Free Republic

Top News Story Underreported US Senate Resolution on Iran reveals a lack of conviction DoctorZin:Last Friday, the day after millions of Iraqi's voted in an historic election, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning the recent alarming statements by Iran's President. Surprisingly, the mainstream media ignored the resolution while the international press has been avidly covering similar resolutions adopted by countries around the world. Unfortunately, the story behind the resolution revealed a disturbing lack of conviction by some in the US Senate. The resolution, authored by US Rick Santorum, was in his words "a mild condemnation" version of the...

Top News Story New Limits on Travel Abroad Adnkronos International:Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued a circular warning all ministers and state bodies that "no official may go abroad, on a mission or for personal reasons, without prior authorisation and without coordinating with the foreign ministry". In the circular, signed by the deputy president Parwiz Davoodi, no reason is given for the decision. "The aim is to avoid misunderstandings," a presidential source told the Iranian news agency Fars. Since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last July, there has been an increasing flow of financial and human capital to neighbouring...

Top News Story What is behind Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel remarks? Mehran Riazaty: a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad in the office of Strategic Communication. Ahmadinejad could not tie his shoe-laces without supports of powerful Ayatollahs such as Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Janati, Kashani, Mesbah Yazdi his mentor, and many others in Iran. The main question is why Ahmadinejad made these comments? These comments are not definitely made by accident. During Khatami’s presidency, Hassan Rohani, who used to be Iran’s Supreme National Security Chief, wrote a letter to him and explained Iran’s Political Strategy: Creating...

Top News Story Deutsche Presse-Agentur German Intelligence Warns That Iran Has New Missiles Deutsche Presse-Agentur:German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Teheran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday. The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres. However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets...

Top News Story Ministers of Murder: Iran's New Security Cabinet Human Rights Watch: Iran’s new Minister of Interior is implicated in grave human rights violations over the past two decades, possibly including crimes against humanity in connection with the massacre of thousands of political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch also said that the new Minister of Information should be investigated for his possible involvement in a dissident’s killing. The briefing paper, Ministers of Murder: Iran’s New Security Cabinet, details credible allegations that Minister of Interior Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi and Minister of...

Top News Story Denying the Holocaust for Political Advantage? Michael Scott Moore, Spiegel Online:Should Israel move to Alaska? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again called for Israel to be moved on Wednesday. And this time, he went ahead and denied the Holocaust as well. But why? SPIEGEL ONLINE went to Iran expert Ali Ansari for answers. Once again, the international response was swift and unequivocal. "Shocking and totally unacceptable," said Germany's new foreign minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier. "Thank God Israel has the means to end the extremist regime in Iran," said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon....

Top News Story State Dept. Rules Out Guarantee on Iran Barry Schweid, The Associated Press:The Bush administration is ruling out a guarantee not to attack Iran to induce it to halt development of nuclear weapons. Iran must first act like a responsible member of the international community and stop violating its agreements, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday. "That would represent a sea change in its behavior," Ereli said. "Then maybe other kinds of notions might be more palatable." "But right now, I don't think people should be asking the United States, 'Why don't you do this or...

Top News Story State Department: Iran's referral to UNSC "just a matter of time" The Jerusalem Post:Reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for defiantly pressing ahead with its suspect nuclear program is just a matter of time, a senior US State Department official suggested Monday. "Clearly our patience is limited. We're now talking 'when' or 'how' rather than 'whether' we will report them to the Security Council," which has the power to slap Iran with sanctions, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with journalists. Iran is engaged...

Top News Story Israel readies forces for strike on nuclear Iran Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, Washington ISRAEL’S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations. Iran’s stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over nuclear inspections and aggressive rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who...

Top News Story Iranian Ayatollah Supports His President The Jerusalem Post:Iran's supreme ruler came out in support of his maligned president on Saturday, who created an international storm by demanding Israel be moved to Europe and casting doubt on whether the Holocaust happened. "The unusual sensitivity of Zionists and their American supporters toward Iran's stance over the Zionist state reveals their increased weakness and fear about the level of attention given by Islamic nations to the Palestinian issue," state-run Iranian radio quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. "Despite the Zionist's campaign, the struggle against the occupiers has become an...

