Iran Regime's MP: "So What? If People Are Selling Their Kidney out of Poverty, Is It a Problem?"

NCRI - As a sign of disastrous living condition of the Iranian people, The horrible phenomena of selling one’s kidney out of poverty, is wide spreading on daily basis.

On Monday February 27, Hossein Ali Shahriari, Regime’s MP from Southeastern city of Zahedan stated in this regard in an interview with state run ‘Shafa online’, that if a poor person is selling his kidney for $5000 – 8000 and has a change in his living condition, so what? Is there anything wrong with it?

He further added: “some people need kidney to continue their lives, some people are living with one kidney, and there are no side effects for it!”

It is worth mentioning that while the massive wealth of Ali Khamenei and other senior officials of the Iranian regime and the theft of billions of dollars by those affiliated to the regime are subject of talk all over Iran, the number of people resorting to selling their organs to make ends meet in Iran under the mullahs’ regime is escalating significantly.

While selling blood, kidneys and livers is now common in Iran, currently this market is witnessing a growing trend of human eyes being placed for sale, reports indicate.

Deprived people that literally cannot make ends meet for themselves or their family due to extreme poverty and unemployment have no other choice but to sell their organs at risk to their health.

“Seventy percent of all kidney transplants in Iran were from living individuals, whereas in other countries across the globe this rate is only 15%,” admitted Mohammad Reza Ganji, head of the Iranian regime’s nephrology Association.

“New market for buying and selling eyeballs”, “Kidneys for sale with discount”, “Kidneys for sale, AB+, 18 year old”, “Liver for sale, O-, 23 year old”, and “bone marrow for sale, B-, 54 year old” are just some of the writings advertising organ sales on the Internet and on walls in cities across Iran.

The mullahs’ regime does not impose restrictions on living individuals selling their organs and has in fact made this a tool for embezzling the deprived people of Iran. A large number of websites and blogs launched for this very cause are actually encouraging this viciousness and evil trade.

These developments are taking place as mullahs are allocating billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s wealth for the export of terrorism and fundamentalism and warmongering across the region, especially in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen to maintain this repulsive regime in power in any way possible.

Rise in Executions and Crackdown Against Iran’s Youth

Executions and crackdown against Iran’s youth is increasingly on the rise. Many inmates in their 20’s and 30’s have been executed or killed during the past months, while hundreds have also been arrested or mistreated.

Dozens of prisoners have been hanged during the first two weeks of February, including a mass execution of 12 prisoners in Gohardasht Prison, west of Tehran, on Feb. 15. 13 inmates, including prisoners aged 29 and 30, were executed between Feb. 11-13 in the prisons of Qom, Zabol, Jiroft and Mashhad.

On Jan. 29, regime authorities publicly executed four prisoners in the cities of Bandar Abbas and Mashhad. These prisoners were all in their early to mid 20’s. Reports indicate 87 inmates were sent to the gallows in the month of January alone. Many of those executed never received due process and some were hanged while their cases were still open.

Hamid Ahmadi, a juvenile offender, has also been reported to be at imminent risk of hanging. The United Nations and prominent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have been campaigning to halt his execution. 160 juveniles are on death row in Iran, according to the United Nations. The number, however, could be higher.

On Feb. 9 in Shadegan (Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran), state security forces shot and killed a young Iranian-Arab man named Hassan Ablu Ghabish.

Alongside hangings and killings, regime authorities are also continuously arresting and attacking youths for absurd reasons.http://bit.ly/2l7lGhc

IRAN MURDERED THOUSANDS OF MEK MEMBERS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1988

By INU Staff 

INU - A professor of political science in Tehran University, Sadeq Zibakalam, who is also a close confidant of Ali Akbar Hashem Rafsanjani, former head of Iran’s Expediency Council, stated that Iran, similar to those who murdered Imam Hossein (the grandson of Prophet Mohammad), has murdered thousands of members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in the course of 10 years following the 1979 revolution, most of them during the summer of 1988 in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.  This was reported by al-Quds al-Arabi daily on  February 11th, 2017, in an article written by Mohamed al-Mazhaji.

