

That’s left many scrambling on various social media apps to see what’s happening — again, only a glimpse of life able to reach the internet in a nation of over 80 million people.

Activists see it as a form of psychological warfare for a nation all too familiar with state information controls and targeted internet shutdowns during protests and unrest.

"The Iranian regime controls the information sphere really, really tightly," Marwa Fatafta, the Berlin-based policy and advocacy director for digital rights group Access Now, said in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "We know why the Iranian regime shuts down. It wants to control information. So their goal is quite clear."

WAR WITH ISRAEL TIGHTENS INFORMATION SPACE
But this time, it’s happening during a deadly conflict that erupted on June 13 with Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 maimed, according to a Washington-based group called Human Rights Activists.

Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli military estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel’s multitiered air defenses, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds of others maimed. Guidance from Israeli authorities, as well as round-the-clock news broadcasts, flows freely and consistently to Israeli citizens, creating in the last seven days an uneven picture of the death and destruction brought by the war.

The Iranian government contended Friday that it was Israel who was "waging a war on truth and human conscience." In a post on X, a social media platform blocked for many of its citizens, Iran’s Foreign Ministry falsely asserted Israel banned foreign media from covering missile strikes.

The statement added that Iran would organize "global press tours to expose Israel’s war crimes" in the country. Iran is one of the world’s top jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and in the best of times, news hounds face strict restrictions.

Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org reported on Friday that Iran had been disconnected from the global internet for 36 hours, with its live metrics showing that national connectivity remained at only a few percentage points of normal levels. The group said a handful of users have been able to maintain connectivity through virtual private networks.

FEW AVENUES EXIST TO GET INFORMATION
Those lucky few have become lifelines for Iranians left in the dark. In recent days, those who have gained access to mobile internet for a limited time describe using that fleeting opportunity to make calls on behalf of others, checking in on elderly parents and grandparents, and locating those who have fled Tehran.

The only access to information Iranians do have is limited to websites in the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ...
Iran’s state-run television and radio stations offer irregular updates on what’s happening inside the country, instead focusing their time on the damage wrought by their strikes on Israel.

The lack of information going in or out of Iran is stunning, considering that the advancement of technology in recent decades has only brought far-flung conflicts in Ukraine, the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip and elsewhere directly to a person’s phone anywhere in the world.

That direct line has been seen by experts as a powerful tool to shift public opinion about any ongoing conflict and potentially force the international community to take a side. It has also turned into real action from world leaders under public and online pressure to act or use their power to bring an end to the fighting.

But Mehdi Yahyanejad, a key figure in promoting internet freedom in Iran, said that the Islamic Theocratic Republic is seeking to "purport an image" of strength, one that depicts only the narrative that Israel is being destroyed by sophisticated Iranian weapons that include ballistic missiles with multiple warheads.

"I think most likely they’re just afraid of the internet getting used to cause mass unrest in the next phase of whatever is happening," Yahayanejad said. "I mean, some of it could be, of course, planned by the Israelis through their agents on the ground, and some of this could be just a spontaneous unrest by the population once they figure out that the Iranian government is badly weakened.
Related:
Starlink 06/15/2025 Starlink now LIVE in Iran
Starlink 06/15/2025 Escalation in the Middle East: A Threat to Russia and the Global Balance of Power
Starlink 06/07/2025 Elon Musk Woke Up $34 Billion Poorer After Trump Clash

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IAF continues to strike Tehran, targeting police HQ and centrifuge production sites
2025-06-19
[IsraelTimes] Army says it has hit more than 1,100 Iranian assets in hundreds of strikes since Friday; Defense Minister Katz vows to ‘continue to target symbols of Iran’s rule’

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel had destroyed Iran’s police headquarters in Tehran, as the IDF kept up heavy strikes across the Islamic Theocratic Republic on the sixth day of fighting between the two countries, and as thousands continued to flee the Iranian capital.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets "destroyed the headquarters of the Iranian regime’s internal security, the main arm of the Iranian dictator’s oppression," Katz said. "As we promised, we will continue to target symbols of [Iran’s] rule and strike the Ayatollah regime wherever it may be."

