WHERE IS ABBAS KHORSENDY?
Iranian Referendum for Freedom
By, John Powers
Eleven men and women organizers of a pro-democracy rally scheduled Wednesday, February 9, 2005 were arrested and charged with crimes against the Islamic Regime of Iran according to Manda Z. Ervin, Iranian-American President of the Alliance of Iranian Women. “They were brutalized and dragged away from their beaten spouses in front of their children,” she said, “ it was a display of the regime’s constant effort to stifle any oppositional voice counter to its own.” Those arrested were picked up twenty-four hours prior to the scheduled protest which was subsequently foiled under threats of death and torture. The arrests came just days following comments made by United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who characterized the regime’s behavior and treatment of it’s own population as “something to be loathed.” Secretary Rice’s statements echoed the Bush Administration’s public condemnation of Iran in the post inaugural State of the Union Address, where the President encouraged the citizens of Iran to seek the freedom they deserve, declaring, “ As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.”
Mrs. Ervin asserts that a majority of Iranians are looking at Iraq and wanting to switch places with it. Mrs. Ervin recounts a phone conversation she translated for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas during his address to the people of Iran on KRSI Radio Sedaye Iran. “The caller had some type of dread in his voice,” she explains, “ you could feel it when he talked, like he was holding something back; he told Senator Brownback that they were ready, and was asking the Senator for his continued support and emphatically announced that freedom is something they will die for. ” Through her many political and social affiliations, Mrs. Ervin is able to keep closely informed on the pro-democracy movement in Iran.“ There are those in Iran who are willing to trade tactical military information for liberation. This Regime is brutal, and it must be stopped. ” she continued, “ they actually have a guideline to determine the correct sized rock to be used while stoning a woman to death. ” She says, “The stones must be large enough to inflict pain, but not so large so as to kill them too quickly, and not too small whereas there is not enough pain. ” Iranian women are subject to be buried up to the neck and stoned to death for a variety of infractions. “ I know a man, ” she says, “ his name is Abbas Khorsendy and he has disappeared. He was in the process of setting up a pro-democracy oppositional party when Tehran officials seized him, demolished his computer, destroyed his records, and told his wife and two children that he was being arrested for crimes against the regime. ” Mr. Khorsendy has not been seen or heard from for some several weeks.
By, John Powers
Eleven men and women organizers of a pro-democracy rally scheduled Wednesday, February 9, 2005 were arrested and charged with crimes against the Islamic Regime of Iran according to Manda Z. Ervin, Iranian-American President of the Alliance of Iranian Women. “They were brutalized and dragged away from their beaten spouses in front of their children,” she said, “ it was a display of the regime’s constant effort to stifle any oppositional voice counter to its own.” Those arrested were picked up twenty-four hours prior to the scheduled protest which was subsequently foiled under threats of death and torture. The arrests came just days following comments made by United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who characterized the regime’s behavior and treatment of it’s own population as “something to be loathed.” Secretary Rice’s statements echoed the Bush Administration’s public condemnation of Iran in the post inaugural State of the Union Address, where the President encouraged the citizens of Iran to seek the freedom they deserve, declaring, “ As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.”
Mrs. Ervin asserts that a majority of Iranians are looking at Iraq and wanting to switch places with it. Mrs. Ervin recounts a phone conversation she translated for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas during his address to the people of Iran on KRSI Radio Sedaye Iran. “The caller had some type of dread in his voice,” she explains, “ you could feel it when he talked, like he was holding something back; he told Senator Brownback that they were ready, and was asking the Senator for his continued support and emphatically announced that freedom is something they will die for. ” Through her many political and social affiliations, Mrs. Ervin is able to keep closely informed on the pro-democracy movement in Iran.“ There are those in Iran who are willing to trade tactical military information for liberation. This Regime is brutal, and it must be stopped. ” she continued, “ they actually have a guideline to determine the correct sized rock to be used while stoning a woman to death. ” She says, “The stones must be large enough to inflict pain, but not so large so as to kill them too quickly, and not too small whereas there is not enough pain. ” Iranian women are subject to be buried up to the neck and stoned to death for a variety of infractions. “ I know a man, ” she says, “ his name is Abbas Khorsendy and he has disappeared. He was in the process of setting up a pro-democracy oppositional party when Tehran officials seized him, demolished his computer, destroyed his records, and told his wife and two children that he was being arrested for crimes against the regime. ” Mr. Khorsendy has not been seen or heard from for some several weeks.
posted by John Powers at 8:55 AM
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