Tag Archive for: Islamic Republic of Iran

Islamic Republic of Iran celebrates Graham’s death, publishes hit list of targeted foes

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No other regime takes such pleasure in the suffering and death of its foes. The “Palestinians” do, whether they’re in the government or out of it, but Iran’s Islamic regime is the only full member of the UN that behaves this way. And the UN is too busy devising new bogus condemnations of Israel to take any notice.

“‘So sweet I’ll read it twice’: Iran celebrates Lindsey Graham’s death,” by Lior Ben Ari, Ynet News, July 12, 2026:

Iranian state media and supporters of the regime celebrated Sunday the sudden death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, one of Israel’s strongest supporters in Congress and a sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic.

On Iranian state television, a presenter reported Graham’s death with a broad smile and a visibly satisfied expression. Another host said on air: “This news is so sweet that I’m reading it twice.”

Graham, a Republican who represented South Carolina in the Senate for 23 years, died unexpectedly Saturday evening at the age of 71, apparently after suffering cardiac arrest. He had returned shortly before his death from a visit to Ukraine and had been scheduled to appear Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Throughout his career, Graham was one of Washington’s most outspoken supporters of Israel. He viewed Israeli and American security as inseparable, defended Israel against international criticism over the war in Gaza and repeatedly urged tougher action against Iran.

Graham’s death was celebrated by Iranian outlets and social-media accounts aligned with the regime, which had long portrayed him as a leading advocate of military action against Tehran.
During demonstrations held last week as part of the funeral events for Iran’s slain leader Ali Khamenei, regime supporters carried signs bearing Graham’s image alongside those of Trump and other figures portrayed as future assassination targets.

After Graham’s death, pro-regime users shared an updated graphic showing several people allegedly marked for revenge over the February attack on Iran. Graham’s face was the only one crossed out with a red X, suggesting that his removal had been completed. The image carried the words: “We will continue to update.”…

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Levin Doctrine: Arm the Iranian People, Crush the Regime

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As a constitutional lawyer, bestselling author, and influential broadcaster, Mark Levin has long used his platform to advocate for a robust, peace-through-strength approach to global affairs. His commentary often reflects a deeply rooted distrust of authoritarian regimes coupled with a fierce commitment to Western democratic values. Recently, Levin distilled his complex, hawkish, yet distinctly modern foreign policy philosophy into a succinct and powerful statement regarding one of America’s most enduring adversaries: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Writing on his official social media platform, Levin declared:

“We must help liberate the Iranian people, and we can do it. We can do it without our troops on the ground. Without a forever war. We can do it. Train them. Arm them. Support them. And we will never have to worry about nuclear arms from the Iranian regime ever again. Not only that, but the Middle East will also change for the better in ways that we cannot even imagine. The regime must be destroyed. The time is now.”

This statement is not merely a rhetorical broadside; it represents a nuanced and strategic synthesis of traditional Reaganite interventionism and post-9/11 American war-weariness. To understand Levin’s stance on Iran and its citizens, one must analyze how this Levin Doctrine seeks to navigate the fine line between standing against tyranny and avoiding the pitfalls of protracted, costly military occupations.

At the core of Levin’s argument is a vital geopolitical distinction that is frequently lost in mainstream diplomatic discourse: the separation of the Iranian government from the Iranian people. For decades, the Islamic Republic — established during the 1979 revolution — has projected an image of unified, anti-Western fundamentalism. However, Levin recognizes what millions of Iranians have risked their lives to demonstrate in recent years through widespread protests: the domestic populace is largely a captive audience, subjugated by a brutal, corrupt theocracy.

By framing his argument around the imperative to “liberate the Iranian people,” Levin positions his foreign policy stance not as an act of aggression against a nation, but as an act of solidarity with an oppressed population. He views the citizens of Iran not as enemies of the West, but as potential allies in the fight against their own oppressors. This distinction allows Levin to advocate for the total destruction of the Islamic Republic while simultaneously projecting a message of hope and empowerment to the ordinary citizens of Iran, acknowledging their agency and desire for freedom.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of Levin’s statement is his explicit rejection of traditional American military intervention. The phrase “without our troops on the ground” and the rejection of a “forever war” signal a profound alignment with the shifting tides of American public opinion. Having witnessed the staggering human and financial costs of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, both the American public and conservative strategists have grown deeply skeptical of nation-building and direct military occupations.

Levin’s solution is a proxy-driven, indigenous-focused strategy: Train them. Arm them. Support them. This model seeks to replicate successful historical precedents where the United States provided logistical, financial, and material support to resistance movements without directly embroiling American soldiers in a foreign quagmire. In Levin’s view, the desire for revolution already exists within Iran; what is lacking is the capability. By supplying the Iranian opposition with the tools, intelligence, and weaponry necessary to mount an effective resistance, the United States could facilitate the collapse of the regime from within, minimizing American casualties and shifting the burden of liberation to those who stand to benefit from it most.

Levin’s urgency is underscored by the existential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. For years, international efforts — ranging from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to various rounds of economic sanctions — have failed to permanently dismantle Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Levin argues that as long as the current regime stands, the threat of nuclear proliferation remains a ticking time bomb.

According to his logic, the only permanent solution to the nuclear threat is regime change. By neutralizing the head of the snake, the threat of a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East evaporates. Levin posits that the fall of the mullahs would trigger a geopolitical domino effect, changing the Middle East “for the better in ways that we cannot even imagine.” Without Tehran funding terror proxies

like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, the region could witness an unprecedented era of stability, normalization, and economic integration, building upon the foundations of initiatives like the Abraham Accords.

Mark Levin’s blueprint for Iran represents a bold reimagining of conservative foreign policy for the modern era. It rejects the passivity of pure isolationism as well as the exhausting burdens of direct military interventionism. By placing the destiny of Iran squarely in the hands of its own people — backed by the immense material and strategic might of the United States — Levin offers a roadmap that seeks victory over tyranny without the cost of American lives. Whether this strategy can be successfully implemented remains a subject of intense debate, but Levin’s message is clear: the status quo is untenable, the regime must fall, and the liberation of the Iranian people is the key to unlocking a peaceful Middle East.

©2026 . All rights reserved.

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The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Economic Collapse

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The supreme leaders and mad mullahs of Iran have spent more than $100 billion on their nuclear project. Many of the nuclear facilities , especially those at Natanz, Fordow, and especially Isfahan, have been destroyed or severely damaged. Iran has also spent tens of billions of dollars manufacturing thousands of ballistic missiles; Iran began the last war with 3,000 missiles, and is now believed to be down to 1,000. Iranian ballistic missiles range in price from $100,000 each for Shahed missiles to over $8 million for long-range missiles capable of reaching Israel. Iran has spent more than $15 billion on its missile program; most of that money has now gone up in smoke, with the missiles destroyed on launching pads, or in warehouses, or used up in attacks that are intercepted in the air, or land harmlessly in an open field. Very few do manage to hit an intended target; the Gulf Arab states, and not Israel, have been the chief victims of Iran’s missiles.

Iran has also spent tens of billions of dollars — in money and weaponry — over the last few decades, supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis, the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, and the Assad regime in Syria.

