Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Reckless doesn't mean not dangerous. Quite the opposite. They may fail spectacularly, or be wildly successful. One thing I believe we can count on is that they will take risks, act swiftly, and burn as many assets as they have to along the way in order to do what Khamenei wants."

PM: leaders in our region "have no moral compunctions about killing their neighbors and their own people alike." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delieverd a terse retort Sunday to the threats issued Friday by Iran's "supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and tied it to events in Syria.

Iran warns world of coming great event Says 'evil hegemony' soon will be defeated by power of Allah (snip) Khamenei then claimed the current century as the century of Islam and promised that human history is on the verge of a great event and that soon the world will realize the power of Allah. (snip) Mahdi will reappear at the time of Armageddon. Selected forces within the Revolutionary Guards and Basij reportedly have been trained under a task force called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi” and they will bear the responsibility of security and protecting the regime against uprisings. Many in...

SNIPPET: "While these various elements of the jihadist network are distinct, the Internet brings them together, especially at the grassroots level. Videos, websites and online magazines indoctrinate aspiring militants in the jihadist ideology and provide a forum for like-minded individuals and groups."

12/13/2011 20:04 Detained officials had invited Iran's supreme leader to visit weapons depot same day as explosion, Al Arabiya reports. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamenei has ordered the arrest of a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards he suspects of planning to assassinate him, pan-Arab news Channel Al Arabiya reported Tuesday. Khamenei demanded an investigation of the detainees, "and others," about the alleged assassination plot, an "informed source in Iran" told the Emirati news station.

A rapid succession of challenges directed at Iran in recent days has reignited a debate in Tehran over how to deal with the rest of the world. Iran's rulers, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continue to refuse any negotiations in which they would have to compromise. But an influential faction is now pushing for back-channel talks with the United States as a step toward lowering the tensions raised by U.S. allegations about an Iranian assassination plot. In urging that Iran do more to address foreign criticism, members of the group have also pointed to the rising international pressure...

According to several recent reports, the Obama administration is now considering more forceful action against Iran in Iraq. This is as understandable as it was inevitable; as I wrote many months before the invasion of Iraq, it is folly to expect to maintain decent security there so long as the current regime remains in power in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his henchmen cannot tolerate the existence of a free, stable democratic society in its Shi’ite neighbor to the West, nor in Afghanistan to the East. The Iranian tyrant is threatened by an ongoing mass uprising by his own...

On 11 August, the Iranian daily Kayhan was forced to quote only two sources supporting the “Imam” title for Khamenei. One is the Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. He is quoted as saying “I kiss the hand of Imam Khamenei”. The other is an unnamed “leader of the Muslim Brotherhood” who told Kayhan “Imam Khamenei is a source of inspiration for our movement.” In any case, among Arabs, the title of Imam does not have the same meaning and resonance as in Iran. According to Iranian researcher Babak Zamani, more than 600 foreign-born militants occupy key positions at all levels...

In a single day earlier this week, the Iranian parliament dealt three blows to the presidency of Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who has become a political punching bag as the result of a continuing power struggle with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The battle has heated up over Ahmadinejad’s repeated attempts to make inroads into Khamenei’s spheres of influence. Ahmadinejad and his entourage, which counts among its ranks former Revolutionary Guard members who fought in the Iran-Iraq War, are under attack from Khamenei’s camp, comprising senior clerics, conservative politicians and rival Revolutionary Guard commanders. On June 21, the parliament launched impeachment proceedings against...

To jump or not to jump? For Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that has become the question. Not long ago, Mr. Ahmadinejad was regarded as the most powerful of the five presidents the Islamic Republic in its three decades of existence. With the opposition "green" movement almost silenced, his administration faced no serious challenge within the Khomeinist movement establishment. Ahmadinejad also marked some success selling his doctrine of "Iranian Islam" as a substitute for the hotchpotch concocted by Ayatollah Khomeini. Translated into 30 languages, his authorised biography, "Ahmadinejad: The Miracle of the Century", was supposed to have sold a million copies....

Syrian protesters burn pictures of Hezbollah's Nasrallah & Iran's Khamenei.

There is much turbulence in the Iranian government today. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is not happy that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi last month. He has now given Ahmadinejad an ultimatum to either re-instate Moslehi or resign. A sullen Ahmadinejad caught a bad case of the “blue flu,” and stopped showing up for work. According to the BBC, one of his aides wrote a blog post that said the Iranian president “is in pain, as if a thorn is stuck in his throat… he cannot take it out or swallow in.” Try that one the next time...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state affairs, issues ultimatum after vetoing President Ahmadinejad's decision last month to dismiss Heydar Moslehi; according to website Ayandeh the president is yet to respond. The website Ayandeh quoted presidential advisor, Morteza Aqa-Tehrani, saying that in a meeting this week between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, the ayatollah has pushed the president to either accept Moslehi or resign. Ahmadinejad has not yet responded with a final decision on the supreme leader's ultimatum, Agha-Tehrani added. The Ayandeh report is yet to be confirmed by official or local media. Khamenei firmly supported...

