Free Republic

Since 1984, the U.S. listed Iran as a "state sponsor of terror." So, why was Biden so intent on helping them? By making concessions to the Mullahs who operate the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, the Biden Administration has directly or indirectly pumped more than $50 billion into their coffers enabling untold violence, international destabilization, that threatens our our allies. It allowed the sale of Iranian oil worth approximately $40 billion. It allowed the sale of electricity to Iraq, bringing in an estimated $10 billion to the regime. Most recently, it released another $6 billion to Iran in Iranian...

N. Korea Doesn't Agree To Written Nuclear Pact Earlier Assurances Contradicted, U.S. Says By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 12, 2008; A22 North Korea balked yesterday at agreeing to a written plan for verifying its nuclear claims, handing President Bush a diplomatic defeat and the incoming Obama administration a new diplomatic headache. Bush took a gamble two months ago when he agreed to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, based on spoken assurances from Pyongyang that it had agreed to a verification plan. At the time, there were signs North Korea was...

U.S. to take North Korea off terrorist list in Oct - Kyodo TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States has told Japan that it will remove North Korea from its terrorist blacklist this month, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, quoting unidentified Japanese government sources. The report follows talks in Tokyo on Wednesday between Japan's top negotiator on North Korean nuclear issues and U.S. special envoy Sung Kim. A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said he could not immediately comment on the report. Kyodo reported that U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, in talks in North Korea earlier this month, agreed that Washington would...

/begin my excerpt Distress over Postponed Terror Sponsor Delisting Led to Kim Jong-il's Collapse Yonhap News Quoting Chinese government sources, Tokyo Shimbun reported on Sep.t 15 that Kim Jong-il collapsed because he was distressed that U.S. postponed the delisting of N. Korea from terror sponsor list. The sources reportedly said, "He is alert enough to take charge, but still experience impaired limb movement, requiring some period of rehabilitation." The sources explained that he collapsed on Aug. 14, and suffered from both cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage, that is, some blood vessels blocked and others ruptured in his brain. He has...

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has been accused of many things: squandering his country's petroleum income, suppressing opposition media, using his army to intimidate the citizenry, compromising the populace's access to food and even exporting his brand of authoritarian socialism to neighbouring countries by means of publicity and under-the-table cash. Now documents recovered by Colombian soldiers from computers belonging to FARC, Columbia's drug-funded Leninist insurgency, suggest that Chávez may be actively undermining the sovereign government of his western neighbour. If that is the case, the Western Hemisphere may be about to gain its first internationally designated state sponsor of terrorism. Rumours...

U.S. to set 3 more tasks for N. Korea / New hurdles for delisting as terror sponsor Takashi Sakamoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent WASHINGTON--The U.S. government has decided to impose three new conditions for removing North Korea from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism, sources close to the six-party talks said Friday. Pyongyang must reveal the amount of plutonium it has extracted; the reality of its uranium enrichment program; and the alleged transfer of nuclear technology and materials to other countries such as Syria, the sources said. These points should be made clear when North Korea completes its declaration...

When I heard about the protests planned against Khatami’s speech at Harvard, I knew just the guy to contact. I emailed Jesse Sage over at HAMSA and he filled me in on all the information. Khatami was to speak at 4:00 p.m. so the protests would start around three. We arrived in Harvard Square outside of the Kennedy School of Government just before then, and people were already gathering by the dozens. It wasn’t just the people I knew from HAMSA and the Iran Freedom Concert Coalition, either. There were many, from pro-Israel Jews to Americans concerned about our security...

LONDON [MENL] -- Egypt has completed an agreement to manufacture artillery systems under license from Finland. Industry sources said the Egyptian Army has launched a project to produce the 155 mm towed howitzer by Finland's Patria Vammas. The agreement calls for the production of Patria's 155 GH 52 155mm towed howitzers. The contract calls for Egyptian production to take place at the Abu Zaabal Engineering Industries Co. The London-based Jane's Defence Weekly reported that the artillery would be designated the E52 and that Egypt would obtain technology to produce the system. The Patria 155 GH 52 has a range of...

Amid a shifting strategic balance in the Middle East, the regime of Hosni Mubarak appears to have revived its regional ambitions. At a military commemoration this month in the port city of Alexandria, held to mark the thirty-year anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, naval commander Vice Admiral Tamr Abdul Alim revealed what amounts to a major expansion in Egyptian naval capabilities. Over the past year, Abdul Alim outlined, his service has added no less than eleven new battle units, each outfitted with German and American warships, and has placed orders for advanced American military equipment like the Harpoon...

The Egyptian Navy plans to accept the delivery of the first Phalanx Block 1B Close-In Weapon system in 2005 from Raytheon. Deliveries will end by 2007. Raytheon has been awarded a $31.2 million contract to produce four Phalanx Block 1B systems for Egypt. The systems will be produced at Raytheon Missile System in Louisville, Ky. Executives said the first system will arrive in April 2005. The remaining systems will be delivered over a six-month period.