US Arrests Prominent Iranian Journalist Reportedly To Use As ‘Bargaining Chip’

The U.S. is holding 59-year-old Marzieh Hashemi, a popular Iranian news anchor, under abusive conditions.

By Alison Weir: According to a U.S. government official, the U.S. has arrested prominent Iranian news anchor Marzieh Hashemi to use as a bargaining chip against Iran.

So far, no charges have been filed against Hashemi, and the FBI has refused to comment on the arrest.

The official, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that while the eventual charge may be along the lines of ‘collusion to damage the United States’ or something similar, the real reason she was arrested is to pressure the Iranian government to release several Americans it is holding.

According to the official, Hashemi is being transferred to prison in the DC area and will likely be charged by the Alexandria Federal Court, which handles most international profile cases.
The arrest of the 59-year-old journalist has made international headlines, BBC stating that she has reportedly been “subjected to ‘inhumane’ conditions.”

'She was handcuffed and shackled and was being “treated like a criminal.” ...held for 48 hours before being allowed to contact a daughter. ...Her head covering was forcibly removed and she has been denied halal food, “only offered pork to eat.'

The Associated Press reports that Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans, was arrested in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area.
She is a widow, and a family member says she splits her time between Iran and Colorado, where her children live. She studied journalism at Louisiana State University and has been a broadcaster for Iran’s Press TV for 25 years. She was on her way to visit a sick brother when she was detained.
Hashemi’s elder son, a research fellow at the University of Colorado, told AP: “She is somebody who is harassed regularly. Every time she travels using air travel, she is pulled to the side. Each time it’s an hour-long, even two-hour-long interview, interrogation. This has been going on for almost a decade now.”
He said his mother told him she was driving to New Orleans despite a snowstorm in Colorado “just because of the difficulty in air travel.”
Hashemi’s brother, Milton Leroy Franklin of the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, told AP: “I’m very concerned. There’s no way of getting any word to her and she can’t send any out, apparently. We’re all in the dark and just waiting and praying that they release her.”
She had been visiting to help plan a family reunion.
Hashemi says she was handcuffed and shackled and was being “treated like a criminal.” She was held for 48 hours before being allowed to contact a daughter to tell of her arrest. She told family members that her head covering was forcibly removed and that she has been denied halal food. The UK Independent says that Hashemi was reportedly “only offered pork to eat, which Islam prohibits Muslims from consuming.”
The provocative treatment of Hashemi, a respected senior journalist, is causing considerable anger among Iranians, who are suffering from a U.S. imposed embargo on the country.

U.S.-Iranian tensions have heightened over recent years, particularly with the U.S. pull-out from the agreement with Iran. Iran, known for supporting Palestinian rights, has long been targeted by Israel and pro-Israel Americans.
Former CIA officer and counter-terrorism expert Philip Giraldi notes: “Taking and holding a foreign visitor as a hostage under false or dubious legal pretenses is not only ineffective, it will inevitably lead to retaliation in kind when Americans travel to foreign countries.”
The humiliating treatment of an Iranian news anchor, a mother and grandmother, could also be intended to provoke Iranians into greater hostility against the U.S., a divide-and-conquer strategy that Israel and its partisans have occasionally utilized in the Middle East and in the U.S.
Middle East expert Ambassador Andrew Killgore explained the strategy in a 2005 interview: “Arabs and Muslims have to be made to look bad in America, and America has to be made to look bad to them.”
UPDATE:
Hashemi is an American citizen and was traveling on an American passport. She is now being held in the Central Treatment Facility in Washington DC. The latest information is that her family has been told that she is being held as a “material witness.”
AP reports that Ricardo J. Bascuas, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law says: “The constitutionality of the material witness law has never been meaningfully tested. The government only relies on it when they need a reason to arrest somebody but they don’t have one.”
According to Bacuas, AP states, “regardless of the reason for her detention, she should have been granted a court appearance by now.” 

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel. 

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US Feds Confirm Jailed Iranian TV Anchor Not Charged With Crime

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and LISA NICOLE MATTHEWS: A prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television, who has been jailed in the U.S., will appear Friday before a federal grand jury, her son said.
Marzieh Hashemi will be taken to the federal courthouse in Washington, her son Hossein Hashemi told The Associated Press. He has said she’s been jailed as a material witness, though it’s unclear for which case. She hasn’t been charged with a crime.
Marzieh Hashemi, who worked for the Press TV network’s English-language service, was detained by federal agents on Sunday in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and has remained behind bars since then.
Hashemi, 59, is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the U.S., her son said.
Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be arrested and detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.
Hossein Hashemi said he, his brother and his sister also have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury. Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hashemi said, “We don’t have any information along those lines.”
The FBI has declined to comment.
Marzieh Hashemi’s detention comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. after President Donald Trump withdrew America from a nuclear deal. Iran also faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement early Friday expressing concern over Marzieh Hashemi’s case and asked the Justice Department to disclose the reason for her arrest. The group’s statement noted that “Iran routinely jails journalists.”

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