Free Republic

Vali Reza Nasr, a senior Obama administration advisor on Iran, has come to Iran. Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel may be behind the visit. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was informed well after Nasr entered the country," Tabnak reported on Wednesday. Nasr was appointed senior advisor to Richard Holbrooke -- the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tabnak and Fararu claim the unannounced trip by the US official to be linked to the recent release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

Thousands of Iranians chanted “Down with America” at a major anti-U.S. rally on Tuesday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just days ahead of a key meeting between the two nations’ top diplomats over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The gathering outside the former embassy compound in Tehran, which has become the annual venue for rallies commemorating the embassy attack and other American-bashing protests, was smaller compared to last year’s event, which drew tens of thousands – a sign of improved Iran-U.S. relations since moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office last year. But...

Peter Kassig, the latest hostage to be threatened with murder by Islamist extremists, is an American veteran who served in Iraq and whose decision to convert to Islam in captivity has so far failed to save his life. His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, remained silent for the past year in the hope their son's life would be spared but issued a statement after the video was released. They said their son had become a Muslim during his time in captivity, changing his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and that they had learned from other hostages that his faith had brought...

Former President Jimmy Carter marked his 90th birthday Wednesday with a lengthy interview on CNBC Meets where he discussed his one term in office and the one thing he would have handled differently — the Iran Hostage Crisis. Carter suggested Operation Eagle Claw, a failed 1980 attempt to rescue the hostages taken by Iranian revolutionaries at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, could have been successful if he committed one more helicopter to the mission. "I think I would have been re-elected easily if I had been able to rescue our hostages from the Iranians," said Carter. "And everybody asks me...

A French tourist captured in North Africa by a group aligned with the Islamic State is seen beheaded in a video circulated on Wednesday, according to SITE Intelligence, which tracks jihadist groups. The Frenchman — Hervé Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice — was abducted in Algeria on Sunday by the terrorist group, known as Jund al-Khilafah. Mr. Gourdel had arrived only a day before on a trip to go hiking in Algeria’s northern mountains.

Pro-ISIS fighters in Algeria released a video today of a hostage who was kidnapped this weekend. The hostage delivered a message to President Francois Hollande: “I am in the hands of Jund al-Khilifa, an Algerian armed group. This armed group is asking me to ask you (President Francois Hollande) to not intervene in Iraq. They are holding me as a hostage and I ask you Mr President to do everything to get me out of this bad situation and I thank you.” The pro-ISIS group gave France twenty-four hours to stop “the aggression against ISIL” or they will behead their...

When American journalist Theo Curtis was released in the Golan Heights late last month after being held in Syria by an Islamist group for nearly two years, a pair of FBI agents were waiting for him. One of the agents called Curtis’s mother to tell her that her son was finally safe. That moment was a high point — not only for Curtis’s family but also for the FBI agents based in the Washington field office working on the abduction. The FBI “deserves some credit for what it did for me,” Curtis said in an interview. (snip) The killings by...

After the administration released details of the July mission to rescue journalist James Foley and others in Syria, intelligence suggests ISIS dispersed the remaining hostages to multiple locations, making them harder to locate, a military source told Fox News. In addition, the source added guard forces around the hostages doubled while widely publicized reporting about the scope of new aerial surveillance in the region caused ISIS to change its pattern of behavior on the ground. "Any time you (disclose) very highly sensitive tactical information, you're giving away your road map if you will, your strategy," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas,...

The UN Security Council on Wednesday demanded the release of 45 Fijian peacekeepers held in the Golan Heights by Syrian Al-Nusra Front terrorists, according to AFP. The 15 members of the council unanimously approved a declaration condemning "in the strongest terms" the detention of the Fijians. They were captured almost a week ago, when the rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing. The council "reiterated their call for the peacekeepers' immediate and unconditional release," adding in its statement that "there can never be any justification for attacks on or the detention of UN peacekeepers." The government of Fiji also has called...

