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The recent harsh treatment of the reunion participants has been reported widely in the US and World media. Below you will find some of these artilces. If you have come across new artilces, please send us a link so that we can include them on this page.

• Los Angeles Times
• The Houston Chronicle
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• San Jose Mercury News
• Agence France Presse -- English
• Associated Press Worldstream
• The Associated Press State & Local Wire
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• BBC Persian
• BBC Persian - 2
• Science and Development Network
• Radio Farda
• National Public Radio (NPR)
• Open Democracy

Los Angeles Times

Iranian Professionals' U.S. Visas Revoked;
Dozens en route to a reunion in California are turned back at American airports.

Amid rising tensions with Iran, U.S. officials have abruptly revoked the visas of dozens of Iranian professionals headed to a university reunion in Northern California this weekend, refusing them entry as they landed at several U.S. airports.

The men and women had obtained 15-day visitor visas to attend the fourth global alumni reunion of Iran's Sharif University of Technology, a prestigious institution known as the "MIT of Iran."

Though a handful successfully entered the United States, by the time the association festivities began at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency late Friday, it appeared that visas of the bulk of alumni from Iran had been revoked under a 2002 national security law.

Organizers said they knew of about 40 barred from entering the U.S. in recent days. About a dozen of the visitors, some traveling with spouses and children, were detained at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday, and some were held overnight in what one described to a friend in a brief phone call as "jail conditions."

A State Department spokeswoman said she could not discuss the cases because of confidentiality laws, but stressed that visa revocations in general are individual decisions and not politically motivated.

Individual revocations of visas have been common in the post-Sept. 11 era. But immigration and human rights attorneys condemned the apparent en masse crackdown on the Sharif alumni as a shortsighted political move inspired by recent tensions over Iran's nuclear program and links to Hezbollah.

"To punish Iranians who are potential allies of pro-democracy steps in order to somehow punish the Iranian government is just inane," said Peter Schey, a Los Angeles-based human rights and constitutional law attorney.

Conference organizers and immigration attorneys who scrambled unsuccessfully to gain access to the detainees said it was not clear how many had been stopped and turned back.

An indication of trouble came 10 days ago when Kourosh Elahidoost, a 49-year-old electrical engineer, was turned back at LAX. Organizers first believed his case to be isolated, but as dozens more alumni were turned away in Chicago, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and in Europe, they realized it was systematic.

In a telephone interview Friday from Tehran, Elahidoost said he was told by consular officials in Vienna that his visa was revoked under a U.S. law that bars the issuance of visas to nationals of Iran and four other countries regarded as "state sponsors of terrorism," unless the person is deemed to be no threat to national security.

Elahidoost said he was depressed and befuddled over why he was barred from what was to be his first visit to the United States. He was held overnight at a detention center in Santa Ana.

"I have never been a political person in my whole life," said Elahidoost, a board member of Parstableau, an Iranian firm that manufactures electrical switchboards. "I have never joined any political organization or the government. Never."

Reunion organizers in California blasted the U.S. actions, saying they were targeting Iran's best and brightest technocrats, many of them Western-educated, who could help ease volatile relations between the countries. About 120 Iranians had received visas to attend the reunion, according to Fredun Hojabri, a San Diego retired professor and conference organizer who founded the alumni association in 2000.

"These are not revolutionaries or crazies; these are among the most educated elite in Iran," said Najmedin Meshkati, a USC engineering professor who was planning to attend the reunion. "If these guys posed a security risk, they shouldn't have been issued a visa in the first place.

"This is not the way to win Iranian hearts and minds," Meshkati said.

As reports of visa revocations grew, Hojabri sent an SOS to his colleagues in Iran on Thursday, advising those who had not yet left to cancel their travel plans.

Hojabri said he was mystified as to why a few Iranians were admitted and others were not when all of them were issued valid U.S. visas as recently as a week ago. He and other association members speculated that the actions were tied to rising U.S. tensions with Iran over the nuclear issue and the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

But the State Department spokeswoman dismissed any link. In general, she said, any decision to revoke a visa is made on an individual basis for very specific reasons outlined in the law. These include a criminal background, ties to terrorism and failure to present evidence of an intention to return to the home country, she said.