A political dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader is reported to have intensified. Ahmadinejad is said to be contemplating resigning after Heidar Moslehi, the intelligence minister he had sacked, was reinstated by Khamenei. The president is understood to have shirked some of his duties and skipped cabinet meetings for the past ten days in anger over the decision. Mehrdad Khonsari, an analyst with the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the dispute, which began last month, had become "serious". "It shows the level...

Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits). Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds". The arrests come amid a growing rift...

Images uploaded on the social networking site YouTube showed what is purported to be anti-government protesters in a Tehran street. Reuters is unable to verify the footage as foreign media are banned from covering protests from the streets... Meanwhile, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday that the daughter of Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was released after being detained briefly for taking part in anti-government protests. The former president remains a powerful figure in Iran as head of what's known as the Expediency Council.

IDF Northern Command believes regime in Iran may initiate attack if it feels under pressure due to anti-government protests. Talkbacks (10) Tehran could activate Hezbollah forces to attack Israel along the northern border in an effort to stave off domestic pressures within Iran, according to assessments in the IDF’s Northern Command. The concern within the army is that if the regime in Tehran feels under pressure due to anti-government demonstrations it will try to initiate an attack on an Israeli target – either overseas or near the border – to divert attention from its own troubles. Demonstrations picked up speed...

Israel cannot allow ill-advised Western leaders or ill-willed pundits to propagate new myths that make Israel the fall guy for Western fears of a crumbling Middle East. Back to Iran. It’s Iran, not Israel, Stupid by David M. Weinberg BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 130, February 20, 2011 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: An insidious new mythology is being advanced that replaces the Iranian threat with the “Israeli threat” to Middle East stability. This has the scent of incitement against, and demonization of, Israel. Political attention must be redirected where it most urgently belongs: to the Iranian contagion that is inflaming the region....

Green Movement leaders have been particularly incensed by the government's perceived double standards in condemning the Mubarak regime's violent suppression of protests when Iranian security forces used equally brutal tactics to quell mass demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009, which Musavi and Karrubi say was stolen. The official Iranian line was expressed by the parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, on February 10 when he told Al-Jazeera: "The Egyptians have a peaceful protest. Why are they reacting to them with bullets and violence?"

The Islamic Republic of Iran is run by evil megalomaniacs, starting with the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They are intent on hastening the arrival of the 12th Imam, the latest in the succession of imams believed  by some Islamic Shiite fundamentalists to be the direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad and the carriers of his message on earth. The 12th Imam, named  Muhammad al-Mahdi, is said to have been born in present-day Iraq in 869 AD and is still alive, waiting to come out of hiding at the appropriate time.  Hence, his alternative name: the...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday called on Muslims to "remove" the US from the Islamic world. "The main problem in the Muslim world is the presence of the United States. It is the biggest problem. We need to address that," he told a gathering of Shiite and Sunni scholars in Tehran for an international conference on Islam. "It is necessary to remove the US from the Islamic world," the all-powerful cleric and Islamic republic's commander-in-chief said, adding that the country's arch-foe was currently weak. Khamenei urged Muslims worldwide to preserve the "people's movement in Egypt," saying it...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted "cancerous" Israel today, a day after its premier Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the planned passage of Iranian warships through the Suez Canal. "The fake Zionist government is a cancerous tumor and the cause of different diseases and political, economic calamity in the region," the commander-in-chief of Iran told officials while marking the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed which in the Shiite calender fell on Monday. "The arrogance (Iran's standard term of abuse for the United States) is doing its best to preserve this war-mongering tumor, but today the hatred of regional...

Iran and Bolivia will "stick by each other" said hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday, in comments sure to provoke concern in Washington. Ahmadinejad's statements came at a joint press conference with leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales in Tehran. He said the two government weren't interested in U.S. concerns about their close ties. "We will stick by each other's side and will be supportive of each other. (I) had extensive talks with Mr. Morales on this," he said. "The geographical distance between the two countries is long but our hearts, thoughts and wills are very close." Ahmadinejad also praised Morales...

Lebanese Labor Minister Boutros Harb has said that the UN investigation on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri results will be released Monday, Army Radio reported. A UN tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is expected to accuse Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of giving the order to murder Hariri, according to a Saturday report by news website Newsmax. The report suggested that the investigative body will lay out evidence showing that the murder was committed by Iran's Quds force and their allies, Hizbullah in Lebanon. The order to murder Hariri was...

