Free Republic

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused the U.S. on Wednesday of violating the two-week ceasefire agreement. “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” Ghalibaf said in a statement posted on social media. Three parts of Iran’s 10-point ceasefire proposal have been violated, Ghalibaf said. The violations are Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, the entry of a drone into Iranian airspace, and the denial of the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium, he said. “In such situation,...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued an ultimatum to Iran Wednesday, urging the nation to give up its enriched uranium — or President Trump will launch another “Operation Midnight Hammer” to seize it. While the two-week cease-fire deal between the US and Iran does not address the nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium in Tehran’s possession, Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday that the US will secure the atomic material no matter what. “We’ll get it. We’ll take it, we’ll take it out,” Hegseth said of the enriched uranium, vowing to complete one of President Trump’s main goals of the...

Working with a team of visual investigators that included the Bulletin, the French newspaper Le Monde has analyzed a previously unreported satellite image of the Iranian nuclear site at Isfahan, showing a large truck loaded with containers. In a Le Monde article published Saturday, experts said they could not be certain what the containers held. But the timing of the image, the type of load, and other indirect evidence suggest that Iran may have placed a significant quantity of highly enriched uranium—possibly all of its inventory—at the facility ahead of the June 2025 strikes by Israel and the United States...

Fox News host Mark Levin argued for the White House to deploy "specialized" U.S. ground troops in Iran to secure Tehran's enriched uranium stockpiles, shortly after President Donald Trump urged members of the public to tune into his show late Saturday. The U.S. has sent thousands of elite soldiers and Marines to the Middle East in recent days, widely seen as a sign the White House could greenlight select ground operatio1s on Iranian soil and escalate the conflict with Tehran. Trump has not yet approved ground operations in Iran, according to U.S. media reports. "Why would we need troops on...

In a phone call with President Trump this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed moving Iran's enriched uranium to Russia as part of a deal to end the war. Trump turned him down, sources tell Axios. Why it matters: Securing Iran's 450 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium — convertible to weapons grade within weeks, and enough for more than 10 nuclear bombs — is one of the U.S. and Israel's key war objectives. In theory, Putin's offer could help facilitate the removal of Iran's nuclear stockpile without U.S. or Israeli boots on the ground. Russia is already a nuclear power and...

Rosales accuses "Fat Fish" of the Government Opposition candidate Manuel Rosales attributed the events which occurred in La Paragua1 to "the fat fish of the government, who have a big business in [the sale of] gasoline, contraband gold, and diamonds." In a visit to Trujillo, where he carried out a campaign visit, Rosales condemned the acts. "It is one of the most clear manifestations of how an authoritarian government stimulates criminal acts and insecurity in Venezuela. The deed in La Paragua is the action of a few spineless military men, who are not the majority, who felt themselves handsome...

Multiple high-dollar donors to the Clinton Foundation are associated with the New York Times, including the Times’ top shareholder, Carlos Slim. Slim, a Mexican telecom tycoon whose net worth of nearly $80 billion makes him the second richest man in the world, became the top shareholder of the New York Times earlier this year after he doubled his shares to take control of 16.8 percent of the company. Not only has Slim contributed between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 to the Clinton Foundation, but his company Telmex has contributed an additional grant between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 through its foundation. Slim has also...

Donald Trump recently announced that the United States would help Pakistan develop its "massive oil reserves," suggesting it could export oil to India in the future. In response, Baloch leader Mir Yar Baloch has written an open letter to the US president, highlighting how encouraging the exploitation of Balochistan's oil reserves would make the US complicit in enabling ISI to enhance its global terror networks. In his letter, the Baloch leader warned against allowing Pakistan's radicalised military and rogue ISI, long accused of sponsoring Al-Qaeda and various proxy groups responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers in Afghanistan,...

FBI FIELD INTELLIGENCE GROUPS Page 11 9 December 2008 Discovery of Radiological Dispersal Device Components, Literature, and Radioactive Material at the Maine Residence of an Identified Deceased US Person On 9 December 2008, radiological dispersal device components and literature, and radioactive materials, were discovered at the Maine residence of an identified deceased USPER James Cummings. Cummings had possible ties to white supremacist groups. On 9 December 2008, four one-gallon containers of 35 percent hydrogen peroxide, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide, and magnesium ribbon were discovered at the Cummings’ residence. (FBI comments: Literature on constructing ‘dirty...

