Free Republic

GENEVA (7 September 2018) – UN human rights experts* have appealed to Iran to halt the imminent executions of Iranian Kurd prisoners Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, amid serious concerns that they did not receive a fair trial and were tortured during pre-trial detention. They also reiterated calls to halt the execution of Mr. Ramin Hossein Panahi. “We urge the Government of Iran to immediately halt their executions and to annul the death sentences against them in compliance with its international obligations,” the experts said in a joint statement, following reports that they will be executed on 8 September.“We are alarmed...

“This is not prison; this is a genocide,” stated an audience member following August 29 movie screenings concerning the Gaza Strip at the Washington, DC office of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Typifying the Israel-hating audience of about 25 that filled FCNL’s small Capitol Hill presentation room, this woman’s comments demonstrated how Quakers at FCNL and beyond have joined the global demonization of Israel. The woman, a self-professed member of the radical anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), “was totally sickened” by the evening’s viewings of Gaza in Context and Gaza: A Gaping Wound. These two...

Interrogation of ISIS suspect Alexander Ciccolo

The son of a Boston police captain was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot — three years after his father tipped off federal law enforcement. Alexander Ciccolo, 26, went by the name Ali Al Amriki. His father, Robert Ciccolo, noted his son’s admiration of the terrorist group and alerted the FBI. The younger Ciccolo was arrested in July 2015 after a sting operation in which he accepted firearms that were illegal due to an earlier conviction. He was also recorded discussing plans that involved filling pressure cookers with black powder, nails and ball bearings,...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry said former President Barack Obama should have followed through on his infamous "red line" warning to Syria, and the United States "paid a price" as a result of Obama's inaction. Obama vowed in 2012 that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons on civilians, it would be a "game changer" for U.S. military involvement in Syria. But Obama failed to enforce the promise a year later when hundreds of Syrians were killed in a sarin gas attack, and he instead brokered a multi-nation deal in which Assad pledged to remove his chemical...

“Abbas is apparently prepared to give up his job as president of Palestine to become the mayor of a local municipal council in a Jordanian province,” commented a Ramallah-based senior official. Many Palestinians and Jordanians have expressed surprise over the renewed talk about a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, saying they believe the idea is being floated as part of US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-unveiled plan for peace in the Middle East. They also warned that the proposed confederation was part of an Israeli-American “conspiracy” aimed at preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and turning Jordan into the homeland of the...

The Jordanians immediately rejected the confederation idea. Israel is not behind what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said was a US-backed peace plan based on a Palestinian confederation with Jordan, senior Israeli diplomatic officials clarified Sunday. The clarification came after reports claimed the idea of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation – which Abbas told a Peace Now delegation was raised in a conversation he had with US envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt – was an Israeli proposal. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position remains that an agreement must be directly negotiated between...

Women’s March co-organizer Linda Sarsour (far-right) speaking at a panel on antisemitism at The New School on November 28, 2017. Photo: Screenshot. In a year when Muslim political candidates are breaking new ground or falling just short of doing so, it’s not surprising to see politics dominate the country’s largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans.But the political sessions at the annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention in Houston, Texas were far from celebrations. Rather, they cast a dire picture for Muslims in America.Speakers warned of “Islamophobia” as a dire threat lurking just outside their doors. And while...

“Death to Khamenei” and “Not for Gaza. Not for Lebanon. My life for Iran” are the most important slogans to explain how fed-up Iranians have become. Israel has only two options against Iran On August 27, Iran and Syria signed a military cooperation agreement. An official visit by Iranian Defense Minister Amir Khatami came at a time when the US started pressuring Iran to leave Syria. This clearly indicates both Syria and Iran want to show off the military cooperation and connections between Tehran and Damascus in light of US sanctions and pressures on the latter. This visit again proves...

The abject failure of the Oslo Accords has had a salutary effect on Israeli society. Israelis are today quite resilient, ready to endure – if necessary – protracted conflict. The Oslo process – started between Israel and the Palestinians 25 years ago – clearly failed to bring a resolution to the conflict and did not result in peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. The nearly 1,600 Israeli casualties and many more thousands of wounded during this period by Palestinian terrorist and rocket attacks testify to this failure. Yitzhak Rabin’s land-for-security formula did not work. Be the first to know -...

