"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
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| Nathali Acosta Lemus, Aimara Meizoso León, Omar Reyes Valdés , Elisabeth Meizoso, and Rachel Ramaya Ullo |
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| Indira Serrano Cala (age 18) |
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| Yerandy García Meizoso |
#MahsaAmini #WomenLifeFreedom
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| Mahsa Amini died 40 days ago today after a brutal beating by Iranian regime agents |
Forty days ago today Mahsa Amini died after being brutally beaten
by the Islamist morality police in Iran for improperly wearing a hijab.
Protests continue to intensify, despite deadly repression by the
Islamist regime's security forces. The diaspora organized major protests around the world this past weekend.
Below are images taken from across Iran today, tonight, and in the Iranian diaspora.
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Iran today: Mullahs in Iran would kill her for standing unveiled. She wants the regime that killed Mahsa Amini and other innocents gone. |
Forty days later and the protests are not slowing down, despite the arrests, home invasions, and scores of nonviolent protesters killed by the Islamist regime. See them, hear them, but do not abandon them. Protesters are telling their oppressors that they are not afraid.
I am in awe. These unarmed men and women walking towards security forces, one by one they open up their arms and shout; “we are not scared of bullets, kill us.” This is Amol city where dozens of protesters got killed over the past months. #MahsaAmini#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/TSU1ddeyzZ
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 26, 2022
They are singing her name, risking punishment, but continue to do so nonetheless.
This student was singing for #MahsaAmini today in Alzajra University in Mashhad but she couldn’t stop her tears. See what happens next.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 26, 2022
We have been pushing back all anti-woman laws in Iran individually for years but now we are not alone. The world is with us.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/CnjT959hyi
40 days later and there is not turning back. During the day and the night the protests continue.
stunning video coming out of iran
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 26, 2022
in mahsa amini’s hometown of saqez, thousands ignore govt road closures to walk to her gravesite
40 days after her death in the custody of iran’s morality policepic.twitter.com/u6EvbGQtjw
Tonight, Narmak neighborhood, Tehran. Protesters chant, “We fight, we die, we take Iran.” People seem to have more hope that they will finally succeed than the regime, losing a faction of its base daily. #MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی #IranProtests2022 pic.twitter.com/VAPdTyGshl
— Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) October 26, 2022
In the diaspora voices continue to emerge in solidarity with the protesters
It has been 40 days since the death of Mahsa Amini, which started a revolution in Iran.
— Shohreh Aghdashloo (@SAghdashloo) October 26, 2022
We see you, and you are not alone in your pursuit of claiming back your fundamental human rights.
May this be the dawn of our freedom.
Watch the full video here: https://t.co/Q5pIMwR4mO pic.twitter.com/YfO4NUY5tB
Record number of Cubans enter the United States
The main reason for this exodus is that Cuba is under communist rule. Political economist and demographer Nicholas Eberstadt in his 2003 monograph "Population Aspects of Communist Countries," found one of the features of these regimes is that communist governance generates "enormous streams of refugees, escapees fleeing from the new order, or driven out by some particular policy or practice promoted by the new regime." Cubans fled on rafts across the Florida Straits, in freedom flights, defected from sporting events, ballet troupes defected in Paris, and today many fly to Nicaragua, and trek through hundreds of miles of jungle to the U.S. Mexican border.
These refugees are fleeing Cuba today due to a number of factors: massive political repression following nationwide protests in July 2021, an economic crisis caused by failed communist central planning generating hyperinflation in the island, and the weaponization of migration from Cuba to the United States by the Castro dictatorship in order to generate a crisis to obtain concessions from Washington.
They also had help from their communist ally Daniel Ortega.
Managua announced on November 22, 2021 it would lift visa requirements for Cubans traveling to Nicaragua. This opened a new path for Cuban migrants to reach the United States, and created an even greater crisis on the U.S. Mexican border.
Repression worsens
Meanwhile Cubans continue to protest against the Castro dictatorship, and are subjected to systematic repression. At the same time Western democracies are financing the dictatorship. The main source of funding for Havana’s regime is not Russia or China, but the European Union, and now many Cubans fear that the Biden Administration is taking America down the same path.
Iran’s pro-democracy movement resonates with Cubans
Cubans joined Iranians at the 10/22/22 National Mall march to the White House.
