Michael Gove Says He ‘Doesn’t Know’ What Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Was Doing In Iran

Michael Gove said he doesn’t know what British mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran before she was arrested and jailed.

The British-Iranian was visiting family in Iran, but is being held on accusations of spying and spreading propaganda.

Blundering Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is thought to have added five years to her jail term after he said that she had been “training journalists”.

Prime Minister Theresa May faces mounting pressure to sack Johnson, who will not apologise for or correct his mistake. 

The foreign secretary has admitted he “could have been clearer” with his comments and insisted they had been taken out of context.

Now Environment Secretary Michael Gove has made an “unhelpful” intervention.

Asked what Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “I don’t know.”

Gove’s intervention, which has been branded “shameful” by Labour, will no doubt compound the fears of Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe, who made an emotional appeal for help from ministers in a HuffPost UK blog. 

Confronted with Ratcliffe’s repeated insistence that his wife was in Iran on holiday with her child, Gove said: “In that case I take exactly her husband’s assurance in that regard.”

Asked if she was training journalists, he said: “Well, her husband says that she was there on holiday, and he’s the person who should know. Her family should be the people who are in our thoughts at this time.”

Johnson’s comments, made during a Commons committee meeting, were seized upon by Iranian state media as a “confession” but Gove has insisted it is the “extremists” in Iran who are to blame for her incarceration, not the carelessness of his Tory ally. 

Gove added: “We know that the Iranian regime is capable of abusing the human rights of its own citizens. It appears here to be harming the human rights of someone whose plight necessarily moves us all.”

He claimed there was an “effort to shift the blame away from those who are really at fault here, and that is the Iranian regime.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was hauled back in front of an Iranian court after Johnson’s remarks  and now faces 10 years in prison for additional charges.

Gove, however, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “One of the things I want to stress is that there is no reason why Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should be in prison in Iran so far as any of us know. No evidence has been produced which suggests she should be detained.” 

Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:

“Boris Johnson’s cavalier approach to international diplomacy is compounded this morning by Michael Gove claiming he has no idea what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran. It has always been clear, she was on holiday visiting her family.

“It appears Gove is more interested in protecting Johnson’s job than the liberty of a British citizen in jail in Iran.

“Theresa May must ensure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe does not pay the price for her ministers’ bungling.”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nazanin-gove-boris_uk_5a084148e4b0e37d2f37ef28

Boris Johnson Met ‘London Professor’ Joseph Mifsud Embroiled In Trump/Russia Investigation
A photograph has emerged of Boris Johnson meeting the “London Professor” named in the statement of offences against Donald Trump’s former foreign policy advisor who pled guilty to lying to the FBI last month.

The Foreign Secretary has already denied meeting Joseph Mifsud but a picture on Facebook posted last month clearly shows the two men together at a recent event.

Johnson now faces accusations of a possible security breach at a time when concerns are being raised about possible Kremlin interference into the Brexit campaign in which he played a leading role for the Leave side.

Mifsud’s name arose in the statement of charges against George Papadopoulos who last month pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to FBI agents about “dirt” he was offered on Hillary Clinton.

Papadopoulos was living in London when he joined the Trump campaign, according to the statement.

Papadopoulos told the FBI a London-based professor had “told him about the Russians possessing ‘dirt’ on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails,’ but stated multiple times that he learned that information prior to joining the campaign”, according to court documents.

In fact, Papadopoulos was contacted after he learned he’d be joining the campaign, and the professor only mentioned the “thousands of emails” after he’d been on the Trump campaign for more than a month.

The professor, the statement indicates, had “substantial connections to Russian government officials” even though Papadopoulos claimed the professor was “a nothing”.

Mifsud in turn introduced him to a Russian woman and the Russian ambassador in London, and they discussed setting up meetings to talk about US-Russia ties in a Trump presidency.

Papadopoulos sent a “High-Ranking Campaign Official” an email titled “New message from Russia” back in June 2016, in which he said the Russian ministry of foreign affairs wanted to meet with either Trump or a campaign official in an off-the-record capacity, according to the prosecutors’ statement.

A Trump campaign supervisor encouraged Papadopoulos to make the trip “if it is feasible” on August 15, 2016.

Mifsud is reported to have told colleagues he was “meeting Boris Johnson for dinner re Brexit” on 19 October 2017.

A Foreign Office source said at the time: “The foreign secretary has not knowingly met this person, planned to meet this person, or indeed ever heard of this person before.”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-joseph-mifsud_uk_5a081ba6e4b01d21c83ef6b3

Must-See LGBTQ TV: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘Queen Sugar’ finales, and documentary ‘Bean’

www.glaad.org/blog/must-see-lgbtq-tv-star-trek-discovery-and-queen-sugar-finales-and-documentary-bean

Rebel Wilson Accuses Unnamed Male Star Of ‘Disgusting’ Sexual Misconduct
Rebel Wilson is the latest star to speak out about sexual misconduct in Hollywood, revealing she has also been a victim of it.

The ‘Pitch Perfect’ star has accused an unnamed male star of repeatedly asking her to perform a sex act.

In a series of tweets posted on Saturday, the actress also alleges that the star’s friends attempted to film the incident on their phones, before she managed to leave the room.

She tweeted: “A male star, in a position of power asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass. All whilst his male ‘friends’ tried to film the incident on their iPhones and laughed. I repeatedly said no and eventually got out of the room.

“I called my agent immediately and my lawyer made a complaint with the studio – basically to protect myself that in the event something similar ever occurred I’d be able to walk out of the job and not obliged to return.”

A male star, in a position of power asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass. All whilst his male ‘friends’ tried to film the incident on their iPhones and laughed. I repeatedly said no and eventually got out of the room.

November 11, 2017
I called my agent immediately and my lawyer made a complaint with the studio – basically to protect myself that in the event something similar ever occurred I’d be able to walk out of the job and not obliged to return.

November 11, 2017
Rebel says that she was subsequently threatened by one of the star’s reps, and told to be “nice and support the male star”, but she refused.
Later I was threatened by one of the star’s representatives to be nice and support the male star. I refused. The whole thing was disgusting. I’ve told hundreds of people in the industry the story in more graphic detail basically to warn them off this individual.

November 11, 2017
“The whole thing was disgusting,” she continues. “I’ve told hundreds of people in the industry the story in more graphic detail basically to warn them off this individual.”

The Australian star also shared a “hotel encounter” with a top director, and although nothing physical happened, she “bolted out of there” after the director’s wife called him.

Earlier in my career, I also had a ‘hotel room’ encounter with a top director. I thought we were there to talk comedy. Nothing physical happened because the guy’s wife called and started abusing him over the phone for sleeping with actresses and luckily she was yelling so loud…

November 11, 2017
that I could hear her and I bolted out of there immediately. I was so naive the thought of anything happening apart from ‘work talk’ didn’t even cross my mind.

November 11, 2017
A growing number of women and men have been sharing their own experiences of sexual misconduct and assault in the entertainment industry in recent weeks, sparked by a string of serious allegations levelled against the disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence – 0808 802 9999

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rebel-wilson-accuses-unnamed-male-star-of-disgusting-sexual-misconduct_uk_5a0803cfe4b01d21c83ef32b