Free Republic

President Trump’s decision to scrap the Iran nuke deal had a lot to do with Tehran’s decision to fire missiles at Israel late Wednesday. First, the Iranians likely timed the attack to make it seem that the president had instantly made things worse in the region. That also explains why Iran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen shot missiles into Saudi Arabia hours after Trump’s nuke-deal news. Second, Iran’s power in Syria and Yemen is itself in good part the result of Team Obama’s policies, including the nuke deal — which left Washington with few ways to respond to Tehran’s non­nuclear outrages...

Iran's president warned that his country could start enriching uranium faster if negotiations with the countries remaining in the nuclear deal aren't productive. Responding to President Donald Trump's decision on Tuesday to withdraw from the deal, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said that there's only a “short time” to negotiate with other countries as the U.S. ratchets up pressure on its allies to join it in rejecting the accord, reports The Associated Press. Speaking on Iranian state television, Rouhani said that he'll be sending Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the countries still in the deal to negotiate ways to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the U.S. will pull out of the landmark nuclear accord with Iran, declaring he’s making the world safer but dealing a profound blow to allies and deepening the president’s isolation on the world stage. “The United States does not make empty threats,” he said in a televised address from the White House Diplomatic Room. Trump said the 2015 agreement, which included Germany, France and Britain, was a “horrible one-sided deal that should never ever have been made.” He added that the United States “will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction.”...

Summary synopsis of Korean language version (link above):North Korea through the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) today stated that the barely one week old "Panmunjom Agreement" between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae In is falling victim to "misinterpretation" by the United States and threatened the talks between Kim and Trump will go nowhere and "things will return to zero" if the following happens: a) there is no loosening of economic sanctions currently on North Korea even prior to denuclearization; b) there is any pressure on them in the area of human rights. KCNA has, in fact, carried it,...

“A top North Korean defector (will) testify on Capitol Hill next week as Congress mulls new ways to increase pressure on the rogue regime, a senior Republican announced. Thae Yong-ho served as the second-highest ranking North Korean diplomat in the United Kingdom until last year, when he defected to South Korea. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce touted his "valuable insights" into the vulnerabilities of dictator Kim Jong Un as the motivation for Wednesday's hearing.”

In the decades immediately following World War II, American public opinion generally supported President Truman's historic decision to unleash nuclear weapons on Japan. Everyone accepted that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an unfortunate necessity brought on by the unwillingness of Japan to surrender. Those two bombs, which killed over 140,000 civilians, were viewed as a way to avoid the obscene costs in men and materiel associated with invading the Japanese homeland. Nowadays, many question whether those bombs were necessary. Given that they killed almost exclusively civilians and that the second of the two was dropped only two days...

Deng Yuwen says Kim has rightly calculated that he needed to make some concessions to ease international pressure on his regime, but he will never totally give up the nuclear programme that North Korea has invested so much in.The historic summit between North and South Korean leaders ended as they signed the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula”. Denuclearisation on the peninsula is the top concern of the international community, but the issue is mentioned only in the fourth point of the third article in the declaration. According to this third article, the two...

There is no reason for the United States not to push for a better deal—mainly one that addresses legitimate concerns without blowing up the agreement itself.On Monday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dramatically unveiled records detailing “Project Amad,” Iran’s “comprehensive program to design, build, and test nuclear weapons.” The information was taken from 100,000 pages of documents Israel had secretly obtained in January from a warehouse in Tehran. The records do not deal with ongoing aspects of Iran’s nuclear program—Project Amad was suspended in 2003—but they do show that Tehran had been lying about the program’s peaceful intent. They also...

The Obama scandal spin came in three phases when reacting to the truth. 1. It's a right-wing conspiracy theory 2. It's complicated 3. Everyone knew it all along and it's not a story Mazel tov to the Iran Deal which, with Netanyahu's revelations about Iran's nuclear weapons plans, which it had been hiding, has now graduated to the third phase. We've gone from, "Iran would never develop nuclear weapons" and "Iran only wants peaceful nuclear energy" to, "Of course, we knew Iran wanted nuclear weapons. That's why we need the Iran Deal."

