Free Republic

As the families of U.S. hostages currently held in Iran have struggled for years to rally the determination to bring their loved ones home, newly released emails from the former secretary of State reveal the infuriating truth that those with connections get their case raised to the top. In 2009, Iason Athanasiadis was covering the protests of the disputed election win of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi for the Washington Times. The Greek citizen was detained by Iranian authorities on June 17, 2009, as he tried to fly out of the country. Athanasiadis was thrown in Evin prison and released...

Some incredible news Saturday morning out of Iran, if you can believe it: The nation has released 4 U.S. prisoners, according to FARS, Iran's semi-official news agency. Among those released are Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati, and Nosratollah Khosrawi. They were all being held on various charges. "Based on an approval of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the general interests of the Islamic Republic, four Iranian prisoners with dual-nationality were freed today within the framework of a prisoner swap deal," the Tehran prosecutor's said, the news agency reports. Their release...

Montel Williams, Sarah Hekmati, Ramy Kurdi and Rep. Dan Kilee (D-Mich.) speak beforea June hearing on U.S. hostages in Iran.Last year, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) kept his guest seat open at the State of the Union address to represent his constituent held prisoner by Iran.This year, with Amir Hekmati today marking Day 1,592 in Iranian custody, Kildee announced that his guest seat for next week's address will be filled by Amir's sister, Sarah Hekmati.Amir, born in Flagstaff, Ariz., was visiting extended family for the first time in August 2011 when he was seized and sentenced on trumped-up espionage charges. Kildee...

The decision to refer the case of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to a general court martial on charges of desertion by Gen. Robert B. Abrams, the head of Army Forces Command at Ft. Bragg, N.C., shows there remains at least one general not cowed by President Obama's purge of command officers deemed insufficiently subservient to his policies of appeasement and unilateral disarmament. As Breitbart reported: Bergdahl, who was kidnapped by the Taliban following his abandonment of a forward operating base in Afghanistan, was charged this year with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. If charged with the latter, he could potentially...

One gets the impression that if Amir Hekmati, the former United States Marine still imprisoned in Iran were gay, transgendered or a deserter, President Obama, who tweeted to the former Olympic champion and now Vanity Fair cover girl Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner: “It takes courage to tell your story.” BizPac Review noted how quickly and for what reason President Obama sprung into action after Caitlin’s cover: “It takes courage to share your story,” the president tweeted in response to Jenner, who broke the president’s record for fastest new Twitter account to reach 1 million followers. Never on to miss an opportunity to...

<p>Novi, Michigan(CNN)Gov. Scott Walker on Monday sought to use President Barack Obama's slipping popularity on foreign policy issues as a punching bag and sought to bolster his own credentials ahead of a likely presidential bid.</p> <p>Speaking in Novi, Michigan, the Wisconsin Republican rallied around the plight of a Michigan man who has been held hostage in Iran since 2011 and blasted Obama for failing to do enough on the missing man's behalf--as well as failing to ward off attacks by Islamic terrorists around the world.</p>

Justice: A Marine veteran has been held captive in Iran since August 2011, when he was taken prisoner while visiting family and charged with spying. Does President Obama hear his plea for unconditional freedom? With the exception of deserters like Bowe Bergdahl, those who put on a uniform and serve their country seem like afterthoughts to this administration, if they're thought of at all. Just ask Andrew Tahmooressi, the Marine sergeant allowed to languish 214 days in a Mexican jail for the crime of missing a highway exit. Or now, Amir Hekmati of Flagstaff, Ariz., a Marine vet who sits...

(Reuters) - Iranian-American Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine whose previous death sentence in Iran on espionage charges was overturned, has been secretly retried, convicted of collaborating with the U.S. government and sentenced to 10 years in prison, the New York Times reported on Friday, quoting his lawyer. The newspaper quoted lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei as saying Hekmati, held since 2011, was not told by Iranian officials about the retrial, conviction or prison sentence. The Times quoted Tabatabaei as saying Hekmati was retried by a revolutionary court in December and convicted of "practical collaboration with the American government." :snip: The...

An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran. Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued. The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of...

Addressing pilgrims on November 5, 2011, just over two weeks after President Obama announced U.S. troops would withdrawal from Iraq, Iran's Supreme Leader cited American "failures" in Iraq and Afghanistan as proof that, "Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went further, declaring the American retreat was not enough. "So long as the American empire based in the White House has not been overthrown, we have work to do," he thundered. In the weeks since, the Islamic Republic has ratcheted up both its rhetoric and its defiance. Whereas Iranian authorities...

Iranian-American Amir Hekmati has been in prison in Iran since August 2011 but it has only been since Monday, when he was sentenced to death, that the world heard of his plight. That five-month silence could affect whether the 28-year-old from Flint, Michigan lives or dies, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned. "His family is trying to understand the situation, but they made a huge mistake not to publicize the case at the time of his arrest," Iranian journalist Omid Memarian told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview. "If they had, this would not have happened at all."

Iran has begun enriching uranium deep inside a mountain and sentenced an American to death for spying, angering the West and undermining hopes that diplomacy could avert further sanctions or war. The start of enrichment at the Fordow bunker near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom was confirmed on Monday by an Iranian official in Tehran and by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran says its nuclear program is purely non-military but the West believes it is designed to produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic's decision to carry out enrichment work deep underground could eventually make it much...

Iranian news reports American-born man sentenced to deathBy Alicia M. Cohn - 01/09/12 08:35 AM ET Iran has sentenced an American-born man to death on charges of spying for the CIA, according to reports on Monday. The Iranian government announced Monday it found Amir Mirza Hekmati guilty for "cooperating with the hostile country and spying for the CIA," a crime that carries a death sentence in Iran, according to the New York Times. The announcement of his sentence was made by Fars, Iran's semiofficial news agency. Fars also aired what seemed to be a confession by the alleged. According to...