The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, has condemned the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran calling for the killing of author Salman Rushdie. The academy did not condemn the fatwa, which was issued in reaction to the alleged blasphemy in Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, when it was first announced....

• Kindle

Seven hackers with ties to the Iranian government were charged by the Justice Department on Thursday with carrying out cyber-attacks on dozens of American banks and a New York dam. According to the FBI, the suspects were employed by private security firms working on behalf of the Iranian government, including the Islamic...

• Kindle

Experts on the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah discussed its increased dominance in Lebanon at a House hearing on Tuesday, including how the group’s activities and strategies increase the likelihood of a future, more deadly war with Israel. “Hezbollah has made Lebanon complicit both financially and economically, as well as militarily because of all...

• Kindle

A three judge panel unanimously referred the investigation into the death of Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman to a federal court, where political murder cases are handled, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Tuesday. Two of the three judges explained in the decision that “it is plausible to give credit to the hypothesis suggested by the...

• Kindle

Bills that aim to place sanctions on Iran due to the continued development of its ballistic missile program are a “good start,” a Wall Street Journal editorial argued on Tuesday. Past UN Security Council resolutions demanded that Iran “shall not” develop ballistic missiles, but Resolution 2231, which is one of the main components of last year’s nuclear deal, only...

• Kindle

The Justice Department announced criminal conspiracy charges against three current or former members of the Iran-backed hacking group Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Two of the suspects– Ahmad Umar Agha, 22, and Firas Dardar, 27– are believed to be in Syria. They were charged with...

• Kindle

In the absence of action by the United Nations Security Council, the United States must impose unilateral sanctions on Iran for its illicit ballistic missile tests in October, Democratic congressmen Joseph Kennedy (D – R.I.) and Ted Deutch (D – Fla.) wrote in an op-ed published Friday in The Times...

• Kindle

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is planning to build a statue commemorating its January capture of ten American sailors, Stars and Stripes reported on Monday. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called the U.S. service members’ detainment and treatment by Iran “outrageous” and “inconsistent with international law” last week. “There are...

• Kindle

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are working on a series of responses to Iran’s attempts to procure conventional arms from Russia and its recent ballistic missile launches, according to Al-Monitor. United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 includes a 5-year ban on the sale of conventional weapons to...

• Kindle

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called Iran’s treatment of the American sailors it detained in January “outrageous” and “inconsistent with international law” during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. Carter, who credited the nuclear deal for preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, nonetheless acknowledged that “our concerns with Iran persist.” After singling...

• Kindle