Finally, Iran’s leaders have stolen many billions of dollars from the state treasury. Just one man, the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, reportedly controlled a business empire worth $95 billion. Who knows how much of that wealth was squirreled away in Swiss bank accounts, cryptocurrency, real estate in London, Paris, and the Riviera, never to be returned to Iran?

And in addition to that misallocation of Iran’s financial resources to weapons acquisition during the past 47 years, there is the cost of the present war with the U.S. and Israel. The sanctions on Iran that Obama lifted have again been put on by Trump; most countries are as a result afraid to buy Iranian oil for fear of secondary sanctions. The U.S. threatens to cut off any foreign financial institution from the U.S. financial system if they knowingly process “significant” transactions for Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products. Consequently, Iran must sell its oil to China, its best customer, at a steep discount from the world market price.

And now Iran, after the U.S. and Israel have thoroughly battered its military and much of its civilian infrastructure, has a new economic woe. The Americans have put a blockade on all of Iran’s ports, meaning that no imports can enter Iran by sea, and no exports can be sent out. That blockade is costing Iran an estimated $47 million each day.

More on Iran’s economic collapse can be found here: “Behind Tehran’s calm, Iran faces deepening economic collapse,” by Amichai Stein, Jerusalem Post, April 29, 2026:

On the surface, the streets of Tehran appear to have returned to normal.

Cafés are open, and traffic jams in the capital have resumed their usual pace. However, beneath this routine lies a nation on the brink of financial collapse, one that even the most brutal crackdowns may not contain.

While the streets are full of people, their pockets are empty. The Iranian rial has become a liability that citizens are desperate to offload.

“There is simply crazy inflation in the market because nobody wants to hold the Iranian currency,” explains Prof. Amos Nadan, head of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, adding, “This currency is fundamentally unstable.”

“Unstable” is putting it mildly. Consider that in 1978, during the last year of the Shah’s reign, one dollar could buy 70 rials. Today, one dollar can buy 1,316,000 rials. Keep that staggering fact of runaway inflation in mind.

Even before the recent military escalations, Iran was grappling with an inflation rate of approximately 70% – the highest since World War II.

Today, the numbers tell the story of a struggling middle class. The new monthly minimum wage stands at over 160 million rials, a figure that sounds astronomical until it is converted to its actual value: just over $100….

Iran’s economic woes were not caused by the war; they were merely accelerated by it. Long before the first shots were fired, the country suffered from a chronic energy crisis, forced rolling blackouts, and a persistent drought that dried up the nation’s reservoirs….

Indeed, the nationwide historic drought has led to many of Iran’s hydroelectric dams ceasing to operate. Furthermore, there is simply not enough water for people to drink in some cities. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has now suggested that, given how many reservoirs have been drying up, it might be best if all of the 9.8 million residents of Tehran moved elsewhere, to places that still have enough water to meet their needs.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump agrees to two-week suspension of attacks on Iran

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President Trump agreed to hold off on his apocalyptic promise to order the death of “a whole civilization” on Tuesday after Iran agreed to open up the Strait of Hormuz as part of a Pakistan-brokered temporary ceasefire of the ongoing conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Mr. Trump said a two-week suspension of what he said would be a sweeping bombing campaign targeting Iran’s bridges, power plants, and utilities was based on conversations he had with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the country’s military chief.

“They requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said on Truth Social.

©2026 . All rights reserved.

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The Islamic Republic’s plan is the Samson Option to set the Middle East ablaze

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Iran’s mullahs know their regime is falling, and they intend to take the rest of the world down with them. 

The missiles currently lighting up the skies over the Persian Gulf are not the precision tools of a confident power; they are the desperate flailing of a regime that has realized its end is near.

For decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has maintained a thin veneer of “Islamic solidarity” to mask its expansionist ambitions.

But as the “Epic Fury” strikes of early 2026 continue to dismantle the regime’s internal command, that mask has been ripped away, revealing a cold, nihilistic truth: If the regime in Tehran is to fall, it intends to take the rest of the world with it.

This is not a war of religion. It is a war of survival by a regime that would rather see the Middle East reduced to ash than see itself consigned to the scrapheap of history.

To the casual observer, the sight of an Islamic Republic launching drones at the United Arab Emirates or striking targets near Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base seems like a paradox. Why would a self-proclaimed champion of Islam attack its brothers?

The answer lies in three brutal strategic realities: the logic of “Forward Defense,” the leverage of regional chaos, and the cold geography of foreign basing.

The Islamic Republic’s attacks on its Muslim neighbors — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Pakistan — are a calculated move to internationalize their own misery.

By striking oil refineries in Ras Tanura and desalination plants in Abu Dhabi, Tehran is attempting to force a “Samson Option.” Like the biblical figure who pulled down the pillars of the temple to crush his enemies, the regime is pulling down the pillars of regional stability.

The logic is brutal: If the world allows Israel and the West to strike Iranian soil, the regime will ensure that no oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. By dragging every neighbor into the conflict, they hope to create a humanitarian and economic catastrophe so vast that the international community will be forced to intervene and demand a ceasefire to save the global economy.

They are using the lives of millions of fellow Muslims as human shields for their own political survival.

The most potent weapon in Tehran’s arsenal is not a nuclear warhead, but the price of a barrel of crude oil.

The recent drone swarms targeting the “East-West” pipeline in Saudi Arabia were not intended to win a military victory; they were intended to trigger a global depression.

By pushing oil prices toward $200 a barrel, the regime is holding the global working class hostage. They know that Western governments fear inflation more than they fear a regional war. This is economic terrorism on a grand scale.

The Islamic Republic is betting that if they make the war “too expensive” for the average citizen in London, New York, or New Delhi, the political will to dismantle the regime will evaporate.

The most devastating technical blow to the regime has been the systematic dismantling of its “Axis of Resistance.” For decades, the IRGC bragged of a “unified command” that could strike from four frontiers simultaneously.

That doctrine collapsed in the face of superior electronic warfare and the Epic Fury air campaign. In Lebanon, the loss of senior command-and-control nodes has rendered Hezbollah’s elite units localized and reactive.

Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Houthi missile launches have been neutralized by the Iron Beam laser systems – a technological leap that has made Iran’s expensive drone swarms look like obsolete toys.

The “Axis” is no longer a synchronized machine; it is a collection of disjointed militias, each looking to their own borders and refusing to commit suicide for a falling regime in Tehran.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding in some diplomatic circles that the Iranian leadership can be “incentivized” to step back. This ignores the ideological DNA of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). These are men who have spent forty years preparing for an apocalyptic final stand. They do not want a seat at the diplomatic table; they want to preserve their grip on power at any cost.

The strikes against targets in Pakistan and Iraq’s Kurdistan region are a demonstration of this “die hard” mentality. It is a message to their own restless population and to the world: We are still here, we are still lethal, and we will burn every bridge behind us. They are not interested in a “soft” transition or a peaceful reformation. They have chosen a path of maximum friction, preferring a catastrophic collapse to a quiet surrender.

For years, the regime used the Palestinian cause and “Islamic unity” as a shield to justify its meddling in foreign capitals. Today, that shield is in pieces. You cannot claim to be the leader of the Muslim world while simultaneously launching Shahed drones at the mosques of your neighbors or the infrastructure that feeds their children.