WASHINGTON — America's allies in Europe are plotting ways to bypass President Donald Trump's sanctions on Iran as they work to keep the nuclear deal alive without the United States. With a second round of U.S. sanctions set to take effect in November, European officials are working at cross-purposes with Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign as they try to preserve as much business as possible with Iran. The goal is to persuade Iran's leaders to stay in the deal for a few more years — perhaps long enough for Trump to be replaced and for a new U.S. president to rejoin...

US President Donald Trump has warned the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies against "recklessly" attacking rebel-held Idlib province. In a tweet he warned of "a grave humanitarian mistake" in which hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Syrian government forces are said to be preparing a huge offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The UN says such a campaign could have disastrous consequences for thousands of civilians. The US State Department also warned on Monday that Washington would respond to any chemical attacks by the Syrian government or its allies..... US ambassador...

Anti-Semitic Islamist activist, Linda Sarsour, was in fine form at ISNA, warning Muslims that if they weren't fighting Israel, they were complicit. She warned them against even daring to "humanize" Israelis, as Steve Emerson reports at The Algemeiner. Her tone often was not aimed at inspiring Muslims to be more politically active, as much as it was to shame them for not doing so. If they aren’t sufficiently engaged in advocating for the Palestinian cause, she said, “you as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start debating...

Adil Musa Abdouljezar was captured alive in an operation that was successfully carried out by YPG Anti-Terror Units (YAT). People’s Defense Units (YPG) Press Office released a statement announcing the capture of a key figure of ISIS. YPG provided the following information about the operation; “Our struggle against the ISIS terrorist organization that had emerged as the most brutal group of history and had been calamity for the peoples of the Middle East and for the revolution in Rojava and Northern Syria, is progressing and obtaining great victories. Through our effort and struggle to defend the values and dignity of...

Fulani Muslim militants launched raids on eight villages burning alive a Christian pastor, wife and three of their children. Islamic raiders, with machetes and AK47 rifles, looted destroying 95 houses, farmland and three churches. They killed Pastor Adamu Gyang Wurim and his family by setting fire to their house while them inside and shot his wife. Also, two villagers killed &wounding several others. Local lawyer, Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, spoke with one of three surviving pastor's children away at University that learned of it on Facebook. "When I called a friend to find out about the situation, the report I received...

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to publish a memoir of his years in the White House, the Jewish Insider claimed. In it, Kerry claims Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu leaked details regarding a confidential peace agreement with the Hamas ...

Imagine being cut off from the world – for your whole life. That’s reality for children like Aya. The blockade of Gaza began when she was a baby, the occupation in the West Bank before her parents were born. Now she is eleven, and the blockade goes on. Aya’s childhood memories are of conflict and hardship, walls she cannot escape, and the fear that the only home she knows, however tiny, could be gone when she returns from school. This Ramadan, please help support children like Aya who have known nothing but conflict and hardship. Donate here: http://buff.ly/2qgsP0Y#forPalestinerefugees Yet neither...

This month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intimated that his country might consider leaving NATO. Meanwhile, on a visit to Moscow last week, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu referred to Russia as a “strategic partner”—a first. This talk is empty. Erdogan may well be angry at Washington, but ultimately, Ankara is going to have to do whatever it takes to restore its ties with the West. Doing so might not be enough to pull the country out of its economic crisis, but Erdogan has few other options if he wants to avoid a potentially worse political meltdown: He depends too...

On one of the nights of the last week of last June, the Syrian security forces imposed strict measures inside and around Damascus International Airport. Just before midnight, a private UAE plane landed on one of the runways. About forty minutes passed before a huge procession of black Four-Wheel vehicles took off carrying the passengers to the Mezzeh area, in the center of Damascus, where the new office of Major General Ali Mamlouk, director of Syria’s National Security Bureau is located. There, a senior US officer led a delegation that included officers from several US intelligence and security agencies. Ali...

The Trump administration has decided to cancel all U.S. funding of the United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees, part of its determination to put its money where its policy is as it seeks a recalculation of U.S. foreign aid spending and prepares its own Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In an announcement to be made within the next several weeks, the administration plans to voice its disapproval of the way the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, spends the funds and to call for a sharp reduction in the number of Palestinians recognized as refugees, dropping it from more than...