Free Republic

Am I writing about Islamic Iran or about America? What do you think? Other than the Iranian Mullah control of dissent with bloodshed, similarities are deafeningly apparent - for those who have the experienced eyes to see them. If like most Americans you are born, live and die within about 25 miles of your birthplace, you may not have the life experience nor studies of the world, to recognize that what is happening in Iran is a precursor , though still in diluted, infant form, of what is happening to us here in the USA today.

July 27, 2009, 0:00 a.m. End of DiscussionIn Iran, there is a growing consensus that it is time to move beyond Khomeinism. By Amir Taheri No one knows how the current Iranian insurrection, triggered by last month’s disputed presidential election, will end. However, one thing is already clear: The doctrine of walayat faqih (“government of the theologian�), the cornerstone of the Khomeinist system, is dead. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini invented the doctrine to justify the claim that he drew his legitimacy from Allah and was accountable solely to Him. In practice, walayat faqih was supposed to work the...

Under the headline of a call for unity, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani has actually ensured that the divisions in Iran will continue and possibly increase. Mr Rafsanjani's first public comments since the election were eagerly awaited. It was clear the government was extremely nervous: media coverage of Friday prayers was restricted. Some journalists and opposition supporters reported problems over being allowed access to the ceremony at Tehran University. No doubt there was a fierce battle behind the scenes for him to be allowed to speak. Open challengeSince the election more moderate voices appear to have been sidelined...

The past month in Iran has been harrowing for anyone who believes that human beings deserve freedom from tyranny. We have witnessed an election stolen by an old guard of conservative elements headed by the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei (I call this group KhamCo for short), followed by a popular uprising unparalleled since the 1979 revolution. This old guard trampled roughshod over the will and aspirations of the people of Iran with impunity, thinking that they could use the fact that there was an 85% turnout of the electorate in the June 12th presidential to legitimize the regime without...

In 1979, the return to Iran of an exiled cleric marked the start of the Islamic Republic. The death in June of Neda Soltan may herald the long-overdue fall of this moribund regime.

“This was the heyday of [Ayatollah] Khomeini’s theocratic vision, when Iran thought it really could export its revolution across the Middle East, providing money and arms to anyone who claimed he could upend the old order.” He may yet turn out to be the avatar of Iranian democracy, but three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the United States that included bloody attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. Mousavi, prime minister for most of the 1980s, personally selected his point man for the Beirut terror campaign, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, and dispatched...

Reliable sources report bomb blast at Khomeini's tomb. Report of at least one killed.

Update at 9:23 a.m. ET. Reports of a blast near Khomeini's shrine: Reuters writes that "a bomb exploded in Tehran on Saturday, killing one person and wounding two, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported. It said the blast occurred near the shrine of Iran's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini." NPR News has not independently confirmed the report.

thelastcrusade.org A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels, and so on. However, he should kill the animal after orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in the village; however, the selling of meat to people in a neighboring village is permissible. --Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Jimmy Carter has devolved from being America’s worst president to being America’s worst ex-president. The Ayatollah - - Carter’s misunderstood saint - - came to power and launched a bloodbath that resulted in the deaths of twenty-thousand pro-Western Iranians. Churches and synagogues were razed, cemeteries desecrated, and shrines...

From Worst President to Worst Ex-President MEET THE TRUE FATHER OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION:JIMMY CARTERbyPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels, and so on. However, he should kill the animal after orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in the village; however, the selling of meat to people in a neighboring village is permissible. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Jimmy Carter has devolved from being America’s worst president to being America’s worst ex-president. Earlier this week, Carter met with the Hamas government that gained control of Gaza two years ago,...

As the Obama administration prepares to engage Iran diplomatically, one question is paramount: Who are the men with whom the White House hopes to reach accommodation? In "Khomeini's Ghost," British journalist Con Coughlin finds some troubling answers. He identifies the "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final decision-maker in the Islamic Republic and thus the interlocutor for Obama. "The powers entrusted to the Supreme Guide . . . compare favorably to those claimed by Europe's fascist dictators . . . with the added benefit of claiming divine inspiration." Next to the supreme guide, Coughlin says the Islamic Revolutionary Guard,...

