Free Republic

Freedom: Young Iranians had a surprise Wednesday for mullah rulers celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran: angry protests. Why aren't we giving them more support? The big hate-America bacchanal was to commemorate the glorious crime against the U.S. 30 years ago, when "student" hoods stormed our sovereign embassy, preened before TV cameras, danced around with rifles and paraded dozens of blindfolded U.S. diplomats, military men and CIA officers as hostages. Then-President Jimmy Carter, whose sanctimonious refusal to get tough helped lengthen the ordeal to 444 days, enabled these terrorists to consolidate their "revolution,"...

Obama: “wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran” Obama Administration on Anniversary of Embassy and Hostage Seizure in Iran: We're trying to be Friends! By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.com Will Rogers, the great American comedian of the 1920s and 1930s, famously said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” The problem with the Obama Administration, at least so far, is that it has never met an enemy that it could identify as such.Of course, the story isn’t over yet. Indeed, one does see signs of change. But we are still...

The source of anti-American Islamic Terrorism started today, Nov 4, 1979, in Tehran, Iran. Thank You Jimmy Carter, for abandoning the Shah

Since his arrest last July -- he was accused of helping to plan the post-election uprisings -- Kian's family and friends have made countless appeals for clemency to the Iranian government, written letters to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pleading his innocence, and signed dozens of petitions. All to no avail. I've come now to realize that the regime probably thinks we're obtuse. Indeed, they know better than anyone that Kian is an innocent man. As the expression goes in Persian, "da'va sar-e een neest," i.e. that's not what this fight is about.

Police are negotiating with a gunman reported to be holding as many as nine hostages in the Workers' Compensation Board building in downtown Edmonton. Edmonton police spokesman Jeff Wuite said authorities received a report Wednesday of a man armed with a hunting rifle inside the building, which is close to the legislature for the western Canadian province. "Now that we have communication with the suspect, we feel good that we can move forward to resolving it," Wuite said. "We want to find out what this guy wants and what we can do to end this peacefully."

MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - An Iranian court has released on a $300,000 bail a Newsweek journalist with dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential elections in June, Iranian media said. Maziar Bahari, 42, who worked as a Newsweek reporter since 1998, was arrested on June 21 during the post-vote protests in Tehran "for his role in instigating events occurred after the presidential election," the Press TV said. "Bahari was released on 3 billion rials ($300,000) bail from Evin prison on Saturday night," the semi-official Islamic Labor News Agency said citing a judiciary source. Bahari...

Iran's state-run media says the government has released an Iranian-Canadian journalist on bail almost four months after he was arrested following the country's disputed presidential election. The Islamic Republic News Agency says Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was freed from Tehran's Evin Prison on Saturday evening after posting bail of 3 billion rials ($300,000), citing the Tehran prosecutor's office. Newsweek confirmed the release in a statement posted on its Web site.

Military officials in Pakistan say a siege by militants near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured. The violence began just before midday Saturday when a group of heavily armed militants in army uniforms tried to enter the Pakistani military headquarters. As soon as they were stopped at a main check post, the attackers lobbed several grenades and opened fire with automatic weapons on the...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistani commandos raided a building inside army headquarters early Sunday and freed 22 people held hostage for more than 18 hours by Islamist militants, a military spokesman said. Three captives and four militants were killed in the operation. Explosions and gunshots rang out as commandos moved into a building in the complex just before dawn, while a helicopter hovered in the sky. Three ambulances were seen driving out of the heavily fortified base close to the capital, Islamabad. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said "mopping up" operations were still under way, but it appeared the crisis...

ngrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician held hostage for more than six years by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, told CBC News in an exclusive interview that her captors despised her. "I was a politician. They hated politicians. I was a person with some education. They had none, so they thought I [had] a privileged social background and they hated me for that," Betancourt told the CBC's Mellissa Fung in an excerpt from an interview that will air on The National on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would seek “maximum lenience” for three American hikers who have been held since crossing the country’s border nearly two months ago. In an interview with The Associated Press in advance of U.N. General Assembly meetings, the Iranian leader said the hikers broke the law and did not elaborate on what lenience would mean. But his message was more conciliatory that usual, coming just days after Ahmadinejad said he was proud to be a Holocaust-denier. He explicitly said that his country was not building nuclear weapons and was not a threat to America. "I heard...

Tributes have been paid to a soldier killed during the rescue of a journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan. Corporal John Harrison, 29, from the Parachute Regiment, was described as "a wonderful son, brother and a dedicated soldier" by his family. He died in a daring pre-dawn operation on Wednesday to rescue Stephen Farrell, a reporter with the New York Times. Mr Farrell, who holds dual British and Irish citizenship, was successfully released during the raid but his Afghan interpreter Sultan Munadi also died. Cpl Harrison's family said: "We are absolutely heartbroken. "John was a wonderful son, brother and a dedicated soldier...

