I own a business in the US and can't trade my products directly with Cuba due to the embargo. This is an economic failure for US business.

The reason for this petition is only to let the American government know that perhaps U.S.A. government is concerned with Islamic republic in Iran atomic activity , but more than 80 million Iranians concern is human rights and only human rights .

I am a member of Military Families Speak Out. Our goal has to bring our family members home & the have them taken care of once they get home. The war in Afghanistan has been going on longer than any other in American history & our troops have been continually recycled through the war zones on repeated deployments. It is time for Pres. Obama to keep his PROMISE to bring these honorable Americans home NOW.

President Obama is under pressure to deepen U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war. But as President Obama recently said, “Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we’ve just gone through a decade of war at enormous cost to our troops and to our budget?” In particular, President Obama is under pressure to approve the transfer of "manpads," or shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, to Syrian insurgents. Transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents, who are fighting alongside groups affiliated with Al Qaeda, would increase the risk of terrorist attacks against civilian aircraft throughout the region, including in Israel. U.S. transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents would also violate international law, and undermine international agreements against the proliferation of these weapons that were initiated by the United States. Urge President Obama and Congress to resist pressure for deeper U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war by signing our petition.

As a Southern California resident, I know all too well how easy it is to get in the wrong lane - on either side of the border - and end up somewhere you didn't intend. This young former Marine had just moved here from another state and was driving at night in a borrowed truck. He ended up in the wrong lane and had no choice but to enter Mexico, where he attempted to turn around and come home immediately. When he truthfully answered questions at the border about having weapons, he was arrested. There is no reason for Mexico to be holding him, except to gain political leverage with the U.S. It is clear that he did not intend to commit a crime. Andrew Tahmooressi has already spent more than a month in a Mexican prison. The 25-year-old machine gunner was diagnosed with PTSD after his two deployments to Afghanistan, and was receiving treatment at a local VA hospital. But since his arrest in Mexico, his family and friends fear the worst. One likens his current situation to the conditions experienced by a POW, and worries about the effect of the confinement on his mental health. He should be released immediately.

This week, Congress has key opportunities to move to end the endless state of war that the country has been in for more than a decade. Reps. Justin Amash [R-MI] and John Conyers [D-MI] are introducing a bipartisan amendment on the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] that would bar the U.S. from transferring shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons (“manpads”) to insurgents in Syria. Transfer of these dangerous weapons, which could easily fall into the hands of anti-U.S. terrorists, would threaten civilian aircraft throughout the region and violate international agreements initiated by the U.S. The Obama Administration opposes the transfer of manpads to Syria; the Amash-Conyers amendment would codify the Administration’s position into law. Rep. Ted Yoho [R-FL] has introduced an amendment to the NDAA which would bar the CIA from conducting drone strikes. This reform, which is supported by Human Rights Watch, among others, would force the government to disclose more information about the drone strike policy. Reps. Barbara Lee [D-CA] and Adam Schiff [D-CA] intend to introduce an amendment to the NDAA which would repeal the 2001 AUMF. The broad 2001 AUMF, rushed through Congress in the days after the 9/11 attacks, has been used to justify a wide array of abuses in the “war on terror,” including torture, indefinite detention, and drone strikes outside of legal armed conflict against people who were not threatening the United States. Reps. Peter Welch [D-VT], Walter Jones [R-NC], and Mick Mulvaney [R-SC] are circulating a letter to the White House in opposition to the supply of manpads to insurgents in Syria. Senators Mark Udall [D-CO] and Rand Paul [R-KY] are demanding that the Administration publish secret memos written by David Barron purporting to justify the use of drone strikes outside a legal armed conflict, as ordered by an appellate court, before voting on Barron’s nomination as a judge. If other Senators back them, the Administration will be forced to share more information about the drone strike policy, information crucial for judging whether it is legal, ethical, and wise. Urge your legislators in the House and Senate to press for these crucial reforms by signing our petition.

The Democratic Party in the House of Representatives needs to appoint one and only one best possible person to the House Committee to investigate Benghazi one more time. There is no better candidate than Alan Grayson. It is time that the Democrats had a spokesperson who could stand up to the rhetoric of Republicans like Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Eric Cantor.

