Free Republic

"Send them to Iran" is the sort of thing you normally hear from grumpy old men like me, not temperamentally moderate and strictly rational men like Jonathan Turley, who is far more measured and thoughtful than most of us. But in this case, he has a moderate case to make. It's not that he would revel in watching the moral midgets who are simultaneously lecturing us about peace as they call for the genocide of the Jews; he just thinks the students need an education about the real world. ...Some universities clearly have space after students were arrested for protesting...

An Iranian senior missile engineer died in southern Iran several days ago, according to a report by an Iranian dissident group published on Saturday night. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps engineer Said Thamardar Mutlak was described in alleged funeral announcements shared by the National Iranian Congress as having been made a shahid (martyr) and murdered in Shiraz. The report stated that Iranian authorities did not want news of the death to be published, and that Mutlak’s family had been threatened not to share the news. Did Iran hint to alleged assassination? “Cowardly assassination of heroes of our scientific prowess didn’t help...

In apparent retaliation for the execution of the reportedly innocent Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari, assailants on Sunday fire bombed the entrance of the revolutionary court in the city of Shiraz that sentenced him to death. Video footage of the reported explosion was posted on social media on Sunday. The Iranian regime-controlled news outlet IRNA confirmed the attack on Sunday. “According to a report received by IRNA on Monday, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Shiraz announced the firing of incendiary materials in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Shiraz. The complex is in good health and...

Live coverage and speculation about a military base, Iranian guards outpost or a large natural gas reservoir in the area Still night there

By: Hassan.Mahmoudi Protests flare up across Iran on Friday with chants of "Death to the dictator," "No to Gaza, no to Lebanon; I sacrifice my life for Iran.", after the government imposed gas price hike. At least 200 people dead, more than 3000 injured and more than 1000 arrested in 132 cities since security forces started cracking down on demonstrators. Protesters blocked roads, burned buildings, banks, government institutions and clashed with police across the country Iran shut down internet access across the nation to cover up its positional crackdown on protesters Videos from the protests have shown people gravely wounded...

Israel has praised the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a “game-changer”. Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) commander Brigadier General Farzad Ismaili, who had been in office since 2010, has been fired by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he kept secret that Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35 stealth fighters had violated Iran’s airspace, the Kuwaiti daily Al Jarida reported on Saturday. The newspaper emphasized that it was the original media source that exposed the Israeli raids, which had taken place in March 2018. Al Jarida cited senior Iranian military who said that only following its March report did...

On Monday Oct 8.2018 , merchants in several Iranian cities went on strike and refused to open for business in an extension of ongoing protests against the regime of Tehran. The strike, which was preplanned and widely distributed across social media channels, is in protest to increasing prices and high inflation rates. The protest movement comprises 25 of Iran’s major cities Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, commended the brave bazaar merchants and shopkeepers in Tehran and dozens of other Iranian cities who are on strike against the mullahs' corrupt regime. She said that the bazaar strike, coming...

Valerie Jarrett is the most powerful figure in the White House, rivalling President Obama in the scope of her influence over the fate of the Republic. Her personal Secret Service detail attests to the importance of her role in our government – in a position that is unelected and unconfirmed by the Senate. She has served as godmother of Barack Obama’s political and personal life, from introducing him to his future wife Michelle Robinson to integrating him into Chicago’s political machine and power structure. Professor Paul Kengor provides fascinating details about her background, and that of other key members of...

“I could drink much wine and yet bear it well” -- Darius the Great, King of Persia (6th BCE), Athenaeus 10.45 The history of wine making and wine drinking is an old one in Persia, and today the Darioush vineyard in the Napa Valley which has become renowned in the art of wine making, is attempting to revive this tradition in the United States. Wine connoisseurs today may be familiar with the word Shiraz, the name of a town in southwest Persia famed for its grapes. Whether or not the Shiraz grape was the source of the Medieval Syrah, brought...

Seven hundred workers at the Sepahan Cement factory in Isfahan have entered their third day of strike to protest their unfavourable legal and working conditions. ILNA reports that since the workers’ efforts to satisfy their demands through the Ministry of Labour have yielded no results, 700 workers have stopped work in the past three days and have been gathering for protests on factory grounds. The report indicates that the cement plant has 1,100 contract and permanent workers who produce 13,000 tons of cement each month. The workers have hired a lawyer to pursue their demands for better conditions, pay and...