Elahidoost emphatically denied having any reasons for U.S. suspicion. Asked if he supported Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia currently battling Israel in Lebanon, he said: "Never."

He said he had traveled to Vienna to apply for a U.S. visa a few months ago and received it at the end of June. But when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on July 25 about 3:15 p.m. from Amsterdam, he was pulled aside, told his visa had been revoked and led away for questioning. He said the officers searched him and all of his belongings, and asked about his job, family and purpose for traveling to the United States. They asked no questions about his political views, he said.

After that, Elahidoost said he was told to sign a form withdrawing his application for a visa or he would be deported and barred from entering the country for five to 10 years. He signed the form.

About 10 p.m., he said he was placed in a windowless van and driven to a Santa Ana detention center, where he was held overnight in a room with no bed, a "very, very dirty toilet" and a surveillance camera. He was returned to LAX the next day and flew back to Amsterdam.

"I was very scared and very upset. They treated me like a criminal," said Elahidoost, who said he learned English from American teachers at the Iran-America Society in Tehran in the days before the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Parvin Ghoreishi, a 52-year-old engineering consultant in Tehran, also said she was shocked and hurt by her treatment when turned back at the Chicago airport. She said she had obtained her visa in Istanbul four days before traveling from there to Chicago on July 30 but was sent back the same day after being fingerprinted, photographed and questioned.

After the reunion, Ghoreishi said, she had planned to visit a sister in Denver and spend time with her nieces and nephews, whom she has not seen in 12 years. She said she had e-mailed U.S. consular officials in Istanbul asking for a refund of the $4,000 she spent.

"I am very tired, sad, angry, depressed," she said in a telephone interview from Tehran. "I had a lot of dreams for this trip."

Conference organizers said about 550 of the group's 2,500 members had registered for the conference, which had scheduled forums on the management of natural disasters, entrepreneurship and venture capital.

The nonprofit global organization was founded to "facilitate communication and collaboration" among graduates, faculty and staff of Sharif University, conference organizer Hojabri said.

He said the group had nothing to do with Iran's government.

"Personally, I am against the Iranian government," said Hojabri, who fled to the United States in 1981 after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of the country and shut down many universities. "We left everything to come here."

The Houston Chronicle

U.S. refuses entry to Iranian scientific delegation;
Arriving for a quake conference, as many as 100 find visas revoked

SAN JOSE, CALIF. - It was supposed to be an academic gathering about earthquakes. But a political temblor bouncing all the way from the war-torn Middle East shook a meeting of elite Iranian scientists and engineers in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday, when dozens of their colleagues arrived to find their visas had been inexplicably revoked.

U.S. consular officials in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on why as many as 100 people with the Sharif University of Technology Association, who carried valid visas approved months ago, were detained over the past week when they arrived at San Francisco International and other airports from Iran.

The three-day conference at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara is tied to the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as well as recent earthquakes in Iran.

Leaders of the California-based technology group, known as SUTA, said the actions of the U.S. government were clearly political.

``This must be retaliation for what's going on in the region,'' said Fredun Hojabri, a retired University of California-San Diego professor and SUTA founding president. ``We're a nonprofit, nonreligious, nonpolitical organization . . . our first reunion was in 2000 in San Diego. They know all about us.''

Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs, declined to comment on the case of detained and deported Iranians, citing confidentiality.

Visas ``can be revoked at any time, when there are indications of possibility of ineligibility for admission,'' she said.

The United States has accused Iran of supplying and supporting Hezbollah, a militant group in a conflict with Israel in southern Lebanon.

Before violence broke out a month ago, the U.S. government was at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, alleged involvement with the Iraqi insurgency and anti-Western and anti-Israel statements from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Denied travelers were given the choice to withdraw their applications and head home or face a ban on applying for future U.S. visas if they contested the revocation, SUTA representatives said.

Most chose simply to return home, but not before spending the night in ``jail-like'' conditions with spouses and children in some cases.