The embargo against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act hurt people in the US, Cuba and people around the world. These vicious policies restrict trade as well as the exchange of scientific, medical and cultural information. US companies cannot sell their products to Cuba and people in the US cannot buy Cuban products. Cuba has many innovative medicines for which people in the US have no access. For example, the Cubans have developed cancer fighting drugs, drugs which treat the effects of diabetes and drugs which reduce cholesterol. As a person recovering from cancer, my rights are being violated since I have no access to medicines which might help me. My rights are also violated since these policies make it difficult for me to travel to Cuba and benefit from scientific and cultural exchanges. It is past time to normalize relations with one of our closest neighbors. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Fractionalization in the Jewish Community has never been good for Jewish people or the state of Israel. Friendly fire from with the Jewish community should not be tolerated as a substitute for difficult discussions and finding common ground. Leadership of organizations allegedly representing us need to be continually reminded we are a distinct, but very diverse multicultural minority and need to work together on important issues. Excluding Jewish voices or threatening to leave any group trying to represent a "big tent" group of people and positions is not easy, but there needs to be inclusion and the listening to the other even when there are difficult disagreements.

Yahoo is making access to secure and reliable email more difficult for Iranians. How? Yahoo has decided to not allow people in Iran to create new email accounts simply because of where they live. Iran is facing unprecedented sanctions, but essential services like free email accounts have long been exempt from those laws.* No matter where you stand on the effectiveness of the Iran sanctions, those laws don't apply here. The White House and State Department have made clear that it is important to ensure sanctions do not disrupt Iranians' access to online communications.That's why they exempted the technology from sanctions in the first place. For many of us in the US who use services such as Gmail or Hotmail, not having access to Yahoo may not seem like a big deal. However, Yahoo is the most popular email service in Iran and over 63% of Iranians use Yahoo as their primary email provider.* This unnecessary move by Yahoo to limit access may force many Iranians to use insecure and less-stable government Internet communications services – essentially the local equivalent of an NSA-run email service. Safe and reliable email services is something we need everyone to have access to. We know our voices matter to Yahoo because Yahoo executives have been responsive to these kinds of campaigns before. Last year, after a prolonged campaign, Yahoo agreed to turn on HTTPS encryption by default, which made its email service far more secure for everyone. Especially now, after the NSA scandal, Yahoo cares about what people like us think about them more than ever. In a recent speech, Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, said that, as a company, Yahoo needs to “rebuild trust with our users.” We need to remind Yahoo that the trust it needs to rebuild isn’t just with users in the US, but all potential users around the globe. And that Yahoo’s stated commitment to Internet security needs to extend to all its users - no matter what country they’re from. Technology is a tool that makes it infinitely easier for people from all over the world to share their hopes, stories and dreams together. Now that the United States and Iranian governments are talking to each other after decades, we need to raise our voices to ensure that every day citizens can have that same privilege too.

Many non-governmental and human right organizations were reporting about the brutality of the Ethiopian government for the last 23 years. But still the Ethiopian government is one of the major recipients of not only of financial aid but also military training and hardware from United States Government, which the regime does not hesitate to use against our people. The killings of thousands of Oromo students and civilians suspected of being supporters of opposition groups in the last two decades, genocide in Gambella and Ogaden can witness this. The financial aid given to this regime is not being used to construct schools and hospitals but to buy weapons, to construct prisons and buy technologies to spy on its own citizen at home and in diaspora. In the last decade, millions of hectares of land were and are being snatched off poor peasants and sold to wealthy investors in the name of development. The farmers and their families are left for destitution and absolute poverty while TPLF officials and peoples arround them are building luxurious Villas with the aid money at the same spot were the farmers are displaced . Opposing this land grab and injustice, millions of Oromo students and civilians are demonstrating peacefully. But the response from the government side is as usual so brutal that over 50 high school and University students were killed just on one day, and the killing is still underway. With this petition we would like to ask you: 1) To urge the Ethiopian government to stop killing unarmed Oromo civilians and students. 2) To stop giving both financial and military aid to this regime, who use your tax payers' money to buy weapons which end up killing our people.

Over 200 female secondary school students were abducted from their boarding school by a group of people who are believed to be a part of the Boko Haram sect in Chibok, Northeastern Nigeria. In recent years, countries which have experienced insurgencies, wars, conflicts and internal turbulence record that the most devastating impacts of these crises are experienced by children, girls and young women, who are left vulnerable to extensive attacks and dehumanizing conditions. The abducted young girls are being affected by a conflict they did not create, and their voices need to be heard. It can only be imagined what they have undergone in these past weeks or what they are bring subjected to at hand. Please sign this petition so that this situation can be given the right level of coverage in international media and be addressed as a priority issue by UNICEF, UNWomen and other international organizations that can put significant pressure on the Nigerian Government to intensify its search efforts. These 234 girls need to be found and returned to the safety of their families and homes.