US Navy Vet tortured by Iran hopeful for future after Khameneis death

A San Diego naval veteran who spent almost two years being tortured in captivity in Iran has spoken of his hopes following the death of Ayatollah Khamenei — and revealed he issued an impassioned plea to President Trump just weeks ago.Michael White, captured by the Islamic regime’s forces in July 2018 while visiting his fiancée in Iran, said he wrote to the commander in chief just weeks before the US launched “Operation Epic Fury” on the rogue nation, urging him to act.“Elated, celebratory,” White said of his feelings about Khamenei’s death, almost six years after the US State Department arranged for his release in June 2020.“They [Iran’s regime] tortured me and others,” the US Navy veteran from Imperial Beach, San Diego County, told KGTV.“[I] don’t mean to celebrate death, but this guy deserves to face justice for what he did to a lot of people.”White wrote to the White House amid the Iranian regime’s deadly crackdown on dissidents early this year, when more than 30,000 are feared to have been killed.“Now you have opportunity.

Do something great for Iranian people, to help them achieve their freedom,” White said.He added that he doesn’t know whether anyone in the White House read his letter, but spoke of his hopes as a result of the US-Israeli airstrikes.“It gives me more hope for the future,” White told KGTV.“Progress toward a more peaceful world.”White had just completed treatment for lymphoma when he flew from San Diego to Iran to visit his girlfriend, whom he had met online.Iranian authorities took him into custody during a ride to meet her and tortured him into confessing to being a spy.“They didn’t bring food, water.

Nothing, first three days I was there,” White said.Police took him to a site for high-risk individuals, put him in a cell with no bed or functioning toilet, and threatened him with guns and tasers.“Takes a whip, snaps me on my toes.Took a bucket of cold water, poured it on me while sleepi...