Free Republic

Tucker Carlson and Scott Horton talk about the background to the current Iran conflict. Interesting. Not for everyone. Imho worth the listen.

Inside the government, some officials called her “Wayward Storm.” Her real name was Monica Elfriede Witt, an exemplary Air Force counterintelligence agent who had studied Persian and carried out covert missions in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But by mid-2013, Ms. Witt had become disillusioned with the government — why, exactly, remains a mystery — and had left the military. Thoughts of betrayal consumed her, federal prosecutors now say, until she finally acted on them at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, where they say she “told all.”

A man suspected of gathering information on Jewish locations and individuals in Berlin for Iranian intelligence, possibly with a view to carrying out attacks, has been arrested in Denmark, German prosecutors say. The Danish national, identified only as Ali S., was arrested on Thursday in the Danish city of Aarhus, federal prosecutors say in a statement. They say that the man was tasked by an Iranian intelligence service early this year with gathering information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in Berlin and spied on three properties in June.

The famous DataRepublican data analyst dropped damaging information she had gathered about Code Pink's connections to the communist Chinese government after the group threatened legal action against her. The database kernel engineer, whose real name is Jennica Pounds, said Wednesday on social media that the group sent her a message accusing her of libel. "We are writing to formally address and correct the false and defamatory statements made in your recent social media posts regarding CODEPINK," the group reportedly wrote. "These claims — which falsely allege that our organization is funded by China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or any...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said its missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar matched the number of bombs dropped by the United States on Iranian nuclear sites this weekend, signaling Iran’s likely desire to deescalate. Iran made the announcement Monday night in a statement from its Supreme National Security Council after the attack, which Qatar said caused no injuries. Iran also said it targeted the base because it was outside of populated areas. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran launched missile attacks Monday on a U.S. military bases in Qatar and Iraq, retaliating for...

Mohammad Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Palestine Corps within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and the key coordinator between Iran and Hamas, was killed on Saturday, both the military and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced. Izadi, according to reports, helped finance and arm Hamas in the lead-up to the October 7 massacre. He was reportedly behind the "plan to destroy Israel" by coordinating assaults on Israel from multiple fronts. Izadi was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, by an attack by Israel Air Force fighter jets following an intelligence-gathering effort, the...

In attacking numerous military targets in Iran on June 13, 2025 as part of its Operation Rising Lion, Israel made good on a 1981 policy announced by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin:‘We shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We will not allow any enemy to obtain weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us.’While we hear international criticism of Israel for the attack, long forgotten is that Tehran’s mullahs actually recognized this same need a year before the Israelis announced their doctrine.By 1976, Saddam Hussein had become the de facto leader of Iraq,...

Toll from Tehran’s terrorism and proxy attacks are a serious factors in Trump’s decision on whether to support or even join the Israeli war effort. Three years after 19 Americans died in a bombing at a Saudi Arabian apartment complex, then-President Bill Clinton sent a cable that told Iran’s president a secret that the 42nd president wasn’t even willing to tell the American public: U.S. intelligence had ample evidence that Tehran was behind the deadly Khobar Towers terror attack. “Message to President Khatami from President Clinton: The United States Government has received credible evidence that members of the Iranian Revolutionary...

It had been three days since Egypt and Syria launched a two-headed assault against Israel, and now,..Kissinger and the rest of Richard Nixon’s administration faced a decision with titanic consequences. Should they send a flagging Israel the tanks, jets, and other weapons it needed to win the war? Or let the belligerents duke it out as is? The president and his administration chose the former. For the Israelis, this was a deliverance that could have come from God himself. Simply put, America’s resupply saved Israel.... The whole of the U.S. government was caught unawares by the outbreak of the Yom...

Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, was killed during an Israeli strike in Iran, The New York Times reported on Friday evening, citing an Iranian source. Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as commander after the latter was killed in a targeted operation by the United States in 2020. What was Qaani's mission in the Middle East? From an intelligence perspective, Qaani's mission appears to have had several dimensions, none of which have escaped the vigilance of Mossad, the CIA, or allied intelligence agencies in the region. Qaani also wanted to revive and consolidate control of...

