Iranian military said to charge family of dead son 'bullet fee'

Iranian military said to charge family of dead son 'bullet fee'

rawstory.com

The family of Kaveh Alipour, a 19-year-old Iranian killed amidst protests in Tehran, was allegedly charged a "bullet fee" by Iranian security forces, according to a report Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal.

"Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back," relatives purportedly told the Journal.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
online.wsj.com

This story brings entire new definition to the phrase:

"Adding insult to injury"

And I'm sitting here on ATS arguing with people over why the Iranian people should show them no mercy when they corner one of these thugs? :shk:

THIS IS WHY.

My God. We're going to kill you and charge your family not .10, not 1.00, not 10.00, but $3,000 for one bullet! I guess inflation is taking its toll in Iran too?

This is absolute lunacy. Total tyranny in your face, and with insult.

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 23/6/2009 by Mirthful Me]

Keep doing that and people start returning the bullets instead.

reply to post by Mainer


Precisely. And those returning the bullets will charge a heftier price for the return fee.

Someone in the Iranian Military must have a death wish or two.

This just sounds like more poorly sourced inflamatory garbage to me.

Like a lot of information coming out of Iran on the Internet there are no credible sources or documentation to go along with the story.

The source for your Thread yesterday stating a Republican Gaurd General was arrested for refusing to follow orders to use lethal force on demonstrators was sourced to one of the three opposition candidates personal website.

Irna's own official site has been down since the 15th but the opposition candidates all have theirs up in running? Ok!

Now today's story of a $3,000.00 dollar bullet fee comes from a blog posting on Raw Story?

Seriously why not just write Langley or call and say...what nonsense can I help you by posting today?

Who knows maybe they can come up with something at least half way legitimately sourced for you and something half way plausible.

The little 5 year old girl sitting next to me in Kindergarden created quite an emotional stir too with the teacher when she insisted to the teacher I hit her and took away the toy from her, that I had gotten from the toy box, and she wanted to play with out of turn.

The Teacher believed her...alas, what she said was still a lie.

These are all obvious ploys by disgruntled political factions with agendas and other factions with agendas to incite poorly thought out knee jerk emotional reactions.

I am pretty sure Mr. Spock would merely say "Fascinating Jim, there is no evidence to support this yet humans act emotionally and illogically as if it's actually true?"

It is actually not unusual for governments to charge for the bullet that killed a family member.
It was very common in some communist countries including China.

Maybe there's some hope for America to find a way to get along with Iran after all. Extorting a family out of $3000 with a "Bullet Fee" is the most extreme capitalistic idea I've ever heard of.

Maybe the DOD will start doing something like this. Just think of how much the US could collect from blowing up a wedding party with a missile from a Predator. The war on terror can fund itself.

If someone doesn't pay then the US can file for a lien with the bankers. Pretty soon the Government would have enough outstanding debt to claim that they own the country. It would be nice an legal.




I guess I should add that my comments above are SARCASTIC in nature.
I'm not suggesting the US actually do this.



[edit on 23-6-2009 by LazyGuy]

Words cannot express what i feel.

Only swear words and anger...... and the sheer amazement at the human race.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You know what, instead of just spewing your rhetoric and blindly dismissing both The Wall Street Journal and Rawstory as bogus, how about producing some credible evidence yourself that this story is false?

I provided two links with mine, so let's see you provide some links to the contrary with yours... Otherwise your opinion is pretty hypocritical, because you provide nothing at all and yet attack two credible sources based on your own misguided suspicion. Bah. You usually have interesting viewpoints PT, but you are quickly losing me with comments like this.

Ok I know ammo is going up in price but 3k seems extreme.. unless we are not getting the whole story.

Maybe what we are not hearing is that they used a howwitzer round ? Those have to be around 3k for the shell.

Or maybe the guard was a really bad shot and it took a lot of bullets to hit him?

Or maybe they took the cost of all bullets fired in the day and divided it by the number of people killed that day.

Yes I'm being tongue in cheek in my post

While I wouldn't be surprised by a bullet fee, I am highly suspect of the $3000.

In Japan, the family of a person who chooses suicide by train can be charged a fee for clean up and time lost by the railroad.

