Free Republic

In Iran, Eshaq Jahangiri Kouhshahi, the first vice president of the President Hassan Rouhani's regime, said on Oct. 22 that $22 billion of the country's resources were taken to Istanbul and Dubai under the pretext of increasing the value of the country's troubled rial currency. However, the miserable dollar price of the rial was not reduced from the act, and the $22 billion was not returned to the country. Something else was going on. Iran is facing unprecedented economic instability, a horrifying nightmare, along with corruption, embezzlement, and looting. It's institutionalized, so what we can infer from this is that...

A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a tweet Tuesday that the new U.S. sanctions that target Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other officials close any channel for diplomacy between the two countries "forever."...Trump said the sanctions “will deny the supreme leader and the supreme leader's office and those closely affiliated with him and the office access to key financial resources and support.”

The Mullahs Promise "Demise of Israel" and American Civilization by Majid Rafizadeh June 15, 2019 at 5:00 am https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14328/iran-threats-israel-us Iran recently produced a program on its state television channel demonstrating that the government is currently practicing missile attacks, with the purpose of carrying out actual attacks on Israel.... The video excerpt included in the television broadcast showed how the operations the Iranians are striving to put into action will bombard Tel Aviv. From the perspective of the Iranian leaders, if they continue to increase their threats against Israel, the United States will be pressured to change its strategy and lift...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 - The Pentagon's policy office, where a lower-level analyst is under suspicion of passing secrets to Israel, was deeply involved in deliberations over how the United States should deal with Iran, its conservative Islamic government and its nuclear weapons ambitions - all issues of intense concern to Israel as well. The analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, a Farsi-speaking specialist on Iran in the office, participated in a secret outreach meeting with an Iranian opposition figure, had access to classified intelligence about Iran's nuclear program and was one of many officials involved in drafting a top-secret presidential order on...

The Sept. 11-17 poll found that 36 percent of adults surveyed did not want Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court, up 6 points from a similar poll conducted a month earlier. Only 31 percent of U.S. adults polled said they were in favor of Kavanaugh’s appointment...Support for Kavanaugh was higher among Republicans, but fewer than two out of three, or 64 percent, said they were in favor of his nomination...More women--33 percent--opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination...

The Obama administration reportedly granted citizenship to thousands of Iranians during the Nuclear Deal talks back in 2015. According to a report from the Iranian Fars News Agency, high-ranking sources in Tehran are claiming conservative Iranian lawmakers have said Obama had taken measures to appease the Ayatollah regime. This picture of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader on July 11, 2015. (AP/Photo) This includes giving Iran cash and access to the U.S. financial system as well as harboring regime elites in the U.S. They also said at...

Apparently the mullahs and their goon squads were in for a surprise when on Sunday, someone opened fire on them in Khorramshahr, 400 miles southwest of Tehran, as they rolled in to shut down a protest over locals getting poisoned by untreated water. It's an area with a large Arabic population out near the Iraqi border. The gunfire came back at them. Mowing down is now going two ways, and it's clear the regime is scared - their official state media said the protestors only threw stones and garbage. Well, no. There's a spectacular, well-shot video on Twitter here, showing...

OH BOY! Iranian Regime Threatens to Release Names of Western Officials Who Took Bribes to Pass Nuke Deal. (Full title). ... Earlier this week President Trump withdrew from the sham Iranian nuclear deal. President Trump knew the deal with the Iranian mullahs was not working. This was despite former Secretary of State John Kerry working against the Trump administration to salvage the weak deal with the Iranian regime. ... Of course, the Iranian regime is very upset with President Trump’s decision. Now this… Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari warned Western officials this week that if they do not...

News of spreading and morphing political protests in Iran are beginning to surface as social media accounts are now gaining MSM attention. Openly political protests are not common in Iran ever since the 2009 ‘Green Revolution‘ was harshly put-down by security forces carrying out the instructions of the ruling Mullahs and political class. Iranian security services are omnipresent and looming. However, what appears to have begun as protests over prices, inflation and the lack of economic freedom, seems to have morphed into several regional political protests directly challenging the Mullahs and the reigning political class. Back in 2009, after President...

This past Oct. 29, Iranians marked the international day of Cyrus the Great, the ancient ruler of the Persian empire whose legacy is credited with forging the Iranian national identity. King Cyrus II is held in great regard in Iran for creating the largest empire of civilized nations then known in the world, around 600 years before Christ. King Cyrus was not only a master military strategist, he differed from other conquerors of the time in his tolerance of the customs and cultures of those who came under his rule. He was the author of the world’s first human rights...