Cubans witnessing the ongoing protests in Iran and around the world
condemning the brutal repression of the Islamist regime in Tehran, and
listening to Iran’s pro-democracy forces, find statements that resonate with their own demands to Washington and the European Union.
Cuban engineer and democratic opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas statement on the death of Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo on February 23, 2010: "We denounce all those governments and states in this continent and in the world together with the many institutions and persons that prefer a harmonious relationship with lies and oppression rather than open solidarity with the Cuban people. All are complicit with what is happening and what will happen." He was murdered together with the youth leader of the movement he founded, the Christian Liberation Movement, on July 22, 2012.
Iranian journalist and pro-democracy activist Masih Alinejad outside the United Nations in New York on September 21, 2022:
“I’m not asking any Western country to bring democracy for us. We the
people of Iran are brave enough to bring democracy for ourselves. We
don't want them to save us; we want them to stop saving the regime.”
The Christian Liberation Movement's “Eleven concrete actions to isolate the totalitarian and segregationist Cuban regime” drafted in the aftermath of the July 2021 national protests in Cuba mirror the demands listed by Iranian pro-democracy activists.
Yasmin Green in her article “Iran's Internet Blackouts Are Part of a Global Menace“ published in Wired on October 19, 2022 describes how dictatorships learn from each other with regards to controlling the internet and their nationals.
“As we keep our eyes trained on the developing situation in Iran, it is critical to acknowledge that it is not an isolated event. Even since the protests in Iran began, Cuba has cut access to the internet twice in response to protests over the government’s handling of the response to Hurricane Ian. Around the world, a troubling number of nations have severely curtailed internet freedom, including full shutdowns, as their default response to popular protests. The most repressive of these regimes learn from each other, sharing technology and in some cases even personnel to establish an ironclad grip on the web and their citizens.”
Both Iranians and Cubans are battling against brutal totalitarian regimes that are willing to do anything to hang on to power, including work together, and an international community that is too often complicit with these regimes.
Both peoples seek to isolate the dictatorship, end Western democracies financial support for these regimes, recognize the opposition, and bar these dictatorships from participating in international artistic, cultural, or sporting events.
Migration weaponized against the United States
Representatives raise concerns and ask questions about changes in Cuba policy
Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27), and Carlos A. Gimenez (FL-26) have expressed concern about and raised questions about changes in U.S.-Cuba policy in a letter dated October 24, 2022 and addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
On October 18, 2022, the State Department and USAID announced “$2 million in humanitarian assistance to support shelter needs for the most vulnerable communities who have been affected by the devastating impacts of Hurricane Ian in Cuba,” to be funded from the International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account. According to the announcement, the “humanitarian assistance will be delivered directly to the Cuban people – not through the Cuban government – through trusted, independent organizations operating in the country with a long presence in hurricane-affected communities.” The justification cited for providing this aid was attributed to Hurricane Ian damaging “an estimated 68,370 homes, of which 15,705 have completely or partially collapsed, and another 17,866 have completely lost their roofs. Additionally, the hurricane damaged or destroyed an estimated 9,000 hectares of crops in Artemisa, decreasing already limited food supplies.” Additionally, USAID stated that 43 sets of “firefighting equipment” were provided to a training station in Havana, and an additional 57 sets will be delivered at an unspecified date. According to reports, the Matanzas fire, the disaster for which IDA-funded firefighting equipment was provided, was extinguished by August 9, 2022. USAID explained that the IDA-funded firefighting equipment would replenish supplies that were damaged in combating the Matanzas fire, as none of it would be delivered in time to address that disaster.
In the meantime, we are deeply troubled that the Biden Administration has informed us that it will begin immediately returning Cuban nationals who escaped totalitarian Cuba, and that it is initiating monthly flights for the purpose. This decision seems to be a reversal from President Biden’s statement a month ago, that “there are fewer and fewer immigrants coming from Central America than from Mexico. It’s a totally different circumstance… What's on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, and the ability to send them back to those states is not rational.” The Cuban people endure severe oppression and egregious human rights abuses. Hundreds of activists, including children, remain imprisoned for daring to speak out against the regime. Certainly the situation in Cuba has not improved in the intervening month since the President’s comment, especially in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Ian that prompted the announcement of $2 million in humanitarian aid. In fact, returning Cuban nationals to Cuba at this time would seem to be even less “rational” today.
