Free Republic

Despite President Obama's promise to stay focused on hunting down those responsible for the 2012 Benghazi attack -- and despite a recent arrest touted as a major takedown -- sources say little has been done to nab the other suspects. According to multiple sources on the ground, including some with direct knowledge of the operations to identify and hunt the Benghazi suspects, intelligence that could have been acted upon at times has been ignored or put on hold. Further, they say, the recent capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala -- now on a ship bound for the U.S., expected to arrive...

(CNSNews.com) – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Thursday at a hearing on illegal immigration crime that from 2013 to 2015, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released more than 86,000 criminal illegal immigrants back into the United States – 196 of which were convicted of homicide in 2015. “What’s going on at Homeland Security, what’s going on with Immigration [and] Customs Enforcement is one of the most infuriating things I think I’ve seen in this government yet. In a three-year period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more than 86,000 criminal aliens into the American...

President Obama is facing the very real possibility of a deadlock at the Supreme Court that guarantees his immigration actions won’t take effect before he leaves office. If the justices split 4-4 on the case, as observers say is possible, the president’s attempt to shield nearly 5 million people from deportation would be sent back to the lower courts for another lengthy legal battle that would surely spill into the next administration. Oral arguments in the case are set for April 18, which means a decision could come in late June. The high court has already deadlocked twice since the...

Customs and Border Protection Commission R. Gil Kerlikowske told Border Patrol agents who object to President Obama’s amnesty policies that it’s time to “look for another job,” saying Tuesday that agents have to follow the orders of their superiors. Mr. Kerlikowske was objecting to testimony last month from the Border Patrol labor union chief, who said under Mr. Obama agents have been told to restore the discredited “catch-and-release” policy from a decade ago. The commissioner disputed that, saying every illegal immigrant over the age of 14 who is encountered by agents is supposed to be fingerprinted, interviewed and put through...

Iran row looms over release of Fowzi Badavi Nejad Oct.10, 2008 The only surviving terrorist from the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London is to be freed within days amid fears that his release will trigger a diplomatic row with Iran. Fowzi Badavi Nejad will be released and allowed to stay in Britain, but Iran wants him returned to Tehran to face trial for the murder of two hostages killed during the siege. The Foreign Office has failed to win assurances that Nejad would not suffer torture or death if he were returned on his release after serving...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - After more than five years, the Pentagon revealed why it is holding a Saudi nicknamed "the Professor" at Guantanamo Bay, saying he once lived with a Sept. 11 conspirator and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden. Shaker Aamer's lawyer denies the allegations, made after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week requested the release of the Saudi, who has been an unofficial leader among the detainees, and four other former residents of Britain. The Bush administration, which has been urging other nations to accept Guantanamo prisoners amid international pressure to close the military jail,...

In recent days, pro-al Qaeda jihadists claimed to confirm a recent news report saying that several senior al Qaeda leaders have been released from Iranian custody. Sky News reported earlier this week that five veteran jihadists were released in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been kidnapped in Yemen. Several jihadists on Twitter who are connected to al Qaeda have said the report is accurate. One of them is known as “Al Siyasi al Mutaqa’id,” who has relayed accurate information on al Qaeda in the past. The five jihadists who were reportedly freed are: Saif al Adel, Abu Mohammed...

The former cook of al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden has had his Guantanamo prison sentence reduced to two years from 14, under a plea agreement that remains secret. The US military said Ibrahim al-Qosi's sentence had been reduced on Wednesday, contingent on his adherence to agreed upon terms. Those terms included an agreement not to engage in or materially support hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. Al-Qosi, who is about 50, acknowledged in his plea agreement that he knew al-Qaeda was a terrorist group when he ran one of the kitchens in bin Laden's Star of Jihad compound...

When Ibrahim al Qosi was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2012, a lawyer for the former Usama bin Laden aide said he looked forward to living a life of peace in his native Sudan. Three years later, Qosi has emerged as a prominent voice of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, appearing in a number of AQAP propaganda videos -- including a 50-minute lecture calling for the takeover of Saudi Arabia. ...