Israeli officials have said they would welcome regime change in Tehran, while noting that it is not the purpose of the offensive, which is intended to take out Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities.

The IDF said Wednesday afternoon that the Israeli Air Force had carried out a wave of strikes on some 40 Iranian military targets in western Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
earlier in the day. Some 25 fighter jets were involved in the action, and the targets included missiles aimed at Israel, missile storage facilities and Iranian soldiers, according to the military.

Late Wednesday night, the military announced that some 60 fighter jets carried out another wave of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in Tehran, which the IDF said hit "weapons production sites, centrifuge production sites, as well as research and development sites of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons development project."

The nuclear-related sites "were designated to allow the Iranian regime to expand the scale and pace of its uranium enrichment purpose of developing nuclear weapons," the military said in a statement.

The other targets included "factories producing raw materials and components for missile assembly, as well as sites for the production of Iran’s air defense systems," the IDF added.

The army earlier said that overnight it had targeted an Iranian centrifuge production site and several weapon-production facilities, as well as an Iranian Emad ballistic missile launcher that was primed for an attack on Israel. It released footage showing the strike on the launcher, as well as on Iranian soldiers at a different ballistic missile launch site.

Also Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, along with ministers, aides, and security chiefs, as Israel awaited US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s decision on whether he will join the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

If Trump does join the attacks, "it would be behind us in a week," a senior Israeli official told Channel 13. "The duration would be significantly shortened."

The goal of the war, said the official, is not to fight "an existential war against Iran."

"The main goal is to harm the nuclear [program], and if we cause unrest among the Iranian public — great."

Since Friday, Israel has hit more than 1,100 Iranian assets in hundreds of strikes in Iran, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a presser Wednesday afternoon.

"We are operating systematically to neutralize the nuclear threat," he said, adding that the strikes are "deepening the significant damage" caused to Iran’s ballistic missiles and air defenses.

Defrin said the IAF had also bombed five Iranian AH-1 helicopters at a military airbase in Kermanshah Wednesday morning: "Their mission was to try and harm our aircraft." Later in the day, the military said it had bombed another three AH-1 helicopters at Kermanshah.

The military also published footage showing the air force’s 120th Squadron’s aerial refueling of fighter jets during strikes in Iran. According to the IDF, more than 600 separate aerial refuelings were carried out over the skies of the Middle East, allowing dozens of IAF fighter jets to operate in Iran, located over 1,500 kilometers from Israel.

An IAF Boeing 707 refueling plane refuels a fighter jet over the Middle East, in a handout video issued on June 18, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Iranian officials have reported at least 224 deaths in Israeli attacks, claiming those were mostly civilians, though that toll has not been updated since Monday. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists estimates the corpse count at at least 585 people, including 239 civilians, and estimates that more than 1,300 have been maimed.

Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile program launched early Friday morning is necessary to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has retaliated by launching over 400 missiles and some 1,000 drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 maimed by the missiles.

Shops have been closed across Tehran, including in its famed Grand Bazaar, as people wait in gas lines and pack roads leading out of the city to escape the onslaught.

A major explosion was heard in Tehran around 5 a.m. Wednesday, following other explosions earlier in the predawn darkness. Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which have become increasingly common as Israeli strikes have intensified.

At least one strike appeared to target Tehran’s eastern neighborhood of Hakimiyeh, where the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards has an academy. Loud blasts were heard throughout Tehran on Wednesday, and a major road in the capital was partially closed.

The official IRNA news agency claimed that an Israeli strike had targeted a building of the Iranian Red Islamic Thingy Society in Tehran. The Red Islamic Thingy itself said an attack took place near its building. There was no immediate comment from the IDF.

The IDF said that its overnight operations had included strikes on an Iranian centrifuge production site and several weapon-production facilities. The centrifuge production site in Tehran was used by Iran to expand the scope and rate of its uranium enrichment to develop nuclear weapons, the military said.

The IDF stated that the weapon-production factories hit included a site for the production of raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles that the Iranian regime has been firing at Israel, as well as facilities for making systems and components for surface-to-air missiles designed to hit aircraft.

