Free Republic

Days before North Korea's latest nuclear-bomb test, the Obama administration secretly agreed to talks to try to formally end the Korean War, dropping a longstanding condition that Pyongyang first take steps to curtail its nuclear arsenal. Instead the U.S. called for North Korea's atomic-weapons program to be simply part of the talks. Pyongyang declined the counter-proposal, according to U.S. officials familiar with the events. Its nuclear test on Jan. 6 ended the diplomatic gambit.

“We should not change our foreign policy of opposition to America, our No. 1 enemy, whose crimes are uncountable,” Mr. Yazdi said in a speech opening an annual meeting of the council, the Assembly of Experts, an 86-member group that in theory has the power to dismiss the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

One by one, U.S. Senate Democrats are announcing that after much deliberation ‎‎(translated as arm twisting by President Barack Obama), they have decided to support the ‎Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, despite serious misgivings. Each of the senators wants you to ‎know that they were personally wrestling with this decision for weeks, talking to ‎experts (provided by the Obama administration for the most part), reading the ‎agreement carefully, weighing and balancing risk versus reward. Each Senate ‎Democrat joining the charade of moving from indecision to decision, makes sure to add that they want to do everything to...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday the nuclear deal with world powers did not signal any wider shift in Iran’s relationship with Washington or its policies in the Middle East. The agreement struck this week was met with celebrations in the streets of Tehran as many Iranians anticipated it would allow the economy, battered by years of sanctions, to stabilize and make their daily lives easier. But Khamenei, who has the last word on high matters of state and had given his blessing to the nuclear talks, moved to dampen any speculation it would lead to a...

As world powers and Iran reach a deadline Tuesday—which may be extended—for talks on the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, Israel is taking steps to prepare for a military strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities so as to defend itself from the impending threat. Iran has refused to allow inspections of its covert nuclear sites and declared it will use advanced centrifuges as soon as a deal is met, meaning the leading state sponsor of terrorism could potentially obtain a nuclear arsenal within weeks, all while getting billions of dollars in sanctions relief through a nuclear deal. The Hebrew-language Walla! reported Tuesday...

CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" and claiming Tehran had made considerable concessions. In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work, reports AFP. "I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a (nuclear) program,"...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid angrily denounced a Republican-led effort to circumvent President Barack Obama’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, calling it “hard slap in the face” of the United States. As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the engineer of a letter that panned Obama’s effort as merely an “executive agreement,” watched from the presiding officer’s chair on Monday afternoon, Reid called the end-around by 47 Republicans a “juvenile” attack and an attempt to undermine Obama “purely out of spite.” “The judgment of my Republican colleagues seems to be clouded by their abhorrence of President Obama. The Republican senators...

Some commentators inside and outside Iran have interpreted Khamenei’s stance as further proof that he has lost touch with reality. A closer look at the context, however, might show that Khamenei’s stance is very much based on reality: his reality. Khamenei does not see Iran as a nation-state but as a vehicle for a revolution with global ambitions. “I am not a diplomat,” he said amid cheers from a crowd of supporters. “I am a revolutionary.” The regime that Khamenei heads is not meant to act in the interests of Iran as a nation-state, but in the interests of the...

Herzog vowed that, if elected PM, in his first 100 days as prime minister he would focus on three issues in particular: solving the housing crisis, "renewing relations with the US and the (political) process with the Palestinians." "If need be, I will travel to Ramallah and present to the Palestinian Parliament a vision of hope," he declared.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and State Department struggled Tuesday to clarify President Barack Obama's suggestion that last month's deadly shooting at a kosher deli in Paris was random, despite the administration's earlier assertions that the attack was anti-Semitic. Obama, in describing terror threats during a lengthy interview with the online news site Vox, said the American people were right to be concerned "when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris." Administration officials at first defended Obama's comments, with White House spokesman Josh...

“Moderate” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has bragged of his regime’s role in aiding Hamas’s terror war against Israel, even as Iran is locked in a final round of negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program. Speaking to the Arabic-language news source Al Meyadeen, Rouhani claimed the “victory” of Gaza in Operation Protective Edge was only possible thanks to Iranian aid, reports Channel 10. Rouhani has been presented to the world as a “moderate” following his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but many have warned that his “charm offensive” has been even more dangerous given the cover it provides for Iran’s ongoing...

