Free Republic

Col. Douglas Macgregor is at pains to emphasize how the Narcotraficante Cartels pose a substantial risk to the security of the U.S. through its "soft underbelly". And Azerbaijan, as a remote government strongly involved with organized crime, has emerged as an important player in military attacks on U.S. opponent, Iran. Contrasts between these two criminal governments. The comparison between the Azerbaijani regime under Ilham Aliyev and the Mexican state nominally led by Claudia Sheinbaum, yet heavily penetrated by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, is not a contrast between a corrupt and a clean government—but rather a study in...

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Thousands of demonstrators chanting "Freedom" and carrying portraits of President Bush marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, demanding the resignation of the government and free parliamentary elections -- in the biggest protest in years. The protest of about 20,000 marchers, the second such rally in as many weeks, was organized by three leading opposition parties that formed the Azadlig (Freedom) bloc to run for parliamentary elections set for November. About 200 police in full riot gear stood guard around a central square where protesters gathered. Brief clashes erupted when demonstrators tried to push police away from the square...

BAKU - Today, the former president of Azerbaijan, Geydar Aliyev, will be buried in Baku. He died on Friday in Cleveland, United States. The coffin with his body arrived in Baku yesterday. Aliyev will be buried in the Alley of Honorable Burials near his wife, who died in 1985. President Vladimir Putin will take part in the funeral, along with Leonid Kuchma, the president of Ukraine; Akhmet Nedjet Sether, the president of Turkey; leader of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev; and Nino Burdjanadze, acting president of Georgia. The Ajeri government announced an official mourning period of seven days. More than a...