Free Republic

Key documents relating to the Obama administration’s secret negotiations with Iran, including a $1.7 billion cash payment, are being stored at a highly secure site on Capitol Hill, preventing the public and many in Congress from accessing them, according to multiple sources who described the situation to the Washington Free Beacon. The documents are not technically classified but are being kept in a “secure reading space” where the majority of congressional officials cannot access them. Those cleared are forced to relinquish their cellular devices and are barred from taking notes, undermining the ability of staffers to brief their lawmakers on...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Israel to sell $1.6 billion in arms to Iran's neighbor Azerbaijan The sales come at a delicate time. Israel has been laboring hard to form diplomatic alliances in a region that seems to be growing increasingly hostile to the Jewish state. JERUSALEM — Israeli defense officials Sunday confirmed $1.6 billion in deals to sell drones as well as anti-aircraft and missile-defense systems to Azerbaijan, bringing sophisticated Israeli technology to the doorstep of archenemy Iran. The sales by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries come at a delicate time. Israel has been laboring hard to form diplomatic alliances in a region that seems...

Tehran is angry at Moscow's decision to freeze the sale of the S-300 missile-defense system.Iran's Intelligence Ministry has called for a "decrease" in ties with Russia, according to Hossein Ebrahimi, a parliament deputy and a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. Ebrahimi told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that the demand was discussed during a meeting between committee members and officials of the Intelligence Ministry. He said lawmakers favor reducing ties with Russia as well as China because of their support for the June 9 UN resolution that imposed new sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its...

Iran has focused its intelligence efforts on the U.S. military presence in the Gulf. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran was bolstering intelligence operations against the American military presence in Iraq and Gulf Cooperation Council states. The community said Teheran was also using its proxies to spy on American troops. "Iran is enhancing its focus on U.S. intelligence activities and relies on foreign intelligence partnerships to extend its capabilities," the intelligence community said in a report. The Teheran regime has been expanding intelligence operations through such proxies as Hamas, Hizbullah and Venezuela. The report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment,"...

Iran’s police chief on Saturday accused the Voice of America (VOA) and the BBC of being the arms of US and British intelligence agencies and warned of severe repercussions for journalists and activists caught having contacts with them, state media reported. General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, whose police forces have played a key role in the government crackdown on protesters since Iran’s disputed presidential election, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying opposition activists have cooperated with the BBC and the Voice of America “with the aim of weakening and overthrowing the [ruling] system.” “The BBC is the...

Kuwait has been investigating reports of an Iranian-backed Shi'ite insurgency plot. Officials said Kuwait has launched an investigation into allegations that Shi'ites funded and directed by Iran planned to attack key facilities in the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom. The investigation was said to center on Shi'ite soldiers in neighboring Bahrain trained in sabotage. Officials have warned of a growing Shi'ite threat in Kuwait, a Sunni-ruled country with nearly 50 percent of the population being Shi'ite. They said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has increased surveillance and other intelligence operations in Kuwait, which hosts more than 15,000 U.S. military soldiers. "There...

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has issued a list of 60 U.S. and international organizations that it accuses of inciting this summer’s postelection unrest and being involved in a “soft war” against the Islamic Republic. The Intelligence Ministry named some 60 U.S. and international organizations, including the Open Society Institute of U.S. philanthropist George Soros, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and Yale University. A number of Farsi-language media, including RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, the BBC, VOA, and Radio Zamaneh, which is based in the Netherlands, were also singled out by the Intelligence Ministry. A deputy intelligence minister for international affairs, whose name was...

An Iranian hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa has been ordered shut down amid reports that the facility was used as cover by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security for support and funding of Shi'ite Zaydi rebels. The 60-bed hospital has four operating rooms and six intensive care units. The ostensible reason for the closing was the hospital’s failure to pay rent. However reports from Sanaa say it was due to the illicit Iranian intelligence activities from the facility.