The sign reads: PLEASE RESTRAIN YOURSELF FROM KILLING US. THANK YOU. THE PEOPLE OF IRAN
Photo hat tip Banafsheh
Congressional Research Service report--May 19,
2009--Obama has hung the Iranian democracy protesters out to dry in the 2010
budget.
Wicked.
Page 44: As shown, $67 million has been appropriated for Iran democracy promotion ($19.6 million through DRL and $48.6 million through the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs/USAID).
Of that, as of October 2008, $42.7 million has been obligated, and $20.8
million disbursed. Additional funds, discussed in the chart below, have been appropriated for cultural
exchanges, public diplomacy, and broadcasting to Iran.
However, the Obama Administration did not request funding for democracy promotion in Iran in its FY2010 budget request, an indication that the new Administration views this effort as inconsistent with its belief in dialogue with Iran.
Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses (much thanks to Laura)
The Bush Administration characterized Iran as a “profound threat to U.S. national security interests,” a perception generated primarily by Iran’s nuclear program and its military assistance to armed groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Palestinian group Hamas, and to Lebanese Hezbollah. The U.S. approach was to try to prevent a nuclear breakout by Iran by applying multilateral economic pressure on Iran while also offering it potential cooperation should it comply with the international demands to suspend its enrichment of uranium. Multilateral efforts to pressure Iran include three U.N. Security Council resolutions (1737, 1747, and 1803) that ban weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related trade with Iran; freeze the assets of Iran’s nuclear and related entities and personalities; prevent Iran from transferring arms outside Iran; ban or require reporting on international travel by named Iranians; call for inspections of some Iranian sea and airborne cargo shipments; and call for restrictions on dealings with some Iranian banks. Separate U.S. efforts to persuade European governments to curb trade, investment, and credits to Iran; and to convince foreign banks not to do business with Iran, began to weaken Iran’s economy, compounding the effect of a sharp drop in oil prices since mid-2008. To strengthen its approach, the Bush Administration maintained a substantial naval presence in the Persian Gulf, which U.S. commanders insist would prevent any Iranian attempts to close the crucial Strait of Hormuz for any extended period.
The Obama Administration has not pushed assertively for new sanctions, pending the results of its outreach to Iran. However, Administration officials says they might renew that focus if Iran does not show signs of willingness to compromise, perhaps by the fall of 2009. Bills in the 111th Congress, such as H.R. 2194 and S. 908, would tighten U.S. sanctions on Iran by amending the Iran Sanctions Act. These bills contain provisions similar to those of several bills in the 110th Congress, including H.R. 1400, S. 970, S. 3227, S. 3445, and H.R. 7112.
Uh, what happened to Obama's September deadline?
[....]
The latest State Department human rights report (released February 25, 2009), the 2008 State Department “religious freedom” report (released September 19, 2008), and a report by the U.N. Secretary General on October 1, 2008, cite Iran for widespread serious abuses, including unjust executions, politically motivated abductions by security forces, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and arrests of women’s rights activists.
The State Department human rights reports said the government’s “poor human rights record worsened” during 2008. The Secretary General’s report later became the basis of a U.N. General Assembly resolution, finalized on December 18, 2008 by a vote of 69-54, citing Iran for these abuses and calling on it to allow visits by U.N. personnel investigating the status of human rights practices in Iran. Subsequent to the passage of the resolution, Iranian authorities raided the Tehran office of the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2003) and Iran human rights activist lawyer Shirin Abadi.
[...]
Women Regime strictly enforcing requirement that women fully cover themselves in public, generally with a garment called a chador, including through detentions. In March 2007, the regime arrested 31 women activists who were protesting the arrest in 2006 of several other women’s rights activists; all but 3 of the 31 were released by March 9. In May 2006, the Majles passed a bill calling for increased public awareness of Islamic dress, an apparent attempt to persuade women not to wear Western fashion.
Human Trafficking The June 4, 2008 (latest annual),
State Department “Trafficking in Persons” report continues to place Iran in Tier 3 (worst level) for failing to take action to prevent trafficking in persons. Girls purportedly are trafficked for sexual exploitation within Iran and from Iran to Turkey, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.
Juvenile Executions Iran has executed six persons under the age of 18 in 2008.
No other country has executed juvenile offenders in 2008. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Reights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is obligated to abolish such executions.
And this interesting tidbit----page 56
Among those that have pulled out of Iran are UBS and Credit Suisse (Switzerland), HSBC (Britain), Germany’s Commerzbank A.G and Deutsche Bank.
Note: Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama ...... who was charged last month with defrauding Citigroup Inc (C.N.), is being sued by HSBC (HSBA.L) for deceiving it into lending him $100 million.
The lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in early September accused private equity firm head Hassan Nemazee, 59, of engaging in an elaborate scheme to make HSBC Bank USA believe that its loan was secured by collateral in the form of U.S. Treasury Notes when it was not.
Nemazee, who sits on the board of the Iranian American Political Action Committee, typically donates more than $100,000 annually to Democratic political candidates.
Photo protest 91/18
