Free Republic

United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the power sector and the broader economy have declined 61 percent between 2006 and 2014, mainly from "switching from coal-to-gas-powered generation," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, January 2017.  These environmentally sound numbers from higher use of natural gas can also be translated globally to help with pollution in countries such as China, India, and the entire continent of Africa. The U.S. now uses natural gas converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) from shale deposits in states such as Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania to...

Iran’s focus on building a powerful ballistic missile arsenal, which the Americans, Saudis and Israelis, among others, see as a major threat, has its origins in the 1980-88 war with Iraq in which major cities were subjected to merciless missile and air strikes in which thousands of civilians were killed or wounded. The so-called War of the Cities involved five periods of systematic and intense bombardments with missiles, aircraft and even long-range artillery from February 1984, when Saddam Hussein ordered indiscriminate attacks on 11 Iranian cities, through February 1987. The objective was to inflict large civilian casualties to demoralise the...

Five years on, Mikael Skillt still doesn't know exactly what made him leave his construction job and his girlfriend to fight in the war in Ukraine. “I’ve done tons of soul-searching, and the more I think about it, the less I know why I came,” the 43-year-old told VICE News. But an undeniable part of the draw was that Ukrainian ultranationalists, many with barely disguised neo-Nazi or white supremacist views, had been a driving force in the revolution. Skillt, at the time a notorious Swedish neo-Nazi with a 20-year history in the extreme-right scene, felt compelled to join their fight....

Iran Tanker Seizures Pushing U.K. Royal Navy to its Limits as New PM Takes Charge By: Jon Rosamond August 1, 2019 12:23 PM LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, is facing a maritime security standoff with Iran that could, if handled indelicately, spark conflict in the Persian Gulf region. At the center of the drama is the tit-for-tat seizure by Tehran of a British-flagged oil tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz. As a result of decades of cuts, the Royal Navy has had a limited presence in the Middle East. Since the Falklands conflict in 1982 the number...

16:13 01.08.2019(updated 16:52 01.08.2019) Get short URL31698 The strike comes after Damascus stated last Wednesday that Israel had struck a Syrian army base in Tel Al-Hara in the Golan Heights and in Quneitra. An Israeli missile has hit the western province of Quneitra in Syria, near the Golan Heights, Syrian state media reported Thursday. The village of Tal Braiqa was the target in the strikes, according to SANA. There is no official information about casualties at the moment. The Israel Defence Forces have previously admitted to carrying out "hundreds" of airstrikes against Syria in recent years, stressing, however, that the...

A local news bureau reported “shock” in the German city of Stuttgart after a 36-year-old man was hacked to death with what appeared to be a katana-type sword in the middle of the street on Wednesday afternoon. The attack took place in front of dozens of witnesses and was filmed by passers-by on mobile phones from multiple angles, and saw a man, a 36-year old German resident of Kazakhstan origin, lying on the floor and being repeatedly hacked at and stabbed with a sword, reports German newspaper Bild.

Iran had claimed that they had limited their stock of enriched uranium to 300 kilograms (about 600 pounds) as required by the JCPOA. Iran has enriched 24 tons of uranium since signing the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, said the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Sunday, according to Radio Farda. Tehran claimed that it had limited its stock of enriched uranium to 300 kg. as required by the JCPOA.

FULL TITLE: Trump administration gets green light to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, after Senate rejects veto overrides The Trump administration is set to move forward with plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, after the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday rejected efforts to block the sales by overriding President Trump's vetoes. The White House had vowed to use an emergency loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to move ahead unilaterally with sales of billions of dollars in precision-guided munitions, other bombs, ammo and aircraft maintenance support, infuriating lawmakers from both...

Britain called on Monday for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, days after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in what London described as an act of “state piracy” in the strategic waterway. ...“We will now seek to put together a European-led maritime protection mission to support safe passage of both crew and cargo in this vital region,” In Nicaragua, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the British tanker of endangering shipping by turning off its signal for longer than permitted and by “passing through the wrong channel.” Zarif said Iran’s actions were...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) agreed with a radio host's description of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as "criminal" during an interview Tuesday and suggested Palestinians had no recourse but violence. On his hip-hop program "Ebro in the Morning," interviewer Ebro Darden said there was a collection of "corrupt" governments in Israel, the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, "all working in concert," and referred to White House policy adviser Stephen Miller as a white supremacist. "How do you have white supremacist Jews?" he asked. "How do you have people like Stephen Miller? How do you have these individuals who are...

