Free Republic

The Iranian navy will send warships to deploy in the Atlantic from March, a top commander said on Friday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to increase the operating range of its naval forces to the backyard of the United States, its arch foe.

The U.S. military plans to scale back its role in Somalia and curtail airstrikes against al-Shabab insurgents after having taken out many of the group's senior operatives, two senior U.S. officials told NBC News, the latest signal the Trump administration is looking to cut the number of troops deployed around the world. The move reflects an assessment by the administration that while the Shabab insurgency remains a threat to the Somali government and neighboring countries, it does not pose a direct danger to the U.S., current and former officials said. And it follows President Donald Trump's abrupt announcement last month...

Less than two months after he was given prominent op-ed space in the Washington Post, a video has surfaced of Houthi rebel leader Mohammad Ali al-Houthi launching a shoulder-fired missile and then reciting the Houthi slogan, which calls for “Death to America.” The Washington Post contributor chants, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse the Jews. Victory to Islam.” He has also taken to his unverified but media– and think tank-cited Twitter account to repeat the infamous Houthi slogan. Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based Middle East think tank, confirmed to...

Iran’s president submitted next year’s budget to parliament on Tuesday (Christmas), the first since the United States restored sanctions that had been lifted under the nuclear deal. The $47.5 billion budget is less than half the size of last year’s, mainly due to the severe depreciation of the local currency following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Iranian rial has fallen from around 42,000 to the dollar a year ago to around 100,000 today.

Trump was right! The #FakeNews media is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE… The Washington Post has a guest contributor who ordered the deaths of 26 journalists in Yemen. The Islamist contributor Mohammed al-Houthi likes to carry an AK47 with him even to interviews. And now this… Mohammed al-Houthi was recently filmed launching a shoulder-fired missile while chanting “Death to Israel!… Death to America!”

On December 14, 2018, Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last monarch, participated in a discussion forum at the Washington Institute. He presented an opening statement, followed by taking questions from the host and reporters from major news outlets, including Persian-language Western media. His remarks were met with mixed reactions from the Iranian community across the globe, as well as from self-proclaimed Iran experts, leading to endless discussions among proponents as well as detractors on various social media platforms. Some of his more controversial statements were sensationalized by mainstream media, which created a controversy of its own. In the...

The Iranian Supreme Court has vacated the murder convictions of a group of serial killers because their victims were engaging in un-Islamic activities, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.The men were convicted for a series of grisly killings in the southeastern city of in 2002. The vigilantes were said to believe that Islam condoned the killing of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims, the BBC reports.

SEOUL, South Korea——North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday he hopes to extend his high-stakes nuclear summitry with President Donald Trump into 2019, but also warns Washington not to test North Koreans' patience with sanctions and pressure. During his televised New Year's speech, Kim said he's ready to meet with Trump at any time to produce an outcome "welcomed by the international community." However, he said the North will be forced to take a different path if the United States "continues to break its promises and misjudges the patience of our people by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes...

Al Jazeera spoke to Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, about the ceasefire in Hodeidah, his movement's relationship with Iran, and the Houthis' endgame in Yemen.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad authorized Iraqi forces on Sunday to attack the Islamic State group inside Syria without waiting for permission from authorities in Damascus, the state news agency SANA said, as the two allies coordinate their fight against extremists ahead of a planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria. ... On Saturday Assad received a letter from Iraq’s Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi calling for both countries’ coordination in “fighting terrorism.” ... In Tehran, Iran and Syria signed Sunday a long-term strategic and economic agreement as the war winds down in Syria where Iran and Russia were the main...

When Donald Trump announced that his first trip abroad as president would take him to Saudi Arabia and to Israel, it was a signal that the new administration had returned America’s traditional alliances in the Middle East to their privileged status. For the prior eight years, the Obama White House had, in contrast, prioritized relations with these countries’ regional adversary in Iran and embraced the Islamic Republic’s regional allies, Turkey and Qatar, as key interlocutors and partners. The Obama administration also supported Islamist movements in the Middle East, principally the Muslim Brotherhood, that threated to topple regimes and instigate more...

