Free Republic

U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles. Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper -- which can be used in missile guidance systems -- from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of...

UK Intercepts Russian Bombers Updated: 12:33, Thursday September 06, 2007 RAF Tornados intercepted eight Russian bombers as they approached UK airspace.

A Potomac, Md., Islamic center maintains links to Iran despite its claims that it is independent of a foundation that is being sued by the U.S. government on charges of funneling money to the Islamic republic. Ali Mohammadi, the current manager of the Islamic Education Center (IEC) of Maryland, told The Washington Times that the center's only relationship to the Alavi Foundation is that of tenant to landlord. He quoted a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office as saying that forfeiture proceedings initiated earlier this month against the foundation - which also owns property in New York and other states...

The UN’s IAEA has reported that Iran has 55.6 kilograms (122.6 pounds) of 60% enriched uranium. The body says this means Iran is able to produce up to 25 kg (55 lbs) of 90% enriched uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb. The real story could be even more concerning. Consider the hoary phrase, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Similarly, there’s more than one way to make a nuclear bomb. The Union of Concerned Scientists has said that it might be possible to produce a fission-type nuclear weapon with as little as 15kg (33 lbs) of highly...

Since Osama bin Laden made his first appearance in almost three years on Friday, the government and the news media have exhaustively scrutinized his video for clues as to the Saudi terrorist's whereabouts and well-being. ...his message has been dismissed as meaningless psychological warfare and propaganda, put forward in a claim for relevance on the sixth anniversary of September 11. But what bin Laden actually says in his "message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to the American people" has the potential to be quite revealing. Gone is any mention of Israel, of the Christian and Jewish crusaders, or of the...

Israel planned 1991 strike on NKorea-Syria ship: report Wed Jan 9, 2:47 AM ET Israeli agents prepared to strike a ship suspected of smuggling missiles from North Korea to Syria in 1991 but cancelled it at the 11th hour under US pressure, a Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday. Undercover agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency secretly attached a guidance system for an airstrike on a cargo vessel believed to be carrying 23 short-range Scud missiles to Syria, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The Yomiuri, reporting from Jerusalem, said it spoke to one of the agents involved in the operation, whose name was...

Justice: Once again, Americans asked to put their lives on the line go on trial. Their crime was doing the very job we asked them to do in Iraq. Will they now be sacrificed for an ungrateful Iraq?On Tuesday, five members of a tactical support team of Blackwater Worldwide security guards in Iraq made their first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to the use of automatic weapons. The "crime" was protecting State Department personnel under fire in a war zone and firing back. On Sept. 16, 2007, 18 members of the "Raven 23" team...

The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday. The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. It touched off a string of investigations that ultimately led the State Department to cancel the company's lucrative contract to guard diplomats in Iraq. Iraqis have said they're watching closely to see how the U.S. judicial system handles the five men accused of unleashing an unprovoked attack on civilians with machine guns and grenades....

On the second night of his visit to Kyiv, Erik Prince had a dinner date on his agenda. A few of his Ukrainian associates had arranged to meet the American billionaire at the Vodka Grill that evening, Feb. 23, 2020. The choice of venue seemed unusual. The Vodka Grill, a since-defunct nightclub next to a KFC franchise in a rough part of town, rarely saw patrons as powerful as Prince. As the party got seated inside a private karaoke room on the second floor, Igor Novikov, who was then a top adviser to Ukraine’s President, remembers feeling a little nervous....

President Donald Trump has pardoned four Blackwater security guards who were given lengthy prison sentences for killing 14 civilians in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that caused international uproar over the use of private contractors in war zones. The four – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns and grenade launchers on a crowd of unarmed people in the Iraqi capital. Known as the Nisour Square massacre, the slaughter was seen as a low point in the conflict in Iraq. In 2014, Slough, Liberty and...

Excerpt - Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close to the case. ~ snip ~

Video: "Esam Omeish, Jerusalem Day Rally, 12-22-2000, Full Speech" Video Description: InvestigativeProject September 28, 2007 Dr. Omeish's full speech Category: News & Politics

A U.S. congressional oversight committee accused the State Department's inspector general on Friday of threatening to fire several of his staff if they cooperated with an investigation into his conduct. In a letter to Inspector General Howard Krongard, Rep. Henry Waxman accused Krongard for the second time in 10 days of interfering with a probe by the House of Representatives oversight committee the California Democrat chairs. The panel is looking into whether Krongard, who acts as an independent internal investigator for the State Department, failed to examine claims of government waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and elsewhere so as...

1735 HRs Local, Sunday, June 7, 1981. Al-Tuwaythah Nuclear Research Facility, outside Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber is in shock. His jaw drops, mouth gaping open as a strained moan leaves his throat. Despite the hot desert temperature his limbs feel cold. He cannot believe what he is seeing. Eight F-16s painted sand-colored desert camouflage flying in a single-file attack formation at rooftop level hurtles over the outskirts of Baghdad from the southwest. They bank hard left, slicing white tendrils of vapor from their missile-clad wingtips in the evening air. One at a time they light their afterburners...

vThis morning's column by James Carroll, the Boston Globe's resident gushy liberal, is so predictable you wonder whether it might have been written by a liberal-column generator software program. You know the kind: insert issue, names of political players, a few factoids, and let the program spit out the boilerplate of a standard leftist diatribe. I mean, as soon as you knew that Carroll was writing a column about Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.S., could there be any doubt as to where he'd come down on the controversy surrounding the Iranian president's desire to visit Ground Zero? And Carroll doesn't...

From:Amy.Dacey@seiu.org To: Andy.Stern@seiu.org, Anna.Burger@seiu.org, pbl@711sx.com, zschwartz@shangrila.us, douglas.york@soros.com, Michael.Vachon@soros.com more Date: 2007-09-22 00:24 Subject: Agenda and Logistical information for the September 27th NYC Meeting Thank you all for your patience as we have finalized the agenda and arrangements for the September 27th meeting in NYC. Please review the agenda and logistical information below.You will recieve a UPS overnight package on Tuesday morning with additional information to review prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to email me or contact me on my cell at 202-528-7492. Amy...

.." Agassi was known as "Abu Al Qaqaa"..

Osama bin Laden's 16-year-old son led a suicide bomb squad sent to kill Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to her own claims. Before she was assassinated in December the former prime minister claimed she had been warned that four such death teams would try to kill her. And the naming of bin Laden's teenage son, Hamza, could now strengthen claims that he is being groomed as a future leader of the al Qaeda terror group. In 2001, he appeared in a joint Taliban and al Qaeda video of a militant attack on a Pakistan army camp in South Waziristan,...

A newly-released email and lobbying documents filed with Congress reveals new ties between Clintonworld and members of a network operated by a mysterious Islamic cleric from Turkey. Connections between Clinton and acolytes of the imam, Fethullah Gulen, could muddle the complex relationship between the U.S. and Turkey, a key NATO ally, if the former secretary of state wins the White House. TurkeyÂ’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, has mounted an aggressive crackdown against Gulen and his followers, known as Gulenists. ErdoÄŸan, who was once allied with Gulen, has even personally asked President Obama to extradite the 74-year-old guru, who has lived...

CBS) PEACH BOTTOM TOWNSHIP, Pa. They're on duty and fast asleep, security guards that are supposed to be protecting a major terrorist target in the United States. CBS 2 HD's three-month investigation into the security gap at our nation's nuclear facilities yielded some shocking information and video, and now officials have told CBS 2 first that the contract with the major security firm that hired the guards will be terminated. The video shows the inside of the nation's largest nuclear facilities. There are images of security officers responsible for protecting the plant against a terrorist attack, an attack that could...