Iran Indicts 18 Current, Former U.S. Officials

[TruthSeeker]

Iran Indicts 18 Current, Former U.S. Officials

By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

Iran’s deputy judiciary head has confirmed that Tehran has indicted 18 current and former U.S. officials for alleged criminal acts against the Islamic republic.

Ebrahim Raisi said Iran was determined to publicly release "valid documents" that confirm their crimes. Raisi was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency as saying the charges against the Americans include involvement in terrorist attacks. He did not provide further details.

The indictments were first reported by the website Irannuc, which covers news and developments related to Iran’s nuclear program. The website said Iran’s state prosecutor has sent a bill of indictment against several U.S. officials to Tehran’s prosecutor’s office for review.

An unnamed “informed source” told Irannuc that the official indictment included the names of 18 U.S. political, military, and intelligence officials.

The site said the indictment reflected the government’s decision to take legal action against Western officials, particularly Americans, who it says committed crimes or were openly involved in terrorist activities against Iran around one year ago.

Trials are set to start “soon” in Tehran courts, Irannuc claims, without providing more details. Raisi told Fars on December 12 that the public would be informed “soon” about Tehran’s next steps in the case.

Irannuc reported last week that Iranian government officials had already asked Interpol to prosecute former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Jack Keane and Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former CIA operative.

The two men testified before a Congressional committee in October 2011 and called for the assassination of the leaders of Iran’s Quds Force in retaliation for their alleged roles in a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Keane was quoted as saying: “Why don't we kill them? We kill other people who are running terrorist organizations against the United States. These guys have killed almost 1,000 of us. Why don't we kill them?”

Gerecht said that if the plot was proven, the United States should hold Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, responsible. “Go get him. Either try to capture him or kill him," “The Wall Street Journal” said he told the panel.

The indictment could be seen as payback for sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, which has blacklisted a number of Iranian officials accused of involvement in human rights abuses and state censorship.

It could be also aimed at diverting attention from the deteriorating economic situation that the sanctions have caused. The UN has imposed tough financial sanctions over Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

The Iranian establishment could use the trials, if they indeed take place, for internal propaganda purposes.

Last year, the Iranian parliament “blacklisted” a group of U.S. officials, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, over alleged human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Lawmaker Hossein Ebrahimi said the bill was a response to sanctions imposed against Iranian officials by the United States. Iran has asked for Interpol’s help, despite the fact that several of its own officials are on the international law enforcement agency’s wanted list over their alleged roles in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina that killed 85 people.

Iran Indicts 18 Current, Former U.S. Officials

 

[TruthSeeker]

Iran Indicts 18 US Officials

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's Deputy Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Rayeesi said that the Iranian Judiciary has prepared indictments for 18 US officials on charges of criminal acts.

"The legal features to substantiate that the crimes have been committed by the Americans are evident. We took the first step (of legal prosecution) with issuing indictments and we will inform (the public) of our next step soon," Rayeesi said here in Tehran on Wednesday.

He said Iran is determined to provide the public opinion with valid documents that Tehran has about the US criminal acts against Iran.

In July 2011, Iran announced it plans to try 26 US officials in absentia and file lawsuits against them at international bodies.

The Iranian parliament had earlier announced plans to annul the country's agreements with all the state and private firms and companies which are affiliated or somehow related to the 26 US officials sanctioned by Iran.

"The parliament intends to require Iranian economic firms to annul their deals with the companies with which the 26 American officials have direct or indirect economic ties," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Karim Abedi told FNA in late May 2011.

At the same time, Rapporteur of the same parliament commission Kazzem Jalali announced that the motion to sanction and prosecute certain American officials had been unanimously adopted by the members of his commission.

The names of the 26 US officials are listed below:

1- Former FBI Chief Director Thomas J. Pickard, for violations of human rights, including his involvement in the siege of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas in 1993, and the death of over 80 of the cult's followers. He is also wanted for human rights violations during his tenure as the CIA station chief in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003

2- Former commander of the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Geoffrey D. Miller, who commanded the US prison at Guantanamo Bay between 2002 and 2007, and has been charged with torture of inmates

3- Current Guantanamo commander Rear Admiral Jeffery Harbeson for human rights violations at the detention center since 2010

4- USS Vincennes Captain Will Rogers III, for the killing of 290 Iranian civilians onboard Iran Air Flight 655, which was shot down by the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988

5- Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who served in the post from 1975 to 1977 and from 2001 to 2006, for the killing of thousands of civilians in the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is also charged in connection with human rights violations and torture at two notorious prisons, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan

6 & 7- Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004, and General Tommy Franks, who led the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are also on the list of US officials that the Iranian parliament plans to impose sanctions on

8- Former commander of US forces in Iraq Raymond Odierno, for his major role in the massive violation of human rights in Iraq

9- Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the US troops in charge of torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib for violation of human rights and his role in the US state sponsored terrorism

10- Former US Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for his role in the crimes committed against the Afghan and Iraqi people

11- Gen. John McKean, former US Deputy Chief of Staff for his role in the massacre of the civilians, torturing of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and violation of human rights in Afghanistan and Iraq.

12- The United States' first administrator in Iraq in 2003, charged with the massacre of the civilians and violation of human rights in Iraq

13- US Defense Department official Richard Pearl, for his role in designing the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the crimes committed by the US troops in the two war-torn states

14- Richard A. Cody, Deputy Chief of Staff of the US Army in 2003, for complicity in the massacre of the civilians, torture of the prisoners in Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo, and violation of human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan

15- Gen. James Mathews, commander of the US operations in Iraq, for his role in the massacre of the civilians in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2003 and his involvement in crime against humanity

16- Gen. George Casey, the Chief of Staff of the US Army from 2003 to 2007, for his complicity in the massacre of the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, the raid and occupation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's consulate in the Northern Iraqi city of Erbil and the illegal arrest, abduction and torturing of five Iranian diplomats for over 2.5 years

17- Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the US troops in Iraq and commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, for massive violation of human rights, massacre of the civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as complicity in drug-trafficking

18- Gen. Janis Karbinsky, former commander of Abu-Ghraib prison and former officer responsible for US prisons in Iraq, for torturing prisoners and massive violation of human rights in Iraq

19- Gen. Steve Casbon, Abu-Ghraib Prison official, for torturing prisoners and massive violation of human rights in Iraq

20- Gen. Stanley McCrystal, commander of the US troops in Afghanistan, for massacre of the civilians, torturing of prisoners in Bagram, violation of human rights and complicity in drug-trafficking

21- Gen. Jack Bridgez, Commander of the US Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, for his role in the supply of logistical backup and training for the anti-Iran terrorist group, Jundollah, support for terrorism in Afghanistan, massacre of the civilians and massive violation of human rights in Afghanistan

22- Luis Freeh, former CIA Chief, for violation of human rights, complicity in the torturing of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq

23- Robert Muller, former CIA Chief, for violation of human rights, complicity in the torturing of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq

24- Gen. Games Jons, former US president national security advisor, for his support for terrorism, specially his support for the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), and providing aid for terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq

25- Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, former chief of staff of the US Army in 2007, for his role in the massacre of the civilians, torturing of prisoners in Guantanamo and Bagram, and violation of human rights in Afghanistan and Iraq

26- Stuart A. Levey, the incumbent and first Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence within the United States' Department of Treasury, for his role in the violation of human rights through imposing illegal sanctions against the Iranian people.

Fars News Agency :: Iran Indicts 18 US Officials