Free Republic

Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel, according to Western security sources. Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organisation based in east Beirut. Hamas officials are believed to have already made an initial cash down payment to secure the deal, and are now hoping that North Korea will soon begin shipping extra...

'If we're going to get a grip on this, we have to know their narrative and understand it' A noted specialist on Islamic law and ideology from the Center for Security Policy, who has been cited as an expert for the Pentagon, says a coalition of Islamists and Marxists is working to destroy the United States. The comments come from Stephen Coughlin, a lecturer for leading Department of Defense institutions such as the Naval War College, Marine Corps HQ-Quantico and for the FBI. Coughlin is a retired major in the U.S. Army reserves and was assigned to USCENTCOM, with a...

It isn’t every day that the world gets to watch the birth of a new constitutional democracy. As the political drama in the land of the Pharaohs unfolds, the Western commentariat seems totally focused on the extent to which Egypt’s new constitution will be informed by Sharia law. Alas, nary a peep can be heard about a far greater threat to Egypt’s freedom and prosperity. The drafters of the new Egyptian constitution are blessed with having the history of two centuries of constitutional democracies to study. Evidence abounds on what works and what doesn’t, of which economic policies lead to...

Last January, President Obama went over to the Pentagon to announce deep cuts in defense. He took the occasion to proclaim: "Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of war is receding." He could not have been more dangerously mistaken. While the Pentagon ceremony was taking place, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was packing his bags for a tour of friendly Latin American capitals, including Caracas, Quito, Havana, and Managua. The Nicaraguan visit was on the occasion of the presidential inauguration of our old enemy, Daniel Ortega. The others, Ahmadinejad's spokesman said, were to discuss matters of...

BEIRUT: A Hezbollah delegation visited Cuba and Venezuela last week and met with a number of parliamentarians and officials, the party’s press office said Wednesday. The visit came in response to an official invitation by the head of International Relations Division of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, José Ramon Balaguer. At one point, the delegation, which comprised Loyalty to the Resistance Party MP Nawwar Sahili and head of Hezbollah’s International Relations Department Ammar Musawi, visited the Santa Clara tomb of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentinean Marxist revolutionary icon, where they laid a wreath. Musawi was quoted by...

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in a phone conversation on Monday condemned the militaristic policies and aggressions of the bullying powers, and stressed the need for the formation of global partnership and cooperation to establish peace and security in the world. During the phone talk, Ahmadinejad underlined that the US and its European allies are merely seeking to attain their own interests, and asked for the start of an independent international movement to resolve the existing problems through talks and negotiations. He further cautioned that Americans are after new plans to solve their...

Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi Expounds on His Color Theory: White (the West) Is Trying to Wipe Out Red (Communism), Green (Islam) and Yellow (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism)Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 13, 2011. To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2814.htm. "The Name 'Muhammad' Was Written in the Torah and the New Testament – But in the Torah and New Testament That Exist Today, It Does Not Appear" Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: "The Torah and the New Testament have been completely altered. I'm sad to say that...

On Iran, Patriota said Brazil would maintain the dialogue started under Lula. "We consider it in our interest to maintain a dialogue with the Iranian government, including as a way to reduce tensions, because isolation sometimes only exacerbates a worrying situation that could lead to a conflict," he said. The relationship with Tehran contributed to Brazil's aim of "contributing to world peace," he said. Lula and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had friendly ties, underlined when Brazil and Turkey last year extracted a concession from Tehran to engage in a nuclear fuel swap deal. That deal was ultimately shot down by...

On the one side are the poor, the unemployed, workers, students, and farmers and peasants from rural areas. On the other are the rich and privileged elite, their supporters among small business owners, and the forces of the state. The events in Egypt are still being played out.... The revolutionary Karl Marx said, “The history of all existing societies is the history of class struggle.” What he meant was that because of the inherent clash of interests between the ruling class and the mass of ordinary people there will always be conflict. This can be a riot over food prices...

Why would a left-leaning young man from one of the world's most secular and liberal countries choose to become a pious Muslim? The 34-year old Swedish music teacher from Stockholm, who asked that his last name not be published, attempted to explain his decision, describing it as the culmination of a long journey searching for faith and him solidifying his religious beliefs that he couldn’t always place. What’s the appeal? In part, Malcolm said, Islam fits in well with his left-wing views. ”In that sense, Islam fits me really well,” he said. “I am completely against capitalism.”

UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s president yesterday predicted the defeat of capitalism and blamed global big business for the suffering of millions, but Germany’s chancellor said market economies were key to lifting the world’s least developed countries out of poverty.

Brazil ignores India, sells arms to Pakistan Gautam Datt Express News Service NEW DELHI: Has Brazil sold arms to Pakistan NEW DELHI: Has Brazil sold arms to Pakistan overlooking Indian concerns? A section of Brazilian media has carried reports about a Pakistan Air Force transport aircraft being loaded with missiles and bombs last month at Sao Jose dos Campos airport near Sao Paulo. If these reports are true, the move will be received by surprise as just last year, Brazil had cancelled a contract to sell anti-radiation missiles - meant to destroy radars - to Pakistan. It was widely believed...

North Korean spokesmen reacted furiously last week to claims by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Pyongyang is supplying weapons technology to Iran and Syria. Representatives of the regime of Kim Jong-Il described Lieberman as an “imbecile.” The official Korean Central News Agency in a memorable phrase accused the foreign minister in an official statement of “faking up sheer lies.” The indignant denials notwithstanding, recent studies indicate that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially known, is indeed playing a crucial but little remarked upon role in facilitating the arming of the Iran-led regional axis, including in...

This Sunday, February 14, is Valentine’s Day, the sacred day that intimate companions mark to celebrate their love and affection for one another. If you’re thinking about making a study of how couples celebrate this day, the Muslim world and the milieus of the radical Left are not the places you should be spending most, if any, of your time. Indeed, it’s pretty hard to outdo jihadists and “progressives” when it comes to the hatred of Valentine’s Day. And this hatred is precisely the territory on which the contemporary romance between the radical Left and Islamic fanaticism is formed. The...

Colombian guerrillas have entered into "an unholy alliance" with Islamic extremists who are helping the Marxist rebels smuggle cocaine through Africa on its way to European consumers, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Islam is the new religion in rebellious Mexican state Chiapas Published on : 17 December 2009 - 11:13am | By RNW English section More and more Mayan and Tzotzil people in the Mexican state Chiapas are becoming Muslims. It's fifteen years since the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and the region has undergone some profound changes. One of them is the emergence of Islam as a new religion in the state. The Muslim community, dominated by converted Mayans and Tzotzils , is slowly gaining ground. By Jan-Albert Hootsen Molino de los Arcos is one of the poorest neighbourhoods of San Cristóbal...

ISTANBUL (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday slammed capitalism for the global financial meltdown as he joined Muslim leaders at a summit in Turkey amid increasing pressure on his country over its nuclear drive. "The present economic crisis is due to the capitalist system. The world needs radical change," Ahmadinejad told a one-day economic summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Describing interest rates as the biggest and most fundamental problem of the capitalist system, the Iranian leader said through a translator: "The world system based on usury has collapsed, proving its failure." "We have to...

Professor Noam Chomsky may be among America's most enduring anti-war activists. But the leftist intellectual's anthology of post 9/11 commentary is taboo at Guantánamo's prison camp library, which offers books and videos on Harry Potter, World Cup soccer and Islam. U.S. military censors recently rejected a Pentagon lawyer's donation of an Arabic-language copy of the political activist and linguistic professor's 2007 anthology Interventions for the library, which has more than 16,000 items. Chomsky, 80, who has been voicing disgust with U.S. foreign policy since the Vietnam War, reacted with irritation and derision. "This happens sometimes in totalitarian regimes,'' he told...

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of cooperating with "radical branches" of Islam and of anti-Semitism, according to media reports Thursday in Colombia. "I will not speak about intelligence specifics, but we have enough to be concerned about the collaboration between radical branches of Islam and Hugo Chavez," Lieberman told the El Tiempo newspaper at the conclusion of a 10-day South American visit which included stops in Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Lieberman, an ultra-nationalist who is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish government, was responding to questions seeking evidence to support Israel's contention...

Iran's growing influence in Latin America is a "potential risk" to the region, the newly-appointed head of the US Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser has warned. Fraser, who on Thursday takes charge of US military operations in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed "real concern" about the Islamic Republic's links with "extremist organizations" in the region. "The real concern is not a nation-to-nation interaction, it is the connection that Iran has with extremist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and the potential risk that that could bring to this region," Fraser told journalists ahead of taking up the...