Free Republic

When I first heard about this, I didn't want to believe it. I pulled out sources I save for only the most important stories out of DC. And when I confirmed it, I had to interview the man who first revealed it to me. Former Mayor of Shiloh, Israel David Rubin joined us and set the record straight. To the Ayatollah’s current regime and for as long as the Ayatollahs have ruled Iran, America is their “Shaytân-e Bozorg.” We’ve heard it before in English as the “Great Satan.” They believe we are pure evil and must be destroyed at any...

On March 16, 2021, Iranians celebrated the ancient festival of Chaharshanbe Soori or fire festival which has its origin in ancient Iranian rituals. on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz (the first day of New year in the Iranian calendars). Before the start of the festival, people gather brushwood in an open, free exterior space. At sunset, after making one or more bonfires, they jump over the flames while singing. The regime hates Chaharshanbe Soori and views it as a threat to its security. Iranians celebrate regardless of the regime's threats against the celebration of the Fire Festival....

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., joined the chorus of voices celebrating former national security adviser John Bolton's departure from the White House. "John Bolton has been one of the leading proponents of making the world a more dangerous place," she tweeted on Tuesday. "Good riddance." Bolton, notoriously hawkish on foreign policy, was the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during former George W. Bush's incursion into Iraq. He has widely been criticized by people like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for pushing an aggressive foreign policy that resulted in long overseas wars.

Golly, whoever leaked this to Bloomberg must have been pretty high up the food chain to know what the president was thinking on a matter as sensitive as Iran diplomacy.And they must have a pretty sizable axe to grind with him if they’re willing to make him sound this weak, particularly in comparison to Bolton.Any theories? Do any current or former disgruntled national security aides with a reputation for score-settling in the press present themselves as logical suspects?The post-Bolton era will be a golden age of natsec leaking, my friends. President Trump discussed easing sanctions on Iran to help...

The departure of National Security Adviser John Bolton from the Trump administration left everyone with a number of questions. First and foremost, did he quit or was he fired? If you’re asked to resign, that’s a little bit of both, right? We’ll probably have to wait for the next series of tell-all books to come out to have a better idea.But there’s one group of people who probably don’t care how it happened. They’re just glad to see him gone. No, I’m not talking about Tucker Carlson, who mysteriously claimed that Bolton was “fundamentally a man of the left”...

Coalition and Iraqi forces carried out airstrikes Tuesday against an island south of Mosul in the Tigris River believed to be a safe haven for the Islamic State group in Iraq. Fireballs exploded across Qanus Island in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, as plumes of smoke billowed up into the sky, a video posted on Twitter showed. Black-clad Iraqi counter-terrorism troops are seen watching over the operation from the ground.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday tweeted a warning to US President Donald Trump. "Misconceptions endanger peace," he warned. "Sanctions aren't alternative to war; they ARE war. 'Obliteration'=genocide=war crime. 'Short war' with Iran is an illusion." Last week, Trump sent Iran an ultimatum, setting a deadline for the start of negotiations and warning that if Iran refuses to talk, the US will attack for the downing of an American surveillance drone.On Monday, Trump announced additional sanctions against Iran, which he said were retaliation for the downed drone, and on Tuesday he warned that "any attack on anything American...

..Five years after the Islamic State terrorist group marked them for genocide, many of Iraq’s Christians, like Yohanna Towaya, a resident of Qaraquosh, have been making plans to rebuild the Christian presence where it was first planted by St. Thomas the Apostle and his disciples nearly 2,000 years ago. But the fate of these rebuilding plans was 10 minutes away from being decided for them. On June 21, President Donald Trump revealed that, following Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, Tomahawk missiles were “cocked and loaded to retaliate.” An attack would have most certainly meant a setback for Christian...

Egypt says 7 policemen killed in Sinai attack Four gunmen also killed in the attack on police near the regional capital El Arish. 26 Jun 2019 Seven Egyptian policemen were killed in an attack claimed by the ISIL armed group in restive North Sinai. Egypt's interior ministry said the attack late Tuesday near the regional capital El Arish targeted an "assembly centre" for police, adding that an officer was among the dead. Four fighters, including a suicide bomber, also died during clashes following the attack, the ministry said. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility,...

“The neocons in the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu have created a situation where it is going to be very difficult for President Trump to avoid a war with Iran," she said. "They have built all the building blocks, placed the dynamite and lit the fuse. It is going to be up to Donald Trump and his leadership whether or not he is going to cut that fuse and say, 'Hey, we need to get back on track and put the interest of the American people in our country first.'" The Iraq War veteran also criticized Trump's recent...

