Free Republic

Federal prosecutors are expected to unseal new charges against a bomb-maker linked to the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to a report. Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, a top bomb-maker for the late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, is accused of constructing the explosive that downed the airliner and killed 270 people on board, the Wall Street Journal said. Masud is being held by Libyan authorities.

A U.S. warship fighting gunboats in the Persian Gulf yesterday mistook an Iranian civilian jetliner for an attacking Iranian F14 fighting plane and blew it out of the hazy sky with a heat seeking missile ...

Airbus delegates have arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at finalizing a deal to sell around 100 planes, an Iranian official said Monday. The representatives of the European aerospace giant arrived on Sunday just hours after national carrier Iran Air concluded a $16.6 billion deal with US firm Boeing to buy 80 planes. […] Meanwhile, some conservatives in Iran reacted angrily to news of the deal with Boeing, which comes at a time when lawmakers in Washington have recently voted for renewed sanctions on the country. …

SNIPPET - quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1955.aspx Treasury Announces New Sanctions Against Iran Actions Target Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Proliferation Activities 5/23/2013     WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking action today against 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile proliferation networks and Iran’s continued attempts to circumvent sanctions. These networks are responsible for moving supplies and providing essential services to Iran’s clandestine nuclear and weapons programs. These actions are designed to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by tightening sanctions against Iran’s energy sector and exposing key proliferation related networks that span the...

SNIPPET: "Washington: A US court has sentenced an Iranian and an American national for their roles in a plot to ship aircraft and its parts to Islamic Republic Iran. While the Iranian citizen Hamid Asefi, 67, was sentenced to 23 months, a US citizen Behzad Karimian, (52), also known as "Tony" Karimian who holds a valid Iranian passport and is employed as a Mesaba Airlines Pilot, was sentenced to 52 months in prison yesterday."

It's a Presidential love triangle gone awry. While Obama has openly dumped one of our most important ally's in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an appearance with the ladies of The View, he has also been showering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with gifts - such as free parking for his Boeing 747 in Washington. The plane, named "Iran Air", exchanged fleeting glances with the President's plane. Via the Washington Post: Free parking is hard to find in Washington — but not, apparently, for the Boeing 747 that ferried Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering in...

Yesterday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury announced that it has added Iran Air, the largest Iranian air career, to its "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List" (SDN List). OFAC stated that its designation of Iran Air was due to Iran Air's provision of material support, including military transport service, to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The inclusion of Iran Air on OFAC's SDN list means that U.S. persons - United States citizens and permanent residents (anywhere in the world) and anyone who is "physically" in the United States (regardless...

TEHRAN, Iran – An IranAir passenger jet carrying 106 people crashed as it was making an emergency landing Sunday in a snowstorm in the country's northwest and broke into several pieces, killing 71 of those on board, Iranian media reported. The others survived with light injuries.

URMIA, IRAN (BNO NEWS) -- A passenger plane carrying up to 105 people crashed in northwestern Iran on Sunday evening, state-run media reported, but at least 50 people survived the accident. The Fars news agency said the Fokker 100 aircraft went down near Urmia, a city in northwestern Iran and the capital of West Azerbaijan Province. It said 92 to 97 passengers and eight crew members were on board the plane, which was owned by Iran Air. The agency cited a local official as saying that at least 50 people had survived the accident and were being treated for their...

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S. J.J. Green, wtop.com WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before --...

Plans for the Queen Mother to fly to Iran in Concorde were blocked by Harold Wilson because he was worried about the plane's safety, it has been revealed. The Labour prime minister intervened days before the planned trip in April 1975 when told there was a problem with the engine. Aviation watchdogs said the plane could be flown by an experienced test pilot. But Wilson said the government's position would be "indefensible" if the engine fault became known. The episode is revealed in government records from 1975 which have now been released for the public to see at The National...