The Latest - Iran - Human Rights
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Cracks Down on Christians
As the U.S. and its allies prepare to return to the negotiating table with Iranian representatives, hoping to reach a deal on their nuclear ambitions, the Islamic Republic has significantly ratcheted up its efforts to repress religious minorities in the country. more...
Iran Steps Up Crackdown on Christians
Iran stepped up its crackdown on the country struggling Christian community by closing a church in Tehran, prompting an Iranian human rights group and religious freedom experts to slam the regime. more...
Iran, Voice of the UN’s ‘Committee on Information’
It’s quite perverse enough that the United Nations would have a so-called Committee on Information whose members include such censorship-loving regimes as those of Belarus, China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Syria. more...
Israel’s Gay Rights Record Touted in NY
The alumni association of Birthright Israel placed a mural in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood last week, which juxtaposed the rights of gays in Israel with criminal penalties for gays in such countries as Syria and Iran. more...
Alleged Iranian Spy Was Scapegoated
Last week, Iranian blogger Potkin Azarmehr questioned the authenticity of reports that Iran had executed Majid Jamali Fashi, the 24-year-old Iranian accused of carrying out the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud-Ali Mohammadi. more...
Iran Sanctions: Strategy, Implementation and Enforcement
The topic of my testimony is sanctions relief as the Obama administration approaches the P5+1 talks with Iran over its nuclear weapons program next week in Baghdad. more...
Terrorists or Fall Guys?
The Treasury Department has issued subpoenas to the speakers’ agencies of 11 prominent former U.S. officials, including a governor of Pennsylvania, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. more...
US Sets New Sanctions Against Technology for Syria and Iran
The White House said that the restrictions were primarily aimed at entities based inside the two countries, but that American technology companies had been consulted and understood that compliance would now be part of their standard due diligence in international contracts. more...
Liberate ‘Zones of Electronic Repression’!
Islamists shouldn’t be allowed to use Western technology to crush dissent. more...
Tearing Down Iran’s Electronic Curtain
Three hundred and sixty seconds. That's all it would take for Iranian security services to identify and track an encrypted message sent to a mobile phone somewhere inside Iran, kick in the door, and seize the phone. more...
The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
In June 2010, the U.S. State Department led a high-level delegation of technology executives to Syria. Comprised of representatives from, among other corporations, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft and Symantec, the purpose of the trip was to improve relations with a nation that... more...
Defcon 3
Can we stop Iran from getting nukes? FDD's Mark Dubowitz discusses the sanctions on Iran. more...
From Tehran to Tahrir Square: Is Freedom Really Sweeping the Middle East?
At the start of the Arab Spring in early 2011, Western nations around the world held their breath and hoped that the chaotic uprisings on the streets of Egypt and neighbouring countries would herald democracy in the Middle East. It’s been a year since the movement began and much has changed – or has it? Real and robust democracy has a long way to go before becoming commonplace in the Middle East. What is really happening behind the scenes and away from the news cameras? And how can the West help this transition? more...
The Iranian Regime’s War on Christians
Former Maldives foreign minister and current U.N. special rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed issued his report on Monday that Iran executed 670 people in 2011, including more than 20 for offenses against Islam. more...
Can Israel Really Aid Iran’s Opposition, as Meir Dagan Suggests?
Michael Ledeen, a freedom scholar at Foundation for Defense of Democracies and one of the biggest supporters of regime change in Iran, said he was happy to see Dagan’s remarks about aiding Iran’s opposition on 60 Minutes. more...
Iranian Carnival (aka “Elections”) Redux
The Basij — the radical thugs who beat up Iranians for violations of the dress code and other sins against the official version of Islam — will be voting early and often in Iran on Friday. more...
Secret Memo Suggests White House Ignored SOS from Iranian Opposition
"It's clear that the administration was not being asked to stay away," said Michael Ledeen, a scholar with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who worked as a senior official for Republican administrations. "The opposition represented the best option for the West." more...
Obama To Iran Green Revolution Dissidents: Drop Dead
The Obama administration is oddly proud that it does "not provide financial assistance to any political movement, party or faction in Iran." But Foundation for the Defense of Democracies scholar Michael Ledeen has argued for years that supporting Iran's real opposition can keep it from becoming the first jihadist nuclear power. more...
Obama Administration Ignored Iranian Opposition’s Advice
When mass demonstrations against the Iranian regime erupted in the summer of 2009, the Obama administration found itself facing a totally unexpected problem. more...
Dear General Dempsey
Every time I hear some policy maker talk about “destabilizing” (as you did the other day, discussing a possible Israeli military attack on Iran) my heart sinks. For two reasons: more...
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