Free Republic

FBI declassified a 1999 video of Saudi intelligence agent Omar al-Bayoumi casing the Capitol and other Washington D.C. sites for the 9/11 attack. How, then, did the CIA-FBI 9/11 report conclude in 2005 that Saudi Arabia was not involved in the attack? And why did the FBI maintain — for 20 years, before its recent retraction — that al-Bayoumi wasn’t a Saudi agent? Such willful deception, practiced increasingly by American intelligence, is the subject of former CIA agent J. Michael Waller’s new book Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains ......

There was no difference between July 3, 1776, and July 5. By all outward appearances, the American colonies were no more free and no more independent. Practically speaking, the governing structures were not different. So what makes the Fourth of July so special? Think about it. We do not celebrate October 19, 1781, the date the war for American independence ended. There are no parades commemorating September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally concluded the war. No, we celebrate July 4, 1776. That is the day when our Founding Fathers firmly, finally, and officially committed themselves—their lives, their...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky might do well by studying the career of Carl Mannerheim and how he saved Finland from the Russian meatgrinder. In early World War II, on November 30, 1939, a Soviet-Russian army invaded Finland in a surprise massive attack. The Finns were eventually outnumbered nearly 3 to 1. The population of the Soviet Union in 1940 was 50 times larger than that of Finland’s. Finland’s former anti-Soviet ally, Nazi Germany, had sold it out under the August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which made Germany and Russia de facto allies. Finland’s other allies, particularly France and Britain, were slow...

Kyiv has been told that, before it can join Nato, it must fix its problems with corruption. These are very real: the latest Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Ukraine below Belarus and Kazakhstan. But that is not the true reason why there will be no good news on accession for Zelensky at Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington next week.The simple reality is that very few in Nato wants to let Ukraine in, despite endless platitudes including a declaration by the North Atlantic Council at Vilnius last year that “Ukraine’s future is in Nato”. There has been discussion about taking that...

“Yeah girl, I’m out here in these streets.” If you missed Sunday night’s Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards show because you had something better to do, like trimming your toenails, then you mercifully missed a pre-recorded, badly scripted cameo appearance by epically incompetent Vice President Kamala Harris that is being roundly mocked as evincing a “toenail curling level of cringe.”Framed as a spontaneous video call from host and actress Taraji P. Henson in her dressing room to “Madame Vice President Harris” at her White House desk, Henson dials the VP and begins, “Madame Vice President Harris, I’m worried about the...

How much do the Mullahs care for the well-being of the Lebanese? While Hasan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, repeats in Beirut the threats of his puppet-masters in Tehran, who have described the massive destruction they are prepared to visit on the “Zionist entity,” many Lebanese, horrified at what they see as a march toward war with Israel, have been filling social media with both their anguished calls for peace, and with denunciations of Hezbollah for dragging the country into a war that almost all Lebanese, save for the members of Hezbollah, do not want, for they remember what happened...

Putting lies to rest. The monstrous regiment of anti-Israel campaigners have been accusing Israel of deliberately withholding food aid so that a “famine” is taking place in Gaza. In fact, more aid trucks laden with food have been entering Gaza today than went into the Strip before October 7. And as several academic studies have concluded, there is no famine in Gaza. There is food insecurity, which is a different thing, the result of continued looting of aid trucks by Gazans and, especially, by members of Hamas who seize food off the trucks for themselves, their extended families, and fellow...

Dissidents face death sentences, mom of murdered protester beaten in jail, dad denied lifesaving treatment. More news of Iran’s brutal crackdown on dissidents — from murders during protests to death sentences and torture. “Two Iranian Protesters Face Charges Punishable by Death,” Iran International, June 30, 2024:Eight detainees from Iran’s 2022 nationwide uprising following Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody were tried in a Revolutionary Court on Sunday, with some facing charges punishable by death.The individuals—Nasim Gholami Simiyari, Hamidreza Sahlabadi, Amin Sokhanvar, Ali Harati Mokhtari, Hossein Mohammad Hosseini, Amir Shah-Velayati, Ehsan Ravazjian, and Hossein Ardestani—were tried by Branch 26 of the...

Pour one out for the state prosecutors. District Attorneys Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis awoke this morning to a new legal landscape after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are presumptively immune for their official acts, and absolutely immune for those duties that are “exclusively and preclusively” their purview. Only unofficial acts are fair game. Where, then, does that leave the cases launched against Trump from New York and Fulton counties? In just as much trouble, we reckon, as the January 6 case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith at the District of Columbia that precipitated the brouhaha over immunity...

Calling it “the greatest mismatch in the history of Presidential debates,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson declares Donald Trump the winner of Thursday’s faceoff and says “November cannot get here soon enough.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joins THIS WEEK to warn that President Biden is “living in a fantasyland” if he thinks he can blame Donald Trump for what’s unfolding in Ukraine. Host Tony Perkins rallies audience members to support the Right to Life at next month’s RNC in Milwaukee. And Speaker Johnson adds his perspective on how America’s enemies like Iran and China are viewing Joe Biden’s...

