Free Republic

Iran’s strikes on more than two dozen US bases in the Middle East focused on early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage, according to an Associated Press analysis.The AP independently verified damage to American targets using satellite imagery from multiple providers and spoke to four regional officials who were briefed or have firsthand knowledge of what was hit. The AP found that, through August, more than 115 drone or missile strikes claimed by Iran or Iranian-backed militias damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites with US equipment.The AP found...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran’s strikes on more than two dozen U.S. bases in the Middle East focused on early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage, according to an Associated Press analysis. The AP independently verified damage to American targets using satellite imagery from multiple providers and spoke to four regional officials who were briefed or have firsthand knowledge of what was hit. The AP found that, through August, more than 115 drone or missile strikes claimed by Iran or Iranian-backed militias damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites with...

Building recent on efforts to strengthen political relationships between Tehran and South American nations, Iran has announced intentions to launch HispanTV to expand their influence in the region, and give their strategic influence a wider audience. A recent planned tour of leftist Latin Amarican states by Iranian leader Ahmadinejad was seen as a demonstration of solidarity by the leaders of those States as a way of uniting against Western powers. According to The Miami Herald, the channel has already begun running anti-Western programming suggesting US plots against Venezuela, and Syria. Ahmadinejad reportedly suggested that the purpose of the channel was...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over their controversial comments about Israel, declaring their positions “wrong” and insisting they don’t represent the Democratic Party in Congress. Pelosi, 86, delivered the rebuke during an appearance on Donny Deutsch’s “On Brand” podcast Thursday, after the Jewish host pressed the longtime California Democrat about growing concerns over antisemitism within the party. Deutsch specifically questioned how Jewish Americans could continue supporting Democrats when prominent members of the party have refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. “When...

Saturday morning an attacking Houthi drone downed over eastern Saudi Arabia... The US intends to launch attacks on Iran as early as... Israel the opposition seeking a vote next month to replace the Speaker of... A sampling of US political polls... Poland's Conservative Nationalist President Karol Nawrocki jostled as he arrived at the Constitutional Court...Liberal Secularist Prime Minister Donald Tusk...suspending the court's president... At the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta no group photo... United States approving the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine... Strait of Hormuz a new attack on an oil tanker... US Embassy in Saudi Arabia...

Poland on Tuesday agreed to a new version of a deal on stationing an American missile shield, a government statement said, adding it would be aimed essentially at potential threats from Iran. Warsaw "accepts signing a protocol modifying the accord signed by the Polish and American governments on the installation on our territory of anti-ballistic missile interceptors concluded in Warsaw on August 20, 2008," it said. In September, US President Barack Obama shelved a plan by his predecessor George W. Bush to deploy a missile shield in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic by 2013 that Russia...

Dec WTI crude oil prices fell on Thursday as the market assesses mediation efforts to avert a possible US military attack on Iran after this Tuesday’s US mid-term elections. The Wall Street Journal reported that US Vice President Vance sent a letter to hardliner Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran’s top security body, to see if a framework for negotiations exists. Iran said it has not yet replied to the letter. Axios reported Wednesday that Qatar is leading behind-the-scenes mediation efforts, supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Türkiye. The news of negotiations followed the Wall Street Journal’s report Tuesday that...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon's top military planner as President Donald Trump considers renewed strikes on Iran following next week's midterm elections. Army Lt Gen Brett Sylvia was removed as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after he reportedly leaked classified information about the war in Iran and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon's top military planner as President Donald Trump considers renewed strikes on Iran following next week's midterm elections. Army Lt Gen Brett Sylvia was removed as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after he reportedly leaked classified information about the war in Iran and the war between Russia and Ukraine. 'Although Sylvia's title was director of the Directorate for Strategy, Plans and Policy at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known inside the military as the J5, he was NOT a central planner for the Iran War,' a...

Two British nationals have been charged over an alleged plot to assist Iran's intelligence service as part of the investigation into the incident at RAF Fairford in September. Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, from Westminster, has been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under Section 3 of the National Security Act. Nouman Essghir, also 24 and from Westminster, has been charged under Section 4 of the same act with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on 22 August - weeks before he was arrested near the airbase in Gloucestershire alongside four other men. The pair...

