I know we all complain about one side or the other. Some like Obama some don't. With the State of Union lastnight, I thought it might be a good idea to post a story that should remind us all that no matter how much we ***** and complain, we are a hell of alot better off than most..

This story is an example of how barbarians deal with dissent. People that refuse to move their countries out of the stone ages. People that want us to believe that they mean us no harm..

Read this and reflect...



LONDON (Reuters) - Iran hanged two men convicted in the wake of the unrest that erupted after last year’s disputed election, as a top opposition figure predicted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be ousted before the end of his term.

The two men executed at dawn on Thursday were among 11 sentenced to death on charges including “moharebeh” (waging war against God), trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment and membership of armed groups, the student news agency ISNA said.

The June presidential election was followed by huge opposition rallies, plunging Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The opposition says the vote was rigged to secure hardliner Ahmadinejad’s reelection. The authorities deny it.

Eight people were killed in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces on Ashoura, the holy Shiite day of ritual mourning, on December 27.

“Following the riots and anti-revolutionary measures in recent months, particularly on the day of Ashoura, a Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court branch considered the cases of a number of accused and handed down the execution sentences against 11 of those,” ISNA said.

“The sentences against two of these people... were carried out today at dawn and the accused were hanged,” ISNA said, adding the sentences had been confirmed by an appeal court.

It named them as Mohammad Reza Alizamani and Arash Rahmanipour. The lawyer for Rahmanipour, 19, said he was detained before the election. She said the charges were political and the verdict “illegal and unjust”.

“An execution with this speed and rush has only one explanation... the government is trying to prevent the expansion of the current [opposition] movement through the spread of fear and intimidation,” lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said.

In August, the state broadcaster IRIB said Rahmanipour had confessed to links with Western countries and had a mission to plant bombs at election time.

The cases of the other nine are at the appeal stage. ISNA said the charges included membership of two anti-revolutionary groups, including a pro-monarchy association.

Iran’s English-language Press TV said the two put to death were members of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, which it said was involved in a deadly mosque bombing in Shiraz in 2008.

Iran’s judiciary had previously said more than 80 people had been jailed for up to 15 years over the unrest and five had received death sentences. It was not clear whether they were included in the cases reported on Thursday.

Internet messages have been circulating about new protests on February 11, when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah.

http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=23560

yup

Thats part of the appeal of extremists groups/governments. There is quite a bit of security in knowing how and what the gov. is going to do. No crooked judges in cahoots with lawyers, probation, deferred sentence, half-way house, residential treatment, parole, etc.
These groups are very strict about the implications involved. If you commit this crime-you will receive this punishment.
Someone is in control, and the people respond to this.

China still leads in a number of executions worldwide and in a funny way USA buddies with them. Hell, Everything you buy is Made in China.

Why don't we hear about China executing close to 10 times more people in a year than Iran?

Oh, I forgot, they have USA by its balls and "you must not speak of evil" when it comes to China.

Instead, let's select a country which has been in the bullseye target of USA for the past 4-5 years.

Selective journalism, that's all, and anyone who doesn't check the facts out himself, he will be led ashtray. Welcome to USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment

I'll post what I want. Just as you do.. If you want to talk about China feel free. Maybe you can link a Bush ancestor to the rise of Mao.

i love how you people think you know what is going on in the middle east and act like you are experts because you read a website.

But isn't that what you do?

ummmm...no. i'm from there . i've lived there.

The Jordan Times is an English daily newspaper in Amman, Jordan. This newspaper is owned by Jordan Press Foundation.

Jordanians don't know what is going on in the middle east? Or is their media controlled by jews and zionists?

my post was directed towards the comments not the story..you speakie english???

I speakie english...

I think a reasonably educated person can comment on an event, even if that person doesn't live in a certain place..

Since no scientist has ever been to Mars should we just disregard their comments or theories concerning it?

Or let's say Darwin.. He wasn't around to see the evolution of man, but his theories are certainly accepted by many..

i'm in agreement however the educated you speak of have not graced this subject..at least not on this website

Hang em' High...

"If you show weakness now, the future will be worse ... There is no room for Islamic mercy."

1400 years of arabic/islamic occupation/oppression in Persia..




