Free Republic

An American arrested over the assassination of Haiti's president worked with Sean Penn after the star set up a charity to help rebuild the island after its devastating 2020 earthquake, it emerged Saturday. James Solages, 35, worked as a driver and bodyguard for the relief organization set up to respond to the aftermath of the magnitude 7.0 quake that killed 300,000 Haitians and left tens of thousands homeless. It is not known if they ever worked directly together. In an online profile Solages also lists as past employers the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, while his Facebook page - which was...

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, declared on Sunday that “we can fix” the ongoing political turmoil and rampant gang violence in Haiti, equating the images of brutality from the island nation to the state of affairs in his home country before implementing a law enforcement crackdown in 2022. Bukele did not specify who the “we” in his sentence was — whether he meant the government of El Salvador or the international community in general. He later commented that “experts” had declared similar violence in El Salvador “intrinsic” to the country, and the eradication of organized criminal violence from...

Greek police say they have arrested a 65-year-old Lebanese man on the island of Mykonos over the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 in which a US Navy officer was killed. The suspect, named by Lebanon's foreign ministry as Mohammad Saleh, was stopped on Thursday during a routine security check when his description matched those on a German warrant for his arrest, Greek police told CNN. He was also wanted by German authorities for a kidnapping in 1987... Hijackers seized control of the Boeing 727 aircraft shortly after it took off from Athens, en route to Rome, on June...

For the first time ever, significant light is being shed on one of the most horrendous human rights atrocities of the second half of the 20th century. In 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners were senselessly massacred by Iranian officials. More than 30 years later, one of the people who participated in the massacre, Hamid Noury, is on trial in Sweden. The Noury trial should spark more media and public scrutiny about the 1988 massacre, and ultimately trigger a long overdue international investigation. Hamid Noury has been incarcerated in Sweden since November 2019 when he visited the country for personal...

<p>MERCURY, Nev. (AP) — Authorities shot and killed a man who entered a secured federal site north of Las Vegas where the government used to test nuclear bombs.</p> <p>A spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration says the man failed to stop at the security gate on Monday at the Nevada National Security Site. Darwin Morgan says the man drove for about 8 miles before he parked, got out of his car and approached security officials.</p>

Vienna (AFP) - The UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran's stock of heavy water for reactors has surpassed the limit set under its agreement with world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that Iran's heavy water production plant was in operation and that its stock of heavy water reserves was 131.5 tonnes, above the 130-tonne limit. In Vienna, an IAEA spokesperson said: "On 17 November, the Agency verified that the Heavy Water Production Plant (HWPP) was in operation and that Iran’s stock of heavy water was 131.5 metric tonnes." Heavy water is not itself radioactive...

Vance Boelter’s videos surface One video on Facebook shows Boelter participating as a keynote speaker in his capacity as CEO of Red Lion Group for the seminar in 2022. He conducted the call from Moanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and spoke of the Red Lion Group’s ventures in the African nation. On LinkedIn, he lists himself as the CEO of the Red Lion Group, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “This all started back in 2019, when my partner, McNay Nkashama, brought in the ambassador from the DRC to Minnesota, and we had meetings, the bulk of them...

I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Wait… you still need a hint? It rhymes with “rump.” Yes, Virginia Senator (and failed Vice Presidential candidate) Tim Kaine sat down yesterday with CNN’s John Berman to talk about the recent attack on a major Saudi Arabian oil refinery. Given all of the finger-pointing that’s been going on, surely he would be able to shed some light on things and offer a bit of clarity, right? Of course. And he quickly did, pinning the blame on Donald Trump for creating an atmosphere of war by continually “provoking” Iran...

WKYT reported: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents from the Chicago Field Office intercepted a parcel in Louisville that contained hundreds of fake driver’s licenses. A tweet by the CPB Chicago states the fraudulent ID’s were found at the Louisville mail facility. In all, the package contained 238 fake driver’s licenses and 536 black card stocks.

Genocidal Islamic Fascist Republic of Iran - threatening annihilation at least since 1991.COLUMN ONE: Hezbollah: The Latin Connection : Bombings in Argentina and Panama prompt concern over the radical group's growing presence in the region. Experts say lax security and porous borders create a prime base for terrorists, by Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, August 04, 1994. The embassy's cultural affairs officer, Imam Mohsen Rabbani, rose. "Israel," he intoned in accented Spanish, "must disappear from the face of the Earth." He and a dozen speakers who followed quoted Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and called for unity...

