Free Republic

Outspokenness has always been former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s signature move. Despite having fallen from grace in Iranian political circles he’s still using it, but this time directed against the regime itself. His new status as a de-facto opposition figure has been a long time coming. He began falling out of favour with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei towards the end of his second term as President, over a series of disputes about his cabinet. In 2009, shortly after Ahmadinejad’s election, his Vice President of choice and close friend, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, was forced to resign on Khamenei’s order. Mashei is a curious...

This World [HaOlam HaZeh], Nov 7, 1962.Was Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili, Known as Stalin, a Jew? It turns out that this question greatly troubled Adolf Hitler. This week, British journalist Sefton Delmer published his memoirs, revealing that Hitler's personal photographer had told him that Hitler had personally instructed him to inquire into the matter. The photographer was sent with the Nazi foreign minister to Moscow at the time of signing the famous Soviet-German agreement. Hitler told him: "Listen, I want you to get as close to Stalin as possible and take a picture of his earlobe. I want to know if...

Only last year, Mr Ahmadinejad confirmed the Mossad had infiltrated his intelligence ministry. He said: "Is it normal that the most senior officer responsible for the control of Israeli spies, responsible for confronting Israeli plots in Iran, himself turned out to be an Israeli agent?"... Ali Yunesi, a former Iranian intelligence minister and top adviser to President Rouhani, issued this warning in an interview: "The Mossad's influence in many parts of the country is so vast that every member of the Iranian leadership should be worried for their lives, for their safety."

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intended to appear at the Expo 2020 event in the UAE. Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was forced to leave the United Arab Emirates after he arrived in the country to visit the Expo 2020 in Dubai, due to the recommendation of Emirati officials, according to Iranian Fars News. He reportedly returned to Iran on Sunday night. Ahmadinejad served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. In May, it was reported that he wants to run for the presidency again... Ahmadinejad is known to be controversial due to his statements denying the...

There have been four wild developments on Wednesday and in recent days which will have major impacts on the future of the Iranian nuclear standoff. 1. Ahmedinejad ‘reveals’ who Mossad recruited within Iranian intelligence to steal nuclear secrets Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told Iran International that the Mossad recruited the highest-ranking Iranian counter-intelligence official in charge of catching Israeli spies in order to steal the Islamic Republic’s nuclear secrets. The January 31, 2018, raid altered the region’s geopolitics, leading to the US withdrawing from the JCPOA nuclear deal and setting the International Atomic Energy Agency into a years-long...

Former Iranian hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has registered his candidacy for a third term in office in next month’s election.

Iran’s state television reported Wednesday that the country’s former firebrand president will run again for office in upcoming elections in June. Broadcast footage showed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marching accompanied by supporters to a registration center at the Interior Ministry where he filled out registration forms. Ahmadinejad in recent years has tried to polish his hard-line image into a more centrist candidacy, criticizing the government for mismanagement. The Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad has previously been banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017, although then, he registered anyway. A constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council ultimately disqualified him then....

…..However, with the advent of the Obama administration and the start of a policy of appeasement towards the Iranian regime, there was a general change of atmosphere at the VOA and as such, entry into the Persian section for those with known affiliations to the Islamic republic were facilitated. This approach was justified on the grounds that it would help attain the compromise needed with Iran to secure a nuclear agreement with the ‘5+1’. These developments took a disturbing turn when the annual task of assessing ‘News Talk’ and other programs of the VOA Persian was assigned to Mr. Hooman...

MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - An Iranian court has released on a $300,000 bail a Newsweek journalist with dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential elections in June, Iranian media said. Maziar Bahari, 42, who worked as a Newsweek reporter since 1998, was arrested on June 21 during the post-vote protests in Tehran "for his role in instigating events occurred after the presidential election," the Press TV said. "Bahari was released on 3 billion rials ($300,000) bail from Evin prison on Saturday night," the semi-official Islamic Labor News Agency said citing a judiciary source. Bahari...

Iran’s former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s quest to return to the spotlight now includes weighing in on a spat between US President Donald Trump and basketball star LeBron James. Ahmadinejad used Twitter — which is banned in Iran — to write Sunday: “In my opinion everyone especially a President should love all, and not differentiate between them.” He added that he loved NBA greats James and Michael Jordan, as well as former Denver Nuggets player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Trump wrote a tweet Friday night questioning James’ intelligence after he gave an interview to CNN and criticized the American president....