“Guya News” website also published excerpts of Zibakalam’s remarks on the sideline of Iran’s annual “Fajr” film festival in Tehran marking the 1979 revolution anniversary.

Iran has murdered thousands of opposition MEK members during the years after the 1979 revolution, without any judicial process or proving any crime, Zibakalam reiterated, referring to events of the summer 1988, and issues raised in the sound file of a meeting between the Islamic republic’s “Death Committee” with Hossein Ali Montazeri, the former successor of the Islamic republic’s founder.

Zibakalam also strongly criticized the movie produced with the support of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), “Majaraye Nimrooz” (Midday Adventures), which was previewed at the Fajr film festival.  He said that the film does not replicate the truth about what took place between the IRGC and MEK during that period.

“We accuse the MEK of conducting a series of assassinations back in the 1980s. Did MEK members carry out these measures for no reason at all?” this Rafsanjani confidant asked.

This film retells the events from the Iranian regime’s point of view, depicting an image of the IRGC as kind individuals defending truth and humanity, and not the truth, he added. Instead, we killed thousands of MEK members in Evin Prison without due process, Zibakalam continued, and added that the country was witnessing a civil war at that period of Iran’s revolution, between the IRGC and the MEK, costing the lives of thousands of people.

The MEK is one of the main organizations that, beginning in 1965 played a pivotal role in the 1979 revolution, through armed resistance and popular movements against Iran’s monarchial regime. In fact, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi was the leading candidate in the presidential elections after the revolution, and the MEK played an important role from 1979 to 1983 inside Iran.

Then, due to the conflict between the state and revolutionary forces, Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, prevented many MEK members from holding any possible official jobs in governmental administration, and deprived its members from political activities.

Montazeri’s sound file, released by his son, Ahmad Montazeri, made significant revelations, especially since “Death Committee” members explained the reason for condemning and executing thousands of MEK prisoners in 1988. In response, Montazeri had said not according to sharia, morals or humanitarian principles is it permitted to kill an individual who has been condemned once in court for maintaining their position, because they have not committed a new crime and they were already in prison. The “Death Committee” members emphasized to Montazeri they had to be executed because they approved the MEK.http://bit.ly/2kuWpgs

Iran Irony: IRGC And State Firms Are Benefiting From JCPOA

GUEST POST WRITTEN BY

Heshmat Alavi

Mr. Alavi is an Iranian activist focusing on human rights, social crackdown, the regime's support for terrorism, and its nuclear program.

Those who raised the Iran deal flag, mainly in the United States and Europe, claimed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would boost trade and encourage foreign investment, enhancing Iran’s private sector and eventually downgrading the regime’s tight grip on the economy.

This was back in 2015 when the P5+1 agreed to lift sanctions in return for having Iran’s nuclear program curbed. Now in early 2017, however, signs indicate the main winners in Iran are none other than state-owned companies. This means Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the terrorist-supporting Revolutionary Guards are enjoying JCPOA benefits.

upreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

At least 90 of the nearly 110 agreements, totaling nearly $80 billion, involve such state-controlled companies. This includes the National Iranian Oil Company, parallel to others run by regime pension funds and massive conglomerates of semi-public nature.

Despite a long slate of harsh remarks made by Iran’s hardliners against the JCPOA, a recent Reuters study shows those businesses answering directly to Khamenei are benefiting most from the JCPOA.

Watch On Forbes: World Biggest Space Telescope Is Readyhttp://bit.ly/2lmWVwV

The US should designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization

At the center of the multitude of problems the international community faces with the Iranian regime is the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a military body founded after the 1979 revolution to crush internal dissent and further the evil ends of the ruling class abroad. President Trump's administration is now considering designating the IRGC in its entirety as a foreign terrorist organization.

Recent revelations by the Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) suggest that not only is such a designation crucial, but it is long overdue.

The information, disclosed on Tuesday in a news conference held in the Washington, D.C., office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, revealed new IRGC training camps set up as part of the Iranian regime's strategy to notch up its terrorist meddling in the Middle East. According to the reports, hundreds of foreign fighters trickle through Iran's borders every month to receive training and be dispatched to other countries for terrorist missions.http://washex.am/2lMkyzw

Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Hosts Terrorist Training Camp

The Iranian Regime and its core terror squad, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have at least 14 terrorist training camps across Iran, with eight in the capital, Tehran.

