Free Republic

A man who was convinced the Twin Towers would be targeted in a terror attack led 2,700 people to safety from the World Trade Center before being killed when he went back in looking for stragglers. Security chief Rick Rescorla carried out training drills with staff at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to prepare them for a terror atrocity after realising the vulnerability of buildings to air terror attacks.But after leading thousands to safety on 9/11 when his fears were realised, the 62-year-old Cornishman was last seen going back up the stairs of the South Tower before it collapsed.

ANNAPOLIS — A Maryland judge ordered the state bar to open an investigation Monday into the three lawyers who helped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to delete her private emails. Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr. said the complaints lodged against David E. Kendall, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson were “egregious” and said the state bar couldn’t brush them aside by calling them “frivolous.” “There are allegations of destroying evidence,” Judge Harris said at a hearing Monday morning, where he said the state’s rules require the bar to conduct investigations no matter who raises the complaint, and can’t brush...

Michael Rubin, academic and former staff advisor for Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon, spoke to ANF English service on the inclusion of one of Erdoğan’s former ministers, Zafer Çağlayan, in the case file of Reza Zarrab, its influence on Zarrab’s case and Washington-Ankara relations, and Erdoğan’s planned visit to the U.S. in mid-September. Rubin remarked that the arrest warrant issued for Zafer Çağlayan could be a sign that Zarrab is talking to prosecutors and giving evidence. He said: “That's Erdogan's nightmare, because if Zarrab is talking, then Zarrab is also likely talking about Erdogan's dealings. And the thing with...

The Deir Ezzor Military Council announced a new US-backed offensive against the Islamic State in eastern Syria.The US-led coalition announced today that the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) has begun a new offensive against the Islamic State in the Kahbur River valley. The offensive, named “Operation Jazeera Storm,” aims to dislodge the so-called caliphate from its strongholds north of the city of Deir Ezzor.The new effort means that there are now two different coalitions trying to uproot the self-declared caliphate in eastern Syria. Bashar al Assad’s regime, backed by Iran and Russia, has made progress in Deir Ezzor in recent weeks....

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson requesting that he take steps to ensure that another violent incident involving the security detail of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not take place during Erdoğan’s visit to New York for the UN General Assembly on Sept. 12. “The violence on May 16 outside the Turkish Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. was only the latest in a disturbing series of violent, unwarranted behavior by the security forces accompanying President Erdogan while in the United States. In 2011, Turkish security...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is keeping on the table the topic of a military operation against US- and Russian-allied Syrian Kurds operating under the banner of the People's Protection Units (YPG).“Despite the problems we are having with our allies, we are not stepping back from our plans or operations,” Erdogan told his guests during the Victory Day reception Aug. 30.  “They have to know that we are preparing to do whatever we did with [Operation] Euphrates Shield,” he added, referring to the 216-day military incursion Turkey launched into northern Syria a little over a year ago. Ankara said at the...

Following a report yesterday on the lack of information sharing between the House, Senate, and special counsel probes into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday submitted a formal subpoena to the Justice department and FBI for documents in the Trump dossier they have been unable to obtain. The committee reportedly submitted the subpoenas back on Aug. 24, giving the Justice Department and FBI until last Friday, Sep. 1, to turn over the information. Now that the two bodies have not been forthcoming with the documents requested, the committee has given them an extension until...

Sept. 6, 1955 started just like any other day for the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews of ‎Istanbul—or Constantinople. ‎‎”I resided in Cengelkoy with my wife and two children back then,” wrote Apostolos Nikolaidis ‎in the book I Nihta ton Kristallon. ‎”Just as protests were starting in Taksim, I left my shop in Karakoy and went home.”Nikolaidis did not know that a horrid ethnic cleansing campaign was on the way. Just like Nikolaidis, ‎thousands of non-Muslims in Istanbul were not yet aware of the intent of their own state to ‎destroy their private property, businesses, and places of worship, to terrorize...

A major United States Holocaust Memorial Museum study of the Obama Administration’s Syria policy was put on hold last night after portions of the study given to Tablet were greeted with shock and harsh criticism by prominent Jewish communal leaders and thinkers. According to a publicity email sent by the Museum, the study was set to be launched at an event at the US Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C., on September 11 and was overseen by a former US intelligence and national security official under Obama, Cameron Hudson, now director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide....

On August 3, 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Yezidis of Sinjar in Iraq’s Nineveh province. Thousands of Yezidis were massacred and many others abducted, while more than half a million fled for their lives. Three years later, the conditions that led to ISIS’s rise and the failure to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity against the Yezidis, Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities—including the collapse of local governance and security—have not been addressed. The successful political reconstruction of Iraq and Kurdistan depends on the ability to ensure justice and fair treatment for the region’s most vulnerable populations. The...