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had "nothing to do with" Israel's attack against Iran Sunday morning, warning that any attack against the U.S. will be met with the "full strength and might" of the U.S. military. "If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before," he continued. "However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!" [also] Drones launched toward US base in Iraq shot down,...according to...

As a veteran who frequently rails against what I call “useless, endless wars,” I feel a duty to explain my seemingly contradictory position of supporting Israel’s recent kinetic actions in Iran. First, by “useless, endless wars,” I am specifically referring to the expenditure of American blood and/or treasure in a war that ultimately does not serve the national security interests of the USA. Examples: -Squandering American lives in a futile and unwinnable effort to transform a medieval society of deranged, violent goat herders and opium growers (who also practice actual slavery and bacha bāzī (Google it), and who have an...

Israel is trying to beckon the United States to join their strikes against Iran directly. In the meantime, the United States is conducting, along with several other nations, defensive operations to defend Israel, which amounts to downing Iranian drones. Our assistance does paint a target on the backs of American forces in the region, which isn’t the first time. Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq was targeted by three Iranian drones today (via Fox 5 San Diego): Three drones were launched toward a base housing U.S. forces in Iraq following Israel’s strikes on Iran, a U.S. military official and a second U.S....

The head of a dissident Iranian Kurdish movement has told Newsweek his group is urging the United States to foster contacts with opposition factions in the Islamic Republic to undermine and ultimately overthrow the government.While not seeking armed support, Komala Party of the Iranian Kurdistan Secretary-General Abdullah Mohtadi appealed to President Donald Trump to establish a relationship that would help set the conditions for the unraveling of the Iranian government...However, while generally supportive of the Kurdish cause in other countries, such as Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Mohtadi was reluctant to frame Komala's current goals as being linked to the long-sought...

New details of Moscow's intelligence work in Cuba were disclosed by Vasili Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. ...Russian KGB officer Nikolai Leonov became "firm friends," with Mr. Castro's younger brother Raul in Prague in 1953 and then worked together with Fidel from 1956 and after he took power in 1959. The book, the second volume of what is known as the Mitrokhin archive, also reveals how Moscow sought to indirectly defeat the United States during the Cold War through large-scale "disinformation" and influence operations in the developing world. "The KGB really believed they could...

An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran last year. Asif William Rahman, 34, had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after he was arrested for absconding with records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last October that indicated Israel was planning to launch airstrikes in response to a massive Iranian missile attack. Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top secret documents, leaked the stolen information on social...

Al-Arabiya reports that military aircraft, believed to likely be Israeli, are currently flying over Southern Syria.

UK warns of rising military threats in Gulf waters as US authorizes evacuation of embassy staff in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait amid fears of imminent escalation with Iran. Tensions are mounting across the Middle East amid the reported nearing conclusion of nuclear negotiations, prompting a wave of security alerts and diplomatic movements. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British maritime security agency, issued an unusual warning Wednesday, citing “increasing regional tension” that could escalate military activity and pose direct threats to seafarers in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters. Shortly after the UKMTO alert, Reuters reported that the United...

The world's largest group of oil producers, OPEC+, stuck to its guns on Saturday with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July as it looks to wrestle back market share and punish over-producers.Having spent years curbing production - more than 5 million barrels a day (bpd) or 5% of world demand - eight OPEC+ countries made a modest output increase in April before tripling it for May, June and now July.They are spurring production despite the extra supply weighing on crude prices as group leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia seek to win back market share as well...

Russia - Masque Of The Red Death Vladimir Putin has been hailed perhaps as the pivotal post cold war Russian leader. He has executed a skillful dog and pony show, convincing both the Bush and Blair administrations that the former Soviet Union was not only no longer a military threat to the West but was indeed now becoming a close ally. Obviously Russia's cooperation with the French and German UN delegation's intransigence in dealing with Iraq has done much to throw cold water on this heretofore-budding union. It's important to note that such a relationship offered hope, though ultimately unfounded,...