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Several blasts hit a U.S.-led coalition military base in Baghdad early on Sunday from an apparent rocket attack, a U.S. military official said. The official did not immediately say if the attack caused any casualties or significant damage.

The U.S. Justice Department has accused Huawei Technologies of helping Iran track protesters in its latest indictment against the Chinese tech giant as Washington steps up pressure on the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker. In a new indictment unsealed on February 13, Huawei was also charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets from six U.S. technology companies and to violate a racketeering law typically used in the fight against organized crime. The indictment supersedes one unsealed last year in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. According to prosecutors, Huawei provided surveillance equipment to Iran that enabled the monitoring of protesters...

"Hello Goodbye" by the Beatles, a number one song from early 1968 here in the USA. That's around the time my father left the factory to higher paying and longer lasting government employment as inflation kicked in here in the USA. Lyndon Johnson was ramping up government with Medicare and Medicaid and the cost of medical care was beginning to skyrocket, debt was beginning to accumulate and wow here we are 23 trillion dollars plus later. The 2021 federal budget proposed by President Trump adds another 966 billion to that. Well the currency is devalued and its easy to tell...

Iranian writer and activist Ladan Boroumand sits down with Matt Kibbe to discuss her fight for human rights in Iran. She points out that the Iranian people have a yearning for personal liberty, rule of law, and economic freedom, but they fear to speak out against the tyrannical, theocratic government.

The Iranian regime will hold its so-called parliamentary elections next Friday amidst mounting crises. The "elections" this year unfold in a radically different setting, with growing popular discontent and uprisings exacerbating an already dire situation for the regime. Braving systematic suppression and human rights, people in Iran usually vote on the streets. In their massive protests in November, they voted to change the regime in its entirety. Elections in one of the most repressive states in the world are nothing but a farce. The regime has effectively monopolized power through the concept of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). The supreme...

Bernie was a no-show vote on an amendment commending the U.S. armed forces and intelligence community for the strike that barbied Shea hot shots, Q Soleimani and AMa Muhandis. Klobuchar & Warren attended and voted "nay", 53 Republicans, 10 Democrats, and Independent Angus King supported the amendment introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, praising President Trump, and the action terminating the late piglet pair.

USS Normandy (CG 60), in accordance with international law, boarded a stateless dhow in the Arabian Sea and interdicted an illicit shipment of advanced weapons and weapon components intended for the Houthis in Yemen, Feb. 9, 2020. US Navy Photo. Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60) seized a cache of Iranian-made anti-tank missiles and other munitions aboard a dhow in the Arabian Sea over the weekend. Normandy stopped the dhow while conducting maritime security operations over the weekend, in accordance with international law, according to a statement released Thursday by U.S. Central Command.

In January the FBI arrested Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri in Phoenix, Arizona after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Al-Nouri was an Al Qaeda leader in Iraq and was on the run for the murder of Iraqi police officers in Al-Fallujah. "According to the information provided by the Government of Iraq in support of its extradition request, Ahmed served as the leader of a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in Al-Fallujah, Iraq, which planned operations targeting Iraqi police. Ahmed and other members of the Al-Qaeda group allegedly shot and killed a first lieutenant in the Fallujah Police Directorate and a...

U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News Thursday that a U.S. Navy warship intercepted Iranian-made weapons from a vessel in the Arabian Sea earlier this week. Crew members from the USS Normandy seized a huge cache of weapons from a dhow – a small vessel with lateen sails – on Sunday while conducting maritime security operations in the U.S. Central area of operations. The weapons and weapon components were intended for the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to officials.

Rajai Shahr Prison (Gohar Dasht) is in the city of Karaj, about 40 km west of Tehran. Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj is considered one of Iran's most notorious prisons. Many political prisoners are held in this prison. In this prison, the most inhumane kinds of physical and psychological tortures are administered. The intent is to demonize the spirit of the prisoners. The political prisoners held captive in this prison are also kept secret from the eyes of media and human rights organizations. Political prisoners from notorious “Evin” who insist on their beliefs are often transferred to Rajai Shahr prison....

Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.)Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.)Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.)Sen. Todd Young (Ind.)  

From the early days of Iranian Revolution four decades ago, the Iranian regime has tried to spread its theocratic doctrine to the rest of the Middle East. The regime has, in the process, successfully made substantial number of Iraqi and Lebanese ‘civilians’ and ‘armed groups’ its core external support bases. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who spearheads the regime, had maintained his charm among these external civilian and armed support bases for almost three and a half decade. However, the situation has been changing in the Middle East for last half a decade and the Iranian regime appears to...

BRUSSELS - NATO defense ministers agreed on Wednesday to expand the Western alliance’s training mission in Iraq, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, responding to a demand by U.S. President Donald Trump for NATO to do more in the Middle East. NATO will take over some of the training activities carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Stoltenberg said, meaning the decision does not require more Western troops in Iraq but would be with the consent of the Iraqi government. “Today, allied ministers...agreed in principle to enhance NATO’s training mission,” Stoltenberg told a news conference. “In the first instance,...

President Trump's Senate acquittal and his rise in polls have been a disappointment for Tehran's regime. ------------------------------------------- An "Asia" newspaper article published a few days before the Senate vote states: ------------------------------------------- Given the majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, the impeachment is highly likely to be voted on, no matter if the Senate approves of the impeachment or not. It could weaken Trump's power and his decisions.

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Some Arab countries are trying to get the Jews they forced out to return FEBRUARY 7, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM More than 850,000 Jews lived in Arab countries in the 20th century. With the creation of Israel in 1948, all but a few thousand Jews were forced to leave the Arab countries where they had lived for generations and centuries. But today, there is a palpable longing in most Arab states for the Jews to return. Many believe that only with a Jewish presence will their countries blossom and develop as they did in the past. World Israel News...

Four US Senators, including Ted Cruz, penned a letter on February 6 to Jack Dorsey asking him to ban Iranian leadership from using Twitter as part of the US sanctions against Iran. Republican senators led by Ted Cruz in a letter Thursday suggested Twitter may be violating U.S. sanctions by letting Iranian leaders maintain accounts, which they asked company CEO Jack Dorsey to ban. The big picture: Twitter has become a major political target for Cruz and other Republicans, who claim the company and other Silicon Valley giants are biased against conservatives and the Trump administration. "While the First Amendment...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq and Russia discussed prospects for deepening military coordination, Iraq's Defense Ministry said Thursday, amid a strain in Baghdad-Washington relations after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general inside Iraq. The ministry statement followed a meeting in Baghdad between Iraqi army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi and Russian Ambassador Maksim Maksimov, as well as a newly arrived defense attache. The meeting comes during an uncertain moment in the future of Iraq-U.S. military relations, following the Jan. 3 U .S. drone strike that killed Iran's most powerful military commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and Iraqi senior...

A debate between some of the Democrats running for President tonight who met qualifying criteria. Bernie Sanders, who won the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, came under intense criticism.... The Russian Defense Ministry says that the Israeli military endangered an airline with 172 passengers on board by launching an early Thursday morning air attack on Damascus using the airliner as a shield.... Turkey says it will respond to any attack on its military forces in northwestern Syria's Idlib.... Official word of the death of an Al-Qaeda leader in a US military operation...... The French teenager who blasted Islam online...

EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret issued a meticulous statement following last night's ramming attack that wounded twelve Golani soldiers, and today's abortive Temple Mount shooting attack where a policeman was lightly wounded and the attacker was killed. Giaufret tweeted: "Following with concern the rise of tensions and spike of violence. My thoughts are with the families of victims and I wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured. Violence is never justified." Palestinian Media Watch Legal Strategies head IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Adv. Maurice Hirsch anwered the EU Ambassador, saying: "If violence is never justified, why does the...

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