Free Republic

China’s efforts to lure its scientists back from overseas institutions have been paying off militarily, with more than a little help from the United States. Military projects they have been involved in include China’s development of hypersonic weapons capable of penetrating missile-defence systems and the design of new submarines able to patrol quietly along the US west coast, researchers familiar with the programmes told the South China Morning Post. For more than a decade, China has been ramping up efforts to lure back talented scientists working at laboratories in the US linked to America’s nuclear weapons programme and other military...

A U.K. newspaper has published more leaked memos revealing a British ambassador’s blunt assessments of the Trump administration, including one in which the envoy to Washington claimed President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal to spite predecessor Barack Obama. In the May 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch called Trump’s decision to abandon the international accord “an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons” because the pact “was Obama’s deal.” Darroch wrote the memo after then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Washington in a failed attempt to persuade the...

As the U.S. piles sanction after sanction on Iran, it’s the average person who feels it the most. From a subway performer’s battered leather hat devoid of tips, to a bride-to-be’s empty purse, the lack of cash from the economic pressure facing Iran’s 80 million people can be seen everywhere. Many blame President Donald Trump and his maximalist policy on Iran, which has seen him pull out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levy punishing U.S. sanctions on the country. In recent weeks, Iran has threatened to break out of the deal unless European powers mitigate what...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas arrived Saturday in Iraq to hold talks with Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Salih over the increasing tensions between Iran and the US. Maas’s Iraq trip was previously not announced due to security reasons.“There is a clear danger of miscalculations, misunderstandings, provocations leading to unforeseeable consequences in this highly tense region,” Maas said as he arrived in Baghdad. “The latest escalation requires us as European neighbors to intervene in favor of de-escalation and peaceful coexistence,” Maas said. “We cannot just seek dialogue; we must lead it, precisely where the differences seem insurmountable...

Former IAEA official says Israel, Gulf states, 'need to be worried' about Iran's emerging nuclear abilities. Olli Heinonen, who headed the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) security team and served as the organizations' deputy director general, on Wednesday morning told Army Radio that Israelis on the whole are not aware of the severity of the Iranian threat. "Israelis need to be worried, and the Gulf states also have reason for concern," Heinonen said. "How will you be able to ensure your security if Iran achieves nuclear abilities?" In the full interview, which will be aired Thursday morning, Heinonen said that...

Iran will not surrender to U.S. pressure and will not abandon its goals even if it is bombed, President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, stepping up the war of words between the Islamic Republic and the United States. Earlier in the day, Iran’s top military chief said the standoff between Tehran and Washington was a “clash of wills”, warning that any enemy “adventurism” would meet a crushing response, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. […] Addressing a ceremony in commemoration of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, he added: “We need resistance, so our enemies know that if they bomb our land,...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a close ally of President Trump who has supported the president’s desire to pull U.S. troops out of the Middle East, says national security adviser John Bolton is a “malign influence.” Paul, who believes the U.S. should reduce its military presence in Syria and Afghanistan, says he is alarmed by the recent mobilization of U.S. combat troops to counter what some Trump officials see as a rising threat posed by Iran. Asked about Bolton’s role in the recent deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and an Air Force bomber task force, Paul said, “I fear...

“I can absolutely make a big traffic problem all over the world,” the hacker said. On some cars, the software has the capability of remotely turning off the engines of vehicles that are stopped or are traveling 12 miles per hour or slower, according to the manufacturer of certain GPS tracking devices. By reverse engineering ProTrack and iTrack’s Android apps, L&M said he realized that all customers are given a default password of 123456 when they sign up. ProTrack is made by iTryBrand Technology, a company based in Shenzhen, China. iTrack is made by SEEWORLD, a company based in Guangzhou,...

Germany will not declare Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement a terrorist organization, a top official said Friday. Deputy Minister in the Foreign Ministry Niels Annen told news magazine Der Spiegel that the Iran-backed Shiite Islamist movement is a relevant factor in Lebanese society and part of the complex political landscape in the country. The comments come after Britain last month banned Hezbollah’s political wing, accusing the movement of destabilizing the Middle East. “The British move is a national decision that has no direct impact on the position of the German government or the EU,’ said Annen. The European Union had already added...

DUBAI - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards inaugurated a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 1,000 km (621 miles), the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Thursday, ignoring demands Western demands that Tehran halt its missile program. Fars published pictures of an underground missile factory called “underground city”, saying the “Dezful” missile was a version of the Zolfaghar missile that has a 700 km range and a 450 kg (992 lb) warhead. Iran says it has missiles with the range of up to 2,000 km, which puts Israel and U.S. military bases in the region within reach. The EU has stepped...

