Fogbow

CNN: The weapons seizure so big it covered the rear deck of a 567-foot US warship

A joint US Navy and Coast Guard team seized thousands of illicit weapons last week after stopping a small ship in the North Arabian Sea, the Navy said in a statement.

The cruiser USS Monterey stopped the stateless dhow on May 6 during a routine operation to verify its registry, the Navy said.

A US Coast Guard Advanced Interdiction Team deployed on the Navy ship then boarded the dhow and found the weapons stash.

The massive arms haul covered much of the rear flight deck of the 567-foot (173-meter) US warship after it was transferred over in what the Navy said was a two-day operation.

"The cache of weapons included dozens of advanced Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles, thousands of Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, and hundreds of PKM machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Other weapon components included advanced optical sights," the Navy statement said.

The origin and destination of the weapons is under investigation but previous arms shipments confiscated by the US Navy under similar circumstances were bound for Houthi rebels in Yemen, Lt. Cmdr. Pete Pagano, a spokesperson for the Navy's Fifth Fleet told CNN in an email Monday.

neeneko wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 11:48 am Hrm.
Even being pro-US and anti-Iran, I find myself oddly uncomfortable that the US Coast Guard is patrolling non-US waters to stop weapons moving between two countries neither of which are US territories. I am also trying to picture how US news outlets would cover another nation intercepting US arms shipments to a conflict zone and confiscating them... not that the US ever needs to sneak things through blockades.. instead we just shoot anyone who tries to stop us.

fierceredpanda wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 12:05 pm I'm pretty sure there's an international arms embargo on Yemen right now, and the transfer of military weapons and materiel is subject to import/export controls which are also laid down in international law. The US Coast Guard is enforcing international law in international waters, which is an explicit part of their organizational charter.

Iranian Hard-Liner Ebrahim Raisi Looks Set to Win Presidential Vote
Mr. Raisi, Iran’s judiciary chief, had an overwhelming lead with 90 percent of the votes counted, according to the Iranian news media. Many voters skipped the election, viewing it as rigged.

By Vivian Yee
June 19, 2021 Updated 6:59 a.m. ET

TEHRAN — Iran’s ultraconservative judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, looked certain to become the country’s next president on Saturday after an election that many voters skipped, seeing it as rigged in his favor.

The semiofficial news agency Fars, citing the head of the election commission, said that with 90 percent of the vote counted Mr. Raisi had won 17 million of the 28 million votes tabulated. Two rival candidates have conceded, and President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Mr. Raisi for the victory on Saturday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.

Huge swaths of moderate and liberal-leaning Iranians sat out the election, saying that the campaign had been engineered to put Mr. Raisi in office or that voting would make little difference. He had been expected to win handily despite late attempts by the more-moderate reformist camp to consolidate support behind their main candidate — Abdolnasser Hemmati, a former central bank governor.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/worl ... raisi.html

Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86 wrote: Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, has died days after being arrested by morality police for allegedly not complying with strict rules on head coverings. Eyewitnesses said she was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran.

Danraft wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:09 am As I understand it, pre-Shaw days, Iran was progressive for its geographical region.
Wishing the women and their society the best in their struggle.

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:57 am

Danraft wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:09 am As I understand it, pre-Shaw days, Iran was progressive for its geographical region.
Wishing the women and their society the best in their struggle.

They were. When you juxtapose old pictures, the change is quite breathtaking.

p0rtia wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:10 pm Serious question: How much if anything did TFG sabotaging the Iran Nuclear Pact have to do with this repression?

Kian Sharifi @KianSharifi wrote: A girls' school in Iran brought a member of the IRGC-run Basij paramilitary to speak to students. The girls welcomed the speaker by taking off their headscarves & chanting "get lost, Basiji".

Teenage girls have been at the forefront of protests for days.

@ksadjadpour wrote: Billboard spotted today in central Tehran: “We are no longer afraid, We will fight” (digeh nemitarsim, mijangim)

Iranian schoolgirl ‘beaten to death for refusing to sing’ pro-regime anthem
Fresh protests ignited around Iran by 16-year-old Asra Panahi’s death after schoolgirls assaulted in raid on high school in Ardabil

Deepa Parent and Annie Kelly
Tue 18 Oct 2022 06.30 BST

Another schoolgirl has reportedly been killed by the Iranian security services after she was beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided last week, sparking further protests across the country this weekend.