This shocking news was revealed exclusively in a report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group for all democratic forces that want regime change in Iran.

Every month, hundreds from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon (countries where Iran is involved in frontline combat) are trained up in Iran before being dispatched to spread terror, according to information gathered by People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a group dedicated to the democratic overthrow of the Iranian Regime.

Counties where Iran is not directly involved in warfare, are not safe from these terror training camps either; in Gulf nations like Bahrain and Kuwait, terror cells are trained instead.

Training

Within the Regime’s terror training programme, there are two types of training; primary and full.

The primary training lasts about 45 days and trains terrorists in the military actions of the Basij force, a more brutal arm of the IRGC.

The full training, which takes between 9 and 12 months, is specialised for those who are hired by the Iranian Quds Force, a thug militia under the control of the IRGC.

Depending on their ultimate terror goals, the students may learn how to operate heavy weaponry, how to launch missiles or receive marine, commando, paratrooper or security training.

While many graduates of the terror programme end up in the Gulf Region, a fair number are shipped to Asia, Africa and South America, as secretive terror cells.

The IRGC

The Iranian Regime and its core terror squad, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have at least 14 terrorist training camps across Iran, with eight in the capital, Tehran.

This shocking news was revealed exclusively in a report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group for all democratic forces that want regime change in Iran.

Every month, hundreds from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon (countries where Iran is involved in frontline combat) are trained up in Iran before being dispatched to spread terror, according to information gathered by People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a group dedicated to the democratic overthrow of the Iranian Regime.

Counties where Iran is not directly involved in warfare, are not safe from these terror training camps either; in Gulf nations like Bahrain and Kuwait, terror cells are trained instead.

Training

Within the Regime’s terror training programme, there are two types of training; primary and full.

The primary training lasts about 45 days and trains terrorists in the military actions of the Basij force, a more brutal arm of the IRGC.

The full training, which takes between 9 and 12 months, is specialised for those who are hired by the Iranian Quds Force, a thug militia under the control of the IRGC.

Depending on their ultimate terror goals, the students may learn how to operate heavy weaponry, how to launch missiles or receive marine, commando, paratrooper or security training.

While many graduates of the terror programme end up in the Gulf Region, a fair number are shipped to Asia, Africa and South America, as secretive terror cells.

Americans must be wary of Iranian influence over US media

BY COL. WES MARTIN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 02/12/17 01:00 PM EST

Many seemingly important news reports that gained attention in 2016 turned out to be marred with falsified information.

A major threat to the dissemination of true information to U.S. citizens lies in the existence of suspicious figures sent by foreign countries for the purposes of espionage and influence over U.S. foreign policy. 

Iran is a prime example. Its golden age of insider influence has passed with the inauguration of President Trump. The Tehran loyalists no longer have established access to the U. S. State Department and the National Security Council.

But this does not mean Iran’s network of spies and agents in the U.S. are going to stop spreading misinformation. It simply means the primary means of influence has been relegated back to mainstream and social media.  

Left unchecked, it still remains a serious problem that cannot be underestimated and deserves due attention. As someone who had to deal with the threat of terrorism firsthand, I appreciate the significance of such due vigilance. 

A prime example of Iranian infiltration comes in the form of Masoud Khodabandeh. He introduces himself as the “director of Middle East Strategy Consultants.”  As such, he published nine Huffington Post articles in 2016.

http://bit.ly/2lHn5GX

On the Passing of Mohammad-Ali Jaberzadeh, Chairman of the NCRI's Political and Strategic Studies Committee

NCRI - Mohammad-Ali Jaberzadeh, one of the most seasoned and senior officials of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) passed away on Saturday, February 11. He died in Paris after a long battle with various illnesses and health complications. He was 68.

Mr. Jaberzadeh was the Chairman of the National Council of Resistance of Iran's Political and Strategic Studies Committee. During his 48-year-long ceaseless struggle for the liberation of the Iranian people, Jaberzadeh faced off with two dictatorships, first the Shah's and later that of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). He endured years of imprisonment and torture in the process.

