Free Republic

In an op-ed appearing in today’s Wall Street Journal, former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh blasted the White House and National Security Council policy toward Iran during Joseph Sestak’s tenure as Director of Defense Policy. On Sestak’s watch, efforts to bring those responsible for the Khobar Towers bombing that killed nineteen U.S. military personnel ten years ago this Sunday, were hampered by the National Security Council, where Sestak “was responsible for national security and defense strategy, policies, programs, interagency and congressional coordination and regional political/military advice.” According to Freeh, despite admission by the bombers that they were trained by the...

Nearly five years after a powerful truck bomb ripped through a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia – killing 19 Americans and wounding 372 – terrorism charges have been brought against 13 members of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or “Party of God.” Another, as yet unidentified, person who is linked to the Lebanese Hizballah has also been charged in the attack. According to the indictment returned today by a Federal Grand Jury in Alexandria, Virginia, nine of the fourteen are charged with 46 separate criminal counts including: conspiracy to kill Americans and employees of the United States, to use...

part one: http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/The-Iran-Threat/Tehrans-master-terrorist-Imad-Mughniyah-and-the-forgotten-road-to-911part-I-of-II-390278 Before Bin Laden and 9/11 Tehran’s master terrorist had killed more Americans than any terrorist in history, Imad Mughniyah was America’s most wanted with a 5 million dollar bounty. With the Islamic Republic of Iran’s help he built a global nexus of militant warfare and terrorist operations. The road to 9/11, it was Imad who introduced Osama Bin laden to Khomeini’s cult of the Islamic Suicide Bomber. In late July 1996, American warships, a full complement of military hardware, and nearly 4,000 Marines, sailors and SEALs, were praying they could pull off the mission of their lives....

In a blistering indictment of his old boss's negligence in fighting the war on terrorism, former FBI Director Louis Freeh charged Tuesday that ex-President Clinton was so unhelpful during his agency's investigation into the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that he had to turn to former President Bush. Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Freeh described the Clinton White House as "unable or unwilling to help the FBI" gain access to key witnesses in the Khobar case because it feared exposing the role of Hezbollah and its state sponsor, Iran.

In a blistering indictment of his old boss's negligence in fighting the war on terrorism, former FBI Director Louis Freeh charged Tuesday that ex-President Clinton was so unhelpful during his agency's investigation into the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that he had to turn to former President Bush. Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Freeh described the Clinton White House as "unable or unwilling to help the FBI" gain access to key witnesses in the Khobar case because it feared exposing the role of Hezbollah and its state sponsor, Iran. "The only direction from the Clinton administration regarding Iran was to...

Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier was stunned when he read the account of the June 25, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that appeared in my recent book, Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran. I was writing many years after the fact, drawing on sources from inside Iranian intelligence but also on published U.S. government reports. It was those U.S. reports that prompted General Schwalier to contact me a few months ago. “You paint a picture of significant government awareness that “Iran was up to something” in the months prior to the Khobar Towers attack,” he wrote...

The 1996 terrorist attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 United States airmen was among the defining events of America’s recent experience in the Middle East. But there has been no judicial accountability. With the reported arrest of the man accused of masterminding the crime, a resolution of the case may be closer. The truck bombing at the eight-story dormitory near the Dharan Air Base was the deadliest such attack on American forces since the 1983 bombing of the Marines’ barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members. In 2006, a federal court concluded that elements...

The mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans has been captured, U.S. and Saudi officials said on Aug. 26. The arrest of Ahmed al-Mughassil, who was described by the FBI in 2001 as the leader of the armed wing of the Saudi Hizbullah group, was one of the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists. The arrest concluded a nearly two-decade manhunt.

A prisoner in Saudi Arabia, who was sentenced to death as a child, faces "death by crucifixion" after a final appeal has been dismissed. Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested on 14 February 2012 when he was just 17, during a crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. He was accused by the authorities of participation in illegal protests and of firearms offences, despite there being no evidence to justify the latter charge. Ali was initially held at a juvenile offenders facility, where he was denied access to lawyers. Evidence indicates that he was tortured and forced to...

Like father, like son, assert U.S., European and Arab intelligence agencies who believe one of Osama bin Laden's youngest children is beginning to call the shots at the Iranian branch of al-Qaida. Saad bin Laden is one of an estimated 400 operatives of the terror network recruited and protected by Tehran's hard-line clerics, according to the Washington Post. Tehran's elected government, headed by the reformist President Mohammed Khatami, does not appear to have control over this group, called the Jerusalem Force. The Post reports the 24-year-old bin Laden is computer savvy and fluent in English. His father groomed him for...