As the families of U.S. hostages currently held in Iran have struggled for years to rally the determination to bring their loved ones home, newly released emails from the former secretary of State reveal the infuriating truth that those with connections get their case raised to the top. In 2009, Iason Athanasiadis was covering the protests of the disputed election win of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi for the Washington Times. The Greek citizen was detained by Iranian authorities on June 17, 2009, as he tried to fly out of the country. Athanasiadis was thrown in Evin prison and released...

Al Quds Al Arabi on Saturday cited reliable sources in Tehran who said Iranian authorities ordered the arrest of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to the city of Shiraz and that the arrest was made with the approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after his remarks had been described as inciting unrest. The independent pan-Arab daily newspaper, published in London, learned that the authorities intended to impose house arrest on Ahmadinejad. Two weeks ago, on the Thursday that saw the start of anti-government protests in Iran, the former president, said in a speech to a crowd of residents...

A recent article by David Samuels at the New York Times Magazine, based on an interview with Obama's foreign policy guru Ben Rhodes, purported to explain how, and about what, the Obama administration lied to get public support for the Iran Scam. According to the article, the principal Obama lie involved who was the Iranian president when the negotiations with Iran began. It's much deeper and worse than that. As Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s “the rest of the story.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uogp40PeddI Iranian President Rouhani was elected on June 15, 2013 and assumed office on August 3d. According to Rhodes, negotiations started...

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...

Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday stunned the country by unexpectedly filing to run in the May presidential election, contradicting a recommendation from the supreme leader to stay out of the race. Ahmadinejad's decision could upend an election many believed would be won by moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who negotiated the nuclear deal with world powers. Though Rouhani has yet to formally register, many viewed him as a shoe-in following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's recommendation in September for Ahmadinejad to stand down and conservatives' inability to coalesce around a single candidate. Ahmadinejad's firebrand style could prove appealing for...

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a 3,500 word letter to President Donald Trump in which he slams the new administration’s restrictions on immigration and US “dominance” of the United Nations. […] … Ahmadinejad, who during his tenure as president threatened to “wipe Israel off the map” and publicly suggested the Holocaust was a hoax, chided Trump over his recent executive order temporarily restricting immigration from seven high-risk countries, saying the US must “value respect toward the diversity of nations and races.” Ahmadinejad went on to argue that the United States “belongs to all nations”, suggesting the US has no...

In the letter, posted on a website associated with the former president's office, Ahmadinejad focuses on the Supreme Court's decision in April. The court's 6-2 ruling allows families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other attacks linked to Iran to collect monetary damages from Iran. At risk for Iran is $1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulating interest, owned by Iran's Bank Markazi and held by Citibank in New York. "It is the clear expectation of the Iranian nation that the particular case of property seizure ... be quickly fixed by your excellency and that not...

When Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepped aside in 2013 — after eight years in office — it was clear that he had serious plans for his future. In fact, he had indicated this in a TV interview one year before leaving office, by pointing to his possible presence in Iran’s next government. The disqualification of his Vice President, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, from the 2013 presidential race, however, prevented this dream from becoming reality. But despite the disqualification of Mashaei, Ahmadinejad had no intention to leave the stage. Soon, he came up with a special plan for the recently held...

The hours of congressional testimony, the speeches and the press conferences this week were all, nominally, about Iraq. But another, equally explosive question - what to do about Iran - loomed over the presentations by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq, over U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and over U.S. strategy for the Middle East. Petraeus and Crocker, arguing that there has been progress in stabilizing Iraq since President Bush ordered a troop build-up there last year, fingered Iran's support for Shiite militias in Iraq, which they called "special groups," as the No. 1 threat...

RUSH; Big news from the Middle East about the Iran deal. It turns out that we were negotiating with the Iranians before Kerry was secretary of state. We were negotiating with the Iranians before the election of the "moderate" Rouhani. We were negotiating an Iranian nuke deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when nobody knew what was happening. The Regime was telling us that they couldn't do anything 'cause Ahmadinejad was such a radical extremist goofball. We had to wait for a "moderate" to win, which was Rouhani, and after he did, that's when we got serious. It turns out none of...