SDF commander Clara Raqqa announced that the greater proportion of the city is under their control. Since the start of Raqqa operation, SDF forces have liberated 14 of the 23 neighbourhoods from ISIS gangs, and control 65 percent of the city, SDF commander Clara Raqqa said. Within 90 days the 'Great Battle' campaign to capture Raqqa, 14 of the 23 neighbourhoods are liberated by SDF. There are 9 neighbourhoods under ISIS control. As the battles intensify in the neighbourhoods of al-Barid, Mirûr and Nehda, commander of the operation, Clara Raqqa, shared details on the current situation. THE BATTLE FOR RAQQA...

YPG Press Office released a report on results of YPG operations, Turkish and ISIS attacks against Syrian people between 1-31 August. People's Defence Units (YPG) Press Office released the balance sheet of war for the month of August. YPG statement read as follows: "Our Rojava defence forces -People's Defence Units (YPG) and Women's Defence Units (YPJ)- led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the struggle against ISIS. 'Liberation Operation for Raqqa', disrupted plans of the enemies in August 2017. - The occupying Turkish army and Turkish supported gangs targeted YPG/YPJ military positions, homes and fields of civilians 158 times.  Turkish army...

After seeing their God-given and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights being trampled on by the over-reaching Federal alphabet agencies, people across the nation rallied to defend the rights our country was founded on. Videos on network news stations and around the internet depicted an elderly woman being thrown to the ground by law enforcement, a man being tazed repeatedly, and a “first amendment zone” set up miles away for protesters to stay out of the way of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These citizens rightfully feared another Waco or Ruby Ridge encounter, and believed that citizens showing up in force, with cameras...

US-backed fighters in Syria say they have removed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) from Raqqa’s Old City, bringing them closer than ever to the armed group’s most well-defended positions. “Our forces today seized full control of the Old City in Raqqa after clashes with Daesh,” Talal Sello, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told AFP news agency on Friday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL. Sello said the SDF was now on the edges of ISIL’s “security quarter in the city centre, where most of its main bases are”. Most...

"...a scandalous expression of how justice works in America..." The already tense relationship between Turkey and the United States further deteriorated Friday after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasted a U.S. grand jury that brought charges against 19 people, including 15 members of Erdogan’s security detail. The 19 suspects had allegedly been caught kicking, beating and harassing protesters during a peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C. in May. Erdogan accused the grand jury of engaging in a scandal and harshly criticized the American justice system.

At the airport of Antalya, the Turkish authorities arrest two German citizens. The action is due to "political accusations". The Foreign Ministry seeks to make contact with the detainees. In Turkey, two more Germans are arrested according to the Federal Government. The action on Thursday, "political accusations", are reason apparently said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin. Therefore, there was still no direct contact to the arrested. The Consulate in Izmir was informed by non-governmental bodies about the arrest of the two, she said. The airport police confirmed the arrest on request of the Consulate in Antalya. Been...

A federal district judge in San Antonio blocked significant portions of Texas' sanctuary cities ban Wednesday, two days before the law was set to go into effect — a significant blow to Gov. Greg Abbott, who said the state would appeal. In a 94-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked provisions in the law that required local law enforcement departments to comply with federal requests to hold unauthorized immigrants in their custody. He also blocked a part of the law that said local departments couldn't implement policies that would "materially limit" the enforcement of immigration laws.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of much of a “sanctuary cities” law in Texas on Wednesday night, just days before it was set to go into effect. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked portions of Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) requiring local law enforcement departments to comply with federal requests to hold unauthorized immigrants in custody. Also blocked: a provision that stopped local departments from implementing policies that would “materially limit” enforcement of immigration laws, the Dallas News reported.

A Nevada jury dealt another blow this week to the government’s case against participants in an armed uprising against federal agents three years ago. On Tuesday, a jury acquitted two men, Richard Lovelien and Steven Stewart, of all 10 charges against them, and two others, Eric Parker and O. Scott Drexler, on most counts. The jury deadlocked on the remaining charges against Parker and Drexler, and the judge declared a mistrial. This was the second trial for the four men, who had been accused of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, among other charges. A jury in April...

Federal prosecutors in the District announced Tuesday that indictments have been issued for Turkish security officials who attacked peaceful protesters near the Turkish ambassador’s residence in May. A D.C. Superior Court grand jury issued indictments for 15 Turkish security officials and four civilians — two Americans and two Canadians — accusing them of conspiracy to commit a crime of violence during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington in May. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced the indictments. Only two of the accused, both Americans, have been arrested: Sinan Narin, 45, of McLean, Virginia. and...