Free Republic

The wife of Meng Hongwei, the Interpol president held in China since September, has sought asylum in France for herself and her twin children. Grace Meng and the seven-year-olds live in Lyon, the international police agency's headquarters. Meng Hongwei disappeared during a visit to China. In October the Chinese authorities said Mr Meng was being investigated over suspected bribe-taking. His wife and children are under police protection, having received threats. Quoted by France Inter radio on Friday, she said, "I fear they will kidnap me."

<p>The White House demanded that the military draft plans for strikes on Iran after attacks in Iraq last year, sparking concern at the Pentagon and State Department, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, January 13.</p> <p>The report said the move came after a mortar attack launched by an Iran-linked group on the Baghdad diplomatic quarters home to the US embassy in September. No one was hurt by the shells, which landed in an open lot.</p>

Senior Pentagon officials struggled on Wednesday not to contradict national security adviser John Bolton’s bellicose declaration this week that the U.S. won’t leave Syria until Iran does. Those officials are pushing ahead with the war’s original aim: defeating the so-called Islamic State. But while the goal of defeating ISIS is closer than ever, Bolton has pushed its end even further back. “I would disaggregate overall U.S. policy objectives from our military activities,” Robert Karem, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told a congressional panel on Wednesday. “We are not seeking war with Iran. … We are not...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry is being slammed for conducting shadow diplomacy with Iran after admitting to multiple meetings with Iranian officials behind the backs of Trump administration officials -- including over the scrapped nuclear deal. An administration official on Thursday told Fox News Kerry’s meetings are "shameful," pointing out what Iranian-backed militias are doing to kill and injure people in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Other Republicans suggested it may not even be legal. “John Kerry is out giving advice to Iran about how to maneuver around what Donald Trump is doing; it's insidious,” Ari Fleischer, the former White...

Fridays at the DC federal courthouse are typically days of high alert for the press corps trying to discern what special counsel Robert Mueller's next legal action will be. But this Friday, court officials went to extreme measures to ensure it was as difficult as possible to figure out what Mueller's team was doing as the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held a secret and mysterious argument about a grand jury subpoena challenge. An entire floor of the courthouse was closed to the public and press for more than an hour. During that time, attorneys...

President Trump on Monday ordered the declassification of several key documents related to the FBI's probe of Russian actions during the 2016 presidential election, including 21 pages of an application for a renewed surveillance warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page, and text messages from disgraced FBI figures Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump had ordered the documents released "[a]t the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency." The documents to be declassified also include 12 FBI reports on interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and...

A multi-million kroner money laundering case at Danske Bank’s Estonian branch could be investigated by US authorities. The Justice Department, Treasury Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are each examining Danske Bank over the allegations of money laundering flows, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The investigations are the result of a complaint made by a confidential whistleblower to US authorities more than two years ago, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by the WSJ, the newspaper writes. In early August, the Danish state prosecutor’s office for serious economic and international crime...

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation that he claimed would be damaging to Democrats if they decide to investigate him when they take control of the House next year. Trump's comments, made in an interview with The New York Post, come two months after he walked back his original plans to declassify and publicly release the documents as a result of concerns from U.S. allies and his own Justice Department. “If they want to play tough, I will do it,” Trump told the Post. “They will see how devastating those pages are.” He...

Laura Ingraham just reported this with her interview with Jim Jordan

Rep. Mark Walker's (R-N.C.) office said this week that it reported Twitter messages from a supporter of his Democratic opponent to Capitol Police to investigate. Staff for Walker, the chairman of the powerful Republican Study Committee, said they asked for Capitol Police to investigate after the North Carolina Republican’s campaign received continuous threatening messages from a supporter of his Democratic opponent. The person behind the tweets – which included the "bomb" emoji and an attempt to track down information about the congressman’s daughter’s school and whether it was public or private – was identified as Andrew Cabaccang, a Montana-based man...