James Foley was one of a new breed of activists calling themselves journalists. He didn’t travel to report on a story, but to promote an agenda. And the agenda was obvious from his Twitter feed.Any human life lost is tragic, but a moral individual would have much more empathy for the Syrian Christians who suffered at the hands of Foley’s favorite Jihadists than one of their pet propagandists. Foley came to Syria to support the Sunni Islamist rebels against the Syrian government.He cheered on the Sunni Muslim terrorists fighting to ethnically cleanse the Christians of Aleppo. In the conflict...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think a lot of Americans watching that execution set-up we were just witness to, they would like to push the button and have all of the people killed. They can't stand what they saw. This will cause rage in this country to see the way they did this... No matter how we get into this, it is Obama's war now. I think he is saying that himself right there. They decapitated this guy on tape to get even with him for starting the war on ISIS. He's coming back. And we also have at least one other...

Senior Obama administration officials say the U.S. military launched a secret mission earlier this summer to rescue a number of Americans held captive by militants in Syria but failed to find them.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3190591/posts Alexander Khomchenko, volunteer rescued hundreds of women and children from hot spots, still held captive by the "DNI" After prayers, Alexander Khomchenko, Valera Yakubenko Roksolana taken by 16 militant terrorists to the SECURITY SERVICE building. After witnessing his interrogation, Roksolana released, and Alexander and Valera, packed in the trunk of the car and taken to the military enlistment office in Makeyevka. Prior to this, all personal items have undergone a thorough inspection. Alexander identity of the pastor of the Church was found considered as accusation against him already, and a few comments that NKVD workers considered defamatory. Back in...

A classified military assessment of Iraq’s security forces concludes that many units are so deeply infiltrated by either Sunni extremist informants or Shiite personnel backed by Iran that any Americans assigned to advise Baghdad’s forces could face risks to their safety, according to United States officials. The report concludes that only about half of Iraq’s operational units are capable enough for American commandos to advise them if the White House decides to help roll back the advances made by Sunni militants in northern and western Iraq over the past month. Adding to the administration’s dilemma is the assessment’s conclusion that...

About 200 Americans under contract with the Department of Defense at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq are trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad, according to WND sources. The sources, private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq, said Friday their former colleagues effectively have been abandoned by the U.S. military and are fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The U.S. contractors are at Balad to help the...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "An Iranian-backed Shia terror group that claims it seeks reconciliation with the Iraqi government has kidnapped a US civilian in Baghdad. The US recently released the top leader of the group under the guise of a reconciliation program, but the release actually was related to a hostage exchange. The Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US civilian contractor, in Baghdad in late January. Salomi went missing in Baghdad sometime after Jan. 23, the US Department of Defense noted in a press release on Friday. The League of the...

Family members of an American woman and Canadian man who went missing in Afghanistan in 2012 have released videos showing the couple captive. Caitlan Coleman, sat next to Joshua Boyle, appeals to "my president, Barack Obama" for help. The videos were emailed to Ms Coleman's family by an Afghan man months after she and Mr Boyle went missing. The families of the captive couple said they decided to make the videos public because of Bowe Bergdahl's release. They said their were disappointed the two were not freed as part of a prisoner swap deal that led to US soldier, Sgt...

Eight members of a military monitoring mission were captured on April 25 and are held hostage in the city of Sloviansk by pro-Russian separatist forces, OSCE said on Friday. The monitors were traveling by bus from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast, Ukraine's interior ministry said. “Communication with military observers in Donetsk lost,” OSCE said in its Twitter microblog. “The military verification team – led by Germans, and composed of eight members, (including) four Germans, one Czech, one Danish, one Polish and one Swedish.”

Yesterday, Ted Cruz had his first authored bill get signed into law, but the freshman Senator from Texas probably didn’t too excited by the victory. Despite unanimous support in both chambers of Congress for the new law, President Barack Obama sounded less than enthusiastic about enforcing the bill he signed yesterday that would block the proposed Iranian envoy to the UN from receiving an entry visa to the US: It’s the oddest of legislative couples: President Obama and one of his biggest critics, Ted Cruz.Obama on Friday signed a Cruz-backed bill aimed at blocking Iran’s appointed ambassador to the United...

Ukraine's state security service on Tuesday said that pro-Russian separatists have placed explosives in a building they seized in the eastern city of Luhansk and are using weapons to hold around 60 people against their will. Pro-Russian separatists occupied the SBU building on Sunday evening in one of a series of attacks in the east of the country. At least nine people were injured when the separatists broke doors and windows throughout the building and raised the Russian flag.