Eye on Iran: Iran Executes Nuclear Scientist Reputed to Have Spied for U.S.

Join UANI       Top Stories    Politico: "The Iranian government has executed a nuclear scientist who was believed to have cooperated with U.S. intelligence but who returned to Iran after claiming he had been abducted and tortured by the CIA... Amiri went missing in Saudi Arabia in May or June 2009 while on religious pilgrimage to Mecca. In the following months, Iranian officials accused the U.S. of abducting him. The State Department claimed for months that it 'had no information' on Amiri... Clinton confirmed... during a news conference, that Amiri had been present in the U.S., saying he arrived 'of his own free will and he is free to go. These are decisions that are his alone to make.' When he did land in his native country on July 15, 2010, he was given a hero's welcome, and Iranian officials cast him as a double agent, claiming he had infiltrated U.S. intelligence and that Iran had the upper hand in an intelligence war. But soon after returning home, Amiri was taken into custody, presumably imprisoned because of his dalliance with the U.S." http://t.uani.com/2aNoAOJ The Hill: "Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is asking President Obama to release nearly $2 billion in Iranian assets frozen in a New York bank account. Ahmadinejad, who left office in 2013 but may be eyeing a new run for president next year, told Obama in a letter that the 'property seizure' is 'counter to all international legal principles and rules.' Continuing to withhold the money, Ahmadinejad added, could further deepen the 'historical distrust' between the two nations." http://t.uani.com/2b2VGPx Defense News: "After an extended truce over opposing positions on the US-led nuclear deal with Iran, the US and Israel rekindled their public rift on the issue, with President Barack Obama suggesting Israel own up to misplaced hysteria while Israel's Defense Ministry likened the accord to pre-World War II appeasement of Nazi Germany. The firestorm... was sparked by Obama's Aug. 4 Pentagon press conference, in which he noted that the military and security community of Israel - 'the country that was most opposed to the deal' now realizes that 'this has been a game changer'... Shortly after MoD's Aug. 5 release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in with his own statement aimed at softening the affront to Obama and refocusing the discussion on ways the two countries must work together to mitigate dangers." http://t.uani.com/2be3nyC Congressional Action The Hill: "Sen. Chuck Grassley wants the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over details about its involvement in a $400 million payment the United States made to Iran.  The Iowa Republican, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch after The Wall Street Journal reported that some DOJ officials had raised concerns about the payment.  'These reports are particularly troubling in light of the Department's continuing failure to cooperate with my inquiry into the FBI's alleged role in facilitating ransom payments to terrorist groups,' Grassley wrote in the letter." http://t.uani.com/2aGlDCz Politico: "More Americans are at risk of being taken captive thanks to the Obama administration's discreet $400 million payment to Iran, details of which were revealed last week, Republicans said on Sunday... Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the payment 'was, in fact, ransom.' The U.S. paid in part with 500-euro notes, which the European Union is putting out of circulation because the bills are routinely used for illicit purposes, Cotton said. 'It doesn't really matter what Barack Obama says,' Cotton said. 'It matters what ayatollahs think and what every dictator, terrorist and gangster around the world think. ... And they all clearly believe in their own words that this was a ransom payment, and that means they are going to take more hostages, which is exactly what Iran has done since January'... Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Sunday in the Orange County Register that the $400 million cash payment 'emboldens Iran to ramp up its hostage-taking.' http://t.uani.com/2b8f7pf Sanctions Relief Reuters: "Iran intends to purchase 20 regional jets from a unit of Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries... [An Iranian deputy cabinet minister said] that the deal was likely to be finalised when a Japanese delegation visits Tehran in December." http://t.uani.com/2aF6mOO Bloomberg: "Iran's state-run oil company is said to be in talks to sell more crude to oil trader Trafigura Group, including via a potential long-term deal, in a strategy that may help it break into the market to supply China's independent refiners. National Iranian Oil Co. may sell more of its heavy crude grade to Trafigura, according to people with knowledge of the matter... The supplies may then be resold to Chinese independent processors, known as teapots, they said, adding that the talks are ongoing and a deal hasn't been finalized... The potential sale of oil to teapots would help Iran's drive to expand market share in Asia after international sanctions were removed against the Persian Gulf state. The Middle East producer sells most of its crude via long-term contracts directly to refiners, and allows existing buyers to purchase additional spot cargoes. But it's now willing to reach Chinese private refiners via Trafigura because the trader would be better suited to supply the processors who typically buy shipments at short notice and in small quantities. Trafigura bought about 2 million barrels of Iranian Heavy crude from NIOC for June