The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency identified the two facilities struck by Israel as the TESA complex in Karaj and the Tehran Research Center.

"At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested," the IAEA wrote on X. "At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured."

Both sites had been under IAEA monitoring as part of the 2015 JCPOA agreement between Iran and world powers.

The TESA complex, near the capital Tehran, housed a workshop where components for centrifuges were built, the machines used to enrich uranium. In 2021, Iran said cameras at the site were damaged during what it called an Israeli "sabotage" operation.

Centrifuges are vital for uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that can produce fuel for reactors or, in highly extended form, the core of a nuclear warhead.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran executes man over 2022 protest killings; activists say he was framed
2025-06-12
[IsraelTimes] Dissidents and human rights groups say Abbas Kourkouri was tortured into confessing to killing seven people who were likely shot by security forces

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
on Wednesday executed a man convicted in the fatal shootings of seven people during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, though human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
activists say he was tortured into confessing to killings likely carried out by security services.

The hanging of Abbas Kourkouri, also known as Mojahed Kourkouri, marks the first execution in nearly a year for someone arrested in the 2022 protests surrounding the death of Amini, who were tossed into the calaboose by police allegedly over not wearing her hijab to their liking.

Her death sparked months of demonstrations. Even today, some women refuse to wear their headscarves in public, openly defying a hijab law instituted by the country’s theocracy.

It’s unclear why authorities chose now to execute Kourkouri, 42, though tensions have been rising regionally over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, and the result of talks with the United States remains uncertain.

Iran is one of the world’s top executioners and has been cracking down in other ways on dissidents in the time since the Amini demonstrations.

Kourkouri "was sentenced to death without a fair trial and without access to a lawyer of his choice," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, which tallied an average of one execution in the Islamic Theocratic Republic every six hours over the last eight months.

SHOOTING HAPPENED DURING AMINI PROTESTS
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported at the time that on November 16, 2022, two button men on cycle of violences shot at protesters and security personnel gathered at the central market in the southwestern city of Izeh in the country’s restive, oil-rich Khuzestan province.

The assault killed seven people, including a nine-year-old boy. It maimed three coppers and two members of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The death of the nine-year-old, named Kian Pirfalak, drew anger from Iranians, particularly after his family reportedly said it was security forces — not other button men — who opened fire.

Kourkouri was accused of being one of the button men and subsequently charged with a spate of offenses, including "moharebeh" — an Islamic term meaning waging a battle against God.

Authorities arrested him in December 2022 after reportedly shooting him in the leg. Activists say he was denied medical treatment beyond the bullet’s removal.

State media described Kourkouri as a drug pusher and "instigator" with a history of bully boy beliefs. But rights advocates say he isn’t the violent mostly peaceful person authorities have made him out to be, and was himself an innocent protester.

"He was arrested during the ’Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests, and the Islamic Theocratic Republic authorities attempted to blame him" for the attack, Amiry-Moghaddam said.

He added that the slain boy’s parents and uncle believed Iranian security forces were responsible.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which also monitors Iran, similarly dismissed the Iranian government’s claims.

"While authorities continue to describe the events of November 16 in Izeh as a ’terrorist attack,’ eyewitnesses and the families of victims have presented accounts that contradict the government’s narrative," it said Wednesday.

The group quoted Kian’s mother as saying: "On our way home, officers opened fire on our car."

State media earlier broadcast videos of Kourkouri taking blame for the attack. But Amnesty International said that authorities subjected him to solitary confinement and coerced his confessions, and that he wasn’t at the scene at the time of the killings.

One videotaped confession that had been aired on state TV showed Kourkouri in bed with his arm visibly bandaged and bloody, the rights group said. The footage resembled that of many other suspected coerced confessions broadcast by the Iranian broadcaster.

Kourkouri’s death brings the tally of executions related to violence at the Amini protests up to 11. The last such execution came 10 months ago, after Reza Resaei, 34, was sentenced to death over the killing of a security officer. Rights groups also said his confession was forced.

IRAN STILL FACES DISSENT YEARS LATER
On the streets of Iranian cities, it’s becoming increasingly common to see a woman pass by without a mandatory hijab, as the third anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the mass protests it sparked approaches this fall.

