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NC congressman to Trump: Don't have 'change of heart' on ending war in Afghanistan News & Observer (blog) A North Carolina congressman reminded President Donald Trump of his previous opposition to the 16-year-old U.S. war in Afghanistan and urged Trump to allow Congress to debate any plan to send more troops to the nation. Republican U.S. Rep.

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NC congressman to Trump: Don't have 'change of heart' on ending war in Afghanistan - News & Observer (blog)

In testimony before a House committee Tuesday, the youngest son of a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran a decade ago urged greater sanctions on Iran if it does not account for his father and release U.S. citizens imprisoned in the country.

Doug Levinson, who was 13 when Robert Levinson was last seen on Irans Kish Island, described being crestfallen that his father was not among five Americans freed as part of a prisoner swap to accompany the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal in 2016.

Do not let Iran off the hook. They know exactly where he is, Doug Levinson told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Hold their feet to the fire. Threaten them with sanctions. Do something. Do anything.

Levinson was among three relatives of Americans imprisoned or missing in Iran who testified in support of a House bill calling for their freedom on humanitarian grounds. On Friday, the White House said President Trump is prepared to impose new and serious consequences on the country if they are not released and returned.

[With U.S. scholars conviction, power struggle escalates between hard liners and president in Iran]

Iran is known to be holding at least four U.S. citizens and two permanent residents of the United States. U.S. officials have never been able to ascertain the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, whose family is convinced he is still alive, although Tehran insists it has no idea where he is or what happened to him.

Levinson entered Iran to gather information on government corruption on a mission for CIA personnel who did not have authority to run such overseas operations. Ten agency employees were disciplined because of the Levinson case. Iran has never acknowledged holding him.

The other Americans have been accused of espionage, charges that their families and the U.S. government say are baseless.

My dad is innocent, and he will not be forced to do things against his will, including signing forced confessions, said Omar Zakka, whose father, Nizar, is an Internet-freedom advocate arrested in 2015 when he traveled to Iran for a conference. He is in the fifth week of a hunger strike protesting his imprisonment.

I fear for his life and safety, his son said.

Iran has used Americans as bargaining chips ever since the 1979 revolution, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy and held 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. Only this month, Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he accessed thousands of archived documents relating to his research on 19th- and early-20th-century Iran.

The prisoner swap that accompanied the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal in 2016, buying freedom for five Americans including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, brought bitter disappointment for the families of those who were left behind.

Babak Namazi told the committee he was devastated that his brother, Siamak, was not among the Americans flown out of Tehran that night with the others. Their father, Baquer, a former UNICEF official, was arrested in early 2016 when he went to Tehrans Evin prison hoping to visit Siamak. In October, father and son were sentenced to 10 years in prison for cooperating with a foreign government, meaning the United States.

[Trump promised not to let Iran jail Americans. When will he help free my father and brother? ]

Namazi said his fathers health is declining, and his brother, who has spent most of the past two years in solitary confinement, has grown despondent waiting for their release. He fears time is running out.

The whole thing is crazy, he told a small group of journalists Tuesday morning. The whole thing is beyond comprehension.

Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told CBS News that the elder Namazi was not behind bars but also that he was not free to leave the country. But Babak Namazi said his father, who has been taken briefly out of prison twice to be hospitalized, remains in Evin.

Several Iranians are in U.S. prisons on sanctions-related charges. In recent weeks, officials in Tehran and Washington have suggested they may be willing to make a deal over the prisoners. Their fate has been brought up during bilateral meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials monitoring the nuclear deal and by allies from other countries who have met with Iranians.

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Son of American who disappeared in Iran pleads: 'Do something. Do anything.' - Washington Post

By Andrew deGrandpre By Andrew deGrandpre July 25 at 7:04 PM

Officials say a U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots when an Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf came within 150 yards on Tuesday, July 25. (Reuters)

A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired two bursts of machine-gun fire at an Iranian military ship Tuesday as it made an alarmingly fast and close approach in the Persian Gulf, marking the latest aggressive encounter between the two adversaries.

The unidentified Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel got within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt and risked a collision, U.S. officials said, before the American patrol boat fired warning shots and quickly ended the encounter.

One Pentagon official who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity described it as an isolated incident and confirmed that no one was hurt.

U.S. officials have not specified where the incident occurred, saying only that U.S. and coalition ships were participating in a daytime training exercise when the Iranians conducted an unsafe and unprofessional interaction by failing to observe internationally recognized maritime customs.

Its also unclear how many Americans were aboard the Thunderbolt. Based in Norfolk, it can carry a crew of 27 and is used primarily for patrolling coastlines and to provide surveillance for interdiction operations.