Ebola may soon be a "preventable and treatable" disease after a trial of two drugs showed significantly improved survival rates, scientists have said. Four drugs were trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is a major outbreak of the virus. More than 90% of infected people can survive if treated early with the most effective drugs, the research showed. The drugs will now be used to treat all patients with the disease in DR Congo, according to health officials. On Tuesday, two people cured of Ebola using the experimental drugs were released from a treatment centre...

Army spokesman General Leon Kasonga announced the large-scale offensive on Thursday in the Beni region, an early epicentre of the more than yearlong Ebola outbreak. The offensive primarily targets Allied Democratic Forces rebels who have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces over the past few years and recruited children. Attacks have hampered Ebola containment efforts. The northeast region borders Uganda and Rwanda. The DRC's military offensive comes days after a meeting of regional military leaders on how to rid eastern DRC of rebel groups. But the DRC's army is making clear that it is carrying out this new offensive...

Vance Luther Boelter is accused of killing Hortman and her husband and seriously wounding Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Both Hoffman and his wife have had surgery and are expected to recover. Boelter reportedly impersonated a police officer when he attacked Hoffman and his wife at their home in Champlin, leaving them critically injured before proceeding to Hortman’s residence. According to records, Governor Walz appointed Boelter in 2019 to serve a four-year term on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board. During Governor Mark Dayton's administration, he was a member of the Governor’s Workforce Development Council in 2016. Authorities...

Lawmakers from both parties have called for John Lausch to keep his job President Joe Biden is forcing Chicago's top federal prosecutor to resign amid ongoing criminal probes of powerful Illinois Democrats and their associates. U.S. attorney John Lausch is prosecuting close confidants of Democrat boss Mike Madigan, an ally of former president Barack Obama who resigned from the state legislature Thursday after a decades-long reign in Springfield. Lausch's office will also prosecute Chicago alderman Edward Burke (D.), an influential figure accused of strong-arming businesses into retaining his law firm. Lausch's abrupt removal has drawn bipartisan criticism from Illinois lawmakers...

The attorney representing Mohamed Sabry Soliman — the terrorist charged with firebombing a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado — was reportedly barred from practicing law just six years earlier over what was described as “misconduct concerning an immigration matter.” The Federalist’s Sean Davis shared the story in a post on X, explaining that attorney Susanna Dvortsin had been reprimanded by the South Dakota Supreme Court and barred from practicing law in that state in 2019. “Guess who was banned from practicing law in 2019 for immigration misconduct? The attorney for the illegal immigrant family of the Egyptian terrorist who...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hiding the truth from Congress and the public, and they’ve just been caught. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday called for an investigation of the internal tools the G-men have been using to conceal their official actions from legitimate oversight. Material released by the Iowa Republican senator confirms the existence of a secretive electronic file drawer within Sentinel, the FBI’s case management system, allowing the bureau to reply, “We have no responsive documents” when a congressional committee subpoenas information locked within. The issue came to light in a recently declassified 2019...

WUSA9 reports that the Prince George Police Department announced the arrest of five suspects connected to the notorious Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) street gang after the gruesome discovery of a slain 16-year-old boy stabbed more than 100 times and lit on fire in a Virginia field on March 9th.Police told local media that the victim, Jason Chicas, was also part of the "MS-13 clique" in question. Chicas was "killed inside of a home located in the 7000 block of Varnum Street in Landover Hills, Md. in Prince George's County. Police say his remains were then driven to Stafford County." His body was discovered...

Rep. Mike Collins mocked Sen. Chris Van Hollen over his visit to El Salvador ... Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., claimed in a post on X that he altered the name plaque outside the office of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. The Republican lawmaker’s post included a photo in which the plaque outside Van Hollen’s office says that he represents El Salvador. ... Sen. Chris Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador ... "margarita-gate." ... Collins has repeatedly criticized Van Hollen for traveling to El Salvador to meet with MS-13 member and illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego-Garcia .... when...

Professional journalism groups reacted with alarm after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas released an opinion Tuesday urging the high court to reconsider a landmark freedom of the press decision called New York Times v. Sullivan. The Sullivan ruling generally shields reporters and news platforms from libel or defamation lawsuits provided they were acting in good faith. Though journalists believe that protection is essential, Justice Thomas said the high court was wrong to usurp the role of states in regulating libel. “[Sullivan] and the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law,” Thomas’s opinion reads. “We should not...

An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will make his initial court appearance tomorrow. According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to...