provide Tehran with large dividends in diversifying its sources of civilian energy. …

Nuclear fusion is also the technology behind thermonuclear explosions used in hydrogen bombs. Such weapons are more powerful than ordinary atomic bombs, which rely on fission reactions. …

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Foundation for the Defense of Democracies senior fellow Emanuele Ottolenghi has written extensively about Iran's nuclear program. He argues that it makes more sense that Iran would want to harness nuclear fusion for military than for civilian purposes.

"If the Iranians had this wonderful technological edge over the rest of the world, and they were about to produce a nuclear reactor that does fusion in a commercially viable fashion, bless them," said Ottolenghi. "But, the fact that nobody else has done it so far suggests that maybe the Iranians are up to just playful banter. However, if one looks at what the reality of a military program is, if you want to have thermonuclear weapons, you need to master the technology for fusion. And while fusion is not commercially viable for civilian purposes, fusion allows you to build infinitely more powerful nuclear weapons."

For years, Europe has been criticized for its lucrative business deals with a regime that threatens Israel with nuclear annihilation, sponsors terror around the globe, and brutalizes its own population. Now, the rest of the world will be watching how the EU expands on June's new round of U.N. sanctions, in both substance and implementation. The EU is Iran's largest trading partner, so whatever it does will become a "ceiling" particularly for Gulf and Asian countries that are unlikely to do more.

That's why it's so important that Europe finally gets it right. ...

Massoud Mirkazemi, Iran's oil minister and a former IRGC official, says that without annual oil and gas investments of at least $25 billion, Iran could soon become a net importer of oil. In the first four years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, foreign investment in Iranian energy plummeted 64% to $1.5 billion from $4.2 billion.

Now imagine what tough sanctions from Iran's biggest trading partner could do.

Is there a chance that Iran will give nuclear weapons to anti-American terrorists -- or attack the Great Satan directly? That is hard to imagine -- almost as hard as it was a few years ago to imagine that a stateless terrorist group based in southern Afghanistan would organize the hijacking of passenger jets and use them as missiles to attack Washington and New York.

continues to indulge in the execution of juveniles and homosexuals; the stoning and mandatory veiling of women; the jailing, torture and murder of democratic dissidents; the spread and support of terrorist groups not only in the Middle East, but around the globe; and the sanctions-busting pursuit of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

The fact is that Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979, when it seized and held our diplomats for 444 days -- an act of war under settled principles of international law. Few in the United States then wanted to regard it as such (though Sen. Pat Moynihan said we should “bring fire and brimstone to the gates of Tehran”).

Later, Iran’s theocratic regime sponsored the 1983 attack on our Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon and recent attacks on our soldiers in Iraq -- more acts of war. Six presidents have chosen not to retaliate for reasons of prudence that have much to commend them. War with Iran would be a terrible thing. But one can also believe, as the UAE ambassador incautiously said, that a nuclear-armed Iran would be even worse.

Since bureaucracies always bear fruit if you fertilize them, it was inevitable that the Sept. 11 shock and the American reflex to throw money at problems would cause an explosion in the growth of the intelligence bureaucracies and their contractors. …

The principal problem is learning how to discriminate between the good, the bad and the hopelessly mediocre. That means avoiding the pernicious bureaucratic rule: First-class people choose first class, second choose third, and down we go. That's difficult in open bureaucracies; it's a nightmare in really big, closed ones.

unindicted co-conspirators in a crucial terrorism-financing case involving the channeling of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas through an outfit called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. For the last 15 years, Hamas has been a designated terrorist organization under U.S. law. …

The Ground Zero project to erect a monument to sharia overlooking the crater where the World Trade Center once stood, and where thousands were slaughtered, is not a test of America’s commitment to religious liberty. America already has thousands of mosques and Islamic centers, including scores in the New York area -- though Islam does not allow non-Muslims even to enter its crown-jewel cities of Mecca and Medina, much less to build churches or synagogues.

The Ground Zero project is a test of America’s resolve to face down a civilizational jihad that aims, in the words of its leaders, to destroy us from within.

In August 2007, the NYPD released "Radicalization in the West -- The Homegrown Threat." This landmark 90-page report looked at the threat that had become apparent since 9/11, analyzing the roots of recent terror plots in the United States, from Lackawanna, NY, to Portland, Ore., to Fort Dix, NJ.