KABUL — British commandos freed a New York Times reporter early Wednesday from Taliban captives who kidnapped him over the weekend in northern Afghanistan, but one of the commandos and a Times' translator were killed in the rescue, officials said. Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday. German commanders had ordered U.S. jets to drop bombs on two hijacked fuel tankers, causing a number of civilian casualties, and reporters traveled to the area to cover the story Two military officials told The Associated Press that one British commando died...

NATO troops released a kidnapped New York Times reporter in Northern Afghanistan in a raid before dawn on Wednesday, after he had been held for four days, an Afghan district chief said. Reporter Stephen Farrell, who is British, was abducted on Saturday along with his Afghan interpreter while attempting to visit the scene of a NATO air strike.

A New York Times reporter taken hostage by militants was rescued from a hide-out in northern Afghanistan early Wednesday in a daring raid that left his translator, a British soldier and civilians dead. Journalist Stephen Farrell was kidnapped Saturday while interviewing villagers in the northern province of Kunduz about NATO air strikes that reportedly left as many as 90 people dead. Farrell's interpreter, one of the British commandos sent to rescue them and several others died when a firefight broke out during the raid. According to the Times, Farrell called an editor at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and declared, "I'm out!...

According to reports from Afghanistan, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell and his driver/interpreter have been kidnapped while attempting to cover the story of the NATO airstrike on the two Taliban-hijacked tankers in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The local Afghan press is reporting on Farrell's kidnapping; however, the international press and the wires services have been silent on this issue. Multiple sources in Afghanistan tell me that The New York Times is attempting to suppress the reporting on Farrell's kidnapping. Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/2009/09/nyt_reporter_kidnapped_in_kund.php#ixzz0QO1gsSUt

The two American television reporters imprisoned in North Korea for over four months have written an article describing the circumstances surrounding their arrests and detention, claiming they were arrested on Chinese soil. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who work for the American Current TV channel, were arrested in March and put on trial after allegedly crossing the North Korean border without entry permits and sentenced to 12-years in a labour camp.... In the lengthy article posted on Current TV's website, the women said they never intended to cross a frozen river into North Korea and were “firmly back” on Chinese...

Note: The following text is a quote: Madhatta Haipe Extradited to U.S. for 1995 Hostage Taking Involving U.S. and Philippine Citizens WASHINGTON—The Justice Department today announced that Madhatta Haipe, a citizen of the Philippines, has been extradited from the Philippines to face trial in the District of Columbia for various crimes relating to the hostage taking of U.S. and Philippine citizens in 1995. Haipe was arrested Aug. 27 upon his arrival in the United States and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in federal court in the District of Columbia to face a seven-count indictment filed on...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia has escaped, reportedly by killing three of his captors, Somali officials said Wednesday.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month was a free man Wednesday and under protection at the presidential palace, officials said. There were conflicting reports over whether the man escaped or was released and whether he had killed three of his captors. The fate of another French security agent kidnapped with him was not immediately clear. Farhan Asanyo, a Somali military officer, told The Associated Press that the man came up to government soldiers early Wednesday, identified himself and said he had escaped after killing three of his captors. -snip-

SNIPPET: "From the days of Prophet Muhammad, sexual terror has been an integral part of Islamic Jihad. The siege of the Beslan School by Islamic Jihadis in 2004 was no exception as reveals Dr. Schurman-Kauflin. -- Editor, MA Khan Excerpt from Chapter 1, “Disturbed: Terrorist Behavioral Profiles” (2008) On September 1, 2004, terrorists stormed a school in Beslan, Russia, and perpetrated one of the most heinous terror attacks in history. Though many people may have heard of this attack, it is very likely that most do not know what really happened there. The reality is so dark that few dare...

The military airlifted the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea and most of its Russian crew from Cape Verde to Moscow on Thursday, after the lumber freighter mysteriously vanished and reappeared in the Atlantic. Eleven of the 15 crew members arrived in Moscow, while the captain and three sailors remained on the ship, which was adrift about 200 nautical miles from the West African island nation of Cape Verde. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the freighter was sailing to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The sailors and their suspected captors arrived in two separate Il-76 cargo jets at the...

MOSCOW - Russia's navy arrested eight men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea freighter near Sweden and forcing the crew to sail to West Africa, the defense minister said Tuesday

Russia has arrested eight people who hijacked the merchant ship Arctic Sea, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Tuesday. Serdyukov was quoted as saying that the hijackers of the ship, whose disappearance baffled maritime authorities for weeks, included nationals from Russia, Estonia and Latvia.

