Free Republic

New details of Moscow's intelligence work in Cuba were disclosed by Vasili Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. ...Russian KGB officer Nikolai Leonov became "firm friends," with Mr. Castro's younger brother Raul in Prague in 1953 and then worked together with Fidel from 1956 and after he took power in 1959. The book, the second volume of what is known as the Mitrokhin archive, also reveals how Moscow sought to indirectly defeat the United States during the Cold War through large-scale "disinformation" and influence operations in the developing world. "The KGB really believed they could...

The skirmishes with immigration agents of the past few days are dwarfed by the widespread rioting, vandalism and violence that engulfed whole neighborhoods in 1992.Some Republicans have drawn parallels between President Trump’s dispatching of National Guard troops to Los Angeles on Saturday and what happened in 1992, when soldiers and Marines were sent to the Los Angeles area to restore order after the Rodney King riots.But that was a far different situation.In contrast with the isolated skirmishes seen in Los Angeles County over the past few days, there were neighborhoods in 1992 that had devolved into something resembling a lawless...

...2,000 National Guard troops will be sent to L.A. amid clashes over immigration raids... Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies use flash bang grenades and tear gas on protesters... "We'll come get you": L.A.'s top federal prosecutor says protesters are being investigated... Hegseth says Marines could be deployed. "Deranged", Newsom says...

Demonstrators in Paraguay have set fire to the country's Congress amid violent protests against a bill that would let the president seek re-election. Protestors stormed the legislature, breaking windows and fences. The countries 1992 constitution, introduced after 35 years of dictatorship, strictly limits the president to a single five-year term. But sitting President Horactio Cartes is attempting to remove the restriction and run for re-election. Protestors were photographed smashing in windows of the congress building in Asuncion on Friday night and setting fire to the interior.

Radical Islam in Latin America By Chris Zambelis In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July 1994 attack against the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AIMA), also in the Argentine capital, allegedly in retaliation for...

The Miami Herald is reporting Hugo Chávez early demise was recognized long before the rest of the world was privvy to the details of a late diagnosed and lethal cancer. With the help of Cuban brothers Fidel and Raúl, and Chávez' hand-picked successor Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan presidential election was moved from December 2012 to October 2012, two months that the report says were crucial. In October Chávez could still stand before his supporters to applaud his re-election, but there was no certainty that he could do so in December. He returned to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer treatments in early...

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation. Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for...

[Spanish language media only so far, quick translation] Perú President Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress, which in turn impeached him. Unlike with Fujimori in 1992, this time the Police and the Armed Forces did not back the presidency, and promptly arrested him as he sought to flee to Mexico.

The Trump administration is slapping sanctions on Venezuela’s new Vice President Tareck El Aissami and accusing him of playing a major role in international drug trafficking. (snip) The U.S. is also sanctioning Samark Bello, a wealthy businessman connected to El Aissami who has held significant business interests in the U.S. The U.S. says Bello provided assistance or support to El Aissami’s trafficking activities.

Perhaps you didn’t hear about Israel’s alleged air strike on a Syrian military installation last week, but the incident has significant global ramifications about which you should be aware.In Israel, it’s always reported that incidents like these are “allegedly” carried out by Israel because in most cases, Israel neither officially confirms nor denies responsibility.  This is part of a culture where all military items go through a censor. Overtly stating that Israel did something like this is typically not allowed.  Ambiguity also allows Israel’s enemies the wiggle room that, though they may know full well that something might have Israeli...

WASHINGTON -- Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's historic trip to Crawford, Texas, this week ought to provoke Americans to plumb some of the deeper reasons behind the yawning U.S./Saudi estrangement. The "Arab street," according to every analyst here from the region, is increasingly anti-American. Their stories relate the skewed pictures most countries are getting about America -- from satellite-carried Israeli attacks on Palestinians to the often vulgar and sexually explicit American commercial TV programs sent around the world. But when one searches for the failure of American influence in the Middle East, one does not have to look far. We are...