loading, with the tanker carrying the supply currently anchored off South Korea. Previously, the shipment floated for three weeks off the Chinese port of Qingdao, which is used by teapots to receive oil supplies. Earlier this year, Iran's rival producer Saudi Arabia broke from its usual practice of selling via long-term contracts to supply a cargo to a Chinese teapot refiner, in what Citigroup Inc. then said was a 'dramatic' shift in the Middle Eastern kingdom's oil-market strategy." http://t.uani.com/2b7y9gN Foreign Affairs AP: "Azerbaijan's president says he expects an upcoming summit with the leaders of Iran and Russia to give a major push to construction of a new international transport corridor. President Ilham Aliyev says he and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed on Sunday to speed up construction of the North-South corridor and they expect further progress when Russian President Vladimir Putin joins them in Baku on Monday. The North-South corridor running between Russia and India is intended to reduce freight costs and increase trade along the route. The Kremlin also says the summit will focus on the transport corridor, particularly construction of a railroad between Iran and Azerbaijan. Russia says trade with Iran was up 70 percent in the first five months of 2016, with Russian exports accounting for most of it." http://t.uani.com/2auk9ws Terrorism Mirror: "Munich killer Ali David Sonboly went on a weapons training holiday to Iran with his father before embarking on his killing spree, it is claimed today. A fortnight after unb[a]lanced Sonboly, 18, lured young people to a McDonald's restaurant in Munich and killed nine of them before taking his own life it has emerged that the German-Iranian youth travelled with his father Masoud to Iran in December last year. The news magazine Focus said that he underwent 'weapons training' while there which included firing guns, although it was not specified where... Sonboly, who also left 27 others injured, was obsessed with Adolf Hitler and expressed shocking racist views, German investigators say... He told his loved ones he was proud to be a German-Iranian 'Aryan' - and made clear his hatred of Turks and Arabs, according to local media... Now, investigators are looking at the possibility that Sonboly, whose parents are Iranian, deliberately targeted foreigners during his deadly shooting spree." http://t.uani.com/2aV6N93 Saudi-Iran Tensions WSJ: "Under pressure from Russian, Iraqi and Iranian oil exports, Saudi Arabia discounted its crude last weekend to maintain its share of big Asian markets. The price cut, which applies to September purchases, comes after two years of high-volume pumping by Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer. The kingdom had chosen to feed an oil glut and see prices drop rather than sacrifice sales to international rivals... Saudi Arabia... is facing increased pressure from political rival Iran. Since Western sanctions were lifted in January, Iranian output has jumped by about 600,000 barrels a day to 3.64 million barrels a day in June." http://t.uani.com/2b3ohkx Human Rights AP: "The United Nations' top official for human rights has criticized Iran for executing 20 people this week. A statement Friday by High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said there were 'serious doubts about the fairness of the trials, respect for due process and other rights of the accused' before their executions. On Tuesday, Iran's judiciary announced the executions, identifying those put to death as Kurdish Islamic extremists who were convicted of armed robbery, killing civilians and planning bomb attacks. Zeid said reports suggested most, if not all, of those executed were Sunnis from Iran's Kurdish minority. Kurdish fighters increasingly have battled Iranian security forces in recent weeks in northwestern Iran, leading to fatalities on both sides." http://t.uani.com/2aGoHOX VOA: "The Iranian regime apparently has little tolerance for virtual monsters. On Friday, Iran officially became the first nation to ban Pokemon Go, the dizzyingly popular mobile phone app game that has taken the world by storm in recent months... Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, general secretary of the regime's Internet Supervisory and Monitoring of Iran Committee, said in an interview... that Pokemon Go was banned... Khoramabadi said national security concerns accounted for the ban, adding, 'It might also endanger the security and safety of citizens'... Pokemon Go is gaining increasing popularity in Iran despite Internet restrictions that force Iranians to find alternative access to online sites based outside the country... Despite the obstacles, Iranian users say they have successfully found some of the games' virtual characters in buses in Tehran, parks, restaurants and in Hafeziyeh, the most famous tourist site in Shiraz. Users brag about their hunts by posting screen shots on Twitter, which is also a banned portal in Iran... Analysts in Tehran tell VOA that Iran's moral police unit, known as 'Gashte Ershad,' was a major force behind the ban. There are reports that moral police units have begun arresting Pokemon Go users on the streets and are deleting the game from confiscated smartphones. Some users are complaining about their plight on Twitter." http://t.uani.com/2bdaSpz Opinion & Analysis Daily Telegraph editorial: "A little more than a year ago, a deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme was announced. Its advocates billed it as a vital step in both enhancing global security and normalising long-strained the West's relations with the Islamic Republic. While the