The Deputy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, is continuing to threaten Israel. Speaking on Thursday at a conference in the city of Mashhad, Salami declared that, in case of a new war, Israel will be defeated within three days. The commander said, according to the Tasnim news agency, that “strategic capacity” has been well shaped for the death of the “illegitimate regime of Israel.” “We warn them that if a new war breaks out, it will result in their termination,” he continued, adding that an outbreak of fighting on the ground will result in Israel’s...

Radical German Antifa website Indymedia published detailed instructions for assassinating specific AfD politicians as part of the 2019 Euro election campaign. The post was published on Jan. 30 by the Anti-German Antifa Underground (AAU). "Instructions for Assassinations on AfD Swine during the Election Campaign! First, obtain two polymer composite firearms in countries with more liberal gun laws (Norway, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Austria). The Glock 20 10mm is ideal. Purchase digital Motorola SRX 2200 walkie-talkies with encryption. Use a Trojan horse getaway vehicle containing a change of clothes and several motorbikes with full tanks of gas.Reconnoiter AfD campaign events....

WASHINGTON — Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan held his first national security meeting at the Pentagon on Wednesday (Jan. 2). On his second day on the job, Shanahan informed senior DoD leaders that he intends to stick with the national defense strategy that former Secretary James Mattis rolled out a year ago. The meeting, attended by the secretaries and undersecretaries of the military services and other top officials, is a routine gathering that the defense secretary conducts twice a week. According to a DoD official, Shanahan told attendees to focus on the national defense strategy and to "keep this effort...

Donald Trump was a political neophyte in June 2015. Those of us who backed him that summer – and who remain his core base to this day – did so due to his genuine love for America, his bare-knuckles style, and his insistence on uttering politically-incorrect truths. We believed in him, loved his independent mind, and adored his total disdain for political pieties and the supercilious elite. Nothing has changed. We still love him, but watching him hire so many people who reject his core beliefs has been enormously frustrating. Surrounding oneself with ideological clones is not always wise. Hiring...

Last Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party voted down a motion to freeze funding for the Palestinian Authority until it stops its “pay to slay” imbursements to terrorists and their families. The motion stated that “with the payments, the PA knowingly and willingly supports terror against Israel and makes this a worthy financial business.” But Merkel’s party wasn’t moved. One day later, a Palestinian terror attack seriously wounded a pregnant woman. The baby, who was delivered in an emergency procedure, held out for a few days and died on Wednesday. In October during a visit to...

Ukraine’s Parliament voted Monday to declare martial law in areas bordering Russia, responding to an attack a day earlier by Russian forces who fired on and impounded three Ukrainian naval vessels, leaving several sailors wounded. The action by Parliament, which called it a “partial mobilization,” takes effect Wednesday morning, will last for 30 days and represents a further escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran is abiding by the deal reached in 2015 with major powers that aimed at preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons in exchange for economic incentives. In a confidential quarterly report distributed to member states and reviewed by The Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has been abiding with key limitations set in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The issue has grown more complicated since the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in May from the deal and then re-imposed sanctions. Iran’s economy has been struggling ever since and...

The United States on Monday asked judges at the International Court of Justice to throw out a claim by Iran to recover $1.75 billion (€1.5 billion) in national bank assets seized by U.S. courts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the assets must be turned over to American families of victims of the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, among others. The hearings at the tribunal were separate from Iran’s claim relating to current U.S. sanctions against Tehran. Iran’s claim in both cases is based on a 1955 Amity Treaty, which was signed 24...

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value, in an apparent response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of a “secret atomic warehouse” in Iran. Netanyahu — who opposes the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that the International Atomic Energy Agency is policing — made the statement in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week. He urged the IAEA to visit the site in Tehran. A U.S. State Department official later seconded that call. “The agency sends inspectors to sites...

France’s leaders proposed a new alliance of “goodwill powers” on Friday in an attempt to revive the type of global diplomacy that they say is being jeopardized by the United States, Russia and other countries that favor unilateralism over cooperation. French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the plan during a speech at Harvard University, suggesting that Europe should align itself with countries like India, Australia, Mexico and other “powerful democracies” that share a commitment to multilateralism. His speech described an erosion of the brand of diplomacy that brought nations together following World War II and led to the...