Making the click-through worthwhile: Iran deal defenders insist they always knew Tehran was lying all along; some overheated arguments about masculinity and books for kids; how most of the people making the loudest arguments in public discourse didn’t bother to do the homework; and a really strange and implausible accusation against Mitch McConnell.Wait, Why Did We Ever Trust the Iranians Again?Fans of the Iran deal scoff at Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu’s presentation about the long and sordid history of Iran’s secret nuclear program: “There was nothing we didn’t already know.” “Everything he said was already known.” “There is nothing...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a televised announcement Monday evening in what his office said would disclose "dramatic news" regarding the nuclear agreement with Iran. In a corresponding move, Netanyahu cancelled a scheduled speech at the Knesset in honor of Theodore Herzl day.

Much of the domestic press here in Japan is very, very skeptical about this overture, and statements by Kim and the ruling Korean Workers Party. Even the CONSERVATIVE daily news SANKEI SHIMBUN today had some good quotes about how this could be no concession at all, North just playing a shell and delay game, offering to close nuke sites that have been essentially destroyed already through too many underground tests, etc. etc. etc.

Assurance clears the way for a summit meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump North Korea has told the U.S. that Kim Jong Un is prepared to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, clearing the way for a summit meeting between the North Korean leader and President Donald Trump, according to U.S. officials. U.S. officials didn’t say when and how that assurance was delivered, but U.S. and North Korean officials have been in communication. “The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a Trump administration official said...

Are we about to be nuked? Is it possible that Kim Jong Un just sent his family and various favored people out of the country to China on that heavily armored train? Could he do a first strike nuke attack, possibly supplemented with Chinese nukes sent back on the train? We could be counted on to respond, pretty much vaporizing North Korea. Could the Chinese space station that is coming down be a smokescreen to explain why there is a bunch of stuff entering our atmosphere and heading to earth? What do you all think?

This is the full, unedited interview that Megyn Kelly held with Russian President Putin. You can read the English translation by clicking on the CC (close captions) button and then Settings, subtitles, English

Full title of article: North Korea says it's willing to hold talks with US and halt nuclear pursuit while negotiations last: South Korea -- North Korea is willing to hold talks with the U.S. on denuclearization and will suspend nuclear tests while those talks are under way, South Korea said.

On Wednesday Russian leader Vladimir Putin threatened the West with unstoppable intercontinental nuclear missiles. Putin announced that Russia had developed an intercontinental nuclear missile that can’t be stopped or shot down by any country’s defence system The Russian leader said the rocket travels 20 times the speed of sound and has unlimited range. Now we know where Putin gained the technology to build the missiles. –Hillary Clinton. Diana West at The Daily Caller reported, via Andrew Bostom: This shocking set of emails that the Examiner reported on shows the nexus of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s foundation, Hillary Clinton’s State Department,...

Without a coherent vision of the future or an attractive model for others to imitate, without any soft power to speak of, without an economic model that can ensure sustainable growth or keep people out of poverty, the missile-rattling is a terrifying but hollow sound. In the context of a mock election with a predetermined result, Russia's growing military might means better protection for an unaccountable, oppressive regime that doesn't have to keep any of the promises it makes. It's muscle without hope or substance. Putin's fascination with the new toys is understandable. This part of the speech carried a...

Iran unveiled a series of new homemade nuclear-capable ballistic missiles during military parades held over the weekend, a move that experts view as a bid to bolster the hardline ruling regime as dissidents continue efforts to stir protest. On the heels of an encounter between an Iranian drone and Israeli forces, Iranian leaders showcased their ballistic missile capabilities, which includes a nuclear-capable medium-range missile that appears to share similarities with North Korean technology, according to experts. The nuclear-capable missile can strike Israel even when fired from Iranian territory, raising concerns about an impending conflict between Tehran and the Jewish state that...

Sixty years ago, in 1951, Ray Maurer and Anthony Rizzo produced a film for the federal government's Civil Defense agency in response to Soviet nuclear tests. Featuring an animated turtle named Bert and real-life schoolchildren from New York, the film, Duck and Cover, IT RETURNS