VICE News has been reporting from inside Iraq, releasing chilling footage of ISIS terrorists. In the latest footage, which we saw on America’s Newsroom this morning, a young boy delivers a warning to the United States. On the translation, the boy declares, “I swear to God, we will divide America in two and destroy all the enemies of our religion and the Islamic State. The Caliphate will remain until the end of the world and God willing, we will fight for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” …

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America. “Those (Iranians) who want to promote negotiation and surrender to the oppressors and blame the Islamic Republic as a warmonger in reality commit treason,” Khamenei told a meeting of members of parliament, according to the regime’s Fars News Agency. Khamenei emphasized that without a combative mindset, the regime cannot reach its higher Islamic role against the “oppressors’ front.” “The reason for continuation of this battle is not the warmongering of...

Oh, now they’ve done it. They picked on the wrong people this time. The C.I.A. has apparently been spying on Congress. I know. Who would have seen that coming? Spies spying on people? That’s like lawyers legislating or something. Oh wait…. So, Congress is really, really mad at the C.I.A. now. According to a story by the New York Times, the C.I.A. snooped on Senate staffers in order to find out how the Senate got internal C.I.A. documents, some of which were critical of “agency’s detention and interrogation program. Parts of the C.I.A. report cast a particularly harsh light...

President wants to deliver American culture to Islamic regimeThe proposed easing of sanctions against Iran represents the most visible enticement by which the United States and five other nations intend to guide the Islamic regime toward peace. The Obama administration, however, has another tool in its diplomatic arsenal that it intends to leverage against Tehran. Hollywood. The responsibility of producing a California-centered news and entertainment program “appealing to Farsi-speaking youth in Iran” soon will be fall into the hands of a contractor working on behalf of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, according to planning documents that WND...

With the death of Nelson Mandela, some people are wondering about a possible encounter between the American and Iranian presidents at memorial events in South Africa this week—especially after a failed attempt by U.S. officials to arrange one at the U.N. last fall. As of Sunday, Iran had not yet formally confirmed whether President Hasan Rouhani plans to travel to South Africa, but that did not stop one Iranian newspaper from warning that the funeral events could be a “trap” that would bring him face to face with the leader of the “great satan.” “Satan lays a trap, this time...

CAIRO — Supporters and foes of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy filled streets here again on Sunday as an interim government moved to fill key posts. Anger appeared to grow against the United States, especially among anti-Morsy forces who accuse Washington of backing the deposed leader and the Muslim Brotherhood in their efforts to turn Egypt into an Islamic state. Transitional Egyptian President Adly Mansour, named by the Egyptian military to lead the country after it removed Morsy from office, announced several key appointments, all of whom were members of the military or supporters of a nation guided by the...

Currently the Obama administration is facing three big scandals — the IRS targeting, the bugging of AP and Fox, and Benghazi. Now we have scandal Number Four, just as large in scope. For the last four years, the Obama administration has conducted a major “outreach” program to Islamic groups in the United States and in the Middle East. In a comprehensive article, investigative journalist and PJ Media contributor Patrick Poole now presents the full scoop and scope of what’s been going on. His article — “Blind to Terror: The U.S. Government’s Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on U.S....

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that, “to our great regret,” Russian security services lacked any operative information on the Tsarnaev brothers that they could have shared with their American counterparts. Russian officials had raised concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev with the FBI in 2011 and later that year also with the CIA. But analysts here doubt that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was warning the Americans; more likely, they say, it was acting out of worry that Tsarnaev might join an underground group in the strife-torn Russian region of Dagestan during a visit there. The FSB did not respond when the...

Terror never rests, even on the placid train trip between New York and Toronto. With the help of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Canadian law enforcement officials announced Monday that they had stopped an Al Qaeda-linked plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Amtrak passenger train, and have arrested two suspects in Montreal and Toronto. Police charged Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser with "terrorism related offenses," officials said at a news conference Monday afternoon. The men were observed gathering information on trains in the Toronto area, officials said, which they planned to attack. The charges against the...