Free Republic

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) individuals responsible for procuring goods for the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile-related programs. These actions are in line with U.S. efforts to prevent the advancement of the DPRK’s WMD and ballistic missile programs and impede attempts by Pyongyang to proliferate related technologies. They also follow the DPRK’s six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which violated multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs). “Today’s actions, part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to...

The Biden administration is taking seriously a string of recent threats and sanctions from Iran against Trump administration officials around the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 3, 2020 strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s actions may indicate Iran is plotting to assassinate the officials. On Saturday, Iran announced sanctions against 51 Americans, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley as well as several individuals who worked with the Trump administration, like former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and private military contractor Erik Prince. While sanctions typically yield economic punishment, current and former U.S. officials...

So is every top Democrat who accused President Trump of Russian collusion. “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States?” Senator Schumer insinuated in 2018. Why is Schumer putting Russia’s interests ahead of those of the United States by blocking Nord Stream 2 sanctions on Putin’s pet pipeline into Europe? Schumer, along with a number of other top Democrats, is a beneficiary of campaign contributions from top Democrat fundraiser Vincent Roberti whose lobbying firm was paid over $8.5 million by...

Germany said on Sunday it was continuing to work closely with the United States on implementing a deal on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea and carries gas from Russia to Germany.Germany's foreign ministry said it continued to coordinate closely with the U.S. administration on implementing a joint declaration on the $11 billion pipeline....The document also said Nord Stream 2 presented "no threat to Ukraine as long as reasonable gas transit is ensured," and referred to potential sanctions on the pipeline as "a victory for Putin" as it would divide Western allies, Axios added.

According to unofficial information obtained by PAP, a meeting of Polish officials is planned for Tuesday at which the possibility of triggering Nato's Article 4 will likely be discussed. The meeting is to be attended by the president, Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the defence and interior ministers as well as officials of the foreign ministry, armed forces, police, Border Guard and other services. Nato's Article 4 provides for joint consultations should a member state consider its territorial integrity, political independence or security to be under threat. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have been tackling an escalating migration crisis...

While much of the international focus has remained on Iran's nuclear program, Tehran has steadily advanced another major instrument of instability, i.e., drones. For over a decade, the regime has sunk billions of dollars into the effort as part of its regional destabilization policy. To avoid more crises in hotspots like Lebanon and Syria, the international community must act now to curb Tehran's massive drone initiative. Let’s start with the facts. Despite crippling economic misfortune, Tehran has invested billions in drone production, in a bid to compensate for its failing Air Force. On October 6, 2021, a sweeping expositionon the...

An advocacy group that warns about the threat of a nuclear Iran has sounded the alarm after the US Treasury Department last week without explanation lifted sanctions on two firms that produced ballistic missiles for the Iranian regime. United Against Nuclear Iran is questioning why the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFA) suddenly announced it would be removing sanctions on Mammut Industrial Group and its subsidiary Mammut Diesel. Both companies were sanctioned in September 2020 for “providing support to an entity in Iran’s ballistic missile program.”

An advocacy group that warns about the threat of a nuclear Iran has sounded the alarm after the US Treasury Department last week without explanation lifted sanctions on two firms that produced ballistic missiles for the Iranian regime. United Against Nuclear Iran is questioning why the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFA) suddenly announced it would be removing sanctions on Mammut Industrial Group and its subsidiary Mammut Diesel. Both companies were sanctioned in September 2020 for “providing support to an entity in Iran’s ballistic missile program.” The Treasury Department said at the time that “Mammut Industries and Mammut Diesel are...

Press Release Source: Newsweek NEWSWEEK: Case Closed Against Syrian-Owned Business in Germany to Avoid Antagonizing Syrian Government, Officials Suggest Sunday January 18, 10:11 am ET Police Reports Show Employees Had Al Qaeda Connections; One Believed to Have Recruited Muhammad Atta in Hamburg # NEW YORK, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After a September 2002 raid near Hamburg, Germany, of a Syrian-owned textile business called Tatex that was suspected of terrorist ties, German prosecutors began preparing their case and the U.S. considered freezing Tatex's bank accounts, as it had done in dozens of other companies suspected of financing terrorism. Then last summer,...

CBW ACT SANCTIONS Description of Sanctions: Pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (the CBW Act), the United States will impose a second round of sanctions on the Russian Federation over its use of a “Novichok” nerve agent in the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny. New sanctions imposed today under the CBW Act include: Restrictions on the permanent imports of certain Russian firearms. New and pending permit applications for the permanent importation of firearms and ammunition manufactured or located in Russia will be subject to a policy of denial....

