Free Republic

Since Obama is rather attached to describing everything he does as “unprecedented”, “I have achieved an unprecedented level of transparency”, “I played an unprecedented amount of golf this year” and “I just wasted an unprecedented amount of money”... in honor of the Liar in Chief, we can make “unprecedented” the word of the day. First up is Obama’s unprecedented deficit. The current real cost of ObamaCare is up to 2.5 Trillion dollars and rising. The Senate Republicans’ chart demonstrates that the total for all of these costs—based on CBO projections for the bill’s true first 10 years—is $2.5 trillion. And...

The Treasury Department has blacklisted an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in northern Iraq, a move that was greeted enthusiastically in Iran’s state-run media as part of a initiative by the Obama administration to forge better U.S.-Iranian relations. The Party of Free Life of Iranian Kurdistan, known by its Kurdish acronym, PJAK, was created in 2004 and has never engaged in international terrorism or in military activity outside of Iran. But its guerilla fighters have clashed frequently with Iranian Revolutionary Guards units in Iranian Kurdish towns and villages, making it a primary target of the Iranian regime.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg14.htm February 4, 2009 TG-14 Treasury Designates Free Life Party of Kurdistan a Terrorist Organization Washington, DC – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), a Kurdish group operating in the border region between Iraq and Iran, under Executive Order 13224 for being controlled by the terrorist group Kongra-Gel (KGK, aka the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK). "With today's action, we are exposing PJAK's terrorist ties to the KGK and supporting Turkey's efforts to protect its citizens from attack," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it had reinforced its border security after Turkey launched an offensive in north Iraq against Kurdish rebels, a move an analyst said was likely aimed at stopping rebels hiding in Iran. Iranian forces have also often clashed in Iraqi border areas with rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the PKK and which analysts say has bases in northeastern Iraq from where they operate against Iran. "Necessary measures have already been taken to reinforce our borders," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference....

The Kandil mountains are bandit territory, rising like an impenetrable fortress along the north-eastern border of Iraq. Commander Gabar denies getting western support for his group The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan's (PJAK) press officer, a Turk called Roj with an Australian passport, said he could not guarantee me an interview with the commander but he would take me to the camp if I was prepared for an uncomfortable journey. The PJAK is a sister organisation to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). While the US wants the Iraqi government to comply with Turkey's demands and drive PKK fighters from...

Sulaimaniya, Aug 28, (VOI) – Hundreds of panicky Kurdish families inhabiting border areas with neighboring Iran had to flee their homes after Iranian shelling targeted villages at the foot of Mount Qandeel in Sulaimaniya province, 364 km northeast of Baghdad. The families are now living in groups in tents near rivers and wells, waiting for the government's helping hand that is never outstretched. Although the villagers know quite well that their areas are coming under attack due to the presence of PJAK fighters, Iranian Kurds who oppose the mullahs’ regime in Iran, Khidr Bayez, 57, supports the Kurds. "The presence...

New York (KurdishMedia.com) 1 May 2006: Recent reports of massive Turkish troop movements have received much coverage in the Kurdish and Turkish media, and caused a great deal of anxiety among Kurds in the Diaspora. Once again, as in years past, Kurds scattered throughout the globe, in London, continental Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, find themselves fearing a large scale Turkish invasion of southern Kurdistan, the portion of Kurdistan lying within Iraq’s borders. The media worldwide has reported that 200,000 Turkish soldiers have moved to the Turkey-Iraq border, ostensibly to put pressure on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In...