Free Republic

The United Nations General Assembly will be voting on October 17, 2008 to fill vacancies for the rotating seats on the UN Security Council. Iran is a candidate, running against Japan for the seat reserved for the Asian bloc. Uganda is set to take the open African seat, since it is facing no opposition from any other member state in that region. Mexico is also running uncontested for the Latin American sea

Which world leader is on record musing about "a world without America" _ a goal he calls "attainable?" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Until recently, it was possible to believe that whatever Ahmadinejad's intentions, Iran was a long way from acquiring the capabilities it needs to achieve its goals. But a blue-ribbon commission has reported to Congress on what appears to be an Iranian drive to obtain the means to carry out an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack. An EMP attack is produced by launching a ballistic missile with a nuclear weapon attached _ and detonating it high above the earth. This...

Oct 13,2008 The Nation -- The elections in Iran are nearly a year away, but it's encouraging to see the emerging possibility of a new bid for the presidency by former President Mohammad Khatami. Last week, he hinted that he's considering running against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutball whose support lies mainly in the paramilitary Basij force and elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Can Khatami ju-jitsu the all-powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and his election-rigging Guardian Council? Can Khatami loom so large that even Khamenei might choose to support him over Ahmadinejad? Might Khamenei decide to back Khatami as...

General Ray Odierno, who commands US forces in Iraq, has accused Iran of trying to bribe Iraqi lawmakers in the hope of undermining an agreement that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq after the end of this year, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Tehran's bazaar stays shut in VAT protest TEHRAN (AFP) — The Iranian capital's traditional bazaar stayed on strike on Sunday to back calls for the scrapping of VAT, even after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad froze implementation of the tax for two months Stalls were shuttered in the capital's main bazaar, an AFP correspondent said, with policemen in uniform and plainclothes patrolling the area. The main gate remained closed and shoppers left empty-handed. It is the first general strike at the bazaar since the revolution. The shutdown started in jewellery shops on Wednesday then spread to textile and carpet stalls, reaching its...

Obama's life. Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. "Barry" (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a "round the world" trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in...

While Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) declared he was willing to meet with and talk to Iran without any preconditions (yes he did so back off Obama handlers; just listen here ), Iran has just two preconditions according to Iranian Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor in an interview with the Iranian News Agency: 1) all US forces must leave the Mid East; 2) the US must drop all support for Israel. Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor said on Saturday that Iran has set two preconditions for holding talks with the United States of America....

LONDON: Former British foreign secretary David Owen warned on Sunday that Israel could attack Iran in the near future. In an article in The Sunday Times, he wrote that some key decision makers in Israel were convinced that it was the most suitable time to attack Iran when Bush was in office. “Some key Israel decision makers fear unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath...

Oct 12, 2008 TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has arrested an aide to Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri following fresh criticism by the dissident cleric against Islamic republic leaders over freedom, reports said on Sunday. "An information aide in Ayatollah Montazeri's office has been arrested in Qom after publishing his recent comments," reformist Kargozaran newspaper said. Montazeri's official website said security officials in the religious city of Qom arrested mid-ranking cleric Mojtaba Lotfi on Wednesday after he published a sermon by Montazeri at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. "Why aren't your slogans in line with your action? You describe...

It was in October 2005 that the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, first said that the "Zionist regime" must "be wiped off the face of the Earth." And it was in April 2006 that he called Israel a "fake regime" that "cannot logically continue to live." In the years that have since passed, the man who favors a second Holocaust and denies the occurrence of the first one has repeated these genocidal statements almost daily. These are also the years in which Iran's nuclear weapons program has proceeded exponentially. It is a program that endangers the very existence of the Jewish...