On October 19, 2022 Politico published an advertisement placed by the Cuban exile community that explained the ongoing exodus and how it could worsen. "Cubans are fleeing from a vicious regime that does not allow them to have free and productive lives in Cuba. If they see the regime empowered by US government donations they will migrate to the US in even greater numbers." Some in Washington believe that providing resources to the Castro regime will lessen migration from the island, but the opposite is true. If Cubans on the island see the United States legitimizing and subsidizing the Cuban dictatorship, they will lose hope that regime change is possible, and see emigrating as their only option for a better life. There has been a historic correlation between mass exoduses of Cubans to the United States, and episodes of rapprochement between Washington and Havana.
On Saturday October 22, 2022 in Washington, DC thousands of Iranians, and others in good will, gathered from all across the United States to show solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Iran.
We met on the National Mall in Washington DC at 3:00 pm and marched to the White House. There was a Cuban - Cuban American contingent that made it to the march. (Thank you all for coming. This blog had issued a call for such participation.)
Weren't able to make it?
You can still take action by signing and sharing this petition to expel Iran's diplomats and demand that political prisoners be freed. https://www.change.org/p/g7-leaders-expel-iran-s-diplomats-demand-that-political-prisoners-be-freed
Iran should also be removed from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Please sign and share this petition. https://www.womanlifefreedom.today/#sign
Iran ranks 143 among 146 countries in the global gender gap index. It’s election to a leadership role on the @UN Commission on the Status of Women, the top body for women’s rights, is absurd! Sign this https://t.co/XABIxQpjyu #IranReveloution2022
— Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay (@NazaninAJ) October 24, 2022
Please share with all your friends. The situation in Iran remains dire, and international attention and solidarity are much needed. #MahsaAmini
“The solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken is built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line, quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka
This Saturday (Oct 22) in #DC we will gather from all across the United States to show solidarity with our sisters and brothers in #Iran.
Meeting point: Washington DC, National Mall (3pm)
March Destination: White House (5pm)
Also take action online signing and sharing this petition to expel Iran's diplomats / demand that political prisoners be freed. https://www.change.org/p/g7-leaders-expel-iran-s-diplomats-demand-that-political-prisoners-be-freed
Please share with all your friends #MahsaAmini
This appeal is to all, but especially Cubans and Cuban Americans in the Washington DC area: Please come out and show your solidarity on October 22nd in Washington DC for Iranian protesters seeking to restore democracy and the rule of law in Iran.
Their struggle is our struggle. The communist dictatorship in Cuba has been allied with the theocracy in Iran since 1979. Cuban and Iranian democrats need to join forces in the struggle for our respective peoples freedom. The Center for a Free Cuba called out for Cubans to show their solidarity.
CFC calls on #Cubans to show solidarity with the brave people of #Iran fighting for #freedom. Their protest anthem's gone viral like #PatriaYVida; now its composer's been arrested same as @MaykelOsorbo349. https://t.co/YfCJafS7iI #IranProtests2022 #MahsaAmini #ShervinHajipour 1/3
— Center for a Free Cuba (@cubacenter) October 6, 2022
Anna Mahjar Barducci posted this mashup of Patria y Vida and Baraye. These are two protest songs that have shaken tyrants in Havana and Tehran.
Mashup of Songs Associated with #Iranian, #Cuban Protests: No More Lies, We Want #Freedom! #baraye #PatriaYVida @cubacenter https://t.co/IWye7roQgf
— Anna Mahjar Barducci (@AnnaMahjar) October 19, 2022
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| Aftermath of bombing in Fraunces Tavern in 1975 that killed four in New York City |
Ed Augustin's October 20th article "Should Cuba be on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism? Former intelligence officials say no" engages in omissions of the extensive history of Havana's sponsorship and engagement in international terrorism that continues to the present, and spans several continents.
Did the author base his article reproducing the official Cuban government line, or was it being regurgitated by U.S. officials he interviewed? The line from the Cuban dictatorship's U.N. statement falsely claimed: "We reiterate that Cuba has never participated in the organization, financing or execution of terrorist acts against any country, has never supported or will never support acts of international terrorism. The Cuban territory has never been used and will never be used to organize, finance or execute terrorist acts against any country."
