Free Republic

Fierce clashes between rival Libyan rebel groups in the coastal city of Benghazi have killed several people. The BBC's Rana Jawad says the fighting is understood to be between Islamist militias and a paramilitary force led by a retired senior officer. Libya's second largest city is the scene of frequent clashes between the army and Islamist militias. Authorities in the capital Tripoli have struggled to deal with rebels since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that an Islamist militia base in Benghazi was bombed by warplanes. The death toll is unclear but medical sources in the...

A fundamental requirement of the interim deal — Iran’s cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency personnel — is not being fulfilled. The White House’s own fact sheet on the interim deal listed Iran’s obligations. ... It is even more troubling that the administration hasn’t reported back to Congress and the American people on Iran’s refusal to comply. Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies was instrumental in designing anti-Iran sanctions. He warns, “I hope the Obama administration doesn’t adopt an approach of punting on demands for full disclosure on past nuclear weaponization activities or they will find themselves...

Few pay attention to the common agendas shared by Boko Haram (the terrorist group that has kidnapped over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls) and the non-profit organizations ran by the Obama family. The primary goals of both is to eradicate western education in Africa; the evidence is overwhelming. ... the foundation bearing the name of Barack’s grandmother – the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation (MSOF). In the interview, Musa confessed that the MSOF accepts western donations under faulty premises (helping orphaned children with AIDS) and then uses those funds for scholarships to send Kenyan students to extremist Wahhabist schools in Saudi Arabia. In...

What Hillary Clinton is attempting to do is – in a word – despicable. A few days after the ‘Smoking gun’ Benghazi email was revealed by Judicial Watch; two days after House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would form a Select Committee to investigate Benghazi; one day before Rep. Trey Gowdy was tapped to lead it; and one day after we revealed a Muslim Brotherhood connection to the email at Shoebat.com, Hillary Clinton attempted to pivot public attention toward the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls. The motive behind her doing this should be transparently obvious. She is attempting...

Since the start of the ill-named “Arab Spring,” the Muslim Brotherhood has been very much in the news. Coming to power through democratic elections in Egypt and Tunisia, they were toppled within a short time by the people, who discovered their true intentions. There were some in the West – but not all – who saw the light as well. British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered a comprehensive review of the movement,... its activities in Britain and its impact on the country’s interests. The decision was made because the Brotherhood is allegedly behind terrorist operations in Egypt, and because...

Detailed report... excerpt Sometimes the tail wags the dog. In the case of the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, their small population and tremendous wealth give them an outsized influence in diplomacy and international influence. If Ankara is the heart of the emerging Islamic Caliphate, Qatar is the brain. Through sophisticated international investment and diplomacy, Qatar has acted behind the scenes in each of the “Arab Spring” revolutions that installed Islamist government where once secular dictators ruled. A country rich in natural gas and approximately two million citizens, Qatar has the highest per capital GDP in the world. GDP in...

The Egyptian military recently used American-made Apache helicopter gunships to fire rockets into houses in the Sinai Peninsula, the latest in a series of lethal raids targeting a little-known Al Qaeda-inspired group that has bombed civilians. The April 23 raid came on the same day that the State Department lifted a hold on military aid to Egypt. The Obama administration has struggled for months to limit the political crackdown launched by former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Sisi, who now heads the Egyptian government.

An Egyptian court sentenced 682 alleged Islamists and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to death on Monday, a lawyer and prosecutor said, after two brief sessions the defence partly boycotted. The same court in the southern province of Minya also reversed 492 of 529 death sentences it passed in March, commuting most of those to life in prison. The court, presided over by judge Said Youssef Sabry, had sparked an international outcry with its initial sentencing last month amid an extensive crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The crackdown has extended to secular-leaning dissidents who supported Morsi's...

Tunisia’s elected assembly accepted a petition Wednesday to question the tourism minister over a decision allowing Israelis to use their passports to enter the country for an annual religious pilgrimage. While Israelis and Jews long have traveled to Tunisia for an annual pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, this is the first year that Israelis have been allowed to use their passports rather than a special document issued by Tunisian embassies. Tunisia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. …

WASHINGTON — The United States is said to have disclosed that Saudi King Abdullah was dying. (Snip) The sources said the photograph was taken by White House personnel during Obama’s meeting with the Saudi king outside Riyad on March 28.“The Saudis specifically did not want any photograph that showed Abdullah with the tube,” a source said. “But there was a White House photographer that took the picture for what he said was history.” The photograph was said to have been relayed to members of the White House press corps. Within a day, an image of the Saudi king with the...

