Free Republic

The nation's top military official in the Middle East on Wednesday said Iran is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. today and has increased its "destabilizing role" in the region. "I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone," Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony Wednesday. "And it's an area between normal competition between states — and it's just short of open conflict." The general said Iran is exploiting this area in a variety of different ways, through things such as "lethal...

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s newly-announced running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, has a history of embracing Islamists. He appointed a Hamas supporter to a state immigration commission; spoke at a dinner honoring a Muslim Brotherhood terror suspect; and received donations from well-known Islamist groups. Appointing a Muslim Brotherhood Front Leader Who Supports Hamas In 2007, Kaine was the Governor of Virginia and, of all people, chose Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish to the state’s Immigration Commission. A Muslim organization against Islamism criticized the appointment and reckless lack of vetting. Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing...

This week, Tehran announced it would continue a missile development program that defense analysts say could allow Iran to launch nuclear weapons. It was a public threat that has understandably stirred strong response from the U.S. and the west: the risk of nuclear proliferation by a fanatical regime is indeed a threat to millions across the region. But there is another, potentially greater threat from within Iran, one made more insidious by the fact that no one outside of Iran seems to care but which nonetheless imperils the values and moral conscience of the civilized world. I am speaking of...

The Coming Islamic Revolution The Soviet Infidels live in daily fear of a Muslim holy war Lea Rehimi | The New American November 9, 1987 In Eastern Europe, what has been called a "cultural genocide" is being waged against Bulgaria's largest national minority, the Muslim Turks. Amnesty International has estimated the number killed as a result of this "Bulgarization" campaign at between 300 and 1,500. Bulgaria's regime has outlawed such practices as speaking Turkish, wearing Turkish clothes, practicing Turkish/Muslim customs, and using Turkish names. Fathers who have their sons circumcised, an Islamic rite, face heavy fines or imprisonment; Turkish boys...

(Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a business empire worth around $95 billion - a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation's current annual petroleum exports - a six-month Reuters investigation shows. The little-known organization, called Setad, is one of the keys to the Iranian leader's enduring power and now holds stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming. Setad has built its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians - members of religious minorities, Shi'ite Muslims,...

Egypt's military has shown no sign of opposing the president's surprise decision to retire the defense minister and chief of staff and seize back the powers the military grabbed from his office. … President Mohammed Morsi's shake-up of the military took the nation by surprise. It has transformed his image overnight from a weak leader to a savvy politician who carefully timed his move against generals who stripped him of significant powers days before he took office on June 30. …

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has sacked the entire leadership of the country's defense establishment. Among the officials and officers fired are Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and Chief of Staff Sami Anan. Morsi appointed Abdul-Fatah al-Sessi as Defense Minister and Lieutenant-General Sidki Sayed Ahmed as Army Chief of Staff. A judge named Mahmoud Mekki was appointed vice president. Morsi also ordered the retirement of the commanders of the navy, air defense and air force. The retired navy commander, Lieutenant-General Mohan Mameesh, was named as chairman of the Suez Canal. Morsi also cancelled all constitutional changes that gave the military enlarged...

ISLAMIC GENOCIDESome of highlighted mass casualties by (political) Islam in course of the last century, from 1915 and on (updated June, 2012) Casualties: 2,700,000 Chritians - (1915-1923) by Ottoman-Empire Muslim Turkey. 750,000 Assyrians, 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians.[1] Nature: 1.) Ethnic cleansing.[2] 2.) Islamic Jihad.[3] Casualties: close to 27,000. In Israel between 1920-2012, at the hands of Arab/Muslims. 24,526 Israelis/Jews killed, 35,356 injured, and 1,967 Arab "Palestinians" killed by other Arab "Palestinians."[4] Nature: roots and motivation: the genocide campaign[5][6][7][8] began (mainly) in the early 1920s by the supreme Islam leader, the pan-Arab Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, motivated by both:...

SNIPPET: "While these various elements of the jihadist network are distinct, the Internet brings them together, especially at the grassroots level. Videos, websites and online magazines indoctrinate aspiring militants in the jihadist ideology and provide a forum for like-minded individuals and groups."