Valerie Jarrett - Also Raised out of Country Jarrett was born to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman in Shiraz, Iran, where her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children as part of a program where American doctors and agricultural experts sought to help jump-start developing countries’ health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, returning to Chicago in 1963. As a child she spoke Persian and French. Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington[6] as Deputy Corporation Counsel...

Sunni Group Claims Bombing of Iran Mosque June 19, 2008 Reuters DUBAI -- A little-known Iranian Sunni dissident group says it was behind a deadly mosque bombing in southern Iran, which Tehran blames on the United States, Britain, and Israel, according to an Internet statement. "This is the very first operation and the signal to the criminal (Shi'ite) regime of Iran ... to stop its oppression, cruelty and injustice towards ... Sunnis," the Jihadi Movement of the Sunna People of Iran said. The group said it carried out the attack, which killed 14 people in the southern city of Shiraz...

Iran Blames US-Backed Monarchists for Shiraz Blast TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Thursday blamed Western-backed monarchists, who oppose the Islamic Republic, for an explosion that killed 13 people at a religious center in the southern city of Shiraz last month. "The Shiraz blast was an act of sabotage and a plot by the enemies of the Iranian people in the name of monarchism," Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi told FNA. "Their headquarters are in countries which claim (to support) human rights, defend their nations and be anti-terrorist," the minister said. "They are supported in these countries where they have been given...

Iran mosque blast kills 11, wounds almost 200 TEHRAN (AFP) — Eleven people were killed and at least 191 wounded when an explosion ripped through a packed mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz during prayers by a prominent cleric, officials said on Sunday.Mystery surrounded the cause of Saturday evening's blast, which some officials insisted had been triggered by an accident but other sources said could have been caused by a bomb.The massive explosion in the men's section of the mosque took place at around 9:00 pm (1630 GMT) during an evening prayer sermon by prominent local cleric Mohammad...

TEHRAN, Iran - A bomb explosion in a mosque in southern Iran Saturday killed several people, state television reported. Television report said several people had been killed and an unspecified number were wounded in the bombing in the city of Shiraz, about 559 miles south of the capital Tehran. The semi-official Fars news agency said eight people were killed and more than 66 injured. Fars said the death toll was expected to rise because some of the injured were in critical condition. The official IRNA news agency said several people were injured but added that no official reports were yet...

TEHRAN --A bomb blast in a mosque in southern Iran on Saturday killed at least eight Iranians in southern Fars province and injured more than 50 people, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "The death toll is expected to rise above eight because some of the injured people are in a critical condition," Fars said, without giving a source. "During the speech of a cleric in the Shohada mosque in Shiraz city, a bomb blast killed several people," Fars quoted an unnamed source as saying. Earlier, state television said the blast happened in central Iran, without giving details. Reuters ©...

Several people have been killed in an explosion in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. It is unclear where the blast happened. One report said it occurred in central Iran, while another says it happened in the southern city of Shiraz. Iran's Fars news agency was quoted as saying it took place in a mosque and was caused by a bomb. State television said a number of people were wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

When I told my friends and family I was going to Tehran, they looked at me as if I were taking a short break in Mordor, and expected that the next time they saw me I would be being paraded by Revolutionary Guards after confessing to espionage, and then publicly hanged from a large crane at a busy traffic intersection. Well, not quite. The people of Iran are probably the most pro-Western in the world, though that will not stop them fighting like hell if we are foolish enough to attack them. Not that they will do so with nuclear...

Despite the influence of the west on Iran's popular culture, Hafez, a poet who died over 600 years ago, still gets the crowds flocking, writes Robert Tait The pilgrims could have been on day out at Graceland. Representing the full range of the age and socio-economic spectrums, they came to pay homage to an icon of modern popular culture. But the hero being saluted was not Elvis Presley or any comparable figure from the age of mass communication, but a poet who died centuries ago, and whose messages remain disputed and obscure among even the most literary of his fellow...

Vintner Darioush Khaledi has built a palatial Napa winery that honors his Persian heritage and turns out top-shelf reds. NAPA VALLEY, Calif. - Against the soft browns and vineyard greens of this winemaking valley, the shining travertine temple of Darioush and its giant columns topped with two-headed bulls may seem wildly out of place. Hardly. In a valley lined with hillside Tuscan villas, haciendas, French chateaux and Rhineland castles, why shouldn't a winemaker build an imitation Persepolis, especially if he grew up just a few miles from the ancient royal ruins of Shiraz in modern Iran? Indeed, Darioush's Persian palace...