Special to WorldTribune.com The Obama administration has paid a “ransom” of $1.7 billion in U.S. taxpayers’ funds to Iran for the release of American hostages, critics and Iran officials said. The administration insists the payment was a decades-old legal settlement with Teheran and was not tied to the recent release of five American hostages, according […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Implementation of the nuclear deal marks a “turning point for Iran’s strength as a terrorist state” and a “dangerous moment for America and our allies,” the American pro-Israel lobby AIPAC warned on Jan. 16. AIPAC surprised some Democratic Party observers when it broke with the Obama Administration last year over the Iran […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, the annual speech to a joint session of Congress, has emerged as more of a political pep rally than a clear overview of America’s standing in the world both domestic and foreign. The address was touted as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Iran has poured concrete into the core of its heavy water reactor at Arak, the U.S. State Department said on Jan. 14. The move is seen as critical to the implementation of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers and the lifting of sanctions that will free up billions of dollars […]
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, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com The U.S. Supreme Court is set to clear the way for families of American victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism to collect some $2 billion. The funds would be part of a $2.65 billion judgment against Iran the families won in U.S. federal court in 2007. The funds are currently being held in New […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Backgrounder, Geostrategy-Direct.com Djibouti, a former French colony, is a country of searing heat (summer temperatures average over 100 degrees) and little rain (17 days a year on average). The population of the East African state is 900,000, which ranks 159th in the world. But the tiny state on the Horn of […]