According to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after security forces raided the Shahed girls high school in Ardabil on 13 October and demanded a group of girls sing an anthem that praises Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

When they refused, security forces beat the pupils, leading to a number of girls being taken to hospital and others arrested. On Friday, Panahi reportedly died in hospital of injuries sustained at the school.



https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... ime-anthem

Frida Ghitis @FridaGhitis wrote: Little girls in Iran flapping their headscarves in the air.

They’re chanting “Woman, life, freedom!”

15,000 jailed anti-hijab protesters could face death penalty in Iran
Fears have erupted of a potential mass culling in Iran after state officials signed a letter calling for anti-hijab activists to receive severe punishment, and the first protester receives a death sentence.

By LIAM DOYLE
09:52, Tue, Nov 15, 2022 | UPDATED: 11:23, Tue, Nov 15, 2022

Iran issues first death sentence amid anti-hijab protests

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Iran's first death sentence over recent anti-hijab protests has raised fears for tens of thousands of people imprisoned during the civil unrest. Saman Yasin, a Kurdish rapper, became the first person to be sentenced to death last week after he expressed support for the protesters. Officials ordered the punishment after the 27-year-old was arrested in October and charged with "waging war against God" for sharing anti-regime sentiment on social media.

Thousands of similar public trials loom on the horizon, raising questions for Iran's approximately 15,000 political prisoners remanded in custody since the protests began.

Iranian authorities have announced plans to try more than 1,000 of those arrested within and outside Tehran.

Speaking last week, Javaid Rehman, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, said punishments could include additional death penalty sentences.

Mr Rehman said: “In another most disturbing development, Iranian authorities have announced earlier this week that they will be holding public trials for over 1,000 arrested persons in Tehran and a similar number outside the capital.



https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/16 ... b-protests

Iran shutting down morality police after 2 months of protests, official says

DECEMBER 4, 2022 / 10:11 AM / CBS/AFP

Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code, local media said Sunday.

Women-led protests, labeled "riots" by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on Sept. 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.

Demonstrators have burned their mandatory hijab head coverings and shouted anti-government slogans, and a growing number of women have refused to wear the hijab, particularly in parts of Tehran.

"Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished," Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a question on "why the morality police were being shut down," the report said.

The move represents a rare concession to the protest movement, and authorities have also acknowledged the demoralizing effect of an economic crisis spurred by U.S. sanctions.



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-aboli ... -protests/

Iran carries out first known execution over anti-government protests
Uncle of Mohsen Shekari, who was convicted of ‘waging war against God’, says family have not been told location of body

Patrick Wintour and Maryam Foumani
Thu 8 Dec 2022 17.19 GMT

Iran has conducted the first known execution in relation to the anti-government protests that have rocked the country, hanging a man who was found guilty by a revolutionary court of “waging war against God”.

Mohsen Shekari was accused of blocking a street and wounding a member of the pro-regime Basij militia on 25 September, during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

State media published a video of what it said was Shekari’s confession, which showed him with a bruise on his right cheek.

His family waited outside the jail where he was executed, seeking news of his fate.

Shekari’s uncle Mahmoud Shekari told the Guardian from Denmark that authorities “have started a familiar game to torture his family” by not releasing his body, a complaint that tallies with the experiences of other families of dead protesters.

He said the family had been sent to two cemeteries, but that when they arrived at the locations, they were told the body was not there.

The uncle said Shekari’s mother had been repeatedly warned not to publicise her son’s arrest, and that even when she saw her son the night before his hanging, she was ordered to remain silent about his fate.

Shekari had not been allowed a lawyer of his own choosing, and signs of torture were visible on his face, his uncle said.

Describing the incident that led to his arrest, the uncle said: “Mohsen was athletic and strong; when he saw the security forces attacking the protesters, he removed the guardrail from the side of the highway and placed it in the middle of the street to block the security forces’ way.”





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... me-officer

Iran's Raisi promises to pursue crackdown on protesters; cleric critical of execution

Reuters
December 9, 202210:45 PM GMT+1 Last Updated 9 hours ago

DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A prominent dissenting Sunni cleric on Friday said the death sentence of an Iranian protester involved in anti-government unrest violated sharia law, as President Ebrahim Raisi promised to press on with a crackdown a day after the man's execution.

On Thursday, Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, who had been convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, the first such execution after thousands of arrests over the unrest, drawing a chorus of Western condemnation.



https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 022-12-09/