Free Republic

President-elect of France's umbrella of Jewish communities warns of alarming anti-Semitism, vows to fight hard. French Jews are experiencing the most difficult situation they have encountered since the end of World War II, the newly-elected president of France's umbrella of Jewish communities said. Francis Kalifat, 64, said Sunday that his first priority as president of CRIF is to fight against the anti-Semitism that he said was responsible for the situation he described. "The fight against anti-Semitism is our main cause because French Jews are in the most difficult situation they have experience since World War II," Kalifat said during an...

Important questions linger about what went down in Paris If the November attacks on Paris have the fingerprints of a foreign intelligence service on them, mimicking the DRS relationship with GIA, where dimwitted jihadists don’t realize they are being set up, the list of potential suspects presents itself at once. It’s long been understood by Western security services that ISIS and the Syrian regime are partners as well as enemies. Both seek to crush moderates, to make the struggle for Syria binary: Regime versus ISIS. Assad’s secret police, the cold-blooded mukhabarat, have penetrated Islamist groups with their agents for decades,...

"Thus saith the LORD: I return unto Tzion and will dwell in the midst of Yerushalayim; and Yerushalayim shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain." Zechariah 8:3 (The Israel BibleTM) On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Executive Board in Paris adopted a resolution erasing Israel's ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Al-Haram Al Sharif, ignoring the Jewish claim to the site. The resolution called Israel "the...

ROME — Police in southern Italy have arrested an Algerian man wanted by Belgian authorities for alleged involvement in a Belgium-based network which provided false IDs used by people implicated in the Paris and Brussels attacks, investigators said Sunday. Djamal Eddine Ouali was arrested Saturday in the town of Bellizzi, outside of the port city of Salerno, said Luigi Amato, the head of Salerno police’s anti-terrorism squad. Ouali apparently “didn’t know he was wanted” by Belgian authorities and applied for a residency permit about 10 days ago in Italy, Amato said in a telephone interview. Ouali, 40, was jailed while...

Algeria may receive two Russian Project 636E (NATO reporting name: Improved Kilo) diesel-electric submarines (SSK) in 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute`s (SIPRI) arms transfer database. The contract between Russia and Algeria for two Project 636E SSKs is supposed to have been signed in 2014. According to SIPRI, the delivery of the submarines is scheduled for 2018. SIPRI also mentions the contract for supply of two Project 20382 'Tigr' corvettes to Algerian Navy, which was probably signed in 2011. As the specialists of the institute pointed out, the delivery of both ships is scheduled for 2017. Algerian...

Prosecutors have said that Islamists arrested in Berlin and western Germany on Thursday may have been planning an attack on the capital. [...] There are conflicting reports in the media about what the exact target of the attack was, with tabloid Bild citing investigators who say it was Alexanderplatz, the iconic center of the former east of the capital. Berlin daily Tagesspiegel meanwhile, says popular tourist spot Checkpoint Charlie - once the most famous crossing in the Berlin Wall - was to be hit, citing security sources. [...] Security sources told DPA the group's ringleader was a 35-year-old Algerian arrested...

... Germany's Maghreb community has come under a harsh spotlight after hundreds of women were groped and robbed by mainly North African suspects on New Year's Eve outside Cologne's main train station. Only one suspect -- an Algerian asylum seeker -- has been arrested so far over the sex crimes and 25 Moroccans and Algerians count among the 30 suspects under investigation, police said. [...] Even before the full scale of the Cologne rampage emerged, Berlin had already been watching with concern at a sudden jump in the number of Moroccan and Algerian asylum seekers in December. ...

President Barack Obama resolved earlier this month, much to the surprise of Washington insiders, to open a third anti-terror front in Libya to eradicate the Islamic Front’s tightening grip on the country. This top-secret decision was first revealed by DEBKA Weekly 692 on Jan. 1. --snip-- At the peak of the assault, large-scale US, British and French marines will land on shore for an operation first billed as the largest allied war landing since the 1952 Korean War. The attachment of Russian forces was negotiated later. According to this scenario, one group will be dropped ashore from the Gulf of...

Germany wants Algeria and Morocco to take back their nationals with no residence permits in Germany after a sharp rise in asylum seekers from the two North African countries, officials said Friday. Alarmed by the spike in North African arrivals, German authorities want their countries of origin to help in their swift repatriations, in order to free up resources to deal with asylum seekers fleeing war and violence. But the German authorities have in recent weeks flagged problems in expelling Algerians and Moroccans, saying their countries of origin were often unwilling to take them back because of missing identity documents....

Russia is on the verge of securing its first export order for the Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback bomber. Algeria is likely to become the first of many new customers for the new long-range strike aircraft. Moscow has powerful long-range interdiction aircraft used to great effect during its air campaign Syria. Russia’s intervention in Syria has served not only remind many in the West that Moscow remains a force to be reckoned with, but also that in many respects, Russia has made many technological strides in the years since the demise of the Soviet Union. Impressed by the Su-34 Fullback’s performance over...

