Free Republic

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says the official implementation Saturday of the landmark deal reached between Tehran and six world powers has satisfied all parties except radical extremists. Speaking in the parliament in comments broadcast live on state television, Rouhani said, "In (implementing) the deal, all are happy except Zionists, warmongers, sowers of discord among Islamic nations and extremists in the U.S. The rest are happy." ...

3 minute video aired on Iran TV showing capture of 10 American sailors. Dramatic music plays in background during video.

TEHRAN, Jan. 13 (MNA) – Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said IRGC Navy will decide about detained US marines who illegally entered Iran waters once chain of command passes down its orders. “All vessels must give prior notice if they want to sail through another country’s waters, especially if they are military,” said Ali Fadavi, Commander of the IRGC (the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) Navy, referring to the two American riverine command boats that had illegally crossed into Iranian territorial waters around Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf. “In the world of international relations, there is only one instance of innocent...

Analysis: Friday will see the removal of the sanctions regime imposed on Iran since 2007, and Russia is already deep in talks with Tehran on the sale of advanced weapons. Most of the economic sanctions imposed on Iran will be removed on Friday, US State Department officials said, while Russia readies the sale of advanced weapons to the Islamic Republic. January 15 will mark the end of the international sanctions regime, which has been in place since 2007 through a series of decisions by American Presidents George W. Bush and Barak Obama, legislation passed by the US Congress and in...

Iran has rejected an assessment by the U.N. nuclear agency that it did past work on nuclear arms but is praising some aspects of the agency's investigation of the issue, reflecting satisfaction that the more than decade-long probe has ended. Closure of the file means that some questions about the alleged weapons work may never be resolved. Before the 35-nation board of the U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution last month ending the investigation, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told the meeting that his investigation couldn't "reconstruct all the details of activities conducted by Iran in the past." But...

Even Iran's ayatollahs must be amazed at what they have gotten away with since last July's Vienna deal, which purportedly eliminated their nuclear weapons program. The mullahs now act like they call the shots on the deal and throughout the Middle East. Trashing the Saudi embassy in Tehran, “spontaneous” in appearance only, is just the latest evidence, recalling a 1979 “spontaneous” demonstration that resulted in U.S. diplomats held hostage for 444 days. Barack Obama repeatedly acquiesces in Iran's egregious behavior; President-in-waiting Hillary Clinton shows no sign of breaking with him or the Iran policies she initiated as Obama's secretary of...

If you're going to engage in a foreign policy capitulation, might as well do it when everyone is getting tanked and otherwise occupied. Say, New Year's Eve. Here's the story. In October, Iran test-fires a nuclear-capable ballistic missile in brazen violation of unanimous United Nations Security Council resolutions. President Barack Obama does nothing. One month later, Iran does it again. The administration makes a few gestures at the U.N. Then nothing. Then finally, on Dec. 30, the White House announces a few sanctions. They are weak, aimed mostly at individuals and designed essentially for show. Amazingly, even that proves too...

How does Iran spell relief? K E R R Y. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters at the State Department that the lifting of sanctions on Iran is just "days away." The $150 billion windfall for the terrorist state will happen "sooner rather than later," Kerry said. Meanwhile, there will be a vote in the House next week that would prevent the administration from lifting sanctions on Iranian banks and financial institutions unless the administration can certify that the companies are not financing terrorism or ballistic missiles. The Hill: According to reports, the White House has backed away from...

A day after reports that US President Barack Obama is planning new sanctions on companies taking part in Iran's ballistic missile program, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came out swinging Thursday, giving an order to escalate the missile program. Rouhani issued a decree to Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan to accelerate Iran's production of "various types of missiles," reports the Iranian state-run PressTV. [...] US officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July's controversial nuclear agreement to blacklist Iranian entities suspected of involvement in missile development. Rouhani on Thursday wrote in his decree that the new...

DENTON (CBSDFW.COM) – Denton Police are investigating a bomb threat to a church. Police say a representative from Denton Bible Church told police Monday a letter came to the church which included a bomb threat for the Christmas Eve service. The Police Department is working with church staff in an effort to identify and locate the person or persons who issued the threats. Pastoral staff and elders of Denton Bible Church advised they will be having the Christmas Eve service. They will also be adding additional security. This investigation is ongoing.

On Monday, as it announced it would be wrapping up its investigation into Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors in Vienna received a report from the IAEA Director General bringing evidence that Iran had indeed been working towards building a nuclear explosive device up until 2009. “This was one of the most important days in the nuclear Iran affair, and the IAEA board of governors did nothing” said a distraught Dr. Ephraim Asculai. The IAEA board of governors is a body made up of representatives from 35 members states of the 167...

Another test. Another form of terror — “Preston shopping centre bomb alert: Police say device was planted deliberately to endanger life,” British Army News, December 17, 2015 (thanks to Armaros): Preston’s Fishergate Shopping Centre remains closed as bomb disposal experts examine device Police have confirmed a device that went off at a shopping centre in Preston was planted deliberately and was intended to endanger life. Army bomb disposal experts are on the scene after the “suspicious device” went off in bin. It caused no real damage and no injuries.

Jacksonville, Fl. — Classes were resumed at 11:45 a.m. after a bomb threat caused an evacuation of Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach Wednesday.

A United Nations agency agreed Tuesday to close its investigation into Iran’s past nuclear activities, moving Tehran another step closer to large-scale sanctions relief following its deal with world powers this summer. Diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors unanimously approved a resolution drafted by the U.S. and five other countries that will close the investigation in the coming weeks. That five-month probe concluded that Iran had a nuclear-weapons-related program until 2003 and then continued some of those activities as late as 2009. However, the agency said Iran’s activities weren’t advanced and that there was no evidence...

The father of a Muslim middle school student says a teacher asked his daughter if she was carrying a bomb in her backpack. Abdirizak Aden said the teacher at Shiloh Middle School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, stopped his 13-year-old daughter, who wears a hijab, and asked if she had a bomb. ...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The FBI is aware of reports of [middle eastern] men [from Michigan] visiting Walmart stores in several cities in Missouri and purchasing or trying to purchase large quantities of cellular telephones. An FBI spokeswoman won't say exactly how much its agents are delving into the purchases. Some of the cities where the purchases and attempted purchases are reported by police and media are Macon, Columbia, Jefferson City, Lebanon, Ava, Jackson and Cape Girardeau. Break After an earlier version of this story was posted on Thursday afternoon, the Marshfield police chief called to say that a man who...

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has released a call to arms which asks Muslims everywhere to physically join ISIS in the area it now controls or simply take up the struggle against unbelievers wherever they are. The title of the message "March Forth Whether Heavy or Light" comes from a verse in the Koran which calls on believers to "strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah." In Baghdadi's view that striving is ISIS's war against unbelievers. "O Muslims, Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war," al-Baghdadi...

President Obama didn’t require Iranian leaders to sign the nuclear deal that his team negotiated with the regime, and the deal is not “legally binding,” his administration acknowledged in a letter to Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) obtained by National Review. “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document,” wrote Julia Frifield, the State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs, in the November 19 letter.

Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters. ...

Syrian rebel sources claimed Saturday night that they had killed Iranian al Qods chief, the commander of Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria, Gen. Qassem Soleiman, in the fighting east of Aleppo. This claim is not confirmed by any other sources. The rebels say they located the Iranian general’s movements by means of intelligence and struck his car with a TOW missile, killing him and three other Iranian commanders with him, Masoud Askari, Mahmud Dahakan and Ahmed Rajai. If this is confirmed it would count as a signal Syrian rebel feat.