Free Republic

An earthquake of moderate intensity occurred in Iran and Israel on Saturday night, October 5. Strangely enough, both the countries experienced the earthquake at a marginal difference in the timing. In such a situation, it is being speculated whether Iran has conducted its nuclear test. The earthquake occurred in the Aradan city of Semnan province in Iran. Its intensity was 4.5 on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred at around 10:45 pm local time and its epicentre was at a depth of only 10 kilometers from the ground. The tremors were felt in Tehran which is 110 kilometers away from...

A former Army Colonel from Florida was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for trying to woo a woman he met online by sending her secret classified battle plans. Retired combat vet Kevin Charles Luke, 62, was working as a high-level civilian contractor with “top secret” clearance at US military headquarters in Tampa in October 2024, when he texted a photo of plans for a Middle East attack to his new fling, according to court documents. “Sent to my boss earlier,” he wrote in the text, which included a photo of an email on his work computer at Central...

China has emerged as the most prolific intelligence threat to U.S. having engaged in corporate espionage, intellectual-property theft, and personnel information breaches going back decades. A naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from China has been sentenced to four years in prison after conspiring to act as a agent of the Chinese government, highlighting the broad reach of Beijing’s security service and strategy of co-opting immigrants for intelligence gathering, according to the Justice Department. The plea agreement and court filings announced Monday show China’s Ministry of State Security – the Communist-run country's intelligence service – used operative Peng Li as a...

The illusion of Iranian power was kept alive for decades by American engagement with the would-be lords of the Middle East. Now the spell is broken, and the ‘Axis of Resistance’ is shattered. A billboard with the "doomsday clock," counting down the days until Israel's destruction, is pictured in downtown Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 2024. Israel bombed the clock on Monday. A few months before he was buried under the rubble of his Beirut bunker, the late leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, repeated to his followers, as he had done many times before, his famous line that Israel was...

Law enforcement officials cautioned that they had not yet determined a motive for the Pacific Northwest arson fires. But the messages have heightened the sensitivity of the investigation. Investigators responding to arson fires at two ballot boxes in the Pacific Northwest this week found devices at both scenes marked with the words “Free Gaza,” according to two law enforcement officials. Investigators are trying to determine if the perpetrator was actually a pro-Palestinian activist or someone using that prominent cause to sow discord, one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. But the message...

No matter how far liberals sink, we can always count on them to explore new depths of pettiness. For instance, leave it to liberals to grouse about a modest and historically appropriate change to a commemorative coin now in circulation. Then, leave it to those same liberals to blame President Donald Trump for the design when, in fact, the change occurred during the final months of former President Joe Biden's administration. […] … (L)iberals have speculated that the removal of the peace-signifying olive branch symbolizes Trump’s bellicosity. […] As usual, however, the liberals got it wrong. In fact, the Citizens...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (TCN) -- A woman has accepted a plea deal in an attempted murder case in which she allegedly instructed a child on how to kill a newborn. WEAR reports Tara Sykes, 37, had three homicide charges and one charge of child cruelty dropped as part of her deal. She pleaded no contest to a charge of child neglect and was sentenced to 11 months and 30 days in county jail, with 462 days credit for time served. On Oct. 18, 2024, Sykes was arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly instructing a 10-year-old to drop a...

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters addressed a judge for more than 40 minutes before being sentenced to 8.5 years in prison in an election computer breach.

Fake news indeed! The British Daily Telegraph has reported that the BBC deceptively edited a speech by Donald Trump to make it look like the President had ordered his supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The footage was aired as part of the BBC documentary Trump: A Second Chance? in October 2024. The ruse involved splicing together two statements made by Trump over an hour apart. This made it seem like Trump had said that “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you...

Sword-wielding MS-13 thugs who have been terrorizing Long Islanders for years have been rounded up as part of a sweeping Nassau County crackdown of nearly 40 of the notorious gang’s street soldiers — on attempted murder, weapons and illicit drug charges. Included in the massive bust were five college-aged thugs — accused of being part of the deadly MS-13’s Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas branch — who were allegedly responsible for a machete and knife attack that wounded six during a soccer game in broad daylight at the town’s Kennedy Memorial Park last October. The attack was so gruesome that one victim...

