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The depiction of accused leaker Reality Leigh Winner through social media is not an “an accurate portrayal of my daughter,” Gary Davis, Winner’s stepfather, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. In a brief interview, Davis said his daughter served her nation with distinction as an Air Force linguist. He said she speaks Arabic and Farsi and has training in other Middle Eastern languages. “She’s a veteran, six years’ service of the Air Force,” he said. “She received commendations during that time. She’s just a passionate young woman who probably made some mistakes.”

A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists. "I was offered 5,000 to 10,000 euros [$5,350-$10,700; £4,250-£9,000] to delete an account. They were especially after removing Masih Alinejad," the former reviewer told BBC Persian. Ms Alinejad is an Iranian-American author and activist. Last year, the US justice department said Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country to kidnap her. Both content moderators also accused some Iranian colleagues of exhibiting "pro-regime bias" when reviewing posts on...

President Donald Trump's top Russia expert on the National Security Counsel is reportedly on leave pending a security investigation. Andrew Peek, the NSC’s senior director for European and Russian affairs, was escorted from the White House grounds on Friday, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Peek had been in the NSC role for just two months, after most recently working as a deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Iran and Iraq. Peek had been expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week with Trump and other top aides. However, he is currently...

Peek went on to major in international politics at Princeton, study Persian, and pursue a master's in international relations at Harvard before heading to D.C. as a foreign policy researcher for the conservative Heritage Foundation. He then became a foreign policy adviser to Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican. When Smith lost his next election, Peek went on to work for another Republican senator, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, on Syria and Lebanon policy, helping to draft a bill expanding sanctions on Hezbollah. In 2008, he enlisted as a reserve officer in the Army and spent a year in Afghanistan at...

President Trump's tweet in Farsi expressing his support for Iranians protesting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already earned over 200,000 likes, making it the "most liked Persian tweet" in the social media giant's history, according to a leading think tank adviser. On Saturday, protesters in the country called upon Khamenei to step down after Iran admitted to shooting down a commercial airliner on which dozens of Iranian citizens were traveling. That evening, the president sent out a tweet in Farsi, saying that he stands with their efforts. “To the brave and suffering Iranian people: I have stood with you...

“To the brave and suffering Iranian people: I have stood with you since the beginning of my presidency and my government will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely. Your courage is inspiring.”

JUST IN: Two law enforcement sources say authorities have preliminarily identified the YouTube shooter as Nasim Aghdam, a woman with previous addresses in the Southern California cities of Riverside and San Diego.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge ordered a young woman charged with leaking classified U.S. documents to remain jailed until her trial after prosecutors argued she might possess more stolen government secrets. Prosecutors also said Thursday that 25-year-old Reality Winner might try to flee the U.S. if released on bond. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Solari told the judge Winner had written in a notebook: “I want to burn the White House Down … find somewhere in Kurdistan to live. Ha-ha!” Wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg shackles, Winner pleaded not guilty in U.S. district court to charges that she...

Between 2006 and 2007, at least twelve Democratic Congressmen agreed to meet with Iranian officials in the Ayatollah’s regime at the behest of National Iranian American Council (NIAC) President Trita Parsi, according to a report by Hassan Dai of the Iranian American Forum. Parsi allegedly solicited the help of current Iranian Defense Minister Javad Zarif, who was Iran’s Ambassador to the UN at the time. Zarif is now one of the lead negotiators for Iran’s nuclear program on behalf of the Islamic republic.

AUGUSTA, Georgia (CNN) — Among the possible evidence in the government's case against former federal contractor Reality Winner is a notebook with information handwritten in Farsi, prosecutors said in court Tuesday. The writing is being translated, federal prosecutors told a judge at a hearing. Winner, who is accused on one count of taking classified information home from work and leaking it to a media outlet, remains in jail awaiting an anticipated October 23 trial. She has pleaded not guilty. Winner was a linguist while in the US Air Force from 2010 to 2016 and speaks Farsi, Dari and Pashto, her...

