Free Republic

A day after reports that US President Barack Obama is planning new sanctions on companies taking part in Iran's ballistic missile program, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came out swinging Thursday, giving an order to escalate the missile program. Rouhani issued a decree to Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan to accelerate Iran's production of "various types of missiles," reports the Iranian state-run PressTV. [...] US officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July's controversial nuclear agreement to blacklist Iranian entities suspected of involvement in missile development. Rouhani on Thursday wrote in his decree that the new...

Chinatown crime boss Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow - the man at the heart of a federal corruption case that brought down former state Sen. Leland Yee and engulfed City Hall with allegations of 'pay to play' politics, took the center stage in U.S. District Court this week to deny the murder and racketeering charges against him. But anyone expecting his testimony to blow the roof of City Hall or cause Mayor Ed Lee further embarrassment would be sadly disappointed. The trial has largely boiled down to unpacking the nearly decade-old murder of businessman Allen Leung, and whether Chow - who...

An al Qaeda-linked terrorist, who was resettled in the U.S. as an Iraq War refugee after allegedly killing American soldiers, was caught on camera in Kentucky handling heavy weapons that the FBI said he believed would be sent to insurgents back in Iraq. The 2010 video, obtained exclusively by ABC News, was part of a broader ABC News investigation into the flawed refugee vetting program, which officials said may have let “dozens” of terrorists into the country. READ FULL EXCLUSIVE: US May Have Let ‘Dozens’ of Terrorists Into Country as Refugees In the video, Waad Ramadan Alwan is seen expertly...

The Justice Department announced Tuesday the indictment of two Iraqis currently living in Kentucky on terrorism charges that included an alleged plot to deliver explosives and Stinger missiles for use against Americans abroad. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, were arrested in Kentucky on May 25, and a federal grand jury in Bowling Green returned the 23-count indictment the next day. Each faces life in prison if convicted of the charges. Alwan has been under investigation since September 2009. Over the last eight years, officials say, he allegedly has supported efforts to kill U.S. forces in Iraq,...

Those who warn of the dangers of professors making pronouncements outside their area of expertise may have been a bit too hasty. A case might be made for encouraging business professors to look at foreign policy. "It amazes me that Americans don’t see China as a threat," Dr. Peter Navarro said at a briefing at the Center for a New American Security on December 7, 2015, the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Dr. Navarro, a professor at the Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine, is the author of Crouching Tiger: What China’s...

Was UFO a Russian ballistic missile? Russian Defense Ministry says it successfully test-fired intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday; earlier, unidentified flying object reported in Israel, Lebanon, other states in region and Reports from the Syrian cities of Daraa, Hama and Dir al-Zur are claiming that Assad's forces are using unknown gas shells against civilians. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4239820,00.htm

**SNIP** Back in 2013, The Golden State received an "A-grade" from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for having the strictest gun restrictions of any state in the union. "The research shows that strong gun laws can keep people safe from gun violence," said the Brady organization. "We know that California's strong gun laws are saving lives." Remember that in context of the recent guilty plea by former California State Sen. Leland Yee - a sponsor of draconian gun-control legislation - for attempting to arrange the importation of illegal weapons from Asia to the U.S. on behalf of undercover...

Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) conducted today the first full system flight and intercept test of the Barak 8 missile system developed jointly by Israel and India. Upon the completion of the system verification test series, Barak 8 is expected to achieve initial operational capability next year. The test was conducted from the Israel Navy SAAR 5 missile corvette INS Lahav, the first Israeli vessel to be equipped with the new air and missile defense system. The scenario began with the launch of a target, representing a reference threat. The MF-STAR on INS LAHAV detected the...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "Bout and American-born pal Richard Chichakli were accused of creating a new business, Samar Airlines, which they thought was clean of any connection to their own bloody dealings. Starting in the summer of 2007, Samar Airlines started making deals for airplanes and crews to ferry contraband between the United States and Tajikistan, the indictment said." SNIPPET: "The Russian-born Bout is accused of wiring $1.7 million from bank accounts in Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Russia through banks in New York City and Salt Lake City to finance the scheme." SNIPPET: "Bout, who is accused of supplying weapons to real...

