Ahmadinejad recruits the torturer of the Shah

- translation of Ahmadinedschad holt den Folterknecht des Schahs from Welt Online

- by Thomas Adolf - @thomas_adolf

By Martin Zoeller 14th August 2009, time 18:56

Human rights experts of the United Nations accuse Iran of torture against detainees. To force confessions for show trials, shall be reactivated the infamous Javad Azadeh. He learned his job allegedly at times of the Shah.

He makes a job, where he makes himself easily unpopular: The austrian Manfred Nowak is special correspondent of the United Nations, his job is to report torture in the prisons of this world. In 2006 he attracted interest with his criticism of the U.S. detention camp in Guantánamo. Now, Manfred Nowak said about Iran: "I fear that people on the basis of forced confessions are convicted." Because hundreds of opponents of the regime in Iran are currently on trail because they were part of the protests against the allegedly fraudulent presidential election.

300 cases of torture and mistreatment, said Manfred Nowak, he had the Iranian authorities made known. The prisoners were mostly beaten, with electroshock mistreated or psychologically pressured. The informations cames from released protesters, their relatives or their defenders. The unsuccessful presidential candidate Mehdi Karubi has fortified his allegation that male and female prisoners in arrest were been raped. The authorities rejected the allegations. They have cases of torture in Charisak prison acknowledged.

According to many testimonies on the internet and in newspaper reports, it is primarily a man who specialized in "forced confessions", Javad Azadeh. On a list with 20 names on an iranian opposition internetsite and the "Most wanted" means, he stands at position 1.

"Sooner or later the truth comes out“, thats the Javad method. He doesn´t know failure, he continues, where others stopped, wrote the Italian newspaper "Il Foglio" in a long article about Javad Azadeh. "He is what we understand under medieval torture " said according to "Il Foglio" the ex-president Mohammed Khatami on Javad. Due the riots after the allegedly fraudulent presidential election, he has his second big chance.

The first major job had Javad Azadeh in 1998, in this time died from an unknown source a wide range of artists, journalists and intellectuals. The brutality of the murderer forced the Iranian governement to mercilessly hunt them.

A man named Said Emami was arrested, he was inter alia Chatamis adviser on security. To break this not insignificant man and to declare him as a perpetrator of the killings they recruit somebody who does know what to do, a man who find fears out and can produce fears. That was the job of Javad Azadeh, until his victim killed himself in prison, with a bottle of detergent.

Javad Azadeh arrested then the wife of the deceased, alleged mastermind behind the murders and interrogated her. On the Internet you can see images of this interrogation, it came from the intelligence ministry to the outside. One shows a veiled woman on a plastic chair, which their hands on her face holds, again and again. Not even the interrogation of women, it was now clear, Javad differed of his brutal methods. Reformers convict him, the Conservatives abandoned him. It seems, the career as torturer ends.

But then began the era of President Ahmadinejad and the many arrests followed many interrogations. Where others find only negligibility, he gets the "confessions" of such prominent men as Mustafa Tjzadeh, Behzad Nabavi, Feizollah Arabsorkhi, Mohsen Aminzadeh and Abdollah Ramezan. Every word enriches the accusers, especially when the prisoners say that they were from abroad have been instigated.

Javad Azadeh believes to pull his duty: "If our spiritual leader says that foreign spies were responsibilty for the dead, then it is my religious duty, already recognized truth by him to verify this truth. And it is also my duty, to do everything to get confessions from the culprit. Even if it takes longer. " But even some conservatives it goes too far: Everbody knows how Javad reach confessions, it would be worthless and damaging the whole regime. But so long continues Javad Azadeh. DW

Article by using "Il Foglio"

VOA interview with Babak Daad

Babak Daad on torture and rape in Iranian prisons (farsi)

For an English translation visit the blog For a democratic secular Iran. The blogger, Azarmehr, gives this short introduction to the interview:

"Babak Daad, is an Iranian journalist and blogger who is now on the run and in hiding. Here is what he says in his shocking interview about what is going on in Iran's prisons and how the lackeys of the coup d'etat are ordered to break down the youth of Iran."

English translation and reader comments in Azarmehr’s blogpost Fath-ol-mobin, Codename for Rape Operations in Iran's Prisons

Marina Nemat: Rape in Evin Prison

VOA interview with Marina Nemat, author of the book "Prisoner in Tehran", who was arrested 15 years old accused of being "anti-revolutionary". In prison she was forced to "marry" her interrogator. She was freed after three years and is now living in Toronto.

She says: "These things have been happening for 30 years, but the people responsible preferred to stay silent."

Part 1:

Part 2:

I’m too tired now

Reza Alamehzadeh interviews 2nd. victim of rape in prisons of Islamic regime of Iran. Farsi with English subtitle.

