Free Republic

JERUSALEM — Iran is not our enemy. The regime that enriches itself while murdering, oppressing and impoverishing ordinary Iranians, the regime that incites genocide against Israel, threatens its neighbors in the Persian Gulf and vows to bring about a "world without America" — that is our enemy. This was one of the key points driven home by a trio of extraordinary individuals gathered for a dinner in Tel Aviv last week. At the table were Bernard Lewis, for my money the greatest living historian of the Middle East; Uri Lubrani, Israel's envoy to Iran before the fall of the Shah...

Ali Akbar Salehi: Iran's foreign minister...and future president? After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Islamic Republic's new leaders confronted the dilemma of what to do with the remnants of the Pahlavi monarchy. One such remnant was the partially constructed nuclear power plant located in the southeastern city of Bushehr along the Persian Gulf. Construction of the plant by a group of German companies had begun just four years earlier, under Mohammad Reza Shah. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the creation of a five-person fact-finding committee to investigate the Bushehr plant and advise on its status. One of its members was a...

Why, despite the growing danger posed by Iran's nuclear program, have the United States and other nations restricted themselves to negotiations, economic sanctions and electronic intrusions? None of those tactics has been particularly effective or produced enduring changes. The main argument against military action is that it would set Iran's nuclear program back only a few years, and that Tehran would retaliate directly and via surrogates, drawing the U.S. into another unwinnable war. Many fear also that Iranians will rally behind their regime with nationalist fervor, dashing hope of regime change for decades and turning Iran's largely pro-Western population against...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards soon could have nuclear weapons. In 1979, journalists and diplomats reported from Iran on a revolution against the shah. They were mistaken. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his followers were thinking bigger. Their goal was a global revolution — a revolution against the United States and other “oppressor” powers. The ayatollah famously called America the Great Satan. This, too, was misunderstood. His intention was less to insult than to describe: He knew that freedom, the rule of (man-made) law, peace, and equal rights for both the servants and enemies of Allah are seductive ideas that could...

Iran's Assembly of Experts is calling on officials to institute gender segregation in Iranian universities, prompting Iran's Minister of Science and Technology to announce: "Women's Colleges will be established all across Iran" Kamran Daneshjoo told Fars news agency yesterday that "women's colleges" will be established in every province, adding: "This is about keeping Islamic customs and limits, and the Islamization of universities will go much further than this." He said: "Prior to the Revolution (1979) there was one women-only university, which was renamed the Al-Zahra University after the Revolution. Thirty-two years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, we do...

The rotting bodies of 30 men, almost all black and many handcuffed, slaughtered as they lay on stretchers and even in an ambulance in central Tripoli, are an ominous foretaste of what might be Libya's future. The incoming regime makes pious statements about taking no revenge on pro-Gaddafi forces, but this stops short of protecting those who can be labelled mercenaries. Any Libyan with a black skin accused of fighting for the old regime may have a poor chance of survival. The atmosphere in the Libyan capital is frighteningly uncertain a week after the sudden collapse of Gaddafi's forces. Nobody...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration's military intervention in Libya, confirmed Friday that he was invited to visit the North African nation in an attempt to end months-long conflict between the Qaddafi regime and the rebel forces who have been aided by NATO air strikes. (Snip) But Kucinich, who was worried about security, declined the offer and visited Syria instead. In a statement, Kucinich said he was contacted by both sides seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Yet again, a number of young people have been arrested in the Iranian capital. Their crime: engaging in a water fight. The evidence: water guns and bottles. The accusations against them: violating Islamic principles and norms. It sounds absurd, but sadly it's the reality in the Islamic Republic of Iran where, among other things, having a bit of fun can also land one in prison. The young women and men had gathered last week in a Tehran park, ironically named the Garden of Water and Fire, and splashed water at each other. The event, planned and organized on Facebook, had...

Iranian authorities have hanged another 30 prisoners at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad on drug-related charges, says the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The campaign cites “local knowledgeable sources” saying 12 prisoners were executed on Wednesday June 29 and another 18 were hanged on the following Sunday. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say the executions once again were carried out in secret and en masse, with no prior notification of families and attorneys and no official announcement from the judiciary. The report indicates that on June 29, the judiciary announced the execution of one convicted murderer...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into whether employees of News Corp. might have hacked or attempted to hack into the private calls and phone records of Sept. 11 victims and their families, according to people familiar with the matter. The investigation was opened Thursday morning, following a request a day earlier by Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) who heads the House Homeland Security Committee and whose Long Island district was home to many victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The investigation will try to determine whether employees of News Corp. illegally accessed the private calls, voice-mail...

