A young Iranian pastor currently faces the death penalty for refusing to recant his Christian faith. Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was charged with apostasy for supposedly converting from Islam as a teenager and was sentenced to death last week when he refused to renounce his beliefs before the Iranian Supreme Court. …
Last weekend, Bahrain held special elections to fill 18 parliamentary seats left vacant after members of the Islamist al Wefaq party resigned last February amid anti-government protests. Despite the government’s attempts to fill the seats without incident, Bahrain’s opposition seized the opportunity to revive anti-government protests, which the government had …
Venezuela’s authoritarian populist President Hugo Chávez announced that presidential elections will take place on October 7, 2012. Chávez, who continues to battle an unspecified cancer, is convinced he will win. In office since 1999, Chávez argues he must have another six years in order to install Socialism of the 21st Century, …
Iran escalated its dispute with Russia recently. Tehran filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation at the International Court of Arbitration as Russia refused to provide the Islamic Republic with the S-300 air defense system delivery and providing a new spin to the complicated Russian–Iranian relationship. Tehran and Moscow signed …
On Saturday, an Iranian court sentenced two innocent American hikers to eight years in jail for allegedly straying across the Iran–Iraq border two years ago. The politicized verdict once again underscores the Islamist regime’s twisted sense of “justice,” which is meted out against Iranians as well as foreigners to advance …
By the end of August, if Tehran’s plans progress as announced, Iranians going online will find themselves restricted to communicating only with each other—under the watchful eye of Iran’s cyber censors. Plans for an all-Iranian intranet to replace access to the Web were announced in early July by Iran’s Communication …
The U.S. Treasury Department yesterday announced sanctions on six al-Qaeda leaders who have used Iranian territory to funnel money and recruits to al-Qaeda’s core leadership in Pakistan and to its bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. Treasury officials say the al-Qaeda leaders have been operating in and through Iran with the …
As the Obama Administration conducts its military withdrawal from Iraq, Iran has upped its involvement in the region, emphasizing how vulnerable American troops are now that forces are diminishing. News broke this week that Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces carried out cross-border military operations in Iraq against guerrillas of the Party …
The Wall Street Journal yesterday published an important op-ed by a distinguished intelligence specialist, Fred Fleitz, that alleges that the U.S. intelligence community remains in denial about Iran’s accelerating drive for nuclear weapons. Fleitz noted that Iran has accumulated over 4,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, enough to arm four nuclear …
The United States lacks effective energy policy responses in the event of a major oil crisis. This was the conclusion reached at a recent simulation by Securing America’s Future Energy. Little surprise here: We arrived at the same conclusion in three energy simulation exercises conducted at The Heritage Foundation in …
