Iran has released new photographs in which at least one of the recently captured U.S. sailors is crying, according to a series of the pictures posted on social media.
The pictures, as well as an accompanying video, were released by Iranian state-controlled news outlets and disseminated on Twitter by Iranian reporters early Wednesday.
The new photographs come on the heels of another set of pictures that showed Iranian military forces detaining the U.S. sailors at gun point and forcing them to place their hands upon their heads while kneeling on a ship.
Kata’ib Sayyid al Shuhada (KSS), an Iranian-backed Shia militia which operates in both Syria and Iraq, has been spotted using a US-made M1 Abrams tank in a recently released video. The video, which is a montage of different militias within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU’s), a Shia-led collection of militias in Iraq, has been shared on several PMU social media outlets.
Around the 16 second mark of the video, a KSS flag can clearly be seen atop an Abrams. It is unclear exactly where the militia is located during this clip, but it is likely within Iraq’s central Salahadin province, where KSS has done a considerable amount of fighting against the Islamic State. It is also unclear when the footage was taken, however, the footage is likely recent since the montage was released two days ago. It is also likely the tank is from the Iraqi Army, as the militias operate with and alongside the Iraqi security forces.
KSS is not the first Shiite militia to publicize its use of an M1 Abrams. The Hezbollah Brigades, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, showed an Abrams flying the Hezbollah Brigades flag earlier last year. Additionally, the group has also published two videos from Iraq’s Anbar province in which several US-made vehicles are used by its forces. [See LWJ report, Video shows Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting American M1 tank, and Threat Matrix report, Hezbollah Brigades flaunts US equipment in Anbar operation.] (Read more from “Iranian-Backed Militia Seen With US Tank in Iraq” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/KSS-Abrams-768x432.png432768Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:12:322016-04-11 10:52:52Iranian-Backed Militia Seen With US Tank in Iraq [+video]
Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month’s sanctions relief.
A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil.
“In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil will have to pay in euros, considering the exchange rate versus the dollar around the time of delivery,” the NIOC source said.
Lukoil and Total declined to comment, while Cepsa did not respond to a request for comment. (Read more from “Iran Wants Euro Payment for New and Outstanding Oil Sales – Source” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/1003px-Abadan_Catalitic_facilities.jpg10241003Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-07 23:43:302016-04-11 10:52:57Iran Wants Euro Payment for New and Outstanding Oil Sales – Source
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy said Monday that if the U.S. seeks to humiliate Iran, the IRGC would release footage of ten U.S. sailors detained last month that is much more embarrassing than images released earlier.
Addressing Iranian lawmakers a day after being awarded a medal by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the Jan. 12-13 incident in the Persian Gulf, Sardar Fadavi also said his personnel had obtained information from the U.S. sailors’ laptops and phones.
“We have extracted extensive information from their laptops and cell phones,” the state-owned Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying, adding that the material could be made public.
(Listen to an expert analysis of Iran’s action, starting at 6:08 below)
A U.S. Navy investigation is underway. Earlier, U.S. Central Command said that when Iran released the sailors and boats, “all weapons, ammunition and communication gear are accounted for minus two SIM cards that appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones.”
In his address in parliament, Fadavi also warned that the IRGC had much more footage of the incident than the material it released earlier – which showed the sailors kneeling on the deck at gunpoint, later relaxing and eating, and one of them apologizing for unintentionally entering Iranian waters. (Read more from “Iran Warns US: We Have Even More Embarrassing Footage of Your Captured Sailors” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Iranian_Alvand_class_frigat.jpeg19323000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-03 01:02:592016-04-11 10:53:08Iran Warns US: We Have Even More Embarrassing Footage of Your Captured Sailors
By Jerusalem Post. Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday once again repeated provocative assertions about the Holocaust, defying the world on a day that it paused to remember the victims of the Nazi genocide in Europe.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei released a video in which he said America “assists the fake Zionist regime” and that when “they say in their slogans that they are opposed to terrorism and ISIS they are lying,” according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Of the Holocaust, Khamenei remarked: “It is not clear whether the core of this matter is a reality or not. Even if it is a reality, it is not clear how it happened…This is the ignorance that exists in today’s world. We should be awake. [Muslims] should know that we can stand up against the ignorance.” “Who assists the fake Zionist regime,” Khamenei says in the video. “Who supports them, who clears the road for them, who stands behind them.”
“It is Western powers headed by America that are doing so. This is while they say in their slogans that they are opposed to terrorism and ISIS.” (Read more from “Iran’s Supreme Leader Doubts That the Holocaust Occurred” HERE)
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Obama Says ‘We Are All Jews’
By Eric Cortellessa. US President Barack Obama joined members of the American Jewish community Wednesday night for a ceremony honoring four individuals who were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific bestowed by the State of Israel on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews in the Holocaust.
The ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington was the first of its kind to be held in the United States, and thus the first to be addressed by a sitting US president. Held on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Obama said the unusual gathering was to “make real the call to ‘never forget.’”
Mere months after a tumultuous showdown with Israel’s government over his signature foreign policy priority — an Iranian nuclear accord that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blasted as a “historic mistake” that poses an existential threat to Israel — Obama sought to showcase the US’s enduring ties with the Jewish state, undergirded by a genuine solicitude for the Jewish people.
“We are all Jews,” he said, paying homage to one of the four individuals being honored.
Americans Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, Tennessee; Lois Gunden of Goshen, Indiana; and Polish citizens Walery and Maryla Zbijewski of Warsaw were the four recognized by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust remembrance and education organization. (Read more from “Obama Says ‘We Are All Jews'” HERE)
By Matthew Lee. It’s likely that some of the billions of dollars in sanctions relief granted to Iran under a landmark nuclear deal will go to groups deemed to be terrorists, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. But, he added, he doesn’t believe Iran will be able to use the freed-up cash to boost funding of malign activities if it is serious about revamping its economy.
Kerry said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum the U.S. or others can do little to prevent the now-unfrozen assets from getting into the hands of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps or “other entities” that Iran has supported in the past. But since nuclear-related sanctions were lifted on Iran last weekend, Kerry said, there is no evidence yet to suggest such transfers have occurred.
“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,” he told CNBC television in an interview. “You know, to some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented. But I can tell you this: Right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time.” (Read more from “John Kerry Just Confirmed We Are Giving Money to Terrorists” HERE)
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Congress Moves to Block Payment to Iran of $1.7 Billion in Taxpayer Funds
By Adam Kredo. Congress is considering legislation that would bar the Obama administration from moving forward on a cash payment to Iran of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a copy of the legislation provided to the Washington Free Beacon.
Obama administration officials confirmed to the Free Beacon earlier Thursday that it is using a taxpayer-funded account to pay Iran $1.7 billion as part of a settlement agreement reached with the Islamic Republic ahead of the release of five imprisoned Americans.
Critics of the agreement allege that the administration agreed to the payment to spur Iran to release the five Americans, who were freed over the weekend.
The news has sparked outrage on Capitol Hill and prompted Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) to file legislation Thursday afternoon that would bar the administration from moving forward on the payment until Iran pays millions in judgments awarded to the U.S. victims of its global terrorist network, according to the bill.
“The United States should not be funding governments that openly violate human rights, proudly disregard U.N. Security Council resolutions, and call for the destruction of America and its allies,” Moran said in a statement. “This bill directs the U.S. government to put justice for American victims of Iranian terrorism ahead of compensation for the Iranian regime.” (Read more from “Congress Moves to Block Payment to Iran of $1.7 Billion in Taxpayer Funds” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-21 23:07:182016-04-11 10:53:34WATCH: John Kerry ADMITS We Are Giving Money to Terrorists
Photo Credit: Fox News Amir Hekmati, one of the Americans freed from Iran in a prisoner swap, said Tuesday he couldn’t wait to return to his home in Michigan.
“I feel alive for the first time,” the 32-year-old retired Marine told reporters outside a hospital in Germany, one day after an emotional reunion there with his family . . .
Hekmati, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived late Sunday at the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for treatment. A fourth American released in exchange for the U.S. pardoning or dropping charges against seven Iranians opted to stay in Iran, and a fifth American was released separately.
Hekmati was detained in August 2011 on espionage charges. Hekmati says he went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother. After his arrest, family members say they were told to keep the matter quiet.
He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death in 2012. After a higher court ordered a retrial, he was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years on a lesser charge. (Read more from “Former US Marine Freed From Iran: ‘I Feel Alive for the First Time'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-20 19:27:362016-04-11 10:53:36Former US Marine Freed From Iran: ‘I Feel Alive for the First Time’ [+video]
None of the Iranians freed in the prisoner swap have returned home and could still be in the United States, it has been reported.
The seven former inmates, who were released as part of a deal with the Islamic republic, did not show up to get a flight to Geneva, Switzerland, where the exchange was set to take place on Sunday.
Three of the Iranians have decided to stay in the United States, ABC reported, with some moving in with their families. However it is not known where the other four are.
Three of the Americans who had been detained in Iran – Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini – left Tehran at around 7am the same day, but weren’t met by their counterparts in Switzerland . . .
