Free Republic

Top News Story German Publication Claims Al Qaeda Leaders Operate Freely in Iran Dan Darling, Regnum Crucis: Ciceronian Affairs The German political magazine Cicero, which I've noted before (and apparently the BKA information contained in the article was accurate, as its publication prompted a raid on the Potsdam magazine's offices). The original article can be accessed in its original German here, but these appear to be the passages that raised the alarm of the German authorities: How far he [Zarqawi] left Bin Ladin's shadow behind is proven by numerous files and dossiers put together both by Western and Middle...

Top News Story Wipe Israel out, urges Iran's president Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and lashed out at Muslim nations who recognize the Jewish state. Stefan Smith Thursday, October 27, 2005 Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and lashed out at Muslim nations who recognize the Jewish state."The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference - The World without Zionism - in Teheran. "The...

Top News Story Sen. Brownback to the Dept of State: Spend Iran Democracy Money Six months after announcing a plan to give $3 million to promote democracy in Iran, the U.S. State Department has yet to release the funds, says a USA Today report. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who put the $3 million in the budget, expressed frustration: "This money should be made available immediately for those seeking to express their opposition to the hard-line Islamic government and to promote internationally recognized human rights." Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said the delay is bureaucratic. "There are no outside...

Top News Story Blair’s New Tune on Iran By James G. Forsyth, ForeignPolicy.com: British officials used to be certain that a military attack on Iran was out of the question. Now, it seems, they’re not so sure. To read the article click on the Foreign Policy logo above. A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran: Reuters reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said military action against Iran over its nuclear program is not on the agenda.The Peninsula reported that Iran yesterday rallied behind Syria, its only regional ally, by praising Damascus for cooperating with a...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad's own site: “More and more classified intelligence escapes the country” Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi According to Ahmadinejad's own site, FARDA (named as such in order to confuse people with Radio Farda which is the Persian Broadcast of Radio Free Europe) the ever increasing amount of classified intelligence and information escaping Iran has become a major source for worry and anxiety for the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) of the regime. It is rumored that during the recent months, more than ever, the regime's intelligence service has lost the equivelant of approximately...

Top News Story Iranian Leader Says U.S. wants to Establish Empire Click on the USA Today logo above. A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran: Amir Taheri, Benador Associates takes a close look at the Anti-Americanism involved in the Nobel Peace Prizes.Yahoo News reported that Russia will put Iran's first ever satellite into space next week.Ian Black, The Guardian UK reported that it's suddenly like the bad old days: accusations flying between capitals, crowds chanting angry slogans outside the British embassy, ambassadors summoned to explain their governments' positions and public insults attesting to a sudden deterioration in...

Top News Story BASIJ MILITIA TO ENHANCE IRANIAN DEFENSE NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has disclosed a plan to create a huge Islamic volunteer force to protect the regime from any Israeli or U.S. attack.Iranian officials said supreme leader Ali Khamenei has approved a plan to greatly expand the regime-sponsored Basij militia. Under the plan, the Basij, which began as a volunteer movement, would essentially turn into Iran's third military ground force.Under the plan, the Basij would have more than 1 million men under arms. The force would be deployed both along Iran's long borders with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and...

Top News Story Iran 'punishes' Britain with a ban on importsBy Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor(Filed: 20/10/2005)Iran has imposed an undeclared embargo on British imports as it steps up accusations that Britain is behind a series of bombings near the southern border with Iraq.   The moves are further evidence of a crisis in relations between Teheran and London, highlighted by the British-led effort to curb Iran's nuclear programme and British accusations that Teheran is giving Iraqi insurgents bomb-making technology that has killed several British soldiers this year.As hardline Iranian newspapers demanded the closure of the British embassy in...

Top News Story Iran leader’s harsh tone sets Iran on collision course Tue. 18 Oct 2005 Iran FocusTehran, Iran, Oct. 18 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a blistering attack on “the corrupt global powers” that the Islamic Republic of Iran was on a historical mission to challenge “the domination of the corrupt financial and political powers on the international scene”, state-owned dailies reported on Tuesday. “The only entity capable of challenging the hideous world order is a common international entity that is taking shape with the Islamic Republic of Iran at its core”, Khamenei told...

Top News Story Protests, Protests, and more Unrest in Iran over the past few days.Protests: Iran Press News reported on the protest and conflict at Najafabad University. A first hand account.Iran Press News reported that students from the Abbasspour University for Water and Power Industry protested against the regime's guards in their university.Iran Press News reported that an angry mob, protesting the violent and oppressive actions of the disciplinary forces of the regime, attacked governmental bureaus in the Province of Qeshm.SMCCDI reported that drivers of many Iranian Collective Buses refused to validate passenger's tickets, today, in order to protest...