"Sixteen years ago, a colleague of mine on the staff of Senator Hatch discovered that Democrat staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee had negligently placed their documents on our shared server without protections. I admit that we exploited this to learn simple things about their plans to attack Bush judicial nominees at the behest of the left wing interest groups. I also did pursuant to my duty under the Code of Ethics for Government Service. The documents also revealed unlawful and unethical conduct by Senators. I reported this unethical conduct to the Senate Ethics Committee but never heard back. Among...

Amnesty International is calling on senators to to halt the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over his "possible involvement" in human rights violations after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The human rights organization wrote in a Monday letter that Kavanaugh might have been involved "in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11." "More information must be made public to determine Kavanaugh’s role in relation to such practices," the organization wrote.

Yesterday I wrote about an anonymous allegation about Brett Kavanaugh which had been sent to Sen. Cory Gardner last week. The brief letter (which you can see here) claimed that back in 1998, Brett Kavanaugh shoved a woman he was dating at the time up against a wall in an “aggressive and sexual” manner after leaving a bar in Washington, DC. Last night, a federal judge named Dabney Friedrich responded to a request from a lawyer for the Judiciary Committee saying she dated Kavanaugh in 1998 but that no such incident ever happened. From National Journal:

Former Justice Department inspector general and federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich and his consulting firm have joined the legal team supporting Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford. Bromwich tweeted Saturday that he was “honored to be joining” Blasey’s attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Blanks as she prepares testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. Bromwich, who helped investigate the Iran-Contra scandal for the federal Office of Independent Counsel, is also representing former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. McCabe, a frequent target of President Donald Trump, was fired...

The Deep State is in an obvious panic mode since President Donald Trump ordered a number of documents relating to the Russia investigation be declassified. Joining the loud choir of those who are pushing for insubordination against the president is former CIA Director John Brennan. Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday, Brennan urged people in the intelligence community to ignore the president’s order. The former CIA head was stripped of his security clearance by Trump in August for his bizarre behavior.

When President Obama embraced “Medicare for All” earlier this month, it was a remarkable moment. Not because the proposal will be adopted (it won’t) or because the price tag would bankrupt the nation (it would). Rather, it was a remarkable moment because a former American president played the role of enabler for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Indeed, Obama’s endorsement was a moment of great celebration for an organization that for years has plotted to hijack the Democratic Party and use it as a parasitic host to remake the nation. Here’s how. Back in 2012, the Vice Chairman of...

United States GAO (Government Accountability Office) Auditor Pushes Socialist Agenda During Work Hours: “No one knows I spent six hours yesterday doing social media for DSA.” (Democratic Socialists of America) Resistance Against Administration’s Agenda: “If you’re in an Executive Branch agency, you can slow ball things to a degree… maybe you get fired or resign or whatever, but you slowed [Trump’s agenda] down.” On His DSA Membership: “…it’s a socialist organization and we want to destroy capitalists.” “We have a bunch of just like communists, like no prefix, and that’s basically me.” GAO Auditor: “Do I care more about having...

Showdown? In letter, Pelosi/Schumer/Schiff/Warner order intel agencies to ignore presidential order on declassification until consulting with Congres

Lindsey Graham: If Ford Had No Intention Of Coming Forward, Why’d She Take A Polygraph In Early August?(FULL TITLE) ’ve written half a dozen posts about the WaPo story since Sunday and feel embarrassed that I missed this simple but salient point. My focus has been on the fact that Christine Blasey Ford approached Democrats — and the Post itself — back in July with her story, then clammed up all the way through Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. Only at the eleventh hour, after the letter she sent to Dianne Feinstein mysteriously leaked last week, did she decide to enter the...

The New York City mayor's office says 10 people hospitalized after a large commercial jet arrived from Dubai have tested positive for influenza. Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips tweeted on Thursday that some tests came back inconclusive on other viruses and will be re-administered. All 10 patients will be kept in the hospital as a precaution until the final results come in. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantined the double-decker Emirates aircraft holding 520 passengers Wednesday so it could evaluate about 100 of them. Some had complained about coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers.