Free Republic

TEHRAN - Iran announced Saturday that it had released four Iranian-Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States. The announcement from the judiciary on state television did not identify the four, but Iranian news media said they included Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent; Amir Hekmati, a Marine veteran; and Saeed Abedini, a pastor. There were discrepancies in the Iranian reports about the identity of the fourth prisoner. It was not immediately clear whom the Americans released, but Iranian reports said seven Iranians were freed. The exchange was apparently orchestrated to coincide with the expected announcement...

To paraphrase Michelle Obama, after seven years of her husband's being in office, I can safely say many of us are, for the first time in our lives, ashamed to be Americans. His disingenuous State of the Union speech last night was one reminder of this; the seizing of two Navy riverine vessels by Iranian Revolutionary Guards yesterday was another. The ten sailors on board those boats are lucky. News agencies have announced that they have just been released. According to CNN, "the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and U.S. officials appear to be at odds over whether the U.S. apologized...

ice President Joe Biden told CBS New the U.S. did not apologize to Iran after the country released ten Navy sailors it had abducted on Tuesday night. “When you have a problem with the boat, (do) you apologize the boat had a problem? No,” he explained. “And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.” The vice president explained that the “the Iranians picked up both boats — as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued.” Iranian officials then “realized they were there in distress and said they would release them,...

Iran has released 10 US sailors after holding them overnight, bringing a swift end to an incident that had rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had freed the sailors on Wednesday after determining they had entered Iranian territorial waters by mistake. The sailors had been detained aboard two US Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday. "Our technical investigations showed the two US Navy boats entered Iranian territorial waters inadvertently," the IRGC said in a statement carried by state...

American hostages held in Iran will get up to $4m compensation each from the US government - 36 years after ordeal The former 1979 American hostages in Iran will get financial compensation after US lawmakers included a payment provision in spending legislation The men and women were taken hostage by militant Iranian student groups at the US embassy spending 444 days in captivity They will be given restitution of up to $4.4million each, or $10,000 for each day they were held There were 66 original captives in the Iran hostage crisis with 13 released in November 1979, and one was...

A joint Afghan-U.S. special forces operation freed at least 40 Afghan prisoners from a Taliban prison in the southern Helmand province, authorities said Friday. The troops carried out a helicopter assault on the prison in Nawzad district Thursday night, according to a statement from U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The operation freed 40 prisoners, who were captured Afghan police, army and border police. No U.S. ground forces were involved in the raid, Fox News confirmed.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.581113805374243.1073741831.230145907137703&type=3 thqt picture was taken in Paris when Obama was there letting ISIL take over the world

ISLAMABAD: Eight “high value terrorists” wanted by Pakistan and other countries are holed up inside Lal Masjid, while another was killed by security forces in the ongoing operation, Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq said on Sunday. “Nine suspected terrorists said to be far more dangerous and harmful than Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives were hiding inside the mosque compound,” Haq told a press conference here. Haq said that the militants and not Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Lal Masjid’s deputy chief cleric, were controlling the mosque. “The militants are holding children and Ghazi hostage,” he said. He said that about 500 male...

DEVELOPING: Reuters is reporting that a hostage situation in the northern French town of Roubaix, near the Belgium border, is taking place. Shots reportedly have been fired and medical services personnel have been called to the scene.

A group of armed men are said to have taken hostages in the northern French town of Roubaix near the border with Belgium, reports say. A police operation is under way and an area of the town has been cordoned off. Local media said the incident took place at around 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The incident does not appear to be related to the ongoing security situation in France following the 13 November attacks in Paris. Gunshots were fired, according to reports and local residents. The armed men may have been planning a robbery, reports say.

Muslim terrorists opened fire on an upscale hotel on Friday in the city of Bamako, the capital of the western African state of Mali. The jihadists used automatic weapons according to security sources, and apparently have taken people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel. Some reports indicate that at least three people have died in the attack. The luxury hotel, which has 190 rooms, is a popular site for Western officials according to French-language media. According to the French RFI radio, the attack was launched by three assailants who entered the hotel with diplomatic cars. Security forces have set up...

