Free Republic

Former President Barack Obama admitted Friday that it had been a “mistake” not to support Iranian democracy protesters in 2009, when they rose up against their tyrannical regime in what was called the “Green Revolution.” At the time, Obama chose to remain quiet about the protests, as he hoped to preserve the regime, and the administration of radical, Holocaust-denying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the hope of pursuing negotiations toward a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Another connection that bridges this historical cooperation between the far right and far left into the modern age of terrorism is that between Carlos the Jackal and the Swiss Nazi Francois Genoud. Genoud's life, in fact, spans the history of this collaboration. Francois Genoud was an early admirer and proponent of Adolf Hitler's, and a founder of the National Front, a Swiss Nazi party. Genoud met and befriended Haj Amin al-Husseini and worked with him to recruit Arabs into the service of the Nazis. He also set up the Banque Commerciale Arabe in Geneva with Syrian money and ran the...

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian government-sponsored body set up to probe the veracity of the Holocaust has challenged Europe to hand over documents about the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II. Mohammad Ali Ramin, the head of the "World Holocaust Foundation" created after Iran's controversial Holocaust conference last year, said Austria, Germany and Poland in particular should supply documents. "They should hand over the proof for the dossier on the organized massacre of Jews in Europe during World War II to the independent international fact-finding committee affiliated to this foundation," the IRNA state news agency quoted him as...

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran's government abruptly raised gasoline prices and imposed strict rations early Friday prompting large protests in major cities across the country with angry crowds calling for the ouster of President Hassan Rouhan. The price of fuel has been increased by up to 300 percent in some locations exacerbating the fears of protesters already struggling under extreme economic pressure as its economy worsens under U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani traveled to the city of Yazd on Sunday to deliver a speech about Iran’s economy, the oil sector and to express sympathy with earthquake victims. He also revealed massive allegations of corruption. In a rare rebuke, the president attacked the oil minister and demanded to know where $700 million in funds have gone, and slammed the judiciary and the Central Bank over a separate $2 billion corruption case. Rouhani began his speech with good news, arguing that since April, the economy of Iran has stabilized, despite difficult pressures from abroad – a reference to the US...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The White House said Thursday it is taking seriously the allegations by former hostages that Iran's hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their captors at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran a quarter century ago. President Bush told foreign reporters he has "no information, but obviously his involvement raises many questions." "As soon as I saw the face, it rang a lot of bells to me," Don Sharer, who served as the embassy's naval attache at the time, told CNN. "...Take 20 years off of him. He was there. He was there in the background, more...

Top News Story Iran's President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Complete Bio - In His Own Writing 1 July 2005: Is the president-elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the hostage-takers at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979? The Northeast Intelligence Network called upon its Farsi-language resources to help determine the answer to this question. Sure enough, the answer is readily found on the official website of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, written entirely in Farsi, and complete with images. The website includes various documents from Ahmadinegad’s campaign where he claims "I Can Control the Americans - I Have Experience Doing It".In one particularly...

Analysis not final, officials say WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CIA report has determined with "relative certainty" that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not involved in the taking of U.S. hostages 26 years ago, three government officials told CNN on Friday. The officials insisted on anonymity, saying they did not want to speak for the CIA about its report. Another U.S. official said the tone of the report is that there is no evidence to date that the new Iranian president was among those who held U.S. diplomats hostage. The officials cautioned that the analysis is not final. Two former...

At Friday prayers this week, Hashemi Rafsanjani appeared for the first time since his defeat and announced: "we have serious problems and we're faced with serious danger." His statement came amid the excited speculation about the part Ahmadinejad played in the U.S. hostage taking, and the hoopla surrounding Iran's head of parliament's first visit to Belgium and a cancelled reception. It seems Scott Ritter was right when he said recently: "The war against the Islamic Republic has begun." Western Media Against Iran In the nine days since the annoucement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the sixth president of the Islamic Republic,...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A top Iranian former secret agent said Saturday that the hostage-taker in a 1979 photograph that has come under intense scrutiny is not President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but a former militant who committed suicide in jail. Saeed Hajjarian, a top adviser to outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, identified the man in the photo dating to the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege as Taqi Mohammadi. Iran's newly elected president has been accused of being a main participant in the taking of American hostages at the embassy. Six former U.S. hostages who saw the president-elect in photos or on television said...