Month after month, the nation's attention seems to ping-pong back and forth between the world's two egregious nuclear malefactors, North Korea and Iran. For the last few weeks, all eyes have been on North Korea, as the nation's idiosyncratic leadership began reopening a plant that manufactures weapons-grade plutonium. Christopher Hill, an assistant secretary of state, met, to no effect, with North Korea's leaders in Pyongyang last week -_ a visit that would have been inconceivable while hawks still dominated the Bush administration.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor said on Saturday that Iran has set two preconditions for holding talks with the United States of America. In an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, he said as long as U.S. forces have not left the Middle East region and continues its support for the Zionist regime, talks between Iran and U.S. is off the agenda. It is the Americans who are in dire need of reestablishing ties with Iran, he underlined. Iran is not obliged to reestablish ties with the U.S., he said. "If they take our...

Saudi and Sudanese Writers Warn Of 'Shi'ite Octopus' Taking Over Sudan The religious rift between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the Middle East, and the tension between the Arab countries, particularly the Gulf states and Egypt on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand are also manifested in Sudan-Iran relations. While the Sudanese regime maintains close ties with Iran, some Sudanese, especially those residing outside the country, have voiced concerns that Sudan may join the countries under Iranian influence. Over the past few years, there have been several uproars in the Arab press over perceived attempts by Iran to...

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday warned Iran against considering a surprise attack, at a ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The war began with Syria and Egypt launching a surprise invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in which early battlefield successes destroyed the myth of Israel's military invincibility. But Peres said that although the initial invasion came as a "complete surprise," Israel soon emerged victorious. "What began as a terrible catastrophe was in 18 days transformed into an extraordinary victory. "The IDF (Israeli army) stopped 101 kilometres (63...

Until recently, it was possible to believe that whatever Ahmadinejad's intentions, Iran was a long way from acquiring the capabilities it needs to achieve its goals. But a blue-ribbon commission has reported to Congress on what appears to be an Iranian drive to obtain the means to carry out an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack. An EMP attack is produced by launching a ballistic missile with a nuclear weapon attached -- and detonating it high above the Earth. This produces a massive pulse of ionized particles that could damage or even wipe out many electrical and information systems. Such an attack...

Hijacked Iranian Ship: Dirty Bomb meant for Israel on Yom Kippur? Follow up on an original posting by Snooper of Take Our Country Back Cross posted from Director BlueSaturday, October 11, 2008 Shirat Devorah researched the various articles surrounding the recent Somali hijacking of an Iranian vessel and came to an ominous conclusion.On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant, 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of...

Washington -- A little known hawkish group is offering assistance to embattled Kadima minister Shaul Mofaz in his fight to reverse results of the party's primary election that put Tzipi Livni in line to create a new government coalition. Stand Up America, a security-minded organization led by former generals of the United States military, has hired the services of the attorney who represented President Bush in the 2000 post-election legal dispute, and has suggested that the attorney travel to Israel and take on the Mofaz case if it ever reaches the Supreme Court. The offer, while marginal in its potential...

Some key decision makers in Israel fear that unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath of a unilateral attack.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Pirates released an Iranian ship that had been hijacked off the Somali coast in August, state news agency IRNA reported on Friday. "The ship Dianat was released on Friday morning after seven weeks of ... negotiations with Somali pirates," the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines said in statement carried by the agency. "All 29 members of the crew are safe and sound and

October 11, 2008 Hindustan Times Iranian opposition groups are preparing to mount a challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in next June's presidential elections, local media reported Saturday. Mehdi Karroubi, the 71-year-old head of the moderate Etemad Melli (National Trust) party, will most likely be the first to confirm his candidacy for the June 12, 2009 elections in a press conference Sunday. Reformers are still hoping to persuade former president Mohammad Khatami to run for office, but the 65-year-old cleric has not yet decided. An alternative for Khatami could reportedly be former vice-president Mohamad-Ali Najafi, 56, who is currently member of...

Oct 11, 2008 SANAA (AFP) - The trial began on Saturday of three Yemenis who are alleged to have spied for Iran. Abdul Karim Lalji, 33, Hani Deen Mohammad, 31, and Iskandar Abdo, 57, were arrested in the southern city of Aden for "illegal contact," the prosecutor told the court. The men handed over "information, documents and photos relating to military secrets and the country's political, security and economic situation, to the detriment of Yemen," according to the charge sheet.

