Iran Rounding Up Whistleblowers Who Try To Expose Real COVID-19 Death Toll: State Dept

The State Department now seems to be leveling new accusations
against Iran and China on a near daily basis related to their role
in facilitating the spread of the deadly coronavirus. 

On Monday Mike Pompeo
issued ‘5 facts’ detailing Iran’s recklessness regarding the
virus, including the charge Tehran spread it “to at least five
countries,” and on Wednesday the newest charge is that
Iran is imprisoning whistleblowers who are trying to the
get the true numbers of Iran’s cases out to the
public.

Iran was one of the two earliest epicenters outside of China
along with Italy, and currently has the sixth highest number of
total confirmed Covid-19 cases, but ranks fourth in deaths at 2,077
which have succumbed to the disease. 

Image via The Atlantic

“The regime has imprisoned dozens of Iranians for
sharing statistics and forced hospital officials across Iran to
falsify the number of cases and deaths,” State Department
spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told the neocon Washington
Free Beacon, yet without offering further details.

The new allegation comes as Tehran is begging the IMF
for $5 billion in emergency funds to help with coronavirus
relief, and simultaneously lashing out at Washington for
its unrelenting sanctions regimen. The White House has kept up its
so-called “maximum pressure” even as the Islamic Republic’s health
system collapses under the strain of 27,000 official reported
cases.

The EU announced earlier this week it plans to send Iran 20
million euros in relief funds, also demonstrating Europe’s
increased resolve to buck Washington’s near total blockade of the
country, US claims to have kept certain ‘humanitarian channels’
open notwithstanding.

“We can be sure that the same regime that lied about
shooting down a passenger jet and that still hasn’t revealed the
number of protesters killed last November is not being transparent
with the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus
today,” Ortagus
added, referring to the Ukrainian airline downing tragedy on
January 8.

According to the Free Beacon’s commentary, which tracks
closely with
Iran hawks in the Trump administration:

The Iranian regime claims the
numbers of those infected and dead stand at 24,811 and 1,934,
respectively. But the United States and other observers say there
are far more casualties. In a bid to keep the actual
infection rate and death toll secret, Iranian officials have
resorted to violence and subterfuge. Their efforts
include enlisting U.S.
allies in a campaign to weaken the Trump administration’s tough
economic sanctions on the country, a move that could provide the
regime with billions in cash.

However, the Free Beacon report fails to list a single name or
example of an Iranian recently arrested for defying authorities’
official Covid-19 numbers. 

Regardless, it is widely acknowledged that Tehran is likely
keeping a tight lid on its actual infections rate, though it
wouldn’t be the only country to do so.