Free Republic

The passing of President George H. W. Bush and the ruckus caused by the Yellow Vests in France make this a good time to review the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and as a deterrent to those who might oppose him, he threatened environmental warfare. This threat took advantage of the concerns first aired by a group known as TTAPS, an acronym of the names of the authors, Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack and Sagan. They had postulated that a nuclear exchange would induce a “Nuclear Winter”. The TTAPS climate model was a...

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan24) – Amb. Kenneth Ward strongly criticized Iran and Russia on Thursday for maintaining chemical weapons programs, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention to which they are both signatories. Ward, the US Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), addressing that organization, cited Iran and Russia for their own chemical weapons programs. He also criticized their support for Damascus, which, he said, is “enabling Syria’s chemical weapons use by shielding the Assad regime from consequences in international fora.” Turning to Iran, Ward explained that the US “has had longstanding concerns that [it]...

Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton (D) and former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni told the Inter Press Service that they were paid to appear at recent events supporting the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department. Hamilton and Zinni are among the many big time former government officials and military leaders who have appeared at recent pro-MEK events sponsored by a group called Executive Action, LLC. (The events true organizers remain unclear, Executive Action's CEO Neil Livingstone would only tell TPM they included Iranian American groups.) Speakers at the events have portrayed the MEK...

This past fall The New York Times began publishing a powerful, ongoing series revealing the U.S. militaryÂ’s mistreatment of soldiers who were exposed to decades-old chemical weapons during Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to The Times, between 2004 and 2011 U.S. troops stumbled across about 5,000 Iraqi chemical munitions of various types, and at least 17 American personnel, mostly bomb disposal experts, were wounded by them. All of the ordnance was manufactured by Iraq prior to the 1991 Gulf War, during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.Much of the conservative media has seized on the Times articles as long-awaited, sweet vindication...

Moments ago the U.S. Treasury Department announced official sanctions against Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (El Aissami). El Aissami is the Executive Vice President of Venezuela. WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Venezuelan national Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (El Aissami) as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. El Aissami is the Executive Vice President of Venezuela.

Traditionally on Oscar weekend we offer an Academy Award-winning song, going all the way back to the very first, "The Continental" in 1934. But not all great movie songs are, formally speaking, movie songs. On the big night exactly a quarter-century ago, two of the five Best Song nominees came from the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard. They were up against a brace of numbers from Disney's Aladdin, plus a sensual ditty I was quite partial to but is now entirely forgotten: "Beautiful Maria of My Soul" from The Mambo Kings. Come Academy night, the Bodyguard songs wound up...

Toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's exiled daughter is among dozens named on Iraq's "most wanted" list of people accused of supporting acts of terror. Those on the list are wanted for belonging to or having an affiliation with ISIL, Al Qaeda or Saddam's Baath Party regime. Raghad Saddam Hussein responded on Monday by pledging to take legal action against those who have "insulted her". Iraq's government has been seeking to prosecute Ms Hussein since 2006 for allegedly supporting violence in the country. The list echoes the US set of 55 playing cards, released in 2003, that depicted the most wanted members...

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic stood before the UN war crimes court Thursday to face genocide charges, in his first public appearance since his arrest after nearly 13 years on the run. Shorn of the beard and long hair he had used as a disguise until his capture on July 21, Karadzic was again recognisable as the man who became one of the most reviled figures in the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s. Wearing a dark jacket and tie, Karazdic appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to hear the 11...

Moshe Arens, Israel’s defense minister at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, wanted to launch a ground operation against Iraqi missile launchers firing missiles at Tel Aviv, but ran into strong opposition from then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron, according to recordings from IDF archives released Thursday on the 26th anniversary of the war. After American forces invaded Iraq in January 1991, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fired a total of 39 modified Soviet ‘Scud’ missiles at Israel in the hope the Jewish State would respond to the provocation by striking back at a Iraq. He reasoned the move would...

A friend of mine called me up and directed me to a thread over on the FreeRepublic.com on a Fox News Channel interview with a former U.N. weapons inspector named Bill Tierney. Tierney was a former US Army Military Intelligence Chief Warrent Officer who was recruited in 1996 as a weapons inspector. He made two highly charged accusation. First, the French were spying on the U.N. weapons inspection teams by providing the Iraqis lists of sites to be inspected. Second, he is convinced the Iraqis have operational nuclear weapons. In the interview, Tierney detailed how the French had a spy...