The Puerto Rican terrorist group, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional
Puertorriqueña, (FALN), ‘FALN was
started in the mid-1960’s with a nucleus . . . that received advanced training in Cuba. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s,
the FALN carried out more than 130 bombings, including in the United States killing five Americans in the New York City area. There were many other terrorist groups trained, and equipped in Cuba over the past 63 years, but for the sake of brevity will focus on the FALN, and the Congressional testimony of a U.S. official who carried out counter-intelligence efforts against Havana.
Why did the author not present the numerous times the Castro regime has been caught in major lies, and present these claims concerning terrorism at face value without fact checking?
Nor does the NBC journalist explore how terrorism was a frequently used tactic of the Castro revolutionaries in the 1950s targeting Cuban nationals, or Raul Castro's involvement in air hijackings, including one that claimed 17 civilian deaths. Terrorism is baked into the DNA of the Castro regime.
Worse yet, Mr. Augustin selects former intelligence officials and an Administration official with a long history of whitewashing the Cuban dictatorship, and in the case of Fulton Armstrong, trying to shutdown pro-democracy programs in Cuba.
Fulton Armstrong, a harsh critic of U.S. pro-democracy programs suspected of leaking and spinning information to the Associated Press to compromise them was also a close confidante of Ana Belen Montes, a long time agent of Havana at the Pentagon. Mr. Armstrong sought to undermine USAID's pro-democracy programs
in Cuba and was caught red handed in 2014 fabricating information with a
pro-regime spin. U.S. spy catcher Chris Simmons offered the following
assessment at the time on his blog:
Armstrong is well-known for consistently minimizing Cuba’s ability to threaten U.S. interests and its continued support to terrorists. In one interview, Scott Carmichael – the senior Counterintelligence investigator for the Defense Intelligence Agency – said Montes was “on a first name basis” with Armstrong. In fact, Montes and Armstrong confided in one another by phone into the final stages of her investigation.There has been a decades long obsession in the U.S. establishment to cozy up to the Castro regime that achieved its first concrete breakthrough in 1977 during the Carter Administration, but was largely reversed during the Reagan-Bush years. This effort was resumed again in 1993 during the Clinton Administration, and full normalization achieved during the Obama Administration in 2014 despite numerous setbacks against U.S. national security during all three thaws. Fulton Armstrong, a former staffer to Senator John Kerry, has been an advocate for these efforts.
Why didn't Mr. Augustin interview U.S. officials that have testified on the record to Havana's deep involvement in international terrorism? The NBC article by Agustin is a one sided piece that falsely portrays a non-existent consensus. Counter-intelligence officials such as Chris Simmons offer a diametrically opposed analysis to the one provided in Augustin's article.
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| Chris Simmons: "Cuba remains a clear and present danger" |
Mr. Simmons in his February 26, 2015 congressional testimony stated "Cuba remains a clear and present danger to the United States." Simmons was a counterintelligence officer with the U.S. Army and Defense Intelligence Agency for over 20 years. With regard to Cuba, he was deeply involved in counterintelligence successes against Havana from 1996 through 2004. He was a central figure in the Ana Montes spy case, and the lead military official in the 2003 expulsion of 14 Cuban diplomat-spies.
Three years earlier, on May 17, 2012 the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in the U.S. Congress's Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on "Cuba’s Global Network of Terrorism, Intelligence, and Warfare" Mr. Simmons testified specifically on Havana's continuing role in terrorism. Here is an excerpt from that testimony.
Transitioning to the issue of terrorism, Havana takes a three-tier approach to its involvement in terrorism: Regime- directed, regime-supported, and finally, alliances with state sponsors. For regime-directed activities we're looking at specifically bona fide acts of terrorism, Cuban Intelligence Service targeting of the U.S. war on terrorism, and ``Active Measures.''
Moving on to regime-supported activities, this focuses on aid to any of the 40 groups the State Department currently lists as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Cuba currently has relations with four of those groups: Hezbollah; the Basque Fatherland and Liberty also known as ETA; and two Colombian groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army. Regarding state sponsors of terrorism, that definition is self explanatory and I'll continue to move right along.
