Free Republic

JERUSALEM — Iran is not our enemy. The regime that enriches itself while murdering, oppressing and impoverishing ordinary Iranians, the regime that incites genocide against Israel, threatens its neighbors in the Persian Gulf and vows to bring about a "world without America" — that is our enemy. This was one of the key points driven home by a trio of extraordinary individuals gathered for a dinner in Tel Aviv last week. At the table were Bernard Lewis, for my money the greatest living historian of the Middle East; Uri Lubrani, Israel's envoy to Iran before the fall of the Shah...

Ali Akbar Salehi: Iran's foreign minister...and future president? After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Islamic Republic's new leaders confronted the dilemma of what to do with the remnants of the Pahlavi monarchy. One such remnant was the partially constructed nuclear power plant located in the southeastern city of Bushehr along the Persian Gulf. Construction of the plant by a group of German companies had begun just four years earlier, under Mohammad Reza Shah. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the creation of a five-person fact-finding committee to investigate the Bushehr plant and advise on its status. One of its members was a...

Why, despite the growing danger posed by Iran's nuclear program, have the United States and other nations restricted themselves to negotiations, economic sanctions and electronic intrusions? None of those tactics has been particularly effective or produced enduring changes. The main argument against military action is that it would set Iran's nuclear program back only a few years, and that Tehran would retaliate directly and via surrogates, drawing the U.S. into another unwinnable war. Many fear also that Iranians will rally behind their regime with nationalist fervor, dashing hope of regime change for decades and turning Iran's largely pro-Western population against...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards soon could have nuclear weapons. In 1979, journalists and diplomats reported from Iran on a revolution against the shah. They were mistaken. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his followers were thinking bigger. Their goal was a global revolution — a revolution against the United States and other “oppressor” powers. The ayatollah famously called America the Great Satan. This, too, was misunderstood. His intention was less to insult than to describe: He knew that freedom, the rule of (man-made) law, peace, and equal rights for both the servants and enemies of Allah are seductive ideas that could...

Iran's Assembly of Experts is calling on officials to institute gender segregation in Iranian universities, prompting Iran's Minister of Science and Technology to announce: "Women's Colleges will be established all across Iran" Kamran Daneshjoo told Fars news agency yesterday that "women's colleges" will be established in every province, adding: "This is about keeping Islamic customs and limits, and the Islamization of universities will go much further than this." He said: "Prior to the Revolution (1979) there was one women-only university, which was renamed the Al-Zahra University after the Revolution. Thirty-two years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, we do...

The rotting bodies of 30 men, almost all black and many handcuffed, slaughtered as they lay on stretchers and even in an ambulance in central Tripoli, are an ominous foretaste of what might be Libya's future. The incoming regime makes pious statements about taking no revenge on pro-Gaddafi forces, but this stops short of protecting those who can be labelled mercenaries. Any Libyan with a black skin accused of fighting for the old regime may have a poor chance of survival. The atmosphere in the Libyan capital is frighteningly uncertain a week after the sudden collapse of Gaddafi's forces. Nobody...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration's military intervention in Libya, confirmed Friday that he was invited to visit the North African nation in an attempt to end months-long conflict between the Qaddafi regime and the rebel forces who have been aided by NATO air strikes. (Snip) But Kucinich, who was worried about security, declined the offer and visited Syria instead. In a statement, Kucinich said he was contacted by both sides seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Yet again, a number of young people have been arrested in the Iranian capital. Their crime: engaging in a water fight. The evidence: water guns and bottles. The accusations against them: violating Islamic principles and norms. It sounds absurd, but sadly it's the reality in the Islamic Republic of Iran where, among other things, having a bit of fun can also land one in prison. The young women and men had gathered last week in a Tehran park, ironically named the Garden of Water and Fire, and splashed water at each other. The event, planned and organized on Facebook, had...

