Free Republic

Iranian dissident Mansoor Osanloo, the exiled former head of the bus driver’s union in Tehran, was savagely attacked on Tuesday, May 1, while traveling on a PATH train into New York City, and left for dead. Multiple assailants sprayed him with a corrosive chemical, then clubbed him in the back of the neck with what appears to have been a tire iron. He lay in a coma for several days and required 17 stitches in his neck. I spoke with Osanloo on Monday, not long after he awoke from a coma. “I don’t remember anything,” he said. “But you can...

US assails Iran's treatment of dissidents after jailed student's death The United States harshly condemned what it called Iran's "severe repression of dissidents" following the death of a jailed student activist, reportedly as the result of a long hunger strike. Student activist Akbar Mohammadi died Sunday in Tehran's Evin prison, where he had been held for his role in pro-democracy student demonstrations in July 1999. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Mohammadi's detention "was not an isolated case" and his death was symptomatic of the Iranian regime's harsh treatment of its opponents. "The United States condemns the Iranian government's severe...