Free Republic

Show availability of Iran for al Qaeda training, plotting. This week, prosecutors in New York introduced eight documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan as evidence in the trial of a terrorism suspect. The U.S. government accuses Abid Naseer of taking part in al Qaeda’s scheme to attack targets in Europe and New York City. The files do not support the view, promoted by some in the Obama administration, that bin Laden was in “comfortable retirement,” “sidelined,” or “a lion in winter” in the months leading up to his death. Some of the key revelations in the newly-released...

He's tanned. He's rested. He's ready. Al Gore 2016! Wha-what? It's the premise of Salon blogger Sean Illing which reflects a growing realization among the left that Hillary Clinton is a fatally flawed candidate. Okay, fine, but is Al Gore really the best alternative they can come up with? Illing makes the case for Gore but leaves out a few fatal flaws about Mr. Global Warming.  First let us watch Illing bemoan the candidacy of Hillary and why Bernie Sanders does not fit the bill as a replacement:

Al Jazeera’s digital media platform AJ+ posted a Fourth of July-themed video mocking Americans as fat, cheese-eating, gun-toting, pill-popping, racist porn watchers. While some on social media applauded the creation, others slammed the Qatar-owned network for using the holiday “to dump” on America. Social media users got particularly riled up by the criticism coming from the channel owned by Qatar — a country where stoning is a legal punishment under Shariah law, women have second class legal status, writers can be imprisoned for criticizing the emir and abuse of foreign laborers has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups. The...

Hamas helped the ISIS-affiliated group in Sinai to carry out the latest attacks against Egyptian troops and supplied them with weapons and other support, an Israeli general told Al-Jazeera on Thursday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered condolences over the attacks that claimed the lives of dozens of people. Israel has "clear information that Hamas is supporting the Wilayat Sinai, which belongs to Daesh," Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, claimed, referring to the Islamic State group in one of its acronyms. He added that Hamas provided the Islamist group weapons and logistical support,...

As our own Rick Moran reported yesterday, liberal media have used a new study by the New America Foundation to pretend that white Americans pose a bigger threat to national security than Muslim radicals. Rick explains that this conclusion can’t be drawn from the report at all: it’s only possible to say so when one ignores the failed terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. If those are included, Islamists are far more dangerous than “white Americans.” However, that didn’t stop Mediaite from publishing an article blasting white Americans (as I wrote two days ago, white self-hate is now officially politically correct)....

Jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour arrived back in Qatar on Tuesday, blaming his controversial two-day detention in Germany on pressure from the Egyptian government. […] Speaking to reporters in Arabic, Mansour said: “There are lobbies that promote Sisi in the world and play the role of public relations. They put pressure on the German government, because the Egyptian government is rubbish and has no value.” He added that his arrest had been “political”. “From the first second, I knew I was innocent; I did not do anything wrong or hurt anyone. Everything for me was clear; I was strong all...

The Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera America were undone by their own hubris. There’s a lesson there, but Qatar’s arrogant rulers aren’t likely to learn it. When Al Jazeera America was announced, the Qatari propaganda network was riding high. Once known as a dump for Al Qaeda videos, the Arab Spring had allowed the House of Thani to project its power across the region, toppling governments and replacing them with its Muslim Brotherhood allies. Qatar had been notorious for its ties to Al Qaeda, but those connections had done little for the oil-rich oligarchy. The Muslim Brotherhood however handed Egypt...

In the last week of May, the Qatar-based Arabic news network Al-Jazeera polled its Arabic-language audience on the question: “Do you support the victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in your region?” The results were shocking. Of the 56,881 Arabic-speaking respondents, a whopping 81% voted yes. The results of this online survey may not be scientific. But they do provide anecdotal evidence of what many see as a rise in the support of Islamism in the Arab Middle East, among Muslims in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, and in the diaspora in Britain and France. On Monday, a...

The former head of Al Jazeera America's documentary unit announced a lawsuit against her former employer on Thursday, charging the American branch of the Qatar-based news network with a vitriolic bias against Israel, as well as discrimination against non-Arabs and women. Shannon High-Bassalik, who formerly worked with CNN, NBC and MSNBC, sued the company for discrimination after being fired in February only half way through her three-year contract, reports The Guardian. She charged the company with showing a blatant pro-Arab bias both in terms of employment and news coverage, with the most intense bias coming out against Israel. High-Bassalik said...

To achieve success, Al Nusrah will have to continue to fend off multiple adversaries, including the Islamic State. Much of the second part of Al Jazeera’s interview was spent discussing Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization. Mansur gave Julani ample room to explore the differences between the two sides. In so doing, Julani said that scholars they trust have deemed the Islamic State to be “kharijite,” that is, similar to an early sect of Islamic extremists. Julani accuses the Islamic State of killing 700 members of Al Nusrah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor alone. And, he argues, while the...