Top News Story Iran’s strategic role in the Islamic world Mehr News:Iran’s active participation at the third extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which was held last week in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, once again showed that the Islamic Republic of Iran always has strategies to resolve the impasses the Islamic world faces from time to time. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his delegation offered a series of proposals at the December 7-8 summit that drew the attention of Islamic leaders. Ahmadinejad proposed establishing an Islamic common market, an Islamic rapid reaction military force to respond...

Top News Story Opposition in Iran Showing Signs of Unity By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun December 8, 2005 CAIRO, Egypt - In the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ascendancy to the presidency of Iran, the country's opposition is beginning to show signs of unifying as the clerical regime wages a war against internal dissent.Yesterday, the regime closed all schools in Tehran, citing poor air quality, after word leaked of the first major demonstrations since the summer. Nonetheless, a rally at Tehran University attracted 300 demonstrators amid a heavy police presence on campus. Of note is that...

Top News Story Iran's Ahmadinejad says Israel should be moved to Europe Dec 08 11:51 AM US/Eastern Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Germany and Austria feel responsible for massacring Jews during World War II, a state of Israel should be established on their soil. Ahmadinejad, who sparked an international outcry in October when he said Israel "must be wiped off the map", also repeated his view Thursday that the Jewish state was a "tumour". "Now that you believe the Jews were oppressed, why should the Palestinian Muslims have to pay the price?" the hardline president asked...

Top News Story Ticking Tehran Bomb An Excerpt: Wall Street Journal:Once Iran gets its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz up and running, it will likely be months away from having a nuclear weapon. So said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei this week in an interview with The Independent newspaper of London. We were surprised enough by the quote from the hyper-careful Mr. ElBaradei that we called his spokeswoman Melissa Fleming to confirm. While she cautioned that it would probably take two years before Natanz was fully operational, she said the IAEA assumed that any country that...

Top News Story U.S. Army report: Israel can't stop Iran nukes The World Tribune:Geopolitical limitations render Israel's air force militarily incapable of halting Iran's nuclear weapons program according to a new report published the by U.S. Army War College. The report asserts Israel lacks the military capability to locate and destroy Iranian nuclear assets. The report said the Israel Air Force cannot operate at such long distances from its bases. "The Israeli Air Force has formidable capabilities and enjoys unchallenged supremacy vis-a-vis the other Middle East air powers, but Israel has no aircraft carriers and it cannot use airbases...

Top News Story El Baradei: Iran only months away from a bomb By JPOST.COM STAFF IAEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb. If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent. On the other hand, he warned, any attempt to resolve the crisis by non-diplomatic means would "open a Pandora's box. There would be efforts to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate; and at the...

Top News Story Washington Times Iran OKs Bill to Block Nuclear Inspections Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press:Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog approved a bill Saturday blocking international inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, state-run television reported. The ratification by the Guardian Council means the bill - overwhelmingly approved by parliament last month - now needs just a presidential signature to become law. It was not clear when that would take place. READ MORE The bill will strengthen the government's hand in resisting international pressure to permanently abandon uranium enrichment,...

Top News Story Iran and Russia sign $1 bln defence deal - reports Fri Dec 2, 2005 2:11 PM GMT By Meg ClothierMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to sell more than $1 billion worth of tactical surface-to-air missiles and other defence hardware to Iran, media reported on Friday.Moscow is already at odds with the West over its nuclear ties with Tehran but has sought to use its warm relations with Iran to be recognised as a key mediator between the West and the Islamic Republic.The Vedomosti business daily cited military sources as saying Iran would buy 29 TOR-M1 systems...

Top News Story Sucker's Game By MICHAEL LEDEEN December 1, 2005The president gave us an often brilliant assessment of the war in Iraq, along with a welcome outline of his plan for victory over the terrorists there. It was full of vision and grit, both of which have been in alarmingly short supply in what has passed for our national debate, and it paid appropriate tribute to the armed forces - ours, our Coalition allies', and the growing numbers of Iraqi soldiers - deployed against the terrorists. No doubt we are making real progress. No doubt the areas of...

Top News Story State Department rethinking Iran?By Guy Dinmore in WashingtonPublished: November 30 2005 23:01 | Last updated: November 30 2005 23:01Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, is an irresponsible radical who is digging a hole for himself, a senior US official declared on Wednesday. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s number three official, launched a particularly personal attack in a speech that focused on Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, its support for “terrorist” groups, including Hamas and al-Qaeda, and its poor human rights record.“Through his statements and actions, President Ahmadi-Nejad is digging a hole for himself and he appears...