Egypt’s military junta is going on a shopping spree for weapons. Remember those French amphibious assault ships originally intended for Russia that are now sitting out to dry? Cairo’s generals have their eyes on them, too. The French-built Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, or helicopter carrier, is a formidable vessel. Capable of carrying 16 helicopters, four landing barges and an entire tank battalion along with about 450 troops, these vessels give the state which owns them a substantial ability to project air and ground power far from its shores. France has built five of these warships to date, two of which...

He is now 120 kg and will soon leave hospital A 17-year-old Saudi boy rated in 2013 as the heaviest man in the world has lost nearly 480 kg since he was airlifted out of his home confinement to hospital in 2013. Khaled Al Shaeri was flown from his home in the Southern Jazan province to King Fahd Medical City in the capital Riyadh in August 2013 for treatment after his condition worsened due to a steady rise in his weight, which reached nearly 610 kg at that time. Sada newspaper quoted doctors as saying Shaeri has shed 490 kg...

Trump gave a great statement today to MSNBC about the Iran deal, saying Obama negotiated from desperation, that we shouldn’t be giving Iran any money, and that we should have at least gotten back our four Americans being held in prison in Iran. Trump says the deal is terrible, because without immediate inspections, we’ve got nothing and the Iranians know it.

As violence rages on Temple Mount and throughout Jerusalem, international leaders demand Israel maintain restrictions. International leaders have called on Israel to continue a ban on Jewish worship on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, in order to maintain calm and placate Muslim extremists who have been rioting for three days straight in Jerusalem. UN coordinator Nickolay Mladenov warned during a Security Council meeting Tuesday that clashes between Palestinian rioters and Israeli security forces could provoke violence by Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East. "As the Middle East faces a vicious tide of terror and extremism, such serious provocations have...

This isn't the first time in which our panel of Israel Factor experts is asked to compare the relations of Israel with different US administrations. In 2012, we gave our panelists the following task: "On a scale of 1 (bad for Israel) to 10 (great for Israel), please rank the following past presidents in retrospect". Judging by the answers – I wrote at the time – "Bill Clinton has been the best president for Israel since Kennedy (we did not include Eisenhower and Truman in this survey)". Of course, not all panelists agreed with that conclusion. The conclusion is based...

The same voice that told you to vote for Barack Obama also told you to oppose his signature foreign policy achievement, the Iran nuclear deal. That would be Leif Anders, a voice actor based in Austin, Texas. Anders was hired to do voice overs for some of Obama’s election ads and, more recently, was the voice in this summer’s ubiquitous anti-Iran deal spots paid for by the AIPAC-backed Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran. On Thursday, the Senate rejected a a third attempt to dismantle the nuclear deal — which should leave the deal to take effect as Sept. 17...

In a reference to the Republican Party debate, Iran’s Supreme Leader’s decried on Twitter that “presidential candidates try to satisfy Zionists.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to Wednesday night’s CNN-sponsored debate in a tweet on Thursday, part of a series of anti-Israel tweets. US govs put their people under Zionists custody.Isn’t it a shame that presidential candidates try to satisfy Zionists&prove their servitude? In a follow-up tweet, Khamenei reiterated a claim he made earlier this month that Israel will not last: Zionist regime is an imposed regime, made through coercion; no entity made by coercion would last. This regime will not...

Israeli police plans to send large numbers of officers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday, in preparation for possible protests and riots after Muslim morning prayers conclude, as violence continues to strike the city. The recent turmoil in and around Al-Aqsa mosque, as well as intelligence indicating Arab youths intend to violently protest, led Jerusalem’s chief of police, Moshe Edri, to order the reinforcement. Acts of violence continued in Jerusalem on Thursday evening. A bus driver was lightly wounded in the city when stones hit his bus near the Hizma checkpoint. He was treated by a paramedic team...

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Thursday night phoned President Barack Obama to condemn Israel for what was termed its “grave escalation” on the Temple Mount. According to the official Saudi Press Agency, during the phone call, the King “expressed, in strong wordings, condemnation and disapproval of the grave Israeli escalation, at Al Aqsa Mosque, in Al-Quds, brutal aggression against worshippers at its plazas and the violation of the sanctity of Islamic sanctuaries.” The King reportedly called for internationally concerted, serious and expedited efforts to stop this so-called “aggression” and called for intervention by the UN Security Council “to take all...

On Thursday evening, we detailed a Reuters report which suggested that the influx of Russian technical and logistical support to Bashar al-Assad’s depleted army at Latakia might have breathed new life into the regime as it seeks to rout Islamic State and a whole host of other armed groups fighting for control of Syria. “Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday Russia had provided new weapons and trained Syrian troops how to use them,” Reuters said, before describing what certainly sounds like an invigorated air campaign against the de facto ISIS capital at Raqqa. Importantly, al-Moualem also indicated that Syria...