BERLIN - An Iranian businessman arrested a week ago in Germany on suspicion of illegal exports to Iran was a valued agent of the German foreign intelligence service BND, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Prosecutors had advised the BND before the arrest they had no choice but to detain the man, 61, who had the code name Sindbad, because of suspicions that he was supplying equipment needed to make Iran's Shahab missiles, Spiegel said. In a story to hit the streets in its Monday issue, Spiegel said Sindbad's intelligence deliveries to Germany included photographs of tunnel-drilling machinery,...

Iran to open 2 health clinics in Bolivia October 10, 2008 Iran to build 2 health clinics in Bolivia, looks to expand medical aid to Latin America LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Iran's top diplomat in Bolivia says his country will open two low-cost public health clinics in South America's poorest nation. Business attache Hojjatollah Soltani said Friday the Islamic republic plans to use Bolivia as a base for future Red Crescent medical programs across the continent. He did not offer details or cost figures for the clinics. Bolivia and Iran, both outspoken critics of the United States, have only...

Moscow rejects reports that it may arm Iran, saying it has no plan to equip Tehran with the S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system. "We have declared more than once at the very highest political level that we do not intend to supply those types of armaments to countries located in regions that are, to put it mildly, unstable areas," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko on Thursday. The Russian official added that the Kremlin makes decisions on selling such systems based on "both preserving the balance of power in the given region, and taking into account the need to...

The Russian's alleged role was disclosed in a document, obtained by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which describes complex and highly sensitive experiments supposedly conducted inside Iran.

Iran is trying to derail an agreement that would allow US and British troops to stay in Iraq after their mandate expires at the end of this year. In a move that has raised concern among senior Iraqi and US officials, Tehran is using its influence over its smaller neighbour to scupper a Status of Forces Agreement, which must be reached by January 1. After the deadline US and British troops would have no legal basis to remain and, in theory, would have to leave. This week President Ahmadinejad told a senior official from Baghdad that Iraq had a duty...

Iran row looms over release of Fowzi Badavi Nejad Oct.10, 2008 The only surviving terrorist from the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London is to be freed within days amid fears that his release will trigger a diplomatic row with Iran. Fowzi Badavi Nejad will be released and allowed to stay in Britain, but Iran wants him returned to Tehran to face trial for the murder of two hostages killed during the siege. The Foreign Office has failed to win assurances that Nejad would not suffer torture or death if he were returned on his release after serving...

Iran faces U.S. challenge in "pistachio war" KERMAN PROVINCE, Iran (Reuters) - For some Iranians, it's a galling thought: the United States may oust Iran as the world's largest producer of pistachio nuts this year because of one of the worst harvests ever in the Islamic Republic. The popular nibble is Iran's main export commodity outside the oil sector, earning it more than $1 billion last year, and providing many people with jobs in the arid, southeastern province of Kerman, which has 140,000 pistachio farmers. Unusually cold weather during the flowering in April dealt a blow to the 2008 crop,...

<p>WASHINGTON -- A specter is haunting the presidential race -- and it is not just the economy. It is the specter of a nuclear Iran.</p> <p>Economic downturns are wrenching, but eventually cyclical. Nuclear proliferation is more difficult to reverse, creating the permanent prospect of massive miscalculation and tragedy. America's next leader may be known to history as the president who had to deal with Iran.</p>

US administrations typically suffer temporary loss of international influence as their time in office draws to a close. But rarely has Washington’s global prestige and leverage fallen so low as in the dog days of US President George W. Bush’s eight-year reign. This debilitation is a source of concern for the US’ friends — and a dangerous opportunity for its enemies, who hope such weakness can be both exploited and made permanent. The US-triggered economic crisis has reinforced hostile perceptions of US vulnerability. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gleefully invited Iranians to listen to the sound of global power crashing to...