Grab a cup of coffee because itÂ’s a long read with over 350 citations and reference source links for confirmational material. We think youÂ’ll get hooked and find 95% of your Benghazi questions answered. And if you can find a factual flaw IÂ’ll buy the coffee.. SD The CIA and Intelligence community had stated earlier the biggest concern anyone held about arming the Libyan Rebels was the possibility those weapons might leave the Libyan conflict and travel to other locations where they would be used against our own soldiers. More and more evidence of this happening was growing. In 2011...

The U.S. has started to pull its Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey, despite a recent appeal from Ankara to its NATO allies to keep the air and missile defense units at a delicate time on the border with Syria. Patriot missiles were initially deployed at the Gaziantep 5th Armored Brigade Command in southeastern Turkey after the country appealed to its NATO allies to guard against rockets from Syria.

Washington (CNN)A number of cruise missiles launched from a Russian ship and aimed at targets in Syria have crashed in Iran, two U.S. officials told CNN Thursday. Monitoring by U.S. military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran. One official said there may be casualties, but another official said this is not yet known.

Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program, according to a secret Israeli government report obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The two South American countries are known to have close ties with Iran, but this is the first allegation that they are involved in the development of Iran's nuclear program, considered a strategic threat by Israel.

U.S.-backed rebels in Syria appealed to the Obama administration on Friday for anti-aircraft missiles to defend their positions against relentless Russian airstrikes that have so far mostly targeted the moderate opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's rule, according to The Washington Post. We need one of two things. Either a clear policy from the United States to prevent Russia and the regime from bombing Syrians, or otherwise they should send us anti-aircraft missiles so that we can confront the Russian planes," said Hassan Haj Ali, the commander of Suqour al-Jabal, U.S.-backed group targeted by Russian strikes on Thursday, the report says....

With Syria making national headlines on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget about the Middle East’s other proxy war raging in Yemen. For months, a Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-backed militants for control of the country which was effectively wrested from Mansour Hadi earlier this year when the Sauid-backed President was forced to flee to Riyadh as the Houthis advanced on Aden. Sadly, Yemen has since descended into chaos, an embarrassment for the Obama administration which just a little over a year ago held the country up as an example of Washington’s successful counterterrorism efforts (no mention was...

Anti-regime activists say jihadist fighters linked to al-Qaeda fought with rebels to capture a Syrian military air defense base near Aleppo. Videos posted online Friday apparently shot inside the base say Jabhat al-Nusra participated in the overnight battle for the base. The videos show fighters inspecting lines of large missiles.

Moscow will reportedly provide Russian troops in Syria with an advanced antiaircraft missile system as part of its military support for Syrian president Bashar Assad. "This system is the advanced version used by Russia, and it's meant to be operated by Russians in Syria," a Western diplomat who is regularly briefed on US, Israeli, and other intelligence assessments told Reuters. And as The Daily Beast's Michael Weiss points out, any antiaircraft missiles deployed by Russian troops in Syria won't be directed at ISIS, since ISIS has no air force. In fact, none of the rebels do — only government forces...

Six months ago, authorities seized a cargo plane in Bangkok that contained 35 tons of North Korean military weapons. These included versions of the Chinese HN-5 “man-portable air defense system,” or MANPADS. The MANPADS were being shipped to Iran. The HN-5 — a copy of the Soviet SA-7— is less capable than the MANPADS Iran produces on its own. Why, you ask, would Iran be importing more primitive missiles than the ones it already makes? The only conceivable answer is that Iran was planning to provide North Korean missiles to Iran’s proxy terrorist groups, to gain plausible deniability in case...

first glance, the takeover by the Israeli Navy of the "humanitarian flotilla" heading towards Gaza is just one more of the disputed crises between Israel and its foes. As in all previous incidents, the spiral of accusations will eventually reach bottom. While media attention will highlight the tactical events—seizure of the ships, rules of engagement, who fired first, the legal location of the incident and the other dramatic details—the rapidly expanding debate will soon reach the strategic intent of the "flotilla." After all the governments involved issue their condemnations and warnings in all directions, after the UN conferences and issues...

Over the past few days, Iranian officials have confirmed that international inspections of its nuke sites will be severely limited if permitted at all. This post provides excerpts from recent articles quoting them. Iran's nuke sitesThe restrictions noted in this post are in addition to previously disclosed prohibitions on access by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to military sites, which Iran itself will inspect instead. Even The Daily Beast has mentioned this problem in reliance on an Associated Press article which states, All IAEA member countries must give the agency some insight into their nuclear programs. Some are required to do no more than give a yearly accounting of the nuclear...