Top News Story The Washington Times Iran Leader Linked To '79 Embassy Crisis Excerpt: Joyce Howard Priceand David R. Sands, The Washington Times:Americans held in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Iran said yesterday they clearly recall Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad playing a central role in the takeover, interrogating captives and demanding harsher treatment for the hostages. "As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the bastard," said retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, a former hostage who lives in Jonesboro, Ga. "He was one of the top two or three...

WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday it was investigating whether Iran's new president played a role in seizing the American Embassy and holding 52 U.S. captives a quarter century ago. President Bush said the allegation by former hostages "raises many questions." The administration was reviewing its files on Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the hostage comments were brought to light by The Associated Press. "I have no information, but obviously his involvement raises many questions," Bush said in an interview with foreign reporters. The administration said it would have to deal with Ahmadinejad, regardless of his past. Ahmadinejad has...

Iran victor 'kidnap role' probe The president denies being among the hostage-takers The US says it is examining reports that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took part in the 1979 hostage-taking at Tehran's US embassy.Some of the former US hostages have said they recognise Mr Ahmadinejad as one of their captors. But three Iranians involved in the action, as well as Mr Ahmadinejad's own staff, have denied that he took part. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the hostage-takers' leader, told the BBC that the new president had not been there. You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in...

Former American Hostages Claim Iran's New Leader Held Them Captive Published: June 29, 2005 8:25 PM ET SAVANNAH, Ga. A quarter-century after they were taken captive in Iran, five former American hostages say they got an unexpected reminder of their 444-day ordeal in the bearded face of Iran's new president-elect. Watching coverage of Iran's presidential election on television dredged up 25-year-old memories that prompted four of the former hostages to exchange e-mails. And those four realized they shared the same conclusion -- the firm belief that President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been one of their Iranian captors. "This is the guy....

AP Photo shows Iran’s new President as 1979 US hostage-taker Wednesday, 29th June 2005 Iran Focus London, Jun. 29 - Iran Focus has learnt that the photograph of Iran’s newly-elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, holding the arm of a blindfolded American hostage on the premises of the United States embassy in Tehran was taken by an Associated Press photographer in November 1979. Prior to the first round of the presidential elections on June 17, Iran Focus was the first news service to reveal Ahmadinejad’s role in the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The identity of Ahmadinejad in the...

Iran’s former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s quest to return to the spotlight now includes weighing in on a spat between US President Donald Trump and basketball star LeBron James. Ahmadinejad used Twitter — which is banned in Iran — to write Sunday: “In my opinion everyone especially a President should love all, and not differentiate between them.” He added that he loved NBA greats James and Michael Jordan, as well as former Denver Nuggets player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Trump wrote a tweet Friday night questioning James’ intelligence after he gave an interview to CNN and criticized the American president....

In a post on her now-defunct blog, MSNBC anchor Joy Ann Reid attacked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for treating Jewish guests with too much understanding. Blitzer is a “former flak for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),” reads the post from July 16, 2006. “He doesn’t even try to hide his affinity for his Israeli guests, or his partisanship for their cause, while turning instantly to prosecutorial mode when questioning any guest who has the dumb luck to be an Arab or Muslim in King Blitzer’s court,” Reid continues. “It’s actually quite stunning how brazen Blitzer’s bias has become.” In...

Two high-level Iranian government backers, including a former Islamic Republic official and another accused of lobbying on Tehran’s behalf, were hosted at the Obama White House for more than 30 meetings with top officials at key junctures in the former administration’s contested diplomacy with Iran, according to White House visitor logs that provide a window into the former administration’s outreach to leading pro-Iran advocates. Seyed Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and head of its national security council, was hosted at the White House at least three times, while Trita Parsi, a pro-Iran advocate long accused of hiding his ties to...

Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday stunned the country by unexpectedly filing to run in the May presidential election, contradicting a recommendation from the supreme leader to stay out of the race. Ahmadinejad's decision could upend an election many believed would be won by moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who negotiated the nuclear deal with world powers. Though Rouhani has yet to formally register, many viewed him as a shoe-in following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's recommendation in September for Ahmadinejad to stand down and conservatives' inability to coalesce around a single candidate. Ahmadinejad's firebrand style could prove appealing for...

ran’s former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter Sunday to President Donald Trump, striking a somewhat conciliatory tone while applauding immigration to America and saying it shows “the contemporary US belongs to all nations”. It isn’t the first dispatch sent by Ahmadinejad, who has counted US Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama among his pen pals. But this letter, weighing in at over 3,500 words, comes as criticism of Trump over his travel ban affecting seven Muslim-majority countries including Iran mounts in Tehran. It also may serve to burnish Ahmadinejad’s image domestically after the nation’s Supreme Leader warned...