Free Republic

Like Birkenstocks and ironic t-shirts, blaming Bush has never gone out of style on the left. When Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Iraq became so obvious that even the media, which had been pretending that Obama’s claims about a successful withdrawal were true, could no longer ignore them, their talking points were all lined up and ready. It was all Bush’s fault.Defenses of the war by pivotal figures like Dick Cheney and Tony Blair only enraged them further. “Why wouldn’t they admit it was all their fault?”But the left’s lazy talking points about Iraq, like their talking points about the economy,...

They answered the call by the thousands, some walking miles in sweltering heat to volunteer to fight an al Qaeda splinter group barreling towards the Iraqi capital. With reports that fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the terror group also known as ISIS, was some 40 miles from the gates of Baghdad, the country's top religious and political leaders appealed for able-bodied men of fighting age to volunteer to defend the country. "Mosul, Tal Afar, Falluja, wherever, by God's will we will be ready to defend any location," said 23-year-old Ahmed, who showed up Thursday at a...

This video will tell you everything you need to know about the Islamonazis that Obama has been arming and who threaten to overturn Iraq and neighboring countries. Chilling, especially since they proudly display their European passports. DO NOT DOUBT these bastards plan on slaughtering Americans at the first opportunity. Notice the Kosovo passport the leader shows off. Thanks Clintoon. If not for you, this bastard would have been rightfully exterminated by the Serbs. Id also note how slick this propaganda video is. These guys are no cave-dwelling Taliban. They are the SPECTRE of Islam.

Many of us declared the Arab Spring dead and buried. But the Arab Spring really came in two phases. The first phase was the political destabilization of formerly stable Arab countries by liberals and Islamists. The second phase was an armed conflict by Islamists to take over entire countries. These phases overlapped in some cases and the second phase has been underway for a while already. In Libya and Syria the first phase of the Arab Spring became the second phase. When protests didn’t work, the Islamists turned to force. When elections didn’t work for them in Libya, they turned...

JERUSALEM – Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials. The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq. The Jordanian officials said all ISIS members who received U.S. training to fight in Syria were first vetted for any...

On March 25, a serious jihadist entered an Internet cafe in the northeastern Syrian town of Idlib. The hovel was all but empty. Rockets boomed in the background. He settled before a computer and accessed Skype. Then this English man named Abu Sumayyah al-Britani, who arrived in Syria one year ago and has since joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), began his interview with a radio podcast program called the “ISIS Show.”On the other end of the connection, sitting in Atlanta, was a young American journalist named Jonathan Lee Krohn. Followed on Twitter by some of the...

Forget the endless scandals that seem to come at us every other day — the latest being the Benghazi terrorists using State Department cell phones (!), a crusade of Hispanic children pouring over our Southern border in the company of cartel drug lords and, of course, the suddenly “missing” IRS emails of Lois Lerner — the Obama administration has reached levels of hitherto unknown incompetence. It is a complete and utter debacle. Hardly anyone believes in the president anymore. Last night, on the O’Reilly Factor, even Geraldo deserted him. What next? James Carville? (Well, probably, to aid in Hillary’s coming...

The jihadist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has become a powerful military force, wreaking havoc throughout Iraq. But ISIS is more powerful than just its estimated 10,000 fighters and ever-expanding weapons cache: It is also believed to control $2 billion in total assets. The Guardian reports that the group, whose actions in Iraq could derail the world economy, began its sizable cash reserves with the acquisition of oilfields in eastern Syria. From there, ISIS grew its treasury by smuggling antiquities and resources out of the embattled state. The Guardian said the details were discovered from a trove...

Abu Usama appears to be in his late 20s. With a neat ginger beard and a rifle slung over his shoulder, he addresses fellow Muslims back in Germany from his new home in northern Syria. In a 9-minute video released by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), he explains that he took his name from Osama bin Laden, because "he hit the head of injustice, and he is the one who terrorized [the West] as they terrorized us. Since they did not stop doing this, we will treat them in kind." He asks his audience: "Are you happy...