``We're here in a country known for law and order,'' said Max Panahandeh, principal at Berkeley Applied Science and Engineering Inc., whose engineering colleague was detained at San Francisco International overnight before being put on a plane back to Tehran on Friday. ``You don't expect to see these kinds of incidents that are common in other countries. These individuals are highly professional and coming with families and children. To keep them in a setup like a prison or jail environment is against their human rights.''

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is of Iranian heritage, condemned the action of customs and immigration officials.

``Everyone should be concerned that rights have been breached,'' Mirkarimi said at a San Francisco news conference called by SUTA on Friday.

SUTA was expecting about 650 people this weekend from around the world at its meeting, which is held every two years in cities around the world.

About 120 Sharif alumni and professors in Tehran were granted visas out of about 300 who applied after rigorous security checks, said Elahe Enssani, a civil engineering professor at San Francisco State University and a Sharif graduate.

They obtained visas in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and other countries because the United States does not have diplomatic ties with Iran.

The San Francisco Chronicle

Reunion marred as U.S. revokes visas for 10 Iranian alumni

Government officials have detained or turned back at least 10 Iranian professionals who were attempting to enter the country for a university reunion in Santa Clara, according to friends, relatives and organizers of the event.

The reunion of Iran's Sharif University of Technology Association was scheduled to begin Friday at a downtown hotel. Instead, organizers joined attorneys for a news conference in San Francisco to announce that some of the alumni had been turned away.

At least 120 people from Iran had been granted temporary visas to attend the reunion. They were cleared in background checks and boarded planes, organizers said.

But after arriving at airports in Los Angeles and San Francisco, some were questioned and detained by State Department officials.

"They would not give us a reason as to why," said Stacy Tolchin, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild of the Bay Area.

The U.S. Department of State acknowledged that a number of visas had been revoked but would not say why or how many, citing a confidentiality requirement in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

"I understand that a number of people have been turned around at the airport because their visas were revoked," said State Department spokeswoman Laura Tischler. "Each application is adjudicated on a case-by-case basis. I can't provide specifics on these applicants or tell you how many were revoked."

Nancy Hormachea, another attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, said she thinks the revoked visas had to do with a report on July 20 that Iranian troops were fighting in Lebanon.

"Maybe this is tied to that," she said.

The first incident was reported in Los Angeles on July 25.

The visitors were told they could withdraw their visa applications or be deported, which means they would not be able to apply to enter the country for at least five years.

Fredun Hojabri, founder of the alumni association, said he expected more than 650 people to attend the reunion this weekend. Of those, 152 had applied for temporary visas.

"We are a nonpolitical organization of professional people," Hojabri said. "There is no excuse for this. We think this is a highly political situation. They want to show some toughness," he said, referring to the government.

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is Iranian American, attended the news conference and said he was concerned about a lack of equity in the way immigration laws are applied to people of Middle Eastern descent.

"It is absurd we would detain Iranians who are visiting the U.S.," he said.

Elahe Enssani, an engineer, read a statement from one of the visitors who had been detained and has since returned to Iran.

The man, Kourosh Elahidoost, wrote that he had been questioned at Los Angeles International Airport on July 25 after taking a KLM flight. He was told his visa had been revoked, was questioned about Iran and was told he could withdraw his application or be deported, Enssani said.

"He chose to leave the country," she said.

San Jose Mercury News

Iranian scientists have visas revoked on eve of meeting in U.S.

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ It was supposed to be an academic gathering about earthquakes. But a political temblor bouncing all the way from the war-torn Middle East shook a meeting of elite Iranian scientists and engineers in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday when dozens of their colleagues arrived to find their visas had been inexplicably revoked.

U.S. consular officials in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on why as many as 100 people with the Sharif University of Technology Association, who carried valid visas approved months ago, were detained over the last week when they arrived at San Francisco International and other airports from Iran.

The three-day conference at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara is tied to the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as well as recent earthquakes in Iran.

Leaders of the California-based technology group, known as SUTA, said the actions of the U.S. government were clearly political.

"This must be retaliation for what's going on in the region," said Fredun Hojabri, a retired University of California-San Diego professor and SUTA founding president. "We're a non-profit, non-religious, non-political organization . . . our first reunion was in 2000 in San Diego. They know all about us."

Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs, declined to comment on the case of detained and deported Iranians, citing confidentiality.

Visas "can be revoked at anytime, when there are indications of possibility of ineligibility for admission," she said.

The United States has accused Iran of supplying and supporting Hezbollah, a militant group in a conflict with Israel in southern Lebanon. Before violence broke out a month ago, the U.S. government was at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, alleged involvement with the Iraqi insurgency and anti-Western and anti-Israel statements from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Denied travelers were given the choice to withdraw their applications and head home, or face a ban on applying for future U.S. visas if they contested the revocation, SUTA representatives said.

Most chose simply to return home, but not after spending the night in "jail-like" conditions with spouses and children in some cases.

"We're here in a country known for law and order," said Max Panahandeh, principal at Berkeley Applied Science and Engineering Inc. whose engineering colleague was detained at San Francisco International overnight before being put on a plane back to Tehran on Friday. "You don't expect to see these kinds of incidents that are common in other countries. These individuals are highly professional and coming with families and children. To keep them in a setup like a prison or jail environment is against their human rights."

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is of Iranian heritage, condemned the action of customs and immigration officials and tried contacting the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., but had yet to hear back Friday.

"Everyone should be concerned that rights have been breached," Mirkarimi said at a San Francisco news conference called by SUTA on Friday.

SUTA is expecting about 650 people this weekend from around the world at its meeting, which is held every two years in cities around the world. About 120 Sharif alumni and professors in Tehran were granted visas out of about 300 who applied after rigorous security checks, said Elahe Enssani, a civil engineering professor at San Francisco State University and a Sharif graduate. They obtained visas in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and other countries because the United States does not have diplomatic ties with Iran.

Enssani said the group doesn't know how many people were turned away at airports, but 15 people were allowed to enter from Tehran two weeks ago.

The first visa denial came July 25, when attendee Kourosh Elahidoost was turned away at Los Angeles International Airport "for reasons of national security" he wrote in an e-mail to SUTA after returning to Tehran.

As many as a dozen were detained at San Francisco International on Thursday.

Hamed Khalkhali, an aerospace engineer from Irvine, sat by himself in the lounge at the Hyatt on Friday afternoon, disappointed that his former professors would not be joining him.

"It's just some educated people coming here for a scientific reunion," he said. "The whole thing is just a misunderstanding."

Agence France Presse

US deports Iranian academics

US officials at northern California's San Francisco international airport deported a group of Iranian academics who were traveling to attend an alumni reunion, state television reported Sunday.

"Some 40 professors and graduates of Sharif University were not allowed entry into the United States," the report said, adding that some members of the group had been briefly detained even though they held visas.

"The airport officials threatened them, so they filled out a form and said they had refused to enter the United States at their own will."

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties after Iranians invaded the US embassy in Tehran in 1980 and took 52 Americans hostage following the Islamic Revolution.

Both countries fingerprint each other's citizens on arrival at the airport before entering the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian expatriates live in the United States, mainly in California.

Associated Press

15 Iranians turned away from California airports after visas revoked

At least 15 Iranian citizens were turned away from California airports in recent days after their visas were revoked without explanation.

The Iranians were gathering this weekend for a reunion of graduates of Sharif University of Technology in Santa Clara, California.

One of the Iranians, Kourosh Elahidoost, said the State Department informed him that his visa to travel in the United States has been revoked "for reasons of national security."

During a detention at and around Los Angeles International Airport that lasted almost two days, he was questioned about his job, the names of his children and other personal matters, Elahidoost said in an e-mail message to friends.

Elahidoost said he was given two choices: Return voluntarily to Iran, or face deportation, which he was told meant he could not apply for another visa for up to 10 years.

Elahidoost said he is an electrical engineer in Tehran. "I have never had any political tendency to any organization or party," he said.

At least 14 other Iranians gathering in California were also turned back, most from San Francisco International Airport, said Elahe Enssani, an alumnus of the university who is also a member of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission.

A State Department spokeswoman, Nancy Beck, declined to explain the revoked visas.