The Islamic Republic has proven that its only true “faith” is the preservation of its own clerical autocracy. To them, the “Ummah” is nothing more than a tactical playground, and their fellow Muslim nations are nothing more than collateral damage in a losing game of chess.

As the smoke rises from the ruins of the Middle East’s energy infrastructure, the reality is clear. The regime in Tehran is no longer a state; it is a regional contagion. They are not fighting for a cause; they are fighting to stay alive for one more day, regardless of how many lives it costs or how many economies they destroy.

The world is now witnessing the final, violent convulsions of a dying system. The only question remains: How much of the world will they succeed in dragging into the abyss with them?

©2026 . All rights reserved.

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The Islamic Republic of Torture, Rape, and Murder

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Rape in prison is a cruel invasion of the helpless victim. In addition to its physical torment and transmission of sexual diseases, rape reduces the victim to a subhuman status—an object for the use of others to be discarded when no longer desired. Most civilized countries sternly guard against rapes and sexual assaults in prison, although with less than complete success.  Under the barbaric rule of the Mullahcracy in Iran, sexual assaults have become instruments of policy for extracting false confessions, satisfying the boundless sadisms and sexual perversities of the jailers, punishing the helpless victim, and leaving him with a sense of dehumanization.

This shockingly repugnant form of violating the human person, regrettably, has become widespread in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s prisons , particularly in dealing with the young men and women arrested for the “crime” of peacefully demonstrating in the streets to demand accountability from the government for a raft of violations it has committed and continues to commit.

For the past 45 years, the Islamic Republic has been denying and violating the long-suffering people of all their human rights. They are guilty of beating, torturing, raping, and killing prisoners of conscience—political, religious, intellectuals, artists, and others.

Women, chronically oppressed and disenfranchised from their basic human and family rights, have been the ones who have been most viciously treated by the Islamic system and its hired plainclothes and the Basij members. To maintain its suffocating rule, the regime metes out punishments reminiscent of the worst in the annals of human history. Amputation of hands and feet, blinding of eyes, hanging, and stoning the victim after the quick formality of a trial in kangaroo courts without legal representation is commonplace under the terror rule of the Islamists.

The Islamic Republic has been violating all norms of international human rights, including very harsh penalties for even “victimless crimes” such as fornication, beatings of Iranian citizens for expressing their views in public places, homosexuality, apostasy, and poor hijab (covering of the women).

The record of infamy of the Islamic Republic is replete with instances of child execution, restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, imprisonment of journalists, discrimination against women in general, persecution of religious minorities, with a particular systematic program of genocide against the Baha’is and the Baha’i religion. The regime has ruled over a peaceful people with an iron fist while committing the most heinous crimes against humanity.

After enduring more than three decades of the Islamic regime, the great majority of the Iranian people decided to cast their ballots in the hope of affecting change in the system. The Islamic government, completely accustomed to doing whatever it wished and ignoring the people, stole the election and declared the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner. The blatant violation of this basic right to vote and choose the official infuriated the long-suffering masses who poured into the streets by the millions, demanding their votes be honored. The response of the regime was beating the demonstrators, arresting many, and subjecting a great number to a raft of harsh treatments in prisons.

In a letter addressed to Mr. Rafsanjani in his capacity as head of the Assembly of Experts, Mr.  Karroubi, a former speaker of the Majlis (Parliament), demanded an immediate investigation into the reports that several detainees had been raped during the illegal incarceration.

Mr. Karroubi wrote, “Some of those arrested [as a result] of the unrest claim that detained girls have been sexually assaulted with… brutality.”

“The young men in detention were also sexually assaulted in such a way that some are now suffering from depression and other physical and psychological problems and are incapable of even leaving their homes,” he added. “Several detainees have stated that some female detainees were so severely raped that their genitals were damaged. Others savagely raped young boys so that they suffer from all sorts of depression and serious physical and mental damage,” Karroubi said in a letter.

Human Rights Watch also has documented cases of sexual assault in the Islamic Republic prisons on individuals arrested since the fraudulent June 12, 2009, presidential election. In the most recent case, the medical examiner’s office confirmed the injuries suffered in prison by Ebrahim Mehtari, a young activist, resulted from torture and mistreatment consistent with his allegations of sexual abuse. However, the Islamic Republic Judiciary authorities refused to conduct further inquiries. Instead, they threatened Mehtari and his family with severe repercussions if they ever opened their mouths regarding the sexual abuse.

Mr. Mehtari is living outside of Iran now. After he departed from Iran, the regime’s security forces raided his family’s house several times. They threatened his family members with punishments if their son ever talked about the abuses he had received.

Another young activist, 24-year-old Ebrahim Sharifi, is a very brave young man who was arrested on June 23 after the fraudulent presidential elections in Iran. He told the Human Rights Watch group that he had been raped in detention while he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and his feet were tied, and that he had attempted suicide several times after his release. He said that judiciary officials had refused to accept his complaint and told him that if he spoke out about his case, his family would be in danger.

The third case involved is Maryam Sabri, a beautiful 21-year-old girl who was arrested on July 30th during the commemoration of the 40th day after the killing of Neda Agha Sultan– whose shooting death during a demonstration shocked the entire world. Sabri was arrested after her photo appeared on a website connected to the IRGC that posted photos of protesters and asked people to identify the people in the pictures so that they could be arrested. Before she was released on August 12, Sabri says, she was raped four times by the jailers.

“On August 9, in a letter published in the Etemad Melli paper, the reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi wrote that some detained individuals stated that some authorities have raped detained women with such force, they have sustained injuries and tears into their reproductive system.”

In another high-profile case, a very pretty 19-year-old, Taraneh, was not shot with a single bullet to her chest, as was the case with Neda Agha Sultan. There were no bystanders in the dungeon with a cell phone to capture the prolonged torture, rape, and sodomy of this teenager.

According to reports, as well as testimony on the House floor from the honorable U.S. Congressman McCotter, on June 28, 2009, Taraneh Mousavi, a young Iranian woman, was literally scooped off the streets without any provocation on her part and with no arrest warrant. This young woman was taken to one of the regime’s torture chambers, where she was repeatedly brutalized, raped, and sodomized by Ahmadinejad’s agents and with the consent of the “supreme leader,” Ali Khamenei.

Near death from repeated beating, raping, and sodomizing, the fragile young woman, bleeding profusely from her rectum and womb, was transferred to a hospital in Karaj near Tehran. Eventually, an anonymous person notified Taraneh’s family that she had had an “accident” and had been taken to the hospital.

The devastated family rushed to the hospital only to find no trace of their beloved daughter because the foot soldiers of Allah’s “divine representative,” Ali Khamenei, decided to eliminate all traces of their savagery. These vile people decided to remove the dying woman from the hospital before the family’s arrival, burned her beyond recognition, and dumped her charred remains on the side of the road.

