Free Republic

More than two-thirds of Iran's lawmakers have endorsed a statement calling for cutting off oil sales to the European Union before EU sanctions on their country go into effect. The statement, which was read Wednesday in an open session of parliament broadcast on state radio, said "in the case of the continuation of illogical policies" by the EU, Iran will look for alternative customers for its oil before the European embargo goes into effect in the summer. The statement was signed by 200 of the parliament's 290 lawmakers.

-excerpt- Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

EU adopts Syria oil embargoAFP – Thu, Sep 1, 2011 The European Union on Friday adopted a ban on crude oil imports from Syria although European companies will be able to fulfill existing supply contracts until November 15, the EU and diplomats said. The EU also expanded the list of individuals targeted by assets freezes and travel bans, adding four Syrian businessmen accused of bankrolling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the diplomats said. Three companies, including a bank, were added to the blacklist as well. "In view of the gravity of the situation in Syria, the (European) Council today...

Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found. At the behest of a host of companies — from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation’s largest banks — a little-known office of the Treasury Department has made nearly 10,000 exceptions to American sanctions rules, approving deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of...

In the wake of a weekend Central Committee meeting, exports of vital rare earths to the US/EU -on which the Chinese maintain an unsettling stranglehold- are restrainedPerhaps it's more difficult these days to awaken Americans to the comprehensive threat posed by the rise of Communist China now that our own country's being run by a Smiley-Face Marxist who's actually to the left of Beijing's policies on health care, defense, and fiscal management... but there are increasing numbers of powerful Chinese leaders that see the United States as an enemy -no matter how socialist we are. They didn't get along with...

(Reuters) - A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday. "This bill has been needed for a long time," House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said in a statement ahead of committee action on Wednesday.

On Sunday, Israeli naval forces intercepted the ships of a Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel had demanded that the vessels not go directly to Gaza but instead dock in Israeli ports, where the supplies would be offloaded and delivered to Gaza. The Turkish NGO refused, insisting on going directly to Gaza. Gunfire ensued when Israeli naval personnel boarded one of the vessels, and a significant number of the passengers and crew on the ship were killed or wounded. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the...

The world has condemned Israel for attacking some, “poor, innocent aid relief workers”, while refusing to look for the real story behind this. Hamas, the terror group supported by even some of our allies in the Middle East, was shipping cargo to Palestinians, in violation of the embargo imposed by Israel. The main stream media would have you believe that a bunch of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) boarded the ship and relentlessly killed some innocent civilians. What they forgot to show you was the video below. It clearly shows IDF soldiers boarding the ship while being beaten with chairs and...

A British aircraft broker (Balli Aviation Ltd.) was recently fined $17 million dollars, and put on probation for five years, for illegally exporting three Boeing 747s to Iran two years ago. The broker pled guilty and cooperated with the investigation. Iran has eight Boeing 747s, and they cannot be exported to Iran without a U.S. government permit. The U.S. refuses to provide these permits, so Iran obtains these aircraft via fraud and companies that are willing to risk prosecution. The Boeing and AirBus aircraft obtained this way have to be maintained by Iran, using smuggled parts. As a result, some...

Clinton said Cuba's response to Obama administration efforts to enhance cooperation revealed "an intransigent, entrenched regime" that had no interest in political reform or ending the isolation imposed by Washington's 48-year old economic embargo on the island. "It is my personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do no want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years," Clinton said "I find that very sad, because there should be an opportunity for a...

WASHINGTON — The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel. Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases. "This was a political decision," an official said. In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for bunker-busters capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites. Officials said delivery of the weapons was held up by the...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States should impose sanctions unilaterally against Iran in the same way it acted alone by clamping an embargo on Cuba 50 years ago, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday. Israel, which sees a mortal threat in the prospect of Iran getting a nuclear bomb, has lobbied for "crippling" U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran's energy sector. But Washington and other world powers have balked at such measures for now, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week the Security Council should be sidestepped if it cannot agree to act.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for an immediate embargo on Iran's energy sector, saying the U.N. Security Council should be sidestepped if it cannot agree on the move.