Executive order effective September 8 exempts gold bullion, graphite, tungsten, and uranium while extending reciprocal tariffs to silicone products, resin, and aluminum hydroxide.The Trump administration exempted graphite, tungsten, uranium, and gold bullion from US country-based reciprocal tariffs, while adding levies on silicone products—and extending those tariffs to resin and aluminum hydroxide.The move, set to take effect today under an executive order, formalizes the planned bullion carve-out after a recent US Customs and Border Protection ruling sowed confusion by implying certain gold bars could face import taxes.TRUMP EXEMPTS GRAPHITE, TUNGSTEN, URANIUM & GOLD FROM COUNTRY-BASED TARIFFS; SILICONE PRODUCTS TO FACE LEVIES—...

In June 2014, a worker at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee was surprised to find U.S. nuclear secrets inside a trash bag marked for disposal along with standard rubbish. Taking a closer look, the worker found 19 more documents in the bag that were either marked classified or were later determined to contain information that should have been labeled secret. A dozen more bags of trash sat nearby, awaiting transport to an open landfill where Y-12 workers routinely dump garbage with no bearing on national security. When employees of Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services, Y-12, LLC, the contractor...

OAK RIDGE — A woman with suspected mental issues was able to drive into the main entrance and all the way through the high-security Y-12 National Security Complex unhindered Thursday morning, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department report obtained by the News Sentinel. The security breach occurred less than a year after three protesters cut through a series of security fences and walked to the innermost sanctum of Y-12, the country’s largest repository of weapons-grade uranium.

Energoatom, the operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, has denied a report from IAEA head Rafael Grossi that there are stocks of 30,000 kg of plutonium and 40,000 kg of enriched uranium at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is controlled by Russian forces. At a discussion on nuclear safety at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Grossi voiced concerns about the Zaporizhzhia NPP having such nuclear materials and said this was grounds for a visit to the plant by IAEA officials as soon as possible. Grossi said the IAEA is seeking to visit the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear...

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would...

On June 22, 2025, the United States struck deep. Using bunker-buster bombs, Operation Midnight Hammer targeted Iran’s most fortified nuclear facility, Fordow, along with a constellation of related sites. Within hours, a new narrative emerged. According to some analysts and media commentators, Iran had foreseen the strike and whisked its highly enriched uranium out of harm’s way just days before the bombs fell. It is a seductive story, part thriller, part geopolitical chess game. But it is also, on closer inspection, fiction. Fordow is not a shipping warehouse. It is a subterranean stronghold. Situated 2,500 feet beneath the mountains near...

This weekend's strike on Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant used 30,000-pound GBU-57 "massive ordnance penetrator" bombs. The design of those weapons and plans for attacking the site had been in the works for some 15 years, which resulted in the destruction of Iran's nuclear capabilities. "President Donald J. Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success, resulting in a cease-fire agreement and the end of the 12-day war [between Iran and Israel]," said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a press briefing today at the Pentagon. "Because of decisive military action, President...

Israeli boffins have developed a promising technique for "declawing" plutonium, which would let it be used as fuel but not for building bombs. They believe the technique could greatly expand peaceful use of nuclear power worldwide, while preventing weapons proliferation. Almost all plutonium is produced in nuclear reactors, which can run on either uranium or plutonium fuel rods. When the rods are replaced with new ones, the old fuel can be reprocessed - so yielding useful fissionable fuel including plutonium, and reducing the amount of waste requiring disposal or storage. Beyond basic reprocessing, there is also scope for more advanced...

Ho-hum, another day in Tehran, another incident of careless explosive-tank handling. Or so the Iranians want everyone to think, for now. Officials claim that “careless handling” of oxygen tanks triggered an explosion south of Tehran that killed two people in Baghershahr late yesterday. “Human error,” the Iranian regime called it: Two men have been killed in yet another Iran explosion, as officials blamed ‘human error’ for the blast.The explosion rocked the Sepahan Boresh factory in the city of Baqershahr, south of Tehran, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to state media.It was caused by ‘workers being negligent...

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question at this hour: Is the U.S. planning to invade Iraq sometime next year? While White House officials are downplaying a "New York Times" report that says the U.S. is considering a major air and ground assault for next year that could include as many as 250,000 American troops. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein celebrated his 65th birthday over the weekend with the usual well-choreographed tributes from the Iraqi people. And, in Baghdad, tens of thousands of people marched as a show of support and defiance in the face of U.S. determination to topple Hussein. Ambassador...

USA Rare Earth, the funding and development partner of the Round Top heavy rare earth project and Texas Mineral Resources announced Thursday that its rare earths pilot plant processing facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado has received the required permits and officially opened. Once fully commissioned, the plant will be focused on group separation of rare earths into heavy (dysprosium, terbium), middle, and light (neodymium, praseodymium) rare earths (REE’s) and will be the first facility to separate the full range of rare earth elements in the US since 1999. USA Rare Earth’s pilot plant is the second link in a 100%...