About 1,000 Israeli Ethiopian Jews have held a rally in Tel Aviv to protest against institutional racism in Israeli society. Monday night's march passed without incident under the watch of dozens of security officers, a police spokesman said. Demonstrators chanted slogans demanding "social justice" and "the arrest of racist police". Ethiopian Jews in Israel have staged several rallies against alleged police brutality and racism in recent weeks, and some gatherings have turned violent as they clashed with security forces. Earlier this month, a video of two police officers beating a black Israeli soldier sparked a massive protest by Ethiopian Jews,...

Al Jazeera Arabic’s television audience is largely made up of Sunni Muslims living in the Arab world. Its biggest viewership numbers come from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, along with a large amount of satellite television viewers in the United States, according to research estimates. AlJazeera.net is most popular in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Egypt, Morocco, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Alexa webpage analytics site. Al Jazeera claims that it has over 40 million viewers in the Arab world. The news that an overwhelming majority of respondents to the Al Jazeera Arabic poll strongly support ISIS may not...

A number of Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination have now formally declared or are poised to announce very soon. Here’s my assessment where each stands right now and how I see their strengths, weaknesses and prospects – at least at this moment. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush – his family has a record of winning elections and he has won perhaps the most important swing state twice. He has name recognition, money, clear leadership capacity, and the demeanor to be President. He also will raise a staggering amount of money. Given the GOP tradition of ultimately nominating the...

audi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has sacked his younger half-brother as crown prince and appointed his nephew, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, as the new heir apparent, state television said. Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall, reporting from Jizan in the country's south, said the reshuffle was announced by royal decree via state television early on Wednesday. SNIP-- Political earthquake' Khalil Jahshan, the executive director for the Arab Centre of Washington from Fairfax, Virginia, said that the reshuffle constitutes a "political earthquake of the greatest magnitude". "The Saudi Arabia we knew a few hours ago is no longer," Jahshan told Al...

The TV network Al-Jazeera was off the air in India on Thursday following a 5-day suspension ordered by the government over maps of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. India is deeply sensitive about how Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both, is portrayed on maps. A government report said that in the Al-Jazeera maps a portion of Kashmir had “not been shown as a part of Indian territory.” The suspension began Wednesday and is to last until next Monday. …

According to a report by al-Jazeera, several American generals are skeptical that Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen will succeed.  A “senior commander at CENTCOM” claimed the Saudis did not keep the operation secret from American authorities because they feared the Obama Administration inform Iran, but rather because the Saudis feared the Pentagon would dismiss their battle plan as a “bad idea” and try to talk them out of it. “Military sources said that a number of regional special forces officers and officers at U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) argued strenuously against supporting the Saudi-led intervention because the target of the intervention, the Shia...

What do you get when you combine Al Gore’s low performing lefty MSNBC alternative news channel with an oil state that sponsors terrorism? The answer is a cable news channel that even fewer people watch.Struggling Al Jazeera America is cutting jobs and replacing most of its daytime lineup with an overseas news feed in its latest reshuffling. The cable outfit told staff on Friday it’s canceling both its morning news report and “Consider This with Antonio Mora” at 11 a.m. It’s also scrapping its 4 p.m. news hour and pushing its 6 p.m. coverage an hour later to 7...

The foreign nationals aged 70, 54 and 36 — who work for the Doha-based international broadcaster — were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon after police spotted a drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris, said Paris prosecutors' spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre. She said is was unclear what the trio were trying to accomplish. "Three Al-Jazeera English journalists have been held by police in Paris while filming a report on the city's recent mystery drones," the network said in a comment from its base in Qatar. "We will comment further when more information is available."

The journalists -- all foreign nationals -- were taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon after police saw a drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris, Paris prosecutors’ spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said. It was unclear what the trio was trying to accomplish, she said. Officials with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The journalists can be held for a maximum of 24 hours under French law. Flying drones without a license in France is illegal and carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a 75,000 euro fine. Wednesday’s incident comes on the...

Drones have been seen flying over several sensitive landmarks in Paris in a night-time mystery that French police say is being taken seriously. At least five of the unmanned aerial machines were spotted between midnight on Monday and 0600 on Tuesday, and none of the operators has been caught. The first appeared over the US embassy and there were later sightings near the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde. French police believe the drone flights could be linked. Small drones are easy to buy but their appearance in recent months over sensitive locations has worried French authorities.