Today in Iran protesters for democracy are filling the streets on the 31st Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. The tyrannical Iranian regime is continuing with their policy of using intimidation and brutality to quash the protests. Helping the totalitarian government with their violence and abuse is Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens. Despite an embargo of selling such products to Iran, the company has sold a "big brother-like" spy system to Ahmadinejad's nut house. A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for "lawful intercept functionality," a technical...

It's too soon for Americans to plan a Cuban vacation of beach, mambo and mojitos, but the U.S. travel industry is gearing up for a return to its largest Caribbean destination before Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Tour operators held a video conference with Cuban tourism officials in Havana on Wednesday and asked them if they are ready for the "rush" of Americans if the U.S. travel ban is lifted as proposed by legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress. "Americans really want to see Cuba," said Robert Whitely, president of the U.S. Tour Operators, which together with the National...

Last week a Department of State retiree and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Cuba for thirty years. In this article I will sort out what we know, don't know and need to explore about this matter. Walter Kendall Myers, Jr .and his wife Gwendolyn Steingarber Myers

SNIPS Two months ago, the Obama administration acted to relax a trade embargo imposed on the island nation in 1962. A senior State Department official described the potential for damage as great and the timing unfortunate, noting that it could affect congressional support for the administration's recent attempts to engage Cuba. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. Cuba is notorious for not paying its agents, said a former intelligence official speaking anonymously because of the highly sensitive matter. Indeed, court documents indicate the couple received little money for their efforts, but instead professed a...

China’s Threat Revives Race for Rare Minerals By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG — A Chinese threat to halt exports of rare minerals — vital for high-performance electric motors in wind turbines, hybrid cars and missiles — appears to have backfired. With control of more than 99 percent of the world’s production of these minerals, China could try to use a ban to force other countries to buy the crucial motors for these high-tech end products, instead of just the minerals, directly from China. But other governments and businesses reacted quickly as word of the proposed ban spread late this summer....

NEW YORK (CNN) — The United Arab Emirates seized a ship carrying banned arms from North Korea to Iran, diplomats told CNN Friday. The incident occurred in early August and was reported to the U.N. Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions committee, Western diplomats at the United Nations said. The diplomats did not disclose which country owned the vessel. It also was not immediately clear whether this was the first time such an incident had happened, or only the first time such a case had been revealed. A U.N. resolution passed in July imposes an embargo on the shipment of arms...

The Obama team has lifted a ban on the sale of some high-tech equipment to Syria. A recognized state sponsor of terrorism. WSJ reports: "The Obama administration has told Syria that it will work to ease U.S. sanctions against Damascus, as Washington intensifies its pursuit of détente with a longtime Middle East rival." [As Obama intensifies his efforts to legitimize a dictatorial state sponsor of terrorism, having just recently decided to return a U.S. ambassador] "The U.S. decision targets spare aircraft parts, information-technology products and telecommunications equipment, sales of which have been restricted by U.S. sanctions on Syria enacted in...

(IsraelNN.com) The United States has alerted Syrian diplomats that America has decided to lift various embargos against Syria, with more suspensions of embargos on the way. Dr. Imad Mustafa, Syria's ambassador to Washington, told Syrian television Sunday that U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has suspended several articles of the U.S. sanction against Syria, with more suspensions to come, according to Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba has been shaken by the revelation that drilling for oil and natural gas is about to take place less than 50 miles off the U.S. coast - in Cuban waters. No one knows for sure just how much oil lies off the northwest coast of Cuba, but the consensus is that it's sizable. The U.S. Geological Survey initially came up with an estimate in 2004 of between 5 billion barrels and 10 billion barrels. But Cuba's state oil company, Cubapetroleo, recently said the undersea geology was "very similar" to Mexico's giant Cantarell oil field...

