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New York (AFP) – An American of Lebanese descent was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Tuesday for buying weapons and plotting attacks on behalf of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Ali Kourani, 34, was found guilty in May of gathering intelligence on potential attack targets, including New York’s JFK International Airport and a federal building in Manhattan. A federal court in America’s financial capital convicted him of eight allegations including conspiracy to use weapons in a violent crime. Born in Lebanon but naturalized by the United States in 2009, Kourani attended several Hezbollah training camps in his country...

Where was Samantha Power when an unarmed Iranian young woman, Neda Soltan, was shot by Iranian troops, and bled to death in the street? As a member of Team Obama, does anyone recall Power saying anything critical of Iran? Does anyone recall Barack Hussein Obama commenting on that horrific assault on human rights? Oh wait, he did say something: “We’re still waiting to see how it plays itself out….” ... Everyone must hear about this. Every outlet in the world should publicize how the murderous Iranian regime is mowing down protesters. ... Wait until Samantha Power hears about how Samantha...

In an interview on Sunday with Sky News, U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn stated that convicted terrorists should “not necessarily” serve out the entirety of their prison terms. His statement comes on the heels of Friday’s terror attack on London Bridge, in which two Brits were stabbed to death by a convicted terrorist who had been released early from prison.Corbyn’s softness towards terrorism should surprise no one, at least not those who have been paying attention to his unnervingly friendly attitude towards extremists over the past several decades (one Twitter user created a lengthy list). Corbyn is the...

The number of people believed to have been killed during demonstrations in Iran that broke out on 15 November has risen to at least 208, said Amnesty International, based on credible reports received by the organization. The real figure is likely to be higher. Dozens of the deaths have been recorded in Shahriar city in Tehran province – one of the cities with the highest death tolls. -excerpt- According to information gathered by Amnesty International, families of victims have been threatened and warned not to speak to the media, or to hold funeral ceremonies for their loved ones. Some families...

UK: Man who used sledgehammer to smash windows of mosques turns out to be Shia targeting Sunnis DEC 1, 2019 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER LEAVE A COMMENT How many of these attacks on mosques were presented by the political and media elites as instances of “Islamophobia”? In any case, the Sunni-Shi’ite jihad, having been fought for fourteen centuries in Muslim countries, has now come to diverse Britain. How far gone is Britain? This far gone: the non-Muslims are aware of Sunni-Shia hostility, and fear the consequences. In 2014, an 84-year-old non-Muslim, Kenneth Peters, who lived in a Shi’ite area,...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs Tuesday, November 26, 2019 Former Indiana Resident Pleads Guilty to Concealing Terrorism Financing Samantha Marie Elhassani, aka Samantha Sally, 34, formerly of Elkhart, Indiana, pleaded guilty yesterday to a one-count Information charging her with concealment of terrorism financing in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339C. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana Thomas L. Kirsch II, FBI Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division Mike McGarrity, and FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Indianapolis field office Grant Mendenhall made the...

Uprisings in Iran have become routine occurrences, albeit without much success. Why? Because Iran is ruled by a totalitarian Islamic ideology like Nazism and communism. In Iran, there is no sovereignty of the people. Instead, there is a perception of the Ummah in Shia theology “rule of Mahdi”, guardianship over the people. In other words, Iran belongs to “Imam Zaman” (the Hidden Imam) and in his absence, a supreme leader is in charge. In this case, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Any revolt against the State is considered a direct attack against the upcoming “Lord of the Age.” Hence, at the slightest...

As we witnessed a new round of nationwide protests in Iran, there is no sign of a slowdown in either the people’s unrest or the government’s brutal attempts at repression. By most estimates, the death toll exceeded 200. Thousands more have been wounded and arrested, and details about the regime’s tactics have begun leaking out in spite of the mullahs’ efforts to block the internet and maintain a veil of silence over ongoing developments. There are two distinct reasons for this silence. Obviously, Tehran does not relish the prospect of the international community becoming widely aware of escalating human rights...

Iran, China, and Russia will hold in the coming weeks their first-ever joint war drills, which leaders say are meant to send a "message to the world" about increased military cooperation between the rogue countries. The commander of Iran's navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said Wednesday that the Islamic Republic will team up with Moscow and Beijing within the next month to hold the mass war drills. "The joint wargame between Iran, Russia, and China, which will hopefully be conducted next month, carries the same message to the world, that these three countries have reached a meaningful strategic point in...