Iranian authorities have hanged another 30 prisoners at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad on drug-related charges, says the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The campaign cites “local knowledgeable sources” saying 12 prisoners were executed on Wednesday June 29 and another 18 were hanged on the following Sunday. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say the executions once again were carried out in secret and en masse, with no prior notification of families and attorneys and no official announcement from the judiciary. The report indicates that on June 29, the judiciary announced the execution of one convicted murderer...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into whether employees of News Corp. might have hacked or attempted to hack into the private calls and phone records of Sept. 11 victims and their families, according to people familiar with the matter. The investigation was opened Thursday morning, following a request a day earlier by Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) who heads the House Homeland Security Committee and whose Long Island district was home to many victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The investigation will try to determine whether employees of News Corp. illegally accessed the private calls, voice-mail...

David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy upped the stakes in the Libya conflict last night as they vowed to fight on until Colonel Gaddafi is ousted. In a joint article, the British, American and French leaders warned that it would be an ‘unconscionable betrayal’ were Nato to stop bombing with the dictator still in power. Gaddafi must ‘go and go for good’ before rebuilding of the country could begin, they said, rejecting calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Iran's Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni E'jei has issued a strong threat against Iranian expatriates who support the Green Movement. During a press conference held last week, a journalist for the conservative Keyhan daily asked the prosecutor, “currently, certain people beyond our borders have a tight-knit coordination with the sedition and spread lies about leading Iranian officials in the anti-revolutionary media everyday. Does not the judiciary system have a plan to indict them?” “It is very obvious that Iranians who commit crimes oversees, or even those who are not Iranian nationals but act against Iran outside the country are subject to...

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lost his position as head of an important state clerical body on Tuesday, a move which tightens the hardliners' grip on power. -excerpt- An ambush challenge by arch hard-liner Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani forced Rafsanjani to withdraw from running for re-election as chairman of the Assembly of Experts. The 86-member clerical body has the authority to dismiss Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 71, but it has never exercised that power since it was established in 1983. It also appoints the new leader if the old one is removed or dies.

Under tight security, hundreds of Iranians marched through the streets Wednesday in a government-sanctioned funeral for Tehran Art University student Saane Zhaleh, who died in violent clashes between pro-reform demonstrators and the police Monday. Described by the government as the "martyr Basij," Zhaleh is said by the authorities to have been killed by government opponents when he joined Basiji militiamen to help put down the protests, which were prohibited by the government. The opposition says he was shot by police. State television showed marchers carrying Iranian flags and shouting slogans against opposition leaders, including "Death to Karroubi!" and "Death to...

In another sign of its ever more improvisational approach to governance, the Iranian regime has outlawed Valentine's Day. "Symbols of hearts, half-hearts, red roses, and any activities promoting this day are banned," announced state media last month. "Authorities will take legal action against those who ignore the ban." Some 70% of Iran's population is said to be under the age of 30, so it seems natural that Valentine's Day has caught on in a country where the young keep trying to find non-state-mandated rituals to call their own. The state, for its part, continues to respond with a Whack-a-Mole approach...

The Teheran regime has hanged 66 individuals since the end of 2010, according to France 24 International News. Among them was a 46-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch national Sahra Bahrami, who was hung on January 29 on drug-smuggling charges. Holland's Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," according to Agence France Presse. Bahrami's sister dismissed the Iranian charges, which she contended were fabricated. "She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?" she is quoted as...

In Washington, bigwigs can misspeak and misstep a million times without drawing attention. And then there are the seemingly harmless moments that stick to a person like super glue: Joe Wilson barking “You lie!”; Jesse Jackson mumbling into a hot mic that he wants to castrate Barack Obama; Dan Quayle trying to spell things. Like coal crushed into diamonds by the pressure of a million eyeballs, such moments are forever. During an exclusive dinner hosted Monday by the Alfalfa Club, Obama adviser Valerie Jarret had just such a moment. And were it not for an irritated tipster, Jarret might have...

Are Iran's democratic stirrings truly a thing of the past? Ever since the so-called Green Movement coalesced in the wake of the country's fraudulent June 2009 presidential vote, Western observers have rushed to write its epitaph. Over the past year, more than a few Iran watchers have argued that the internal contradictions within Iran's opposition movement doom it to failure and that, as a result, Washington has no alternative but to engage with Iran's ayatollahs. Similarly, some media outlets, in reporting the Green Movement's lackluster showing during Ashura celebrations in mid-December, have suggested that Iran's once-vibrant democracy drive has run...