The al-Qaeda breakaway group that has captured Iraq's biggest northern city is on a recruitment drive in Saudi Arabia. The evidence showed up last month in Riyadh, where drivers woke up to find leaflets stuffed into the handles of their car doors and in their windshields. They were promoting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which has grabbed the world's attention by seizing parts of northern Iraq. The militant group is also using social media, such as Twitter and YouTube, to recruit young Saudi men. ISIL, known as Da'esh in Arabic, has "territorial ambitions and is far more...

With Baghdad’s army disintegrating and terrorists on the rampage, the son of Iraq’s president—himself a top Kurdish official—says Iraq is effectively a single country no more. American presidents and Iraqi strongmen have been trying for decades to keep the country intact. But that effort is now failing under pressure from the Islamic extremists who are taking over more and more of Iraq’s cities. “Practically speaking, the country has broken apart,” a top official in Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government told The Daily Beast. In an interview, Qubad Talabani—the Kurdish government’s incoming deputy prime minister and the son of Iraq’s president, Jalal...

The Arab Spring is over. Welcome to the Jihadi Spring. Across a huge swath of what, up until recently, had been known as Iraq and Syria, a transnational movement of Sunni Islamic extremists has taken control. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has conquered — without much effort – Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, along with most of the province of Nineveh. It also took Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. Along the way it has ransacked banks (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars), pillaged weapon stockpiles (including the stuff we left behind for the Iraqi army)...

Another day, another country left to the tender mercies of terrorists. Going by his own arbitrary, purely political deadline, this president and now only nominal Leader of the Free World has been intent on pulling American troops out of one country after another in the (always) troubled Middle East, with the result that one country after another is swallowed up by the all too familiar forces of chaos, terror, death and destruction. This week's bad news is that oil-rich Mosul in Iraq has fallen to a terrorist outfit that makes al-Qaida look moderate. So add Mosul to the cities...

Iraq crisis: the bare faced ISIS executioner who spreads terror with his open killing • Shakir Wahiyib is a feared enforcer for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham who does not cover up his face in videos of his killings In an army full of masked, black-clad figures, he is the one man who is never shy to show his face. But for those unlucky enough to cross him, the face of Shakir Wahiyib, a feared enforcer for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, is often the last they will ever see. The star of a series of...

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One of the five senior Taliban leaders transferred to Qatar in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl played a key role in al Qaeda's plans leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammad Fazl, who served as the Taliban's army chief of staff and deputy defense minister prior to his detention at Guantánamo, did not have a hand in planning the actual 9/11 hijackings. Along with a notorious al Qaeda leader, however, Fazl did help coordinate a military offensive against the enemies of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan the day before. And Osama bin Laden viewed that...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered an aircraft carrier—the USS George H.W. Bush—to move from the northern Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf as President Barack Obama considers possible military options for Iraq. Hagel’s press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, says the order will give the president added flexibility if military action is required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq. …

The Arab Spring is over. Welcome to the Jihadi Spring. Across a huge swath of what, up until recently, had been known as Iraq and Syria, a transnational movement of Sunni Islamic extremists has taken control. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has conquered -- without much effort -- Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, along with most of the province of Nineveh. It's also taken Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. Along the way it has ransacked banks (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars), pillaged weapon stockpiles (including the stuff we left behind for the Iraqi...

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has long been hard for the central government to control because of its combustible mix of Arabs and Kurds. The first time I visited Mosul was in August 2003 when a tenuous calm was maintained by the 101st Airborne Division. Its commander, a then-obscure two-star general named David Petraeus, had on his own initiative opened the Syrian border to trade, struck deals with Syria and Turkey to provide badly needed electricity, restored telephone service, and held elections to elect local leaders. Along the way he also managed to kill Saddam Hussein’s poisonous offspring Uday and Qusay.

"any reduction in the flow of Iraqi crude due to the ongoing Islamic insurgency in the northern Iraq cities of Mosul and Tikrit could have worldwide economic consequences, according to oil industry analyst Phill Flynn, who said speculators are watching for the worst-case scenario."