Thread by @GLNoronha

The @StateDept deleted this whole section from last year's human rights report on Iran. When asked by @HibaNasr why the report doesn't include the statistic that 1,500 Iranians were killed, State Department officials wouldn't answer. That's deeply troubling - here's why:

The @StateDept continues to cite the @AmnestyIran figure of 304 killed. To be clear, Amnesty's reporting is excellent. But as they admit themselves it was initial & incomplete. But the Iranian regime knows how many they killed, because they kept meticulous track in morgues and...

Iranian officials even made families retrieving bodies of their loved ones pay a tax for each bullet that pierced their bodies. Three Iranian officials who know the real number told @ReutersIran that figure was about 1,500. Read their reporting yourself👇
reuters.com/article/us-ira…

I spent weeks poring over mortality figures from towns, cross-checking them against the "official figures". The figure of 1,500 Iranians killed stands up to scrutiny. If the Iranian regime wants to prove otherwise, let them bring in international investigators.

I wouldn't wait.

So why is the @StateDept now ignoring the broad evidence of the regime's abuses against Iranians? Whatever lawyerly response they give doesn't really matter.

What matters is that the U.S. needs to keep up pressure on the regime that slaughtered those 1,500 innocent Iranians.

Those Iranians died fighting for a free Iran - one that spends its wealth on its citizens, not spreading terror across the world. They tore down the revolutionary banners and refused to tread on the American flags painted in the streets.

They deserve our support. And the truth.