jury is still out on the former, the idea of normalising relations needs to be seriously reconsidered. Consider the case of Gabriella Zaghari-Ratcliffe. She is a two-year-old British girl who has been kept in Iran - held hostage, in effect - while her mother, the British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is detained on vague and spurious allegations that she was somehow plotting the 'soft overthrow' of the regime in Tehran. Mrs Ratcliffe has been in jail since April, spending time in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer. No date has yet been set for her trial. Meanwhile, Gabriella, who is being looked after by her Iranian grandparents, has been separated from her mother and father, Richard Ratcliffe, for four months. On its own, this case would be shocking enough. But Iran has detained dual nationals from other countries too; many suspect that they represent 'bargaining chips' for a regime whose continued ruthlessness was demonstrated this week with the execution of a nuclear scientist who had previously taken refuge in America only to be lured home and hanged. This will come as a rude awakening for those who thought that the bargaining was over once the nuclear deal had been signed. Yet there are still those who want swiftly to upgrade Britain's diplomatic representation in Iran from chargé d'affaires to full ambassador status. While the citizens of this country are being used as pawns by Iran, no such step should be contemplated." http://t.uani.com/2b7EtS5 Michael Mukasey in WSJ: "To be sure, there were at the time, and still are, sanctions in place that bar anyone from engaging in dollar transactions with the regime in Tehran... Hence the need for a transfer in other currencies-to avoid the potential for a sanctions violation. But why cash, and why in an unmarked cargo plane? How come the U.S. did not simply transfer the $400 million we are told actually belonged to Iran to a foreign entity, to be converted into foreign funds for conventional banking transmission to Tehran? That would have permitted the U.S. to keep track of how Iran spent the money, at least to some extent... The apparent explanation isn't pretty. There is principally one entity within the Iranian government that has need of untraceable funds. That entity is the Quds Force-the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps focused particularly on furthering the regime's goals world-wide by supporting and conducting terrorism... Notably, there is a federal statute that bars the transfer of 'monetary instruments'-cash or its equivalent in bearer instruments-with the intent to promote 'specified unlawful activity.' That term is defined to include a crime of violence or use of an explosive against a foreign country, a category that would include terrorism. Proving intent is always difficult, but federal law recognizes that conscious avoidance of knowledge can be enough... As it happens, though, there is more than one reason why no one in the administration will be prosecuted for consciously avoiding knowledge of how this cash likely will be used, and thereby violating the anti-money-laundering statute-even with proof that the cash was transported in an unmarked plane. For one thing, the law applies only to transfers to or from the territory of the U.S. This transfer occurred entirely abroad. In addition, there is a legal doctrine that bars the application of criminal statutes to government activity in furtherance of legitimate government business, unless those statutes are clearly meant to apply to such activity... Still, if this transfer had been made by a private person or entity-say, in payment of a debt to Iran-and the 'monetary instruments' passed through the U.S., is there much doubt that a reasonable prosecutor would at least consider bringing the case? So we have here the spectacle of the state engaging in conduct that would expose a private citizen to the risk of jail. Considering that the government exists both to serve and to teach us, perhaps it would not be asking too much to demand an explanation: Precisely what legitimate interest of the U.S. was furthered by loading $400 million in cash in an unmarked cargo plane and delivering it to a state sponsor of terrorism?" http://t.uani.com/2aWElGs Lee Smith in Weekly Standard: "What distinguishes the January planeload of cash is that the Obama administration paid ransom not simply for the freedom of American citizens but also to preserve the president's signature foreign policy initiative. The vaunted Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action turns out to be the culmination of a hostage negotiation... The Obama administration has never shown much interest in compelling the Iranians to abandon their habit of taking hostages. Quite the opposite, in fact. The administration built its Middle East policy around the idea that it was hostage to Iran. America's military options against Iran and its regional proxies were limited, said White House officials, by the fact that the United States had thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for Iran to target. In other words, in the administration's view, the American military was held hostage by Iran. U.S. allies were also constrained since Iran would take it out on those same American troops if, say, Israel decided to take action against Iran. Since Iran had America cornered, the only option, argued the White House, was the nuclear agreement. