Assadollah Assadi, became the first-ever serving Iranian diplomat to be detained, investigated, tried, convicted, and imprisoned, after he plotted to blow up thousands of participants in the Iranian Resistance's annual Free Iran World Summit in Villepinte, France, where Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran was speaking, along with hundreds of political dignitaries from across the globe.
In late February 2022, authorities in Iran detained a Belgian aid worker, and this time, it was Belgium's turn to be blackmailed with yet another hostage taking by a regime that for over 40 years has taken advantage of Western appeasement to further its illegal and murderous ways. Hostages are the Iranian regime's leverage to set Assadi free and return him to Iran, from where he had set out in late June of 2018 with a highly sophisticated and lethal explosive device in his diplomatic pouch. Assadi and his paymasters in Iranian intelligence didn't think twice about moving the bomb to Vienna on a commercial passenger jet.
The fact that Assadi was under close surveillance and caught red-handed delivering the bomb to his accomplices in a Luxembourg Pizza Hut does not bother the Iranian regime. To them Assadi is a hero diplomat carrying out his "duties" albeit in direct contravention of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and international law.
This case highlights the close cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in terrorist activities in Europe.
After the February hostage-taking of the Belgium national in Iran, the regime clearly communicated back-channel messages to Belgium, and the two parties secretly signed a prisoner-exchange treaty on March 11.
The first public unveiling of this "pact with the devil"[i] came when Belgium's justice minister, Vincent Van Quickenborne, urgently presented a bill to the Belgian Parliament on June 29, which sought ratification for the treaty with Iran by sandwiching it between two other prisoner exchange treaties. He would later defend the unsavory bill by meekly offering, "Iran is a rogue state, but we don't choose to whom we talk." He emphasized that freeing the Belgian was "our priority."[ii]
If Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and his justice minister had had their way, the bill would have been enacted four business days later.
But members of Parliament, including some in the government coalition, strongly criticized the treaty. Simultaneously, the Iranian Resistance, condemned the possibility of releasing Assadi back to Iran and called for action to prevent it. This call galvanized opposition to the shameful bill among Iranians, in the Belgium Parliament, in the press, and in the court of public opinion.
This campaign led to the debate on the treaty that continued for over two more weeks.
The treaty's ratification was expected by July 4, but it was ultimately ratified over two weeks later, early on July 21. The NCRI, its president-elect, and a group of potential victims of Assadi's terrorist plot, however, have launched a legal challenge to the government's bid to free a convicted terrorist. That challenge has yet to be heard and settled. In the meantime, a court injunction is in place barring Assadi's release.
National Council of Resistance of Iran: - The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) represents an enduring democratic political coalition founded in Tehran in July 1981, which has steadfastly sought an end to religious dictatorship and promotes a free and democratic Iran based on its platform. The NCRI has adopted numerous plans for future Iran, one of which is the Plan to form a National Solidarity Front to overthrow the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. The plan calls for all forces who reject the ruling theocracy with all its factions and who endorse the separation of religion and state and believe in a republic to join the front.
Ridge, Tom: - Following the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, Tom Ridge became the first Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and, on January 24, 2003, became the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The creation of the country's 15th Cabinet Department marked the largest reorganization of government since the Truman administration and another call to service for the former soldier, congressman and governor of Pennsylvania. During his DHS tenure, Secretary Ridge worked with more than 180,000 employees from a combined 22 agencies to create an agency that facilitated the flow of people and goods, instituted layered security at air, land and seaports, developed a unified national response and recovery plan, protected critical infrastructure, integrated new technology and improved information sharing worldwide. Tom Ridge served as Secretary of this historic and critical endeavor until February 1, 2005. Before the events of September 11th, Tom Ridge was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania. He served as the state's 43rd governor from 1995 to 2001. Governor Ridge's aggressive technology strategy helped fuel the state's advances in economic development, education, health care and the environment. He serves as chairman of the National Organization on Disability along with other private and public entities. He also co-chairs the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense with former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman. He graduated from Harvard with honors. After his first year at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor, the Combat Infantry Badge and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After returning to Pennsylvania and to Dickinson, he earned his law degree and, later, became one of the first Vietnam combat veterans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served six terms.
