Free Republic

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Iranian opposition figure and son of Iran’s last monarch, has issued his first public call to action since the start of the current wave of nationwide protests, urging Iranians to take part in a coordinated act of protest later this week. In a video message released on Tuesday, coinciding with the tenth day of widespread demonstrations across Iran, Pahlavi called on citizens to chant slogans simultaneously on Thursday and Friday evenings, whether in the streets or from their homes. His appeal comes amid one of the most sustained periods of civil unrest in recent years, driven...

For over two decades, Venezuela has served as a critical outpost for Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere, with reports detailing the group's entrenchment on Margarita Island and ties to the former regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. U.S. intelligence assessments and media investigations describe this presence as evolving from fundraising networks among the Lebanese diaspora in the 1980s to sophisticated operations involving training, smuggling, and financial schemes by the 2000s. Margarita Island, once a bustling tourist spot, has been highlighted as a primary hub, surpassing even the Tri-Border Area in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay for Hezbollah's regional activities. Training...

Oil rich Venezuela scared of the same fate as Iraq, is planning some extreme measures to confront United States in case it is attacked. Venezuela is fast spreading arms, money and military training tactics to left-wing groups in Ecuador and six other Latin American countries. According to some international think tanks, the plan is to rage insurgency from outside Venezuela in case Venezuela is attacked and occupied. According to media sources, left-wing groups in Ecuador and six other Latin American countries have received training in urban guerrilla war tactics from Venezuela this year, The Miami Herald reported Oct. 22, citing...

Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old Islamist gunman who hunted down three Jewish children and a rabbi after murdering three French paratroopers in Toulouse last month, didn't act alone. In his journey from the slums of Toulouse, to the local mosques, to the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan that he described to French police, to filming his murder of the terrified children in order to post video clips on the web, Mr. Merah was following a path marked out years earlier by the coldblooded jihadist theoretician Abu Musab al-Suri. What is perhaps more disturbing, Mr. al-Suri was recently set free...

"We must make America great again. We will start in November" Actor George Clooney reacted to US President Donald Trump's jibes a Clooney's acting ability as well as his political views... last Saturday's official journal proclaimed his French citizenship... A protest opposing US aggression in Venezuela materialized in Paris this evening. A banner displayed the colors of Venezuela's flag with the words... Meanwhile Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot saying the US action attacking Venezuela and capturing President Nicolas Maduro.... President Emmanuel Macron noting the end of a dictatorship in Venezuela endorsing a 'peaceful democratic' transition. He also spoke... Late tonight the...

“Britain and France on Saturday conducted an airstrike on an underground facility in the mountains north of Palmyra, Syria, which ISIS terrorists "likely" used to store weapons and explosives, the British Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement. Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the terror group, the ministry noted. Our aircraft used Paveway IV guided bombs to target a number of access tunnels down to the facility," the ministry added, noting that initial indications are that the target was successfully engaged, and that no civilians were put at risk by the strikes.“

The US State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online youth groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political oppression and terrorism. Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in Colombia, the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google, MTV, Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the "ball rolling." It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the Middle East which have an online presence like the "Million Voices Against the FARC" will attend a conference at Columbia University Law School from December 3-5. Observers from seven organizations...

In December 2024, a Russian cargo vessel sank under mysterious circumstances. No one paid much attention to it, though, because it was one of many interesting things happening in the world at the time. However, a year-long Spanish investigation has revealed that the ship was carrying two nuclear reactors, with delivery intended for North Korea. Today's video explores the investigation and who might be responsible. I think the content is super captivating. The torpedo though, might be supercavitating

Several reports have suggested that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad may have been poisoned in Moscow. According to these reports, he fell ill on Sunday afternoon. Assad has been under the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin since fleeing Syria in December 2024. A social media account, General SVR, operated by a former Russian spy, stated that Assad sought medical assistance after experiencing coughing and choking. The account suggested that there was reason to believe that it was an assassination attempt. On the social media account, it has been claimed that Bashar al-Assad called the security guards after he was...

Turkish Energy Minister, Alparslan Bayraktar said on Monday that Turkey intends to seal an energy exploration agreement with Syria in 2026 to assess possible offshore energy resources along the Syrian coast.In an interview with Turkish digital news platform GDH on Monday, Bayraktar said that Ankara and Damascus had already signed a general framework agreement on energy cooperation earlier this year."We plan to sign a specific offshore deal in 2026," he said. "After signing the deal, we may conduct seismic research to see what the field offers us".Bayraktar cautioned that the agreement does not necessarily mean Turkey would carry out drilling...

Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – It only took a matter of minutes after the heavy overnight rain first began to fall for Jamil al-Sharafi's tent in southern Gaza to flood, drenching his food and leaving his blankets sopping wet. The winter rains have made an already precarious life worse for people like Sharafi, who is among the hundreds of thousands in the Palestinian territory displaced by the war, many of whom now survive on aid provided by humanitarian organisations. "My children are shivering from cold and fear... The tent was completely flooded within minutes," Sharafi, 47, said on Sunday....

French Connection IIBy WILLIAM SAFIRE ASHINGTON — What will the world discover, after the war is over, about which countries secretly helped Saddam obtain components for terror weapons?Last week, I wrote that French brokerage was involved in the illicit transfer of the chemical HTBP, a rubbery base for a rocket propellant, from a Chinese company through Syria to Iraq. When Christiane Amanpour asked President Jacques Chirac about it on CBS's "60 Minutes," he replied: "Because The New York Times is a serious newspaper, as soon as I read this I ordered an inquiry. I can now confirm officially, after an...

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign on Monday, accusing him of engaging in the cover-up of the Qatargate affair, which Bennett called “the most serious act of treason in Israeli history.” The statement from Bennett, who is running against Netanyahu in next year’s election, follows new revelations about the scandal. The affair involves allegations that top aides to the prime minister were acting as paid lobbyists for Qatar, where Hamas’s leadership is based, while simultaneously working for Netanyahu. On Sunday, i24 News reported that communication between the suspects showed they had fabricated information,...

Bit by bit, a Turkish front is forming, more dangerous than Israel’s seven arenas since Oct. 7. Erdogan’s ideology and ambition require Israel to refocus on a higher strategic risk.Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s political and military leadership has claimed that seven different arenas threaten it. It seems that, bit by bit but consistently, an eighth menacing front is forming, one that in many ways is more dangerous than the others.This is the Turkish front. Turkey, which until about 23 years ago was one of Israel’s greatest friends, has become a real enemy since Erdogan rose to power.The main factors...

War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Friday that the United States has launched airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Syria, which he said was in response to American soldiers who were killed in the country last week. The attacks were on ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in Syria. "This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," Hegseth said on X. "The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people. As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in...

While we wait for the impending release of the federal government files on Jeffrey Epstein the files of the Epstein Estate released earlier raise questions about Epstein that go beyond sex abuse and sex trafficking. Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre wrote in her posthumous memoir published after her suicide that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to other men including one identified in versions published in countries with lenient libel laws: "a well-known former Prime Minister" Giuffre wrote of that former Prime Minister's brutal treatment of her. One former Prime Minister does figure prominently in relation to Epstein namely... In 2016 Jeffrey...

Nationals of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria also banned, plus 12 countries already on list; US was already reportedly rejecting Palestinians’ visa requests US President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded a travel ban by barring Palestinian Authority passport holders from entering the United States, along with banning five other nationalities. In a social media post, a White House account said that Trump, who has long campaigned to restrict immigration, was acting “to protect the security of the United States.” The policy announced Tuesday will go into effect on January 1, 2026. In June, Trump had announced that...

Built to rival the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the great mosque in Damascus has always been claimed by rival faiths Sometime in the mid 1990s, I was standing in the marble courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus when two nuns asked me where they could find the head of John the Baptist. I pointed them towards the grand transept facade, gleaming with green and gold mosaics evoking a fertile paradise. Beyond lay the shrine to John or Yahya ibn Zakariyya, as he is known in Arabic, one of the few shared sites of Muslim-Christian pilgrimage. In 2001,...

"My flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" Psalm 73:26 NIV Bible Newsdump Alert: Israel On The Attack... Newsdump Alert: Three Americans Killed In An Attack In Syria... Jeffrey Epstein talk this weekend the Democrats putting their material out ahead of the actual government files which hit next Newsdump Friday December 19th. The Dems using material from the Jeffrey Epstein Estate including pictures with some of the most disturbing pictures withheld for now. On Friday though one picture was pretty powerful reminding us of the days when Rush Limbaugh offered...

Sometimes member of Julani security detail dood it. Julani says he went rogue. Also says he was strictly ISIS, not affiliated with him. Whatever. Trump doesn't want to depose him, because that would strengthen the IRGC and Iran in Syria, and would lead to an endless non-linear war. But Julani sucks, even if he does look good in a suit and tie, and his beard is neat and trimmed. Julani doesn't want to fight the USA, because he knows that would end badly for him. Transcript linked below video.