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Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
@yjtorbati
May 17, 2019 • 8 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
This statement by an Iranian diplomat runs counter to findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It found in Sept. 2017 that the jailing of Iranian-Americans Siamak and Baquer Namazi is "arbitrary" and contravenes Declaration on Human Rights ohchr.org/Documents/Issu…
Just one excerpt of the UN report - Siamak's access to legal counsel was severely limited, and he, his family and lawyers were given no formal evidence behind the charges of espionage/collusion during his pre-trial detention
The UN similarly found that the detention of @Princeton student Xiyue Wang was "arbitrary" and that Iran's use of espionage charges against him for trying to access historical archives "reaches the level of absurdity." ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/…
Shortly after I tweeted this information citing official @UN entities' conclusions about Iran's arrests/accusations of espionage, @baeidinejad blocked me from viewing his tweets
For more information about American prisoners held in Iran, read me and @joel_schectman's report from last year, detailing both the Obama/Trump administrations' approach to this issue: reuters.com/investigates/s…
.@bozorgmehr has also done important work here: reuters.com/article/us-ira…
Final update on this - I believe @baeidinejad deleted his tweet in which he said that as long as Iranian dual nationals do not collaborate with intelligence agencies nor collect classified info, they are safe in Iran, and which I had quoted in my first tweet in this thread
But Fars News did a short story on his statements earlier today, and screenshotted his tweets farsnews.com/news/139802270…

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More from @yjtorbati

Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
Feb 5, 2021
One important element of the Biden executive order on refugee resettlement is the section on vetting, and the fact that there will now be a White House official charged with coordinating vetting agencies whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
A major barrier to refugee entry during the Trump era was the vetting layers his administration added. These hit refugees vastly differently based on their origin/religion (see my 2018 story here, many other journalists/observers reported similar trends) reuters.com/article/us-usa…
The FBI does some vetting that refugees undergo. One big reason the # of Iraqi refugees fell through the floor in last few years was due to FBI screening. But even at a senior interagency meeting officials couldn't get clarity on why FBI was flagging them reuters.com/article/uk-usa…
Read 6 tweets
Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
May 27, 2020
Amazing work by my colleagues, continuing to dig into the chaos of federal contracts awarded in the age of COVID-19 @ryangabrielson @lydiadepillis @davidmcswane @derekwillis @ConnorASheets propublica.org/article/a-clos…
Here are some other pieces we've done on the same theme. Me and @derekwillis from Friday: propublica.org/article/the-fe…
.@davidmcswane's absolutely wild tale from earlier this month: propublica.org/article/how-pr…
Read 6 tweets
Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
Dec 2, 2019
Newest data from @StateDept shows pace of waiver issuances for people subject to travel ban appears to be picking up. As of Oct. 31, 23% of visa applicants subject to the ban had been granted waivers. That's up from 17% a month earlier travel.state.gov/content/dam/vi…
Those figures mask huge disparities by nationality. For instance, the October figures show that just 8.7% of visa applications by Iranians (by far the largest group) were granted waivers. Libyans were 36%, Somalis 26%, Yemenis (2nd largest group) 57%
Still, it's a dramatic difference from the situation in the first months of the travel ban. I reported in April that in the ban's first 11 months, just 6 percent of people subject to it were granted waivers reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Read 5 tweets
Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
Nov 14, 2019
The @StateOIG report released today offers new details on the 2017 removal of Lawrence Bartlett, the @StateDept's refugee admissions director, from his position (he has since returned to that role) stateoig.gov/system/files/e…
.@ArshadReuters and I wrote about his removal in early 2018. By then, he had been assigned to the FOIA office, which an official described as a form of internal exile akin to being sent "to Siberia." reuters.com/article/us-usa…
The @StateOIG report doesn't name Bartlett, but he is clearly Employee Four
Read 11 tweets
Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
Nov 6, 2019
There's a word officials at @USAID used when one of their colleagues was ousted because of pressure from @VP's office.

She had been "Penced."

I spoke to 40 current/former officials and experts and saw internal emails. Here's what it means to be "Penced." (THREAD)
2/ For yrs, conservative Christian groups have wanted to direct more foreign aid in the Middle East toward Christians. They found a receptive ear in this administration, particularly @VP, whose office pushed USAID/State Dept to do more for Christians and other minorities in Iraq
3/ So, in 2017, in response to that pressure from @VP, USAID launched new grants. Career officials decided the grants in 2018. They went to large, established organizations, which partnered with smaller Iraqi groups.
Read 18 tweets
Yeganeh Torbati Profile picture
Sep 26, 2019
NEW: @USCIS, the federal agency charged with admitting immigrants, has instructed its officers to use Google Translate and other similar tools to understand refugees' social media posts propublica.org/article/google…
Google Translate and other such machine translation tools routinely struggle to translate idioms, colloquial language and slang. Google has even advised that its tool is not "intended to replace human translators."
But an internal manual shows USCIS told officers vetting refugees that "the most efficient approach to translate foreign language contents is to utilize one of the many free online language translation services provided by Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines."
Read 6 tweets

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