Appearing on Larry King Live at the end of September when he was in New York to speak at the United Nations, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to one of his favorite tropes. "Let's assume (the Holocaust) happened, the extent of which everyone is speaking of," Ahmadinejad preached, attempting to pin Israel's legitimacy as a nation to an event he doesn't believe actually occurred. "If the crimes were committed in Europe, why should the Palestinian people be victimized as a result?" Let us assume for a moment that Israel's legitimacy is tied to the Holocaust, to the extent Ahmadinejad is...

Interior Ministry, Shin Bet grant unusual plea by Tehran family to have son suffering form brain cancer treated in Jewish state. 'When a child's life is at stake religion and origin play no part,' says Minister Sheetrit A 12-year-old Iranian boy suffering from brain cancer is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Friday for emergency surgery. The boy, who already underwent surgery in Tehran, was later admitted to a Turkish hospital, but his Ankara physicians soon discovered their facility lacked the technological and medical expertise needed to properly treat him. The Turkish doctors suggested the family seek medical assistance in...

Iran has announced plans for a new car designed specially for women. Its features will include automatic transmission, parking and navigation aids and a jack for changing tyres without getting grease on your chador. Iran's biggest car producer, Iran Khodro, says it will come in a range of feminine colours and interior designs.

by Michael Rubin The Australian October 3, 2008 On November 4, Americans will go to the polls to elect their next president. But even as rival candidates Barack Obama and John McCain spar over who can bring change at home and restore America's image abroad, on the most immediate foreign policy challenge facing the next inhabitant of the Oval Office - Iranian nuclear development - there will be no change. In their first debate, both candidates said their administrations would negotiate with the Islamic Republic, albeit not at the presidential level. Whether Obama or McCain authorises his secretary of state...

Iran’s looming financial crisis In 2006, Iran was the fifth largest oil exporter in the world. How is it possible that by the middle of the next decade its exports could fall to zero? In a paper published in January 2007, Roger Stern, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, predicted that Iranian oil exports would drop to zero by 2014–2015. Stern estimated that Iran’s future investment in oil production capacity would be insufficient to offset the natural production decline of its existing oil fields. Meanwhile, domestic Iranian demand for oil products would continue its rapid growth. Stern predicted that as...

“Iran’s break-even price is $90 a barrel, and that is a big issue in Iran right now,” Khan said. “If prices dip below $90 a barrel, and we have seen it touch $89 earlier this week, then they would have to tighten their public expenditure policy, and probably cut subsidies, which would be an issue for the government there – the public would not be content,” he said. Iraq has the highest break-even price in the region, according to the IMF figures. The war-torn country needs prices above $110 a barrel to balance its books. “They are almost starting from...

Israel expected to bomb Iran, French foreign minister says The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has said Israel is expected to launch a military strike on Iran before it acquires a nuclear bomb, and urged the Jewish state to hold back in favour of sanctions. By Carolynne Wheeler in Jerusalem Last Updated: 2:18PM BST 05 Oct 2008 "I know that some people in Israel and in the army are preparing a military solution or not a solution but a military attack. I don’t know. This is not according to my opinion the solution,” Mr Kouchner told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz...

Iran helped in war on terror per AP and mystery officials ap so no pasty ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2008 – Coalition forces captured an alleged weapons smuggler in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, and 11 other suspects in operations today, military officials reported. Coalition forces targeted a suspected key member of the Kataib Hezbollah terrorist network believed to be responsible for Iranian-supplied armor-piercing explosives used against Iraqi and coalition forces. Troops approached the targeted individual's location, where he identified himself as the wanted suspect. He and four associates were detained without incident. Coalition forces also discovered numerous passports and several weapons. In Tu Aym, west of Mosul, coalition forces detained four suspects allegedly associated with a...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2008 – A senior Defense Department spokesman dismissed Iranian-sourced reports that a U.S. military aircraft had been forced down in Iran. The Iranian reports he has reviewed contradict themselves, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today. One story he read claimed that an American military aircraft had unintentionally violated Iranian airspace and had been forced to land in Iran, Whitman said. A subsequent Iranian state television report, he said, stated that the plane that was forced to land in Iran was not a U.S. military plane, but had Americans on board. Another Iranian TV report said the...