Jamal Khashoggi’s op-eds published in the very influential Washington Post certainly qualify as attempts to change U.S. policy against Saudi Arabia and in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Washington Post has caused itself a major scandal since it has come to light they and their martyred “reformer” Jamal Khashoggi were publishing anti-Saudi propaganda for Qatar. They tried to bury this in a pre-Christmas Saturday news dump, but that can’t stop the damage this will do to their reputation.“Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the...

On its face, Trump’s announcement that he is pulling US forces out of Syria seems like an unfriendly act toward Israel. But it isn’t. On its face, President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is pulling US forces out of Syria seems like an unfriendly act towards Israel. But it isn’t. Trump’s decision to pull US forces out of Syria is of a piece with outgoing US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s address on Tuesday to the UN Security Council regarding the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Both statements reflect the depths of the administration’s friendship and support for the State...

US forces are reportedly evacuating their military base near al-Hasakah; The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) still press their operation against ISIS in the Hajin pocket.

On September 30th 2016 the New York Times quietly released a leaked audio recording of Secretary John Kerry meeting with multiple factions associated within Syria.The 40-minute discussion took place on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22nd 2016: […] Kerry’s off-record conversation was apparently with two dozen ‘Syrian civilians’, all from US backed opposition-linked NGO’s in education and medical groups supposedly working in ‘rebel-held’ (aka terrorist-held) areas in Syria.This opposition conclave also included ‘rescue workers’ which can only be ambassadors from...

On January 3, 2014, ISIS, then a growing force mostly ignored by the Obama administration, took the Iraqi city of Fallujah; liberated years later by our Marines, at great cost, from the predecessors of ISIS then called al-Qa’ida in Iraq (Ansar al-Sunni, Ansar al-Islam). “A rejuvenated al-Qaeda-affiliated force asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago…. The upheaval also affirmed the soaring capabilities of the Islamic...

While the Left was spinning conspiracy theories about conservatives and Russian trolls on social media, its own social feeds were filled with Iranian and Qatari propaganda showing a Pallywood production of "starving children" in Yemen caused by the Saudi campaign against Iran's Houthi Jihadis. The Iranian-Qatari propaganda has been so successful that even a number of Republicans voted for a Qatari Senate resolution targeting the Saudis and backing Qatar, and by extension, Iran. But the media has been the greatest vector for propaganda on behalf of the Iranian terror campaign in Yemen. Take the latest Washington Post report on the...

The United States must revamp policies toward Africa on improving trade, fighting terrorism, and providing financial assistance to stave off the growing influence of China and Russia on the continent, White House national security adviser John Bolton said. “Great power competitors, namely China and Russia, are rapidly expanding their financial and political influence across Africa,” Bolton said Thursday in an address at The Heritage Foundation in Washington. “They are deliberately and aggressively targeting their investments in the region to gain a competitive advantage over the United States.”[snip]“The predatory practices pursued by China and Russia stunt economic growth in Africa; threaten...

Ambassador John Bolton, the President's national security adviser, unveiled the strategy in remarks delivered at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "Under our new Africa strategy, we will target U.S. funding toward key countries and particular strategic objectives," Bolton said. "We will make certain that all aid to the region—whether for security, humanitarian, or development needs—advances U.S. interests," Bolton said. Currently, the U.S. sends more than $8 billion annually to African countries, though Bolton, citing a "longstanding pattern of aid without effect," indicated that amount may soon be slashed. "Unfortunately, billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer...

The rare fossils are helping scientists understand how ancient bugs hatched from their eggs The insects became trapped in the sticky resin 130million years ago, shortly after bursting through the shell – and scientists aren't sure how the creatures met their grisly fate. The amazing fossils are helping researchers understand how ancient bugs hatched and took their first steps in the ancient world. Like many modern animals, the insects used a tool known as an egg-burster to smash through the egg shell. "The structures that make hatching possible tend to disappear quickly once egg-laying animals hatch, so obtaining fossil evidence...