Free Republic

The Iraqi political scene has been ablaze for the past 72 hours due to the emergence of recordings attributed to Nuri al-Maliki, the ex-Iraqi PM, in which he appears to be criticising and insulting Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Iraq's strongest Shiite political figures whose faction won big in the 2021 general parliamentary election. “The issue is that there is a British project aiming to put Moqtada in control of the Shia and Iraq, then they would kill him and give Iraq to the Sunnis. The issue is not al-Maliki [myself], I can just leave and take refuge in the house...

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards overseas operation arm has warned there could be armed resistance in Bahrain after the Sunni-ruled kingdom stripped a top Shia cleric of his citizenship. Bahrain accused the cleric of using his position to "serve foreign interests", promoting "sectarianism and violence". .."The al-Khalifa [rulers of Bahrain] surely know their aggression against Sheikh Isa Qassim is a red line and that crossing it would set Bahrain and the whole region on fire, and it would leave no choice for people but to resort to armed resistance," Gen Soleimani said in a statement released by the semi-official...

The following are excerpts from the televised confessions of Muayed Al-Nasseri, who commanded Saddam Hussein's "the Army of Muhammad" throughout 2004. The confessions were aired by the Iraqi TV channel that operated from the UAE, Al-Fayhaa TV, on January 14, 2005. Interrogator: What is your name? Muayed Al-Nasseri: Colonel Muayed Yassin 'Aziz 'Abd Al-Razaq Al-Nasseri, commander of the Army of Muhammad, one of the resistance factions in Iraq. The Army of Muhammad was founded by Saddam Hussein after the fall of the regime, on April 9, 2003. At first, Yasser Al-Shab'awi was put in charge, until his captured in July...

Unconfirmed reports say Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei's prostate cancer has progressed and spread throughout his body. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is currently hospitalized in serious condition at a hospital in Tehran, according to unofficial reports. Khamenei is suffering from prostate cancer that has reportedly spread to the rest of his body. Earlier this week, the French newspaper Le Figaro quoted Western intelligence officials as saying that the cancer was discovered about ten years ago. "The cancer is in stage four, in other words has spread." Doctors estimate "he has two years left to live." On September 8, Khamenei underwent surgery and...

Egyptian security forces arrested four men outside a mosque in Cairo for trying to attack Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to the country, NBC News reported. The men, including a Syrian, belonging to the ultra-conservative Sunni Salafist movement, attempted to attack the Iranian leader outside the central Al-Hussein mosque in Cairo. One of the men threw a shoe at the Shiite Iranian president, whose visit to Egypt has been widely denounced by the country’s Sunni Muslims. According to NBC News, the Al-Hussein Mosque is revered by Shiite Muslims, who are widely abhorred by conservative Sunni Muslims, including members...

Democratic Party filmmaker Michael Moore is warning that the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is trying to deny him an Oscar for his celebrated schlockumentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," complaining that "top Republicans" are trying to intimidate the Academy Awards with threats of a Hollywood boycott. "A group of top Republicans took out a full page ad in USA Today (and placed a similar one in the Hollywood trade magazine, Variety)," Moore noted last week in a message posted to his Web site. "The point of the ad was to say that while they, as right wing conservatives, were proud of getting rid of...