TEHRAN, Iran – A powerful hard-line Iranian cleric on Friday called for the execution of more opposition activists to silence anti-government protests, praising the hanging a day earlier of two men caught up in the leadership's postelection crackdown.

Speaking in a Friday prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the wave of street demonstrations sparked by the disputed June presidential election would not have lasted until now if protesters had been executed early on.

"Whatever we suffered was because of our weakness. How many did the judiciary execute on July 9?" he said, referring to one of the particularly large protest days.

"We showed weakness, so then we had Ashoura," he said, referring to a major protest on Dec. 27. "If you show weakness now, the future will be worse ... There is no room for Islamic mercy."

Iran's judiciary is stepping up death sentences as the leadership intensifies its campaign to eliminate the challenge from the pro-reform opposition movement. Authorities announced Thursday that nine people accused of involvement in protests have been sentenced to death — including five who allegedly had a role in the Dec. 27 protests, which saw a particularly violent clampdown.

Iran's top prosecutor said a new group of protesters and others would soon be brought to trial.

The two men executed Thursday were arrested before the June 12 election on charges of belonging to an armed group aiming to topple the government. But authorities lumped them in with opposition activists arrested during the postelection crackdown.

In his sermon, aired live on state radio, Jannati thanked Iran's judiciary chief, Sadeq Larijani, for Thursday's executions and urged more, saying: "Stand up courageously for the sake of God, the same way you executed these two persons very quickly."

Jannati cited verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, that he said show Islam permits rulers to kill their opponents, including "hypocrites, those with evil intentions and those who spread rumors."

Jannati is one of the best known hard-line clerics in Iran and frequently delivers the nation's keynote sermon during prayers on Friday. He holds positions on one of the powerful councils of clerics that under Iran's Islamic Republic system vets laws passed by parliament and controls who can run for the legislature.

Hard-liners have called for the trial and execution of Iran's opposition leaders including Mir Hossein Mousavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami and former parliamentary speaker Mahdi Karroubi.

Hundreds have been arrested in the heavy crackdown by security forces against opposition protests, but activists have continued to hold sporadic, large street rallies. The opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the June election was fraudulent and call for his removal — though some in the movement have expanded to criticize Iran's clerical leadership.

The two men who were executed — Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmanipour, 20 — were convicted by a Revolutionary Court of belonging to "counterrevolutionary and monarchist groups," plotting to overthrow "the Islamic establishment" and planning assassinations and bombings.

They were arrested months before the election. But they were put on the same mass trial as around 100 opposition activists, protesters and politicians who were arrested in the postelection crackdown — an attempt by the leadership to show that the political opposition is in league with violent armed groups in a foreign-backed plot to overthrow the Islamic system...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_16

I suppose we can hope to one day be as educated as you..

Well yes I'm aware of that, what I meant by that comment was that since we are commenting on CURRENT events and you currently do not live there, aren't you doing the same thing others are on this forum?

It would appear from your profile that you live in Kentucky.

you seem to be way out in left field and totally missed my point, which isn't surprising.
Staying on subject of this thread, the two men hanged had nothing to do with being in opposition to the elections however they were tried in the same mass trial as the ones who had been staging the protests. They were arrested well before the elections.

Iran's judiciary is stepping up death sentences as the leadership intensifies its campaign to eliminate the challenge from the pro-reform opposition movement. Authorities announced Thursday that nine people accused of involvement in protests have been sentenced to death — including five who allegedly had a role in the Dec. 27 protests, which saw a particularly violent clampdown.

Iran's top prosecutor said a new group of protesters and others would soon be brought to trial.

The two men executed Thursday were arrested before the June 12 election on charges of belonging to an armed group aiming to topple the government. But authorities lumped them in with opposition activists arrested during the postelection crackdown.

What you said is true, but they were executed for dissent. There are hundreds if not thousands of armed groups here, that would love to replace the government. The point is they aren't rounded up and hung..

ok ok so I won't go , yet.

Everyone has a different definition of terrorist. I think in this country we have much the same sentiment of how to treat them,,unfortunately. We just have ceased to hang and instead give injections or gas.

No one gets gassed or injected for protesting the government.

These people are doing the same thing left wingers here were doing for 8 years. Screaming about stolen elections.. I don't recall them being rounded up, tried, and executed..