http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ledeen/ en-us Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:42:51 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406711/posts The Western political Left famously began its political existence two hundred twenty years ago in the halls of the French Revolutionary Parliament. It proudly declared itself the Party of Liberty. It is now the Party of State control, Liberty’s ancient enemy. Its founders were men and women of great passion. Its heirs, from Europe to America, are so bloodless one sometimes wonders if they are really androids. Once revolutionary progressives, they are now either reactionary oppressors, or apologists for a stultifying status quo. The Left turned into its opposite. Instead of withering away, thereby ushering in an era of radical... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406711/posts#comment Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:42:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397639/posts We must overcome our self-delusions about the enemy. When tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets last spring and braved the most brutal repression the regime could inflict, Michael Ledeen was the least surprised man in Washington. In season and out, Ledeen has chronicled the profound weakness of the mullahocracy and its deep unpopularity with the Iranian people. Impatiently, year after year, he has identified opportunities for the United States to help the people of Iran replace their sinister and menacing rulers. After each new post on the subject, Ledeen signed off with, “Faster please.” In Accomplice to... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397639/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:56:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386840/posts The secretary of defense let off some steam on his airplane, warning of the terrible consequences of leaking information about internal government policy debates. He’s “appalled.” Navy Times tells us that Gates said that “disclosures of sensitive information on any ‘options under consideration’ does not serve the nation well. Nor are they in the military’s strategic interests..” When I first came to Washington, and for many years thereafter, I thought leaks were just awful. How dare they? Among other things, I thought–and this I still think–that it has a chilling effect on internal debate. Because if you’re afraid that your... Michael Ledeen/PajamasMedia/FasterPlease http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386840/posts#comment Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:10:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373205/posts Turkish prime minister Erdogan has flown back home after a 2-day visit to Tehran. It was a big deal in all senses of the term. He went to Iran with a large delegation, including three ministers, many businessmen, leaders of Parliament, scads of reporters, and television crews. He met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki, “President” Ahmadinejad, and other ministers. According to Iranians who were involved in the meetings, the two countries reached agreement on many issues, the upshot of which is a considerable tightening of the working alliance between them: –The creation of a joint airline; –The creation of a... PajamasMedia/Michael Ledeen-Faster Please http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373205/posts#comment Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:00:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369923/posts Speaking publicly about the role of Iran in Afghanistan--which is substantial, and about which we have considerable information--seems to be taboo for our current leaders. This is neither new nor surprising. Iranians, and Iranian-trained terrorists from organizations such as Hezbollah, have been killing Americans for years. The Bush administration, for example, had similar information about Iran's role in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and top officials did their best to suppress it. According to reporter Bob Woodward, a top State Department official knew that Iran had committed "acts of war" against our troops in Iraq and kept that information from the... Weekly Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369923/posts#comment Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:41:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369209/posts Perhaps it will help put things in context by looking at the supreme leader’s recent movements. On October 5th he went from Tehran to Now Shar, where he visited a naval base and academy. Later that day he went to the city of Chaloos, preached a sermon, delivered a speech and returned to Now Shar. On the 6th he traveled by automobile to Ramsar, a very beautiful resort city, and which is graced by a palace of the late shah. Khamenei was supposed to spend three days there, but he wasn’t feeling well, and complained of difficulty in breathing. He... PajamasMedia/FasterPlease/Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369209/posts#comment Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:18:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2365604/posts Friday evening, Mark Levin spoke with Michael Ledeen about Iran and his new book 'Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West.' Ledeen says of the situation in Iran, "The Supreme Leader is in a coma ... When an evil man dies, it is never bad." (Audio interview plus links and evidence of Iran's involvement in 9/11 after the jump.) MarkLevinFan.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2365604/posts#comment Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:40:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2361775/posts This story has been floating around the net for the past day or so, but this report comes from a person who is in a position to know such things. As I know very well (having been gulled into wrongly announcing Khamenei’s death a while back), it is easy to be misled, and Khamenei has had previous medical emergencies in the past, and recovered, but the source is excellent. Nonetheless, it’s always smart to apply the Reagan Caution: Trust, but verify. I’m doing my best. Here is what he/she says: Yesterday afternoon at 2.15PM local time, Khamenei collapsed and was... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2361775/posts#comment Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:57:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2354203/posts I suppose it’s a tribute to the president’s tenacity, or perhaps his inability to think outside the box of conventional wisdom, but he seems to be totally unwilling to accept a Divine gift. He’s facing some terrible foreign policy decisions, decisions he doesn’t want to make, and he’s right to want to avoid them, because whichever way he tilts, it’s going to be bad for him. Take Afghanistan. McChrystal and Petreus have told him that if he doesn’t go all in, to the tune of forty thousand or so additional American fighters, he’s likely to see the war there go... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2354203/posts#comment Sat, 3 Oct 2009 17:57:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2351506/posts The Obama administration's talks with Iran—set to take place tomorrow in Geneva—are accompanied by an almost universally accepted misconception: that previous American administrations refused to negotiate with Iranian leaders. The truth, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last October at the National Defense University, is that "every administration since 1979 has reached out to the Iranians in one way or another and all have failed." After the fall of the shah in February 1979, the Carter administration attempted to establish good relations with the revolutionary regime. We offered aid, arms and understanding. The Iranians demanded that the United States... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2351506/posts#comment Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:19:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2334582/posts Somehow NRO is having some trouble posting my full reply to my friend Andy McCarthy. I’m sure it will be fixed soon, but in the meantime, here it is: Nothing is better than getting honest criticism from a serious person. It’s almost impossible to find it nowadays, and I’m very grateful to Brother Andy for his kind words and trenchant comments. Ditto to Mark. How did these lawyers learn to write so well? I thought they beat that out of you in Law School… Bush Doctrine: As I remember it, we declared war on terrorist groups and on the countries... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2334582/posts#comment Tue, 8 Sep 2009 14:39:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2327906/posts In the middle of the night, at 1:30 in the morning of Friday, August 14th, there was a large explosion at the monster petrochemical facility of the Iranian Pars Petrochemical Company in Bandar Assaluyeh. It is the biggest such plant in Iran, and the second largest in the whole Middle East (second only to one in Saudi Arabia). The explosion, which took place in pipes carrying Liquid Petroleum Gas (which is mostly propane), caused fires throughout the facility. It took at least three hours before the fires were brought under control. At least two persons died (fortunately, at that hour... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2327906/posts#comment Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:11:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318793/posts Michael Ledeen on Iranian regime and their belief that he is apparently the main influence behind the Iranian opposition and recent protests. (about 4 mins) Pajamasmedia TV - Faster Please http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318793/posts#comment Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:15:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2316490/posts By now, most people know that the Iranian regime treats its dissidents with unrestrained barbarity. Even the leading dead tree media have reported anecdotally on the torture of prisoners and the bashing, beating, axing and stabbing of protestors in the streets of the major cities. But it is not easy to get a clear picture of the dimensions of the savagery. It’s hard to get the real numbers on the bloody repression the mullahs have unleashed on their people, and one reason–perhaps the most important one–is that the regime is doing everything in its power to conceal the facts, typically... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2316490/posts#comment Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:36:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2300563/posts Washington, 21 July (WashingtonTV)—The hardline principle-ist Kayhan daily, published in Tehran today, attacked former president, Mohammad Khatami, saying that when he spoke of “the need for a referendum”, he was “carrying out the instructions” of Michael Ledeen, prominent member of the American Enterprise Institute and special aide to former US defense secretary, Ronald Rumsfeld, and to former deputy president, Dick Cheney. On Sunday 28 Tir [19 July], Khatami said at a meeting held in the office of the Combatant Clerics Society in Tehran with the families of a number of detainees, that the way to overcome the current crisis was... Washington TV.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2300563/posts#comment Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:19:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2293686/posts It’s a bit more complicated than that, but the bottom line is that we are turning loose Iranian terrorists in exchange for the release of Roxana Saberi, plus, probably, three British hostages. The first payment arrived today in Tehran, to a triumphant reception. Ugh. The terrorists in question are officers in the Iranian Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards Corps. They were captured in Irbil, Iraq, in January, 2007, as the “surge” was getting under way. A few weeks earlier, other Iranians had been arrested in Baghdad. For our military leaders, it was an open and shut... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2293686/posts#comment Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:00:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282357/posts For those who wish to think clearly about Iran, there are two fundamental facts: * the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been at war with us ever since the overthrow of the shah in early 1979; * the savagery they have unleashed on the people of Iran is precisely what they want to do to us. The Iranian leaders and their terror instruments, from Hezbollah to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killing Americans for 30 years, from the Marine barracks in Beirut in the 1980s to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment, where... NRO - The Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282357/posts#comment Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:15:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277716/posts Let’s review the bidding, shall we? The “election circus” took place a week ago Friday, and demonstrations began that night, June 12th. Ten days have passed. What have we learned? –First, that a significant number of Iranians hate the regime and are prepared to die to bring it down; –Second, that the fanatical religious zealots that hold the guns, chains, knives, tear gas cannisters, high-powered water hoses, sniper rifles and (perhaps) chemical weapons (said by some to have been deployed from helicopters), are prepared to order the killing of any number of Iranians in order to maintain their own power... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277716/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:47:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276629/posts I’ve received what purports to be a statement from Mousavi’s Office in Tehran.  Like everyone else covering the revolution, I get a lot of material that can’t be authenticated, and one must always take such material with a healthy dose of skepticism.  That said, the person who sent this to me is undoubtedly in touch with the Mousavi people on the ground, that much is certain.  His information has been proven reliable throughout this period.  So while the following open letter carefully puts distance between the author(s) and Mousavi himself, I am quite sure that at a minimum it accurately... Pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276629/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:02:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276514/posts Mousavi Accuses Obama of 'Misleading the World' Sunday, June 21, 2009 1:38 PM Author and foreign policy expert Michael Ledeen has published a letter reportedly from the office of Mir Hossein Mousavi, in which the Iranian opposition leader criticizes President Barack Obama for saying Mousavi and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad are "two of a kind." The letter, addressed to Obama, takes the president to task for the remark, calling it "a grave and deep insult, not just to Mr. Mousavi but especially against the judgment of the Iranian people, against our moral conviction and intelligence, especially those of the young... http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/michael_ledeen_mousavi/2009/06/21/227538.html?s=al&promo_code=81E http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276514/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:02:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2272736/posts Everything is always about HIM. America before HIM was deeply flawed, requiring worldwide apologies to everyone who will listen. Given the hatred that failure has for success, that is always a way to draw crowds and admiration. With he possibility of a second Iranian revolution, Obama can't help but make it about HIM, HIS speech, HIS Hamlet act with regard to Iranian leadership. Who should HE anoint; who should he hallow with his words? Outside of HIS narcissistic orbit, Michael Ledeen notes ... He probably thinks he’s in a bind (he isn’t, actually). He probably thinks that if he condemns... The Virginian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2272736/posts#comment Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:03:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271377/posts Iran doesn’t have elections, it has circuses, and this was proven once again on Friday, when the regime announced that Ahmadinezhad had been retained–call him “landslide Mahmoud” please–as president of the Islamic Republic. So much for the remarks of various pundits claiming that Iran was some sort of “democracy.” There isn’t a single educated Iranian who thinks that the official numbers represent anything more than a brazen insult to the opponents of the regime. Supreme Leader Khamenei rubbed it in when he called the outcome “divine,” but the subtlety was no doubt lost on American commentators, who were mostly concerned... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271377/posts#comment Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:21:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242947/posts Just doing what he’s told, I suppose. After all, he came into the Bush Administration expecting to supervise the retreat from Iraq and the Grand Bargain with Iran, only to find that the president wanted to up the ante in Iraq and challenge the mullahs on the ground. So Gates duly supported the surge, and perforce cracked down on Iranian activities in Iraq. Now comes Obama, who is all about smashing al Qaeda, and making the Grand Bargain with Iran. So Gates duly blames the upsurge in violence in Iraq on al Qaeda–thoughtfully leaving Iran out of it, although they... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2242947/posts#comment Sat, 2 May 2009 23:38:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2240085/posts “A fine mess down there, I must say. Nobody learns, ever, so far as I can tell…” It was hard to disagree, especially with one of the great experts on intelligence, the late James Jesus Angleton, once upon a time the head of CIA Counterintelligence. I wanted his take on the latest Chinese fire drill over the abridged “torture memos” that the Obama people had made public, and all the subsequent smoke and fire about possible prosecutions and/or investigations of the “guilty parties.” I’d had some repairs made to my ouija board, and had tracked him down in the great... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2240085/posts#comment Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:35:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2239501/posts No president in modern times has managed to conceal so much of his biography as this one. The journalists assigned to the Obama beat seem to have lost their traditional avidity for digging out the missing details. We do not have a medical report, or a college transcript from Columbia, or a notion of how well he did in Harvard Law School. These things are not automatically significant, but they can be. Nobody thinks the president has some basic medical problem. He shows every sign of being in excellent physical condition. But so did John F. Kennedy, who turned out... PJMedia http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2239501/posts#comment Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:36:37 GMT