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| Foggy Bottom Report Takes Iran's Side on Citizenship of U.S. Hostage, Refuses to Name Americans |
| 2015-06-27 |
| [PJ Media] The State Department's new Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 essentially supports Iran's faulty reasoning for why the U.S. has no jurisdiction over the case of an American hostage. The Iran section of the report also doesn't refer to the U.S. hostages by name, though it names some Iranians who have likewise fallen victim to Iran's judicial system. "A dual citizen Christian pastor has been detained in Iran since September 2012 on charges related to his religious beliefs. According to public statements by the pastor's family and international groups, he was not provided adequate medical treatment and his health further deteriorated in 2014," the report says of Saeed Abedini. "A dual citizen held in Evin Prison since 2011 and whose 'confession' was broadcast by state media during the same year remained in prison at year's end. According to public statements from his family, he learned in April 2014 that a court had tried him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. He has been denied access to consular visitation," the report says of Amir Hekmati. Hekmati, a decorated Marine veteran who served in the Iraq war, was born in the United States and is considered a dual citizen only by Iranian law as his father was born in Iran. He was visiting extended family for the first time in August 2011 when he was seized and sentenced on trumped-up espionage charges. As he knew Iran has been using this as a reason to tell the U.S. government they have no jurisdiction over the case, in March Hekmati wrote to the Iranian Interest Section in Washington, D.C., to make clear he is 100 percent American and renounce his Iranian citizenship. Releasing GITMO terrorist detainees and the pending Iranian nuke deal take priority. It's a POTUS legacy issue. Besides, he's a Marine and likely quite conservative in his political views. No sense alienating our new coalition partners against ISIS. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Seems to be par for the course with the State Department for the last 30 years at least. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-06-27 16:19 |
| #2 ValJar, Obama's Marxist pro-Iranian svengali. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2015-06-27 15:49 |
| #1 More likely our own current admistration tipped off the Iranians; as not to muddy up the negotiations. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2015-06-27 08:27 |