Free Republic

Ali Nouri Zadeh, Asharq Alawsat: Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed...

Top News Story Iran "doesnt give a damn" about UN resolutions. Yahoo News reported that Iran's president said: "Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right should know that we do not give a damn to such resolutions."Islamic Republic News Agency reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran has potentials to become an international superpower speedily.   IAEA released its Iran Report. Full text. Vital Perspective published the long awaited IAEA report on Iran and an analysis. Full text of IAEA report.My Way News reported that the IAEA said ran has defied a U.N. Security Council...

Top News Story Iranian President remains defiant. Deutsche Welle reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant saying his country "will not bow to injustice and pressure," the day before a UN deadline to stop sensitive nuclear work expires. "Thanks to God, we are a nuclear state."   Russia and China: Don't antagonize Iran. The Financial Times reported that Russia and China on Thursday warned against escalating the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.   Germany suggests US/Iran nuclear talks. Silive.com reported that Germany's foreign minister suggested that the United States and Iran could hold direct discussions on the Islamic...

Top News Story Iran Freedom Act Passes The House. Vital Perspective reported that the Iran Freedom Support Act overwhelmingly passed in the House by a margin of 397-21. When will the Senate act on its version on the bill?   "No Comment" from 11th hours IAEA/Iran talks. Reuters reported that eleventh hour talks between ElBaradei and Iran's nuclear energy chief ended without public comments.   Iran's Supreme Leader: "We'll Strike Back with Twice the Force." CBS News reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "The Americans should know that if they invade Iran, their interests around the...

Top News Story Ahead of Friday's UNSC deadline, Iran does everything possible to create a crisis. The New York Times reported that Iran has told the IAEA that it will refuse to answer questions about a second, secret uranium-enrichment program.Reuters reported that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larjani, said Iran would suspend its relations with the IAEA if sanctions were imposed.BBC News reported that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with other nations.The Guardian reported that Ali Larijani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator threatened to hide its nuclear program...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad's latest Press Conference. Surprise! More threats. Bloomberg reported that Ahmadinejad rejected a United Nations deadline to suspend Iran's nuclear program, threatened to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty if the UN doesn't recognize Iran's right to nuclear technology.Advfn.com reported that Ahmadinejad said that Israel "cannot survive", adding that migrants to the Jewish state should go back to where they came from.Reuters reported that Ahmadinejad said women should be allowed into sports stadiums for the first time, reversing the Islamic Republic's code preventing them watching men playing sports.   Assassinations of Iranian regime's leaders increasing. SMCCDI reported the...

Top News Story Iran corrects itself: No deal with Russia. Reuters reported that Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that Iran and Russia have not reached uranium enrichment agreement.   Americans want war plans for Iran ready, if needed. FOX News reported that their latest poll indicates that the U.S. should have Iran war plans ready.   The US is preparing for a financial war on Iran. Elaine Shannon, Time reported that ahead of this week's U.N. Security Council deadline for Iran, U.S. officials have been mapping a plan to hit the defiant regime. But...

Top News Story Daily Times LAHORE: Renowned American journalist Eric Margolis has said that the US will “go for” Pakistan and Saudi Arabia after Iraq and Iran. “We have leaks from reliable sources that after Iraq and Iran, the US plans to go for Pakistan and Saudi Arabia,” Margolis said in an interview with IWT NEWS on Saturday. Margolis supported Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, saying that it poses no threat to the world community. US President George W Bush’s statements on Iran’s nuclear programme were “ridiculous and nonsense”, he said. “Iran has no nuclear bombs and no capability to...

Top News Story Fox News NEW YORK — Most Americans agree with the U.S. position of trying diplomacy first with Iran, but want to keep military options open. In addition, a clear majority thinks having war plans for Iran already prepared is the right thing to do, according to the latest FOX News Poll. By a 62 percent to 27 percent margin, Americans say they agree with the U.S. position for handling the nuclear weapons situation with Iran — try to find diplomatic solutions, but keep military action as an option. A large majority of Republicans (75 percent) agree...

Top News Story Seattle Times Twenty-seven years after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the majority sentiment among Iranians today can be summed up in a single question: When are they leaving? "They" refers to Tehran's extremist mullahs, who have turned back Iran's clock on cultural and scientific development for more than a quarter of a century. In a country where 70 percent of the population is literate and secular and close to 50 percent is female and educated, women are still permanent second-class citizens. Without the basic right of choosing their public attire, women going out without the mandatory Islamic...