U.S. officials have not yet disclosed what type of weapons the crew fired, although the ship is armed with .50.-caliber machine guns and Mk 38 chain guns in addition toautomatic grenade launchers.

At least three other American vessels were nearby at the time.

Video released by the U.S. Central Command shows the Iranian vessel approaching the Thunderbolts starboard side, extremely close to the ships bow. An American sailor can be heard radioing the ships coordinates, and then the sound ofmachine-gun fire.

The Iranian vessel did not respond to repeated attempts to establish radio communications as it approached, said Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Defense Department spokesman. Thunderbolt then fired warning flares and sounded the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts on the ships whistle, but the Iranian vessel continued inbound. As the Iranian vessel proceeded toward the U.S. ship, Thunderbolt again sounded five short blasts before firing warning shots in front of the Iranian vessel.

Iranian military officials characterized the incident as a U.S. provocation and took credit for having neutralized the threat.

In a report published last winter, the Office of Naval Intelligence indicated that vessels operated by the Revolutionary Guard Corps routinely monitor U.S. and allied warships in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a busy waterway that links to the Gulf of Oman. The majority of these encounters are safe and routine, it said, but unprofessional or aggressive run-ins are becoming more frequent.

Such operations increase the likelihood for a mishap at sea, potentially leading to strategic tension and insecurity in the region, the report said.

The Pentagon documented 35 such interactions with Iranians last year, up from to 23 in 2015. This year, it has acknowledged at least five.

[Iranian navy points laser at Marine helicopter in altercation involving three U.S. ships]

Last month, Iranian forces harassed a formation of three American ships the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the guided-missile destroyer Cole and the dry cargo ship Washington Chambers shining floodlights on them from a distance of 800 yards and pointing a laser at an airborne U.S. helicopter.

Twice in March, the USNS Invincible, which is outfitted with sonar and radar equipment, had close encounters. In one incident, an Iranian frigate moved within 150 yards. In the other, Revolutionary Guard fast boats cut in front of the U.S. ship, forcing it to rapidly change course to avoid a collision.

Such adversarial behavior between the two nations navies comes amid whathas become a more complicated dynamic on the ground inside Iraq and Syria.

Speaking at a security forum in Colorado last week, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, Army Gen. Raymond Thomas, acknowledged how American troops now routinely come coffee-breath close to Iranian-backed forces, according to CNN.

Last month in Syria, where fighters trained by Iran are supporting President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. forces shot down at least two armed Iranian drones near the border with Iraq and Jordan.

Thomas noted, too, that during one recent trip into northern Iraq, where Iranian trained militias are battling the Islamic State, his plane was parked beside one belonging to Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of Irans infamous Quds Force.

We bump into them everywhere, he said.

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An Iranian ship refused to heed the Navy's warning. Then shots were fired. - Washington Post

An overwhelming majority of House lawmakers voted to pass a sweeping sanctions package Tuesday evening that threatens to tie President Trump's hands in negotiations with Russia, and also punishes two other rogue regimes: Iran and North Korea.

"This is a strong, bipartisan bill that will increase the United States' economic and political leverage," House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said Tuesday just before the House passed the measure 419-3.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said after the vote that Congress has to take action against these "bad actors."

A bill that started out weeks ago as a vehicle for cracking down on Iranian belligerence turned into pack mule for lawmakers determined to guide U.S. foreign policy while navigating domestic politics. The Iran bill passed the Senate only after the addition of a Russia sanctions bill opposed by the Trump administration, before stalling in the House due to procedural fights.

When the dust settled, the bill was laden with a new batch of North Korea sanctions in addition to smaller tweaks.

"Our job isn't done obviously until we get this thing across the finish line. And we need to do that, because this bill is critical to our national security," New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs panel, said Tuesday on the House floor. "It does far more than just send a message to leaders in Russia, Iran, and North Korea it exacts a heavy price for their aggressive and destabilizing behavior."

The House previously approved the North Korea bill as a stand-alone item in a 419-1 vote, but it has yet to be taken up in the Senate, which has been consumed with debates over how to repeal Obamacare as well as Trump's political appointments. "I hope we don't face further delays when this bill gets back to the other house," Engel said.

The Russia and Iran components of the bill have run into a series of snags already, chiefly due to procedural issues. The original version of the Senate-passed bill violated a constitutional requirement that all legislation which raises revenue must start in the House. Once that was fixed, lawmakers clashed over how much power Democrats should have to force votes on bills that would condemn various decisions Trump might make while implementing the Russia sanctions.

The Russia language is a rare addition for sanctions bills, in that it allows Congress to vote down decisions by the White House to waive sanctions against Russia. Democrats said that language was critical given their skepticism that President Trump would maintain sanctions against Russia.