Back in April, Eli Lake of the Wash Times times Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens broke the Iran embargo to sell a "big brother-like" spy system to Ahmadinejad's nut house: A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for "lawful intercept functionality," a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement's ability to tap phones, read e-mails and monitor electronic data on communications networks. This sale has allowed the oppressive Iranian regime to build a monitoring center that can archive intercepts and provide...

You would think with all of the embargoes that the US government has on doing buisness with Iran and its crazy President Ahmadinejad , that it would be pretty difficult for companies that do buisness with the United States to sell systems to the terrorist regime that would enable it squash dissidents. Of course if you thought that, "you would think..." wrong. Back in April, Eli Lake of the Wash Times times Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens have sold a "big brother-like" spy system to Ahmadinejad's nut house:

The DUmmies are really pissed off at Joe Biden. Why? Because he stated that the U.S. government will NOT end the Cuban embargo as you can see in this DUmmie THREAD, "Biden says U.S. does not plan to lift Cuba embargo." Some of the DUmmies are even saying that is not really what Biden means and you have to microanalyze the word he used, "No." Of course, what the DUmmies need to realize is that all of the Obama administration promises have an expiration date. In the meantime the DUmmies remain angry as you can see so let us...

Biden says U.S. does not plan to lift Cuba embargo Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:11pm EDT VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday the United States would not lift the country's embargo on Cuba. "No," Biden told reporters

I have long felt that the embargo against Cuba should end. I think the arguments against ending the embargo have become slogans over the years. The only reason we still have the embargo is that Cuban-Americans in Florida want it. And they vote. And politicians from both parties want that vote. We don't have embargoes against Russia or China. But then Russian-Americans and Chinese-Americans don't have similar sway with the politicians the way Cuban-Americans do. I think we should allow our business people access to Cuba.

President Obama's decision this week to ease some parts of the embargo against Cuba is being hailed as a first step toward altering a U.S. policy that has prevailed for a half-century without unseating Fidel Castro. We don't object, though it'd be nice if Mr. Obama also began speaking up against the Castro dictatorship. Mr. Obama's changes are partly a humanitarian response to Cuban hardship. They might even expose the regime's phony claim that the Yankee "bloqueo," or embargo, is the cause of Cuba's misery. But let's not expect too much. Embargo or not, Cuba will remain an island prison...

IN another outreach to rogu ish regimes, the Obama ad ministration on Monday an nounced the easing of some restrictions on Cuba. Team Bam hopes that a new face in the White House will heal old wounds. Fat chance. Sure, it's fine to allow separated families to see each other more than once every three years -- even though Cubanos aren't allowed to visit America. And permitting gifts to Cuban relatives could ease unnecessary poverty -- even though the regime will siphon off an estimated 20 percent of the money sent there. In the end, though, it's still Fidel Castro...

The Castro regime is one of the most brutal, ruthless and amoral regimes of our time. While little mention of it is offered by the world media, due to their soft spot for murderers and thugs everywhere, the cruelty it embodies is no less true. After all, the only time the media sees fit to heap scorn on anyone is when conservatives enact policies that defend innocents against terror or brutality. If the Castro regime were still in its glory days, lifting any part of the embargo would still be ill advised and an act of acquiescence to evil. But...

The U.S. policy of shunning communist Cuba by imposing a strict trade embargo has failed to prod the island nation toward democracy and should be re-evaluated, according to the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests," wrote Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in a report dated Monday. President Barack Obama has promised a fresh look at the U.S. policy. He says he would be open to meeting with Castro, who took over as Cuba's president for his ailing...

HAVANA, September 17 —In less than 24 hours more than 1,000 intellectuals from Latin America, the United States, Europe and Africa have signed an appeal circulated by their Cuban colleagues, expressing solidarity and demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The message, which is circulating on the Internet, notes that Cuba was dramatically impacted by two powerful hurricanes recently, and that its people are demanding an immediate halt to the odious blockade that has been maintained against Cuba by successive U.S. administrations for almost 50 years. The appeal to the world from a large group of Cuban artists...