Why even have a Border Patrol at all? Or a border, for that matter. President Obama promised transformational change and he has delivered on that promise. In fact, with less than a year left to his presidency, Obama will likely be pulling out all the stops he can. Now, in an abrupt reversal of policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being instructed to release illegal immigrants captured at the border and not force other illegal immigrants to appear at deportations hearings. The Washington Examiner reports that the stand-down order also includes a requirement that "the whereabouts of illegals...

TEHRAN - Iran announced Saturday that it had released four Iranian-Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States. The announcement from the judiciary on state television did not identify the four, but Iranian news media said they included Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent; Amir Hekmati, a Marine veteran; and Saeed Abedini, a pastor. There were discrepancies in the Iranian reports about the identity of the fourth prisoner. It was not immediately clear whom the Americans released, but Iranian reports said seven Iranians were freed. The exchange was apparently orchestrated to coincide with the expected announcement...

As the families of Americans celebrate the release of their loved ones held in Iran, the authorities in Tehran said they would not be freeing a businessman arrested in October and were silent on the fate of a former FBI agent who disappeared in the country. It was unclear why Siamak Namazi, 44, an Iranian American based in Dubai, was arrested in October while visiting a friend in Tehran where he had done consultant work over the previous decade. U.S. officials said Saturday that they would continue to talk with Iran to secure the release of Namazi as well as...

Trump's supporters loved his promise this week to create a "deportation force" to remove all 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, and his repeated declaration that everyone here illegally will "have to go." But his supporters tend to overlook is his other promise -- repeated in a recent debate -- that under his immigration plan "they will come back." That's right. Under Trump's immigration plan almost all of 11 million illegal aliens (save for a small minority with criminal records) will get to return and get permanent legal status to stay here in America. Trump supports amnesty. On the...

SNIPPET: "Harun, described as “a prototype al Qaeda operative,” was “arrested by Italian authorities on board a refugee ship and was indicted by the United States in February 2012. Italy extradited him to the United States on Oct. 4, 2012,” the Hill reported. Harun could face life in prison if convicted."

Two Yemeni detainees held at the controversial US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been transferred to Ghana. The Pentagon said Khalid al-Dhuby had been approved for release since 2006 and Mahmoud Omar Bin Atef since 2009. Both have been held for more than a decade and have never been charged. Ghana has given permission for the men to stay for two years subject to security clearances, Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh said. The West African nation has not previously taken any Guantanamo prisoners. .... According to military records, Mahmoud Omar Bin Atef is a Yemeni citizen born in Saudi...

Kabul (Reuters) - The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday. The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day. :snip: "The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid...

Many questioned Barack Obama’s judgment when he backed away from his own “red line” in Syria, but Chuck Hagel tells Foreign Policy in an exclusive interview that it was actually worse than that. Obama lost his nerve, Hagel alleges, calling off promised strikes on Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Hagel also says that Obama’s team then stabbed him in the back as he was heading for the exits, and tried to “destroy me”: Jet-lagged from a long overseas trip, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had just sat down with his wife for a quiet dinner at an...

Last weekend Obama told Yahoo "only a handful" of Gitmo detainees has returned to a life of terrorism. The actual number is 196, So he was only off by 191. Ibrahim-Qosi Former Guantanamo detainee, Ibrahim Qosi, who is also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani, is now an al-Qaeda leader in Yemen. Earlier this week Stephen Hayes from The Weekly Standard broked down Obama's shocking Gitmo lie. Of the 653 jihadist detainees who have been released, 196 have gone back to terror or are suspected of being active in the jihad since their release. Now this: The Obama White House...

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been wounded in a gunfight at a meeting of militants in the Pakistani city of Quetta, reports say.

According to a Wednesday night post on the website Long War Journal by Thomas Joscelyn, a former detainee held at Guantanamo Bay named Ibrahim Qosi has rejoined the world of Islamic terrorism and ascended to a leadership post in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) following his release in July 2012. With this shocking story coming as the Obama administration still hopes to close the prison, the question going forward from a media standpoint is this: Will the media show any interest in this threat to national security and failure on the part of the adminstration? According to Joscelyn, Qoosi...