Its more like desertion than AWOL if you ask me. Maybe the real problem here is that Skeeter has a problem with Muslims that convert to Christianity. He doesn’t want to distance his Mooselem bretheren by helping out a Muslim apostate. Now that the stealth jihadis and their useful idiots are running all areas of US government, I can see no other reason for not getting off the stick and helping this pastor get out of the brutal hellhole that is Evin Prison. Whatup Skeeter?
Fox News – The wife of an American Christian pastor imprisoned in Iran, in emotional testimony Friday on Capitol Hill, told lawmakers she’s “disappointed” with the State Department’s lackluster involvement in the case as her lawyers accused the government of going completely “AWOL” in the face of prisoner Saeed Abedini’s plight.
In a sign of movement, Fox News has learned that after the hearing, Secretary of State John Kerry called commission co-chairman Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., to discuss the case. In addition, Fox News has learned that Suzan Johnson Cook, who handles matters of religious freedom at the department, will meet with the wife Friday.
Naghmeh Abedini, the pastor’s wife, testified through tears as she described how her children could not understand what happened to their father. “They kept saying, ‘Does daddy not love us anymore?’ … And I had to tell them that he was in prison because he loved Jesus.”
Saeed Abedini was sentenced to eight years in prison in January. The description of the State Department’s involvement in the case provided by the witnesses Friday stood in stark contrast to what administration officials have claimed in response to questions from the media.
While U.S. officials have claimed they’re pressing for Abedini’s release, the witnesses said a State Department desk officer last year called Naghmeh and told her “there is nothing the United States government can do for you.”
Attorney Jordan Sekulow said the same officer called Naghmeh Abedini as she was boarding the plane for Washington on Thursday to tell her, “you’ve never asked us for help.” “As you can see,” Sekulow said, “now they know this hearing is about to happen, and are trying to cover their tracks.”
The State Department also declined to attend the hearing Friday despite being invited, a decision fellow attorney Jay Sekulow, Jordan’s father, called “inexcusable.” Naghmeh Abedini, after describing in great detail how her husband converted to Christianity, came to America and eventually became a proud American citizen, closed her testimony with words of disappointment about the government’s alleged inaction.
“I must say I’m disappointed with our government. I’m disappointed that our president and our State Department has not fully engaged in this case,” she said. “I’m disappointed that this great country is not doing more to free my husband — a U.S. citizen. I expect more from our government.”
The hearing Friday was a rare opportunity for Abedini’s case to get a public airing on Capitol Hill and could serve to pressure Tehran — or pressure Washington to bring more attention to the case. Naghmeh came to the U.S. in 1986. She met Saeed in 2002 and they married two years later. Both had converted from Islam to Christianity — Saeed became a U.S. citizen in 2010.
The Iranian government does not recognize his American citizenship, though it had enabled him to travel freely between both countries until this past summer, when he was pulled off a bus and placed under house arrest, according to his supporters. Abedini has been held in Iran’s brutal Evin prison since September of last year and was sentenced to eight years in prison in January — accused of evangelizing and threatening national security. His wife said he’s been beaten and suffers internal bleeding. “Every day in that prison is a death sentence for him,” she said.
Lawmakers and the witnesses were unrelenting in their criticism of the State Department.
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Here is Naghmeh Abedini, the pastor’s wife, talking about her husband and his ordeal.
H/t Jay Sekulow