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CAIRO, Egypt (AP)- In a bid to stop arms smuggling and terror attacks, Saudi and Yemeni officials will meet soon to review plans to build a fence along their frontier, a pan-Arab newspaper reported Monday. Lt. Gen. Talal Anqawi, head of the Saudi border police, told the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat that the concrete fence would be effective in preventing smuggling and infiltration, especially by car. The newspaper said the meeting was being held to avoid an escalation of Yemeni objections to the fence. Anqawi refused to call it a barrier, and said the fence was well within Saudi territory and...

ISIS is leaving a path of destroyed churches, shrines and mosques in its wake as it storms across Syria and Iraq, and has even set its sights on Mecca -- Islam's holiest site. The nihilistic jihadis, led by self-proclaimed descendant of Prophet Muhammad Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have already bulldozed or blown up some of the most sacred places in Iraq, and seem bent on killing and destroying anyone or anything that does not measure up to their twisted vision of Islam. Experts say the group, which originally stood for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but now simply calls itself "Islamic...

Prognosticators from the London Times to Democratic pundit James Carville are predicting that President Obama this year will finish a deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program. With a record of foreign policy failure, Obama is eager for a seeming success, even if the agreement leaves the mullahs with the capacity to quickly build some nuclear bombs at a time of their choosing. Such an outcome would obviously be a strategic disaster, leaving this country and its regional allies vulnerable to an inveterate enemy driven by an apocalyptic ideology. Obama and his foreign policy team will bear the brunt of...

The commander of Iran’s notorious Basij forces declared Monday that the Islamic Republic’s ultimate goal is the destruction of America and Israel. “Today there is no mandate to end our fight because Iran’s greatness in the region and the repeated losses by the Zionists and America are the proof of our fight up to today,” Gen. Mohammad Naghdi said, according to Fars News Agency. “Our ideal is not [nuclear] centrifuges but the destruction of the White House and the annihilation of Zionism [Israel].” The regime’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also called for the continuation of the fight to...

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is being treated for pneumonia and his condition has stabilized with the help of a breathing tube, according to a Royal Court statement issued Friday. The statement, which was released by Saudi state media, said the monarch, 90, had been transferred Thursday to a military hospital after experiencing shortness of breath and back pain. The Saudi Royal Court said medical tests showed the king had a respiratory infection. […] The health of the monarch is of extreme importance in the kingdom, where Abdullah holds absolute powers to enact laws and appoint ministers. His condition is also...

The 93-year old King of Saudi Arabia was sent to hospital on Wednesday for “medical checks” according to the Royal Court. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who has ruled Saudi Arabia since the death of his half-brother King Fahd in 2005, was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, the latest in numerous trips to hospital by the aging monarch in recent years. The King underwent two operations in October 2011 and November 2012 due to "ligament slackening" in the upper back. The news of his entry to hospital prompted a 5 percent fall in Saudi Arabia’s main equities...

Iraq’s Grand Mufti accuses IRGC, Iraqi government, Shiite militias of genocide and rape of Sunnis they 'liberated' from ISIS In an explosive TV interview aired last week, Iraq’s Grand Mufti Rafi Al-Rifa’i, the highest Sunni authority in the country, accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iraqi government, and Iraqi Shiite militias of mass genocidal killings and rape of Sunni men and women from Iraqi towns and villages “liberated” from ISIS (Islamic State). Mufti Al-Rifa’i posed the unanswerable question, “Why should we fight ISIS? So the Iranian IRGC can take over? The same Iranian IRGC that is running operations...

Iranian pastor Behnam Irani is being held in solitary confinement and is facing 18 new charges, including "spreading corruption on Earth," which is a capital crime. This is similar to "Moharabeh," or "warring against God," which was recently charged to another Christian, Pastor Matthias Haghnejad. Pastor Irani was arrested in December 2006, and sentenced in 2011 to six years imprisonment for "action against the state" and "action against the order." The fresh charges appear to be part of a surge in repression under the Rouhani presidency targeting religious and ethnic minorities. In June, Pastor Irani was removed from prison and...

TEHRAN: Tehran on Monday condemned the deadly hostage-taking in Australia reportedly by an Iranian-born gunman, branding it an act foreign to Islam, state media quoted a government official as saying. "Undertaking such inhuman acts and provoking fear and panic in the name of merciful Islam is not in any way justifiable," foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, according to IRNA news agency.