An Iranian Jew recalls how she fled to Britain after Islamic militants took over her country 30 years ago When 18-year-old Jilla Youseffi said goodbye to her parents one morning in early 1979, she had no idea whether she would ever see them again. Youseffi was leaving her home in a well-heeled suburb of Tehran for the last time, heading for a new life in Britain where she would be safe from persecution by Islamic fundamentalists. The teenager was one of a number of young Iranian Jews who were being sent out of the country by their parents following the...

On the official website of UK embassy in Iran, the Queen of England passes along her "warmest greetings" to genocidal Iranian mullahs in celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran: Queen Elizabeth's message to the Iranian people (09/02/2009) It gives me great pleasure to send the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran my warmest greetings on the celebration of your National Day, together with my best wishes for good fortune and happiness in the coming year. Barf!!! What's up with these Royals? We all know that Prince Charles may have already converted to Islam. I...

Sometimes a story just doesn't seem to be "all there." Cinnamon Stillwell suspected as much in a NewsBusters item on January 10: Call me overly suspicious, but the story of 16-year-old Farris Hassan traveling to Iraq on a whim strikes me as unbelievable. Hassan's interview with Rita Cosby of MSNBC, a Florida newspaper columnist's skepticism, and a January 18 posting by the Northeast Intelligence Network (NIN), which describes itself as "a small contingent of experienced investigators ..... founded by veteran private investigator Douglas J. Hagmann," all appear to confirm Stillwell's suspicions. What is known of Farris Hassan's saga at this...

TEHRAN (AFP) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran's Islamic revolution was not limited to its borders, as the country paid tribute to the man who led the overthrow of the shah 30 years ago. "The revolution is lively and alive after 30 years," Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the return from exile of the father of the revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "We are still at the beginning of the path and greater changes are ahead. This thunderous revolution will continue until justice is implemented," the firebrand president said. "Although the Islamic revolution happened...

Formal statistics are impossible to come by as killing of officers and non-commissioned members of the late-Shah's military and security forces were not centrally ordered. We have tried to gather numbers that are as reliable as possible but they are, at best, estimates. Usually very accurate estimates but we believe we have understated actual numbers. Here are some figures in no particular order, other than as they came in. 144 Air Force Pilots including the Nojeh attempted counter-revolution by the Air Force. (Nojeh is still a not fully told story we will write up as time permits. We have have...

Many of Barack Obama’s national security policies are sideways, backward-looking and re-treaded from the Carter Administration. As examples, Obama supports direct negotiations with the Iranian theocracy, opposes support for pro-Democracy Iranian groups, and advocates open lines of relations with the most corrupt members of this despicable regime. All of this works only to legitimize the dictatorship, both in the eyes of the beleaguered Iranian people and in the eyes of the world, friends and foes alike. if enacted, this would be another very dangerous and short-sighted strategic blunder, and one from which we may never recover.

TEHRAN, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) — An Iranian ayatollah died suddenly of a heart attack during an impassioned speech lashing out at insults against the family of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the run-up to elections, the press reported on Sunday. Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Tavassoli, a former head of Khomeini's office, died while delivering the speech to Iran's main arbitration body, the Expediency Council, of which he was a member, the Kargozaran daily reported. He had been responding to unprecedented ultra-conservative attacks against Hassan Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini's respected grandson, who had criticised mass disqualifications in the March election and...

The Day the Americans Sunk Khomeini's Navy Friday 11 January 2008 The other day in the Strait of Hormuz history repeated itself but, as always in such cases, only as farce. Five French-made speedboats flying the colors of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's parallel army, approached a US warship in a "threatening posture." When the Americans asked what the Iranians wanted, the answer came loud and clear: Move away or we will sink you! In response, the Americans trained their heavy guns on the tiny IRGC boats and prepared to fire. The incident ended with some huffing and...

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran, with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former member.

Paris, 1Sept. (IPS) By 1988, there was nothing left of the relatively free atmosphere people acquired for a short period after the Iranian revolution of 1979. The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)’s brutal machine of repression had already uprooted a great number of other thinkers. Thousands of activists and sympathisers of the opposition groups had been already arrested, tortured, forced to repent or summarily executed, and their political rallies and media were banned. The peak of atrocity was however a death-fatwa in summer of 1988 issued by Grand Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the IRI. The fatwa was initially...