The government has targeted private businesses where women are seen without their headscarves. Surveillance cameras search for women uncovered in vehicles to fine and impound their cars, and authorities have gone as far as to use aerial drones to monitor women.

The country’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to curb the morality police’s harassment of women. But the country’s ultimate authority rests with its 86-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
Khamenei has in the past said "unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden."
Related:
Mahsa Amini 03/15/2025 UN report says Iran stepping up electronic surveillance of women to enforce hijab laws
Mahsa Amini 03/14/2025 Climber leaves Iran after competing without hijab at height of protests
Mahsa Amini 03/10/2025 Iranians film luxurious lifestyle of those connected to regime for Israeli news outlet


Link


Britain
Nigel Farage Is Making Big Plans for Britain's Immigration Policies, and They Look Very Familiar
2025-04-28
[RedState] Across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage's Reform Party is making some headway in the polls. Mr. Farage and his fellows are gaining confidence and are starting to put out policy proposals - and one set of policies, on illegal immigration, looks broadly familiar.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage unveiled a sweeping four-point plan on immigration on Thursday, promising a crackdown on illegal migration and the appointment of a new ’Deportations Minister’ under a Reform-led government.

Speaking in Dover, the symbolic heart of Britain’s migration crisis, Farage declared: "We will bring a total end to all asylum claims from people who come here on travel visas or as students," while reaffirming his pledge to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repeal the Human Rights Act.

We have our own "Deportations Minister," although we don't call him that; we call him the Border Czar, that being the famous and dedicated Tom "The Hammer" Homan. I would suggest to Mr. Farage that, should the Reform Party win big enough to propel him into the Prime Minister's chair, he could do a lot worse than to send his Deportations Minister over to the United States to confer and compare notes with Mr. Homan.

Oh, and Mr. Farage should find the Deportations Minister a cool nickname, too.

Reform is pulling ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in at least one poll.
Link


-Great Cultural Revolution
Trump admin refers Maine's 'noncompliance with Title IX' to DOJ amid fight over trans athletes
2025-03-29
[FoxNews] Maine has thumbed its nose at Trump's executive order to keep trans athletes out of girls' and women's sports

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on Friday said it referred Maine’s "noncompliance" with Title IX rules to the Justice Department for enforcement.

Maine has continued to defy President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports. The HHS gave the state 10 days to correct its policies through a signed agreement or risk referral to the Justice Department.

"Today, OCR referred Maine’s noncompliance with Title IX to @TheJusticeDept for enforcement in court for continuing to unlawfully allow males to compete against females," the department announced in a post on X.

"HHS will continue to protect women’s sports and keep the promises of Title IX for America’s women and girls."

Fox News Digital reached out to Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ office and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office for comment.

The Maine School Administrative District 51, home to Greely High School, where a transgender athlete incited national controversy after winning a girls' pole vault competition in February, said Thursday it was not complying and will instead "continue to follow state law and the Maine Human Rights Act."

The Maine Principals' Association said in a statement it is also "bound by the law, including the Maine Human Rights Act, which our participation policy reflects."

The situation involving the trans athlete at Greely High School attracted national attention after Maine Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete by name with a photograph in a social media post. Libby was later censured by the Maine legislature, and she has since filed a lawsuit to have it overturned.

Trump signed the "No Men in Women’s Sports" executive order in early February, which led to multiple athletics associations complying with it and a handful thumbing their nose at the order. The issue with the state of Maine came to a head at a meeting of the National Governors Association.

Trump threatened to cut federal funding to the state for not banning biological males from girls’ and women’s sports.

The next day, Mills' office responded with a statement threatening legal action against the Trump administration if it did withhold federal funding from the state. Then, Trump and Mills verbally sparred in a widely publicized argument at the White House during a bipartisan meeting of governors.

