US Lawmakers Slam Iran-Backed Cyberattack On Boston Children’s Hospital

The group released a detailed report compiling evidence that the six-year detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on spying charges amounted to a crime under international law and cited other foreign and dual nationals detained in Iran “whose arbitrary detention may amount to hostage-taking.” Amnesty said it last month submitted its evidence to the British parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which has set up its own enquiry.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released and returned to London in March following the British government paying a £400-million ($500-million) debt to Iran outstanding since the 1970s.

“They used spurious national security charges and sham judicial proceedings against her with the aim of exerting pressure on the UK government to settle its debts,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Amnesty noted that after Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release “a slew of reports by Iranian state media outlets” stated “she had been released ‘in exchange’ for the payment.” These media reports “mirrored “almost identical statements made by the Iranian authorities to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family during her detention.”

But while both Iran and the United Kingdom were parties to International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, requiring them to both prevent and to punish hostage-taking, Eltahawy argued, the “prevailing climate of impunity in Iran has emboldened the authorities to continue using dual and foreign nationals as political bargaining chips without any fear of consequences.”

Request extradition

“The Convention,” the Amnesty report explains, “defines the crime of hostage-taking as the seizure or detention of any person accompanied with threats to cause them harm including by killing, injuring or continuing to detain them in order to compel a third party, such as a state, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage.”

Hence, Amnesty further argued, “where sufficient evidence exists” against Iranian officials, “the UK must request their extradition and prosecute the officials in line with international fair trial standards.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been critical of the British handling of her case, including one representative standing by in Tehran as she was required on release to sign a confession. In 2017, then British foreign secretary Boris Johnson told the House of Commons Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Iran “simply teaching people journalism” – rather than on holiday.

The Amnesty report also highlighted the cases of Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian doctor on death row, Austrian-Iranians Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, German-Iranians Nahid Taghavi and Jamshid Sharmahd, and two British-Iranians Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz (the last also a United States national). It noted the death in custody in March of 83-year-old Australian-Iranian national Shokrollah Jebeli “after the authorities deliberately denied him adequate specialized medical care and withheld his medication for his multiple serious health conditions.”

Wray, in a speech delivered at a conference hosted by Boston College, detailed the incident as he warned about the rising threat cyber-attacks sponsored by nation states like Iran, Russia and China pose to companies and US infrastructure.

“We got a report from one of our intelligence partners indicating Boston Children's was about to be targeted, and understanding the urgency of the situation, the cyber squad in our Boston field office raced out to notify the hospital," Wray said.

Wray said officials with the FBI were able to quickly get the nationally renowned children's hospital the information needed to "stop the danger right away" and mitigate the threat.

"Quick actions by everyone involved, especially at the hospital, protected both the network and the sick kids that depended on it," Wray said.

Wray called the incident "one of the most despicable cyberattacks I have ever seen" and was an example of the increasing risks hospitals and other providers of critical infrastructure face from hackers, including state-sponsored ones. The attack put the lives of patients at risk.

"If malicious cyber actors are going to purposefully cause destruction, or hold data and systems for ransom, they tend to hit us somewhere that's really going to hurt," Wray said.

Iran has been repeatedly accused of cyber-attacks against the West, Israel and rival Arab countries in the Middle East.

Reporting by Reuters

According to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), dozens of fighter jets conducted a drill that included "long-range flight, aerial refueling, and striking distant targets" over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday night. 

In May, The Times of Israel reported that the drill would simulate a large-scale strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The exercise is part of the military’s major Chariots of Fire drills, which involves nearly all branches of the IDF, and has been focusing on training for fighting on Israel’s northern borders, including against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced last year that he the army had “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Tehran’s nuclear program, that would include finding ways to strike facilities that are buried deep underground and preparing for an expected retaliation against Israel by Iran and its allies throughout the region

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Monday Iran must understand that it will pay the price for its terrorist activities and threatening Israelis around the globe, in reference to Iranian threats of revenge for the assassination last week of Revolutionary Guard colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei in Tehran.

He was a commander in Iran’s extra-territorial Qods (Quds) Force reportedly in charge of organizing attacks against Israel.

The Washington Free Beacon cited information obtained by United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) to reveal a network of Chinese petrochemical refiners, or "teapots," behind the upswing in illicit Iranian crude oil trade, saying they provided the Islamic Republic with at least $22 billion in revenue since President Joe Biden took office.

These Chinese private firms, which are not state-controlled, are primarily responsible for "funding this illicit and uniquely lucrative trade" with Iran, the report said, adding records seen by the UANI detailed at least 40 different shipments of Iranian oil to China dating back to 2019. 

The information about small refiners buying Iranian oil is not new but the details in UANI’s report shed further light on the illicit trade.

"Since the US has in fact sanctioned Chinese state-owned imports in the past, such as Zhuhai Zhenrong, the decision to import Iranian oil via dozens of small unaffiliated ‘non-state' firms helps obscure the Chinese government's role and protect its own big firms from scrutiny, accountability, and attendant sanctions," a brief issued said.

Earlier in the year, Bloomberg said teapot refineries have benefited from Washington’s sanctions on Iran and Venezuela because they bargain for more discounts while other buyers have stopped purchases in fear of the US financial system freezing their assets.

Idaho’s Republican Senator Jim Risch said in a tweet on Tuesday that “The Biden Admin must prioritize efforts to address this egregious behavior, which continues to threaten the US, its partners, and freedom of navigation everywhere.”

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the "unjustified seizure" of the Greek-flagged vessels, saying, "Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights and freedoms are a threat to maritime security and the global economy.”

France has also denounced the capture of the oil tankers in Persian Gulf waters, urging the Islamic Republic “to immediately release the crews and vessels."

The European Union also issued a statement on Sunday to express its serious concern to the Islamic Republic following the capture of the oil tankers, and called for transparency, de-escalation and a fast resolution of the issue.

On Friday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized the tankers in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf about a week after the confiscation of Iranian oil from a tanker held off the Greek coast and its transfer to the US.

Iran said on Saturday that the crew of two Greek tankers had not been detained and are on board their vessels.