Help please! I belong to a forum devoted to gems and gemology. Members there, 99% ultra-liberal, are going into a tizzy because Bush signed a bill that outlaws certain gem imports from Burma. It's silly feel-good legislation that accomplishes nothing toward toppling the junta but makes it appear our Congress-critters are "doing something." It's named the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008. Forum members there are trying to rewrite history by saying Bush and Cheney are responsible instead of the Democrats who wrote it and pushed it through Congress. They're really incensed because the bill blocks certain gem...

ON June 4, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented her annual report on human trafficking for 2008, in which, for the sixth consecutive year, the United States government included Cuba among the countries it accuses of not making significant efforts to confront the alleged trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and described our country as a sexual tourism destination, among other serious and unfounded accusations. For the first time, the imperial power also decided to include in this report several recommendations to the Cuban government as to how to confront the phenomenon. At the...

US tracking 'suspicious ship' from N Korea Oct. 20, 2006 WASHINGTON — The United States is tracking a suspicious vessel that left a North Korean port, a US official said yesterday, adding it was uncertain what it was carrying. . The CBS news network reported that US intelligence suspects that the vessel is carrying military equipment banned under an embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council in response to North Korea's nuclear test on Oct 9. The resolution calls on North Korea to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme and imposes a range of financial, trade and military...

Former President Fidel Castro says Sen. Barack Obama's plan to maintain Washington's trade embargo against Cuba will cause hunger and suffering on the island. In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race," but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba. "Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," Castro wrote, referring to Obama's remarks last week to the influential Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. Obama said he would maintain the nearly fifty-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba...

Barack Obama: "I think its time for us to end the embargo of Cuba..." Barack Obama, speaking at the University of Southern Illinois, 1/20/2004 "I am no fan of the Cuban embargo, but removing it now - or announcing a presidential trip to meet with Raul Castro - would indicate that America views this familial transfer of power as real change, rather than what it is: a maneuver meant to leave the brutal Castro legacy intact." Benny Avni, Op-Ed, "Obama Vs. Bad Guys: To Talk Or Not To Talk?" The New York Sun, 2/25/08 "I believe that normalization of relations...

** EXCERPT ** With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam. Five days after the March 4, 1993, dinner at the Excelsior Hotel, Mr. Riady took the embargo question directly to President Clinton, saying in a four-page letter that its demise would bring political reforms in that communist country. By that time,...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has decided to impose an official embargo of the Arabic Al Jazeera satellite TV network due to the Foreign Ministry's assessment that the station function as a propaganda arm in the Arab war against the Jewish state. "After discussions on the issue, the Foreign Ministry has decided to embargo the station," Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio Wednesday. "[Al Jazeera’s] reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us. They incite people to terrorist activities." The Foreign Ministry intends to demand that Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, investigate specific allegations regarding coverage of recent events in Gaza...

On Dec. 29, 1962, 11 months before he was murdered by an advocate for Fidel Castro’s regime (Lee Harvey Oswald had distributed propaganda on a New Orleans street for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee), President John Kennedy, speaking in Miami’s Orange Bowl to veterans of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, received from them a Cuban flag and vowed, “I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana.” In Cuba, too, regime change has turned out to be more problematic than American policymakers imagined.

Are we seeing the first indications that a Raul Castro-led Cuba will want warmer relations with the US? Yesterday, Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Raul thanked Hugo Chavez for assisting Cuba, but thinks that US-friendly Brazil makes a better dance partner for the future (via Brian Faughnan): The newspaper reports that during the January Brazilian presidential visit to Havana, Raul Castro praised Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for having helped Cuba “in a particularly tough moment of the ongoing confrontation with the United States George W Bush administration”. Nevertheless Fidel Castro brother is quoted saying that Brazil “is a...