Israeli warplanes bombed Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in July, the Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting Western diplomatic sources. The sources told the London-based newspaper that on July 19, Israel carried out an attack on the base of an Iran-linked paramilitary group in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq. Reports initially said that the attack was carried out by a drone and and led to the deaths of an unconfirmed number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard fighters. According to the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya, the base housed Iranian-made ballistic missiles hidden in food refrigeration trucks. Israeli officials, including...

White House Plans'Massive' Tactical Strike Against Iran – Reports © Sputnik / Brian M. Wilbur 16:29 18.06.2019(updated 16:44 18.06.2019) Get short URL53483 Countries around the world have expressed concerns over Washington's plans to deploy an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East on top of the already considerable presence stationed there following last week's apparent sabotage attacks against two oil tankers off Iran's coast. The United States is planning to carry out a "massive" tactical attack on an Iranian target, a Western diplomat at the UN headquarters in New York has told Israel's Maariv newspaper. "The bombing will be massive...

The shooter who killed three people and wounded at least 11 more has been identified as Santino Willian Legan, a described Iranian American. Legan had an Instagram account on which he shared only three photos. One of the photos depicted Ali Asghar Vahabzadeh, Legan’s maternal grandfather.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment of two Somali refugees Monday night, Ahmed Mahad Mohamed and Abdi Yemani Hussein, for attempting to join the Islamic State in Egypt. "According to the criminal complaint, the defendants had been in communication with an FBI undercover employee whom they believed was a supporter of ISIS ideology. These communications revealed the defendants’ desire to travel overseas in order to fight on behalf of ISIS or to conduct an attack within the United States if they were unable to travel," DOJ released in a statement. "Ultimately, the defendants purchased airline tickets to travel to...

When it came time to protect United States, America’s Arab allies and the State of Israel against the threat posed by Iran, Rep. Jerold Nadler chose party loyalty over the national interest. He was one of the sad examples of a member of Congress who took his supporters for granted because he is confident his seat is safe. As the warnings of the critics of the Iran nuclear deal are shown to be correct with each Iranian violation of the world’s trust, Nadler’s vote becomes more troublesome as it becomes more evident he has joined the president as an enabler...

In the face of Iran’s continued development of long-range missiles, Israel and the United States completed a series of tests of the long-range Arrow 3 ballistic missile defense system at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak, Alaska, which included the successful interception of an “enemy” target. The series of tests over the course of 10 days saw three successful interceptions. It was the first time that such a test took place outside of Israel. The successful test was attended by Israel’s ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer. The system was tested against targets similar in behavior to advanced ballistic...

An interesting new twist in the ongoing debate over Qatari influence in American politics. Qatar is an Islamic state sponsor of terror with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In the summer of 2018, congressman-turned-lobbyist Jim Moran was trying to recruit his former colleagues to put pressure on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moran was doing so on behalf of one of his clients, the government of Qatar. And he had a pot of money, left over from years of donations to his reelection campaigns, that he could steer to his lobbying targets. Throughout June and July, Moran, a “senior...

Afghanistan’s former border police chief: “60 to 70% of the land is controlled by the Islamic Emirate” JUL 27, 2019 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Afghanistan has border police? How racist? In any case, the Taliban is trying to establish a Sharia state in Afghanistan. If we stay there for another year, and then leave, the Taliban will take advantage of our absence to try to expand its domains further. If we stay there another 10 years, or 25 years, or 100 years, or 1000 years, and then leave, the Taliban will take advantage of our absence to try to...

Once again proving what a joke the United Nations is, the organization’s Economic and Social Council voted this week to condemn Israel as the only country in the world that violates women’s rights. Even more laughable is that among the 54 nations that sit on the council are Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, China, and Pakistan.The United States and Canada voted against the resolution, “Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan," while nine countries abstained:...

In 1991, the leadership of Saudi Arabia exiled Osama Bin Laden from the country.  He left with a handful of close acolytes, and he made his way not, as one might expect, to a neighboring Middle Eastern country, but across the Red Sea to Africa.  He found a safe harbor in the country of Sudan, and it was from Sudan that Osama Bin Laden nurtured Al Qaeda -- and planned attacks on U.S. targets, including the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the 1998 embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. Why Sudan?  Because Bin Laden could make...