Paris, 1Sept. (IPS) By 1988, there was nothing left of the relatively free atmosphere people acquired for a short period after the Iranian revolution of 1979. The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)’s brutal machine of repression had already uprooted a great number of other thinkers. Thousands of activists and sympathisers of the opposition groups had been already arrested, tortured, forced to repent or summarily executed, and their political rallies and media were banned. The peak of atrocity was however a death-fatwa in summer of 1988 issued by Grand Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the IRI. The fatwa was initially...

One of Iran's most powerful politicians has provoked controversy by suggesting that the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the country's Islamic revolution, wanted to drop its signature chant, Death to America. The claim is made by Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative and former president, in the newly-published latest volume of his memoirs, entitled Towards Destiny. Mr Rafsanjani discloses that a decision was made during Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, when he was speaker of the Iranian parliament and one of Khomeini's closest confidants. Recollecting a parliamentary session on July 4 1984, he writes: "Mr Imam-Mousavi [an MP] came and...

We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess. The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini. Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a...

No one knows Qom and its al Hawza al Ilmiya except those who have studied there; it is a difficult place to explore for strangers. One must remain in it for years to discover its hidden secrets, diversity and the truth about what goes on within it. Despite its fame, knowledge about its ideological trends is scarce, especially in light of the fact that Qom and al Hawza al Ilmiya are constantly changing. Hujjat al Islam Mohsen Kadivar may be the best person to speak about the hawza; he studied there for over 17 years, moving in the circles of...

The Myth of Moderate Mullahs It's still Khomeini's Iran http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/401lsgzo.asp If the Reagan administration had learned in 1987 that the clerical regime in Tehran was doing what it is doing today, would Washington have approved of preventive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities? If Reagan and company had seen Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini rapidly constructing uranium-enrichment centrifuges in underground facilities, pushing doggedly ahead on heavy-water research and a plutonium-making nuclear reactor, and spending profusely on the development of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that are effective weapons only if topped with WMD warheads, would more of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment have urged our...

When making a radical change, good sense requires that you consider the alternative. In 1978, the coalition that overthrew the Shah of Iran consisted of the bazaar merchants who disliked the Shah's move to modernize the economy, including the merchandising sector; representatives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization who objected to Iran's recognition of Israel; the Tudeh, Iranian communist party; the Mujadin, composed of students following their fashionable new-left ideology and the misled intelligentsia; all these under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers, fundamentalist Muslims who hated the Shah's regime for its tilt toward secularism, modernism, Westernization and...

Wednesday, Feb 14, 2007 (CBC) - Award-winning author and essayist Salman Rushdie got back into the classroom on Tuesday, teaching his first world literature class at Atlanta's Emory University. In addition to counting Rushdie as its writer-in-residence for the next five years, Emory is now also the holder of his literary archive, which includes journals, letters, e-mails, photos, unpublished works and manuscripts - including more than 1,000 typewritten pages from his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. Asked why he chose to donate his archive to Emory, a school which he had only visited once before for during a 2004 lecture...

Top News Story Western military buildup underway in the Middle East. Global Research published a major report on the military build-up of conventional, ground, air, naval, and nuclear forces in and around the Middle East and Central Asia. The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post reported that the clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.   US confident Russia and China will join in sanctions on Iran. The Washington Times reported that the United...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad to shake up his cabinet. Iran Press News reported that a source close to Ahmadinejad's cabinet said that in the coming days vast changes will be taking place within the administration. The first to leave will be the oil minister; Vaziri Hamaneh is expected to be dismissed from the cabinet.   Ahmadinejad fails to deliver his economic miracle. Inter Press Service reported that Iranian citizens are wondering if Ahmadinejad will ever make good on an election promise to crack down on the corrupt and distribute Iran's vast oil revenues more equitably.BBC News reported that Iran's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad plans huge increase in uranium enrichment. ABC News reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they want to install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. Bush pleased with the Iran Freedom and Support Act The White House, Office of the Press Secretary reported that President Bush said "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act." Here are a few other news items you may have missed. The International Herald Tribune reported...