Like Neda, another young woman whose chest was ripped by the bullet of a murdering Basij member as she peacefully walked along with a throng of peaceful demonstrators, Taraneh’s tragedy gives a glimpse of the true face of Islamic fascism and its brutality. The Taranehs and Nedas of Iran shall remain as eternal testaments to the depravity of the 7th-century primitive system and the horrors it has visited on innocent people. And these young victims of the IRI tyranny are by no means isolated cases. Tragically, women as a gender bear the brunt of Islamic misogyny. Women are systematically exploited, maltreated, and disenfranchised from their God-given rights.

A regime that subjects its own people to boundless viciousness is showing the world its willingness to commit any crime to intimidate others and to undertake any action that would keep it in power. The Islamic Republic of Iran represents devastation and death if not immediately disempowered by all people and nations that value Universal Human Rights for all. It is timely to bring to mind the warning of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The Islamic Republic of Iran is indeed a miscarriage of justice, a cruel, repressive rule, and an imminent threat not only to Iranians but to the world at large.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Amidst Fear and Despair, Iranians Wait for the Americans

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In the Islamic Republic of Iran, people are now full of fear, yet still hoping for the blow, the attacks, the war on their tormentors that President Donald Trump promised would happen if the killing of protesters didn’t stop. It didn’t; 36,500 protesters have been murdered so far, and 330,00 have been wounded. But Trump has yet to deliver on his promise. Iranians are despairing. They want an end to the regime that has provided only misery for the past 47 years, and wonder if the Americans will finally come through, kill their tormentors, and free them from this calvary. More on their mood can be found here: “Despair, ‘endless anger’ growing among Iranians as military action looms,” by Goldie Katz, Jerusalem Post, January 31, 2026:

Iranian citizens described living in great fear and constant anxiety as the threat of military action against the Iranian regime looms overhead in an interview with N12 News published on Friday. Dalara, from Karaj, a city west of Tehran, compared the anxiety surrounding the current threat of conflict to that of the 12-day war in June when “people understood that the attacks were targeted, specific, and that the risk of hitting civilian areas was low.””Today I feel that people no longer have anything to lose,” Dalara continued. “They are waiting at any moment for external help to come in the form of war. Some say: ‘I wish it would start already,’ because they know that the more the war is postponed, the number of deaths will only increase.”Dalara told N12 that the fear began after the first few days of anti-regime protests broke out, “when the phones didn’t work, the internet was down, and people didn’t know what was happening to others.””At night, you can hardly leave the house,” she added, stating that Iranian regime forces can stop civilians, search their phones, enter their houses, and arrest them. “People have no sense of security. The anxiety starts from the moment you leave the house and stays until you return. We feel that the street is no longer safe.”…

Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened the Islamic Republic of Iran over its killing of protesters, but the killing has gone on, albeit at a slower pace than on January 8 and 9, when the massacre in city streets across Iran was at its height. After the first two weeks of protests and the mass killing of protestors. Trump issued his call for the protests to continue and assured those protesters that “HELP IS ON THE WAY!”But the killings continued, albeit at a slower pace, and instead of acting as he had threatened to do, Trump decided to declare that he had been informed that the killing had stopped and so there was no longer any need for the U.S. to take action. He declared he was satisfied that he had stopped the killing of protesters, which, of course, he had not done. Trump waxes and wanes, he says one thing and then its opposite, this mercurial and unpredictable man, and he has done so especially in his statements about Iran. He utters menacing threats, pretends the threats have worked, and therefore he no longer feels any need to make his threats a reality. The killings of protesters, though the number of victims has decreased, are continuing.Now he has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, and several other ships in the carrier group as well, from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, where another carrier group headed by the USS Ford, is already stationed. Their mere presence is supposed to overawe the Iranian leaders and cause the regime to end its nuclear program, and hand over to the Americans the 400 kg. of uranium Tehran has enriched to a just-below-weapons-grade purity of 60%.

Trump now has so many ways to rattle the cages, to flutter the dovecotes, to scare the supreme leader into burrowing deeper in his underground hideout, while the protesters can return in force to Iranian cities, confident of American support should more bombing be deemed necessary to stop the killings in the streets, in order to pull down the already tottering pillars of the Islamic Republic without — please note — the need for a single American soldier to be on the ground in Iran.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, More Than 36,500 Protesters Killed

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“I met Murder on the way/He had a mask like Khamenei.”

The numbers of protesters murdered in Iran by their own government keeps rising, and now we know that at least 30,000 have been murdered by their own government. Iran International, which has a history of accurate reporting from sources inside Iran, says that the number killed since the beginning of the protests is 36,500.More on these numbers can be found here: “Iran may have slaughtered 30,000 protesters in 48-hour intense crackdown – report,” by Jacob Laznik and Miriam Sela-Eitam, Jerusalem Post, January 25, 2026:

As many as 30,000 people may have been killed across Iran during a two-day crackdown on January 8 and 9, TIME reported on Sunday, citing two senior Health Ministry officials and a separate compilation of hospital data shared with the publication. The figures have not been independently verified and far exceed numbers publicly cited by authorities.

The number, if true, would massively increase the death toll from previously believed estimates. Days after the alleged massacre, Iran International estimated around 12,000 deaths from the two-day period.

The officials said the scale of killing overwhelmed the capacity to handle the dead, exhausting body bag stocks, and prompting the use of eighteen-wheeled trailers to move bodies. TIME reported that security forces used rooftop snipers and trucks mounted with heavy machine guns after authorities cut communications. An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official warned on state television that anyone entering the streets should not complain if a bullet hit them, according to the report.

A hospital-based count shared with TIME listed 30,304 deaths as of Friday, January 9, said Dr. Amir Parasta, a German-Iranian ophthalmologist who compiled the data. “We are getting closer to reality,” he said, while adding that the tally likely excludes cases from military hospitals and unreachable areas. Public health specialists quoted by TIME cautioned against over-extrapolating from hospital records but said the internal figures point to mass killing over a short period.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei slammed the estimated death counts in a Sunday evening X/Twitter post, calling them “truly vicious” lies.

“A Hitler-style BIG LIE: isn’t this the number they planned to kill in the streets of Iran?!” Baqaei wrote. “They failed, though, and now they’re trying to FAKE it in the media. Truly vicious!”…

“The 30,000 verified deaths are almost certainly an underestimate,” Columbia University researcher Les Roberts told TIME, noting that crisis mortality counts often omit victims who never reach hospitals or are buried outside official channels….

The latest figure on the total number of protesters killed, compiled by Iran International on the basis of “new documentation and eyewitness accounts from medical staff and families of the deceased,” is 36,500. By the time you read this, that number is likely to have risen to close to 40,000.

And that number gives new meaning to the line “where forty thousand met their death/incapable of shibboleth.”

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Iranian People’s Thunderous Rebellion

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For decades, the Islamic Republic has crushed the soul of Iran under its iron fist, a tyrannical regime that has bled its people dry, sowing terror, poverty, and despair. This monstrous machine, built on fanaticism and oppression, has choked the life from a proud nation, silencing voices with brutality, imprisoning dreamers, and executing dissenters.

But now, the ground shakes with the fury of a people awakening. The Iranian masses are rising, their rage a wildfire, fueled by years of suffering and ignited by a blazing truth: Israel, led by the indomitable Benjamin Netanyahu, has become their liberator, striking the regime’s heart with unrelenting force. This is no time for whispers or hesitation—this is the hour of thunder, the moment for Iran to seize its freedom and for Israel to repay an ancient debt forged by Cyrus the Great 2,500 years ago.

