Free Republic

An Iranian drone nearly collided with a U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornet while the American jet was in a holding pattern, a U.S. defense official told Fox News. The jet was about to land aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which recently arrived in the Persian Gulf. It was the first time an Iranian drone has “interrupted a flight pattern,” the official said.

White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster served at a UK-based think tank that is heavily bankrolled by multinational corporate firms doing billions of dollars in business in Iran. The business deals are up for regulation by the U.S. government and the transactions are in direct jeopardy by the possibility of the Trump administration further sanctioning Iran or declaring Tehran in violation of the international nuclear accord. The past affiliation may raise conflict-of-interest issues for McMaster, who is serving in a position of direct influence over U.S. policy with regard to Iran. Already, McMaster has been accused of purging the...

As many of you will recall, Obama made a trip to Pakistan when he was at Occidental College. I am seeing indicators that this relates to the Awans' network and to Iraq and Iran's nuclear programs, which I'm putting out here for others to help fill the missing pieces in and to get this to the right people. First, a recap of Obama's Pakistan trip:Obama’s Russia Problem: Obama's Links to Soviet-era Spy Rings and Terrorist NetworksAt Occidental College, Obama became involved in radical student politics, deliberately networking with activist students and professors, as he mentions in his autobiography. In 1981,...

At the same time that Guyanese-born businessman Edul Ahmad gave Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) an unsecured $40,000 personal loan, he was pleading poverty to state authorities who had suspended his real estate license, according to Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein in yesterday’s New York Post. Meeks failed to report the 2007 loan on his annual financial disclosure report, that all member of Congress are required to file, until June of this year after the FBI reportedly started asking questions about the loan. Meeks has repeatedly referred to Ahmad as his “friend,” but when asked by the New York Post last...

TEL AVIV — White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster served at a UK-based think tank financed by a controversial, George Soros-funded group identified by the Obama White House as central in helping to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the public and news media. From September 2006 to February 2017, McMaster is listed as a member of International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), where he served as consulting senior fellow. The IISS describes itself as a “world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict.” The IISS has been supportive of the Obama administration-brokered 2015 nuclear accord with...

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini participated in the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. This will be 68-year-old Rouhani’s second term as president. […] In his speech to Iran’s parliament, Rouhani said his country will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal, but will also not stand by the deal if other countries violate it. […] In a pre-ceremony meeting with Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari said the EU must remain alert to Trump’s efforts to “undermine the deal and blame Iran.” In her response, Mogherini promised that the EU...

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is thwarting President Donald Trump’s foreign policy prescriptions, two former senior NSC officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Everything the president wants to do, McMaster opposes,” a former senior official said in a wide-ranging interview. “Trump wants to get us out of Afghanistan — McMaster wants to go in. Trump wants to get us out of Syria — McMaster wants to go in. Trump wants to deal with the China issue — McMaster doesn’t. Trump wants to deal with the Islam issue — McMaster doesn’t. You know, across the board, we want to get...

The Netanyahu government's slow-moving, lackadaisical handling of the Goldstone commission mandated for accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza, played into the hands of a coalition formed to strip the Israeli military of legitimacy as a defensive strike force against Iran's fast-moving nuclear weapons program and its Middle East allies' missile arsenals. Those missiles are poised to strike Israel's population centers if Iran is attacked. Israel had - and still has - plenty of moral, diplomatic and strategic tools for defending itself. They were not applied and so this hostile coalition was allowed to strike Israel on three fronts in...

Allen Roth, president of Secure America Now, talked with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday regarding National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster’s role in the foreign policy decisions of President Trump’s administration. Roth said, “McMaster and the National Security Council (NSC), there’s always a give and take as to what role the NSC plays in the development of foreign policy. Right now, we have a situation where McMaster appears to be at odds with the president, for example, on recertification of the Iran nuclear deal. He appears to be for recertification, which comes up every three months, and the president...

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has fired three staff members in recent weeks. The three are Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence; Derek Harvey, the NSC’s top Middle East adviser; and Rich Higgins, director for strategic planning. All three were aligned with Steve Bannon. Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard discusses the purge here. Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker of the New York Times discuss it here. Neither the Standard nor the Times reports on any ideological content to purge. Both treat it as a power struggle between McMaster and Steve Bannon, with the Times throwing in a Michael Flynn...

