Free Republic

President François Hollande said on Thursday that Islamist groups holding French hostages in Africa were not trustworthy and should not be taken seriously after Al-Qaeda accused Paris of blocking negotiations for their release. There are a total of nine French hostages on the continent. On Tuesday the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said France was snubbing talks proposed by the group to free four French citizens abducted in Niger in September 2010. "The less one speaks, the better one can work," Hollande told journalists during a visit to Rungis, a giant wholesale food market just outside Paris. "There have been...

On August 23, 2011 the FBI arrested Imam Abu Taubah aka Marcus Dwayne Robertson. The charge was possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, Case Number: 6:11-mj-1380 Attached to Imam Abu Robertson’s case is a Notice of Intent To Use Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Information (FISA). The U.S. Government’s intention to use its FISA powers signals probable cause to charge Imam “Taubah” Robertson “the target of such search is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power”. The facts presented in these filed charges leads this reporter to suspect an element of foreign intrigue may be...

He's not a Jew. At least, that's the latest on the man behind the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," that has fueled attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, leaving the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, dead. The filmmaker appears to be an Egyptian Christian rather than an Israeli Jew, as he had claimed in interviews. The Associated Press tracked down an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California who admitted to involvement with the film's logistics, and whose middle name and a known alias closely resemble the apparently fake name - Sam Bacile -...

No word yet on what the violation was, but I assume it must be far more serious than using an alias or a computer. Given the insanity of the past two weeks, replete with the White House nudging Google to pull the video off of YouTube and the State Department running ads on Pakistani TV to apologize for a movie they had nothing to do with, I can’t quite believe the DOJ would risk the perception that they’re punishing this guy for a thoughtcrime unless something serious was involved. There has to be a real crime underlying this. Right? The...

The California man behind an anti-Muslim film that roiled the Middle East was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for violating his probation stemming from a 2010 bank fraud conviction by lying about his identity. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder immediately sentenced Mark Basseley Youssef after he admitted to four of the eight alleged violations, including obtaining a fraudulent California driver's license. Prosecutors agreed to drop the other four allegations under an agreement with Youssef's attorneys, which also included more probation. None of the violations had to do with the content of "Innocence of Muslims," a film that...

RUSH: Again, I want to go back. There are two polling groups that have pulled out of Virginia (one of them a month ago) saying that it's over in and North Carolina. Suffolk Polling pulled out. They’re thinking, “It's over there. We're not gonna spend any more money there.” Another poll pulled out of Florida yesterday or the day before. But the Drive-Bys continue to poll these states, obviously, and the Drive-Bys continue to put out polling data. “It's tied! It's Obama here, Obama there, Romney there!” Nobody knows. That's why I say it's a turnout election now. It really...

The first page of Brady Campaign's latest IRS Form 990, for 2010. By way of comparison: Revenue Expenses Assets minus liabilities 2004 7.4 million 7.8 million 197,000 2008 4.1 million 4.2 million -838,000 (yes, a negative) 2009 3.4 million 3.6 million -564,000 2010 2.8 million 3.1 million -768,000 Their donor base is spiraling down, they haven't been able to cut expenses that far, and I assume are covering the gap by continual borrowing -- most recently, of 25% of their budget. In 2010, salary expenses were $1.25 million and professional fundraising $228,000, meaning that over half their revenue went to...

AFP - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian leaders on his first major foreign visit since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Zardari for talks on Thursday at the Kremlin where officials from the two countries were also expected to sign agreements on cooperation in agriculture, aviation and energy, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow told AFP. "Economics will be the focus of the visit," said the spokesman, Raja Abdul Qayyum. The three-day visit to Russia will be Zardari's first...

Would this remain a local DC story if the accused had been staff director of an important committee in a Republican controlled Senate? >>>>A former senior congressional aide was indicted this week in D.C. Superior Court on charges that he sexually assaulted two women after drugging them with a sedative that he allegedly put in their drinks. Donny Ray Williams Jr., 36, who served as staff director for a Senate subcommittee and worked in the offices of several members of Congress, gave at least one woman Ambien and assaulted her while she was unconscious, according to court papers. Williams was...

VP candidate Ryan paid tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010, returns showBy Daniel Strauss - 08/17/12 06:33 PM ET Paul Ryan and his wife paid a tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010 and 20 percent in 2011, according to tax returns Mitt Romney's campaign released Friday. In 2011, the Ryans had an adjusted gross income of $323,416 and paid $64,764 in federal taxes. In 2010, Ryan and his wife had an income of $215,417 and paid $34,233 in federal taxes. Roughly more than half of that income came from Ryan's salary as a member of Congress. The rest...

