By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being accused of setting – and paying – bounties of $1,000 for each U.S. military member killed in Afghanistan.
The accusations are outlined in an amended lawsuit prepared for filing in federal court in Washington as a followup to a complaint filed last year that accused Ahmadinejad of the torture death of an Iranian freedom fighter who was imprisoned.
Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and also of Freedom Watch USA, told WND he's announcing the new filing in a news conference tomorrow in New York. He's there because he plans to serve Ahmadinejad with notice of the new claims while the Iranian president is visiting the United Nations this week.
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The original case was filed a year ago in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and names Ahamdinejad, the Islamic Republic of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameinei, the nation's Revolutionary Guard and others as defendants.
The case explains it was brought on behalf of the family of Akbar Mohammadi, an original founder of the modern Iranian freedom movement who was murdered in Evin prison in Tehran after he was arrested.
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The case "will now be expanded to include charges that A-mad [Ahmadinejad] and his Islamic extremist cohorts have placed a bounty on the head of each U.S. serviceman murdered by the Taliban and other terrorist groups," Klayman confirmed.
He also has prepared a motion for the court seeking permission to file the updated claim.
"President Obama and his administration, and even some establishment Republicans, have advocated appeasement of the Islamic regime, resulting in certain acceleration of death and destruction for the Persian people, and the creation of a severe nuclear threat to the world," Klayman said in a prepared statement.
"This policy of appeasement has not worked, and we have recently learned that a bounty for slaughter has been put on the heads of American servicemen by the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran. Now that the Iranian tragedy is so clearly and directly touching Americans, 'We the People' must stand up for human rights in defense not only of those brave Persians who are fighting for freedom, but also of U.S. servicemen and women who are being targeted for butchery ... by an evil, barbaric Islamic tyranny," Klayman continued. "This ruthless Islamist regime's program for terrorism and mass murder knows no bounds, and now touches us all – and I for one will not sit back and let it run rampant!"
The original complaint, which seeks in excess of $10 billion in damages, sought justice for Nasrin Mohammadi, whose brother, Akbar, was a protester for freedom and rights during the 1990s.
Original claims for freedom fighters
According to the filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Akbar Mohammadi was a student at the University of Tehran and a critic of the Iranian regime. He was arrested during protests that followed the closure of a reformist newspaper.
"The protests were non-violent, but this did not stop the Iranian police and government agents from using violence and force to disperse and punish the protesters. … Akbar was taken into custody," the lawsuit explains.
"While in prison, Akbar was subjected to repeated bouts of torture and cruel and unusual forms of punishment, causing him to go deaf, and be in a constant state of agony. … It was recommended by doctors that he be transferred to other countries for treatment … but this request was denied."
Eventually his medications even were denied him, the claim states.
"Finally on July 31st, 2006, Akbar was murdered in Evin prison during a torture session, his long grueling prison term mercilessly ended by the regime," it states.
Akbar Mohammadi's sister, Nasrin, a plaintiff in the action, experienced the torture of her brother "through visits with him and communications back and forth."
She "has been a witness to the brutality that was inflicted upon her brother," the case says.
Klayman told WND the Iranian people are considered a key to Middle East reform.
"They deserve the right to be free," he said. Nasrin Mohammadi, he said, is a hero.
"She is putting herself out for brother, who she loved deeply," he said.
The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and cites allegations of supporting terror, torture, assault, battery and wrongful death.
'$1,000 bounty on American soldiers'
The amended complaint explains, "Defendant Ahmadinejad is believed to be mentally unstable if not insane, and has denied publicly the established historical event of the Holocaust, which ironically he is carrying out of sorts on his own people through the use of intimidation, torture and mass murder."
It explains opponents of Ahmadinejad have been subjected to "public floggings, imprisonment without charge, solitary confinement, torture, and even death."
"In addition, it has recently come to light that defendants have been directly and proximately involved with and planned and caused the death of United State servicemen stationed in the Middle East, among whom are the members of the class of plaintiffs herein. Intelligence sources in Afghanistan have revealed to the media (including the Sunday Times) that defendants have built camps in Afghanistan for terror activists. Specifically, it has been revealed that defendants pay terrorist organizations a $1,000 bounty for each American soldier who is murdered and $6,000 for each American Army vehicle that is destroyed."
Klayman alleges that at least five Iranian companies are sending money to Islamist terror groups in Afghanistan.
"The Iranian financing is so large that one Taliban money-handler has claimed that he alone has collected nearly $80,000 in the past six months. Afghani intelligence and Taliban officials have revealed how the money is transferred from Iranian straw-men companies to Afghani rebels," he explained.
WND reported earlier when Klayman took on another dictator, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
His lawsuit filed on behalf of a class of torture victims in Venezuela later was expanded to add the CITGO corporation as a defendant, a move the attorney for the plaintiffs said will provide a source of damage payments.
The case originally was filed against Chavez by Klayman seeking damages for "assault, supporting terrorism, crimes against humanity, violations of civil and human rights, torture" and other crimes.
The case was filed on behalf of a class of victims in Venezuela who allegedly were subjected to torture, threats and massive rights violations by the defendants "and their agents, and also acting in concert with, aiding, abetting, facilitating, soliciting, directing, orchestrating and conspiring with the Colombian paramilitary group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), al-Qaida and the Taliban, and other terrorist groups, nation states and their collaborators in those atrocities