In the written testimony before you, I've kept the most important aspects of the Cuban threat. You may read those details at your leisure. However, I would like to touch on a few issues with reference to the Cuban intelligence missions. First, Cuban intelligence targeting of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. From April 2006 into the weeks leading up to the death of Osama bin Laden, Cuba's mission Embassy in Pakistan was led by one of their premiere experts in the targeting of the United States. This officer who was thrown out of the United States for espionage is known as Gustavo Ricardo Machin. It is believed that Machin advised the Pakistani Government and their intelligence services using information supplied via Havana, the massive SIGINT and HUMINT capability we talked about earlier and provided much needed context to the Pakistanis to help them take their own operations against U.S. counter-terrorism missions.
It is important to understand when talking about Cuba's collaboration with Pakistan is that the massive penetration of Pakistan's directorate for intelligence services intelligence also makes it almost a certainty that al-Qaeda received information from the Cubans via the Pakistani Government.
Transitioning to the Cuban intelligence targeting of U.S. operations in Iraq. In late 2002 through early 2003, Havana provided the Iraqi intelligence with information on U.S. troop movements and associated military activities. Cuba's high-risk adventurism in this endeavor occurred on the heels of the revelations of the American traitor Ana Belen Montes' espionage including her efforts to kill U.S. and host nations' soldiers during the secret war against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.
Moving on to post-9/11, Cuba flooded U.S. Embassies with walk-ins claiming to provide intelligence on the terrorism threat. Of the normal 12 walk-ins we expect from the Cubans every year in the first 6 months they sent in almost 20 walk- ins to tie up U.S. resources. This is a 330 percent increase in the normal activities.
Last, but not least, of the highlighted issues, I'd like to address Operation Scorpion which was addressed earlier as a shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue. While this mission on February 24, 1996 predates the other information I discussed, it is important because this act of terrorism involves highest levels of the Castro regime. On February 24, 1996, Cuban MiGs shot down two U.S. search and rescue aircraft in international waters. Code named Operation Scorpion, it was led by General Eduardo Delgado Rodriguez, the current head of Cuban intelligence. It was personally approved by Fidel Castro and supported by Raul Castro, the current President of Cuba. Four Americans were murdered in this act of terrorism.
Why is all this missing from Mr. Agustin's article? It is fair to mention the U.S. side of the ledger during the Cold War conflict with Cuba, but why leave out the actions of the Castro regime, and their role in sponsoring terrorist acts on U.S. soil that killed innocent Americans?
The Puerto Rican terrorist group, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña, (FALN), from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, carried out more than 130 bombings, including in the United States. The FALN was responsible for the January 24, 1975 explosion at Fraunces Tavern, which killed Alejandro Berger (28), James Gezork (32), Frank Connor (33), Harold H. Sherburne (66) and wounded 63 others; a bombing spree in New York City in August 1977 that killed Charles Steinberg, (age 26), injured six, and forced the evacuation of 100,000 office workers; and the purposeful targeting and maiming of four police officers, among many other crimes. This group was started in the mid-1960s and received advanced training in Cuba. This information is taken from Zach Dorfman’s article “How Fidel Castro Supported Terrorism in America: ‘FALN was started in the mid-1960’s with a nucleus . . . that received advanced training in Cuba,’” published in The Wall Street Journal on June 8, 2017.
Backgrounds on four of the five FARC victims.
