Free Republic

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen who helped establish a pro-Tehran lobbying group in America, has been arrested in Iran and imprisoned indefinitely. -excerpt- Namazi has been described as one of the “intellectual architects” of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that has been accused of working in support of the regime in Tehran. He and NIAC Director Trita Parsi founded the organization as a way to continuously lobby for the removal of sanctions against Iran and to promote Iran’s foreign policy, while combating the pro-Israel sentiment in America, according to documents from a Cyprus convention...

Obama intel chief violating Iran sanctions? Board member of Chinese government-owned company in deal with Tehran Charles "Chas" Freeman JERUSALEM – President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post sits on the board of a major oil company owned by the Chinese government that is in the midst of a multibillion dollar deal with Iran which may violate U.S. sanctions, WND has learned. The oil company is widely seen as conducting business deals meant to expand China's influence worldwide. One of its recent attempts to purchase a large U.S. oil firm drew bipartisan congressional opposition amid fears the deal would...

Fox News host Jesse Watters analyzes Hunter Biden’s alleged shady business dealings on "Jesse Watters Primetime." JESSE WATTERS: The Bidens are all over FBI wiretaps talking to China. The FBI was investigating Patrick Ho, a Chinese bagman who eventually got caught for bribing African leaders and helping Iran evade sanctions. Real nice guy. Ho was the VP for the Chinese energy company that was getting the Bidens rich, but Ho was also a spy and Hunter knew he was a spy.... ...The FBI knew Ho was an intelligence agent and they were listening to his phone calls and the FBI...

Swiss diplomat Sylvie Brunner was found dead this week after falling from her 17th-floor apartment balcony in Tehran. She was the first secretary of the Swiss delegation and worked in the US Interests Section. Neighbors heard a loud explosion late at night before her death. Her body was found in the garden the next morning. According to reports, Sylvie Brunner was called to Iran to testify about her knowledge of the details of the American accounts who pocketed billions of dollars due to the bribes to lift sanctions against Iran. ...... Snip...... Dan J @DanTCH_ Swiss diplomat who was preparing...

Iran knows they can do what they want with Obama/Biden in charge again. ..... Snip..... With Obama/Biden back in charge, Iran will do what it wants. Now with the help of the European Union, the US and Iran will hold indirect talks to get the Iran deal back on the table. Per ABC: The U.S. and Iran are holding indirect talks on Tuesday in what could be the first step toward reviving the 2015 deal that constrains Tehran’s nuclear facilities in exchange for sanctions relief. The meetings, hosted by the European Union, will work toward two separate agreements — on...

Sources tell the Washington Free Beacon that foreign governments exert pressure on the ostensibly independent think tank’s scholarship and programming Turkish president Recep Tayyip ErdoganTurkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Getty Images Eliana Johnson - AUGUST 7, 2020 5:00 AM When Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards were arrested after attacking a crowd of protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in May 2017, Erdogan and his crew were heading inside for a private, off-the-record meeting with Atlantic Council fellows and board members. That event is just one example of the close relationship between the Washington, D.C., think tank and the...

Former Congressman Steve Stockman, whom leftwing Salon called a “Tea Party darling,” has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal from a 10-year criminal sentence on multiple counts involving raising money from just two GOP donors. You may have heard the term “criminalization of politics.” Steve Stockman’s 2018 conviction is very literally an example. Stockman’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn that politicized conviction should be watched by conservatives who know that a Biden/Harris administration would be a reboot of the lawless and lawbreaking Obama Deep State, but probably even more vindictive towards conservatives. Representative Steve Stockman 2014...

Jihad Watch Court Docs: Iranian-American Lobbying Group NIAC Defrauded Feds, Lied to Congressmen, Paid for Congressional Testimony, and Arranged Secret US/Iran Meetings Pamela Geller has just published this revealing and important message from the Iranian-American human rights activist Arash Irandoost: Dear Friend,حرف بس است. متحد شویم. عمل کنیمIt is time to act. Court documents released as a result of a lawsuit filed by NIAC against Hassan Dai paint a very disturbing picture of Trita Parsi and the NIAC. They range from defrauding the federal government, lying to members of Congress, arranging secret meetings between the US and the criminal regime,...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the targets of an investigation in Turkey into suspected bribery and money laundering in connection with a scheme to help Iran evade sanctions, a former Istanbul police officer has testified. The officer, Huseyin Korkmaz, told a New York court on December 11 that the Turkish investigation that he led in 2012-2013 initially focused on Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who U.S. prosecutors have said was the mastermind behind the Iran sanctions evasion scheme, but later grew to include dozens of others. He called Erdogan the "No. 1" target in a group that also included...