Two recent reports from inside of Iran, if accurate, are very troubling. Iran's Government Seeks Agreement with 12th Imam - in hiding since 13th century?Kamal Tehrani, Rooz Online: a "reformist" website In a formal cabinet meeting chaired by Iran's new president’s first deputy, the ministers printed and ratified an agreement with the Shiites' 12th Imam. In his opening remarks, Parviz Davoudi, Ahmadinejad' first deputy suggested that the cabinet ministers should sign an agreement with 12th Imam, the same way they signed a pact with the new president. The ministers collectively agreed and so there is now an agreement between...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, October 16 (IranMania) -Iranian officials said on Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Alaeddin Borujerdi,...

Iran's hard-lines admit defeat in IraqIran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi The regime-run web site, BAZTAB, in a report admitted to the regime's political defeat in soliciting the support of the people of Iraq and the region where dozens of Arab-language media, backed by the regime, including Al Alam TV are being broadcast. BAZTAB wrote: "The Al Alam news channel was supposed to be the mouthpiece for the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Arab-speaking countries and was meant to compete with some of these immoral western TV networks, in order to restore the popularity of...

Top News Story UK 'sells' bomb material to Iran DTI is accused of approving controversial exports British officials have approved the export of key components needed to make nuclear weapons to Iran and other countries known to be developing such weapons. An investigation by BBC Radio 4 programme File on Four will disclose that the Department of Trade and Industry allowed a quantity of the metal, Beryllium, to be sold to Iran last year. That metal is needed to make nuclear bombs. Britain has had an arms embargo to Iran since 1993 and has signed up to an international...

Top News Story The al-Zawahiri Letter A window into the mind of the enemy.by Dan Darling 10/12/2005 7:20:00 PM THE FULL TEXT of the just-released letter from al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri to Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, dated July 9, 2005, makes it clear that not only are al-Zawahiri and bin Laden symbolic leaders to the global jihad, but they are still active in running their terror network, too. The letter includes references to the fighting in Afghanistan, a peripheral acknowledgement of ongoing al Qaeda-backed insurgencies in Chechnya and Kashmir, and a discussion of the steps the...

Top News Story Iran accused of training Iraqi bombers Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:50 AM BST LONDON (Reuters) - London has accused Iran of running training camps to teach militants how to carry out roadside bomb attacks on British troops in southern Iraq, according to newspaper reports on Wednesday.The government believes Iran's Revolutionary Guard has taught Shi'ite militia members from Iraq how to make armour-piercing devices, the Daily Mirror reported, citing an unnamed defence source."There is evidence that there are teaching camps in Iran, Lebanon and maybe Syria," the source was quoted as saying. "It means up to 10...

Two Under-reported Developments in Iran's Nuclear Programs. Iran Designs Nuke Warhead For Shihab-3 Middle East Newsline: Iran was said to have designed a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile. The United States has briefed several nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency of an Iranian program to develop a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3. Diplomatic sources said the U.S. briefers asserted that from 2001 to 2003 Iran designed and developed a circular warhead that could detonate at an altitude meant to ensure optimal damage. An empty nuclear warhead was said to have been installed on the Shihab-3...

Top News Story Now we know the truth about Iran, we must actBy Con Coughlin(Filed: 09/10/2005)It was not the outcome the Foreign Office had been planning. When it was announced early last week that a senior British diplomat in Baghdad was flying back to London to give a briefing on Iraq's constitutional referendum, the general expectation in Whitehall was that the following day's headlines would focus exclusively on whether sufficient numbers of Iraqis would turn out to validate the exercise.Imagine the surprise, then, of Jack Straw and his officials the following morning when they opened their newspapers to discover...

Top News Story Iran Focus A powerful Iranian cleric told Tehran’s Friday prayers worshippers the Islamic Republic was unwavering in its nuclear venture and unafraid of international sanctions. “We mustn’t be afraid of sanctions. Even though there is a loss, it also has benefits. We should not fear the losses”, Guardian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said. “If we have made any headway these days, it is because of these sanctions against us. Otherwise, we would be like these Arab countries, who have to import everything”, Jannati said. “If we fear sanctions then we will have to accept submission”,...

Top News Story Rooz Online Is Iran about to make concessions on human rights? Arash Motamed The judiciary directive to release imprisoned student activists, which was initially requested by the "Association for the Defense of the Rights of Prisoners" that specifically called for the release of 34 prisoners, and the judiciary’s recent emphasis on the necessity of having juries for political trials are new initiatives from the ultra-conservatives now in the driving seat in Tehran that signal more than just simple administrative changes. In less than three months since it has come to power, the administration of president Ahmadinejad,...