In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Related Stories: ■NEPA Exemptions: The Dirty Dozen List ■Wisconsin Firm Receives Energy Grant Despite Chronic Pollution Problems The administration has awarded more than 179,000 “categorical exclusions” to stimulus projects funded by federal agencies, freeing those projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Coal-burning utilities like Westar Energy...

President Barack Obama's administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes. The U.S. General Services Administration, which runs the government fleet, bought at least 14,584 hybrid vehicles in the past two fiscal years, or about 10 percent of 145,473 vehicles the agency purchased in that period, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases, the data showed.

The Islamic Republic looks more and more like a Marx Brothers creation. The leaders proclaim themselves invincible, but just offstage, we can hear the sounds of breaking crockery. For starters, the currency is crashing — Iran may well be the only country in the world in which the dollar is not only gaining strength but is the object of unbridled passion. In the past couple of days some money changers have refused to sell dollars because the market is just too volatile. As RFE/RL tells us: the rial declined 13 percent against the dollar last week as demand for the...

Thirty years after the end of the war between Iran and Iraq a fierce battle is being fought amongst statesmen, military commanders and scholars about the war. Three questions remain contested: Why did the war began in the first place? Why did the war continue after Iran's liberation of territories occupied by Iraq? And why did the war with Iraq end? -excerpt- Thanks to the Iraqi invasion of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini and the revolutionary regime managed to rally a fragmented nation around the revolutionary leadership. The revolutionary leadership also managed to keep the remains of the Imperial Army busy...

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has appointed six presidential advisers for foreign affairs. The half-dozen are former presidential envoys to the Middle East, Asia, and Afghanistan who were appointed by Ahmadinejad -- reportedly to some consternation -- only earlier this month. The change to their titles comes after protests by lawmakers and former diplomats and also criticism from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who had warned against parallel activities in foreign affairs and other areas. Ahmadinejad's deputy for political affairs, Mohammad Jafar Behdad, said the president followed the supreme leader's guidance and therefore the status of the special envoys was changed. So did...

During any rational discussion or debate on social or political issues, when the Left find themselves devoid of a rational reply they always have one tactic in their reprobate arsenal and game plan: Operation Slander. The secular, liberal Leftist ideology is based on a delusional reality, governed and dominated by an irrational, emotional instability which springs forth from a well of outright disdain for the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. They are also dominated by their unbridled passions and carnal addictions (Rom. 1:18-32; 2 Tim. 3:1-7; Gal. 5:19-21). When confronted with reality and light, these MUST with all...

In today's Real Clear Politics polling average, Obama has hit an average 50% disapproval rate for the first time! The graph can be found at the link, but here are the raw numbers: Poll                                  Date         Sample        Approve        Disapprove       Spread RCP Average                7/13 - 8/3        --                 44.7                 50.0               -5.3 Gallup                            8/1 - 8/3      1547 A            44                   48                   -4 Rasmussen Reports        8/1 - 8/3      1500 LV         46                    53                   -7 USA Today/Gallup        7/27 - 8/1    1208 A            41                    53                  -12 FOX News                   7/27 - 7/28   900 RV           43                    50                   -7 Reuters/Ipsos                 7/22 - 7/25  1075 A            48                   48                   Tie CNN/Opinion Research 7/16 - 7/21  1018 A            47                    50                  ...

Some Iran merchants still strike at Tehran bazaar THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 13, 2010 5:58 a.m. Be the first to comment  Text size           TEHRAN, Iran - Some merchants in the Iranian capital are still on strike, despite reports of a deal with the government over a tax dispute. Traders in the Tehran bazaar's main passageway on Tuesday joined carpet and textile sellers' sectors in the strike, shuttering their stores. It's unclear whether the merchants had agreed to the deal. The state IRNA news agency reported late on Monday that tax authorities and the merchants agreed on a tax bracket of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Man, oh, man is there irony and hypocrisy all throughout the news today and the news over the weekend. Great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh at 800-282-2882. The e-mail address is ElRushbo@eibnet.com. You know, we gotta be fair here, folks. We have to give Obama his proper due. Barack Obama has proved the truth of what we were all told when we were growing up. Anybody can be president. If Obama can do it, anybody can do it. They told you that in grade school. "Little Johnny, what do you want to be when you grow...

