Free Republic

At least 90 Iraqi soldiers have lost their lives when fighter jets from the United States Air Force (USAF) mistakenly struck their position in Mosul as government forces and allied fighters are trying to flush Daesh terrorists out of the strategic northern city. An Iraqi army source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Saturday that the airstrike had targeted soldiers from the 9th Armored Division of the Iraqi army the previous day, destroying eight infantry fighting vehicles as well as four Humvee military trucks. Some 100 soldiers were also wounded as...

US MILITARY chiefs have hoarded masses of military gear in underground Norwegian caves to ward off Vladimir Putin, it is claimed. The US has already announced the deployment of 300 Marines to the Scandinavian country that shares a 120-mile border with Russia. The US military is understood to be hoarding equipment in Norwegian storage centres in the event war breaks out with Russia. The method is similar to the ones used by Nato powers during the Cold War. It comes amid deteriorating relations between Moscow and the US over the former's role supporting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in the country's...

READOUT OF DONALD J. TRUMP'S MEETING WITH ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU NEW YORK, NY - Donald J. Trump met privately today with Prime Minister Netanyahu for over an hour at Mr. Trump's residence in Trump Tower. The two have known each other for many years and had the opportunity to discuss many topics important to both countries. Mr. Trump and the Prime Minister discussed the special relationship between America and Israel and the unbreakable bond between the two countries. The topics of military assistance, security and regional stability were addressed. Mr. Trump agreed that the military assistance provided to...

With friends like Saudi Arabia, who needs enemies? Last week we learned that the Saudi government almost certainly played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attack and that our government kept that secret from the public for about fourteen years. A brief history of the coverup is in order here. In 2002, a joint congressional committee investigated the intelligence failures that led to the attack. That committee found suspicious clues that pointed toward Saudi Arabia--an official "ally" of the United States known for exporting radical Wahhabi Islam across the world. In a 28-page summary, the committee detailed the connections between...

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager is alleging that Russian hackers are leaking Democratic National Committee emails critical of Bernie Sanders in an effort to help Donald Trump win the election in November. It comes on the heels of "changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian," Robby Mook told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday. "I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here, and I think that's disturbing," he said. The DNC has previously had its files hacked by an individual named "Guccifer 2.0" that may have...

Donald Trump has long suggested that he takes a skeptical view of the United States' alliances. However, in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday evening, the Republican presidential nominee went further than before, appearing to suggest that the United States should not be required to automatically defend NATO allies if they are attacked. Trump specifically pointed to the Baltic states that sit near Russia's borders and often complain of belligerence from Moscow. He said they would be helped only if they had "fulfilled their obligations to us." For some in those in the Baltic states — Estonia,...

Now will we grasp that the United States is not our friend, but a foreign country whose interests are often different from ours? President Obama's blatant intervention in our internal affairs is not a sudden breach of a soppy 'special relationship'. The USA's only real special relationship is with Saudi Arabia, a 70-year old hard pact of oil, money and power, welded together with such cynicism it out to make up gasp. Barack Obama's open desire for us to stay inside the EU is by no means the first or worst example of White House meddling here in these islands....

Join the club, friends. If you can think back this far, the U.S. populace was down on George W. Bush this time eight years ago in part because he supposedly had alienated our allies by being a go-it-alone cowboy. The remedy for this was to elect the cool guy who gave speeches about how we all have to listen to each other and all that sort of thing. We did find out, did we not, that there is a huge difference between saying something in a speech and actually doing it? Today America’s allies would surely love to have Bush...

Turkey often appeals to the West for support, given its longtime membership in NATO. Now, Turkish leadership is in a shouting match with Russia's provocative president, Vladimir Putin, over Turkey's downing of a Russian jet in probable Turkish airspace. Each country has accused the other of helping terrorists in Syria. The problem with Turkey and the West, however, is that their relationship is decades out of date. What was once an alliance is now nothing special at all. Barack Obama used to lecture reluctant Europeans about why they should accept Turkey into the European Union as its first Islamic...

Iraqi parliament approves Russian air strikes against ISIL October 26, 2015, Monday/ 17:34:04/ TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH REUTERS / ISTANBUL After weeks of political wrangling, the Iraqi parliament finally agreed to allow Russia to launch air strikes against the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, paving the way for the involvement of a powerful new combatant in an already complex battleground in a move that will likely incense the US. Russia now has official permission to strike ISIL in Iraq, following the launch of an air campaign to degrade and defeat the militant group in Syria...