Here's an interesting comment on the wsj story:

With all honest respect for the brave and distinguished journalist Farnaz Fassihi, but I would like to see this story validated by another reporter. Some points give reason for concern:

- This is the first reporting of such an incident, such Orwellian behaviour by Iranian officials has never been reported before.
- No other reporter or news agency confirmed this story so far.
- Farnaz Fassihi is an expert on propaganda, having written the book "What Orwell Didn't Know, Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics." I don't want to make any accusations, but she certainly has both the opportunity and the means to pull off a propaganda stunt.
- She was born in the US to Iranian parents and grew up in Teheran. She understandably has a lot of sympathy for the Iranian people, so she perhaps has a motive for wanting to hurt the oppresive regime.
- This story is very "convenient" for the opposition, to be used as a highly emotional argument against the regime. Another similarly "convenient" story was the 1990 report about Iraqi soldiers killing babies in a Kuwaiti hospital, which was later debunked as a deliberate propaganda lie made up by a PR agency. But by then, public opinion had turned against Saddam Hussein, providing the grounds for the first Iraq war.

No misunderstanding, pls, I'm only calling for some restraint until this story has been confirmed by another reporter. I'm sure Ms. Fassihi, with her impressive experience and professional attitude, will understand that this story is explosive enough to warrant further investigation.

online.wsj.com...

This is what I get for not checking out something on my own. This guy and his comment are bogus, she didn't write that book at all.

"What Orwell Didn't Know, Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics" was written by Andras Szanto. Farnaz Fassihi wrote "Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq"

I wouldn't have posted his comment if I had known. My apologies.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

You know what, instead of just spewing your rhetoric and blindly dismissing both The Wall Street Journal and Rawstory as bogus, how about producing some credible evidence yourself that this story is false?

I provided two links with mine, so let's see you provide some links to the contrary with yours... Otherwise your opinion is pretty hypocritical, because you provide nothing at all and yet attack two credible sources based on your own misguided suspicion. Bah.

You usually have interesting viewpoints PT, but you are quickly losing me with comments like this.

Can you display a receipt, an official Bill of Laden an actual policy number like Regulation 352 Section 12, Sub Section C, States as follows...

That would be proof. Is there even a death certificate to show the person in question lived and died and when they died.

Is there an autopsy report showing how and when the person in question died.

Is there a property report to go along with the body's personal effects.

All these things would paint a legitimate picture of such a thing happening.

On a good day there is so much inflamatory rethoric that comes out of the propoganda machine regarding Iran it's normally insulting to the intelligence.

Most of the News Reports coming out through the mainstream media right now regarding Iran clearly demonstrate that they don't believe people posess a shred of analytical intelligence.

Some of it is so far fetched it reminds me of a an Ink Blot Test ...Look here is a picture of an unarmed Iranian Police Officer that we know is a Police Officer because his vest says Police in English even though English is not the official language of Iran, in the picture he is standing next to a lamp post across the street with moving traffic on it where on the other side 4 old men stand in front of a shop staring out into space, the Security Officer has open hands, is brandishing no weapons and is not even in movement...what do you see?

An Iranian Security Officer confronting protesters???

Right Johnny that's what the caption says at the bottom.

Why has all critical annalysis been thrown out the window on this by people who are normally far more intelligent than to fall for it?

None of the pictures add up to their captions, none of the statements add up either, and the standards for journalism have gotten so shoddy in the attempt to twist these events for the sake of some Western Intelligence Agenda that it's beyond the pale.

What you don't get friend is that it's a lot more than just the Iranian people who are being victimized in the most fraudelent thing about this Iranian election and that's the Western's press coverage and spin of the events surrounding it.

There are standards of proof that are simply not being met and not met with plausible excuse based on the circumstances, circumstances that are being orchestrated by ALL parties and because of prejudices, predispositions and other agendas people are just emotionally reacting in absence of any 'real' proof because it has a 'feel' good effect to do so.

Now I don't see that as being in anyone's interest no matter how well intentioned their emotional reactions are for what ever reason they are choosing to react without real proof.

If this same type of poor sourcing was used for a UFO claim here on ATS people would be all over it...why because most of them just don't want to believe in UFO's.

Not so much because of the poor sourcing, but they are going to say show me some real proof "make" me believe in UFO's and if you can't I won't.