Recently Iranian Army General Hossein Salami claimed that Iran had infiltrated the United States with orders to attack America from within should the U.S. or Israel attack Iranian territory.A clear reference to our concerns about Iran’s nuclear research facilities, which are widely suspected of conducting research into the development of nuclear weapons. It certainly is plausible, considering our porous borders, that Iranian agents may well have entered the United States with instructions to wreak havoc in America.But when I hear boasting and threats such as this coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran, I think back to an exchange that...

hould anyone have been surprised that Michele Bachmann would go out with a bang, a big bang? On Tuesday, in what the retiring congresswoman from Minnesota figured would be her last White House holiday party, Bachmann used the grip-and-grin moment when she got her picture taken with President Obama to raise a reliably grin-killing topic. “The U.S. needs to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities today,” she informed him. His response? “A condescending smile and laugh,” she tells Politico, making a little pat-on-the-head gesture. “‘Michele, it isn’t that easy, but that’s OK,’” she remembers him telling her. To which the gentlelady...

While both the Ukrainian and Russian governments continue to point fingers at one another for the MH17 crash, former Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) urged caution Friday against jumping to any conclusions about where blame lies. Some American pundits accuse Vladimir Putin of having “blood on his hands” since the missile that took down the Malaysia Airlines flight may have been a Russian weapon given to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Speaking with Newsmax TV’s John Bachman earlier today, Paul said “Putin is a little bit smarter than that. I don’t think he would ever come close to participating in an act...

Flattus wrote: It's funny to watch Cons attempt to portray this disaster in Iraq as Obama's issue. Sorry, no sale. Thinking Americans know whose war this is. But it's not surprising to see you run from it. From Ron Paul's column today, referring to Necons:"They cannot admit they were wrong about the invasion being a ‘cakewalk’ that would pay for itself, so they want to blame last week's events on the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq. But the trouble started with the 2003 invasion itself, not the 2011 troop withdrawal. Anyone who understands cause and effect should understand this."-- Welcome...

At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin this weekend highlighted a video of Rand Paul speaking in 2012 about sanctions on Iran. In it, Paul disparages the notion of use of force, and for some reason claims the United States was partly to blame for World War II! “There are times when sanctions have made it worse. I mean, there are times .. leading up to World War II we cut off trade with Japan. That probably caused Japan to react angrily. We also had a blockade on Germany after World War I, which may have encouraged them … some of...

The United States and Israel clashed on Wednesday over Iran as Benjamin Netanyahu called for Tehran’s entire nuclear program to be dismantled and warned the world against accepting a “partial deal”. The Israeli prime minister made clear his dismay at Washington’s softer approach towards Iran. He said the ongoing negotiations should insist that Tehran end all enrichment of uranium, destroy all fissile material and close water plants and underground bunkers that he said could only be used to build a nuclear bomb. …

A new Pentagon assessment of Iran’s military power maintains that in two years time, Iran could flight-test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States, given “sufficient foreign assistance”, is provided to Tehran. The new assessment reiterated a longstanding estimate of the U.S. intelligence community. Iran could test such a missile by 2015 with assistance from nations like North Korea, China or Russia. Pyongyang is already in the process of developing the KN-08, an extended range ballistic missile that can reach the US West Coast. The missile’s range could be extended to provide the missile an intercontinental strike...

An error ended. Jew hater Ron Paul gave his farewell address to CONgress. To Ron Paul, the patron saint of malcontents, druggies, and weirdos, I say this: good riddance and thanks for a whole lotta nuthin'. Now I know that sounds harsh, but let's face it gang, one of the reasons why we have another four years of of the Hope and Che Guy is Ron Paul. Yeah, I'm going to come right out and say it and I don't give a hoot who calls me a "neocon" for saying so. The truth must be told, consequences be damned. Now,...

Ron Paul and the Terrorists - Where Libertarian Foreign Policy Goes Astray by N. M. GUARIGLIA July 16, 2012 I like Ron Paul. I admire his honesty, his integrity, and his consistency. I also dig his libertarian principles. Ron Paul predicted-along with a few other Austrian School economists-the housing bubble and the collapse of the financial sector in 2008. He's been out in front on monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. His short book End the Fed should be read by every American. (My favorite excerpt: "It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century...

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN, the news network's founder, Ted Turner, complained that a double standard exists between the U.S. and Israel being allowed to possess nuclear weapons while Iran is expected to be nuclear-free, as he suggested that all countries dispose of their nuclear weapons to persuade Iran not to build such weapons. After host Piers Morgan asked Turner what he would do about Iran if he were President, the CNN founder absurdly complained that Iran was being held to a different standard than Israel, without either he or Morgan noting Iran's support...

(CNN) – Ron Paul said Tuesday that his rivals have "blown way out of proportion" the Iranian nuclear threat and that their language is "reckless" and "dangerous." On the same day as his rivals for the GOP presidential nomination argued their Iran policies would be tougher than those under President Barack Obama, the Texas congressman suggested their rhetoric borders on warmongering, and that his stance is closer to that of Obama. "He certainly is closer to my position than the other candidates because what the other Republicans are saying is very reckless," Paul said on an interview to air on...