Top News Story Bush signs Iran Freedom and Support Act! The Washington Post reported that President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs.The Associated Press reported that the US Senate finally passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act.The Library of Congress published the full text of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   But does Condi support a change of regime in Iran? The Wall Street Journal reexamined their recent interview with Condi Rice in which he concludes: Her primary method for dealing with the...

Top News Story Photo evidence of the Islamic Republic's coordinating Iraq's insurgency. Roads to Iraq and Iraqi blog reported that after a fierce battle in “Khan Bani Sa’ad� Diyala governorate north of Baghdad with “Mahdi Army�, Iraqi resistance succeeded to capture one of the “Mahdi Army�. They found a complete modern communications system manufacturing in the Ministry of Defense of Iran believed to be used as a direct contact with the Iranians. Photos.CNN News reported that a Shiite Muslim militia involved in the warfare between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq has received "millions of dollars" and an assortment of...

Top News Story Iran wins another round in the nuclear crisis with the West. ISN Security Watch reported that while a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment would boost diplomatic efforts with Iran, the UN and EU seem to have thrown in the towel, offering talks without suspension and betraying their weak position.Reuters reported that president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, said on that Tehran would not suspend nuclear enrichment despite pressure from the West. He said: "Today, Western countries want us to suspend our nuclear technology, but we say to them that we will never give it up."Bill Gertz,...

Top News Story Pentagon report critical of US broadcasts into Iran.   Mercury News reported that a Pentagon unit has drafted a report charging that U.S. international broadcasts into Iran aren't tough enough on the Islamic regime.   The US military on the Islamic Republic's military.   Middle East Newsline reported that the US military officials have assessed that Iran's military was the second most powerful in the Middle East.   Russia finally sets a startup date for Iran's nuclear power plant.   Bloomberg reported that Iran's first nuclear power plant, a Russian-built project, will begin operating by September...

Top News Story "Islam is not compatible with democracy.� - The next Supreme Leader? The New York Times reported concern that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, is trying to expand his already growing power by packing the "assembly of experts" (which has the power to elect the Supreme Leader) with his loyalists. He said: “Democracy means if the people want something that is against God’s will, then they should forget about God and religion.�   BBC radio's pro-Islamic Republic campaign of misinformation. Ardeshir Dolat reported that the BBC radio 4 in Britain has started a campaign of misinformation on Iran. Its...

Top News Story Is Iran about to launch a war in northern Iraq? DEBKAfile reported that a new Middle East war is in the offing with Turkish and Iranian air units are poised for an imminent coordinated invasion of the northern Iraqi Kurdistan. The report claimed Iranian and Turkish assault troops are already deployed 7-8 km deep inside Iraqi territory.   The EU/Iran have weeks to agree on an agenda for more talks. Reuters reported that France said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran had weeks rather than months to agree an agenda for talks about...

Top News Story EU3 cave into Iran. Reuters reported that France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment program first, but Washington would not take part.   Islamic Republic tries to crush new Azeri dissent. Regnum reported the arrest of five Azeri after troops were deployed by the authorities in order to prevent massive rallies by Azeri’s against opening new schools in Farsi.   Pakistan surrenders region to Taliban and Al Qaeda? Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Bill Roggio, The Weekly Standard reported that the government of Pakistan...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, September 23 (IranMania) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said rabbis are criticising the 'Zionist' regime more than the Islamic Republic of Iran, IRNA reported. Speaking to reporters after his 10-day visit to Senegal, Cuba, Venezuela and the UN General Assembly in New York, the president said he held a lengthy meeting with Jewish clerics in the US. "They expressed their concerns to us over the behaviour of the Zionists," he added. The president also said that during the visit, he explained Iran's principled stand on a host of issues during meetings with various groups...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad crushes CFR hopes for a "grand bargain." The New York Times reported that Ahmadinejad met with two dozen members of the Council on Foreign Relations, then ending the evening by asking whether they were simply shills for the Bush administration.Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com reported that while the CFR has consistently promoted a "grand bargain" with the regime in Tehran and ex-CFR staffer Susan Maloney at the State Department has vetoed funding of the Iranian opposition radio and TV broadcasts, and training for opposition groups inside Iran, on the grounds that it might offend the Tehran...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad tells big lies but is largely unchallenged by the media. MSNBC and NBC News published an interview with Ahmadinejad in which he claimed that while the US “... speak of war so easily, as if it’s on their daily agenda. We never speak of war.�Los Angeles Times reported that Iran's president told the United Nations that the organization had become a tool used by the world's powerful to oppress the weak, and call.   Chavez calls Bush "the devil." Drudge Report published the full text of Venezuelan President Chavez remarks at the UN General Assembly....