Gunmen have taken 170 hostages, killing three so far at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako. The gunmen are reported to be releasing people that can recite verses from the Quran. Automatic weapon fire was heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre where security forces have set up a security cordon, according to Agence France Presse. Security sources told AFP the gunmen were "jihadists" who had entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates. "It's all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor," one security source said. Malian soldiers,...

In 2014, Sister Hatune Dogan had been rescuing Christian and Yazidi girls from ISIS captivity for eight months, but she was desperate. If only the world could see the harm being done, understand that rescues were possible, people would open their hearts and their wallets, [so she] found an independent British filmmaker, Edward Watts.. In an email dated February 6, 2015, Watts’s producer, Rosie Garthwaite, wrote: "Hatune you will be the lead story in a documentary about women living under IS.” Watts spent nine days in Germany, Turkey, and Iraq with Sister Hatune. She introduced him to Sheikh Khaire, the...

PARIS - Shootings and explosions erupted in the Paris area on Friday night, and French news services said at least 39 people were dead, dozens wounded and others taken hostage in what appeared to be coordinated militant attacks. French television reported that one of at least two explosions had struck near Paris at the country's main sports stadium, forcing the hasty evacuation of President François Hollande. The explosion occurred during a France-Germany soccer match. The shooting broke out at a popular concert hall, The Bataclan, where a death metal band was playing, and the France 24 website said dozens of...

Two police officials said at least 26 people have been killed in shootings and explosions around Paris Friday, in the deadliest violence in France in decades. A police official said 11 people were killed in a Paris restaurant in the 10th arrondissement, and about 15 killed in the Bataclan theater, where a hostage-taking is under way. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy.

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were convinced their one-sided nuclear deal would lead to better relations with Iran, but it’s already doing the reverse.Tehran has taken two more Americans hostage just this month — and followed up with a massive cyberattack on the US government, especially the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs.The kicker: Iran is holding the nuke deal hostage — threatening to junk it if Obama tries to punish the country for its fresh outrages.

  Reports: WaPo's Jason Rezaian convicted in Iran http://t.co/8H5bVnPY5K | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/D1MH9fICXI   — POLITICO (@politico) October 12, 2015 For people who might not have followed the story as it unfolded there’s an easier explanation for why Iran is holding Jason Rezaian.   The underpinning is Iran knowing the U.S. State Department and CNN collaborate to use media as a tool to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. In December 2014 CNN ran and episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown filmed in Iran. It seemed innocuous at the time, yet as with all things Turner Broadcasting, it also seemed to be another set...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he would renegotiate President Obama's Iran nuclear deal should he make his way into the Oval Office. "If we have to wait until the next president is sworn in to revisit this nuclear weapons agreement, then the next president better be someone who knows how to negotiate and who will do what is best for the United States," Trump wrote in a Tuesday evening op-ed in USA Today. "When I am elected president, I will renegotiate with Iran — right after I enable the immediate release of our American prisoners and ask Congress to...

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts: James O’Brien – Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Department of State Charles “Chip” Lyons – United States Representative, Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Aaron Williams – United States Alternate Representative, Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Esther Brimmer – Member, National Security Education Board Michael Guest – Member, National Security Education Board President Obama said, “These fine public servants bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their important roles. I look...

McALLEN, Texas — Two illegal aliens from Mexico joined forces with human smugglers to kidnap and torture unsuspecting illegal immigrants being held at a stash house. Instead of charging the group with hostage taking or kidnapping charges, prosecutors charged them with human smuggling. Federal authorities this week raided a house in the border city of Mission, where they arrested a group of illegal immigrants as well as Arthur Flores, a U.S citizen, and two illegal aliens from Mexico described as his henchmen. The two henchmen had been tasked with holding the immigrants under threats of violence, court records obtained by...