Nineteen House Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday calling on the Biden administration to remove all sanctions against Venezuela, arguing that the "maximum pressure" campaign against the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro hasn't worked. Members of Congress who signed the letter include Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chair fo the House Progressive Caucus. "By any measure, the current 'maximum pressure' policy towards Venezuela has been a total failure," read the letter.The lawmakers...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on the Cuban police force and two of its leaders on Friday in response to the Havana government's crackdown on protesters, and President Joe Biden promised Cuban-American leaders more actions were coming. The U.S. Treasury Department said the sanctions, which appeared to be largely symbolic, were a reaction to "actions to suppress peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba that began on July 11." Targets of the sanctions are two Cuban police force leaders, as well as the Cuban interior ministry's national police force, the department said. "There will be more, unless there's some...

The US could soon begin targeting Iran’s missile and drone programs with a new sanctions campaign in light of the assessment that they pose a more immediate threat than the nuclear- or ballistic-missile programs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday based on conversations with Western officials. “It’s part of a comprehensive approach so we’re dealing with all aspects of the Iranian threat,” a senior US official told the Journal. According to the report, the apparent shift comes in the wake of a sharp rise in the employment of guided missiles and drones against US assets. “Iran’s drones are becoming...

Upon leaving my Cuban American community, I encountered individuals with no functional understanding of Cuba and the many millions debilitated by the regime.As a first-generation Cuban American from Miami, Florida, my upbringing, daily discourse, and education have been overwhelmingly influenced by the Cuban struggle. To me, it’s always seemed straightforward: Cuba’s communist system has inflicted human and civil rights violations, family separations, and sexual, religious, and ideological persecution of minorities since 1959. Yet upon leaving my Cuban American community, I encountered individuals with no functional understanding of Cuba and the dire context that defined the lives of myself and the...

President Joe Biden speaks at Sportrock Climbing Centers, Friday, May 28, 2021, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Cuban officials and the government’s special forces unit “The Boinas Negras” for human rights abuses amid unrest. “I unequivocally condemn the mass detentions and sham trials that are unjustly sentencing to prison those who dared to speak out in an effort to intimidate and threaten the Cuban people into silence,” said President Joe Biden. “The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as all people. The United States stands with...

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) introduced a resolution to support the Cuban people in their demands for freedom against “the brutal oppression of the Communist dictatorship in Cuba.” Díaz-Balart — a Cuban-American — asked the international community to stand behind the recent protests against the island’s regime. Initial cosponsors for the House resolution include Steve Scalise (R-LA), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Greg Steube (R-FL), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Liz Cheney (R-WY). According to Díaz-Balart’s statement: For 62 years, the Cuban people have struggled for freedom and...

I think what’s happening in Cuba, right before our very eyes, is the latest in the continuous crack-up of the old Cold War political order and the rising up of a new one. A worldwide political order that’s re-defining politics and nationhood for the foreseeable future. So let’s unpack that a bit. Believe it or not, scholars have been predicting something like this for decades, particularly after the Soviet Union fell on Christmas Day, 1991. Now, if you remember, there were a number of scholars who believed that with the fall of the Soviet Union, we had reached an era...

As unprecedented, large-scale protests in Cuba driven by economic instability and food and fuel shortages also amid a deeply mismanaged pandemic response continue, the US Coast Guard has a message for Cubans wishing to flee the increasingly chaotic Communist-ruled island: don’t come. “Please don’t take to the sea,” Rear Admiral Eric C. Jones said in a statement. “The Coast Guard along with our local, state and federal partners are monitoring any activity” that looks suspicious or unsafe in the Florida straits “including unpermitted vessel departures from Florida to Cuba.” Illustrative image via US Coast Guard But the words also appear...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday lifted sanctions on the export of gas to socialist Venezuela, a boon to the dictatorship in Caracas and its patron government in communist Cuba, which struggles to suppress mounting opposition and calls for the regime’s total abolition. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a general license number 40, permitting “all transactions and activities related to the exportation or reexportation, directly or indirectly, of liquefied petroleum gas to Venezuela” as well as the socialist regime’s state-owned affiliates, specifically rescinding restrictions that then-President Donald Trump imposed via three executive orders in 2018...

The United States agreed to lift sanctions on Iran's oil and gas sector and shipping, as well as the country's top leadership. This was reported by Reuters. "Iran said on Wednesday the United States had agreed to remove all sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping," the message reads. As Rouhani's chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi, told Reuters, an agreement was reached between Iran and the United States to lift all sanctions on Iran's insurance, oil and shipping, which were imposed by former US President Donald Trump. "About 1,040 Trump-era sanctions will be lifted under the agreement. It was also agreed...