Iran Hangs 9, Obama Urges Dialogue

If we just talk to them nicely, they'll understand we come offering peace.

Iran Hangs 9 Convicts, 7 Publicly, in a Crackdown on ‘Thugs’

TEHRAN, Aug. 1 — Iran held a public hanging on Wednesday in Mashad, in the northeast, of seven men convicted of rape, the ISNA student news agency reported. Two other men were hanged Wednesday in a prison in Zahedan, in the southeast, convicted of armed smuggling of narcotics, the news agency reported.

It carried photographs of five men hanged in one place in Mashad as a crowd watched. The two others were hanged elsewhere in the city.

The state-run television news also showed the five men hanging from the gallows under a banner that said, “Carrying out justice equals increasing security.”

The Mashad chief prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Emaili, said that all seven men had been charged with abduction of women, theft and rape.

Last week 12 people were hanged at Evin Prison in Tehran for “rape, criminal acts, abduction and selling drugs,” said Tehran’s prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi. Iran increased the number of executions in recent weeks since announcing a crackdown on so-called thugs and arrested nearly 1,000 people in May.

I recall when George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, every time there was a justifiable execution of some monster, the left would be holding candlelight vigils.

When Tookie Williams deservedly was put down, we didn't hear the end of it for weeks.

Strangely, the American left is silent.