Iranians Seek Out Abuses By U.S.

Iranian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Sunday for a bill creating a $20 million fund intended in part to expose human rights violations by the United States, the ILNA news agency reported.

Passage of the bill suggests the depth of mistrust that remains between the nations as Iran faces a September deadline to respond to President Obama’s offer for talks. Iranian lawmakers said the legislation was in retaliation for what they consider similar action by the United States.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill in July that would allocate $30 million for technologies to allow the U.S. government’s Farsi-language satellite and radio stations to bypass Iranian government efforts to jam their broadcasts. An additional $20 million would be set aside for developing Web sites and other technologies that will improve Iranian access to censored information. An additional $5 million is authorized for documenting information about human rights in Iran.

Alaedin Boroujerdi, the head of the national security and foreign relations committee of Iran’s parliament, called the fund for investigating alleged U.S. abuses “necessary.”

Full article here