After finishing high school in Isfahan, Jaberzadeh began his studies in law at Tehran University. He was one of the pioneering figures of the PMOI in the 1960s. After his arrest in May 1972, and for a lengthy period of time, he was placed under some of the most brutal forms of torture in the Shah's torture chambers. His release came in 1979 in the course of the anti-monarchical revolution.

Following his release, Jaberzadeh took on various roles and responsibilities in the PMOI, including as an advisor to the organization's political department and head of the public affairs department responsible for managing the PMOI's newspaper, as well as its radio and television broadcasts. During the first post-revolutionary parliamentary elections, Jaberzadeh led the opposition list in Isfahan despite extensive electoral fraud committed by the regime to prevent the entry of PMOI candidates into parliament.

After the formation of the democratic coalition NCRI in the early 1980s, Jaberzadeh became the chairman of the NCRI Political and Strategic Studies Committee. He grew to become a highly skilled official in this post and made lasting and significant contributions to the Iranian Resistance.

His younger brother, Abbas-Ali, and sister-in-law, Soraya Senemari, were among the PMOI members who were slain on February 8, 1982, along with 18 other senior PMOI members and officials. Surviving them was the couple's toddler.

On the occasion of Mr. Jaberzadeh's passing, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, expressed her deep and heartfelt condolences to the people of Isfahan, the family of the Iranian Resistance, and members of the NCRI, especially his colleagues in the PMOI. Mrs. Rajavi praised Jaberzadeh's perseverance, iron resolve and unwavering commitment over the past five decades to the struggle to liberate the Iranian people. She also paid homage to Jaberzadeh's ability to triumph over some of modern Iran's greatest and most perilous tests and challenges.

Policy on Iran and Desperate Attempts to Discredit the MEK

IRAN: Revealing the Command HQ and Terrorist Training Centers for Foreign Mercenaries by the IRGC’s Qods Force

The U.S. Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran will hold a press conference to reveal for the first time information on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force command headquarters for terrorist training of foreign mercenaries and a number of overt and covert training centers in different parts of Iran.

The conference will be held at the NCRI office in Washington, DC at 10:30 am, Tuesday, February 14, 2017.

The names of most senior Qods Force commanders directly involved in military and terrorist training of these foreign mercenaries as well as locations (with satellite imagery) will be made public.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017; 10:30 a.m.

1747 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 1125, Washington, DC 20006

RSVP required; rsvp@ncrius.org; (202)-747-7847

Letter to AP by Senator Torricelli, on Distorted Story About MEK

In response to a bias and distorted story ran by Associated Press about Iranian opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) on February 5, 2017, Senator Robert Torricelli wrote the following brief response to the AP.

To: Editors of the Associated Press

The February 5, 2017 AP submission by Jon Gambrell is so outrageous and demonstrably false that it's difficult to know where to begin.

Mr Gambrell variously describes the Iranian exile organization, the MEK, as a "cult", and "terrorist group", with a "controversial past" that has gone "against American interests". Specific accusations include "killing Americans" and whose Members "responded by lighting themselves on fire".

I served as the legal representative of the MEK in the State Department hearings to advise Secretary of State Clinton on the issue of designating the MEK as a terrorist organization. As I'm certain your reporter is aware, the State Department never offered evidence that the MEK ever engaged in terrorist activities, killed any American or worked contrary to American interests. No evidence was similarity offered to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the Courts of Britain, France or the European Union who similarly either ordered the removal of a terrorist designation or ordered their governments to present evidence.

The integrity of several prominent Americans has been challenged by your reporter. If supporting the MEK in its opposition to the Mullahs religious fascist regime in Tehran is genuinely an ethical breach, it would be more honest to present the entire list of supporters. These would include a majority of the House of Representatives, two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, a Former Director of the FBI, a former Attorney General of the US, a former Assistant to the President for National Security, two former CIA Directors and the Chairmen of the House Foreign Relations and Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Iranian regime has an active public relations presence in our country. It is their right to present information to the national dialogue. Your reporter, however, has fallen victim to it and done a great disservice to some very distinguished Americans united for the single purpose of regime change in Tehran.