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said on Sunday it will showcase what it called a new range of rockets and satellites during annual celebrations marking the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Safir 1-B and Kavoshgar 4 rockets and Rasad and Fajr satellites would be unveiled during the 10-day celebrations that start on Tuesday, according to state television website. Iran will mark on February 11 the 32nd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah. Every year Tehran uses the occasion to tout its scientific and technological achievments. The Safir (Ambassador) 1-B rocket...

Iran will unveil three new satellites in February, a report said Wednesday, amid Western concerns that Tehran is using its nuclear and space industries to develop atomic and ballistic weapons. ISNA news agency quoted Communications Minister Reza Taghipour as saying that one of the three home-built communications satellites is still under construction. Taghipour named the three satellites as Toloo (Dawn), Ya Mahdi and Mesbah-2, but did not elaborate on exactly when they would be launched. Ya Mahdi, Taghipour said as quoted by ISNA, was an "experimental satellite" and the launch would be for testing camera and telecommunications equipment. Mesbah-2, which...

A Potomac, Md., Islamic center maintains links to Iran despite its claims that it is independent of a foundation that is being sued by the U.S. government on charges of funneling money to the Islamic republic. Ali Mohammadi, the current manager of the Islamic Education Center (IEC) of Maryland, told The Washington Times that the center's only relationship to the Alavi Foundation is that of tenant to landlord. He quoted a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office as saying that forfeiture proceedings initiated earlier this month against the foundation - which also owns property in New York and other states...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Ahmadinejad: Islamic Revolution Has No Borders In a June 3 speech commemorating the death of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the Islamic revolution has no borders and must not be limited to Iranian territory only. He said that the arrogant capitalist, liberal-democrat regimes had reached their end, and in their stead a regime that carries out the directives of the divine prophets was emerging. He called for acting to rapidly establish just regimes in the world, otherwise the "satans" would impose new...

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran, with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former member.

1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pronounced mah-MOOD ah-mah-dih-nee-ZHAD) was born Oct. 28, 1956, three years after the CIA-sponsored coup that installed the pro-Western leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Iran's leader. A Shiite Muslim, he and his wife, a professor, have two sons and a daughter. 2. When he was an infant, Ahmadinejad's family moved from the village of Aradan to Tehran. It was at this point that the family changed its name from Saborjhian, which translates to "thread painter" (the lowliest job in Iran's traditional carpet-weaving industry), to the more religious Ahmadinejad ("race of Muhammad" or "virtuous race"). 3. Ahmadinejad is...

While Iran continues to deny that Israel has the right to exist, Iranian and Israeli representatives are holding clandestine talks in Europe to settle an old Israeli debt, Ha'aretz reported Wednesday. Iran is still owed hundreds of millions of dollars for oil it supplied to Israel in the years before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and representatives of the two countries, now sworn enemies, are holding contacts meant to settle the debt, according to the report in Haaretz. The report was attributed to anonymous Israeli and Swiss officials involved in the negotiations. Two mediation processes involving different parts of the...

Reza'i: Iranian Nation To Make 'Final Decision' in Confrontation With US IRNA (Internet Version-WWW) Bushehr, April 21, IRNA -- Secretary of the State Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei (Reza'i) said here late Thursday the Iranian nation will make the final decision in the challenge with the US. Addressing a gathering in this southern province, Rezai said the Iranian nation, as proved in 1979 Islamic Revolution, is decisive in defending their rights. He rejected the possibility of a US attack on Iran, saying under such crucial circumstances in which there is a possibility of economic sanctions, the Iranian nation will have the...

AMERICANS will certainly have 9/11 in mind when they vote today. But they should keep another date in mind, too — one almost exactly a quarter-century ago: Nov. 4, 1979. A clear path runs to 9/11 from the day of the raid on the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the seizure of American hostages. The 1979 embassy attack came at a time when the administration of President Jimmy Carter was trying to prop up the new Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Carter had decided to support Khomeini in the context of the so-called "Green Belt" strategy developed by National Security...

Iranian exiles turned up outside the Iranian embassy in London today, almost all dressed in black, to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran as a black day in the country's history. British police who allowed Muslim fundamentalist protesters to carry placards enticing the faithful to murder the infidels, initially tried to stop the secular Iranian protesters from playing music, saying it may cause public disorder! Protest organisers however insisted that they should be allowed to play the Iranian national anthem and other patriotic songs and police eventually backed down. Protesters also carried posters of Mansour Osanlou, the...