Imagine standing in that person’s shoes

@RedSpiciness August 17 on #iranelection

I tried to stay away, but I saw Isa's son's video and couldn't stay away. I love the brave heroes of Iran. I have a busy life and many responsibilities pressing on me and I don't think anything I say or do can help freedom in Iran. In fact I WORRY that anyone in Iran caught on Twitter will be sent to jail and tortured for looking at the pictures and videos. But when I see beautiful and successful and healthy people sacrificing themselves for their beliefs, how can I also not care? Even if there were only one person left in Iran still willing to stand up against the fascists at such risk, I support him/her.

It is one of the most painfully heartbreaking experiences of my life watching Iran destroy itself, and massacre its own people. I've cried night after night seeing the horrendous pictures and videos of the most cruel and cold-hearted criminal acts done. It got to where it became sickening to me, to the point where I wanted to be sick in the bathroom, I couldn't take any more. How can any government allow such things? How can it pay for such things? How can it encourage these things? I'm so confused.

I'm just an ordinary person, small fish in a big pond, no power, no connections, no money. What can I do? All I can do is care. Some are born to greatness, others achieve it, and others have greatness thrust upon them & some Iranians try to kill them all.

One of my old teachers picked three students to stand at the front of the class one day, then he put a big backpack full of rocks on one student. He asked the class, "What do you think?" The class didn't know what to say. Someone said, "That's not fair." Minutes ticked by The teacher added more big rocks to the backpack. People became embarrassed. Then one of those standing next to Backpack Boy lifted up the backpack and took it off him. The teacher said, What do you think you're doing there? And he said: I'm helping my friend. "Why?" "It's unfair. He needs help." The teacher said, "You've passed the test. That's the correct answer."

"The biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit." ~ Barack Obama

So much of what binds us together in society and allows it to function effectively depends on it. And so much of what is wrong with how we interact, and so much of what is wrong with our politics, has to do with the absence of that quality. Cultivate empathy, put yourself in other people's shoes. See the world from their eyes. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world - one that makes you understand that your obligations to others extend beyond people who look like you and live in your neighborhood.

It's not always easy. You will encounter all kinds of obstacles in the way of empathy. You will find people who, out of fear or need for power, try to divide us and deny what we have in common. As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. No one can force you to care. You'll be free to narrow your concerns to what's going in your own little circle, with people who are exactly like you.

Our culture discourages empathy. It tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich/thin/young/famous/safe/and entertained. It shakes us out of complacency. We are all forced beyond our limited vision. No one's exempt from the call to find common ground. In the end a sense of mutual understanding isn’t enough. After all talk is cheap. Like any value, empathy must be acted upon.

Until we can restore that sense of mutual obligation that we have to have for one another; until we can remind people that we are only as strong as the weakest among us; that we are our brother’s and our sister’s keepers; that there is more that connects us than divides us; if we cannot see ourselves in one another regardless of gender/race/class/religion, then we will struggle.

This will not be easy. Because the change we seek, to stand in another's shoes, requires overcoming our fears and our own doubts. This will not be easy, but America's story tells me it's possible. My story tells me it's possible. It's possible. Yes, we can

We've been told: Don't worry about anybody else, take care of yourself. But we have a duty to sacrifice and compromise for each other. The only time I ever saw my mother really angry is when she saw cruelty, when she saw somebody being bullied or somebody being treated differently because of who they were. And, if she saw me doing that, she would be furious. And she would say to me: "Imagine standing in that person's shoes,. How would that make you feel?" That idea, I didn't always understand, stayed with me.

Jesus told us to "Love thy neighbor as thyself". The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." In Islam there is the hadith that reads "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." The same is true for Buddhists and Hindus, for followers of Confucius, and for Humanists. It is, of course, The Golden Rule.

The Golden Rule is merely the call to love one another to understand one another, to treat each other with dignity and respect. It is an ancient rule, a simple rule, but also perhaps the most challenging, for it asks each of us to take some measure of responsibility for the well- being of people we may not know or worship with or agree with on every issue or any issue. Sometimes it asks us to reconcile with bitter enemies or resolve ancient hatreds, and that requires a living breathing, active faith

Bearing witness is not the end of our obligation it’s just the beginning. We know that evil has yet to run its course on Earth. We’ve seen it in the mass graves, in the villages burned to the ground, in children used as soldiers, of rape used as a weapon. There are those who insist the Holocaust never happened, and perpetrate hatred that degrades its victims and diminishes us all.

Fight the impulse to turn away when we see images that disturb us or take false comfort that other’s sufferings are not our own. Instead, recognize ourselves in each other, commit to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they take whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like Rwanda.

Fulfilling these obligations requires courage. But in the end I believe history gives us cause for hope rather than despair. Like the hope of a people who've overcome oppression since the days of Exodus; a nation rising from the terror of a Holocaust. The hope too, of those who not only survived but chose to LIVE, teaching us the meaning of courage and resilience and dignity.

What a stunning act of faith to bring a child into a world that's shown so much cruelty and that in the end you have a duty to life. We find cause for hope in Protestant and Catholic children attending school together in Northern Ireland. We find cause for hope in Hutus and Tutsis living side-by-side, forgiving neighbors who have done the unforgivable. We find cause for hope in our fellow citizens of the world showing us how to make the journey from oppression to survival.