Six of the seven have dual citizenship and all of them had been convicted or charged with crimes related to selling sensitive equipment to Iran. (Read more from “NONE of the Seven Iranians Freed in the Prisoner Swap Have Gone Back to Iran” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-19 23:57:352016-04-11 10:53:39NONE of the Seven Iranians Freed in the Prisoner Swap Have Gone Back to Iran
Just a few days after Iran committed an act of war and seized a U.S. navy boat and its crew, Obama has announced the first $1.7 billion in direct payments to Iran. Concurrently, he has announced a deal in which Iran will return the four American captives. They will not be returned in exchange for all the money Obama is giving them and the control over the seas he has evidently surrendered to them. No, the Iranians get that for free. The release of the four hostages was in return for a major prisoner swap that could include as many as 21 Iranians.
Consider the following:
Over the weekend, the administration announced a settlement in which they will pay Iran $1.7 billion for assets our government froze in 1979 when the mad mullahs conquered Iran. Thus, in addition to the $150 billion in assets granted to Iran pursuant to the terms of the nuclear deal, the regime is now squeezing every penny from the original sanctions as far back as 36 years ago.
Obama purposely ignored the plight of the four American hostages as part of the nuclear deal so that he could allow Iran to force future concessions in return for their release. We now know which concession the Iranians were demanding. Obama is releasing seven Iranian prisoners and has agreed not to prosecute 14 others, some of whom are high valued supporters of Iran’s terror network.
While the details are still murky, at least “several” Americans were captured around Baghdad by local “militias.” Now, it doesn’t take a genius to know that the only militias that operate around Baghdad are the ones affiliated with the Iranian Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.. If this turns out to be the case, it would represent another failure of our ridiculous Iraq policy in which we are serving as the Shiite military on behalf of Iran while Iran continues to humiliate us. This is a repeat of the entire Iraq war in which our military basically protected Iran from Saddam Hussein and the Sunnis only to helplessly watch them blow up hundreds of our soldiers with IEDs.
When criticizing Obama’s Iran policy, too many people are using the wrong ”a” word. This is not appeasement. Obama has formed an alliance with Iran against his own country. He is allowing them to engage in one act of war after another without any commensurate response so that they can use each event to extract more concessions.
On a side note, remember when Mitt Romney criticized Cruz for saying the U.S. would become the biggest state sponsor of terror with the Iran alliance?
Will Romney crawl out of the Mittness protection program to apologize? More likely, he’ll join the chorus defending #NewYorkValues. But I digress.
In a sane world with an authentic opposition party, we would not have surrendered the power of the purse. We would not have passed the Corker-Cardin bill, which legitimized the Iran deal.
Where do we go from here?
The Palestinians are one of the biggest proxies of the Iranian regime and likewise are among Obama’s chosen people. Republicans should immediately pass legislation being pushed by Ted Cruz and Rep. Mark Meadows to shut down all Palestine Liberation Organization offices in our country and suspend the $500 million in annual aid to Iran’s proxy.
Congress must refuse to confirm any more judicial nominees until Obama comes clean on all his side agreements with Iran and abides by the terms of his own deal [Iran has already violated the deal with multiple ballistic missile tests]. Of course, Republicans should already be blocking nominees for a host of other reasons.
In addition to blocking judicial nominees, Republicans should leverage executive nominees against Obama’s Iran policy. Next week, the Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing on Eric Fanning to become the next Secretary of the Army. At a time when our military is being humiliated by Iran, Republicans must extract concessions from the next army secretary. In addition, we need answers about the terrible morale in the Army as well as the Obama administration’s social engineering of the military, which includes integrating women in direct ground combat, mixed boot camps, and the transgender agenda. Confirming nominees to serve in positions where Obama is perpetrating lawless or harmful transformations would represent yet another betrayal by Senate Republicans.
Congress should use must-pass bills, such as the upcoming Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill to shut down Obama’s Iran deal.
Yes, we will have a new president in 367 days, but we cannot afford another year with Obama humiliating our military and committing acts of treason with Iran. That is an eternity. Just last week, Iran’s army chief said they seized the American boat to send a message to Republicans in Congress to back off sanctions. Well, Republicans, did you get the message?
Our forefathers wouldn’t tolerate appeasement for a moment. They proclaimed, “millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!” Why should we tolerate treasonous funding of terror for one more day? (For more from the author of “Will GOP Allow U.S. To Become Iranian Proxy?” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-19 00:11:082016-04-11 10:53:42Will GOP Allow U.S. To Become Iranian Proxy?
The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.
The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions.
But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes.
US President Barack Obama defended the settlement in a televised statement from the White House, saying it was for “much less than the amount Iran sought.”
“For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. There was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out,” he said. (Read more from “US to Pay Iran $1.7 Billion in Debt and Interest: Kerry” HERE)
Listen to this analysis of Iran’s despicable actions toward our sailors last week; the discussion on Iran starts at 6:10:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-17 23:00:272016-04-11 10:53:44US to Pay Iran $1.7 Billion in Debt and Interest: Kerry