A high-ranking official from Turkey’s second-largest state-owned bank was arrested in New York City March 27. On the orders of the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, FBI agents arrested Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Halkbank’s vice president for international banking, for violating the US-led sanctions against Iran. The press release from Kim’s office accused Atilla with participating “in a years-long scheme to violate American sanctions laws by helping Reza Zarrab, a major gold trader, use U.S. financial institutions to engage in prohibited financial transactions that illegally funneled millions of dollars to Iran.” Zarrab, a Turkish citizen...

Video at link. The Trump administration announced new sanctions on Iran Friday targeting the country’s metals sector and several of its government leaders following Tehran’s missile attacks on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops earlier this week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a press conference at the White House to detail the new measures, which President Trump promised were coming earlier in the week. The new sanctions target the Iranian aluminum, copper, iron and steel industries. The U.S. is also sanctioning eight senior Iranian officials who were allegedly involved in Tuesday’s missile attacks against U.S....

The sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump on Iran have more than erased the benefits given by President Barack Obama under the nuclear deal, according to numbers presented by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Under the Iran deal, Iran gained renewed access to up to $150 billion in assets that had been previously frozen. The Obama administration also infamously gave Iran nearly $2 billion in cash for the release of American prisoners who were effectively hostages. The money is believed to have been used, in part, to fund Iranian terror operations.Rouhani, quoted by Bloomberg News, said Tuesday that U.S. sanctions have...

June 07, 2010 SNIPPET: "His appointment to head the MIT immediately preceded the "humanitarian" flotilla organized by terrorist-linked Turkish organization IHH. Prior to being this most recent appointment he was central to moving Turkey into the Iranian camp."

In recent weeks, there has been increasing American interest in a previously little-watched judicial saga unfolding in New York district court. Like a Turkish soap opera, it involves a dashing businessman with a pop-star wife, corruption allegations, leaked tapes of private conversations and intrigue at the highest levels of government. The trial of Reza Zarrab on charges of evading Iran sanctions, including any revelations he makes about corruption in the Turkish government, could have significant political and economic implications for Turkey. It could also damage already fraught relations between Turkey and the United States.

Iran is prepared to accept changes to the 2015 nuclear agreement and not seek nuclear weapons if the United States agrees to the deal and lifts sanctions, a spokesman for Iran said Wednesday. “If the sanctions are ended and there is a return to the [nuclear] accord, there is room for giving reassurances toward breaking the deadlock and the President has even a proposal for small changes in the accord,” Ali Rabiei said on state TV, according to Reuters. The news service added that Iran’s state-run Press TV said on Wednesday that Tehran would be willing to reenter the deal...

Golly, whoever leaked this to Bloomberg must have been pretty high up the food chain to know what the president was thinking on a matter as sensitive as Iran diplomacy.And they must have a pretty sizable axe to grind with him if they’re willing to make him sound this weak, particularly in comparison to Bolton.Any theories? Do any current or former disgruntled national security aides with a reputation for score-settling in the press present themselves as logical suspects?The post-Bolton era will be a golden age of natsec leaking, my friends. President Trump discussed easing sanctions on Iran to help...

The United States has removed nearly 2.7 million barrels (per day) of Iranian oil from global markets as a result of Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions on all purchases of Iran’s crude, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. In an interview with MSNBC, Pompeo said the US government was confident it could continue with its strategy. “We have managed to take almost 2.7 million barrels of crude oil off of the market, denying Iran the wealth to create their terror campaign around the world, and we have managed to keep the oil markets fully supplied,” Pompeo said....

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday tweeted a warning to US President Donald Trump. "Misconceptions endanger peace," he warned. "Sanctions aren't alternative to war; they ARE war. 'Obliteration'=genocide=war crime. 'Short war' with Iran is an illusion." Last week, Trump sent Iran an ultimatum, setting a deadline for the start of negotiations and warning that if Iran refuses to talk, the US will attack for the downing of an American surveillance drone.On Monday, Trump announced additional sanctions against Iran, which he said were retaliation for the downed drone, and on Tuesday he warned that "any attack on anything American...

Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming to Washington, DC, on May 16 loaded for bear.  He has an ambitious agenda and apparently feels he can achieve it all because he holds “trump” cards against the President of the United States. Erdogan and his proxies have publicly said they want to convince the United States to jettison its budding alliance with the Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that has become the tip of the spear in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this point, they will encounter resistance...

Democrats are gloating over the sentencing of former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) last week. He was ordered to serve 10 years in prison for the vague charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Whenever prosecutors want to get someone who hasn’t actually committed a crime, they use those vague but scary sounding charges. He was also ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution, to be divided between him and two other co-defendants.What did Stockman actually do to warrant this? He facilitated four donations from two donors totaling $915,000 to two nonprofits he was associated with. One of the nonprofits...