*********

I have been quoting from various speeches made by United States President Barack Obama, elected in a free and fair democracy. Some day the great people of Iran will have a new democratic election, and they will vote and their votes will be counted honestly. Some day Iran will have a new president, perhaps even a new government from top to bottom. This I know, and if you're sane you do too.

Human beings were never meant to be enslaved. True we can be lower than the dust, but also true, we can be better than angels. We need to see that in each other, both the good and the bad, and treat each other like the angels we're all meant to, WILL become.

Destroying Humanity

A documentary on political prisoners in Iran

via Association of Iranian Political Prisoners (in Exile)

http://www.kanoon-zendanian.org/

(Link to video posted by @Artemis_iavia @IranRiggedElect via @K1van)

Torture in Evin Prison - a personal story

- by @iranproxy on #iranelection August 16

• friend who was in Evin prison yrs ago told me they used fake execution on him 7 times to break him
• they would take him out, tell him at night he would die in the morning and then prepare the execution
• the last few times they did fake execution he said just kill me, i cannot live like this
• for fake execution he said they do it like real execution, even show him other ppl who were executed
• he showed me the scar where guards cut him open for fun to see what was inside him
• he said what is done to women in Evin is too much to say
• he said some women would ask to be killed after first day
• my friend said they would do the same rapes to men they do now, bottles, other objects
• he said that they tortured him so much one time that he was beginning to die
• so the guards called his family and ask them to pay to save his life
• he show me scars and holes on his body and ask how can we negotiate with ppl who do this to ppl?
• he told me the guards would make fun of him as they tortured him and cut him
• the torturers said he could speak english, was educated, had a future and could go anywhere
• and said with all that education and knowledge look where he was now? being tortured by the uneducated
• that his education and knowledge was worthless, that this was his punishment for being educated
• they said he could go anywhere in world because he was educated and could speak english
• they said they were uneducated & could speak only farsi & couldn't go anywhere, no options in life
• and so they would stay until the end, they would kill anyone because they had no options in life
• that they would fight forever because their back was against the wall in life because of no options
• he said as they torture him they said they hated the educated people because they had hope in life
• he said they killed his cousins and brother in prison from torture and from execution
• my friend said they force prisoners to vote in prison, those who didn't vote were killed or tortured
• he said the worst was hearing women scream, they would beg to die
• then he tell me how he got out of prison, one day they had cut him open too much for fun
• he showed me the scar, it was biggest i have ever seen in my life
• even the scar looked like it was evil, that is how much it hurt me to see it
• he said he passed out that he does not know what they did when his body was open
• that doctor told him he had basically died and then his body released to doctor
• but they called the family to tell them to pay to save his life
• this doctor was a hero, knew him and helped him get out
• he could not say more, it was too much for him
• i can see in his eyes the pain when he talks about it, the shame he still carries for his whole life
• i can see in his eyes the pain when he talks about it, the shame he still carries for his whole life
• he said to me the torture that happens to political prisoners is much worse than what happened to him
• if you saw him, you would never know this happened. heroes are everywhere in our lives
• he told me the guards felt hopeless and jealous and were encouraged to blame ppl for their situation
• my friend escape from Iran after worst torture where they said he died, now he wants to go back
• he wants to go back to fight so other ppl do not suffer what he did, he said world cannot abandon these ppl

Father and Son

Mehdi Saharkhiz - @onlymehdi - confesses for his father Isa Saharkhiz who is still imprisoned in Iran

Breaking Down the Youth of Iran

Fath-ol-mobin, Codename for Rape Operations in Iran's Prisons
From the blog For a democratic secular Iran

From a shocking interview with Babak Daad about what is going on in Iran's prisons and how the lackeys of the coup d'etat are ordered to break down the youth of Iran:

"I saw an 18 year old boy, whose father described him as a piece of flesh with no soul […]

What they were doing at Kahrizak, was they would choose the spirited detainees who were resisting them and by raping them they wanted to break them from pursuing justice and freedom, they wanted to break them so bad that these youngsters would become depressed and even hate themselves. […]

A young 18 year old boy purely because he took part in the peaceful silent march on 15th June and wore a green wrist band is attacked, arrested and suffers two weeks of ongoing sexual rape in Kahrizak and is then taken to another prison where he is allowed to slightly recover before he is handed back to his father, I am sorry I have to mention these things but its no longer appropriate to remain silent, he suffers severe rectal and colon laceration, his infection was so bad that they couldn't keep him any longer, this 18 year old was also forced to witness other detainees being raped, he could hear a law enforcement officer, [whom we can identify and hopefully one day bring him to trial] shout 'take these lot and make them pregnant, so they know whats what' […]"

Read full blog post

A Woman's account of rape in prison

Reza Alamehzadeh interviews first victim of rape in prisons of Islamic regime of Iran. Farsi with English subtitle.

Part 1



Part 2