The two Jordanian nationals were previously released on bail. The Biden-Harris administration's Department of Justice has quietly and mysteriously dropped the charges against two Jordanian nationals who allegedly attempted to breach a Virginia military base in May. Hasan Yousef Hamdan and Mohammad Khair Dabous, both in the country illegally, were accused of attempting to enter Quantico Marine Corps Base near Triangle, Virginia, while posing as Amazon delivery drivers, Blaze News previously reported. The two Jordanian nationals were previously released on bail. The Biden-Harris administration's Department of Justice has quietly and mysteriously dropped the charges against two Jordanian nationals who allegedly...

One day each month, Charlie Kirk, one of the country’s most influential Republican activists, holds an event called Freedom Night in America at Dream City Church, a Pentecostal megachurch on the outskirts of Phoenix. “I truly believe that God has voted early in this election,” he said on a Wednesday in early October, addressing well over 1,000 people from a stage bathed in red, white and blue lights. “I believe that God voted early on July 13, when he spared the life of Donald Trump.” Kirk was only 18 when he helped found the group Turning Point as a sort...

Former vice-president of the Russian concern YUKOS Mikhail Rogachev has been found dead in Moscow . This was reported by the Russian propaganda Telegram channel Mash “One of the top YUKOS executives, Mikhail Rogachev, fell out of a window and died in the center of Moscow. He had previously committed suicide,” the report says. It is noted that Rogachev was 64 years old. According to Mash, he had a severe form of oncology. “He left a suicide note and committed suicide in the morning on Protopopovsky Lane,” the Telegram channel reported.

Australian intelligence agencies have discovered the Iranian Government directed at least two anti-Semitic attacks in Australia. Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had established the Iranian government was behind an October 20 attack on Bondi’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, and the December 6 fire bombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. The Australian government pulled its diplomats from Tehran and has moved to expel Iran’s ambassador to Australia. “ASIO assesses it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well,” the Prime Minister said. “I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary...

"Israel just made all the Middle East happy tonight." — Israeli-Lebanese Christian journalist Jonathan Elkhoury, X, September 27, 2024. "As a Lebanese, this is one of the happiest days in Lebanon's history.... As a human being who holds peace before my eyes, this is the most important day for our region. Nasrallah and Hezbollah have terrorized the Lebanese people since the 1980s.... Every Lebanese and every decent human being should feel joy at the downfall of one of the greatest evils of our time. Now, we have a real chance to look forward... and sitting down with Israelis and the...

An even better question: Why are Hezbollah leaders still meeting in Beirut?The Israelis launched another massive attack on a building complex "on the outskirts of Beirut," the New York Times reports this morning. This apparently refers to Dahiyeh, the suburb controlled by Hamas Hezbollah [corrected], and where Israelis killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a few days ago. Reportedly, Nasrallah's presumed successor had gathered with what's left of Hezbollah's command, and ... well ...Israel bombed a meeting of Hezbollah’s senior leadership around midnight on Thursday, a gathering that included Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor of Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s longtime...

The IDF publishes a summary of Operation Rising Lion, ... According to the report, for months leading up to the operation, Military Intelligence gathered evidence that Iran was rapidly enriching uranium to 60% - a level sufficient to produce several nuclear bombs in a short time. Intelligence also revealed a covert regime plan involving advanced nuclear weapon research and experimentation in key areas. In parallel, the Iranian regime was preparing to triple its production of precision missiles, expanding its arsenal from 2,500 to 8,000 missiles. This was part of a broader strategy that included a multi-front attack against Israel, beginning...

A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty today to retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it, information which was publicly posted on a social media platform in October 2024.According to court documents, Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, was an employee of the CIA since 2016 and had a Top-Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s...

One of Iran's top military commanders is believed to have been killed in an Israeli attack that targeted the new leader of terror group Hezbollah. Esmail Qaani, head of the Quds Force – the elite wing of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – was reported to be with the new leader of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, who was targeted in his HQ bunker in Beirut by the Israelis. The air strike on Thursday night during heavy bombing of southern Beirut was mounted as Safieddine held a secret meeting with other Hezbollah leaders in the underground intelligence headquarters.

An Iranian general who promised to “see the dead bodies of Americans all over the Middle East” is missing after an Israeli attack in Lebanon that may have also killed the presumed new Hezbollah chief. The whereabouts of Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, remains a mystery after Friday’s airstrike in Beirut, the New York Times reported. Some Arab and Israeli outlets say he is dead, while others report him as wounded. Lebanese security forces also have lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, a top local Hezbollah official and the presumed successor to the terror group’s...