Free Republic

Okay, before you go nuts, hear me out. Soccer just isn't our sport. We suck at it. The USMNT is going nowhere, and they're just a bunch of virtue signalers anyway. The Iranian team almost literally is playing for their lives. They have been protesting their government by not singing for the anthem, and there are reports their families are being threatened if they don't "behave". If they lose, there is a decent chance a few of them will just be disappeared. So lets say they beat the US. They will be national heroes. It will be very very difficult...

The team did not sing along with the national anthem before its first match against England. Iran has threatened families of players on the Iranian World Cup team with “violence and torture” if the players don’t “behave” in the match vs. the United States men's national team on Tuesday, CNN’s Sam Kiley reports. A source told Kiley that Iran has a “large number” of security eyeing how the players act while in Qatar. Additionally, the source said Iran coach Carlos Queiroz met with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers following these threats, but it is unclear whether that was what the...

Documents obtained by Iran International show Iran was coordinating secret efforts with Qatar to control who attends the World Cup and restrict any signs of dissent. Black Reward, a hactivist group that found access to Fars News Agency files this week provided an audio tape of a meeting between a Revolutionary Guard general and a group of media managers or representatives from outfits affiliated with the IRGC about plans to use the sporting event to the benefit of the regime in Tehran. A six-minute audio segment of a tape features General Ghasem Ghoreyshi (Qasem Qoreyshi), deputy commander of the paramilitary...

Critics erupt after Whoopi Goldberg questions whether Hamas, Taliban are terrorists. Critics erupt after Whoopi Goldberg questions whether Hamas, Taliban are terrorists After a co-host on The View called the two groups out as terrorists, Goldberg said, “Depends on who you talk to.” Israel, Canada, the EU, Japan, Australia and the UK – besides the U.S. – have all designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Critics leaped onto social media to slam Goldberg’s equivocation. Andrew Ghalili, a foreign policy analyst for the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) tweeted, “???? One host on The View says that Hamas...

The State of Israel is "on the brink of civil war" between Jews and Arabs, warned Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri during an emergency conference of the Forum for Security, Governance and Settlement on Sunday. "A moment before we fall into a civil war, and I say this really after I was a witness to all the events of the May [2021, Operation Guardian of the Walls], the endpoint of the events of May will be the opening mark for the coming events," said Lankri. "Whoever hasn't understood it yet, we are on the brink of civil war in the State...

The Israel Air Force this week will hold one of its largest drills in years with the United States Air Force simulating offensive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program. This is the mission that no one really wants to have to carry out, an actual long-range strike on Iran’s nuclear program and facilities built for them by Russia over the last decade and an half. But at some point, either Israel and perhaps America are going to go after Iran, or Iran is actually going to build a nuclear weapon or weapons with which to fire against Israel. Either way, and...

The Syrian military and Iranian militia groups in the country have rolled out new, advanced air defense systems near Damascus, aimed at stopping Israeli air strikes in the area. According to a report from the Jerusalem Post, which cited the Syrian Capital Voice outlet, Damascus and Tehran have obtained more sophisticated air defense systems from Korean and Chinese manufacturers. Iran is believed to have paid for the air defense systems as part of a partnership with Syria, whose embattled leader, Bashar al-Assad, has given his tacit approval to Iranian assets operating throughout his country.

In a surreal scene, USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter and team captain Tyler Adams were quizzed on government relations Monday by Iranian journalists ahead of the US’ must-win match against Iran in the World Cup on Tuesday. Berhalter was pressed as to “why he hasn’t asked US gov’t to remove a Naval ship from around Iran,” according to USA Today Sports’ Nancy Armour. Berhalter was also asked about U.S. immigration policies, to which the 49-year-old head coach responded, “I don’t know enough about politics, I’m a soccer coach.”

(excerpt) The member, identified as Reza Dastani, was killed on his way to work. Efforts are underway to identify and arrest the assailants. (excerpt)The assassination comes just days after IRGC Col. Davoud Jafari was killed in a roadside bombing near Damascus that Iran has blamed on Israel. The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported that Jafari served as an adviser for the IRGC Aerospace Force in Syria and was among one of the Iranian officials responsible for the seizure of two US Navy command boats carrying 10 US personnel in the Persian Gulf in January 2016. The Intelli Times blog revealed...