Since then, multiple protests against Mills have been held outside the state Capitol, and the Maine University System has cooperated with the Trump administration to ensure no trans athletes compete in women's sports after a temporary funding pause.
Related:
Maine: 2025-03-21 Transgender runner blows out competition, sets season records in girls' races at Oregon high school track meet
Maine: 2025-03-16 Five states considering required voter ID to stop non-citizen voting and boost election security
Maine: 2025-03-14 Dozens of activists occupy Trump Tower (NYC) protesting Mahmoud Khalil arrest - 98 arrested; Khalil sues to block Columbia U releasing disciplinary records to Congress
Related:
Trans athletes 03/21/2025 Transgender runner blows out competition, sets season records in girls' races at Oregon high school track meet
Trans athletes 03/14/2025 Dozens of activists occupy Trump Tower (NYC) protesting Mahmoud Khalil arrest - 98 arrested; Khalil sues to block Columbia U releasing disciplinary records to Congress
Trans athletes 03/13/2025 University of Washington cuts costs in response to possible loss of state, federal funding under Trump admin

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US says Iranian-American journalist held in detention in Iran
2024-11-04
[IsraelTimes] Reza Valizadeh was arrested last month and faces trial on undisclosed charges; US seeking info on case, says Tehran ‘routinely imprisons US citizens’ for ‘political purposes’

An Iranian-American journalist who once worked for a US government-funded broadcaster is believed to be detained by Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
for months now, authorities said Sunday, further raising the stakes as Tehran threatens to attack Israel.

The imprisonment of Reza Valizadeh, acknowledged to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by the US State Department, came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday.

It also followed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
threatening both Israel and the US the day before with "a crushing response" to Israel’s retaliatory strikes on military sites in Iran.

Valizadeh had worked for Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that’s overseen by the US Agency for Global Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that his family members were tossed into the calaboose in an effort to see him return to Iran.
Unexpectedly.
In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages suggesting he had returned to Iran despite Radio Farda being viewed by Iran’s theocracy as a hostile outlet.

"I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence department," the message read in part. "Eventually I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one."
So now both his relatives and he languish in Iranian prison. How is that better?
Valizadeh added the name of a man who he claimed belonged to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The AP could not verify if the person worked for the ministry.

Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Valizadeh were tossed into the calaboose. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which monitors cases in Iran, said that he were tossed into the calaboose on arrival to the country earlier this year, but later released.

He was then rearrested and sent to Evin prison, where he now faces a case in Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which routinely holds closed-door hearings in which defendants face secret evidence, the agency reported. Valizadeh had faced arrest in 2007 as well, it said.
Of course. Since he is a hostage for ransom and/or trade in the age-old Muslim tradition, it absolutely doesn’t matter if he actually did whatever imaginary crime they accused him of.
The State Department told the AP that it was "aware of reports that this dual US-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran" when asked about Valizadeh.

"We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case," the State Department said. "Iran routinely imprisons US citizens and other countries’ citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law."
Not for politics. For money and leverage against their enemies.
Iran has not acknowledged detaining Valizadeh. Iran’s mission to the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Voice of America, another US government-funded media outlet overseen by the Agency for Global Media, first reported the State Department was acknowledging Valizadeh’s detention in Iran.

Since the 1979 US Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world. In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
QED.
Valizadeh is the first American known to be detained by Iran in the time since.

Last week, Iran executed German-Iranian prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, in what the German government called "a murder." Sharmahd, who was a US resident, was accused of behind behind a 2008 bombing that killed 14 people.

Both the US and Germany called his trial a "sham," and human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
group Amnesty International said he had been subjected to "enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment" while in prison.
Related:
Radio Farda: 2022-11-18 Mourners hit streets as Iran protests take bloody turn
Radio Farda: 2022-10-08 Teen's mother disputes Iran, says she died of blows to head
Radio Farda: 2021-02-08 Iran cleric: People who are vaccinated for COVID have ‘become homosexuals'
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran hangs final defendant in 2008 case after 'unfair trial': NGOs
2024-07-26
[ARABNEWS] Iranian authorities on Thursday executed Kurdish man Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving defendant in a case linked to a Moslem holy man’s killing in 2008, rights groups said.

Sheikheh, one of seven men first arrested in the case more than 14 years ago, was put to death in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
Human Rights (IHR) and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in separate statements.