Russia and Israel seem to have a growing affinity for each other. A few weeks ago, Israel abstained from a vote in the UN censuring Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported [link at URL] that this is a sore spot for the White House and a diplomatic novum on the world scene. A senior Israeli official said that Israel's absence from the United Nations vote was viewed around the world as an extremely irregular measure, a departure from a long-standing Israeli policy of voting with the United States in the UN. While the Americans viewed...

The daughter of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is claiming that she is “certain” that the televised footage showing the ousted leader in prison is not of her father, Al Arabiya reports. According to the report, the daughter Alshymaa shared two pictures of Morsi on her Facebook page, one while he was president and the other of him during his trial. She claimed in a comment that the one in prison does not resemble her father. …

Islamofascism: With an eye toward the 2016 election, the radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc. 'Muslim voters have the potential to be swing voters in 2016," said Nihad Awad in launching the benign-sounding U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, whose membership reads like a Who's Who of Brotherhood front groups. "We are aiming to bring more participation from the Muslim community." USCMO also aims to elect Islamists in Washington, with the ultimate objective of "institutionalizing policies" favorable to Islamists — that is, Shariah law....

Recently, I was a panelist on MSNBC. The topic was same sex marriage. A fellow panelist called for a Marriage Spring. We know what that means. Or we think we do. The unmarriage advocate wants us to hurry up and overthrow the existing order. Do it as the Arab Street has been doing it: Assemble a vast mass of people entering the square to insist on change. Demand an end to an oppressive old order. And it will all happen with stunning suddenness—just as the winds of change have blown through the Arab world. Or so they say. We all...

London (AFP) - A former wife of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah appealed to US President Barack Obama on Thursday for help in the case of four daughters she says are being held in a royal palace. Alanoud AlFayez, 57, a Jordanian national who has lived in London since her divorce from the Saudi monarch in 2003, said her children needed to be "saved". "Since 13 years, my daughters Sahar, Maha, Hala and Jawaher are being held captive," AlFayez told AFP. "They need to be saved and released immediately." She added: "Mr Obama should take this opportunity to address these grave...

A court in Egypt has sentenced to death 528 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They were convicted of charges including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. The group is among some 1,200 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on trial, including senior members. Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. They are expected to appeal. The verdict now goes to Egypt's supreme religious authority, the Grand Mufti (a senior Islamic scholar), for approval or rejection, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in...

CAIRO — U.S. Navy SEALs seized control of an oil tanker that had illegally taken on a cargo of crude oil peddled by rebels in Libya who had earlier captured key oil ports, the U.S. military announced early Monday. The seaborne raid, staged off of the Cypriot coast, came at the behest of the governments of Libya and Cyprus, the Pentagon said in a statement. “No one was hurt tonight when U.S. forces … boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory,” the statement said. The SEAL team, backed by helicopters, launched its operation late Sunday local time...

An Egyptian singer known for his anti-government songs said Saturday that authorities stopped him from performing at an arts festival attended by the country’s interim president and military chief for “security concerns.” The halted performance Thursday from young singer Mohammed Mohsen comes as the broadcast of a show featuring a popular satirist who skewers public figures apparently was deliberately jammed again Friday. Mohsen said representatives from the presidency escorted him out of the Cairo Opera House before his performance was to begin and left him there as the concert went on without him. …

The Egyptian government, sworn in on Saturday, takes office as a fresh wave of labour unrest sweeps the country, adding to the turmoil from a chaotic and violent political transition. In a televised address on Sunday, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said he called on the “patriotism” of Egyptians and that this was the moment for work, not strikes. A crippling stoppage by bus drivers last week has just ended but postal workers in many parts of the country remain on strike. Doctors, pharmacists, steel and textile workers have all carried out industrial actions in recent days. The strike by about...

An Egyptian court acquitted six police officers Saturday on charges of killing 83 protesters during the country’s 2011 revolution, the latest in a string of trials that rights group say failed to hold the country’s security forces accountable for demonstrators’ deaths. The acquittals come as ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, toppled in July by the military, faces a host of criminal charges. Morsi appeared Saturday in court and shouted from inside a soundproof defendants’ cell, urging his supporters to continue protests and vowing to try the country’s military chief and Republican Guards commander for killing his supporters. The police officers’...