Free Republic

A tall, husky man with a large machine gun stands next to a missile in a field just south of Damascus, Syria. It’s a warm morning in May, and pale yellow butterflies flutter around him. Rabieh is a Hezbollah fighter stationed in the area, and like other Hezbollah members who spoke to Newsweek, he asked to be identified by a pseudonym because he isn’t authorized to speak to the press. "God willing, we will soon liberate Syria and go back to our country,” Rabieh says. "But until that happens, we will stay here until our last breath.” "Since we went...

Lebanon seems to be having a flag sale. Iranian flags, Hezbollah, the UN, Spain, Palestinian flags. They are all flying provocatively along the border with the northern Israeli community of Metulla. Just meters from the fence that separates the countries, not far from the site of a 1985 terror attack, Hezbollah has festooned the roads with signs of its presence. It’s purposely done so Israeli residents can see the flags and the billboards next to them. In Metulla there is a memorial for the 12 Israeli soldiers killed in the 1985 suicide bombing, while just across the border a huge...

Two Middle East immigrants in the United States have been arrested in connection with terrorist activities after the FBI found out their chilling ties to the terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. This is a wake-up call to every American. According to a news release from United States Attorney’s Office, District of New York, “Ali Kourani and Samer El Debek, a/k/a ‘Samer Eldebek,’ were arrested on Thursday, June 1, 2017, on charges related to their alleged activities on behalf of Hizballah[sic], a designated foreign terrorist organization. “ Kourani was reportedly living in the Bronx in New York, while Eldebek was living...

Fifteen days after London was targeted in a deadly terrorist attack — its second in less than three months — police in the British capital stood by Sunday as flags of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah were carried openly during a small pro-Palestine march through the city center. Hours after the march, yet another apparent attack occurred near a mosque in north London late Sunday night. One person was killed and eight injured after a van slammed into a crowd of people who had emerged from a prayer service at the mosque. A suspect has been arrested. Earlier, more than...

Hezbollah is a greater and more longstanding foundational threat to our homeland than ISIS. This was brought to the forefront last week when two Hezbollah operatives were arrested on charges of surveilling targets for the Iranian-backed terror group on our own soil. They were also naturalized citizens who were admitted from Lebanon as immigrants years ago. Sadly, this story received very little media coverage. President Trump would be wise to give a televised address making the case for his immigration moratorium and travel ban by using this case as a perfect case study for the need for smarter vetting and...

Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about. Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water.... Now comes John Kiriakou, again, with a wholly different story. On the next-to-last page...

A Senate Judiciary Subcmte. looks into the legal conduct of Justice Dept. lawyers who approved harsh interrogation techniques. One of the witnesses, fmr. FBI agent Ali Soufan, interrogated Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah.

Gilbert Chagoury donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. He also donated to a Lebanese organization with financial ties to Hezbollah, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department. Let that sink in. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. A huge donor to her family foundation had ties to an organization that the State Department had designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. How extensive were Chagoury’s ties to an organization that funded Hezbollah? So extensive that he was denied entry into the U.S.

Israel struck an arms supply hub operated by the Lebanese group Hezbollah near Damascus airport on Thursday, Syrian rebel and regional sources said, targeting weapons regularly sent from Iran via commercial and military cargo planes. Video carried on Lebanese TV and shared on social media sites showed the pre-dawn airstrikes caused a fire around the airport east of Damascus, suggesting fuel sources or weapons containing explosives were hit. Israel does not usually comment on any action it takes in Syria or the wider region. But Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, speaking to Army Radio from the United States, appeared to confirm...

A large explosion has hit an area near Damascus International Airport, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says. "The blast was huge and could be heard in Damascus," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK based monitoring group. The airport lies about 25km (15 miles) south-east of Syria's capital. The blast was reportedly followed by a large fire. There is no word on casualties. The cause is unclear......