Even before last year's post-election tumult, it was palpable to almost anyone who had spent serious time in Iran that revolutionary rot had set in long ago. While every country has its tales of corrupt clergymen, disillusioned government officials, drug-addicted youth, and rampant prostitution, in a theocracy that rules from a moral pedestal these stories have long served to highlight the government's hypocrisy and hollow legitimacy. Although Iran's amateur cell-phone journalists did a heroic job chronicling scenes of extraordinary courage and harrowing government brutality -- a record that is "more important than all of the history of our cinema," acclaimed...

Iran: A year later, Green wave rippling no more Arrests, torture, raids, summary trials and executions have crushed Iran’s protest movement, a cause without a real leader. An Ahmadinejad aide prepares to run in the next presidential elections. Saturday, June 12, 2010 By Asia News Tehran – The contrast could not be any greater. A year ago, millions of Iranians had taken to the streets across the country, putting their lives at risk, to protest against rigged elections won by outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Tomorrow, a year after what was the greatest challenge to Iran’s 30-year-old theocratic regime, no one...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.): "We need to give the American people an alternative — who are we, what do we believe in, what are our principles, how will we apply them and what will we do if you elect us back, and how do you make sure we won't repeat the sins of fiscal profligacy that we made last time we were in the majority."

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...

"Seniors are being asked to provide their birthdates, Social Security numbers and citizen status to the Secret Service so background checks could be performed. Such a check is required for anyone who gets within an arm’s length of the president, students were told at their senior breakfast Friday. "Of the fact that the White House is requesting information on all the graduating seniors, K-Central Principal Von Washingon Jr. told the students, 'I’ll let you figure out what that means,' said senior Simon Boehme, who was at the breakfast." Look, in all fairness, it’s the Secret Service’s job to protect the...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The Iranian regime is notorious for cracking down on dissent inside Iran. Now Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and the mullahs are targeting dissidents in other countries -- including those in the United States. And they are using an international organization to do it. Shahram Homayoun fled Iran for the United States 19 years ago. He was a marked man in his native country, because of his support for democracy and human rights. Now the regime has finally caught up with Homayoun: not in Tehran, but in Los Angeles. "They have managed to keep me here, and it seems...

Three months before the Times Square terror bombing by a Pakistani-American with ties to terrorists in Pakistan, the Obama administration knew the style of attack, the type of explosives to be used and when the attack would come, yet when the attack happened the administration played dumb with its initial reaction being to downplay the attack as an unsophisticated "one-off" that was a "potential" terror attack.On February 10, I wrote an article at FR based on Vice President Joe Biden's comments about coming terror attacks on the U.S. that were broadcast later that day on CNN's Larry King Live.King mentioned...

Five Hanged in Secret, Twenty Seven others Facing Hangman’s Noose (9 May 2010) The sudden execution of five Iranian political prisoners today appears to signal a government policy of relying on politically-motivated executions to strengthen its position vis-à-vis its opposition through terror and intimidation, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said. The Campaign condemned the execution of five political prisoners, including Farzad Kamangar, a 34-year-old teacher and social worker, who was charged with Moharebeh (taking up arms against God), convicted and sentenced to death in February 2008, after a seven-minute long trial in which “zero evidence” was presented....

(CNSNews.com) – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday that Americans are “tired” of motorized transportation and its attendant hassles, and instead are looking for other options such as bicycle lanes and walking paths, which the government will add to its infrastructure. “People are sick of being stuck in traffic, stuck in their automobiles, and we want to help communities and neighborhoods that want more walking paths or biking paths—more transit,” LaHood told CNSNews.com. President Obama’s top transportation official was following up on comments he had made on his official blog in March, when he announced a “sea change” in transportation....

The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents. After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people.

Barack Obama (D) Top Contributors This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates. Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates. These contributions can come from the organization's members or employees (and their families). The organization may support one candidate, or hedge its bets by supporting multiple candidates. Groups...

A top Republican lawmaker is raising questions about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's fraud case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), implying political motives -- a charge that the SEC denies. Since the SEC sued Goldman for misrepresenting a debt product tied to subprime mortgages, some Democrats have said the case shows Congress should tighten financial oversight. Republicans have raised questions about the timing of the SEC case, filed on Friday just before the Senate was due to start formally debating a bill that would usher in new rules for Wall Street. "The timing of the SEC's filing of...

