Free Republic

U.S. security and law-enforcement officials say they have fresh evidence of recent efforts by Iran to evade sanctions and acquire metals from China used in high-tech weaponry, including long-range nuclear missiles. Iran's efforts are detailed in a series of recent emails and letters between Iranian companies and foreign suppliers seen by The Wall Street Journal. Business records show one Iranian company, ABAN Commercial & Industrial Ltd., has contracted through an intermediary for more than 30,000 kilograms (about 66,000 pounds) of tungsten copper -- which can be used in missile guidance systems -- from Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. of...

U.S. slaps sanctions on Iranian bank over missile programs (Kyodo) _ The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has cut off Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah from access to the U.S. financial system for its alleged support for developing missiles. The sanctions, issued under a presidential executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, prohibit the bank's any transactions in the United States and freeze any assets it may have under U.S. jurisdiction. "Bank Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable...

U.S. Signed Secret Document to Lift U.N. Sanctions on Iranian Banks Administration backed measures on the same day Tehran released four American citizens from prison By Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee Sept. 29, 2016 8:02 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS WASHINGTON—The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations. The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted...

Key documents relating to the Obama administration’s secret negotiations with Iran, including a $1.7 billion cash payment, are being stored at a highly secure site on Capitol Hill, preventing the public and many in Congress from accessing them, according to multiple sources who described the situation to the Washington Free Beacon. The documents are not technically classified but are being kept in a “secure reading space” where the majority of congressional officials cannot access them. Those cleared are forced to relinquish their cellular devices and are barred from taking notes, undermining the ability of staffers to brief their lawmakers on...

Tehran, 27 Oct. (AKI) - In a gesture of support for Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Revolutionary guards on Thursday joined his recent and controversial call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". "If this cancer (Israel) is not removed from the Islamic world, Muslims will sustain immense harm," said their spokesman, Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri. Ahmadinejad made his remarks at a Palestinian solidarity conference in Tehran on Wednesday, provoking angry condemnation from Western nations. "This wound was opened more than half a century ago and has still not been healed, because in the Islamic world, some leaders and...

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Let's face it. He shouldn't be hard to find, especially from a Predator, an aerial reconnaissance vehicle that can read the minute hand of a wristwatch from an altitude of 26,000 feet. Bin Laden is very tall – slightly over 6'6" – and incredibly thin, less than 150 pounds. He wears shalwart kameez – the loose-fitting tunics and baggy pants of al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers – and, when the weather is cold, he dons a camouflage jacket. Although he was born in 1957 and far from retirement age, the al-Qaida chieftain appears...

The Iranian military has taken another step forward to taking over the helms of the country. Circles that control the National Iranian Radio and TV and the three major national newspapers, plus the seventy two individuals who sit in the Parliament (Majlis) as people’s representatives now have put the supervision and monitoring of the electoral process on their agenda in order to clear the way for the victory of one of their four military candidates to the president’s house. Gholam Hossein Elham, the spokesman for the Guardians Council formally announced that the Baseej, the young volunteers who are controlled by...

Jane's Intelligence Digest reports on the mounting evidence of Iranian intelligence activity in Iraq. According to information provided by several US officials, Iranian intelligence agents have been extremely active in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam's regime in April 2003. Much of this activity has taken place in the Shia-dominated south. Understandably, the Islamic Republic vehemently denies it is involved in such intelligence operations. However, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has claimed repeatedly that operatives belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are infiltrating Iraq. There is mounting evidence of Iranian activity in Iraq. In August 2004, 30...