The Islamic Republic is a cancer, devouring Iran’s spirit and spreading its poison across the Middle East. It has turned a once-vibrant civilization into a prison, where women are beaten for showing their hair, where youth are tortured for daring to dream, and where entire communities are starved to fund the regime’s proxy wars.

The ayatollahs, cloaked in false piety, have looted Iran’s wealth to build missiles and militias, leaving millions in poverty while their Revolutionary Guards crush skulls and break spirits. This is not governance—it is slavery. The regime’s nuclear ambitions, a dagger aimed at the world, have only tightened the noose around Iran’s neck, chaining its people to a future of isolation and fear.

But the chains are breaking. Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, a relentless storm of precision strikes, has smashed the regime’s nuclear facilities, obliterated its military command, and gutted its ballistic missile arsenal. Over 200 targets— command centers, enrichment sites, fuel depots—lie in ruins, their ashes a testament to Israel’s resolve.

Netanyahu, a warrior-king in the mold of ancient heroes, has not merely attacked; he has unleashed a reckoning. “We will hit every site, every target of the ayatollah regime,” he declared, his words a clarion call to a people yearning for liberation. The regime’s leaders, from Khamenei to his bloodthirsty generals, are not just shaken; they are packing their bags, their grip on power crumbling as Israel’s jets roar over Tehran.

This is no coincidence but destiny. Over 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great, Persia’s enlightened ruler, freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity, restoring their dignity and homeland. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu repays that ancient debt, not with words but fire and steel.

Israel’s strikes are not just military—they are a beacon, a call to arms for every Iranian who has suffered under the regime’s boot. “The time has come for the Iranian people to unite around your flag and its historic legacy,” Netanyahu thundered, echoing the cry of “Woman, Life, Freedom – Zan, Zendegi, Azadi.” This is not Israel against Iran; this is Israel and Iran’s true sons and daughters against a common enemy—the murderous Islamic Republic that has oppressed both nations.

Iranian people hear this call. The streets pulse with defiance across cities and villages, from Tehran to Tabriz. Social media burns with voices proclaiming what the regime fears most: “The vast majority of us Iranians, 90% or more, support Israel,” one post declares, capturing the sentiment of millions. The 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising showed the world Iran’s courage, as women burned their hijabs and men faced bullets for liberty.

Now, with the regime’s defenses shattered and its commanders dead, the moment is ripe. This is not a protest—it is a revolution. The Iranian people are not begging for scraps; they are ready to tear down the ayatollahs’ empire and reclaim their nation.

The regime’s retaliation—missiles raining on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa—only exposes its desperation. These are the death throes of a beast cornered, lashing out as its power collapses. Over 100 missiles and drones, launched in their so-called “True Promise 3,” have killed innocents, including children, in Israel.

But Israel stands unbroken, intercepting threats with iron resolve, its people united, its military unmatched. The regime’s boasts of “strategic targets” are hollow; their strikes are reckless, their defenses porous. Netanyahu’s warning—“More is on the way”—is no idle threat. Israel’s campaign will not stop until the ayatollahs’ regime is ash, its nuclear dreams buried, and its terror machine dismantled.

This war is Iran’s chance, its only chance, to rise. The regime’s weakness is laid bare: its commanders dead, its nuclear sites in ruins, its economy crippled. The Iranian people must seize this moment, flooding the streets in millions, tearing down the symbols of oppression, and driving the mullahs from power. The opposition, though fragmented, pulses with potential. Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, heir to Iran’s proud monarchy, is the only chance for a free Iran. Israel’s strikes have cleared the path; now the Iranian people must charge through it, armed with courage and the dream of a nation reborn.

Israel’s fight is Iran’s fight. Netanyahu’s vision is not just the destruction of a nuclear threat but the liberation of a people. The ayatollahs have brought Iran to its knees, but Israel has given it a sword. “Your light will defeat the darkness,” Netanyahu told Iranians, and they are answering. The regime’s days are numbered, its lies unraveling, its terror crumbling. This is the hour of reckoning, when Iran’s ancient glory will rise again, hand in hand with Israel, as brothers in freedom. The thunder of rebellion rolls; the Islamic Republic will fall.

2025 . All rights reserved.

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Can We Connect Iran’s Regime to Trump Assassination Attempt?

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Warnings about “the threat from foreign terrorists” from senior U.S. national security officials such as FBI Director Christopher Wray have been sounded repeatedly in recent months.

U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Erik Kurilla likewise has been emphasizing the capabilities of Islamic jihad terror groups including al-Qaida (AQ), the Islamic State (IS), and its offshoot, the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) in Afghanistan.

Both Wray and Kurilla note the wide open U.S. southern border, at which hundreds of individuals on the U.S. terror watchlist have been apprehended over the last several years.

This does not include unknown numbers of possible terrorists or others with malicious intent who have successfully penetrated our northern and southern borders as so-called “got aways” or completely undetected.

In Senate Homeland Security Committee testimony (October 2023), FBI Director Wray focused specifically on the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose regime, he warned, continues to plot assassination operations against both current and former U.S. government officials as revenge for the January 2020 take-down of Qods Force commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani on orders from then-President Donald Trump.

Among those provided 24/7 protection because of those credible threats — that include the actual presence of Iranian hit teams inside the U.S. — are former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

We may note also that the month of Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, which this year overlaps with July 2024. July16-17 2024 specifically commemorated Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram, a date associated with the 680 C.E.

Battle of Karbala in which Hussein ibn Ali, his forces, and family were defeated and killed by the army of the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate General Yazid, son of the Caliph Mu’awiya.

It’s significant to note that top Iranian regime figures, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been identifying their Gaza terror proxy Hamas with the martyred Hussein and (rather oddly) portraying Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces as the modern-day incarnations of Mu’awiya and Yazid.

Iranian regime officials have issued a steady stream of threats, verbally and in online postings, against the United States, and named U.S. officials ever since the January 2020 Suleimani strike.

For example, in January 2021, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted an apparent online threat on Twitter showing an image of Trump golfing with a caption “vengeance is definite.”

Earlier, on January 10, 2020, this author posted an article at the Center for Security Policy, “Iran’s Red Flag of War Flies over Jamkaran.”

That piece referred to the red flag that the Iranian regime hoisted over the Jamkaran mosque, where Shi’ites expect the 12th Imam to appear at the end of times.

That flag signifies a pledge of vengeance against the U.S. for Suleimani’s killing.

Farsi words on the flag say “Oh, ye avengers of Hussein” and indicates not only the Shi’a connection of Suleimani’s death to Hussein and the Battle of Karbala that solidified the intra-Islamic split between Sunni and Shi’ite, but an abiding commitment to revenge for Suleimani’s death.

The flag supposedly flies until that vengeance is exacted.

Even as recently as June 2024, during Iran’s presidential election campaign, Khamenei spoke openly in threatening anti-American terms to crowds chanting “Death to America.”

