Free Republic

President Obama and his administration continue to support the global Islamist militant group known the Muslim Brotherhood. A White House strategy document regards the group as a moderate alternative to more violent Islamist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The policy of backing the Muslim Brotherhood is outlined in a secret directive called Presidential Study Directive-11, or PSD-11. The directive was produced in 2011 and outlines administration support for political reform in the Middle East and North Africa, according to officials familiar with the classified study. Efforts to force the administration to release the directive or portions of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is quietly reviewing the future of America’s three-decade deployment to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, fearful the lightly equipped peacekeepers could be targets of escalating Islamic State-inspired violence. Options range from beefing up their protection or even pulling them out altogether, officials told The Associated Press. The American forces have helped marshal peace in the peninsula since Egypt’s 1979 historic peace treaty with Israel. Some 700 members of an Army battalion and logistics support unit are currently there. They mainly monitor and verify compliance, and have little offensive capability. Several other countries also provide personnel. Egypt...

On December 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot dead by a group of suspected drug cartel along the Mexican border in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales, Arizona. The guns used to kill Brian Terry were traced back to Operation Fast and Furious. In September 2011 the Attorney General of Mexico confirmed 200 murders happened in Mexico as a direct result of Operation Fast and Furious. In May 2012 another murder connected to Operation Fast and Furious surfaced. According to a congressional report released, Mario González Rodríguez, brother of the state attorney general of Chihuahua at the time,...

The congressional office of Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently had several items and cash stolen from her Washington D.C. office, according to a police report obtained by Townhall.Camera equipment with a retail value of $1,079 and $220 in cash vanished between Oct. 3 and 6 of 2014. Bachmann’s press secretary, Dan Kotman, declined questioning as to whether or not this incident is believed to be from a staffer or if these items were purchased with taxpayer money.Capitol Police have declined any comment about the case, citing an ongoing investigation. When asked if there are security cameras in Bachmann’s office, Lt. Kimberly...

SNIPPET: "I rarely attend trials, but this one is special. On July 24, 2013, the main hearing in the case of German businessman Rudolf M. and Iranian-Germans Gholamali K., Kianzad K., and Hamid Kh. opened at Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court. The defendants are charged with exporting 92 German-produced specialized valves for use in Iran’s Arak plutonium reactor and arranging the shipment of 856 nuclear-usable valves from India to Iran in 2010 and 2011. The reasons why the UN Security Council has ordered Iran to halt the construction of the Arak reactor are compelling. If this nuclear plant comes online in...

Nelson Mandela at the Communist Party’s first public meeting in post-apartheid South Africa, 1990. You're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so I figured I'd get a head start.One of the landmark events of my Gen X youth was the 11-hour, internationally televised “Free Nelson Mandela” concert in 1988. Because, come on: how could you not be anti-apartheid? It was a no-brainer, risk-free cause, the type you could support without having to think about it too much or inviting unpopularity or controversy, right? Actually, no. Lots of big-name musicians who now boast of being on that concert roster...

Poachers kill 300 Zimbabwe elephants with cyanide • Cyanide has been used to kill 300 elephants in Zimbabwe's biggest nature reserve - three times the original estimate - as new photos show the scale of the slaughter Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 300 elephants and countless other safari animals by cyanide poisoning, The Telegraph has learned. The full extent of the devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park, has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern Africa for 25 years. Pictures taken by the hunters, which...

The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it. Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement....

Egypt's former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has struck a defiant tone at the beginning of his trial over his escape from prison in 2011. Mr Morsi started shouting: "I am the president of the republic, how can I be kept in a dump for weeks?" Egypt's first freely elected president was deposed by the military in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule. He is now facing four separate criminal trials on various charges. Mr Morsi and other defendants in the case are appearing in a sound-proofed glass box during the trial. He will only be permitted to address...