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but it was better than war with Iran. In time, the administration moved the goal posts so far that even sanctions were said to be likely to lead to war... [The administration] struck an agreement over a nuclear weapons program with a regime that at the very same time gave clear evidence that it has no interest in abiding by international norms. The empirical evidence is that the clerical regime in Tehran cannot be trusted, and the Obama administration will continue to provide cover for it. No price is too high to pay if it preserves the president's signature foreign policy initiative." http://t.uani.com/2aQiWNZ Daniel Drezner in Washington Post: "The optics of this are horrible, and the optics matter... I have no doubt that the White House did not view these two exchanges as a quid pro quo. And it's really stupid to think of giving someone their money back as a ransom payment. That said, the DOJ's qualms about the optics of this deal were well-founded. Even if the United States didn't view the cash payment as a ransom, elements of Iran's government clearly did think of the exchange in this way. And if that's what Iranian officials believe, then they will believe that hostage-taking might be a lucrative means of procuring other assets. So yeah, it matters what the Iranians think happened back in January. I'm glad that the president has forcefully denied that this was a ransom payment. The White House should continue to do so - not to disabuse U.S. conservatives, but to disabuse Iranian conservatives that this kind of well-timed exchange could happen again. In international relations, sometimes bad optics are worth the value of the deal being made. But it's also worth correcting the optics when they look bad. The only new information from this week about these exchanges with Iran is about the optics. That's worth reporting. The Obama administration is pushing back forcefully. That's the right thing to do politically - and the right thing to do diplomatically." http://t.uani.com/2b1koA6 Claudia Rosett in PJ Media: " 1. For all Obama's denials and derision of his critics, the $400 million payment in January sure looks like a ransom, a cash-for-captives deal that can only encourage Iran to imprison more Americans -- which it has already done. 2. If indeed there was a quid pro quo, and if the Iranians have any evidence of that, then Obama's denial that he paid any ransom opens the door to Iranian blackmail of the administration over this payola. 3. The U.S. airlift of cash to Tehran quite likely sends a signal to the world that those strict U.S. sanctions need not deter others from airlifting into Iran crates, or pallets, of cash, which can then be used for Iran's terrorist and military ventures. The U.S. government itself has set the example. 4. If there was nothing wrong with Obama's $1.7 billion settlement with Iran, and his administration's handling of the payments, then why won't his office provide full information about the logistics, for both the $400 million and the additional $1.3 billion, and answer in good faith the questions of Congress and the press? 5. Finally, there's the ugly matter of Obama belittling anyone who might question or criticize his cash payola for Iran. That shows an utter disregard for his own promises of transparency, and gross disrespect for the American public. It's terrible policy for an American president to secretly ship $400 million -- or is it by now $1.7 billion? -- worth of cash to the terror-sponsoring ballistic-missile-testing Islamic Republic of Iran. It's even worse when the president, caught out by the press, chooses to defend himself by denigrating the reporters, and his fellow citizens generally, as sensation-seeking fools. The best retort by now, no matter what the presidential mockery, is don't stop following the money." http://t.uani.com/2aKgSrw Frida Ghittis in CNN: "Despite Obama administration denials, the transaction looks very much like a ransom, adding one more disturbing layer to what was already a troubling and secretive agreement... If Iran thinks it was ransom, then for practical purposes it was... Though we may never know the details of what was said by negotiators in working on the Iran nuclear deal, the hostage matters and the frozen funds from 1981, the picture of forklifts moving pallets loaded with mountains of euros and Swiss francs, 'Breaking Bad'-style, adds to the image of U.S.-Iran negotiations as a cloak-and-dagger operation in which Iran continues to run circles around the United States. Adding to suspicions, there seems to be a great deal still unknown about the nuclear agreement. .Since the nuclear deal was reached, Iran's spending on its military has grown exponentially... Worse yet, just this week the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stoked conspiracy theories... Iran has also stepped up its missile program, which U.N. resolutions had banned in addition to proscribing the nuclear program. After all, developing missiles capable of carrying warheads is a key requirement for a country seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal. Despite recent Iranian military spending and political rhetoric, the Obama White House views the nuclear deal as its paramount foreign policy accomplishment. And Secretary of State John Kerry has awkwardly traveled the world urging countries to invest in Iran, which remains the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Persuading Iran to dismantle what world powers were convinced was a program aimed at building nuclear weapons was unquestionably a worthwhile cause. That was, in fact, the purpose of the sanctions. But it's difficult to escape the impression that America negotiated weakly even with its strong hand." http://t.uani.com/2b0usb2         Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.