This connection may matter because as media are only now informing us, the U.S. Secret Service (subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security) at some unspecified but recent date received intelligence from a human source about an Iranian regime plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

U.S. government sources hasten to add that there is no known connection between that intelligence information and the July 13, 2024 attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

At this time, it is premature to either, as the FBI has done, announce with any certainty that shooter Thomas Crooks acted alone — or to point to external hostile actors like Iran as somehow involved.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., announced on July 17, 2024 that he would be setting up a bipartisan special task force to investigate the attack against Trump.

Other congressional committees, including the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees, are scheduling their own hearings to include invitations to testify to FBI Director Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle.

Congressional briefings from FBI, Justice Department, and Secret Service officials also are being scheduled.

There are many pressing questions to be answered by these officials before any conclusions about the assassination attempt against President Trump should be drawn.

Bu these U.S. government officials must be pressed urgently by both Congress and the media to provide answers to those questions to the American people.

This column originally appeared on NewsMax.

©2024. Clare M. Lopez. All rights reserved.

Trump Administration countering Iran’s influence in Latin America and winning key support

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“The Trump administration’s push to counter Iran’s influence in South America won key support from leaders in the region in recent days, with three Latin American nations officially declaring Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.”

The work of Iranian jihadist proxies worldwide is underrated and under reported. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo captures the magnitude of the Iranian proxy problem well in this statement:

 When you see the scope and reach of what the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime has done, you can’t forget they tried to kill someone in the United States of America. They’ve conducted assassination campaigns in Europe. This is a global phenomenon.

And the phenomenon of narcoterrorism is linked to Iranian proxy Hizballah, as indicated in this exposé by the Washington Times: “Hezbollah moving ‘tons of cocaine’ in Latin America, Europe to finance terror operation.”

“Trump administration homing in on Iran-backed operations in Latin America,” by Guy Taylor, Washington Times, January 23, 2020:

The Trump administration’s push to counter Iran’s influence in South America won key support from leaders in the region in recent days, with three Latin American nations officially declaring Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras have now officially joined with Paraguay and Argentina in recognizing the designation, with the new conservative government in Bogota joining with Washington in declaring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization as well.

At a counterterrorism conference in Bogota this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other U.S. officials underscored the global reach of Lebanon-based Hezbollah — a Shia Muslim militant-political movement and a part of the Lebanese political establishment that Washington has listed as a terrorist organization since the late 1990s.

Hezbollah was a big winner in the political upheaval that has gripped Lebanon this month, with new government made up of appointees nominated by Hezbollah and its allies — a development that has worried both the U.S. and Israel, Lebanon’s neighbor. Counterterrorism analysts consider the well-armed Hezbollah one of Tehran’s most effective military proxies in the region.

Heading into this week’s conference in Bogota, State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan Sales told the Miami Herald and Nuevo Herald that U.S. officials “know that Hezbollah operatives and facilitators and finance leaders are active” in the loosely governed “Tri-Border Area” between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

U.S. and Israeli officials say Hezbollah orchestrated and executed a 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina that killed 29 people, as well as a 1994 attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead…..

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Howard Dean: ‘I don’t consider Iran to be a Muslim country’

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It isn’t that Howard Dean thinks Iran is full of Methodists. He just thinks that Islam is wonderful, and that the Islamic Republic of Iran is evil and oppressive, and so therefore it must not really be Islamic at all. How this misunderstanding of Islam has grown so strong as to be able to take over whole countries, he did not deign to explain.

Howard Dean

Howard Dean

“Howard Dean: ‘I Don’t Consider Iran to Be a Muslim Country,’” by Adelle Nazarian, Breitbart News, August 1, 2016 (thanks to Bob):

PARIS — Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean told Breitbart News that “Iran is the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic” and that Iran is not “a Muslim country.”

Instead, Dean said, Iran is “a republic that’s been hijacked by thugs and murderers.” He explained that he does not know Muslims whom he respects and who behave the way the regime does.

Dean was speaking exclusively to Breitbart News from Paris last month during a conference hosted by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The PMOI (also referred to as MEK) is an opposition movement that played an active role in overthrowing Iran’s last Shah while President Jimmy Carter was in power, and which was de-listed as a terrorist organization under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During the interview, Dean also pointed out his belief that the term “radical Islamic terrorism” is a manufactured phrase “for political, domestic consumption in America.”

The transcript of the interview follows (emphasis added):

Breitbart News: You don’t think [the Iran deal] was a good deal?
Howard Dean: Look, I respect the president and I certainly didn’t oppose the deal but I don’t think it was “a good deal.” That is, I think we did give away a lot more than we needed to. And I think the Iranians are the largest sponsor of state terrorism in the world. And they are making lives very difficult for a lot of our allies. So I didn’t oppose the deal. I think it had its pluses and minuses, and I think we’re not going to know, for a few years, whether the deal makes any sense or not. And interestingly, I think the president’s reputation — as a good or not-so-good president — will depend on what happens with that deal.

Breitbart News: So — Saudi Arabia. Do you really think they are our allies, if I may ask… ?

Howard Dean: Yeah, I do think we are allies. I have my problems with [the] Saudis. One of the reasons I got involved with the resistance here is because I feel very strongly about human rights and the Saudis don’t respect human rights. So I’ve never personally thought that the alliance with Saudi Arabia was anything more than an alliance of convenience. But they are a key partner and they’re certainly not our enemy. So I don’t feel as strongly as some of the panel did.

Breitbart News: One more question regarding rhetoric on an international scale, do you find issue with the fact that our commander-in-chief and people within the administration (like Josh Earnest, and so forth) don’t actually use the term “radical Islamic terrorism’”?

Howard Dean: Well, That is actually something that I agree with … I think that most Muslims are not terrorists. In fact, I teach a foreign policy course at Yale. I had three Muslims sit in from other countries. And they pointed out to the class that their families were at greater risk from Daesh [ISIS] than ours because they live with them every day, around the corner.

So I think it’s important for us not to crank up a religious war. That, of course, falls into the hands of Daesh. So I think to call it Islamic terrorism is really just more for political, domestic consumption in America rather than something that you’d want to do in the world. I think these people are thugs, and they’re murderers. I don’t give them a cause. I don’t believe — I think they’re crazy, I think they’re lunatics, pathetic lunatics.

Breitbart News: There’s definitely a psychological aspect to it.

Howard Dean: Yes. I think they are deeply, psychologically disturbed, including the people who send them out there. So I wouldn’t want to give them any legitimacy by saying they have something to do with an organized religion. There is no organized religion which is a legitimate religion which condones this kind of behavior.

Breitbart News: I understand exactly where you’re coming from. But on the reverse side of that, you have the Islamic Republic of Iran which does use religion as a means to execute its citizens.

Howard Dean: I agree. And that’s exactly why I don’t want to do it. I think Iran is the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic, with some of the highest rates of execution in the world, torturing political prisoners, one of the worst human rights records in the world, a destructive force in the world. There’s nothing good about the Islamic Republic of Iran. And it’s not an Islamic republic; it’s a republic that’s been hijacked by thugs and murderers. And I think the legitimacy and the real government of Iran would be a secular government, which treated women equally with men.

Breitbart News: And just a follow up on that, do you think there is a nation that is governed by Islamic principles, or that considers itself to be majority Muslim, and that is truly an embodiment of what a Muslim nation should be like?

