[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 199 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 199

   Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Haleh 
                              Esfandiari.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 15, 2007

   Mr. Smith (for himself and Mrs. Clinton) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Haleh 
                              Esfandiari.

Whereas Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is one of the United States most distinguished 
        analysts of Iranian politics and is the Director of the Middle East 
        Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars;
Whereas Dr. Esfandiari is a dual citizen of Iran and the United States;
Whereas Dr. Esfandiari has served as a communications bridge between the United 
        States and Iran, advocating diplomacy and dialogue;
Whereas Dr. Esfandiari travels to Iran twice a year to visit with her mother;
Whereas, in late December 2006, Dr. Esfandiari traveled to Iran to visit her 
        ailing 93 year old mother for 1 week;
Whereas the current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has initiated a 
        crackdown on scholars and journalists including Dr. Esfandiari, 
        Canadian-Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, and journalist Parnaz 
        Azima;
Whereas, on December 30, 2006, Dr. Esfandiari was robbed of her Iranian and 
        American passports and travel documents at knife-point by 3 masked men 
        on the way to the airport to return to the United States;
Whereas Dr. Esfandiari was held in Iran under house arrest for 4 months, 
        interrogated under conditions of intimidation and threat, and, on May 8, 
        2007, was imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran;
Whereas Dr. Esfandiari has been falsely accused by a news agency in Iran of 
        being a spy for Mossad, of serving as the head of the Iran section of 
        the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and of encouraging an 
        uprising against the regime in Tehran; and
Whereas senior government officials have conveyed the United States opposition 
        to this unjustified imprisonment: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) condemns the arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment of 
        Dr. Haleh Esfandiari as a deliberately provocative and illegal 
        act;
            (2) deplores the continuing crackdown in Iran on 
        journalists and scholars and the deliberate dissemination of 
        misinformation regarding their activities; and
            (3) demands the immediate, safe, and unconditional release 
        of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari from custody, the reissuance of 
        appropriate travel documents for Dr. Esfandiari, and the 
        provision of safe passage out of Iran.
                                 <all>