Sheikheh’s six co-defendants, also members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, had all been executed in separate hangings since November 2023.

Amnesty International has said they had been sentenced to death "in a grossly unfair trial" that had been "marred by allegations of torture and other ill-treatment."

The seven were convicted on the capital crime of corruption on earth.

IHR described Sheikheh as a "political prisoner" who had been sentenced to death "based on torture-tainted confessions in a grossly unfair trial."

The execution "was unlawful according to international law and the Islamic republic’s own laws, amounting to an extrajudicial killing," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

HRANA said that the proceedings related to the killing of a holy man of a mosque in the northwestern city of Mahabad in September 2008.

Sheikheh and the six others were arrested in connection with the killing in January and February 2010 and sentenced to death in 2018.

Activists say that Iran’s use of the death penalty
disproportionately targets members of the Kurdish and Baluch ethnic minorities in western and southeast Iran, who generally adhere to the Sunni strain of Islam rather than the Shiism otherwise dominant in Iran
Related:
Mahabad: 2023-09-17 Mahsa Amini's father arrested by Iranian police on her death anniversary
Mahabad: 2023-05-08 Iran sentences Kurdish paramedic to 90 months in prison: Monitor
Mahabad: 2023-01-30 Incoming news that an IRGC base in Mahabad has been hit.
Link


Home Front: Politix
State sues IBM over diversity 'quotas'
2024-06-22
[NYPOST] The state of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the technology giant, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), for unlawful practices in allegedly requiring racial and gender quotas in its hiring and promotion structures for employees.

Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit Thursday against the company, alleging that such practices are a violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act.

“It has come to my attention that IBM has adopted an unlawful policy that blatantly favors applicants of a certain gender or skin color over others, and that managers within the company who refuse to comply with said policy faces adverse action, including and up to, termination. Discrimination in the workplace violates both state and federal law, which is why I am filing this lawsuit,” Bailey said.

“Missourians deserve answers as to why one of the largest technology and consulting companies in the world, with offices based in Missouri, is discriminating against both prospective and current employees,” he said.
Related:
Andrew Bailey 04/18/2024 Missouri Files Injunction To Block Biden's 'Illegal Student Loan Plan' While Lawsuit Plays Out
Andrew Bailey 10/05/2023 Biden agency 'likely' violated free speech by working with Big Tech to censor election content: court
Andrew Bailey 08/11/2023 Biden DOJ to fight court order that blocked feds from colluding with Big Tech to censor speech

Link


-Great Cultural Revolution
Minnesota Appeals Court Affirms State Law Preventing Ban on Trans Athletes
2024-03-20
[Breitbart] A Minnesota appeals court has affirmed that banning transgender “women” from competing as a woman in sports is a violation of Minnesota’s left-wing “human rights” statutes.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a ban on a transgender weightlifter implemented by USA Powerlifting (USAPL) would be illegal in the state, KARE-TV reported.

In its ruling, the court sent back a case to a lower court instructing the court to determine if transgender powerlifter JayCee Cooper was banned from competing in the weightlifting organization because he is a man seeking to compete as a transgender woman.

Cooper brought his lawsuit to Minnesota in 2021 and won his case against USAPL last year when a Minn. court ruled in his favor.

In this week’s Appeals Court ruling, the judges determined that USAPL did, indeed, violate the state’s extremely left-wing Human Rights Act but did note that it did not seem exactly clear in the lower court’s case that the organization banned Cooper based solely on the fact that he is a man claiming to be a woman.
Related:
Minnesota: 2024-03-18 US schools becoming more supportive of Muslim students fasting during Ramadan
Minnesota: 2024-03-13 Progressive groups unite to counter pro-Israel Democratic primary candidates
Minnesota: 2024-03-08 In Philadelphia, eight schoolchildren were injured in a shooting at a traffic stop.
Related:
Transgender: 2024-03-19 US journalist Owens found “evidence” of Macron’s wife changing sex
Transgender: 2024-03-15 Elite Heaven or Real Hell on Earth?
Transgender: 2024-03-14 15 States Threaten to Sue Maine for Transgender Groomer Sanctuary Bill
Link



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