Free Republic

The anti-regime protests now jolting Iran send the world two core messages -- one dismal and sobering, the other an explosive cocktail of the deadly and the hopeful. Both core messages provide guidance for open-minded American and free world policy makers. It takes a narrow-minded Obama Administration apologist to miss the dismal and sobering message. Here it is, offered with prayers for the abused Iranian citizens who suffer the consequences: Not quite nine years after Tehran's theocrat fascist dictators and their brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps thugs crushed the 2009 Green Movement, Iran remains a domestic political disaster and economic...

Editor’s Note: Lawfare’s Board of Directors has published a post regarding this article and our editorial standards here. In the United States, the latest Iranian protests have sparked a kind of debate in which we argue fervently about whether the U.S. should tweet its support or just shut up. At the risk of making the Trump administration look moderate, I think we can choose between more than waving our hands and sitting on them. Remember, when the Iranian regime decided it didn’t like U.S. activities in Iraq, it found considerably more direct ways to express its disapproval. It just started...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief announced the "end of the sedition" Wednesday as tens of thousands rallied in a show of strength for the country's Islamic rulers after days of deadly unrest. General Mohammad Ali Jafari said the Guards only intervened "in a limited way" against fewer than 15,000 "trouble-makers" nationwide, adding that a large number had been arrested. The White House declared it would seek new sanctions against those involved in the crackdown. Protests over economic problems broke out in Iran's second city Mashhad last week and quickly spread across the country, turning against the regime as a whole. A...

Why President Trump should immediately change the leadership of the Voice of America. U.S. government broadcasting is a powerful tool that can be used to promote freedom and bolster anti-regime protestors in Iran. After all, that’s why Congress has appropriated some $740 million per year to finance it. Promoting freedom and waging an information war on America’s enemies is in our national interest. But led by a stable of Obama appointees, the Voice of America and the Persian language service at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Radio Farda) are being used to support the Iranian regime and denigrate the leadership of...

The wave of violent protests churning across Iran differs dramatically from the last major uprising that rocked the country in 2009 and could spiral out of control if the regime moves too quickly toward military-style tactics to crush the unrest. While the abortive Green Revolution eight years ago was driven mainly by the children of wealthy political elites in Tehran in the wake of a questionable election, the spontaneous protests this time around are unfolding across the country and driven by what analysts describe as “the working poor” — a segment of the population that has little to lose in...

Amid regime crackdown, Trump admin 'will not turn back' on Iranian protesters The Trump administration is keeping a close eye on the growing protests in Iran, with senior administration officials working to ensure President Donald Trump does not miss an opportunity to incubate a possible revolution that could topple Iran's hardline ruling regime, according to White House officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. With the world watching growing demonstrations across Iran, the Trump administration sees an opportunity to feed the growing protests. The policy is starkly different than the Obama administration's approach in 2009, when similar protests gripped...

The Women’s March is facing intense pressure to come out in support of Iranian women protesting the fundamentalist Islamic regime. Women have become symbolic leaders of the protests, which are entering their sixth day, by removing their hijab in defiance of laws mandating they cover their faces and hair. One image that has gone viral shows a young woman standing above a crowd, waving her jettisoned white hijab like a flag. The death toll from the anti-government protests rose to 21 overnight, and at least 450 people have been arrested. The Women’s March is busy rolling out its anniversary protest...

Unlike his predecessor, President Trump is siding with the Iranian people. Once again, the Iranian people are rejecting their authoritarian government and repressive rule by the mullahs. The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is also losing support, according to sources at the Rand Corporation. In recent days the Iranians have demonstrated in Tehran and other major cities such as Mashad and Kermanshah to protest food prices and unemployment. Some demonstrators have been shot and remarkably, there are reports of cries of “death to Khameini,” the cleric who is Iran’s supreme leader. But this time, unlike during the Obama Administration, the...