When it comes to selling copy, it’s a good bet that sex trumps multilateral finance. That’s an axiom of human nature. It would be asking too much to expect that the media, or its customers, would be as fascinated by the in-house diplomacy of the International Monetary Fund as all concerned have been by the scandal surrounding the recently handcuffed and dethroned IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Most eyes are now on the prosecutor’s cratering case, the curious past of the maid who alleged the sexual assault, and the media now analyzing its own coverage of these sordid events. But...

We will soon know around 2pm Eastern (8pm in France) who the winners and losers were in the regional government elections. The National Front is hoping for a breakthrough in northern France led by Marine Le Pen and in the southeast of France led by Marion Marechal Le Pen. The media and political elites in France have pulled out the stops to attack the FN and put it in a negative light. Marine Le Pen has been subjected to hostile coverage as part of the media backlash against Donald Trump with attempts to trash Trump's immigration proposals and accuse Le...

An Algerian 'refugee' staying in a German asylum centre has reportedly been arrested in relation to the Paris terror attacks. If confirmed, he would be the third terrorist implicated in the mass murder to have taken advantage of Europe's open borders by masquerading as a refugee. The man has been detained in the town of Arnsberg in western Germany. The investigation is centred on claims that he told several Syrian migrants in the accommodation that fear and terror would be spread in the French capital in the days before the Paris terror attacks, which left 129 people dead. He also...

The 50 per cent fall in oil prices over the last year is beginning to have a serious impact across the world. Rig rates are down in the US and production of tight oil produced through fracking is beginning to fall. Corporate profits and share prices are down. The private sector generally, however, is remarkably resilient. Costs can be cut, new projects postponed and if things get worse dividends can be reduced. By contrast many of the countries that have come to depend on high prices have little room for adjustment. A few, like Saudi Arabia, still hold vast cash...

When Venezuelan Oil Minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso resigned in 1963, he blasted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, at the time torn by internal rivalries, for failing to produce any benefits for his country. Half a century later, OPEC is still split and Venezuela is again unhappy, this time at the unwillingness of the organization’s top producer, Saudi Arabia, to rescue oil prices from a six-year low that’s dragging the battered Venezuelan economy into an even deeper crisis. On Sept. 10, Venezuela’s oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, tweeted appeals for OPEC and non-OPEC countries “to have a discussion on...

Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport is executing a follow-on contract from Algeria for 14 more Sukhoi Su-30MKA multirole fighters. Meanwhile, according to media reports in Moscow, Iran is negotiating a deal that would see Su-30MK production in the country under license. Sergei Chemezov, general director of Rostec corporation, which controls Rosoboronexport, revealed the latest Algerian order during his visit to the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant (IAZ) on September 11. He said that the contract was signed in April, and that the airplanes are already being built. This will be the fourth Su-30MK batch for Algeria, and bring the grand total to 56...

A lot of people, including several OPEC members, thought the oil slump would be easing by now. Instead, as oil prices languish near multi-year lows and experience unprecedented volatility, it’s now unclear how long it will take oil prices to recover. Indeed, OPEC now appears poised to wait out the period of low prices even if that takes months or even a couple of years. The fact of the matter is that despite the calls of Venezuela and Algeria, Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC members don’t seem too concerned about the current low prices. Venezuela in particular has been...

Sergio Frau suspects Plato was writing about a tidal wave on Sardinia... Writer and journalist Sergio Frau is another. After researching the island for a decade, Frau suspects a mysterious disaster that devastated Sardinia 3,200 years ago was in fact a tidal wave, which boosts the theory that Sardinia and Atlantis are one and the same, reports the Guardian. Stefano Tinti, an expert on tidal waves who recently visited the island with Frau along with a dozen other experts, says 350 tidal waves have occurred in the Mediterranean over the last 2,500 years and one might explain why all of...

Intelligence officials are comparing a newly discovered secret Islamic State document to Hitler's "Mein Kampf," as it blames Israel for the rise of the Islamic State and crowns U.S. President Barack Obama as the "Mule of the Jews." Found in Pakistan's remote tribal region by American Media Institute (AMI), the 32-page Urdu language document promotes an "end of the world" battle as a final solution. It argues that the Islamic leader should be recognized as the sole ruler of the world's 1 billion Muslims, under a religious empire called a "caliphate." ...Retired U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Flynn...

According to pictures taken by Chinese spotters, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a wholly owned subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC, the largest shipbuilding group in China) started sea trials of the first C28A Corvette on order for the Algerian Navy. Algeria signed a contract with China Shipbuilding Trading Co (CSTC) for construction of three C28A corvettes in March 2012. Chinese spotters took pictures showing the first of three future Algerian Navy C28A Corvette (hull number 920) sailing out of Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard near Shanghai under her own power for builder trials in the East China Sea. CSTC representatives at DSA 2014 explained...