To PULSE media: You wanted to know about torture in the Islamic Republic of Iran?

No!

PULSE media didn't ask me about this. PULSE media has just kept awfully silent about this; and has only published a half hearted (by no means the fault of the writer, who has no access to direct news from Iran--but doesn't also cite any of information that are available by English-speaking Iranians, or translations that are increasingly emerging) commentary.

Well, PULSE, I like to bring a few details about tortures of the Islamic Republic of Iran to your attention.

You cannot bash Israel for violation of the human rights and then let the champion of Israel-bashing, Mr Ahmadinejad and his bearded father (Khamenei) do the following to those who have been the true anti-imperialists, anti-dictators. Indulge me, will ya?

Yesterday, Akbar Ganji drew attention to the silent killer of the Islamic Republic of Iran: SHAME!

Have you, as an alternative and successful source of independent news, expressed any indignation on the so called public trials, where ministers of the reform government, members of press, reporters, intellectuals and social scientists are put in line next to petty crooks, and forced to confess on television that they have been trying to deceive the country in the entire course of the career, that they do not believe in any of things they have ever talked about like freedom, law, dignity; that all that is against the principle of Velayat-e Faghih (the supremacy of the jurisprudence); that they think talking about a republic is nonsense because the rule must be that of the supreme leader who is the god's replacement on earth; that their friends who are NOT imprisoned yet are traitors too and need to be put on trial and sentenced to highest punishment! The most elaborate publication of your site was some nauseating article by professor Hosseinzadeh who may be some useful economist but considering that he has been in the US since 1974; that he has not even one Persian article that will show he has ANY grasp of what is happening in Iran; you would be wiser to look for citations from other Iranians who wax theoretical about what is happening in Iran based on SOME real tangible connections to the country. It is this bias of yours that I find disturbing.

Now, let's get back to torture!

Ganji, who used to be one of the revolutionary guards until he turned journalist and exposed some of the inner crimes of the Islamic Republic, a man who has spent many years in these prisons and has gone on several hunger strikes to draw your PROGRESSIVE attention to the crimes that are happening in Iran--where Ahmadinejad allocated 20 million dollars to "exposing incidences of America's violation of human rights" (even before the parliament gives his cabinet a vote of confidence; even before consulting the parliament, as he must; even when the very legitimacy of his government is under question by the mere fact of how it has handled civil protests to his presidency) --writes:

"Ramadan's offering to me this year is the broken faces of my comrades [...] The pictures of the detainees in Stalinist courts shatter one's soul and body. The unfolding crimes are not limited to bodily torture, they are assassinating their characters. Don't even think of the extent of the grief of the families when they see their broken loved ones, imagine them when they go back to their solitary confinements and are left alone with the guilt of why they succumbed to these tyrants. This is what we do not see. This is the big crime that no one thinks about. This is what gives the interrogators and the "king" utmost pleasure!

I knew a great one, who melted away bit by bit and passed away. They used to put diarrhetic drugs in his food and did not take him to toilet. When he dirtied his clothes in the cell, the interrogators gathered and laughed at him that "such a great man cannot hold himself". I was in prison when he passed away and thousands participated in his funeral. The murderers carried his casket, and the man who had ordered his arrest appropriated his dead body by sending condolence messages! It was night and I was crying in my solitude. The guy in charge of security walked in and asked "what is the matter?" I said "You killed him; and now are holding a funeral for him." [I just saw this report that preventing detainees from using bathroom has been a common torture in Kahrizak (which was run by Hossein Fadayee, a member of the parliament!!!!!)]

Of course, the littler guys, the unknown ones, are tortured with usual gruesome techniques. Yesterday, I met a woman who through tears was telling me how her father, who had an acquaintance in the local neighborhood Basij office, had been successful to trace their neighbor's missing 23 years old son--who was kidnapped on return from university. The Basiji official had told him that he was too bruised up to be released and that they were waiting for his wounds to heal before letting him out? How bruised was he? Broken jaw; pulled finger nails, slashed feet. Slashed with razors; to prevent from running. This is what his family saw after begging and pleading and signing papers to give guarantee that they will NOT show any of it to the media, or the investigative committees.