Islamic bigot Cenk Uygur’s attack on Israel in the context of the El-Sayed ad raises serious reminds about a resurgent antisemitic double standards. Pretending Israel isn’t fighting for its survival against armed groups backed by Iran and other hostile forces is a gross distortion of reality. Blaming Jews—or singling out aid to Israel as the culprit behind grocery prices—echoes a long and ugly history of antisemitic scapegoating. Foreign aid to any country is not a direct explanation for rising grocery bills, and isolating Israel for special condemnation demands scrutiny. When Israel alone is singled out, while its security threats are...

On the menu today: If, in the past five months or so, you argued that the memorandum of understanding with the Iranian regime was a terrible mistake and an insane series of concessions to one of the world’s most duplicitous regimes, you were probably accused of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” This week, President Trump declared the cease-fire with Iran to be “a waste of time.” This morning, the Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is preparing for “a short, intense military campaign” against Iran “after the U.S. midterm elections.” As high as gas prices are today — a national...

CORPUS CHRISTI — President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted the arrival of 1 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to be refined in Texas as he swung through the state on another round of campaign stops for Ken Paxton and other Republicans.Speaking at the Port of Corpus Christi, the president said the shipment was a sign of an upswing for Americans as many face stiflingly high gas prices and have grown weary of the war in Iran. The U.S. “is making an absolute fortune because of the situation in the Middle East,” Trump said. He reiterated his promise that the war,...

Mass demonstrations, when IRGC came out to play, they encountered armed resistance. Pahlavi circulating contact info to civil servants and military, urging next steps to be taken towards revolution. Some technical difficulty. Targeted drone attack in Tehran building, result and intended victim not yet known. Ayatoilets trying to gaslight and demonizing Pahlavi. He has plans that he's made known for reconstructing Iran after revolution. He's pro-western, pro-democracy and pro-free markets. Li'l Lulu stole election in Brazil, very similar to the Brandonistas' theft, and Bolsonaro Jr. has skedaddled and asked for asylum in America to avoid arrest like they did his...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis will vote in a pivotal election Tuesday as their country is embroiled in unresolved wars, still reeling from Hamas’ 2023 attack and deeply divided over the character of the state and the right person to lead it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces off against a coalition of parties seeking to oust the longtime leader from power. Opinion polls have suggested a tight race with his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.In Israel’s fragmented parliamentary politics, no single party has ever won an outright parliamentary majority, so political leaders must forge coalitions. But in a tight...

A friend of mine is taking his wife on a European cruise that ends in Barcelona this week. He told me how much they love the Spanish city and how they’d normally stay an extra couple of days there before flying back. “Not this year,” he said, before stressing that they’re “gonna get outta there fast” because of safety concerns. We had this discussion before this weekend’s violent riots in Barcelona, in which hundreds of people (black clothing, masks, and Palestinian flags prominent among them) looted and damaged dozens of stores, injured at least 15 police officers, and set multiple...

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he was deciding whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish it off” as investors weigh heightened tensions across the Middle East. “Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal? It’s getting to be decision time,” Trump said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. Mediators from Qatar, which has played a key role in efforts to negotiate an agreement between Washington and Tehran, visited Tehran on Sunday, per Reuters. It comes as attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia continued over...

A University of California Merced professor of history and critical race and ethnic studies recently called for the “dezionization” of the UC system. Sean Malloy, who according to his faculty page researches “colonialism, war, white supremacy, and the critical study of Zionism,” writes in the Ethnic Studies Council at UC Substack that Zionism is a “driving force behind many of the external and internal threats to the UC and its faculty, staff, and students.” “Dezionization entails not only ending the UC’s complicity in the genocidal actions of the Israeli state (which would include divestment and the end of formal research...

The CIA contractor accused of leaking classified intelligence to his lefty journalist girlfriend could face 10 years in prison — all for posts that appeared to have netted just dozens of likes on her Substack. Ian Brinksman, 42, was accused of exploiting his access to sensitive US intelligence and acquiring reports unrelated to his duties — including sensitive intel on Israel — for the sake of passing them along to his romantic partner to help bolster her career, prosecutors claimed. While officials did not name the girlfriend, the intel involved and dates match up with at least five reports published...

U.S. intelligence officials are warning that Iran has intensified efforts to assassinate Americans overseas, prompting the Trump administration to reduce diplomatic staffing across the Middle East amid escalating threats from Tehran and its terrorist proxies. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton issued an unclassified memo Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, warning that Iranian assassination plots targeting U.S. citizens have reached dangerous levels. “Lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages,” Clayton wrote. Clayton said Tehran has significantly expanded operations targeting American personnel abroad and warned that the danger extends beyond individuals currently authorized...