Howard Dean:I think Indonesia is close. There are terrorists in Indonesia but they’re not being embraced or being played footsie with by the government. I think there are other countries: Tunisia is one; Morocco has a better human rights record than most; it’s not a complete democracy. But there are nations where the people are overwhelmingly Muslims that don’t behave the way Iran does. I don’t consider Iran to be a Muslim country, because I don’t know Muslims who behave like that who I respect. And I think the vast majority of the billion Muslims in the world have no desire to live in Iran whatsoever because of the way their regime behaves.

Breitbart News: Or Saudi Arabia.

Howard Dean: Or Saudi Arabia. Although, I would say that Iran is far worse than Saudi Arabia … Although Saudi Arabia — I’m deeply disturbed by the financing of authoritarianism by the Saudis in countries where we didn’t have a problem, when now we do, in a place like Kosovo and the Balkans. So I’m not a big fan of Saudi Arabia. I think that was a marriage of convenience and that the Saudis have to clean up their act. The Saudis are, in part, responsible for terrorism, under the name of Islamic terrorism. And again, I don’t consider that — I think if you’re financing it elsewhere and it comes back into your own home, you bear some responsibility for that….

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Documentary ‘Los Abandandos’: Iran’s Assassination of Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman

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When Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman was murdered under mysterious circumstances on January 18, 2015, we wrote of the curious circumstances surrounding his death. He was found dead in his Buenos Aires flat with a bullet to his head with a pistol allegedly in his possession. He was on the brink of presenting a 300 page brief to a committee of the Argentine Congress based on a decade of investigations. Investigations begun under the auspices of the late President of Argentina Nestor Kirchner and after his passing in 2007, for a time under his successor, his wife Cristina.

Nisman’s death came amidst revelations about negotiations of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013 between Iran and outgoing Argentine President Cristina de Fernandez Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timmerman regarding a truth commission. The object of the commission was to facilitate an expose of Iran’s and its proxy Hezbollah’s roles in both the 1992 Buenos Aires Israel Embassy and 1994 AMIA Buenos Aires, Jewish Center bombings. Bombings that killed 114, injuring 542.In exchange for no prosecution following the truth commission proceedings, Iran and Argentina would renew their commercial trade.

On the occasion of Nisman’s January 30, 2015 funeral and interment in the martyrs section of the La Tablada Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires we wrote in an Iconoclast Post, “There is No Justice in Argentina” :

Many in the Argentine Jewish Community considered that appropriate as they deemed him the “86th victim” of the AMIA blast. In effect his burial in the Martyrs section repudiated initial official assessments from President Cristina de Fernandez Kirchner and the investigating prosecutor that he may have been a suicide. Kirchner quickly changed her story to a likely murder by rogue intelligence elements who had “manipulated” Nisman.

By the time outgoing President Cristina Kirchner gave her valedictory speech at the UN General Assembly on September 28, 2015, she referred to the dismissal and trial of officials in the country’s intelligence echelon who she alleged impeded the investigation saying, “prosecutor Nisman, in charge of the case, passed away.”

Cliff May, President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies attended a recent premier of a new documentary, Los Abandandos, (The Abandoned) about Nisman’s murder and the AMIA bombing investigations at Washington, DC’s, Newseum. . He published an opinion column in today’s Washington Times about the unsolved mystery of Nisman’s death and the comments of the film’s director, “Argentine Murder Mystery”. May noted:

The evidence, of which there is no shortage, leads to one conclusion: Iran’s rulers ordered the mass murder; Iran’s proxy terrorist organization, Hezbollah, carried out the mass murder; and in recent years Argentine officials at the highest levels have been involved in a cover-up of the mass murder.

May notes what possessed the director of Los Abandandos, Matthew Taylor, to pursue the story and create a riveting documentary:

To prevent the truth from passing away, Mr. Taylor went to Argentina where he quietly — he didn’t inform authorities — interviewed journalists, opposition politicians and anyone else brave enough to tell him what they knew. As the film shows, Argentines have gathered by the hundreds of thousands to protest what they see as their government’s capitulation to terrorists. Some have carried signs reading: “Islamic Fundamentalists Killed Nisman.”

In a conversation immediately following last week’s screening, Mr. Taylor was asked if he had made the movie to influence opinion about President Obama’s nuclear weapons agreement with Iran. When he began the project, he replied, he was not even aware of that controversy. But the film does serve, he added, as “a guide to what happens when you do deals with Iran.”

He pointed out that the AMIA bombing and the murder of Nisman started “with a nuclear deal” — an agreement Argentina made in the late 1980s to provide Iran with nuclear technology and assistance. Eventually, under pressure from the United States, the Argentine government did not give Iran’s revolutionary theocrats what they wanted.

One plausible theory — in essence, Nisman’s theory — is that the attack was Iran’s way of sending a message and a warning: “This time we kill Argentine Jews. Disappoint us again and who knows what our targets will be?”

May concluded:

Whatever the reasons, Mrs. Kirchner’s Faustian bargain necessitated abandoning both the AMIA victims and Nisman. Did it necessitate something even worse? That remains an unsolved murder mystery.

The Islamic fundamentalists who rule Iran are as determined and ruthless as any in the world. Their agents, including Hezbollah, are increasingly influential throughout much of Latin America.

Watch this You Tube video of the trailer for Los Abandandos:

Will the mystery of Nisman’s murder be resolved following the looming Argentine Presidential election on October 25th? That contest pits ruling Peronist Justicialist party candidate Daniel Scioli, the anointed successor to Kirchner, against  Buenos Aires Mayor, Mauricio Macri of the Center Right, PRO party. The latest polls taken show Scioli ahead of Macri, despite the former  not showing up for a televised Presidential debate Sunday; 41.3 % to Marci’s 30.5%.  There are five Presidential candidates in the race. The Buenos Aires Herald quoted Macri in late January 2015 saying, “The priority is to clarify the circumstances of  his death. We need to be respectful and allow the Judiciary to work. Nisman’s death cannot go unpunished.”  Should Scioli maintain his lead, we doubt that the mystery of Nisman’s death will be resolved anytime soon.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is the Alberto Nisman assassination graphic by Greg Groesch/Washington Times.

Obama’s Phased Nuclear Deal with Iran: Kicking the bomb down the road?

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This column is co-authored with Ilana Freedman who is a veteran intelligence analyst and specialist in counter-terrorism. Ilana is Editor of FreedmanReport.com.