Myanmar freed an ailing American whom it had sentenced to seven years of hard labor and handed him to an influential U.S senator on Sunday, a move that could help persuade Washington to soften its hardline policy against the military regime. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who secured John Yettaw's freedom, said he believes years of sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

John William Yettaw thought he was on a mission from God to save Aung San Suu Kyi. But the American ended up inadvertently extending her house arrest. It started with his now infamous swim in May. Overweight, asthmatic and suffering from borderline diabetes, he arrived at the back door of the Nobel Peace laureate's home and lay down exhausted, with cramps in both legs. Suu Kyi's two companions heard him moaning but let him in only after dawn. Then Suu Kyi herself told him to get out, allowing him to stay two nights when he complained of ill health instead...

American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for Al Gore’s Current TV organization, are now back on American soil. The two were captured by North Korean security forces in March of this year under circumstances that remain in dispute. They were charged with espionage, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. Were the women captured on North Korean soil or on Chinese soil? And why were they there? Perhaps these mysteries will now be solved. But what we may never know is the price that the Obama Administration paid for their release. In a New York...

A search is under way for a cargo ship which may have travelled through the English Channel after apparently being hijacked by pirates. Coastguards fear the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, carrying 15 Russian crew, was hijacked in the Baltic sea. UK authorities made contact before it entered the Strait of Dover but the Russian navy told the Itar-Tass agency it was now looking for the ship. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the situation was "bizarre". Spokesman Mark Clark said: "Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?...

An Italian tugboat and its crew of 16, seized by Somali pirates four months ago, has been released. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini expressed his satisfaction at the outcome after months of negotiations. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on April 11. On board was a crew of 10 Italians, 5 Romanians and one Croatian. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that the Somali prime minister informed him directly about the vessel's release and said it was the result of exceptional work on the part of Somalia authorities and Italian intelligence. Frattini said Italy was...

Former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton has returned from Pyongyang, North Korea, with Al Gore's employees Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two women, reporters for Gore's Current TV operation, were seized by North Korean border guards March 17 along the frozen Tumen River -- the border between North Korea and China. On June 8, following a five-day "trial," Pyongyang's Central Court convicted the women of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry" and sentenced them to 12 years' hard labor. On Tuesday, Aug. 4, Mr. Clinton, accompanied by a doctor and his former chief of staff John...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) - A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar's council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American's fate. It was the first news of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban video was released July 18. Maulvi Sangin, an insurgent commander for eastern Afghanistan, said the Taliban's governing body was awaiting a response to demands it made to the U.S. for his return. "The American's fate is in the hand of (leadership), which is waiting until...

From the BNO Newsroom. TEHRAN, Iran (BNO NEWS) -- Three Americans arrested in Iran after crossing into the country on a hiking trip on the Iraqi border have been transferred to Tehran, a U.S. official told ABC News on Friday. Shane Bouer, a freelance journalist and Arabic language student from Minnesota, Joshua Fattal, a student and environmental worker from Oregon, and Sarah Shourd, a Californian writer and teacher in the Middle East, have been in Iranian custody since July 31. The three apparently strayed off course during their hiking trip on the mountainous border of Iraq. Kurd officials met with...

On July 14, in the lawless African nation of Somalia, two French men registered as journalists were eating breakfast at the Sahafi Hotel in Mogadishu. Heavily armed gunmen stormed the hotel. According to Reuters, they went room to room looking for the two men. After being located and abducted, the French citizens were turned over to al-Qaeda’s arm in Somalia, a group called al-Shabaab — this according to Lieutenant-Colonel Muhideen Ahmed, a Somalian police official. To date, they remain hostages. In a bizarre twist, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner went on record saying that the two men were actually posing...

TOKYO — As former U.S. President Bill Clinton left North Korea with two pardoned American journalists for home Wednesday, relatives of Japanese victims of North Korean abductions expressed a desire for someone to take action to settle their issue as well. ‘‘I want someone, no matter whether it is a private individual, to negotiate with North Korea...to bring the North to the table by encouraging and pressing it,’’ said Shigeru Yokota, 76, whose daughter Megumi was taken to the country in 1977 at age 13. Yokota appeared irritated at Pyongyang’s lack of action since promising to set up a panel...

Now that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are on their way home (to Los Angeles), I have a short list of things I do and do not want to hear from them, starting with any retch-inducing drivel about how well they were treated while they shouldn’t have been in (North Korean) captivity at all. Let’s make that the first thing on our list: 1. Please spare us the Stockholm Syndrome at LAX. Try to remember that you weren’t in North Korea to rob convenience stores, hide a dead hooker, or hand out boxer briefs infected with herpes. If things were...