Loan Officer Snitches on RegimeApril 20, 2010 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Carol in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Nice to have you here. CALLER: Thanks, and mega dittos, Rush -- RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: -- from a truly reformed Democrat. I am an escrow officer, and I close purchases and mortgage loans, and the government is now telling us that the banks, the private sector banks are not allowed to do no-down-payment loans anymore, that a person has to come in with a certain amount because that's what the evil banks have been doing, but the government is doing...

RUSH: So what's a tea party, folks? The tea party, when you boil it down to its essence, is a backlash. It is a backlash from people who work and who expect their kids and grandkids to work, who want to work, who want their kids and grandkids to work, who understand what it is that's made this country great. That's who the tea party is.

Paul Ryan criticizes the "Regime".... Ryan: "They are putting through an agenda in this country to replace the American idea, the values and principles that made this country so exceptional with more of a European style, cradle to grave social welfare state... We want the 21st century to be another great American century, we don not want to join the list of other mediocre countries in the world, but when you've already passed $670 billion in new tax increases into law, and you're passing a whole host of other ones, I don't know how else to conclude but that is...

Document outlines key messages the Obama administration wants to convey in the run-up to UN climate talks in Mexico in November A document accidentally left on a European hotel computer and passed to the Guardian reveals the US government's increasingly controversial strategy in the global UN climate talks. Titled Strategic communications objectives and dated 11 March 2010, it outlines the key messages that the Obama administration wants to convey to its critics and to the world media in the run-up to the vital UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico in November. (You can read the document text below). Top of...

(CNSNews.com) - Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday that the IRS cannot say how many new agents it will need to enforce the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama last month. The IRS will play a key role in the new national health care system created by the law because it will be responsible for monitoring whether people buy health insurance, as the law mandates, and for collecting a fine from those who fail to buy insurance.

Talking to Cavuto.

The old saying “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks” may be a self-evident truth to most of us, but this one is lost on Chris Matthews, the self-appointed guardian of all things Obama, and host of MSNBC’s Hardball. Matthews recently caught the attention of conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. (After one of Matthews’ typical tirades he called Limbaugh an underwater walrus.) The third grade comment was not what got Rush’s attention. Granted the rant was directed at him, it was over his use of the word “regime.” In predictable form, Matthews completely ignored the substance of...

They have the audacity to dare protest the regime. Regimes do not like to be protested. Regimes don't put up with being protested. And regimes target average citizens. Presidents do not. Regimes do. Regimes lead the targeting of average citizens. So I have three polls here today on just who the tea party people are. Oh, by the way, I should remind you that John Lewis compared McCain to George Wallace during the presidential campaign. I mean that's just how far they've gone. That's how desperate they are. We have a poll here from the Hotline National Journal: "The Winston...

As you know, ladies and gentlemen, when was it that Obama beat up on me? Thursday? In the Harry Smith interview. I got a request from Byron York in The Politico for a reaction. I gave 'em a reaction and I said, "I've never seen a regime that governs against the will of the people, purposely like this. I've never seen a regime that is so inconsiderate of the American people. I've never seen a media so impressed and supportive of a regime amassing such power." This set Chris Matthews on fire Friday night. Oh, yeah. We have two sound...

Finally -- you knew this was coming -- on June 14, 2002, Chris Matthews himself introduced a panel discussion about a letter signed by many prominent leftists condemning the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror. "Let's go to the Reverend Al Sharpton," Matthews said. "Reverend Sharpton, what do you make of this letter and this panoply of the left condemning the Bush regime?" Oops. Perhaps Joe McCarthy never called the U.S. government a regime, but Chris Matthews did. And a lot of other people did, too. So now we are supposed to believe him when he expresses disgust...

In his new interview with CBS, President Obama refers to the "troublesome" talk and "vitriol" of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. "Keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out," Obama says. "It happens often when you've got an economy that is making people more anxious, and people are feeling like there is a lot of change that needs to take place. But that's not the vast majority of Americans. I think the vast majority of Americans know that we're trying hard, that I want what's best for the country." I...