When we posted late Monday night, February 23, 2015, on breaking news about the phased deal resulting from bilateral discussions between U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, we knew from our sources that more shoes would be likely to drop. Last night we received information from these reliable sources on the extent to which the Administration had strayed from its original mandate. The information was:

  • Secretary of State John Kerry is poised to sign a secret Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the U.S. and Iran that was completed by negotiators on Saturday, February 14.
  • The State Department has received a decision from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice that the MoU does not require approval by the U.S. Senate in the Constitutionally defined process of Advise and Consent for treaties between the United States and other nations, and that therefore Congress will not be consulted.
  • The agreement does not cover the subject of inspections, removing the requirements of having inspections at any of the sites covered by the memorandum.
  • The agreement will allow Iran to have 10,000 enhanced centrifuges that will increase their nuclear program capacity by upwards of 50%.
  • Of the 10,000 centrifuges allotted, all of Iran’s 6,000 existing centrifuges will be converted to the enhanced, next generation versions. The conversion can begin immediately after the agreement is signed. This will enable Iran to achieve a nuclear threshold state in less than two years. The balance of 4,000 centrifuges will, according to our sources, be supplied by Russia.
Alireza Jafarzadeh Deputy Director of Natioal Council of Reskistance of Iran National Press Club @-24-15 Source AFP

Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director, Washington Office of NCRI, National Press Club, Feb. 24, 2015.

It is not known whether other Iranian nuclear sites will likewise fall under this inspection exemption, including military test sites like Parchin and the secret parallel Lavizan site, which was disclosed in Washington on Tuesday, February 24th by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in a National Press Club briefing. At the NPC briefing, Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the NCRI’s Washington D.C. office, reported on a secret test site which has been previously identified in reports of the Washington, D.C. based, Institute for Science and International Security.

“Despite the Iranian regime’s claims that all of its enrichment activities are transparent … it has in fact been engaged in research and development with advanced centrifuges at a secret nuclear site called Lavizan-3,” he said.  Jafarzadeh said the site was hidden in a military base in the northeastern suburbs of Tehran.

According to the presentation, the complex was described as a facility 164 feet underground. The Lavizan-3 site was apparently constructed between 2004 and 2008 and has underground labs connected by a tunnel, and lead-lined doors to seal out radiation leaks.  The facility itself is heavily shielded from radiation and insulated against noise and radiation leaks to avoid detection.

“Since 2008, the Iranian regime has secretly engaged in research and uranium enrichment with advanced… centrifuge machines at this site,” Jafarzadeh said.

The NCRI called the existence of the site “a clear violation” of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as UN resolutions and an interim November 2013 deal struck with the P5+1 group, he said.

When asked about the NCRI findings at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the bi-lateral discussions with Iran, Secretary Kerry commented:

That U.S. officials knew of charges related to the site prior to this week, but that “it has not been revealed yet as a nuclear facility.”

“It is a facility that we are well aware of, which is on a list of facilities we have,” the Secretary of State said during a Capitol Hill budget hearing on Wednesday morning. “I’m not going to go into greater detail. . . .But these things are obviously going to have to be resolved as we go forward.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, ranking Democrat on the House Affairs Committee replied to Kerry:

 “The MEK sometimes gives us accurate information.”

“They are the ones that told the world about the Iranian nuclear program,” Mr. Sherman said. “They now say that there’s a secret facility at Lavizan-3.”

A credible independent expert monitoring Iran’s nuclear program raised questions about the NCRI findings.  David Albright of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Science and International Security commented in a USA Today article, February 27, 2015:

“The basic story raises questions about its authenticity. They may have answers but the questions raise further doubts,” Albright said. “The claims are so controversial that any manipulated evidence casts doubt on the whole story.”

The matter of possible violations of the P5+1 interim agreements, the lack of inspections of military applications facilities like Parchin, the Arak heavy water reactor and the Lavizan-3  site near Tehran underlines the evidence of Iran’s  retention of significant uranium enrichment  centrifuge capabilities under the suggested 10 year phase deal the Administration announced  earlier this week.  It begs the question of why any enrichment capabilities are provided to Iran under the proposed arrangement, given that the principal use of centrifuges is for enrichment of uranium into fissile materials for bomb making.

That was a point made by Dan Diker, executive producer of the Voice of Israel “National Security” program during a Middle East Round Table discussion on 1330am WEBY Northwest Florida’s Talk Radio, “Your Turn” with co-hosts Mike Bates, Jerry Gordon of the NER and Shoshana Bryen , senior director  of the Washington, D.C. based Jewish Policy Center.

Diker of the VOI noted:

The notion that Iran would be able to enrich any uranium is completely unacceptable.  The civilian nuclear programs around the world hosted by Canada and other western countries have nothing to do with centrifuges.  They are just not part of the nuclear file.  Many countries want to have peaceful civilian nuclear power.  The notion that the Iranians would claim that they need centrifuges to produce peaceful nuclear power is an absurdity.  The fact that the P5+1 have allowed any uranium to be enriched is an extremely dangerous proposition.  That is the message that Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to bring to the American people and by extension to the world community.

As to why President Obama and Secretary Kerry would sanction the phased program, Bryen of the JPC suggested:

“[The President’s] thinking appears to be that ten years from now the Mullahs will have fallen, young Iranian democrats will have taken over, and it will be OK.  The big piece of this that he missed is that the Mullahs only represent one part of the Iranian body politic and that is the religious part. Iran is also Persian and Persians are empire-oriented.  Even if we get rid of the Mullahs, even if we get rid of the religious basis for governance in Iran and we have secular people, secular people in Persia believe in a Persian Empire. If we kick this can down the road ten years and the Mullahs are gone, Obama thinks that will be a good thing. I’m not sure that’s true.”

Listen to the February 24, 21015 1330am WEBY Middle East Round Table discussion on the Iranian nuclear program: Segment 1, Segment 2, Segment 3, Segment 4.

An article based on the 1330am WEBY Round Table program will be published in the March 2015, NER.

The WEBY panel will also be heard on a separate Voice of Israel “National Security” program, Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 1PM Israel Standard Time ( 6:00 AM EST in the U.S.).  A sound cloud of that VOI broadcast will also be available on March 1st.

Iran’s provocative activities during the so-called Great Prophet-9 maneuvers this week raised questions about the untimely demonstrations of force directed at the US Fifth Fleet presence in the Persian Gulf. The first episode was the destruction by Iranian cruise missiles on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 launched at a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier as a target near the international oil/gas choke point, the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.  Watch the video, here.

Then on Friday, February 27, 2015, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy announced the successful launch of a cruise missile from a submerged Ghadir midget-submarine with a range of 150 miles. Watch the video, here.   Sepah news service quoted Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, commander of IRGC-N saying:

The new weapon would be critical in any future naval war against the U.S.

“The new weapon will have a very decisive role in adding our naval power in confronting threats,” he was quoted as stating in Sepah News.

Iran’s latest operations in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz raises many questions. Why mount exercises in which a mock US aircraft carrier is destroyed by the Iranian navy? Or launch cruise missiles designed to take out a US naval destroyer just as the US is about to give them everything they want without a shot fired?  It may be a show of arrogance, a finger in the eye of the Obama administration (which it believes to be weak and foolish), or a move beyond the MoU into a new level of saber rattling to show its neighbors the seriousness of its ambitions. Or it might be all three, a typical multi-dimensional Persian chess play by the IRGC.

What the US must learn – and fast – is that this is not an enemy one can toy with. As in most Middle East politics, the weak are despised and the game goes to the powerful. As the secrets of Obama’s secret negotiations are revealed (or leaked), and the truth comes out about our feckless policies of negotiations and appeasement, the outcome is likely to be devastating for the region and the world.  Iran revels in its possible conquest of American might and moves a giant step closer to achieving its nuclear ambitions with America’s assistance – and blessings.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.