One person has been killed, and over 1,000 residents in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture have been evacuated, as of Friday (Feb 28).Japan was battling its largest wildfire in more than three decades on Saturday (Mar 1), one of several blazes that have killed one person and forced the evacuation of more than a thousand. Flames are estimated to have spread over about 1,200ha in the forest of Ofunato in the northern region of Iwate since fire broke out on Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. "We're still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the...

As Russian tanks rumble through Georgia, and Western pundits talk of the "new Cold War," one trope keeps reappearing in their discourse. Russia's newly aggressive stance, we are told, is partly our fault: After the fall of Communism, the West went out of its way to humiliate and trample Russia instead of treating it as a partner--and now, an oil-powered Russia is striking back. "Russia's litany of indignities dates to the early 1990s when the Soviet empire collapsed," Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and former Barack Obama adviser, wrote in Time. "A bipolar universe gave...

For those who are trying to soft-pedal Hezbollah's evil, here are some sections from its 1985 manifesto:No one can imagine the importance of our military potential as our military apparatus is not separate from our overall social fabric. Each of us is a fighting soldier. And when it becomes necessary to carry out the Holy War, each of us takes up his assignment in the fight in accordance with the injunctions of the Law, and that in the framework of the mission carried out under the tutelage of the Commanding Jurist.Let us put it truthfully: the sons of Hezbollah know...

CNN senior political data reporter Harry Enten said Friday on “News Central” that President-elect Donald Trump had a mandate because his victory was the biggest party gain since 1992. Host Kate Bolduan said, “During his victory speech President-Elect Trump said voters gave him an unprecedented mandate. We decided to look into the numbers.” Enten said, “I think the improvement that Donald Trump had, Holy Toledo. Trump gained ground in 49 states and the district of Columbia compared to 2020. I went back through the record books and when was the last time a party gained in so many different places?...

A closed-door meeting of left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was held on January 16, 2003, in Washington, D.C. to consider how to apply international financial pressure through a global tax on the U.S. Bruno Jetin, a representative of ATTAC France, spoke to the gathering and acknowledged in private conversation that his group works hand-in-glove with the French Communist Party and the "Socialist parties on the Left." A representative of the embassy of France in the U.S. was listed as a participant. ATTAC stands for the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens. The International ATTAC Movement...

Hussein Mousavian headlined STRATCOM's Deterrence Symposium U.S. military leaders earlier this month hosted a former top Iranian official who came under fire last year for bragging about the hardline regime’s efforts to assassinate American leaders. U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) tapped Hussein Mousavian, a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team who works as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, to headline its 2023 Deterrence Symposium, a high-level powwow that brought the former Iranian official shoulder-to-shoulder with America’s top military brass. Mousavian’s appearance at the mid-August gathering, which came to light on Monday after STRATCOM posted...

Run a search of Nasrallah, Watch video#1150 http://memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1150 A year ago today I said in Bint Jbeil, that the resistance has more than 12,000 missiles. When I say "more than 12,000 missiles," it doesn't mean 13,000. It doesn't mean 13,000... I acknowledge that for many years - since 1992, to be precise - the resistance has had a significant and respectable missile capability, both in quantity and quality. Therefore, I can tell you that the north of occupied Palestine is entirely within the range of the missiles of the Lebanese resistance. This, of course, is the minimum. As for reaching...

The Ukrainian government needs to find a “fine line” that would allow it to both protect free speech and fight Kremlin propaganda, a top official of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe said in an interview with the Kyiv Post. There has been a debate in Ukraine on whether pro-Kremlin media, which are inciting Russia’s war against Ukraine and fabricating lies, should be banned. While some argue that they are a threat to national security, others condemn such measures as an attack on free speech. “The Ukrainian government needs to find a very fine line with the help...

The Alvin Bragg case has gotten grander at trial, but also more ridiculous. The Manhattan DA has a meaningless business-records misdemeanor wrapped within a theory about an alleged Trump conspiracy to defraud the voters by denying them disparaging information before the election and obscuring, after the fact, the payments that were used to do so. Bragg is accusing Trump, in effect, of stealing the election. He, thus, joins all the other progressives who have denied the legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 election, although he finds the culprit not in Russia (at least not in this case) but in the shady maneuverings...