Top News Story Regime desperate to spread fear with executions and arrests. SMCCDI reported that a mass execution at the infamous Evin jail located in North Tehran. 9 un-identified victims were executed in the facility in which tens of political activists are being held including several student activists. Several other executions are to take place, in the days ahead, to spread more fear among the population.Iran Press News reported that runaway girls and deserted women are being rounded up by the Islamic regime’s forces to unknown locations. Security forces had been warning them "leave the country or stay and...

Top News Story How did Iranian nuclear negotiator get to Washington and who is he meeting with? The New York Times reported that the State Department confirmed that Mohammad Nahavandian, an aide to the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, was in Washington. But Sean McCormack, the department spokesman, said, "He's not here for meetings with U.S. government officials, to my knowledge."Reuters added that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "We have no record of issuing a visa to a person with this name."The Guardian reported that the US reaffirmed that it is refusing to discuss Iran's nuclear plans...

Top News Story Russia and China offer Iran to join their alliance. AsiaTimes reported that Iran will become full member of China and Russia's "Shanghai Cooperation Organization." The SCO's enlargement move would frustrate the entire US strategy in the region. The SCO is a security organization which will provide Iran with access to technology, increased investment and trade.   Iran confirms it is developing P-2 centrifuges. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran now claims it was conducting research and tests on the more sophisticated P-2 nuclear-enrichment centrifuge which could significantly speed the process of making fuel for bombs....

Top News Story Iran wants the bomb. Amir Taheri, The Telegraph revealed the frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb. Hint: ever heard of a "clash of civilizations?"   Calls for a change in US policy towards Iran. Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times argued that our policy on Iran Nukes seems to be off-target.Richard Clarke, The New York Times argued that bombing Iran will backfire on the US.The National Review in an editorial argued that the US should massively increase our pro-democracy broadcasts into Iran, and called for a major shift in direction in Voice of America's content.  ...

Top News Story Financial Times WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: The US has prepared several plans to attack Iran since 2003, a former intelligence expert with the US military reported Sunday in the Washington Post. According to security analyst William Arkin, the US Central Command has been devising war scenarios with Iran at least since May 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq. One of the possible campaigns, entitled TIRANNT (theatre Iran near term) dealt with clash of US and Iranian ground troops, taking into account US experiences in its recent Iraq invasion, Arkin said. In addition, the US drew up...

Top News Story AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE TEHRAN -- Iran boasted yesterday it could defeat any American military action over its nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States. "You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures. "The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines...

Top News Story Congress holding up funding of Iranian opposition broadcasts into Iran? Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House appropriations panel are resisting administration efforts to fund independent Iranian broadcast efforts into Iran and instead want to solely fund Voice of America and Radio Farda. But Iranian opposition groups claim VOA and Radio Farda are undermining pro-democracy efforts inside of Iran.   ElBaradei leave Iran empty handed. The Times reported that Mohamed ElBaradei delivered in person in Tehran a message from the four permanent Security Council members.The New York...

Top News Story The world responds to Iran's announcement. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran in formal breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution and now has the know how to make a nuclear bomb.Reuters reported that the UN is unlikely to act sooner than May on the question of Iran's nuclear ambitions.The Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United Nations Security Council must now take "strong steps." The permanent 5 (plus Germany) will meet next week in Moscow.The Washington Post reported that Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized Iran saying: "We believe that...

Top News Story Iran's big announcement: "will soon join the nuclear club." AP reported that Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time and Ahmadinejad added that the country "will soon join the club of countries with nuclear technology."Mehran Riazaty reported Iranian leaders were meeting with many of its neighbors the morning of Iran's nuclear announcement. The report reminds us that Iranian leaders are seeking to increase the price of oil to $100 a barrel.IranMania reported that the Iranian Defense Minister said that Tehran is ready to sign non-aggression pacts with countries in the region.Kuwait News Agency reported...

Top News Story Even the IAEA experts say Iran is moving closer to being able to create a bomb. Telegraph reported that teams of nuclear experts attached to the IAEA are saying Iran's ayatollahs are moving closer to their goal of building an atom bomb.   Iran to make nuclear announcement: Tuesday. Reuters reported that Iran's president promised "good news" within days about the country's nuclear program.Mehran Riazaty produced a roundup of Iranian press reports discussing Ahmadinejad's coming announcement on Iran’s nuclear program.   Solana: "We have to begin thinking about..." sanctions. The Washington Post reported that EU foreign...