Free Republic

A Lebanese journalist detained on suspicion he participated in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 is back home in Beirut after authorities determined they had the wrong man.

Berlin, 12 Oct. (IPS) To the dismay and anger of the families of the victims, a German court has decided to free an Iranian charged 11 years ago for the assassination of four Iranians in a Berlin restaurant, including the then General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK), two other members of the same Organisation and an opponent to the Islamic Republic. The Federal German Prosecutor announced on Wednesday that Mr. Kazem Darabi, the coordinator of the Iranian-Lebanese terror squad that assassinated Mr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, the General Secretary of the DPIK and three others on 17 September...

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...

Two high-level Iranian government backers, including a former Islamic Republic official and another accused of lobbying on Tehran’s behalf, were hosted at the Obama White House for more than 30 meetings with top officials at key junctures in the former administration’s contested diplomacy with Iran, according to White House visitor logs that provide a window into the former administration’s outreach to leading pro-Iran advocates. Seyed Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and head of its national security council, was hosted at the White House at least three times, while Trita Parsi, a pro-Iran advocate long accused of hiding his ties to...