Free Republic

In March of 2007 Iranian Revolutionary Guards General Ali-Reza Ashgari defected to the West through Turkey. General Ashgari is the highest-ranking defector from Iran ever, a huge bonanza for our understanding of the Khomeinist regime's intentions and capabilities with regard to nuclear weapons. If he is for real. Troubling circumstantial evidence suggests that he is not. This week, a public summary of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran made worldwide headlines.  Contrary to endless public statements made over three decades from Khomeini to Ahmadi-Nejad, contrary to the 2005 NIE, contrary to the recent UN report, and contrary to Israeli intelligence, the...

London, Apr. 21 – At least 62 people have been killed and over 1,000 arrested in the week-long clashes between people and security forces in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, according to the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. Fierce fighting has brought the province to a complete stand-still since Friday, when State Security Forces (SSF) opened fire on a 3,000-strong anti-government demonstration in the city of Ahwaz. The residents who were mainly ethnic Arabs were complaining of government plans to redefine the ethnic make-up of the province. Ahwaz was placed under a de facto martial law...

Israel does not have the right to defend itself, Russia’s representative to the United Nations said on Wednesday. The United States and its allies are hypocritical for talking “about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the [U.N.’s] International Court [of Justice] consultative ruling in 2004,” Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told a U.N. General Assembly special session on the Israel-Hamas war. The ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion stated that Israel could not invoke an inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter against any threat coming from an...

He is an enemy combatant, so treat him as one. An Iran-backed Hezbollah commander who killed American soldiers in cold blood has been in U.S. custody for four years. Most Americans would see this as a good thing. For the Obama administration, it is a vexing dilemma. This highlights, yet again, why the country can’t afford a second Obama administration. Ali Mussa Daqduq has been a Hezbollah operative for almost 30 years. He is the hardcore. When he joined back in 1983, the “Party of God” (hizb Allah) was just getting its start as Iran’s forward militia in Lebanon, announcing...

Evidence in the trial against HLF showed that Ghassan Elashi, the treasurer of the charity, became the founding board member of CAIR’s Texas chapter and that HLF transferred funds to CAIR for “consulting services.” The prosecution also presented evidence that Hamas provided “seed money” for CAIR, according to a congressional hearing. “The history is very clear,” said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at GWU. “CAIR was created by this core group of Hamas leaders in the US in the early 1990s. There are FBI wiretaps of a workshop given by the group’s leaders on how to deal...

Abstract: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il's faltering health has raised concerns about regime stability. Succession rumors have been swirling for years, with Kim's third son, Jong-eun, currently rumored to be Kim's favored choice. But regardless of whether leadership stays in the family or is wrested away by a challenger, a new North Korean leader is likely to keep in place the same belligerent policies--toward South Korea, toward China and Japan, and toward the U.S. If succession does not go smoothly, and if the North Korean regime were to collapse, the ensuing chaos would require immediate action by the U.S. and...

JERUSALEM -- In their first comment about the fate of two soldiers whose capture triggered a month long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas last summer, Israeli officials said yesterday the two were seriously wounded -- raising the prospect they may no longer be alive.

A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago. Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990. According to a report in Lausanne-based newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the international arrest warrant was issued by Swiss investigating magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20. It called on law enforcement agencies to arrest Fallahian – who for years headed Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is currently...

One of France's most distinguished diplomats has confessed to an investigating judge that he accepted oil allocations from Saddam Hussein, it emerged yesterday. Jean-Bernard Mérimée is thought to be the first senior figure to admit his role in the oil-for-food scandal, a United Nations humanitarian aid scheme hijacked by Saddam to buy influence. The Frenchman, who holds the title "ambassador for life", told authorities that he regretted taking payments amounting to $156,000 (then worth about £108,000) in 2002. The money was used to renovate a holiday home he owned in southern Morocco. At the time, Mr Mérimée was a special...

A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in central Fuzhou Monday, killing himself and injuring 31 others, local police said. The blast in the capital of East China's Fujian Province went off at 2:32 pm as the No 5 bus pulled in at the Dongjiekou Stop in Dongda Road, one of the city's busiest streets. There was a deafening "big bang," said Lin Lina, a female employee working in an office building on the roadside. "Thick smoke rose into the sky, and we couldn't see or tell what was happening," Lin said. Even from her office on the...