....breathtaking scenes with the Discover America’s signature song ‘Land of Dreams’ written and sung by Roseanne Cash, viewers don’t get a raincheck on the campaign’s multicultural theme and the spiral in the sand that builds the Open Society Logo in opening scenes. Such is the power of subliminal.  Discover America is $12.3 million dollars worth of free advertising for Soros. Blame Brand USA for the Open Society’s free advertising ride. Brand USA is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, with headquarters based in Wa, DC. “Brand USA was established by the Travel...

But despite a myriad of pollsters hypothesizing that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could lose her coveted gavel, Pelosi has adopted a stiff jawed mien of denial that some have compared to Mohammed Saïd al-Sahaf, Saddam Hussein’s information minister during the 2003 invasion of Iraq... “Well let me say why I believe that [it] would be very difficult for the Republicans to take over the House of Representatives. Let me tell you right here and now that I would rather be in our position right now than theirs,” Pelosi told Charlie Rose on Wednesday.

The Obama administration proclaimed Recovery Summer on June 17, 2010 to spotlight the imapact President Obama's economic program after passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (or "Stimulus package") by the Democratic controlled 111th Congress in 2009. Vice President Joe Biden was placed in charge of the effort. During Recovery Summer 393,000 jobs were destroyed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rose, and economic growth slowed from 5.7% to 1.6%. The number counted by the Department of Labor as unemployed at the start of Recovery Summer was 14,599,000 Americans in July 2010; by September there were 14,767,000...

Federal authorities on Thursday formally charged a Marine reservist in connection with 2010 shootings at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. According to a criminal complaint, law enforcement officers searched the residence of Yonathan Melaku and found numerous documents concerning bomb-making and explosives. Melaku was arrested last week after he was found trespassing in Arlington National Cemetery before dawn. A car he pointed authorities to set off a bomb scare near the Pentagon. Officials said they seized a digital videotape in Melaku's bedroom desk. According to the criminal complaint, a review of the videotape showed Melaku...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

The United Nations was paying one of the world’s most notorious terrorist groups after getting “too close” to it, secret documents disclose. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) had to suspend activities in southern Somalia after being manipulated by al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda. In a meeting last year with the UN ambassador Susan Rice, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the special representative for Somalia, said the WFP had been withdrawn “because it had become too reliant upon al-Shabaab and its system of pay-offs”. Al-Shabaab, an Islamic group fighting to overthrow the Somalian government, controls much of south and central Somalia and...

The Political Derby Composite Poll is a tool that takes the most recent major polls and weights their results based on poll age, sample type, and margin of error each day using a proprietary formula. Unlike other poll compilations, this is not a simple average. The polls that make up the PD Composite are well-known reputable national polls who sample “likely primary voters” and “registered voters”, as opposed to only “adults, including, but not limited to: NBC News/Wall Street Journal, Pew Research, Quinnipiac University, and Rasmussen Reports... The PD Composite will be updated in a regular post that will run...

Newt Gingrich will bring his surging campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to Bluffton on Tuesday for an outdoor rally. The former U.S. House speaker from Georgia will campaign at the Calhoun Street Promenade in Old Town, said James Epley, the Gingrich campaign’s Beaufort County manager. First, at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, he will go to a campaign office opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 6 Promenade St., Suite 1001 B. Then, “from 1 to 2:30 p.m., he’ll be doing an outdoor Town Hall meeting in the Promenade. It’s open to the public,” Epley said. The free event will be in...

The FBI rounded up a network of deep-cover Russian spies last year after the group came close to placing an agent near a Cabinet official in the Obama administration, a senior FBI counterspy said Monday as the bureau released once-secret documents on the case. ...U.S. officials said it was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Figliuzzi said in an interview that the FBI decided to end its more than 10-year-long counterspy investigation of the network because of concerns that the spies were “getting very close to their objective.” “These 10 Russian officers were sent to the U.S. on a...

More information on the man who would dethrone Obama in the New Hampshire 2012 primary. The registration deadline ended today, and the field includes 14 candidates on the Democrat side alone. Darcy Richardson wrote a book about the McCarthy campaign which ousted LBJ in 1968, so he's done his homework. Old timers may recall that the Dump-Johnson movement didn't happen by itself, but was an intra-party insurgent movement started in 1967 by attorney Allard K. Lowenstein. With the media consensus trying to force-feed the GOP into accepting Mitt Romney as an opponent to Obama, it's worth looking at other avenues...