Update 10:18am. State Dept “has indicated” the trade embargo with Cuba will remain in place. ***Don’t ask me why I’m up, but I am. And the AP has just put out a news alert that many have been awaiting for years: Fidel Castro has announced he will be resigning. Just a single line so far: “HAVANA (AP) — Official media quotes Fidel Castro saying he will not seek new presidential term.”Time to reinstitute the Fidel Castro Death Watch?Stand by for more…Val Prieto at Babalu Blog posted the Castro zombie doll yesterday as the “perfect symbol of The Revolution.” Behold the...

TEHERAN, 19/02/08 - Iran has suggested that it will boycott Dutch products if MP Geert Wilders shows his Koran film in March as planned. The Iranian parliament yesterday urged "the Dutch and Danish governments not to let the Zionism materialize its satanic objectives in the name of honourable nations of Holland and Denmark," according to Iranian press agency IRNA. This apparently was a reference to republication of controversial cartoons b a Danish newspaper and to Wilders' film plans. "We, the representatives of parliament, condemn the satanic act, and call on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to show strong reaction to such sacrilege...

For four years, a list of alleged Republican positions -- "What You Have To Believe To Be a Republican Today" -- has been circulating on the Internet and forwarded in countless e-mails. In this presidential election year, it is important to respond to these charges. If people want to vote for a Democratic president, they should not do so based on falsehoods about Republicans. Given space limitations, I cannot respond to all of them. I have decided to respond to the 13 most significant. "What you have to believe to be a Republican today": 1. "Saddam was a good guy...

"United States policy must continue to stand with the Cuban people and against those who have oppressed, terrorized, and murdered so many Cubans over the past half-century. This was my position when I served in the Senate; it is my position today; it will be my position as President. Fidel and Raul Castro are unaccountable dictators who can serve no role in Cuba’s future. We must continue supporting the growing internal opposition in Cuba while also denying the regime any source of funding that could prop up this cruel, illegitimate government. This means keeping current sanctions in place, and increasing...

(snip) But the Fred Thompson campaign just sent out a reminder to reporters about Mike Huckabee’s more lenient attitude toward Fidel Castro. (snip) Huckabee: Mr. President, Lift the Cuban Embargo Summary: In 2002, Governor Huckabee strongly advocated lifting the embargo against Cuba saying it “harm[s] our own agricultural and business interests,” “has not helped the people of Cuba” and has “provided Castro with a convenient excuse for his own failed system of government.” (snip) “‘The United States’ policy of unilateral embargo against Cuba continues to harm our own agricultural and business interests here at home and has certainly not helped...

"Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where, Nor a drop to drink." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ----------------------------------------------------- Iran isn’t an energy-independent country. I’m well aware that Iran produces more than 4 million barrels of oil per day, the fourth-highest production in the world. And with the near-constant reporting about Iranian crude reserves during the past six months, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could be unaware that Iran has 132 billion barrels in proven reserves--or, at least, they claim to. But what’s often ignored is that...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

Based on a complaint lodged by Cuba’s foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, the United Nations may declare that the United States’ long running embargo of the island nation is illegal. “The Cuban complaint makes a persuasive case that the US embargo has contributed to human rights abuses in Cuba,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. “Because of the embargo, the Cuban government has been unable to acquire supplies from America to upgrade their facilities. As a result, political prisoners are being housed in filthy and decrepit buildings, locked up in rusted manacles and beaten with cracked and splintered clubs. So...

(CBS4) CORAL GABLES -- Presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd would end a decades-old trade embargo with Cuba and lift travel restrictions to the island if elected, he said Saturday in Coral Gables. The Democratic senator from Connecticut also said he would open an embassy in Havana and shut down TV Marti, a U.S. government-run television station that broadcasts to Cuba. "Other than the war in Iraq, no other American policy is more broadly unpopular internationally," Dodd said of the United States' policy toward Cuba. Dodd said as president he would seek a repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the...