For weeks, Democrats said resolutions disapproving of Trump's decision to waive sanctions should be able to be called up by any lawmaker, including Democrats in the House. But the final language will let House GOP leaders decide whether or when to call up those resolutions.

Lawmakers praised the final product as a way to address national security threats to the U.S.

"North Korea and Russia and Iran all pose serious threats to our national security," Royce said. "Successive administrations have struggled and failed to address them, and it is well past time to respond with meaningful action."

Trump's team lobbied against the Russia sanctions as written, saying that Congress should give him more discretion when negotiating to improve relations with the former Cold War rival. But Congress has ignored those appeals, leaving them with a choice about vetoing or allowing the bill made all the more difficult by the fact that the Russia-related provisions are tied to Iran and North Korea sanctions.

"He's going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday.

House passage sends the bill to the Senate, which is expected to approve it by a wide margin. The Senate approved the Russia and Iran language in a 98-2 vote, and passage by another veto-proof majority would force the Trump White House to accept the bill as is.

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House passes sweeping sanctions bill punishing Russia, Iran, and North Korea - Washington Examiner

Saying his family is desperate, Bob Levinsons son begged Congress to do anything, do something to bring home the Coral Springs man missing in Iran for more than 10 years.

Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent and CIA spy, is the longest-held civilian hostage in U.S. history.

His son, Doug, was only 13 when his father was taken hostage. He sent him an email in the days that followed: Everyone is looking for you. Please come back home. Please respond back. Im so scared.

Now 23, Doug Levinson wore a pair of his fathers still-too-big shoes at a House Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

His father had two jobs: taking care of his wife and seven children and protecting the U.S. by putting away the bad guys, Doug Levinson testified.

His voice rose when he said each administration has failed his family as other hostages in Iran have been freed.

We need action, Doug Levinson urged. Please be relentless in pursuing all options. Please do not let Iran off the hook. Theyve been allowed to do whatever they want because there are no consequences.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said Congress would continue to ask questions about what our government is doing to bring your family members back home.

Levinsons family met with State Department officials last week, according to The Associated Press.

The White House is threatening new and serious consequences for Iran unless it releases all U.S. citizens who are detained there.

The White House says President Donald Trump is prepared to act in an attempt to end Iran's practice of using detentions and hostage taking as state policy.

Doug Levinson said his family is optimistic and that Trump has used the strongest language theyve heard from three presidents.

As a candidate in 2015, Trump vowed to bring Levinson home, and the Levinson family has asked to meet with him in hopes he will take a more aggressive stance toward getting answers than President Barack Obama did.

Iran has made it a practice to take American citizens and legal permanent residents as hostages in an effort to exact political and financial concessions, Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement before the hearing.

Iran denies holding Levinson, who disappeared in 2007. His family, who has gone to Iran twice to look for him, hasn't received evidence he's still alive for years. The U.S. government is at a loss how to find him.

Iran has flip-flopped from asking What he was doing there to denying he was ever there at all, said Doug Levinson.

Bob Levinson was a contractor for the CIA who flew to Irans resort island to meet with an American fugitive he hoped to cultivate as an informant.

Initially, the U.S. publicly insisted Levinson went to Iran as a private investigator working a cigarette smuggling case. Eventually it led to a scandal within the CIA in which three agency officials lost their jobs for using him as part of an unauthorized spying operation. The agency paid $2.25 million to Levinsons wife.

She sat behind her son Doug at Tuesdays hearing, next to another son, Dan.

Josh Lederman, Associated Press

Relatives of two other men held in Iran also spoke at the hearing.

In October, Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for collaborating with a foreign government.

Five other defendants were convicted and given similar sentences, including Namazis father, Baquer, who is also a dual citizen.

The prosecutor also named Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese information technology expert who holds a green card granting him residence in the United States, and said each of the men had been imprisoned for espionage and collaboration with the American government.

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-West Boca, told the families not one of us can imagine what they are going through.

Iran knows how to find [Levinson] and they know how to get him home, Deutch said. We will not stop until the families are home.

Ros-Lehtinen said others have been detained, including one earlier this month for unknown reasons. And she said Tuesday that Iran will do it again, saying Iran does not respect human rights or law.

She called for intense and concerted effort because this is a problem that is not going away on it's own.

The House voted 419-3 to impose new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

On Wednesday, the House will consider a resolution calling for the release of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents being held for political purposes by Iran. The resolution also encourages the President to take meaningful action to secure the return of Robert Levinson if the Government of Iran does not locate and return him.

Doug Levinson had one more message for his father: Dad, were never going to stop fighting to get you home. Were doing everything we possibly can every single day. ... Please stay strong. Were going to get you home.

lhuriash@sunsentinel.com, 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash

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Son of Coral Springs spy held in Iran to testify Tuesday - Sun Sentinel - Sun Sentinel