Free Republic

Iran expanded its terrorist activities to Africa where it has recruited an estimated 300 militants to attack the United States and other Western targets in retaliation for American sanctions against Tehran, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday. The U.S. has deemed Iran the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. “Iran is setting up a new terrorist infrastructure in Africa with the aim of attacking Western targets,” an unnamed senior Western security source told the Telegraph. “It is all part of Tehran’s attempts to expand its terrorist operations across the globe.” Details about the existence of Iran’s terror cell in Africa reportedly...

On Sunday, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, arrived in Iran for talks on the nuclear agreement, as part of what appears to be an attempt by the UN nuclear watchdog to evaluate whether Iran ran a military nuclear program in the past. Amano is expected to meet with various Iranian nuclear scientists for answers on this very subject. On December 15, ahead of the lifting of crippling economic sanctions on Tehran, he is slated to present the world with definitive answers that will determine whether Iran complied with the terms of a nuclear deal signed...

Al Hayat, one of the most-respected pan-Arab-language dailies, charges that Iran is supporting more than 100 Shiite extremist organizations. A recent report in Al Hayat, one of the largest and most-respected pan-Arab dailies, charges that Iran is supporting more than 100 Shiite extremist organizations and militias in Syria and Iraq. The newspaper, which is published in London and funded by Saudi Arabia, says the crimes of these groups are no less horrific than those of the Islamic State. In Iraq, the Iranian-funded armed militias comprised of Persians have capabilities far beyond those of the Iraqi security forces. The paper quotes...

IRGC-tied site urges ‘hunt’ after Hezbollah strike Iran is encouraging its terror allies to pursue the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s children by publishing personal information about them, including photographs of the kids lined up in crosshairs, and declaring, “We must await the hunt of Hezbollah.” The publication of the personal information and biographies of Netanyahu’s children follows an Israeli airstrike last week that killed several key Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian commander affiliated with the country’s hardline Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian military leaders affiliated with the IRGC threatened in recent days harsh retaliation for the strike...

Edward Levine, a Kerry confidant who formerly worked on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lambasted the anti-terror mandate in a recent analysis for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Requiring Iran to cease its terror activities against the United States could harm the negotiations over its contested nuclear program, according to Levine. “This language would mean that if, say, Hezbollah were to explode a bomb outside a U.S. firm’s office in Beirut, the sanctions would go into effect (because Iran gives financial and other support to Hezbollah) even if Iran’s nuclear activities...

Iranian 'Shaped Charges' Discovered in Iraq BAGHDAD: U.S. and other coalition officials in Iraq are voicing concern about the recent discoveries of highly-sophisticated and lethal roadside bombs being smuggled into the country from Iran. Speculation about whether insurgents in Iraq were now using so-called "shape charges" as roadside bombs, reached new heights after Wednesday's deadly attack against a U.S. Marine vehicle in the western town of Haditha. Fourteen Marines were killed after their amphibious assault carrier hit a bomb so powerful, it flipped the 27 metric ton vehicle into the air.

While the United States leads the world in the fight against terror, its law enforcement agencies have a great deal to learn from Israeli counter-terrorism, Steven Pomerantz – former Assistant Director of the FBI – told The Jerusalem Post while in Israel last week. "Israel is the preeminent expert on terrorism in the world," Pomerantz said. "Not only is it a country that needs to fight terror but it needs to fight under democratic principles." Pomerantz, who headed a delegation of acting US law-enforcement officials brought to Israel by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), also served as...

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's influential former president, on Tuesday added to the war of words with Israel and the United States by claiming Iran had developed a satellite-launching rocket with a range of 2,000km