Free Republic

Iran’s army has launched unannounced military drills in the northwest of the country bordering Turkey, Iranian state media reported. The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported on October 9 that the exercises included rapid reaction units, mobile and offense brigades, and helicopters. The maneuvers in Iran’s Western Azerbaijan Province are being overseen by Iran’s army chief, Major General Abdolrahim Musavi, according to state TV. The reports did not mention the number of troops taking part. The announcement of the drills comes as Turkey says it is about to launch an offensive into northern Syria. Tehran, a key ally of President Bashar...

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a document that became the "last prelude" before the outbreak of World War II. After 80 years, we’ll try again to look back into the past and remember how it all happened. At the end of June 1939, negotiations on the normalization of relations between the Soviet Union and Germany began. In July, there was the talk of a trade agreement and a plan to improve relations between countries, which included political rapprochement. During a meeting with the military on August 14, Adolf Hitler announced his intention to start a war with Poland, since "UK and...

One of the key components of the strategy President Obama outlined in his speech earlier this week to fight ISIS was to arm and train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. Obama and others like Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) assure us that the Syrian rebels are “vetted moderates” who only want to bring freedom to Syria.Well, this component of the Obama strategy appears to be falling apart. ISIS and some of the “moderate” rebel factions have signed a non-aggression pact pledging to concentrate on fighting the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.The Huffington Post has more: According to Agence France-Presse, ISIS and...

As the United States begins to deepen ties with moderate Syrian rebels to combat the extremist group ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, a key component of its coalition appears to have struck a non-aggression pact with the group. According to Agence France-Presse, ISIS and a number of moderate and hard-line rebel groups have agreed not to fight each other so that they can focus on taking down the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Other sources say the signatories include a major U.S. ally linked to the Free Syrian Army. The deal between ISIS and the moderate Syrian...

<p>The Pentagon has announced that it expects to train 5,000 Syrian rebels per year as part of President Obama's new campaign to battle Islamic State militants.</p> <p>Details of the administration's $500 million plan to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State began to surface Friday when Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby outlined the goals that U.S. military planners expected to achieve.</p>

As part of the new phase of maybe-kinda-probably war against ISIS, Obama is seeking to arm the Syrian rebels, hoping they’ll fight against the ravenous terrorists who cut through the Iraqi army like a hot Jihadist knife through butter. There’s just one tiny problem with this strategy – those rebels have signed a non-aggression pact with ISIS: The U.S. backed, Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF), have signed a ceasefire agreement with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) in the Rif Dimashq Governate. According to the ceasefire agreement, the two militant groups will not engage in violence with...

As the rays of early evening sun lingered over the giant wooden mast that protruded through the pine forest, two cars passed through the gates of the German radio station and sto1pped outside the three-storey transmission building. n the following minutes, seven SS officers posing as Polish partisans, would carry out a simple act that would leave one man dead on the station steps – and provide Adolf Hitler with the excuse to invade Poland , plunging the world into six dark years of conflict. The events that took place in the fading light of August 31, 1939 around Gliwice...

IN A LITTLE-NOTICED DECISION in a New York courtroom on September 25, 2003, a man described as Osama bin Laden's "best friend" got some good news. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts ruled that Mahmdouh Mahmud Salim could not be sentenced to life in prison. Salim--who was present at the founding of al Qaeda in 1989 and who was for years one of bin Laden's most trusted confidants--had been captured in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States for prosecution related to his role in the grand conspiracy that resulted in the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in...

Iran: Europe Proposes Nonaggression Pact By NASSER KARIMI The Associated Press/Sunday, July 31, 2005; 12:55 PM TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator said his European counterparts have proposed a guarantee that Iran will not be invaded if Tehran agrees to permanently halt uranium enrichment, the state-run news agency said Sunday. Hasan Rowhani said the proposal is being discussed by Europeans and includes several important points such as "guarantees about Iran's integrity, independence, national sovereignty" and "nonaggression toward Iran," the Islamic Republic News Agency said Sunday. "If Europe enjoys a serious political will about Iran's nuclear fuel cycle, there will...

If there is one thing that all Washington should be able to agree on, it is that the United States does not want to fight another war in Korea. The bloodbath would be horrific, the financial cost would be ruinous, and the effects of such a war on the stability of northeast Asia would be unpredictable. Plus, we might not win. Yet when President Bush was asked during his recent Asian trip about North Korea's request for a non-aggression pact with the United States, he replied, "We will not have a treaty, if that's what you're asking. That's off the...