Alejandro H. Berger, age 28
Alejandro H. Berger of Cherry Hill, N. J., who was with the international division of Rohm & Haas, a Philadelphia plastics and chemical company, died Friday in the lunchtime bombing at Fraunces Tavern. He was 28 years old. Mr. Bergen was here on business. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and came to the United States in 1965. He attended the Philadelphia College of Textiles and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Surviving are his widow, the former Diana Greenberg, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Josef Berger. [ Source: New York Times ]
Harold H. Sherburne, age 66
Harold H. Sherburne, a prominent Wall Street investment banker and partner in charge of the New York office of Bacon, Whipple & Co., was killed yesterday in the lunchtime bombing at Fraunces Tavern. He was 66 years old and had lived at 480 Park Avenue and in Pine Orchard, Conn. Mr. Sherburne, who had been on Wall Street for nearly 40 years both with individual companies and in industry associations, had been dining alone at the Angler's Club on the second floor when the bomb exploded. He had left his office at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza at 12:30 P.M., an hour before the blast, and had planned to return there before leaving for a skiing weekend with friends at 2:30. He left his glasses on his desk. Mr. Sherburne was born in 1908 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1930. He went to Wall Street in 1936 with Edward B. Smith & Co., and remained with the company and its successor, Smith, Barney & Co., until 1940, when he joined Charles W. Scranton & Co. in New Haven. [ Source: New York Times ]
Frank Connor (age 33)
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| Frank Connor killed by Castro backed terrorists. |
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| Thomas, Joseph, Frank & Mary all together. (Photo courtesy of Joseph F. Connor) |
Charles S. Steinberg, age 26 [ August 3, 1977 bombing in midtown New York City]
The only fatality in yesterday's midtown bombings was sitting with his partner at the Mobil Oil Corporation's personnel office on the ground floor at 150 East 42d Street when a bomb exploded.
The dead man, Charles S. Steinberg, 26 years old, and his partner, Ivan Gerson, 31, ran the Viva Temporary Services, employment agency, and they wanted to see if there were any jobs available for their applicants.
They had been waiting for, 12 minutes to see a personnel officer when, at 10:42 A.M., the bomb went off, propelling Mr. Steinberg across the room and hurling Mr. Gerson onto his back.
Mr.. Steinberg died within minutes of the blast ‐ Mr. Gerson was taken, to Bellevue Hospital, where he underwent surgery for facial injuries suffered from flying glass. He was later listed in satisfactory condition.
[...]
Pauline Adkins, 32, of 1851 Third Avenue, who had ‘come’ to the personnel office to apply for ‘a job ‘as a secretary, Was sitting next to Mr. Steinberg when the bomb went off.
“I had been there, for about six minutes,” she said, “and I was filling out an application to take a typing test when there was an explosion like a big firecracker.”
Mrs. Adkins was pulled to the floor by one man where she watched as Mr. Steinberg fell “face down on the floor, his body covered with blood.”
Steinberg Family Mourns
"He was still,” she said. “There was nothing but — dust, dirt, and glass all around. Plaster from "the ceiling hit me on the head and on my arm.”
While Mrs. Adkins and six others‐including Mr. Gerson, and and Daub, 50, who was listed in critical condition were being treated for injuries at Bellevue, the wife and relatives of Mr. Steinberg gathered at his apartment at 300 East’ 34thStreet to mourn.
Harold Liebman; Mr. Steinberg's father-in‐law, held back tears as he said: “He was a hard working, successful young man whose life was just snuffed out, blown away. Why? Why did they do it?”
“This is an incredibly close family,” he continued, his voice once more steady. “My older daughter, Elizabeth, is married to Charles's older brother, Steven. That's how Charles and my daughter Robin met.
“They were both students at the State University at Albany, and they got together because their brother and sister were already married. I walked each of those girls down the aisle, and now one of them has had her life blown away. We just don't know what happened.”
Steven Steinberg said his brother was “a tremendous business success.”
An Honors Graduate
“He worked for a year as an employment agency salesman and then two years ago, not long after he married Robin, he started his own business with Ivan Gershon,” he said. “He was an honors graduate in Business administration who became a success in the real world. And now Charles is dead and his partner is in the hospital: It's a tragedy.”
Coatless and tie askew, he tried to control his emotion as he talked. He took visible gulps between sentences and then talked ‘rapidly, as if hoping to finish before breaking into tears.
He told how both he and his brother had dated’ the two Liebman sisters while they were students at Lynbrook High School on Long Island. When Robin Liebman graduated and enrolled at the State University of New York in Albanyy, Charles Steinberg transferred from Bridgeport University in, Connecticut to be near her.
“He
thought about his business and his family—that pretty much filled his
time,” said Steven Steinberg. “He was a terrific person. He‐loved the
piano. He played excellent jazz pïano.” [ Source: New York Times ]
Why was all this omitted from Mr. Augustin's article?