The proposed US-Iraqi security deal would be a "disgrace" for Iraq and should be rejected, a top Iranian military official said Tuesday in a statement. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, and Iranian Vice-President Parviz Davoodi at Mehrabad International Airport in Teheran. Photo: AP [file] Slideshow: Pictures of the week Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff at the Iranian armed forces, accused the United States of pressuring the Iraqi government to approve the deal. "The Iraqi people won't be deceived by propaganda and the psychological warfare launched by the US and its allies to pressure the Iraqi government to...

U.S. Military: Tense Encounters With Iran Occur Almost Daily in Strait of Hormuz WASHINGTON — EXCLUSIVE: Amid false allegations from Iranian media that a U.S. plane was forced down after accidentally entering Iranian airspace, FOX News learned Tuesday about another tense incident that occurred last month near the Strait of Hormuz. On Sept. 6, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened to shoot down U.S. helicopters flying cover aboard the USS Peliliu patrolling in the area, according to a classified military transcript of the radio exchange. According to the transcript, the Peleliu, while en route to the Strait from the Gulf of...

Since the time of Hitler, civilization has never been so close to the brink of total catastrophe. This American election will decide whether civilization as we know it will survive. As much as economic questions are currently front and center, with blame to go all round, this is not an election primarily about corporate greed, or individuals living beyond their means, or government neglect of economic oversight. Nor is it about whether we should have gone into Iraq where, like it or not, American boots on the ground have begun to create an emerging democracy. This election is about whether...

An Iranian news agency said Tuesday that a United States warplane had been forced to land in Iran, but the Pentagon said there was no evidence to support the claim, and Tehran moved quickly to play down the claim. Within moments of the first report on the semi-official Fars news agency, an Iranian state television channel, Al Alam, said on its Web site that the plane “was not a military plane and did not belong to the United States.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon denied on Tuesday an Iranian news report that a U.S. military aircraft had violated Iranian territory and had been forced to land in Iran, saying all American planes were accounted for. "All aircraft in the region are accounted for and we have no reports of any aircraft landing in Iran," Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder told reporters. "I haven't heard anything like that," said Pentagon Bryan Whitman. The Iran news agency reported earlier that a U.S. warplane had violated Iranian territory and had been forced to land in Iran.

US WARPLANE FORCED TO LAND IN IRAN.

As the Iranians move closer to obtaining nuclear weapons, we need to begin thinking about what this could mean for our civilization. With only approximately one percent of shipping containers entering the country being inspected; with our borders as porous as ever; and, with terrorist cells around the world waiting to be activated, the United States, itself, could be held hostage by the Iranians or even be subject to an attack from which it would be almost impossible to recover.

25 Years Later: We Came in Peace By Colonel Timothy J. Geraghty, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired) In a Proceedings exclusive, the commanding officer of the Marine unit devastated by the suicide bombing of its barracks in Beirut recounts the horror of that October day 25 years ago and calls it a seminal event in the war against Islamist extremists. On Sunday morning, 23 October 1983, I awoke as usual at dawn, dressed, and went below to the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit's Combat Operations Center to check the overnight communications traffic. I roamed outside my headquarters at Beirut International Airport to...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Iranian Industries and Mines Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian announced here on Sunday that the country has commissioned hundreds of millions of dollars worth of industrial projects in Venezuela. Speaking on the sidelines of a meet with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, the Iranian official said that two development projects in the housing and tractor manufacturing fields will soon be inaugurated, the Mehr News Agency reported. The two sides discussed the status quo of projects underway by Iranian entities in Venezuela as well as enforcing the 17 cooperation agreements inked in the fifth Tehran-Caracas joint economic session. Nicolas Maduro expressed his satisfaction...