Judge challenges U.S. move to drop charges in prisoner deal with Iran

Judge challenges U.S. move to drop charges in prisoner deal with Iran

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty A U.S. judge is challenging the government’s move to drop charges against an Iranian man accused of sanctions violations as part of a U.S. prisoner swap agreement with Iran last month. U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel threatened in a court order last week to deny […]

Kerry appears ill at ease in Riyadh where he sought to assure Gulf allies

Kerry appears ill at ease in Riyadh where he sought to assure Gulf allies

Special to WorldTribune.com In a visit intended to reassure America’s ally Saudi Arabia over Iran’s continued “interference” in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry instead appeared uneasy and defensive, reports said. Kerry met in Riyadh on Jan. 23 with Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers. “Overall […]

Realism not rhetoric needed to defeat ISIL, warns Gates

Realism not rhetoric needed to defeat ISIL,  warns Gates

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates slammed both the Obama Administration and the presidential primary candidates calling for long-term realism in America’s fight against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) terrorism. “I think that the president has all along underestimated ISIS, has underestimated the degree […]

U.S. admits losing propaganda war to ISIL ‘fanboys’

U.S. admits losing propaganda war to ISIL ‘fanboys’

Special to WorldTribune.com The United States says it “ought to do better” to fight Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) Internet propaganda machine. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, speaking at Ecole Militaire military college in Paris on Jan. 21, said the terror group uses the Internet “to give encouragement or even instruction to people […]

A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un

A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to Korea, makes an astounding statement in a piece published after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. Striking “a very positive note,” he praises “the performance of Kim Jong-Un in improving the North Korean economy and downplaying nuclear threats and nuclear weapons development.” It […]

Stalinist Cuba, mass graves, and a U.S. president’s legacy

Stalinist Cuba, mass graves, and a U.S. president’s legacy

Special to WorldTribune.com By Frank Calzon On Jan. 8, 1959, as Fidel Castro entered Havana in triumph and the dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba, Raul Castro opened up a mass grave in Santiago and immediately executed seventy one Cubans without due process. As the Obama Administration begins a final year of diplomatic appeasement of tyrants […]

Migration of ISIL jihadists: Out of Syria . . . and into Libya

Migration of ISIL jihadists: Out of Syria . . . and into Libya

Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs January 2016 saw an acceleration of the movement of Daesh (asad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-‘Iraq wash-Sham) — so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) — fighters out of Syria and into Libya. There were profound reasons for this “flight to safety” by Daesh, […]

U.S. widow sues Twitter for giving voice to ISIL

U.S. widow sues Twitter for giving voice to ISIL

Special to WorldTribune.com The widow of an American killed in a Jordan terrorist attack is filing suit against Twitter for giving a voice to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). In the lawsuit, Tamara Fields said the social media company until recently had given jihadists “unfettered” ability to maintain official Twitter accounts to spread […]

Iraqi refugee charged with plan to bomb Houston malls

Iraqi refugee charged with plan to bomb Houston malls

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty An Iraqi refugee suspected of sympathizing with the Islamic State extremist group wanted to set off bombs at two Texas malls and was learning to make explosive devices, U.S. authorities said on January 13. Omar Faraj Saeed al-Hardan, who emigrated to Houston from Iraq in 2009, […]

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Not one week into the New Year, the North Koreans jolted global concerns as well as the Richter scale with a nuclear weapons test. While the underground blast shook the remote Punggye-ri region near the Russian border, the political reverberations of the bomb have been […]