RUTHFULLY YOURS

The news out of Iran these days travels exclusively in one direction: from bad to worse. The latest abomination from the Islamic Republic involves the seizure and arrest of members of an Iranian heavy metal band, Confess, on such charges as “blasphemy,” writing “satanic” lyrics and meeting with forbidden foreign radio stations.

Two of the band’s leaders, Nikan Siyanor Khosravi, 23 and Khosravi Arash Ilkhani, 21 were arrested by the intelligence wing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard on November 10, 2015 and were held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison in solitary confinement until their release on February 5. They are currently free on $30,000 bond, a fortune in Iran and face the prospect of execution if convicted of the most serious offense.

The seizure of the duo comes on the heels of a major crack down by government goons acting on orders of Iran’s religious authorities. At least 170 people were arrested by regime forces in November. A leading member of an Iranian human rights group described the arrests as “abductions” because the Iranian judiciary has stated that they know nothing of the arrests.

Arrests were made without warrants and those arrested were transferred to unknown locations without ever seeing a judge. That is the norm in the Islamic Republic where human rights are trounced upon with banal regularity and due process is virtually non-existent.

The depravity of Iran’s mullahs knows no bounds. On January 27, Iran executed Hashem Shaabani, a poet whose only weapon was his pen. The Iranians murdered him with the approval of President Hassan Rouhani for “waging war on God.” Rouhani is the same sordid character that some myopic Western lackeys often describe as a “moderate” and a “reformer.”

Before his execution, Shaabani was subjected to brutal torture by Iranian authorities and imprisoned for three years. Try as they might, the Iranians never broke his spirit and ultimately decided that murdering him would be the expedient thing to do.

Hundreds of Iranian nationals are executed every year on spurious charges ranging from “insulting the Prophet” to “spreading corruption on earth.” Last year, a staggering 700 Iranians were executed by authorities in just a 6-month period!

It is fair to say that with the exception of North Korea, Iran is arguably the most repressive nation on the planet. The non-partisan NGO, Freedom House, classified Iran as “not free” and gave the Islamist nation an abysmal rating of 17 out of a 100 on its freedom scale.

While Iran’s internal human rights problem should be a source of grave concern, of greater concern is the Islamic Republic’s immediate threat to world peace. It is no secret that Iran is the world’s premier state-sponsor of international terrorism. It has executed multiple terror attacks across five continents and has even attempted to kill a foreign ambassador on U.S. soil.

Iran also continues to destabilize the Mideast. While many in the West are focused on ISIS, the apocalyptic mullahs are busy expanding their regional hegemony. Through use of regional proxies, they control Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen and are attempting to exert control over Bahrain and Afghanistan.

Not content with destabilizing the region, promoting international terrorism and repressing its citizens through torture, arbitrary arrest and execution, the Iranians are advancing their ballistic missile program at a feverish pace in flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Despite the fact that the missiles are capable of delivering nuclear warheads, the United States, led by its Appeaser in Chief, is turning a blind eye toward these Iranian transgressions for fear of derailing the very flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has already bloated Iran’s coffers by $150 billion.

The Iranians are already utilizing that money to further advance their nefarious activity by funding various Islamist Shia mercenary groups like Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels and the KSS. The Iran-affiliated KSS recently broadcast a propaganda video that featured a captured U.S. M1 Abrams tank, likely commandeered from the Iraqi army, which has morphed into nothing more than a vassal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran is also in the process of signing deals with both China and Russia for the purchase of advanced aircraft and tanks in violation U.N. Resolution 2231. That resolution specifically forbids Iran from purchasing, “battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, [and] warships…” without prior approval from the U.N.

Moreover, recent satellite imagery reveals that while Iran was negotiating with the West to lift sanctions, they were more than likely conducting secret nuclear experiments with military dimensions at their top secret Parchin military facility. New research and support centers were constructed, tunnels were dug and reinforced and wide swaths were paved over with concrete in an effort to hide illicit activity. The Obama administration inexplicably continues to remain silent in the face of Iran’s maleficence.

And of course there’s the matter of Iran’s seizure of two U.S. Navy assault boats in the Arabian Gulf, the circumstances of which still remain unclear. While John Kerry was busy thanking the Iranians for abducting our sailors, the Islamic Republic was busy degrading them, forcing them to kneel at gun point with hands interlocked behind their heads. They were also reportedly subjected to illegal interrogation and video of their humiliation was disseminated to Iran’s various propaganda outlets in violation of the Geneva Convention.

The State Department has yet to provide a full accounting of the matter and Senator John McCain has threatened to subpoena the 10 sailors if a full report of the sailors’ debrief is not provided by March 1. Among the matters that still need to be addressed are;

• Who gave the sailors the order to surrender?
• Were they ordered not to fight back?
• Why weren’t readily available air and naval forces not immediately dispatched to the area?
• How did the boats stray despite sophisticated on-board navigational devices and the relatively straight-forward path charted for the journey?

By now it should be clear to all that Iran poses a clear and present danger to world peace. The Islamic Republic’s repressive measures at home are matched only by their brutality overseas and malevolent regional and international machinations. Too bad Obama still hasn’t received the memo.