The deputy commander of Iran’s notorious Quds Force bragged at a recent ceremony that his operatives have killed more Americans than U.S. troops have killed Iranian fighters. Brig. Gen. Ismail Ghaani was referring to Iran’s major intervention in the Iraq war to supply Shiite militias with supercharged explosives that could penetrate U.S. armored vehicles. The Pentagon has estimated the Quds Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killed 500 Americans that way.

A top official of the National Security Council was fired last month after arguing in a memo that President Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces both within and outside the government who are deploying Maoist tactics to defeat President Trump’s nationalist agenda. His dismissal marks the latest victory by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in the ongoing war within Trump’s White House between those who believe that the president is under threat from dark forces plotting to undermine him, and those like McMaster who dismiss this as conspiratorial thinking. Rich Higgins, a former Pentagon official who served in...

President Trump on Wednesday signed a bill imposing sanctions on Russia, after the legislation overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate. The stiff financial sanctions were championed by lawmakers in both parties, and Trump's signature could escalate tensions with Moscow -- which already has ordered a reduction in the number of U.S. diplomats in Russia. The bill itself targets Iran and North Korea as well as Russia. But a cornerstone of the legislation was a provision barring Trump from easing or waiving the additional penalties on Russia unless Congress agrees. The provisions were included to assuage concerns among lawmakers that the...

Under federal investigation for possibly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Amazon has admitted to selling consumer goods to at least one person on the government’s black list of people and entities associated with terrorism. In its quarterly financial report filed July 28, the Seattle e-commerce giant revealed that it had sold about $300 worth of consumer goods to someone designated under Executive Order 13224, which covers people and entities believed to be terrorists or supporters of terrorism. A February regulatory filing from Amazon noted another sale or group of sales to a person covered under that counter-terrorism order, amounting to...

The Awan brothers in current security probe owed $100,000 to a Hezbollah-linked Iraqi politician. This same Iraqi politician is linked to Hezbollah terrorist group. Hezbollah fighters marching in Lebanan Democrats gave these brothers access to their computers. The Daily Caller reported: 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…

Full title............Iran poised to launch rocket into space, as North Korea readies another missile test, US officials say........................Two American foes are poised for upcoming rocket launches, two senior U.S. officials told Fox News, with another North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile launch expected as soon as Wednesday night and Iran on the verge of sending its own vehicle into space. Iran's Simorgh space-launch vehicle is believed to be carrying a satellite, marking the second time in over a year that Tehran has attempted to put an operational satellite into orbit -- something the Islamic Republic has never done successfully, according to...

Hillary Clinton handing over a sizable portion of US uranium production potential to Russia is not an isolated event, but rather is the logical convergence of decades-old Clinton era dealings with Russia and rogue states, for enrichment of the power elite. AT contributor Michael Curtis is correct when he says that the Uranium One deal has serious implications for our national security.  In fact, the revelation of Hillary’s independent intel network, coupled with Clinton era national security policy changes in the form of counter-proliferation (CP) regimes, have been far more strategically harmful than many Americans realize.... 

A US Navy ship fired warning shots at an Iranian patrol boat that came within 150 yards of it in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian boat is believed to have been operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a defense official familiar with details of the incident. The officials said the Iranian boat approached and came within 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, a US Navy patrol ship. The USS Thunderbolt was accompanied by the USS Vella Gulf, which is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and two other US Coast guard vessels at the time. The Iranians did...

More than 40 years after Iran acquired the F-14 Tomcat from the United States, there are still plenty of misconceptions about the deal. Most published accounts offer a simple explanation — that Iran needed F-14s to counter over-flights by Soviet-operated MiG-25R Foxbat reconnaissance aircraft. The truth is a bit more complicated. The Soviet overflights were actually a response to Iran’s own increasing belligerence, which dovetailed with the country’s determined acquisition of better and better U.S.-made warplanes. Bear in mind that after the CIA staged a coup against the Iranian government in 1953, Tehran was a close U.S. ally. In the...

A US Navy ship has fired warning shots towards an Iranian vessel after it came within 150 yards of the American warship, it has emerged. The incident unfolded in the northern Arabian Gulf, according to a US official.