Top News Story Ahmadinejad attempts to rally the world against the US. Vital Perspective published the full translated text of Ahmadinejad's UN speech. A few excerpts... On the nuclear issue: "All our nuclear activities are transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eyes of IAEA inspectors." On the US and Britain: "They consider themselves the masters and rulers of the entire world." On human rights: "Should respect for the rights of human beings become the predominant objective, then injustice, ill temperament, aggression and war will fade away." He ended with: "Oh, Almighty God... upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad invited to speak to the CFR in NYC. One Jerusalem has confirmed that the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Left-leaning establishment organization in New York, is inviting major civic, business, and political leaders to meet Iran's tyrannical President Ahmadinejad this week, when he is in New York. They asked for your help.Eli Lake, New York Sun reported that Jewish leaders in New York are spurning a request from the Council on Foreign Relations to meet with the president of Iran when he arrives for the U.N. General Assembly.Ken Timmerman, Iran.org reported a...

Top News Story The Islamic Republic's media campaign in the US. Daniel M. Zucker, Global Politician reported on the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (VEVAK) sophisticated campaign of disinformation, learned from the Soviet KGB, and its work in the United States. A must read.   UNSC to act this week on Iran? CNN News reported that Condoleezza Rice said the United States expects to "make some movement forward" on a sanctions resolution when U.N. diplomats convene in New York next week.The New York Times reported that after intense talks about Iran's nuclear program, the United States and...

Top News Story A mini cold war is starting in the Middle East. Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat argued that a mini cold war in the Middle East is likely to begin with a Western push for regime change in Syria.   Bush won't meet Ahmadinejad at the UN. He has other plans. Iran Focus reported that United States President George W. Bush ruled out meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York where world leaders will gather next week.   Another meaningless meeting of the major powers and...

Top News Story Pakistan releases 2500 Al Qaeda and Taliban. The Telegrah reported that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government had authorized the release from jail of 2,500 Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters caught fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.   Krauthammer: Bush preparing for war with Iran. Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post reported that President Bush said "It's very important for the American people to see the president try to solve problems diplomatically before resorting to military force." "Before" implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable.The Washington Post asked President Bush what he would say to...

Top News Story Xinhua TEHRAN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran denounced Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday for his recent comments on Islam and requested a apology, the official IRNA news agency reported The pope's remarks were "contradictory to his status as the leader of one of the world's divine faiths," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying. The remarks made by the pope, "emanate from political interpretations and are contrary to the divine notions, we consider it's a big mistake... and we condemn them," he added "In order to prevent the indignation of the Muslim's world,...

Top News Story The lies Khatami spoke in the US. Amir Taheri, New York Post reported that in his recent speeches in the US, Khatami used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience. A must read.   The West is still divided on what to do next with Iran. New Press reported that key European nations called on Iran to negotiate its nuclear dispute with the international community,...

Top News Story Sharansky: A troubling story from Putin. Natan Sharansky, Los Angeles Times reported that in 2000, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin told me a story that he has been unable to get out of his mind. The story involves a nephew, a suitcase, a train to Manhattan and a nuclear bomb.   France's Sarkozy: Iran is an outlaw nation. NDTV reported that French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that Iran had "made itself into an outlaw nation" and must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.   Did Bush promise a pre-emptive attack on Iran? Mario Loyola,...

Top News Story Khatami questioned at Harvard and slips. Russell Berman, Telos reported on a Khatami's response at Harvard to a question from an Iranian in the audience who questioned him about the case of the suppression of free speech: the arrest, rape and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi. Khatami's answer was very revealing.Yahoo News reported Khatami was met by protesters when he arrived at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Many angrily called on him to stand up for human rights where Harvard College Democrats teamed with their Republican peers for the protest.   Blair warns the West...