For the past several weeks a deposition transcript has been floating around implicating Ilhan Omar as a Qatari asset. Bona fide news outlets have hesitated to report on the allegations without some confirmation. Now the Jerusalem Post has stepped forward to serve up the story without confirmation. Al Arabiya English does likewise here. A spokesman for Omar has dignified the story with an outright denial that is included by the Post in its account. When Omar is unable to deal with the facts, she instructs her spokesman to avoid the question on her behalf. That is how she handled the...

Anti-government protesters in Iraq burned down an IranianConsulate Wednesday, as unrest continues to grow against Iraqi lawmakers and Tehran's growing influence in Iraqi affairs. The consulate building in Najaf was torched and the Iranian flag was removed and replaced with an Iraqi one. Staffers inside were not harmed and escaped through a back door. One protester was killed and 35 were wounded when police opened fire to prevent them from entering the facility. Protesters previously attacked an Iranian consulate in Karbala earlier this month. No one was harmed in that attack.

Iraqi security forces have opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq, killing at least five people, amid ongoing anti-government demonstrations. At least two people died and some 50 others were injured near the Gulf port city of Basra on Sunday. Late on Saturday, at least three protesters were killed and more than 40 others injured in Nasiriya. Since the violence began in October, more than 300 people have died and thousands more have been injured. People are demanding an end to corruption, more jobs and better public services in the demonstrations, which have mostly affected southern Iraq and the capital...

Iraqis scaled the wall around the Iranian consulate in Karbala and raised an Iraqi flag over it. They said only the Iraqi flag should fly high in the sky and that Iranians should be ejected. Other protesters tried to burn the wall around the compound. This is the second time the consulate has been attacked in a week; it was previously targeted on October 26. Protests in Iraq have reached their crescendo after a month in which 250 demonstrators have been killed. The Iraqi Prime Minister has been pressured to resign. Protesters have targeted the political party offices of Iranian-linked...

Turmoil in Baghdad, paralysis in Beirut and flames of unrest in Tehran; it has been a bad few months for Iran at home and elsewhere in the Middle East, where more than a decade of advances are being slowed, not by manoeuvrings on battlefields or legislatures – but the force of protest movements. Early last week, Iran went dark for four days by closing its internet connections down. Even for the country’s autocratic leadership, this was a drastic step. But such are the stakes for a regime that is increasingly facing obstacles across its hubs of Shia influence. And those...

Despite the buildup of U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf, Iran may “attack again,” the chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie told Foreign Policy in an interview. “I think the strike on Saudi Aramco in September is pretty indicative of a nation that is behaving irresponsibly,” Gen. McKenzie said. “My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has been accused of being a paid agent of the government of Qatar and using her position in Congress to access sensitive information for the benefit of Iran, according to testimony in a civil suit in Florida. Alan Bender, a Kuwaiti-born Canadian businessman, made the accusations in video-conference testimony on October 23 from Toronto for a civil case filed in Florida against the brother of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, over allegations the Sheikh ordered his American bodyguard to murder two people and that he held his American paramedic hostage. Bender’s deposition...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday signaled his support for protesters in Iran, who have put renewed pressure on their government as it struggles to overcome the sanctions strangling the country after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you,” Pompeo said, retweeting a Persian-language tweet he sent out in July 2018 that referenced a speech he made that directly addressed the Iranian people.

Videos have begun emerging of Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters after the internet was restored following a week-long government-imposed blackout. The protests began on November 15 after a petrol price hike was announced. Demonstrations quickly grew into a wave of anti-government unrest that saw at least 100 banks and dozens of buildings torched in the worst violence since Iran put down a "Green Revolution" in 2009. In one video, machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. In others, motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators, while in a different location plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the...

Protests flared across Iran for a second day on Saturday, with angry crowds calling for the ouster of the regime in unrest incited by a steep increase in officially set gasoline prices but that quickly broadened to include other grievances. At least six people were dead after security forces clashed with protesters, according to Persian language news outlets. Iran was also experiencing a “near-total national internet shutdown,” according to NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity. “We don’t want an Islamic Republic, we don’t want it, we don’t want it,” demonstrators chanted in the middle-class Tehranpars neighborhood of Tehran….Video here

Unsurprisingly, Iranian officials have already attempted to blame shady foreign infiltration for the mass protests that began on Friday. Of course, the allegations are never backed up by evidence and the regime makes no effort to explain how such protests have spread to 130 cities and why it has been necessary to slaughter 200 innocent young Iranians on the streets in just three days. According to reports, the victims are mostly young adults and teenagers, many of them shot in the head and chest. Even in the midst of all of its propaganda, the regime has at times been forced...