Four ships being manufactured in Germany that were originally slated to each contain a single Iron Dome launcher reportedly will now have two. The threat of Hezbollah rockets targeting offshore natural gas platforms has prompted the Israeli Navy to add an extra Iron Dome launcher to the Sa’ar 6 missile ships that are currently being manufactured for Israel in Germany, Defense News reported on Monday. Defense News quoted a senior Israeli naval officer as saying the change in design was prompted by Hezbollah’s arsenal of Grad rockets and longer-range projectiles. “Because of this growing threat, we’re adding another launcher on...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1330.htm December 17, 2008 HP-1330 Treasury Designates Bank Melli Front Company in New York City Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated ASSA CORP., a front company created and controlled by Iran's Bank Melli and domiciled in New York, and its parent organization, ASSA CO. LTD, located in the Channel Islands. "This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli -- a known proliferator -- to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial...

London's Terror Bank August 21, 2008 In the war on terror, the U.S. has had no greater friend than the United Kingdom. And as the U.S. economy continues to suffer under the burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley, our British friends have demonstrated a more sensible approach to financial regulation. For both of the preceding statements, however, there is an exception. Even as the U.K. stands with us in rallying the world against doing business with Tehran, an Iranian bank with a history of financing terrorism continues to operate in London. On September 8, 2006, the U.S. Treasury announced it was cutting off...

The socialist government of Venezuela is reportedly struggling to meet the demands of its citizenry in obtaining passports, both to flee the country and to replace their expired passports abroad. The demand has led some officials to demand bribes in order to expedite the process, despite the debut of a new online system the government promised would issue passports with a 72-hour turnaround time.

The Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah currently has advanced missiles capable of hitting Israel's nuclear reactor, according to Hassan Nasrallah, the terror group's leader, who boasted in a recent interview that the terror group is prepared to strike the reactor and cause nuclear havoc across the Middle East. Nasrallah, speaking to an Iranian interviewer, disclosed that the Islamic Republic has smuggled a variety of new missiles to Hezbollah operatives and that the group is prepared to strike the Israeli nuclear reactor, which is located near the southeastern city of Dimona."We are ready to carry it out and we have the courage to...

Have Israel’s new F-35s seen combat? According to a French journalist, Israel’s newly received F-35A Adir stealth fighters have already seen combat. Reportedly, a first air strike was flown against targets in Syria in January – less than a month after the jets first touched down in Israel. Georges Malbrunot, who writes for French newspaper Le Figaro, cited French intelligence sources. He posted on Twitter today that examples of the Israeli F-35 – two of which have been delivered to the country to date – took part in a raid over Syrian territory on the night of January 12-13. The...

Congressional aides suspected of criminally misusing their access to House computer systems owed $100,000 to an Iraqi politician who is wanted by U.S. authorities and has been linked to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Middle Eastern terrorist outfit. Imran Awan and four of his relatives were employed as information technology (IT) aides by dozens of House Democrats, including members of the intelligence, foreign affairs and homeland security committees. The aides’ administrator-level IT access was terminated earlier this month amid a criminal probe by U.S. Capitol Police of a suspected security breach, including an off-site server housing congressional data. The Daily Caller News...

Since the second Lebanese war the Lebanese army has rearmed itself, strengthening its ability in the air as well as on the ground and sea, with the help of the United States, France and Saudi Arabia. In the past two years, a new challenge has risen on the northern front. Should Israel go to war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese army would fight on the Shi’ite terrorist organization’s side, Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post, quoted Israeli security officials as saying on Friday. According to the officials, unlike Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, a future war would...

Shortly after Hillary Clinton left the Obama administration, the State Department quietly took steps to purchase real estate in Nigeria from a firm whose parent company is owned by a major donor to the Clinton Foundation, records obtained by Fox News show. On March 20, 2013, William P. Franklin, an “international realty specialist” at the State Department, emailed Mary E. Davis, an American diplomat stationed in Africa, instructing her to “put on Post letterhead” an “expression of interest” by the department in purchasing property at Eko Atlantic, a massive real estate development off the coast of Lagos. Franklin further instructed...

In the past two years a new challenge has risen on the northern front. Should Israel go to war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Army would fight on the Shi'ite terror organization's side, Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli security officials as saying on Friday. According to the officials, unlike Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, a future war would feature the Lebanese Armed Forces on Hezbollah's side. Since the second Lebanese war, the Lebanese army has rearmed itself, strengthening its ability in the air as well as on the ground and sea, with the help...