David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy upped the stakes in the Libya conflict last night as they vowed to fight on until Colonel Gaddafi is ousted. In a joint article, the British, American and French leaders warned that it would be an ‘unconscionable betrayal’ were Nato to stop bombing with the dictator still in power. Gaddafi must ‘go and go for good’ before rebuilding of the country could begin, they said, rejecting calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Iran's Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni E'jei has issued a strong threat against Iranian expatriates who support the Green Movement. During a press conference held last week, a journalist for the conservative Keyhan daily asked the prosecutor, “currently, certain people beyond our borders have a tight-knit coordination with the sedition and spread lies about leading Iranian officials in the anti-revolutionary media everyday. Does not the judiciary system have a plan to indict them?” “It is very obvious that Iranians who commit crimes oversees, or even those who are not Iranian nationals but act against Iran outside the country are subject to...

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lost his position as head of an important state clerical body on Tuesday, a move which tightens the hardliners' grip on power. -excerpt- An ambush challenge by arch hard-liner Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani forced Rafsanjani to withdraw from running for re-election as chairman of the Assembly of Experts. The 86-member clerical body has the authority to dismiss Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 71, but it has never exercised that power since it was established in 1983. It also appoints the new leader if the old one is removed or dies.

Under tight security, hundreds of Iranians marched through the streets Wednesday in a government-sanctioned funeral for Tehran Art University student Saane Zhaleh, who died in violent clashes between pro-reform demonstrators and the police Monday. Described by the government as the "martyr Basij," Zhaleh is said by the authorities to have been killed by government opponents when he joined Basiji militiamen to help put down the protests, which were prohibited by the government. The opposition says he was shot by police. State television showed marchers carrying Iranian flags and shouting slogans against opposition leaders, including "Death to Karroubi!" and "Death to...

In another sign of its ever more improvisational approach to governance, the Iranian regime has outlawed Valentine's Day. "Symbols of hearts, half-hearts, red roses, and any activities promoting this day are banned," announced state media last month. "Authorities will take legal action against those who ignore the ban." Some 70% of Iran's population is said to be under the age of 30, so it seems natural that Valentine's Day has caught on in a country where the young keep trying to find non-state-mandated rituals to call their own. The state, for its part, continues to respond with a Whack-a-Mole approach...

The Teheran regime has hanged 66 individuals since the end of 2010, according to France 24 International News. Among them was a 46-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch national Sahra Bahrami, who was hung on January 29 on drug-smuggling charges. Holland's Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," according to Agence France Presse. Bahrami's sister dismissed the Iranian charges, which she contended were fabricated. "She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?" she is quoted as...

In Washington, bigwigs can misspeak and misstep a million times without drawing attention. And then there are the seemingly harmless moments that stick to a person like super glue: Joe Wilson barking “You lie!”; Jesse Jackson mumbling into a hot mic that he wants to castrate Barack Obama; Dan Quayle trying to spell things. Like coal crushed into diamonds by the pressure of a million eyeballs, such moments are forever. During an exclusive dinner hosted Monday by the Alfalfa Club, Obama adviser Valerie Jarret had just such a moment. And were it not for an irritated tipster, Jarret might have...

Are Iran's democratic stirrings truly a thing of the past? Ever since the so-called Green Movement coalesced in the wake of the country's fraudulent June 2009 presidential vote, Western observers have rushed to write its epitaph. Over the past year, more than a few Iran watchers have argued that the internal contradictions within Iran's opposition movement doom it to failure and that, as a result, Washington has no alternative but to engage with Iran's ayatollahs. Similarly, some media outlets, in reporting the Green Movement's lackluster showing during Ashura celebrations in mid-December, have suggested that Iran's once-vibrant democracy drive has run...

In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Related Stories: ■NEPA Exemptions: The Dirty Dozen List ■Wisconsin Firm Receives Energy Grant Despite Chronic Pollution Problems The administration has awarded more than 179,000 “categorical exclusions” to stimulus projects funded by federal agencies, freeing those projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Coal-burning utilities like Westar Energy...

President Barack Obama's administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes. The U.S. General Services Administration, which runs the government fleet, bought at least 14,584 hybrid vehicles in the past two fiscal years, or about 10 percent of 145,473 vehicles the agency purchased in that period, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases, the data showed.