The report noted that Saudi "Wahhabi" scholars feed the jihadist ideology, legitimizing an "extreme intolerance" toward non-Muslims, especially Jews, Christians and Hindus. In particular, the analysts noted that the "journey" of radicalization that produces homegrown jihadis often begins in a Wahhabi mosque. …

Wahhabism -- whether in the form promoted by Saudi money around the globe, or in the more openly nihilist brand embraced by terrorists -- is a totalitarian ideology comparable to Nazism or, closer still, the "state Shintoism" of imperial Japan. We would never have allowed a Shinto shrine at the site of the Pearl Harbor carnage -- especially one to serve as a recruiting station for Tokyo's militarists while World War II was still on.

Hamas remains at war with Israel and has continued firing rockets at Israeli civilians. The blockade is thus a legitimate national-defense measure. Still, Israel does not bar humanitarian assistance, which is permitted entry into Gaza after inspection. The blockade prevents material aid to Hamas. It is necessary because Hamas will not renounce terrorism and is incorrigible in its refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist.

In this regard, Hamas merely echoes [Columbia professor Rashid] Khalidi, a consummate propagandist who frames Israel as an illegitimate, racist, apartheid state. Khalidi has long contended that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal. He has a right to be wrong about that, of course. But the Columbia academic has no right to violate American law in the service of his political agenda.

With his insider’s understanding of Obama’s views, Khalidi is betting that he will be immune from any legal consequences for his actions. Indeed, if that weren’t clear enough already, Khalidi and other architects of the Gaza gambit plan to call their vessel The Audacity of Hope. That is the title of Barack Obama’s second autobiographical book -- a title inspired by Obama’s former pastor of 20 years, the radical black-liberation theologian Jeremiah Wright (whose vitriol, like Khalidi’s, is copiously spewed at Israel). …

Rashid Khalidi and his cohorts have been very forthright. They want the world to know that they are conspiring, right now, to furnish a ship that will challenge Israel’s naval forces, to conduct their own foreign policy to the detriment of our ally, and to provide material support to the Hamas terrorist organization. What are the president and his Justice Department planning to do about that?

Cliff: I loved that video of the new luxury mall in Gaza, and the many other pictures that have been circulating of markets groaning with goods in that supposed site of privation and want. But a collection of anecdotes isn’t data. …

[W]hen you look at specific quality-of-life indicators, the Gaza Arabs really are better off than the Turks. Infant mortality: 17.71 per 1,000 live births in Gaza vs. 24.82 in Turkey. Life expectancy at birth: 73.68 years for Gaza vs. 72.23 for Turkey. Literacy (over age 15 who can read and write): 92.4 percent in Gaza vs. 87.4 percent in Turkey (and even female literacy is higher in Gaza: 88 percent vs. 79.6 percent). School life expectancy (likely total years of schooling): 14 years in Gaza vs. 11 in Turkey (same for women specifically).

to assemble from ingredients that are widely available in this country. Highly dispersible radiological materials like cesium-137 or cobalt-40 are used every day in medical procedures at hospitals and in universities. These components of modern medicine are underprotected. …

[T]he White House has slashed the domestic radiological protection budget over the past few years. The current budget proposal would cut these domestic resources by half. …

This policy is pennywise and pound foolish. We cannot allow a dirty bomb to become America's Achilles' heel because we've lost sight of that threat.

he doesn't have to wonder why. They've been that way for 25 years, since the days when he was regularly beaten in an Iranian prison. The Islamist government's jailers knew well that the soles of the feet make an inviting target -- rich in sensitive nerve endings and easily crushed bones. …

Mr. Asadi is beaten, whipped and hung by his wrists for hours at a time, his toes just shy of the floor. Sometimes he is up-ended so that he hangs with his nose in his own excrement. …

Mr. Asadi has given us an indelible portrayal of the fervent commitment to Islamism that makes his torturer pitiless. …

Mr. Asadi has offered the world a powerful testament to what transpires in the prisons of Iran -- a nightmare that the country's radical Islamic leadership clearly would be only too happy to export.

According to National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), 35 Christians and Muslims have been killed extra judicially in connection with allegations involving blasphemy since 1992. …

Christian localities have been targeted because of the alleged allegation of blasphemy …

False allegations were used to loot and burn properties belonging to Christians, NCJP, a human rights body of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan, reported.

The blasphemy laws were introduced by President General Zia ul-Haq (a military dictator) in the 1980s to win the support of hard-line religious groups. Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code carries the death penalty. The laws have been criticized by religious minorities and human rights organizations.