Here what I am witnessing is people simply believing because they want to believe the absolute worst about something they have been slowly nursed into believing the absolute worst about before hand.

This is how the Powers that Be win their battles by taking logic and fact out and making emotional appeals to prejudices, fears and hatreds that they have already instilled.

Look around at the world, and tell me how the heck has that been working out so far?

I wonder how much people will be willing to charge for one of those bullets to find its home within Ahmadinejad's head. Might Ayatollah Khamenei's bullet fee fetch an even more extravagent price? We shall see....

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Sadam Hussein did this to the families of people that were killed or executed in the Iraq Kuwaiit War.

In concern to Iran,
5,000 of their security forces should be executed for every ONE innocent civilian they shoot.

This penalty should be retroactive all the way back to the beginning of recorded history.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

I'm with ya on that, TA- Flag & Stars!

Absolutely TWISTED!
I believe the story, as I hear more & more about Iran. That poor family, I feel bad for them, and I'm angry & disgusted like you guys.

I found a bunch of other sites containing this shocking article, is why.
Iran: "Bullet Fee"
And: Bullet Fee Cartoon

Makes me wonder if Bush & Cheney ever charged tortured prisoners for the water bill after water boarding them?!?





[edit on 6/24/2009 by FRIGHTENER]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Why are you sympathizing with the perpetrators of this heinous crime?

Here's the thing, the humanness of this story has been lost on you. According to several credible news sources, this young man was returning from acting class, awaiting a ride and was caught in the cross fire! He was
only 19 years old. Now his family who doesn't have the money, have to pay just to receive his body in order to give him a proper burial? I really don't care what his political affiliations were! This is a tragedy, PERIOD!!

If you are so blinded, by the idea of "let me one up you" and"blame it on the propaganda of the West, then the least of your concern should be the "System" and the Power's that be! I would be more concerned, by the fact that you appear to care more about "who wins", and "who deserves" than loss of a human life!!

If Western Propaganda is demonstrated by caring about another human being and having a soul, then I'm guilty!

The means don't justify the end! when that happens, what more matters?

The following are additional News Sources:

link:[www.foxnews.com...]

Report: Iran Tries to Charge Slain Man's Family $3,000 for Bullet That Killed Him

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 * Print * Share This

An Iranian couple who lost their only son amid violent protests in Tehran say they were told they would have to pay $3,000 to recover his body -- a "bullet fee," they were told, to cover the cost of the bullet that killed him -- the Wall Street Journal reported. The victim, Kaveh Alipour, 19, was just a week shy of his wedding when he was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection while returning from acting class Saturday, his family told the Wall Street Journal. After searching for Alipour through the night, his father eventually learned of his death at the morgue the following day. Relatives said he was told the family would have to pay the equivalent of $3,000 before taking his body, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Family of Iranian slain man charged of $3000 for "bullet fee"

link:[www.ibtimes.com...]

Originally posted by Jadette
This is what I get for not checking out something on my own. This guy and his comment are bogus, she didn't write that book at all.

"What Orwell Didn't Know, Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics" was written by Andras Szanto. Farnaz Fassihi wrote "Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq"

I wouldn't have posted his comment if I had known. My apologies.

the guy is not bogus . check wiki on this issue .

Farnaz Fassihi (May 25, 1971) is the deputy bureau chief of Middle East and Africa for The Wall Street Journal and the author of Waiting for An Ordinary Day, a memoir of her four years covering the Iraq war and witnessing the unraveling of life for Iraqi citizens. She was born in the United States to Iranian parents and grew up in Tehran, Iran and Portland, Oregon. She received a B.A. in English from Tehran University and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Fassihi is widely known for penning a famous email in 2004 about the deteriorating situation in Iraq, which was hailed as the first unvarnished account of the war. The email was published in newspapers, websites and blogs around the world and became the subject of a Doonesbury cartoon. Her email is included in an anthology of historical letters written by American women, Women’s Letters, America from the Revolutionary War to the Present. She contributed an essay about the Iraq war and propaganda in the book, What Orwell Didn’t Know, Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics.
en.wikipedia.org...

this article has some of the inkling of iraqis murdering kuwaiti babies propaganda . after all the source is WSJ is owned by Mr. Murdoch, whose newspapers are known for peddling lies .