This could change everything! Please share, share, share! According to reports, The Feds have arrests a 25 year old female in Georgia for removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it out to Media outlets. A criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia today charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor from Augusta, Georgia, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.

CIA plans to purge its agency Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush BY KNUT ROYCE WASHINGTON BUREAU November 14, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources. "The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior...

Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward is quickly emerging as a leading contender to replace former national security adviser Mike Flynn, perhaps even the front-runner, according to some sources. In the wake of Flynn's resignation Monday night, Harward's name entered circulation, along with retired Gen. David Petraeus and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who assumed Flynn's job after he resigned.

Several weeks before he massacred 49 at an Orlando gay nightclub, Muslim terrorist Omar Seddique Mateen transferred over his interest in his Florida home to his older sister and Afghan brother-in-law, property records show — an indication the family possibly had some knowledge of his martyrdom plans. Authorities say the fatally shot Mateen clearly was prepared to die in a gun battle with police during the June 12 attack, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. On April 5, Mateen “quit-claimed” the deed on his Port St. Lucie, Fla., house, signing it over to his sister, Sabrina...

'I don't read Farsi': State Department spokeswoman brushes off claims that Iran is misrepresenting terms of nuclear deal Within hours of a formal announcement that the United States, Iran and a group of five other world powers had brokered a deal keep Iran obtaining an atomic bomb in exchange for the relief of certain sanctions, cracks began to appear in the tediously negotiated preliminary agreement. The United States insisted in public statements and a fact sheet on the deal that sanctions on the country would be 'suspended' or 'phased' out over time after a final deal is inked while leaving...

President Barack Obama is nominating a major fundraiser for his presidential campaign to be the next U.S. ambassador to Sweden. The White House says Azita Raji is Obama’s pick for the job. She’s a former investment banker who served as national vice-chair of finance for Obama’s 2012 campaign. She helped raise more than $500,000 for Obama’s campaign as a “bundler” in 2012. …

“Commentary By Adina Kutnicki by Adina Kutnicki AS patriots await the official (Allah-wash) report regarding Bergdahl's (military-related) status, there are certain facts which are indisputable. We will get to that. BUT intertwined with the upcoming Pentagon's evaluation - re the aforementioned deserter and traitor - underlies the "logic" behind trading him for top Taliban leaders. IN this regard, it begs the question: why would the leader of the free world trade any soldier, let alone one with "questionable" loyalty, for high value, prized terror leaders? Well, if one's leanings are Islamist-infused, the question becomes the logical inverse: why not? Not...

Ever since British jurist Sir William Jones noted in 1786 that there are marked similarities between diverse languages such as Greek, Sanskrit, and Celtic, linguists have assumed that most of the languages of Europe and the Indian subcontinent derive from a single ancient tongue. But researchers have fiercely debated just when and where this mother tongue was first spoken. Now a bold new study asserts that the common root of the 144 so-called Indo-European languages, which also include English and all the Germanic, Slavic, and Romance languages, is very ancient indeed. In this week's issue of Nature, evolutionary biologist Russell...

The U.S. State Department began sending Twitter messages in Farsi on Sunday in the hopes of reaching social media users in Iran. On the Twitter account, USA darFarsi, the department told Iranians, "We want to join in your conversation." The second and third tweets were more pointed. The State Department accused Iran's government of illegalizing dissent while praising Egyptian protesters for the same activities. The U.S. then called on Iran "to allow people to enjoy same universal rights to peacefully assemble, demonstrate as in Cairo."

"...The conspirators were in the Army’s 902nd Military Intelligence Group’s MOS 09L program (“Lima Nine”), E Company, 187th Ordnance Battalion. Lima Nine was started because of the Army’s desperate lack of linguists speaking Pashto, Dari or Arabic. To attract such recruits, military intelligence promises foreigners that if they join the Army as a translator they will get U.S. citizenship and a top security clearance. Candidates from Afghanistan and Iraq, including the Jackson Five, speak such poor English the Army puts them in Lima Nine and gives them English lessons, so they will have some hope of passing basic training. Clayton...