ISLAMABAD: An international detergent brand has come under fire for an advertisement questioning gender stereotypes in the conservative patriarchal country, with critics denouncing the company for allegedly insulting Islam. The commercial for Ariel soap, owned by US-based Proctor & Gamble, calls for women to break free of conservative norms and pursue careers. In the ad, several women representing different professions - including a journalist and doctor - are seen pushing dirty sheets hanging on a clothesline off the screen. The sheets are printed with common refrains used to reinforce the oppression of women in Pakistan, including the question “What will...

Evidence Iran has offered to ‘prove’ that an American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was in its airspace when it was shot down this week is completely fraudulent. In particular, a photo Iran has published supposedly showing the drone tumbling from the sky in flames to indicate where it was when it was targeted destroys any remaining credibility the Islamic republic had. The state-run Islamic Republican News Agency published a photo of what the outlet claimed was the RQ-4 tumbling from the sky...

There are several truisms about the Iranian regime. It is a deeply intolerant, religiously fanatical regime with a death grip on power through suppression and a corrupt system of bribes, payoffs and family connections.Tony Soprano has nothing on the mullahs’ regime.Like any insular group of Mafiosos, the mullahs ruling Tehran are a deeply paranoid bunch. They regularly suspect traitors in their midst and engage in periodic purges that would do Josef Stalin proud; right down to public hangings.They also desperately manipulate—sometimes clumsily—social media and the Internet in general in a vain attempt to trash opponents and to stifle debate about...

Former IAEA official says Israel, Gulf states, 'need to be worried' about Iran's emerging nuclear abilities. Olli Heinonen, who headed the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) security team and served as the organizations' deputy director general, on Wednesday morning told Army Radio that Israelis on the whole are not aware of the severity of the Iranian threat. "Israelis need to be worried, and the Gulf states also have reason for concern," Heinonen said. "How will you be able to ensure your security if Iran achieves nuclear abilities?" In the full interview, which will be aired Thursday morning, Heinonen said that...

Before the phrase was spray-painted on walls and stenciled on cars, Syrian military officers heard it in meetings to discuss how to quell an antigovernment uprising sweeping Syria in 2011. “Assad or we burn the country.” The stark words warned those who would defy President Bashar al-Assad. And when protests morphed into war, Mr. Assad, backed by hard-core members of his Alawite religious sect, made good on the threat, presiding over much of Syria’s destruction to maintain his grip on power. “In every meeting we had, the Alawite officers would say it—‘Assad or we burn the country,’” recalled Abduljabar al-Akidi,...

Iran's parliament speaker has said that an attack that killed 27 members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was "planned and carried out from inside Pakistan.” In the remarks carried by the state-run IRNA news agency on February 17, Ali Larijani said that Pakistan should answer for its involvement in the attack. The comments come as Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani ambassador on February 17 to protest the assault, one of the deadliest attacks on Iranian security forces in years. Islamabad condemned the bombing but has not commented on Tehran’s allegations. The IRGC says a suicide bomber...

Iran has summoned the Pakistani ambassador to protest about a suicide bombing that killed 27 of its elite Revolutionary Guards near the border earlier this week, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday. The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic minority Baluchis, claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday. Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and have repeatedly called on the neighbouring country to crack down on them.

The Israeli Defence Forces on Sunday confirmed that its missiles are “currently targeting Iranian Quds in Syrian territory” just before midnight local time as reports from the Syrian News Agency confirms massive explosions in capital Damascus. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory,” the statement released by the IDF said. It marks the first time Israel has confirmed they are striking Iranian targets in Syria and that it is happening in real time. There have been unconfirmed reports since that Syrian forces are engaging with their weaponry by the Golan Heights — a...

The bombing comes a month after President Trump announced a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria BEIRUT—Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bomb blast Wednesday in a Syrian city under U.S.-backed Kurdish control that killed at least three American troops, according to U.S. officials, underscoring the threat the extremist group still poses as the Trump administration prepares to withdraw troops from the country. Local media and the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that allied fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces and a number of civilians were also among the dead and injured in the attack in the...

The Iranian navy will send warships to deploy in the Atlantic from March, a top commander said on Friday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to increase the operating range of its naval forces to the backyard of the United States, its arch foe.