Free Republic

Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, was arrested for supporting Iranian protests. He is known for speaking out against the government and now faces crimes punishable by death.

A recent article by David Samuels at the New York Times Magazine, based on an interview with Obama's foreign policy guru Ben Rhodes, purported to explain how, and about what, the Obama administration lied to get public support for the Iran Scam. According to the article, the principal Obama lie involved who was the Iranian president when the negotiations with Iran began. It's much deeper and worse than that. As Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s “the rest of the story.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uogp40PeddI Iranian President Rouhani was elected on June 15, 2013 and assumed office on August 3d. According to Rhodes, negotiations started...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Iran nuclear kabuki last year, told the Council on Foreign Relations June 23 that the Joint Plan of Action, JCPOA had been successfully implemented so far... Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton is for the agreement, but Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been skeptical. Asked about Trump’s threats to renegotiate the agreement, Coons called that possibility “a fool’s errand.” Coons said that personal relationships between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and between Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz and Ali Salehi, Iranian Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] — have been apparently been effective....

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the embattled Afghan president and a suspected drug trafficker, has been on the CIA payroll for most of the past eight years, The New York Times says. The US spy agency pays Karzai for a variety of services, the newspaper said on Tuesday, such as fielding recruits for an Afghan paramilitary force operating at the CIA's direction in and around his home city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. He also helps the CIA contact and sometimes meet Taliban followers. Karzai, who is said to have ties to Afghanistan's lucrative illegal opium trade, has a...

EXCLUSIVE: One of the classified email chains discovered on Hillary Clinton's personal unsecured server discussed an Afghan national's ties to the CIA and a report that he was on the agency's payroll, a U.S. government official with knowledge of the document told Fox News. The discussion of a foreign national working with the U.S. government raises security implications – an executive order signed by President Obama said such unauthorized disclosures are 'presumed to cause damage to the national security." The U.S. government official said the Clinton email exchange, which referred to a New York Times report, was among 29 classified...

Statement from Martin Baron, Washington Post executive editor: The guilty verdict announced by Iran in the trial of The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian represents an outrageous injustice. Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case, but never more so than with this indefensible decision by a Revolutionary Court to convict an innocent journalist of serious crimes after a proceeding that unfolded in secret, with no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing. For now, no sentence has been announced. We are working with Jason’s family and Iranian counsel to pursue an immediate appeal, and we expect Jason’s lawyer, Leila Ahsan, also to petition...

BERLIN - Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday he saw US Vice President Joe Biden's offer this weekend of bilateral dialogue between their two countries as a sign of a change in approach to Iran by the US administration. "As I have said yesterday, I am optimistic, I feel this new administration is really seeking this time to at least divert from its previous traditional approach vis-a-vis my country," he told the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.snip Salehi, who attended the Munich Security Conference at the weekend where Biden made the offer, said in Berlin...

Ali Akbar Salehi: Iran's foreign minister...and future president? After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Islamic Republic's new leaders confronted the dilemma of what to do with the remnants of the Pahlavi monarchy. One such remnant was the partially constructed nuclear power plant located in the southeastern city of Bushehr along the Persian Gulf. Construction of the plant by a group of German companies had begun just four years earlier, under Mohammad Reza Shah. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the creation of a five-person fact-finding committee to investigate the Bushehr plant and advise on its status. One of its members was a...

Iran announced Friday that is had developed a new, faster generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, signaling its determination to press on with its nuclear work despite possible new sanctions being sought by U.S. President Barack Obama. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated earlier in the week that a "momentous" development was in the offing about Iran's nuclear program and Friday's announcement of a new generation of centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility came as little surprise. Both Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iran's atomic energy head Ali Akbar Salehi spoke at a ceremony marking Friday's "Nuclear Energy Day," amid pomp and media...

Iranian Army General Commander Ataollah Salehi spoke on LBC television (video clip here) claiming it would take only 11 days "to wipe Israel out of existence." But don't worry, the announcer proclaims that "according to the shari'a and the law, it is forbidden to obtain a nuclear bomb." MEMRI translates Voiceover: "Nothing can prevent Iranian missiles from targeting the heart of Israel, if Iran is subjected to a military strike by Israel. This was the response of the Iranian military commanders to the Israeli statements about a possible military strike against Iran, because of its insistence on obtaining nuclear energy....

Iran's Union Heroes March 06, 2008 The Guardian Today is Free Osanloo Action Day, which will be marked by protests worldwide to demand the release of the imprisoned Iranian trade union leaders, Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi. Independent trade unions are banned in Iran. Only state-sponsored labour councils are permitted and, to ensure their loyalty to the state, there are restrictions on who can stand for election to these councils. They are, in effect, instruments of the state for the purpose of controlling and pacifying worker discontent. This corporatist, anti-union character of the Iranian state bears many of the hallmarks...

Unions in worldwide protests over detention of Iranian labour leaders 6 March 2008 Trade unionists and human rights activists in towns and cities across the world are today voicing their opposition to the continued imprisonment of Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi. The two Iranian trade union leaders, respectively representing Tehran bus workers and bakery workers, have been in prison for several months. Protesters are participating in an ITF campaign day, backed by the trade union movement and Amnesty International. Actions included: protests outside the Iranian embassy and the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, and the delivery of letters of...

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 16 – The supreme commander of Iran’s regular armed forces said the Islamic Republic was monitoring enemy positions in the region and was prepared to give a “crushing” response to any foreign attack. “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s army is closely monitoring all military activities across the region and by understanding the enemies’ goals and program has the required awareness and preparedness to counter any direct or indirect threat. The army will decisively respond to even the smallest act of aggression against the sovereignty and interests of the country”, Major General Atta’ollah Salehi said in a statement...

8/6/05 Amnesty International calls for an urgent investigation into the killing of demonstrators in Iran Amnesty International today expressed alarm at the cycle of violence in the Iranian province of Kordestan and neighbouring Kurdish areas, which has reportedly left up to 20 people dead, hundreds wounded. Hundreds of others are believed to have been arrested, including prominent Kurdish human rights defenders and activists. Amnesty International is urging the Iranian government to promptly initiate an urgent, impartial and independent investigation into these reports. The methods are findings of such an investigation must be made public. Officials suspected of responsibility for human...

Oct. 4, 2003 UN, Iran form plan to show nuclear program peaceful By ASSOCIATED PRESS TEHRAN, Iran Representatives of the UN nuclear watchdog have left Iran after reaching "total agreement" on measures to prove the country's nuclear program is peaceful, Iran's representative to the IAEA said Saturday. Ali Akbar Salehi said the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation left Tehran on Friday "with complete satisfaction." "The two sides reached total agreement and approved a plan of action on the basis of which we will work together on a timetable to achieve the expected results," Salehi told The Associated Press. The IAEA...