Iran’s Tasnim news agency announced the development of a suicide drone that could be used against US ships in the Persian Gulf, where tensions between the US Navy and Iranian vessels has been increasing due to provocative Iranian maneuvers near US warships. The aircraft was described as “carrying payloads of explosives for combat missions” and to “collide with the target and destroy it, (whether) a vessel or an onshore command center.” It “has not been designed to be armed with missiles,” Tasnim said, reports USA Today. The US military has made extensive use of drones for surveillance and to attack...

It's a great time to be a despotic tyrant who threatens your neighbors. And as Khamenei knows, to be quite open about it. Who's going to do anything? Who would be enough of a fool to think that anyone with real power in Iran thought otherwise? Oh. Right. As always, beware of media characterizations that pretend this or that Iranian official is “moderate” or “more moderate” or whatever. They’re grading on a pretty radical curve when they tell you that, but it’s irrelevant at any rate. Only the mullahas have real power in Iran, and lest you have any doubt...

A senior Iranian military commander claimed that U.S. officials are quietly encouraging the Islamic Republic to keep its illicit ballistic missile tests a secret so as not to raise concerns in the region, according to Persian language comments. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace and Missile Force, said in recent remarks that the Obama administration does not want Iran to publicize its ongoing missile tests, which have raised questions about the Islamic Republic’s commitment to last summer’s comprehensive nuclear agreement. “At this time, the Americans are telling [us]: ‘Don’t talk about missile affairs, and if...

(NEW YORK) - In New Hampshire in an election year, even young children aren't afraid to share their views with politicians - as Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina saw firsthand Friday night. "Do you think Donald Trump is taking away our rights by not letting Muslims in the country because there's some terrorist attacks?" Harrison Golden, an eight-year-old Fiorina supporter, who is Muslim, asked the businesswoman after a town hall event she held in southeastern New Hampshire. "I think Donald Trump says a lot of things that are crazy," Fiorina responded. Harrison's sister, Zahra, who is 10 years old,...

President Obama imagined he could end his second term with an arms-control detente with Iran the way Ronald Reagan did with the Soviet Union. It looks instead that his nuclear deal has inspired Iran toward new military aggression and greater anti-American hostility. The U.S. and United Nations both say Iran is already violating U.N. resolutions that bar Iran from testing ballistic missiles. Iran has conducted two ballistic-missile tests since the nuclear deal was signed in July, most recently in November. The missiles seem capable of delivering nuclear weapons with relatively small design changes. The White House initially downplayed the missile...

In the wonderfully funny movie “Mom and Dad Save the World,” one of the heroes admits that his people are not so bright. “But what we lack in brains,” he says, “we make up for in ...good intentions.” Gentle mocking here of the frequent appeal of the incompetent for tolerance of their mistakes: How can you blame us if our intentions are good? The trouble is that much of what's really rotten in the world is due to people who thought that their good intentions would ensure a favorable result. Maybe the best example of this: former president Jimmy Carter....

The Iran deal has potential, both because of public opinion and the way the administration is positioning itself, to hurt Democrats in much the same way that the Iranian hostage crisis did in 1980 and 1981. Should New York Senator Chuck Schumer succeed in killing the deal, he will be saving the Democrats from what appears to be a grave political mistake. President Obama has branded opponents of the deal as either ideological extremists or ignorant. In his speech at American University, he compared the agreement’s opponents with Iranian extremists chanting “death to America.” He pointed out that most of...

The latest refinement of tone is his assertion that it’s his way or the highway, that war with Iran lies at the end of that forbidden highway. But who would start such a war? He doesn’t say. As crazy as the mullahs are, the craziness lies in a distorted theology, not in statecraft. The mullahs are smart enough not to believe everything they say, and go to war against the United States. We logically conclude that Mr. Obama is afraid that he might be the one to start the war. Who else does he think it could be? His “it’s...

(CNSNews.com) – During a “voters first presidential forum” in New Hampshire on Monday, GOP presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran, saying he “declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism.” “This is a bad deal. He’s declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism,” said Jindal regarding the nuclear deal with Iran. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the Food and Drug Administration ruled in June that trans fat is not “generally recognized as safe” for use in food and gave...

There has always been a rule – an overriding rule in the common law, in the criminal justice system and in the insurance industry – that society must not allow you to profit from a crime you committed. For example, if you file an insurance claim on your house, and it’s proven that you burned it down yourself, you get imprisoned for arson and the insurance company gets all the money back. Or if you file for the life insurance on your parent or spouse, and it’s proven that you murdered him or her for the insurance money, you get...