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| Young Iranian women defy hijab law and write "Women, life, freedom" |
Update 10/15/22 at 6:15pm
Evin prison in Tehran that houses prisoners of conscience is on fire. There are reports of explosions and gunfire. This is developing. Please share.
Security forces opened fire at people who were heading towards Evin prison after reports of fire and explosion in Evin. The Internet is very slow and people cannot send videos.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 15, 2022
Western democratic countries have their own citizens at risk in Evin. Take action#MahsaAmini
Share. Tag. Hashtag. Now. Please. Amplify. https://t.co/BNjl0C2AFI
— Nazanin Nour (@NazaninNour) October 15, 2022
Iran's Evin Prison is on fire & gun shots heard. Prisoners of conscience housed there. Are Mullahs engaging in a massacre of dissidents in a desperate bid to hang on to power? Video taken from @1500tasvir. #Evin #EvinPrison #MahsaAmini #ZhinaAmini #WomenLifeFreedom #مهسا_امینی https://t.co/kvxhTFOcr1 pic.twitter.com/2nla6imdFS
— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) October 15, 2022
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested in Iran by the Morality police on September 13, 2022. They beat her badly, left her in a coma, and she died on September 16th. She was beaten to death for not properly wearing her hijab. A little bit of her hair was visible.
News of her extrajudicial killing at the hand of agents of the Islamist regime in Iran sparked nationwide protests. Iranians are writing a new chapter in the history of their country.
On October 7th Sevda Alizadeh, an Iranian-Dutch singer known professionally as Sevdaliza, released the song video "Women, Life, Freedom."
This is the fourth entry on the 2022 Iranian freedom uprising. The first
was a call to solidarity on September 23rd, the second was on September
24th focusing on some Iranian voices to follow, and the third on October 8th
was an update on the nonviolent uprising.
Tomorrow, October 16th will mark one month since Mahsa's death and the nationwide nonviolent uprising shows no signs of slowing down. Iranian security forces are going into schools and arresting school children, reports The Guardian.
Sadly, repressive forces have shot, tortured, and murdered more young women and men for protesting her killing. This has sparked greater outrage and resolve among Iranians.
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| Nika Shakarami (age 16) killed by Iranian security forces |
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| Sarina Esmaeilzadeh (age 16) beaten in the head to death with batons |
PBS News Hour reported, "at least 233 protesters have been killed since demonstrations swept Iran
on Sept. 17, according to U.S.-based rights monitor HRANA. The group
said 32 among the dead were below the age of 18."
Regime response to Iranians outrage has been doubling down to shell cities in Iran, and fire indiscriminately on Iranians. This is the beginning of the end of the Islamist regime in Tehran. Workers at oil refineries "in Asaluyeh, some 925 kilometers (575 miles)
south of Tehran, on the Persian Gulf" on October 10th protested chanting “shameless” and “death to the dictator,” reports the Associated Press.
There is a revolution underway in Iran and its rallying cry is "Women, Life, Freedom." Let us continue to listen to Iranians, and take actions in solidarity with the Iranian freedom movement.
Earlier today Firing Line posted the full episode with exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad.
Last night on CNN Nazanin Boniadi spoke about her own experiences with Iran's morality police when she was a 12 year old girl.“The biggest enemy of the Islamic Republic is not America and Israel. It's women inside Iran.”
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) October 15, 2022
Exiled Iranian journalist @AlinejadMasih tells @MargaretHoover why the latest protests could be the beginning of the end for the regime.
FULL EPISODE: https://t.co/fEseNhPpvG pic.twitter.com/IatnvgxrHL
Iranian-born actress @NazaninBoniadi tells CNN’s @jaketapper about her experience with Iran’s morality police at the age of 12 and her appeal to world leaders on behalf of Iranian women and girls. Watch: https://t.co/ZpXJLL3nbI
— CNN (@CNN) October 15, 2022
Video below from Iran posted earlier today by Masih Alinejad.
Horrifying. The Islamic Republic security forces beating and abducting peaceful protesters and shoving them in the trunk of the car.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 15, 2022
This is a crime against humanity.
People just protesting the murder of #MahsaAmini. pic.twitter.com/QvrjDGY17l
The Mullahs in Iran are captured on a video saying the quiet part out loud, and are exposed by Nazanin Afshin-Jam on October 14th.