The small Jewish community in Tehran on Thursday condemned the ongoing anti-regime protests in Iran, which broke out over the death of a young woman held for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. In a letter, the Tehran Central Jewish Committee said it was standing by the Iranian regime amid a deadly crackdown on protesters

Attacks of this kind place coalition forces and the civilian population at risk and undermine the hard-earned stability and security of Syria and the region, CENTCOM spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said WASHINGTON, November 26./TASS/. US-led coalition forces came under attack at a US-controlled base in Al Hasakah province, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. "Two rockets targeted coalition forces at the US patrol base in al-Shaddadi, Syria today at approximately 10:31 p.m. local time in Syria,: the statement reads. According to the document, "the attack resulted in no injuries or damage to the base or coalition...

Ukrainian security official Oleksiy Danilov has confirmed reports that Iranian advisors were killed as the result of a Ukrainian military strike in Crimea last month, according to a report from The Guardian on Thursday. Danilov did not name a specific number of casualties and said that "they were on our territory. We didn’t invite them here, and if they collaborate with terrorists and participate in the destruction of our nation we must kill them," in an interview with The Guardian.

This video analyzes some of the current conflicts in the middle east today, especially Syria and Iran attacking the Kurds in Iraq. Many people may be surprised because much of this is not being covered by the news media. The video is 43 minutes and I think it is worth the time to watch. For those interested, the link to the youtube channel for all of these geopolitical analysis videos is below. Youtube channel for George W McMillan III (GWM3) Analysis w/ Matt Bracken

Iran’s government has embarked on an armed strategy of divide, crush and conquer to end nationwide protests against clerical rule in the Islamic Republic. The primary target is the Kurdish minority population, which has been protesting for more than two months. The government, dominated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has dispatched an aggressive and ill-disciplined militia known as the Basij to assault Kurdish towns and villages in western Iran. For the past eight days, thousands of Basij, transported by armored vehicles and firing heavy automatic weapons, have moved into the western border zone largely populated by Kurds. The Kurds have...

Iran considered carrying out a terror attack at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in an attempt to disrupt the event, military intelligence chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, according to The Jerusalem Post. Speaking at an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Major General Aharon Haliva said that the "only thing" stopping Iran from an act of terror was concern over how host country Qatar might respond, the report said. The FIFA World Cup 2022 kicked off on Sunday and is set to last through December 18. Iran's national team is one of...

Kabul (AFP) – Three women and 11 men were flogged Wednesday on the orders of an Afghan court after they were found guilty of theft and "moral crimes", a provincial official said. The lashings are the first to be confirmed since the Taliban's supreme leader ordered judges this month to fully enforce Islamic law, or sharia, saying corporal punishment was obligatory for certain crimes. Qazi Rafiullah Samim, head of information and culture for Logar province, told AFP the lashings were not administered publicly. "Fourteen people were given discretionary punishment, of which 11 were men and three were women," he said,...

Iran has begun producing uranium enriched up to 60% in its underground Fordow nuclear facility, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday, bringing the country closer to weapons grade material. “Iran had started producing high enriched uranium – UF6 enriched up to 60% - using the existing two cascades of IR-6 centrifuge....

The Iranian regime’s commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Isfahan said on Sunday that the theocratic state seeks to kidnap Benjamin Netanyahu and bring him to the Islamic Republic as a slave. Iranian-regime-controlled Bahar News reported that Mojtaba Fada, the commander of Isfahan’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that “the prime minister of the Zionist regime hoped that the protests in Iran would lead him to travel to Tehran [in a post-protest, Mullah-free Iran], but God willing, the Islamic Republic will prevail [and quash the protests, once again taking charge of the country] and will frog...

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on Friday formally declassified an image then-US President Donald Trump tweeted in 2019 of a highly classified satellite photograph depicting the site of a failed Iranian rocket launch. NPR reported that the NGA declassified the image after a “grueling Pentagon-wide review to determine whether the briefing slide it came from could be shared with the public” in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the radio network. Many details on the original image remain redacted – a clear sign that Trump was sharing some of the US government's most prized intelligence on social media,...