In a rare public challenge to the Iranian regime, the country’s highest-ranking cleric has warned that prisoners’ confessions are invalid, signalling a deepening gulf between the political establishment in Tehran and clerical establishment in the holy city of Qom. “Confessions of prisoners have no validity and if a judge uses confessions for issuing verdicts that judge is no longer qualified,” Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani told students this week, according to domestic websites including Parlemannews, which is run by reformist parliamentarians. His statement is not only a religious decree that his followers must obey but a warning from the country’s...

Iranian students burn Koran Amirkabir University - Tehran, Iran December 7, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv4r_zKVTVo

A U.N. investigative body is expected to ignite tensions in the coming weeks when it releases its report on the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Sources familiar with the investigation tell Newsmax that the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon will accuse Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of giving the order to murder Hariri, and will lay out evidence showing that the murder was committed by Iran's Quds force and their allies, Hezbollah in Lebanon. The order to murder Hariri was transmitted to Imad Mugniyeh, Hezbollah's military leader, by Quds force chief Qassem Suleymani, sources familiar with the...

Iranian filmmaker and journalist Mohammad Nourizad has written an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arguing that the United States does more to protect religious freedom and moral values than Iran, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Nourizad -- who has been in Tehran's Evin prison since August --- wrote in his letter on October 10 that since Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election, violations of people's privacy has become more common. He said religious mobs have attacked the home of Ayatollah Yusef Sanei, a critic of Khamenei. In the United States, by contrast, he said personal privacy is strictly protected...

The hangman of Tehran may soon get a taste of his own medicine. Over the last decade, Saeed Mortazavi has jailed dozens of journalists and reformist politicians and was instrumental in squashing the opposition Green Movement after last year's presidential election. He was openly associated with some of the regime's worst post-election abuses. But in August he was stripped of his judicial immunity, and a Tehran prosecutor named him as the lead person accused in the abuses at Kahrizak prison, a notorious detention facility where at least three people were killed and a handful of others claimed they were raped.

BBC Persian is reporting that opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi has made a pointed intervention with a letter to former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in Rafsanjani's capacity as the head of the Assembly of Experts. Karroubi's letter, sent to Rafsanjani just before this week's bi-annual Assembly meeting, called on the Assembly to exercise its powers to "monitor the functions and institutions under the auspices of Iran's Supreme Leader". Karroubi cited problems such as "a lack of independence of the judiciary and courts", the interference of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and Basij militia in political issues, and the IRGC's expanded involvement in...

Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran’s opposition leader has accused the government of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad of suspending government projects believing in the superstition of the arrival of the last Shiite Imam Mohammedi Mehdi, reported by several local and regional Media outlets last week. “Some government officials have predicted the coming of Mahdi soon. Therefore, the government has halted working on several important projects,” said Mousavi. Mousavi, leader of Iran's so-called Green Movement, lost last year’s highly disputed presidential elections to Ahmadinejad. Since then, he as well as many others have not recognized Ahmadinejad as president believing that election results where...

The Islamic Republic supreme leader's office issued one of the most important orders issued by the country's second leader. In sum, the order states that everyone must obey Mr. Khamenei. The order to obey Mr. Khamenei is issued by himself while in recent days political activists have sent multiple letters to ayatollah Khamenei questioning his credentials and qualifications for leadership. Most prominently, imprisoned journalist Isa Saharkhiz listed charges against the leader in court. According to the text published on ayatollah Khamenei's website, responding to a question about how one must obey the leader, he referred to himself as a "branch...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Wednesday called on Muslims to fight the "blind and savage terrorism" fueled by U.S. and Britain, whom he blamed for deadly bombings of an Iranian mosque.

Hi waitress, I’ll take a well-done hamburger with a side order of Xanax, please. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has out-crazied Ahmadinejad, who only wrote letters to the Hidden Imam in the Jamkaran well and said he was guided by God in preparing the way for the Imam’s intervention. According to a senior cleric, Khamenei is telling his inner circle that he has actually met the Hidden Imam and that he promised to appear during Khamenei’s tenure as Supreme Leader. Yikes. I can only think of three reasons that Khamenei would tell his advisors this: 1) He’s lying, and he’s...

Iran regime weakened: divisions exposed one year after disputed presidential election Deep divisions have emerged within the Iranian leadership in the run-up to Saturday's first anniversary of the hotly disputed presidential election contest that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. By Con Coughlin and Ahmad Vahdat Published: 7:00AM BST 12 Jun 2010 Factional infighting fuelled by a series of splits since the vote was exposed as rigged last year have come to a head with a row over an attack on attack on the family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution. The dispute has further eroded...