This video posted on October 13th shows courageous girls walking together to protest against gender apartheid. The girls could be killed by Islamic regime agents for walking unveiled.“God only created women for men to use”. This is the mentality of the Ayatollahs and refime officials in Iran who equate women to cows and sheep and treats them as less than 2nd class citizens. Watch the translated clip below. #IranRevolution2022 https://t.co/egVr2AooMI
— Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay (@NazaninAJ) October 14, 2022
This simple act of #WalkingUnveiled can get you killed in Iran.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 13, 2022
Girls & boys are segregated from the age 7 in schools in Iran. Very soon you will see girls and boys together, shoulder to shoulder will protest against gender apartheid regime.#MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/Kfa64d0rKT
Voices in Western democracies began to try to compare the fight against "patriarchy" with what is going on in Iran and Mariam Memarsadeghi called them out on it on October 11, 2022.
Girls and women in Iran are not fighting "patriarchy" -- they are fighting to bring down a totalitarian Islamist regime. There is no comparing the gender apartheid they suffer to anything women in the West experience. #IranRevolution
— Mariam Memarsadeghi (@memarsadeghi) October 11, 2022
On October 11th Iran democracy activist and artist Mariam Memarsadeghi shares the testimony of Iranian journalist and talkshow host Sima Sabet before the European Parliament. Her demands are ones that Cuban democrats understand and share in the struggle against the dictatorship in Havana
Important testimony from @Sima_Sabet to the EU Parliament. Listen to the end for a list of demands from Iranian political prisoners to Western governments:
— Mariam Memarsadeghi (@memarsadeghi) October 11, 2022
--cut diplomatic relations
--expel diplomats
--prosecute regime officials on your soil #IranRevolution #مهسا_امینی https://t.co/pqsFh97CgK
On October 10th Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad posted video of a young woman and her sister both hit by shotgun pellets fired by Islamist regime agents. Alinejad said that although "reports say 185 Iranians have been killed, including 19 children, in protests over the murder of Mahsa Amini" that she believes the number killed is much higher.
This young woman & her sister both got hit by shotgun pellets. But hear what they say.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 10, 2022
Reports say 185 Iranians have been killed, including 19 children, in protests over the murder of #MahsaAmini but we believe the number is much more than this.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/mZ16ETIRRk
On October 10th Iranian actress Nazanin Nour posted a video explaining the evolving movement in Iran, and why it is not Islamophobic to support Iranian women burning hijabs.
It’s not Islamophobic to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people. The IRI twisted and perverted religion to their benefit and liking ti use as a tool of oppression. Please amplify the voices of Iranian people. #IranProtests #iranRevolution #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/hd45nM4vt3
— Nazanin Nour (@NazaninNour) October 10, 2022
On October 9th Navid Mohebbi of NUFDI, a non-partisan, non-profit organization representing the Iranian-American community, shared images of some of the Iranians murdered by the Islamist regime in Tehran.
It's hard to watch this video till the end.
— Navid Mohebbi نوید محبی (@navidmohebbi) October 9, 2022
The youth of #Iran are paying a hefty price to gain their freedom. These precious souls dedicated their lives so that their compatriots could be free. We will never forget these faces. 💔😑💔#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/WV0mBgE4Ti
On October 9th in Azad university students engaged in a nonviolent protest against violence and the students wrote only one sentence: “Be our voice”.
This is today in Azad university and the student wrote only one sentence: “Be our voice”.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 9, 2022
This is a message to the free world.
Iranians are getting killed for protesting over the brutal death of my #MahsaAmini but as you see they are not giving up.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/qm0AGEZREb
Despite the ongoing killings young Iranian women are risking all for freedom.
Amazing to watch another group of young #Iranian women challenging the theocratic dictatorship.
— NUFDI (@NUFDIran) October 9, 2022
This was today in #Tehran#Mahsa_Amini pic.twitter.com/SjsAokyYvQ
When a regime has to wage city-wide military assaults on their own citizens it is on its way out.
The Islamic regime in Iran is exposing the Kurdish city of #Sanandaj to constant shelling and gunfire, but the brave residents of this city are not giving up their fight. The regime knows its end will come.#MahsaAmini
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 9, 2022
pic.twitter.com/luqH2BvTwR
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