I left a comment on your blog yesterday, in reaction to the "prudent" leftist exclamation that “one cannot simply overlook the fact that similar events had inspired little or no coverage in the past.”

This is the why I explained:

1. Many of the victims of torture are in Iran on “conditional” release from prison. They do not want to further jeopardize themselves by talking about torture. Yes even if you were released from prison 20 years ago, you are still not “free”.
2. Many have been continuously protesting the human rights abuse in Iran (e.g. the cases of Zahra Kazemi, or the torture videos of the wife of Saeed Emami, or the stoning videos and ect) but a lot of us Iranian bloggers have kept silent about these things BECAUSE we have been under threat of military attack by Bush. When he called Iran an axis of evil, he forced us all into siding with evil. We kept silent; and kept focusing on the full half of the IRI glass. We have also not sided with the “human rights lobby” in the US because of their links to neoconservatives. But we have had human right activists like mohammad-e baghi who has decried to America to STOP funding these human-right advocacy lobbies BECAUSE of the pressure they put on activists INSIDE Iran. This is why we have stayed silent to not have our friends in IRan accused of foreign conspiracy.
3. The tales of 1988 mass executions and tortures have been part of the common Iranian knowledge. They are out in the open on the web site of Ayatollah Montazeri. He was dismissed from his appointment (it was HE who was supposed to be the supreme leader, but because he protested about those torture and executoins he was dismissed as a “lunatic” as they are trying to do now to Karoubi–and this is why Khamenei became the supreme leader, without even having any of the religious credentials that are necessary according to Iran’s constitution.) That you are hearing about them now has to do with globalization of media (viva blogger and wordpress!), and also with the fact that Mr Khamenei doesn’t have the same legitimacy and charisma that Imam Khomeini had, when he put a cap on that fire in 88.
4. Many of the victims of the 88 torture and murders were from Mojahedin-e Khalgh. This group fell out of grace with Iranians when they set up camp in Iraq and participated in attack against Iran with Saddam’s forces. Therefore, people lost sympathy for them. Those who “repented” were stripped of their passports, stripped of right to education, and forced to ‘normal life’ (a condition of release of someone I knew was to get married ASA getting out and to never participate in university entrance exam–she WAS a genius and they didn’t want to have to kick out someone with rank one in the exam out of university.)
5. Now, they have put a Rank-One and gold olympiad medalist university student (who happened to belong to a family who has sacrificed at least two sons to defending IRan during the Iran-Iraq war), Jalayee pour, in prison, and then have started these sham courts, which are televised, bringing out old ministers, stern intellectuals and journalists, to come out and make a 180 degree turn from ALL they have believed before! It is THEY who have made obvious the evidence of their own brutality. No one else could expose their ass better than themselves! Some may be VERY right that Israel has an investment in this or is taking advantage of this. I really think it does. But Israel’s wishes seem to be carried by Ahmadinejad … more and more people have started to talk about links between the ideological movement that supports Ahmadinejad (hojjatiyeh) and Mossad.
6. Considering the TOTAL chaos that Ahmadinejad’s created, and his blatant aim to install fascist regime in Iran, considering that his chief of staff, Mashayee (the man that supreme leader had to force out of proposed position of deputy president!) says:”in fact from the 24 million vote for Ahmadinejad, only 4 million were his. The other 20 million were people who were not happy with the system and wanted it changed!” is an indication that the REVOLUTION is indeed intended and designed by Ahmadinejad’s minority. This minority cannot keep the cap on anymore; the tides are against them.

Your writer Jasmin Ramsey writes: "That the IRI continues the horrors of the Iranian monarchy is ironic, tragic and necessary to condemn." According to many of those who have experienced BOTH of these prisons (for example, see Mohammad Maleki's post), what Shah's SAVAK did pales in comparison to IRI's actions ...

The saving grace of your treatment of Iran, Mr and Miss PULSE media is one sentence in your article: "That being said [after she implies that this all may be a Western propaganda--which prompet my response], anyone who believes in human rights must stand in solidarity with those who have been forced to endure the horrors of torture and political persecution regardless of the charges that have been brought against them."

Let me also inform you, tortures are not limited to Tehran! Yesterday, an Isfahani boy who was just released after two months of torture committed suicide; jumping in broad daylight, off of a bridge, because "they had come to take him again" ...