Hao Fengjun Reveals Facts of the ‘610 Office’Hao Fengjun, from Model Police Officer to 610 Office DefectorBy Li HuaThe Epoch Times Jun 19, 2005 Hao Fengjun being interviewed (The Epoch Times) MELBOURNE - Hao Fengjun never thought his visit to Melbourne’s Epoch Times office on June 4, 2005 would send shock waves throughout Western society. Hao chose to step forward to tell people why he defected from his post as a police officer in China’s notorious 610 Office. He risked his own and his family’s lives to help people understand the situation in China. A Model Police Officer at the...

logo Three Decades Since the Panama Bombing: The Hezbollah Connection and Ali Zaki’s Extradition José Gustavo Arocha José Gustavo Arocha April 20, 2026 SFS Home Research Three Decades Since the Panama Bombing: The Hezbollah Connection and Ali Zaki’s Extradition Share EXPERT Three Decades Since the Panama Bombing: The Hezbollah Connection and Ali Zaki’s Extradition José Gustavo Arocha Senior Fellow Meet our expert KEY POINTS On April 20, 2026, Ali Zaki Hage Jalil arrived in Panama after Venezuela approved his extradition in connection with the 1994 bombing of Alas Chiricanas Flight 901, marking the most significant breakthrough in the case in...

The New York Times Sept. 4 feature on Tim Kaine1, shows that his year in Honduras introduced him not to Jesus Christ, but to Karl Marx. The story doesn't say that, exactly, but connect the dots with a little history, and an alarming picture emerges of Kaine's adventures with radicals and revolutionaries in 1980s Latin America. The Times notes that in Honduras: “Mr. Kaine embraced an interpretation of the gospel, known as liberation theology...” This wasn't mainstream “Catholic thought” at the time. It was a radical, Marxist-based ideology at odds with the Church, the pope, and the United States, but...

DAKAR, Oct 25 (AFP) - Senegal said it would restore diplomatic ties with China, becoming the latest west African country to ditch relations with Taiwan in favor of mighty Beijing. A government statement, released after a Beijing trip by Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, hailed the "important decision to renew diplomatic relations with China" and said both countries would soon exchange ambassadors. A joint statement published in the Chinese capital and reported by the state news agency Xinhua said the re-establishment of ties after the hiatus "conformed to the interests and aspirations of the two countries." China had severed its...

Mansour Osanlou, the leader of Tehran's municipal bus service union, was reportedly assaulted by an inmate in an Iranian prison, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. The trade unionist was not injured in the attack, which occurred at Gohardasht prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, on February 22. Osanlou was arrested in July 2007 after being abducted on the street by security forces. He is serving a five-year prison term for what authorities say was acting against "national security." He had been detained several times between 2005-2007. Canadian-based labor activist Mehdi Kouhestaninejad told RFE/RL that Osanlou has been persecuted in prison by...

The Mexican law student was surprised by how easy it was to get into Iran two years ago. By merely asking questions about Islam at a party, he managed to pique the interest of Iran’s top diplomat in Mexico. Months later, he had a plane ticket and a scholarship to a mysterious school in Iran as a guest of the Islamic Republic. Next came the start of classes and a second surprise: There were dozens of others just like him.

Friday, Sept. 30th concluded the 3-day military manoeuvres conducted by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards in the town of Marivaan (Province of Kurdistan). These maneuvers took place around Zaribaar Lake where bunkers from the 8-year-old Iran/Iraq war still stand. For days leading up to the beginning of the maneuvers, squadron leaders and regime's authorities in Marivaan had bragged about the 20,000 strong Basiji presence in the "war games", however in spite of all the pressure to compel civil servants, high school students and the general public to participate, only 1400 people showed up. This was an indication of yet another...

According to Iranian reports, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed together with his bodyguard during an Israeli airstrike on the country, while under house arrest. Serving as Iran's sixth president between 2005 and 2013, Ahmadinejad is remembered as one of the Islamic Republic's most extreme and antisemitic voices. He was open about his aspiration to destroy Israel. In 2009, his controversial reelection set off the largest protests in post-revolution Iran's history until that point. The regime under his lead responded with a bloodbath, killing dozens and sending hundreds to prison.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a polarizing hardliner who became the face of Tehran’s nuclear defiance and incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric — was reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes during Saturday’s strikes inside Iran. A report by the Israeli media outlet Ma’ariv stated that Ahmadinejad was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a targeted strike on his home. Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s sixth president from 2005 to 2013, rising from relative obscurity as mayor of Tehran to defeat establishment figure Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a surprise 2005 runoff. Critics at home and abroad described him as a...

​ ​​​​Forsake The Troops started off as Citizens Against the Troops, an organization founded in the Summer of 2004. We currently have fifteen members in our organization, spanning all across this country. Our founder, and leader's name is Scott Vogel, who currently resides in Southern New Jersey. Other members have their bios available as well. To view those, click here. Our position is that as it stands currently, the compensation, benefit, and retirement packages that our active duty and retired military personnel get is outrageous, and undeserved. The American taxpayer is supporting the military enlistee, when said person made the...