"All visa applications are adjudicated in accordance with the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, and each application for a visa is adjudicated on a case-by-case basis," she said.

"Individual visa records are confidential. We are unable to provide additional information on this case," she said.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

15 Iranians turned away from Calif. airports after visas revoked

At least 15 Iranian citizens were turned away from California airports in recent days after their visas were revoked without explanation.

The Iranians were gathering this weekend for a reunion of graduates of Sharif University of Technology in Santa Clara, Calif.

One of the Iranians, Kourosh Elahidoost, said the State Department informed him that his visa to travel in the United States has been revoked "for reasons of national security."

During a detention at and around Los Angeles International Airport that lasted almost two days, he was questioned about his job, the names of his children and other personal matters, Elahidoost said in an e-mail message to friends.

Elahidoost said he was given two choices: Return voluntarily to Iran, or face deportation, which he was told meant he could not apply for another visa for up to 10 years.

Elahidoost said he is an electrical engineer in Tehran. "I have never had any political tendency to any organization or party," he said.

At least 14 other Iranians gathering in California were also turned back, most from San Francisco International Airport, said Elahe Enssani, an alumnus of the university who is also a member of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission.

A State Department spokeswoman, Nancy Beck, declined to explain the revoked visas.

"All visa applications are adjudicated in accordance with the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, and each application for a visa is adjudicated on a case-by-case basis," she said.

"Individual visa records are confidential. We are unable to provide additional information on this case," she said.

Chronicle of Higher Education, August 7, 2006

Dozens of Iranians Who Tried to Attend University Reunion in U.S. Were Denied Entry

By BURTON BOLLAG and DAN CARNEVALE

Dozens of Iranian professors and alumni en route to a university reunion in California had their visas revoked after they landed in the United States last week, and then were sent back home, according to news reports and a participant who attended the weekend gathering.

Graduates and faculty members of Sharif University of Technology, a prestigious institution in Iran, held the reunion in Santa Clara, Calif., from Friday through Sunday. Attending the event were about 600 participants, most of whom were U.S. residents.

Officials of the Sharif University of Technology Association, which is the alumni group that sponsored the reunion, could not be reached for comment in recent days.

About 120 people who live in Iran were granted visas to visit the United States for the reunion, said Ahmad Ganji, a professor of mechanical engineering at San Francisco State University and a Sharif graduate who attended the event. More than half of those 120 had their visas revoked after they arrived at American airports, he said.

Mr. Ganji said he was waiting at the San Francisco airport for almost three hours to pick up a friend from Iran on Thursday. After the delay, he contacted U.S. immigration officials, who briefly connected him to his friend by phone. That's when he found out that his friend had been taken into custody with nine other people, he said.

"They shackled them, and they sent them to jail," Mr. Ganji said. "They were put in a regular jail with what he told me were criminals."

Eventually his friend was sent back to Iran, Mr. Ganji said. No explanation was given as to why the visa was revoked, he said.

U.S. officials declined to comment about specific detentions or deportations. But a State Department official who would speak only on the condition of anonymity confirmed that "a number of visas" of Iranians who had planned to attend the reunion were revoked.

Because Iran is identified as a state sponsor of terrorism, people from that country who request visas are subject to "special processing," the State Department official said. "Information was received after the visas were issued, indicating they were ineligible for a visa," the official said, refusing to elaborate.

"All cases were adjudicated on an individual and case-by-case basis," the official said.

But Mr. Ganji said he believes that the timing of the visa revocation was politically motivated. "My speculation is that it's the political situation in the Middle East," he said. "I'm not in politics or anything like that, but this has greatly disturbed me."

The Sharif University of Technology Association held a news conference on Friday lamenting the visa revocations and subsequent deportations. The group has acquired legal representation, but Mr. Ganji said there may be little lawyers can do because the people who were deported are not American citizens.

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: All Things Considered 9:00 PM EST
August 7, 2006 Monday
LENGTH: 1142 words
HEADLINE: No California Reunion for Iranian Visitors
ANCHORS: MELISSA BLOCK
REPORTERS: RICHARD GONZALES