They were arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV, the Green media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton brought two freed U.S. journalists out of North Korea early Wednesday following rare talks with reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, who pardoned the women sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally. Euna Lee and Laura Ling were heading back to the U.S. with Clinton, his spokesman Matt McKenna said, less than 24 hours after the former U.S. leader landed in the North Korean capital...

In 1847, David Pacifico, a Jew who had been born in British-held Gibraltar and was therefore a British subject, had his house burned down in Athens by an anti-Semitic mob. The Greek government refused to protect him or provide any restitution. Lord Palmerston, Britain’s foreign secretary, sent the Royal Navy to blockade Greece until it paid Pacifico’s demands. Critics charged that Palmerston was overreacting. The House of Lords even voted to censure him. But in the House of Commons, Palmerston carried the day with a magnificent five-hour oration in which he declared: “As the Roman, in days of old, held...

An aircraft believed to be carrying former US president Bill Clinton landed in North Korea on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. "We're aware that an aircraft from the US landed at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang at around 10:48 am (0148 GMT)," it quoted a Seoul official as saying on condition of anonymity. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report. The agency and Chosun Ilbo newspaper earlier reported Clinton was en route to the communist state to try to secure the release of two jailed US journalists.

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Longtime readers know my point of view on this: whether you are American or not, a “journalist” or not, if you go to Iran or North Korea, you knew the likely consequences, you assumed the risk, and I couldn’t care less about you. I care far more about those held in these totalitarian states against their will, not dumb, left-wing Americans who went there willingly. We have enough looming and present foreign and domestic policy problems to worry about. We don’t need to add people like Laura Ling and Roxana Saberi . . . and now, three “hikers” who are...

Via BNO News: Yonhap: Former U.S. President Clinton will visit North Korea on Tuesday to win the release of two detained American journalists. No link to story yet

Three Americans who were arrested after crossing into Iran have been accused of being spies, according to a local report. Tehran-based television news channel al-Alam quoted an Iraqi police officer as saying the trio were “working with the CIA.” The Swiss Embassy in Tehran was working to learn more about the Americans' fate through its contacts with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Nadine Olivieri said. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here It also emerged that an American linguistics student traveling in northern Iraq didn't go on an ill-fated hiking trip because he...

<p>Two of three hikers being detained in Iran are Bay Area residents and freelance journalists.</p> <p>Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, both UC Berkeley graduates, worked as freelance journalists affiliated with New American Media in downtown San Francisco, according to Sandy Close, executive director.</p>

Somali pirates holding a German ship with five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board have received a $2.7 million ransom and are counting it before releasing the ship, a pirate told Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An American linguistics student traveling in northern Iraq didn't go on an ill-fated hiking trip because he had a cold—a twist of fate that prevented him from mistakenly wandering into Iran where his three friends were reportedly detained. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran was working Sunday to learn more about the Americans' fate through its contacts with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Nadine Olivieri said. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran. Shon Meckfessel sat out the hike because he had a cold, his grandmother, Irene Meckfessel, told The Associated Press from her home in Carmichael, Calif....

IRAN'S state-owned Arabic-language al-Alam TV station has confirmed that three US citizens were arrested after crossing the border from Iraq. The report said the three Americans were detained on Friday after crossing into Iran's Kurdistan province. They were arrested after refusing to heed warnings from border guards.

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Iran state TV confirmed Saturday that it has detained three Americans who crossed the border from northern Iraq, saying they failed to heed warnings from Iranian guards. Kurdish officials from the self-ruled region in northern Iraq said the three—two men and a woman—were tourists who had mistakenly crossed into Iranian territory Friday while hiking in a mountainous area near the resort town of Ahmed Awaa. "The Iranians said they have arrested them because they entered their land without legal permission," said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdish regional government's envoy to Washington. Iran's state owned Arabic-language al-Alam TV...

I heard one news report on the radio when all of this happened a couple days back that talked about the 3 Americans captured in Iran, but haven't heard anything about it since, nor do any of the reports on the internet say anything about it. One was described as a teacher and a "campus activist", and another one was a "community activist". Anyone else here this?

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said American commanders are “sparing no effort” to locate a U.S. soldier who went missing early this month in Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters today during a Pentagon news conference, Gates also expressed his disgust at the exploitation of Army Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who the Defense Department identified as the missing soldier and who is featured in a video apparently released yesterday on the Internet by his captors. “Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier, and I also would say that my personal reaction was one...

While the Pentagon said Monday that troops are "sparing no effort" to find an American soldier captured by the Taliban, his godmother in Portland disputed increasing speculation that the 23-year-old may have deserted. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke at a Pentagon news conference Monday, condemned a video of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl released by the Taliban, saying he was disgusted by the exploitation of a prisoner. Members of Bergdahl's family, who live in central Idaho, released a statement through the local sheriff and turned down all requests for interviews. The circumstances of Bergdahl's capture on June 30 are not...