Obama Plans Takedown of Another U.S. Ally Cliff Kincaid President Obama failed to take out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but now he’s going after Canada’s Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a big supporter of Israel and opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s a story the U.S. media won’t cover. But Judi McLeod of the Canada Free Press has been documenting how Obama is planning the “fundamental transformation” of Canada by taking down Harper’s government and bringing to power a progressive majority assembled from Canada’s Liberal Party and New Democratic Party (NDP), an affiliate of the Socialist International....

Turkish police on Friday detained the editor of a leading English-language daily newspaper on suspicion of "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a series of tweets. Today's Zaman editor-in-chief Bulent Kenes was detained at the newspaper's offices by plainclothes police who raided the building late in the evening and took him away in a car, the daily said. Samanyolu, a television channel close to the newspaper aired live coverage of his departure in police custody. Hundreds of staff members could be seen crowding round Kenes in solidarity as the police took him away to Istanbul's main Caglayan courthouse. Clutching placards...

Of all of the curiosities this presidential campaign has produced so far, add to the list a joint-candidate rally featuring two of the most polarizing candidates in the GOP. On Thursday, Ted Cruz announced that Donald Trump would join him at the Capitol next month to protest lawmakers supporting the Iranian nuclear deal. “Glad @realdonaldtrump accepted my invitation to rally in DC to stop the catastrophic #IranDeal,” Cruz tweeted from his campaign account. It was the surest sign yet that Cruz's apparent strategy of wooing the controversial candidate — and positioning himself to win over Trump supporters if (or when)...

In the southern city of Aden, more than 150 airstrikes hit the city's airport, witnesses and security officials said. Houthi rebels and their allies are locked in fierce fighting there against forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Monday's airstrikes also hit airports in the city of Hodeida and the capital, Sanaa, witnesses and officials said. They said other airstrikes targeted Yemen's eastern province of Marib and the Houthi stronghold of Saada. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to talk to journalists. Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity over fear of reprisals. Iranian-allied...

Since the conclusion of the final round of nuclear negotiations, Iran has been engaging in conspicuous displays of aggression. The U.S. Navy revealed on Tuesday that four Iranian Revolutionary Guards ships intercepted a Maersk cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz that was flying a U.S. flag. The episode happened last week and ended without incident, but it was only revealed to the press after Iranian naval vessels performed a similar act of belligerence on Tuesday. Yesterday, another Maersk container ship, the Tigris, was intercepted by Iranian vessels in international waters, according to the firm. Iranian ships fired over...

Washington believes that the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US is over, according to a secret briefing document seen by The Mail on Sunday. The memo for members of Congress states damningly that ‘the UK may not be viewed as centrally relevant to the United States in all of the issues and relations considered a priority on the US agenda’. Dated April 2015 and drawn up to brief the Senate and House of Representatives on the impact of Britain’s General Election, the memo also warns that the UK faces turmoil if there is a hung parliament. The document –...

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The United States plans to continue its efforts to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran, but will not allow Tehran to run amok and do as it pleases, said Secretary of State John Kerry. If needed, the US will respond forcefully to Iranian efforts to destabilize the Middle East, Kerry said in an interview. "Iran needs to recognize that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilized or while people engage in overt warfare across lines - international boundaries - in other countries,” Kerry told PBS in an interview Wednesday. The US is “well...

Here’s a puzzler for you: we all know the next week will feature a competition among the 35 or 52 or however many Republicans are considering a 2016 presidential run as to who can say the most irresponsible things about the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran that just got a big step closer to reality yesterday. But how are they going to outdo Scott Walker’s pledge, initially made last week and then repeated like a terroristic threat, that he’d blow up any such deal on his first day as president? I mean, I guess someone could say they’d shout insults...

In a shocking accusation, French diplomats told Foreign Policy that they believe the Obama administration plans to replace Saudi Arabia with Iran as the central U.S. ally in the Middle East. (VIDEO: Reporter Grills State Department: Is United States Now A ‘Functional Ally Of Iran?’) “Numerous French diplomats suspect that the United States… is on the verge of profoundly reshaping of [sic] its traditional alliance system in the Middle East,” reporters Joseph Bahout and Benjamin Haddad write, ”moving [to] a system where Iran replaces Saudi Arabia as the central pillar of regional stability.” “The nuclear talks, French diplomats suspect, are...