What could have made Iran's supreme leader so visibly angry? The extraordinary photo above -- posted to the website of Iran's hard-line Fars news agency but then quickly taken down -- shows supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at center with his hand raised, extremely angry after the conclusion of the June 4 ceremony commemorating the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. During that event, hard-line supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began angrily shouting down Khomeini's grandson, Hassan -- who appears in a black turban at the top right corner of the picture -- as he delivered a speech...

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been increasingly defying its clergy sponsors, according to a new report. The American Enterprise Institute asserted that IRGC was ignoring the directives and policies of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. In a report by analyst Ali Alfoneh, AEI said IRGC has become a force in Iranian politics as well as a state within a state. "Despite ideological congruity between Khamenei and the IRGC leadership, this could prove dangerous for Khamenei, who may find it difficult to subject the guards to his will while the IRGC develops into a state within the state and Khamenei...

Iranian intelligence is working with the military and security forces to draft and implement measures against the West. Officials said the measures were meant to counter destabilization campaigns by Britain, Israel and the United States. "Today, the main priority of the country is to confront the soft warfare that aims to create doubt, discord and pessimism among the masses of people," Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei said. Officials unveiled elements of Iran's strategy during a conference in January 2010. They said Teheran's aim was to block the Western campaign to overthrow the mullah regime by inciting massive unrest. "Currently, enemies...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

Yesterday Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [Feb. 11] in a way that will leave them stunned," Today, despite the objections of the US and its allies, Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level bringing the Islamic republic closer to having nuclear weapons. Meanwhile in the country Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says should be "wiped off the face of the earth", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for immediate and crippling sanctions against Iran

Khamenei, whose public statements should be taken seriously, is promising some sort of devastating “punch” against the West on Thursday the 11th, the same day as the Green Movement is calling for a monster protest against his regime. What might he have in mind? I don’t know; they say a lot of things just for effect, but threats/promises from the supreme leader have a certain standing. If I were an Israeli official, I’d recheck my information on Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Some think he’s preparing some kind of attack against Israel. Surely there has been no shortage in...

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel. The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to...

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel. The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to...

(AFP) – 29 minutes ago TEHRAN — Iran's all powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution would be a "punch" to the world's "arrogant" powers that would stun them. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is confident Islamic nations will one day watch the destruction of arch-foe Israel, his website Wednesday quoted him as saying.

Iraqi MP Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: Iraq Should Use Mujahideen-e Khalq and Iranian Opposition Groups against Iran The following are excerpts from an interview with Iraqi MP Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din, which aired on Al-Aan TV (UAE) on January 9, 2010. According to his website Ayad Jamal Al-Din was elected to Iraqi parliament in 2005 on the Iraqi National List, but grew disenchanted with the Iraqi government and founded the Al-Ahrar party, which he heads, and is running as a candidate in the 2010 Iraq elections. ·         To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2347.htm.·         For more on...

-excerpt- The rift between the clerical establishment and the regime has significantly widened during the past six months. Slowly but surely, even some of the most conservative ayatollahs began to distance themselves from both. Last month, grand ayatollah Javadi Amoli, who performs Friday prayers in Qom, announced his resignation. In his departure statement, he expressed his frustration with the lack of listening on the part of the Supreme Leader: "When the Friday imam articulates the problems that people face and those problems are resolved, it is evidence that he has expressed them well. But if the problems are not resolved,...

LONDON (Jan. 5) -- Iran's supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, likes to portray himself as a simple man of faith, interested only in spiritual -- not material -- wealth. But an exiled Iranian filmmaker says that behind this frugal front, Khamenei luxuriates in an opulent lifestyle supported by an ill-gained fortune of about $30 billion. Celebrated director and Iranian opposition spokesman Mohsen Makhmalbaf laid out his exhaustive evidence of Khamenei's highlife on his personal Web site (a translated version can be read here), after interviewing ex-Intelligence Ministry officials and former Khamenei household employees who have fled abroad. His sources...

The mayhem that has swept over Iran in the past few days is once more calling into question the Islamic Republic's longevity. Recent events are eerily reminiscent of the revolution that displaced the monarchy in 1979... In the aftermath of recent disturbances, however, it is obvious that the lifespan of the Islamic Republic has been considerably shortened.

A catalogue of the private opulence and eccentric tastes of 70-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei and his family has been compiled by Iran's opposition Green Movement from the accounts of the defector, who is said to be in hiding in France. Among his claims are that Ayatollah Khamenei has a voracious appetite for trout and caviar; is an avid hoarder of collectables from bejewelled pipes to fine horses; and that he suffers regular bouts of depression which are treated in part by audiences with a mid-ranking mullah who tells vulgar jokes.