<p>Former UN weapons inspector Bill Tierney was interviewed by Mr. Colmes a few minutes ago. Colmes shows him a clip of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei stating that, to date, information obtained shows no evidence of nuclear weapons development in Iraq: "To conclude, we have to date found no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapon program since the elimination of the program in the 1990s." Colmes cuts back to Tierney and says: "Do you agree with that assessment?" Tierney says: "No." Colmes: "Well, do you know something that he doesn't?" Tierney then says, "YES." Everyone on the HC set went nuts, - asking "What do you know?! Will you tell us what information you have!?" Tierney said "Yes" that he would tell them; and that he would "make the information known at the proper time." Hannity jumps in and says, "Well, we expect to have you back on Hannity & Colmes VERY soon!"</p>

Saddam Has Nukes, Ex-Weapons Inspector Says A former U.N. weapons inspector who was renowned for his ability to ferret out Iraqi weapons violations during the late 1990's charged point blank on Thursday that Saddam Hussein now has nuclear weapons. "I have no doubt that he has nukes," Bill Tierney told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity. "He's going to use non-persistent chemicals against his own people to put down an insurrection," the ace inspector predicted, before adding chillingly, "He'll use bio and nukes against us." Stunned by the revelation, the radio host pressed for confirmation: HANNITY: You have no doubt...

<p>Full Title: Special Forces hero who led secret mission to blow up Saddam Hussein's communications network dies from 'human Mad Cow Disease'</p> <p>An ultra-fit Special Forces hero who led a real-life “mission impossible” behind enemy lines has died from the rare human form of Mad Cow Disease.</p>

A concerned Blue Star Mother was told by a spokeswoman for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) that Waxman “did not intend to assist insurgents” in Iraq when he provided a diplomatic letter in December 2004 to Code Pink’s parent organization Global Exchange. However, Waxman apparently made no effort to ensure the reported $100,000 in cash and $500,000 in humanitarian aid was not delivered to terrorists, even after Code Pink and Global Exchange co-founder Medea Benjamin bragged at the time that the aid was intended for families of the “other side” in Fallujah. (Top Democrat fundraiser and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans...

1735 HRs Local, Sunday, June 7, 1981. Al-Tuwaythah Nuclear Research Facility, outside Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber is in shock. His jaw drops, mouth gaping open as a strained moan leaves his throat. Despite the hot desert temperature his limbs feel cold. He cannot believe what he is seeing. Eight F-16s painted sand-colored desert camouflage flying in a single-file attack formation at rooftop level hurtles over the outskirts of Baghdad from the southwest. They bank hard left, slicing white tendrils of vapor from their missile-clad wingtips in the evening air. One at a time they light their afterburners...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

BAGHDAD, July 15 (VOI) - Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, Iraq's former military commander and Saddam Hussein's vice president, criticized al-Qaeda network in Iraq and Mahdi Army militias loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in his first audio call, vowing to fight U.S. troops in Iraq. Al Douri, who has not been seen since the last days of Saddam's rule, became the leader of the Baath Party after Saddam's execution in December 2006. It was unclear why al Douri chose this time to release an audio tape — his first ever at a time that Iraq is witnessing an all time...

The CIA analyst who interrogated Saddam Hussein has told Al Arabiya he had no doubt the person captured and whom he later grilled, was the former Iraqi leader. “I was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was him when I first set eyes on him”, John Nixon told Al Arabiya. Nixon was the agent chosen to interrogate Saddam when the ex-Iraqi president was captured by American troops in December 2003. “My prime responsibility was to amass as much as possible intelligence about Saddam Hussein. When he was captured by the US forces, I had prepared a list of...

The Trump administration is slapping sanctions on Venezuela’s new Vice President Tareck El Aissami and accusing him of playing a major role in international drug trafficking. (snip) The U.S. is also sanctioning Samark Bello, a wealthy businessman connected to El Aissami who has held significant business interests in the U.S. The U.S. says Bello provided assistance or support to El Aissami’s trafficking activities.

[full title]:The Saddam interrogation: Ten years after the tyrant's execution, the CIA agent who grilled him reveals the shattering truth... that everything the US thought it knew was WRONG CIA analyst John Nixon grilled the ruthless dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein In the course of interrogations, Saddam 'turned our assumptions upside down' In his 2010 memoir, Bush wrote: ‘I decided I would not criticise the hardworking patriots of the CIA for the faulty intelligence on Iraq.’ But that is exactly what he did. He blamed the agency for everything that went wrong and called its analysis ‘guesswork’ while hearing only...