Donald Trump can’t believe his luck. Just a few days after Joe Biden seemed to fire himself from his own job live on air during a toe-curling presidential debate, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that sitting and former presidents of the United States possess a degree of immunity not available to private citizens. In this strange new world, Republicans can now win in televised debates and the courts. Nixon must be rolling in his grave.

The antisemitism of the Palestinian cause is not a bug; it’s a feature of the new politics in America Last January, members of the radical anti-Israel campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) filmed a video marking the end of their suspension from Rutgers University. At first look, the video strikes a dissonant chord: The visual aesthetic is a throwback to the Palestinian fedayeen and hijackers reading a communique after an operation. Yet the inflections and cadences, despite a detectable but faint accent, were jarringly American Gen Z. Historically, the American Jewish establishment has portrayed SJP and its ilk...

If the National Rally passes the 289 seats limit, Mr. Macron is supposed to call upon Mr. Bardella to form the cabinet. This would be seen as a casus belli by the militant far left. Alternatively, Mr. Macron may cite law and order concerns to bar Mr. Bardella from the premiership and form an “apolitical” or “technical” cabinet. A move that the right may construe as a coup d’Etat. The far left’s “civil war” threats should not be ignored and are not. Shops and restaurants are already barricading. Mayors — including the most liberal ones — are begging for police...

Their goal is clear. Since October 7th, protests around the globe in support of the “Palestinian cause” have exploded in popularity and tenacity. Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activists repeatedly, almost religiously claim that they’re not antisemitic but merely “pro-Palestinian”, while celebrating (and sometimes, at the same time denying) the atrocities committed by Palestinian terror groups.However, it’s almost impossible to find a “pro-Palestinian” rally that isn’t drenched in antisemitic rhetoric, anti-Jewish venom, or stereotypical tropes. They chant “from the river to the sea”, which means the complete annihilation of the Jewish state. They have called on Hamas and Hezbollah to inflict more...

Nurturing an ancient, visceral, ugly emotion. Antisemitism is a deep-seated hatred of Jews. Facts don’t stand a chance against this ancient, visceral emotion. The attack against Jews in front of a synagogue in Los Angeles has been well-documented. I always stand in amazement how much Jew-haters need to justify their actions instead of just saying that they hate Jews and want to kill them. A few days after the melee, I heard the most disingenuous explanation as to why the pro-Hamas crowd attacked Jews in the City of Angels. There was a seminar at the Adas Torah synagogue on how...

A call for emergency mobilization in Israel. Israel is now fighting a multi-front war, with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria, Israeli Arabs opposed to the Jewish state, Muslim Brotherhood members and ISIS remnants in the Sinai, and the sinister state that supports, supplies, and directs Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel is now, and for many years to come, will be fighting for its very existence, but, argues David Weinberg, the Israeli government still has not come to grips with the magnitude and...

Former President Trump has presumptive immunity for pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to subvert the results of the presidential election in his favor by certifying slates of so-called “fake electors” on Jan. 6, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The determination came within the justices’ highly anticipated opinion on presidential immunity, in which they ruled that core presidential powers are immune from criminal prosecution. The decision returns Trump’s federal election interference case back to a lower court to decide whether his actions leading up to Jan. 6 merit the protection.

Vladimir Putin had always kept his family in the dark. Now, it's out in public. Let's take a closer look at Putin's family. 0:01 have you heard have you ever heard of Vladimir Putin's family chances are you 0:08 haven't heard much it's because in the state he has built Putin's family didn't play any significant role and it's 0:16 always been hidden in the shadows somewhere Putin has placed his bets on 0:24 close friends and former colleagues but not on the Family 0:30 but that is changing now and fast Vladimir Putin has started empowering his family frantically...

The Ukraine war will end in a surrender, not in a negotiated deal. That is my sense of where the war is headed and why the parties cannot negotiate a settlement. The latest wrinkle in the missing negotiating saga is a declaration in the form of an interview given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the interview, Zelensky said there can’t be direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia but there could be indirect negotiations through a third party. In Zelensky’s proposed scenario, the third party will serve as an intermediary and any deal will only be...

How the Left spawns femicidal terror. The United Nations calls it “femicide,” the wanton assault, rape and murder of girls and women. It’s a cultural epidemic in Latin America.Femicide is visible every step of the way from South America and the Northern Triangle countries to the Mexico-U.S. border. Rape trees, where women’s panties hang from branches, and rape tents, where girls and women are dragged by smugglers, dot the route. Do you think the rapes stop when illegals cross into the U.S.? No.Now women are being victimized by migrants bringing femicide to your neighborhood. Where are the women’s rights groups?...