http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/michaelledeen/ en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:57:09 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416890/posts In their desperate search for a way to quell the growing revolt of the Iranian people against the Islamic Republic, the regime’s storm troopers are arresting, beating and assassinating the families of the leaders of the Green Movement. Sunday, as millions of Iranians took the opportunity of the Ashura mourning day to take to the streets, a hit team gunned down the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi. Seyed Ali Moussavi Habibi was witnessing a 4WD Neissan Patrol car running over a few people in front of his house before being shot and killed with the same people in the car.... PJMedia/FasterPlease/MichaelLedeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416890/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:57:09 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-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/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/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/2233135/posts The president’s response to the sentencing of Roxana Saberi—eight years in prison—is a testament to the power of Iranian blackmail and Obama’s own pigheaded refusal to understand the nature of our enemies. His “disappointment” in the mullahs’ action (echoed almost to the letter by Secretary of State Clinton) suggests that he hoped, maybe even expected, something better from them. And that, in turn, demonstrates a refusal to see Iran for what it is. If I were Saberi’s Iranian-American father, I would be furious, and I would be inclined to call a press conference to say that, while it may be... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2233135/posts#comment Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:44:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226808/posts When pundits and politicians talk about “negotiating with Iran,” it conjures up an image of well-dressed statesmen sitting in elegant rooms, talking about the niceties of international relations. But this is only a part of the picture; much of the process is conducted in little hotel rooms by secret intermediaries, and they talk about very unpleasant things, such as torture and blackmail. At least one recent “breakthrough” in relations with Iran was extorted from Great Britain and the United States by an Iranian proxy group in Iraq that kidnaped five British civilians two years ago, and, in the secret negotiations... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226808/posts#comment Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:01:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213336/posts March 22nd, 2009 President Obama has devoted a lot of time to foreign policy this past week, focusing like a laser beam on three countries that begin with the letter “I.” He gave star billing in Washington to the prime minister of Ireland (who was treated a lot better than British Prime Minister Gordon Brown), during the course of which each read the other’s prepared text, perhaps a new departure in international diplomacy. He also sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano (a member of the now defunct Communist Party), expressing confidence that the United States and Italy would... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213336/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:20:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2207914/posts March 15, 2009 Winston Churchill: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” They like to call themselves “realists,” but their proper name is “appeasers.” They follow in the hollow footsteps of Neville Chamberlain, who signed an agreement with Hitler, believing it signalled “peace in our time.” But it only encouraged the Fuhrer to believe that there was no will in the West to resist the onslaught of Nazi terror, and thus hastened the onset of the Second World War. As Churchill darkly told Chamberlain upon his return to London, “You were given the... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2207914/posts#comment Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:23:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189704/posts So the Attorney General thinks we’re cowards because we don’t talk about race as much as he would like. Apparently he wants us to talk about it a lot. Maybe he does, although that is not his reputation here in Washington (he’s considered a consummate professional and a true expert on jurisprudence by his peers, including many who are Republicans). I was offended by Holder’s remarks. I think they’re obnoxious, ignorant, unhelpful and inappropriate. An awful lot of Americans fought very hard for many years to defeat those who wanted to talk about race a lot. I suggest he take... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189704/posts#comment Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:36:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186277/posts Most Americans no longer read Alexis de Tocqueville’s masterpiece, Democracy in America, about which I wrote a book (Tocqueville on American Character; from which most of the following is taken) a few years ago. What a pity! No one understood us so well, no one described our current crisis with such brutal accuracy, as Tocqueville. The economics of the current expansion of state power in America are, as I said, “fascist,” but the politics are not. We are not witnessing “American Fascism on the march.” Fascism was a war ideology and grew out of the terrible slaughter of the First... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186277/posts#comment Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:18:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2182124/posts Ever wonder where CIA gets its nutty ideas about the world? This story helps, maybe. There’s a genius with the colorful name of Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, described by AFP (French reportage alert!) as an “advisor” to CIA and DoD, who boasts a 90 percent accuracy rate on predictions based on his “gaming and computer model.” Maybe AFP means “computerized gaming model,” but hey, I’m just telling you what they say. So Monsieur Bueno de Mesquita assures us that Iran won’t actually build any bombs, that religion (and therefore religious leaders) are on the decline, and that if you just... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2182124/posts#comment Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:59:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181602/posts By MICHAEL LEDEEN Last week Iran put its own telecommunications satellite into orbit. U.S. officials in the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon were certainly right to warn that this shows that the mullahs have now mastered the technology needed to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. But the terror masters in Tehran believe the satellite has an even greater significance -- another step toward the return of the Shiite messiah, or Mahdi, the long-vanished 12th Imam. Many Iranian leaders believe that the 12th Imam will return in the Last Days, which will be marked by global chaos and conflict,... Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181602/posts#comment Mon, 9 Feb 2009 16:48:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2172925/posts Iran’s always tyrannical and sometimes apocalyptic mullahs have certainly been busy of late. They’ve been spinning faster than a champion dervish, trying to convince the gullible, at home and abroad, that their Hamas proxies in Gaza won a signal victory against Israel, and that Iran was the reason for their success. Meanwhile, they’ve called for the assassination of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, and organized mass rallies against President Obama, complete with ritual burning of his photo. Some of it shows the regime’s comedic skills at their highest pitch, such as... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2172925/posts#comment Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:01:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2133418/posts Now he’s had his first real intelligence briefing, and it was probably an eye-opener, because it’s quite a scene out there. I hope he’s got someone close to him with the wit and the nerve to tell the president-elect that the intelligence community is also a mess, and that he can be morally certain the real world is even worse than the one he’s just been briefed about. The real world is so frightening that I can’t imagine Hillary Clinton will be foolish enough to accept the job of secretary of state; anyone who takes that job is almost certain... Pajamasmedia/Faster Please - Ledeen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2133418/posts#comment Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:54:42 GMT