An apology to them and your readers is in order. A further apology to the thousands of Members of the MEK who risked their lives to unveil Iran's secret nuclear program to American intelligence and worked tirelessly to report Iraqi IED locations to American soldiers during the Iraqi occupation is further demanded.

Robert Torricelli

Time to turn up the heat on Iran

By testing their ballistic missiles in a provocative act last month, Iran's ayatollahs also tested the resolve of the new U.S. president. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s promise of swift action should violations continue has turned the Obama administration’s era of appeasement on its head, at least in spirit.

Given Tehran’s military saber-rattling, including a second missile launch this week and continued support for international terrorism, the time for action may come soon. There are a number of reasonable options for the Trump administration to turn up the heat without immediate, full-scale military engagement.

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First, the U.S. should officially designate the regime’s terrorist arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG), as a foreign terrorist entity and ramp up targeted sanctions against it.

Not only is the IRGC, along with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, a crucial component in the regime’s crackdowns and human rights abuses at home, it functions as a regional terror production factory.

As Gen. Flynn acknowledged in his forceful denunciation of Iran’s destabilizing role in geopolitics, they have sown chaos throughout the Middle East by supporting the Houthis in Yemen, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Shia militias in Iraq, and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, among others.

According to U.S. intelligence analysts and court rulings, the IRGC was directly involved in the bombings of the Jewish Community Center in Argentina and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, as well as in the development and deployment of roadside bombs that killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq.

The IRGC is embedded in a strictly-managed kleptocracy aimed at enriching those in power at the expense of the Iranian population. Controlling an enormous business empire consisting of key national industries, including energy and real estate, the ICRG is reaping the benefits of the lifting of sanctions by the Obama administration.

By tightening capital flows and sanctioning key IRGC personnel, the Trump administration can diminish some of Iran’s greatest threats to regional stability. It should also work with regional partners to marginalize and evict the regime’s forces and militias from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and other countries in the Middle East.

Strategically speaking, however, applying sanctions and confronting the export of terror is not sufficient. To effectively undermine and confront the regime, Washington needs to target Tehran’s most fundamental vulnerability — domestic instability.

The main enemies of the theocratic regime are the Iranian people, who yearn for a democratic, representative and secular government. Brutally suppressed by the mullahs for decades, they have risen up a number of times, including in 2009, when millions poured onto the streets to protest the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule).

REBUTTAL FROM THE MEK IN RESPONSE TO MISLEADING ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY

ON FEBRUARY 5, 2017, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RELEASED A STORY REHASHING OLD AND MIS-LEADING ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION. THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION PROVIDED A REBUTTAL TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IN RESPONSE, BUT THE STORY WAS NOT CORRECTED OR RESCINDED AS OF FEBRUARY 7, 2017. 

Now, the rebuttal has been released to the public, to detail the facts and add insight into what the Iranian opposition believes to be “the crux of the matter”. 

 Shahin Gobadi, press spokesman of The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) stated, “The AP story, “Trump Cabinet pick paid by ‘cult-like’ Iranian exile group” of February 5, is a rehashing of old and long-debunked allegations aimed at disparaging the principal Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and its bipartisan supporters. The religious dictatorship ruling Iran and its lobby abroad have tried for years to discredit the Iranian opposition in an effort to proffer the appeasement of the ruling mullahs as a viable policy.”

AP reporter Jon Gambrell ignored “facts regarding the conduct and history of the Iranian resistance. Instead of reporting the views of a large (number of) bi-partisan lawmakers in both chambers of the U.S. Congress, and the decisions by the highest U.S. and European Courts,…he has chosen to rely heavily on only two individuals, both of whom have been proponents of the appeasing (of) the murderous mullahs of Iran,” added Gobadi. 

Gambrell's sources have been proven to have little to no experience in the region, and have no up-to-date writings or reports about the issues facing Iran and the Middle East. Updated reports, books, and studies about the history, accusations and current conduct of the MEK, have published by many independent scholars and experts, but none of these sources were cited in the AP article. 

Information Gambrell presented about the day to day life at Camp Ashraf was not verified by the...http://bit.ly/2kKIqjt