<p>Anti-regime protests in Iran erupted again Tuesday, prompting a crackdown by government forces that left nine more people dead, according to Iranian state media.</p> <p>The widespread unrest stretched into a sixth day, as demonstrators across the country continued to denounce Iran’s clerical regime and its economic and foreign policies. With at least 20 people killed and hundreds more arrested over the weekend, the uprising has become the biggest challenge to the Iranian regime since 2009, when mass protests shook Tehran after a disputed presidential election.</p>

For Democrats, any excuse to open the immigration floodgates is good. Take Hillary’s failed VP running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, and his response to the Iran protests. Of all the ways the United States could support the protesters, what pops into Kaine’s cranium? Yup, as Kaine tweeted [emphasis added]: “Big step US could take to support democracy movement in Iran: Drop the Iranian travel ban.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

2017The Year America Was Made Great Again. Our role in the world is being changed back to one of self empowerment and enrichment. We have had The Inauguration of President Trump and everything he has accomplished in less than a year's time.But our enemies are not idling, they are trying to role back the choices of the citizens of the Republic daily. That only means we need to fight back against them daily. Salute to the American Dream. We can rule our own Republic.Are you ready for it?The American Sun

(Foreign Affairs know-it-alls)Several key advisers to former President Barack Obama have poured scorn on President Donald Trump’s support for the protests sweeping Iran in recent days. In 2009, when the “Green Revolution” threatened the Iranian regime, Obama and his administration refrained from supporting the protests. Obama said that “we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran.” That weak response, and the administration’s general lack of support for the demonstrators, allowed the regime to consolidate power. Obama was more concerned with preserving the possibility of an eventual deal on Iran’s nuclear program...

The Basij militiaman, a paramilitary storm trooper of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was reportedly swinging an electric shock baton when the crowd of angry protesters closed in around him. "They got a Basij, hold him!” one man shouted as the demonstrators pulled away the militiaman’s baton and knocked him to the ground in the largely Kurdish city of Kermanshah. But rather than beat the man to death, the crowd struck a different kind of blow against Iran’s authoritarian regime: they stripped him of his trousers and sent him stumbling and humiliated into the cold night. “The protesters wanted to show that...

Ten people have been killed overnight in anti-government protests sweeping Iran, according to state TV. "In the events of last night, unfortunately a total of about 10 people were killed in several cities," it said. At least 12 people have now died since protests began on Thursday

On issues from climate change to healthcare, there are few things President Trump relishes more than doing the opposite of something his predecessor did. Now an eruption of anti-government protests across Iran — the biggest in nearly a decade in the Islamic Republic — offers him another way to set himself apart from President Obama.But it’s a path strewn with foreign policy pitfalls as well as potential opportunities. Iran’s leaders already are casting Trump’s increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say...

Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!

More from the woman who claimed “job opportunities” were the key to defeating ISIS . . . Marie Harf, a former Obama State Department spokeswoman, appeared on today’s Fox News Sunday. Substitute host Dana Perino didn’t hesitate to put Harf on the hot seat, comparing Obama’s lack of support for Iranian protesters in 2009 with President Trump and VP Pence’s support for the protesters in Iran today. Exemplifying Obama’s losing, “leading from behind,” approach to foreign policy, Harf said: “The reason we didn’t [support the protesters] was that it was our judgment—and we were hearing from Iranians protesting on the...

Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations! 8:03 AM - 31 Dec 2017

Stunning Audacity – Clinton Tweets Support For Iranian Protests She Previously Helped Destroy…

Iran warned on Sunday that protesters will "pay the price" after a third night of unrest saw mass demonstrations across the country in which dozens were arrested and official buildings attacked. Videos shared on social media showed thousands marching in towns and cities throughout Iran overnight. Travel restrictions and a near-total media blackout from official agencies made it very difficult to confirm the swirl of rumours spreading through social media. Semi-official conservative outlets confirmed an evening attack on a town hall in Tehran and showed protesters attacking banks and municipal buildings in other parts of the country.