The final debate between President Obama and Gov. Romney won't likely change the course of the election with barely more than a week to go, but one sticking point in the debate -- U.S. policy toward Iran -- could well change hopes for peace in the world.
The Mullahs in Tehran, increasingly aware of mounting international isolation and a devastated economy have now come face-to-face with reality. They were dealt another major blow when the US State Department officially removed Iran's largest opposition organisation, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), from the US Foreign Terrorist List. It was a devastating defeat for the corrupt and oppressive Iranian regime. That decision came after a lengthy legal battle, the first of its kind in US history, with the judiciary effectively ordering the de-listing after finding that the PMOI's due process rights had been violated. Tehran's knee-jerk reaction was a heavier dose of the prescription they have been using for the past three decades. As Tehran grows desperate, it has bolstered its campaign of demonisation and slander against the PMOI.
Iranian regime President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t used to seeing a vocal opposition protesting against him. His brutal government doesn’t allow demonstrations, a free media or personal liberties for its people. But on Wednesday, he will see thousands of protesters in the streets of an American city demonstrating against him and his government. I will be one of them.
By Radell Smith
Posted on Examiner on Sep 13, 2012
Cairo, Egypt's anti-Islam film protests are still going on as of Thursday night according to Egypt's AhramOnline.com, at least on the fringes of Tahrir Square. And plans are underway for the protests to continue on Friday.
For the past three and a half years I have served first as chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office and then as adviser to the Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq, monitoring, among other things, the human rights and the humanitarian situation of 3,400 Iranian exiles who have made their home north of Baghdad since 1986 at a place called Camp Ashraf. Iraq’s government has decided to terminate their presence in Iraq and required them to vacate Camp Ashraf. UNAMI has been facilitating their temporary relocation to a former base in Baghdad called Camp Liberty, with the purported task of conducting “refugee status determination” for all of these people and ensuring that international norms of human and humanitarian rights are maintained.