Free Republic

ransomnote: 10 minute video interview with former CIA agent Frank Snepp circa 1983. TRANSCRIPT BELOW.On X Jan 2, 2024 TRANSCRIPT BEGINS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Frank Snepp: Once again I want to make it perfectly clear that we were not hiring these reporters, they were not operating as our spies or as our dupes. But, in a war situation, when there are so few sources of information, a reporter may rely on a CIA contact, and he becomes vulnerable.In Saigon, if I planted a piece information with a reporter, I would ordinarily then try to create an environment in which he could not check the...

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said state efforts to pull former President Trump from primary ballots for the upcoming election are “counterproductive” and actually strengthening Trump’s chances of victory. “Regardless of what I, you know, think of Trump and the fact that I oppose his renomination, I think he has to be beaten at the ballot box,” Barr told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Saturday. “And these heavy-handed efforts to disenfranchise his supporters, I think are counterproductive. If anything, they make him stronger.”

Former President Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him disloyal and saying that his political career would have been over had he not endorsed his ultimately successful 2018 campaign. “He was dead as a dog, he was a dead politician. He would have been working perhaps for a law firm or doing something else,” Trump told a small group of reporters aboard his plane on Monday afternoon en route to Iowa, where he was to make an appearance that evening. Trump spent nearly ten minutes going after DeSantis, who is widely viewed as his...

Cenk Uygur, founder and host of the progressive outlet "The Young Turks," condemned far-left rhetoric against police in a Tuesday tweet. "Will people who came up with 'Defund the Police' slogan admit they were wrong? It was wildly counterproductive framing," he said in the post. "You don't speak for the left. And neither do people pushing the counterproductive 'Abolish Prisons.' Polls show that almost no one on the left agrees with you." Uygur warned further that people who use that variety of rhetoric do not speak for the American left as a whole. "You can't claim to speak for the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of truckers and other motorists who have been doing rolling protests on highways encircling Washington made their way into the nation’s capital Monday, snarling already-congested traffic in a demonstration against COVID-19 mandates and other grievances. The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency issued a traffic advisory shortly before 2 p.m. that suggested motorists delay travel or use alternative transportation “due to ongoing demonstration activity on I-395, I-695, and I-295.” The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department closed a number of streets and exits off the highways to prevent the protesters from coming into the city. “These...

I’ve received a lot of requests to comment on the recent arrest of a man who walked into a Springfield MO Walmart carrying a rifle, wearing body armor, and packing over 100 rounds of ammunition (all that according to news reports, of course). The man was held by gunpoint by another patron of the store, an off-duty firefighter, and turned over to responding Springfield police a few minutes later. The most common question sent my way is whether the patron who held the rifle-armed man at gunpoint did so unlawfully—what was the patron’s legal justification for threatening deadly force against...

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — After a day of protests meant to shut down Black Friday shopping to bring attention to black issues, by 4:30pm local time Michigan Avenue had mostly returned to normal. Traffic had returned to the street and shoppers were out in force, but pockets of activists still remained and continued to block the entrances to business. As the sun set in Chicago, the reality was still setting in: the Black Friday Shut Down was one of the left’s most successful direct actions in a recent memory. It was disruptive–but it was peaceful. And it was effective.

President Barack Obama continues to speak out against mass incarceration, the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread. Obama's comments came today during his YouTube interviews with YouTube bloggers, Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green. Some Obama nuggets from today's interview include this on marijuana: "What you're seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they're experimenting with legal marijuana," the president said in response to a question from host Hank Green. "The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that...

Israel on Thursday ordered the demolition of the home of a terrorist who carried out a tractor attack in Jerusalem this past summer, raising the ire of the United States. The terrorist whose home is to be demolished is Mohammed Jabis, who slammed his tractor into a bus in Jerusalem in August, killing Rabbi Avraham Walles and injuring six other people. According to a report in Haaretz, Jabis’s family received notification about the impending demolition. Jabis himself was killed by security forces after carrying out the attack. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked about the demolition during her daily...

WASHINGTON - The White House said on Friday a new Israeli settlement expansion plan was "counterproductive" and could make it harder to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. "We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

We Need to Push Our Nominee to the Right, Not the Left! January 10, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Wayne, Charlotte, North Carolina. You're next. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hi. CALLER: Yes, sir! That's where I am, sir. I -- I -- I am livid with you today. It's the first time I've ever been livid with you in over 20 years, Rush! You know, you're negatively painting Speaker Gingrich when you just perfectly delineated my whole point, or at least part of it. At one point, sir, Newt Gingrich came into this campaign with a...

New York Senator Chuck Schumer harshly criticized the Obama Administration's attempts to exert pressure on Israel today, making him the highest-ranking Democrat to object to Obama's policies in such blunt terms. Schumer, along with a majority of members of the House and Senate, signed on to letters politely suggesting the U.S. keep its disagreements with Israel private, a tacit objection to the administration's very public rebuke of the Jewish State over construction in Jerusalem last month. But Schumer dramatically sharpened his tone on the politically conservative Jewish Nachum Segal Show today, calling the White House stance to date "counter-productive" and...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2009 – A potential North Korean test launch of a three-stage missile would have a negative impact on efforts to lessen tensions in the region, a U.S. State Department official told reporters here yesterday. Senior U.S. diplomats have urged North Korea “to desist from launching any type of missile,” spokesman Robert Wood said at a news conference. The North Koreans insist that their Taepodong 2 missile that is expected to be launched in the coming days is carrying a communications satellite for peaceful purposes. North Korea’s neighbors South Korea and Japan are alarmed at the possible launch....

We have watched the news cover the Jessica Lunsford trial and to know that a child suffered at the hands of a sex offender, when it could have been prevented should be galvanizing our law makers, to enact. This could have been your daughter, just imagine the anguish any parent would have to live with, if this happened to them. John Couey, who was convicted, had a record as a sex offender and was just released from prison, at the time of her murder. There are many John Couey types and one could be living next to you. Often, administration...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be allowed to implement potentially counterproductive smog-prevention regulations after the U.S. Supreme Court on November 14 let stand a lower court decision that a legal technicality prevented the National Alternative Fuels Association (NAFA) from challenging the regulations. Complex Interactions EPA says regulations it implemented in 2000 will reduce the formation of ground-level ozone, a key smog component. Ozone forms when nitrous oxides (NOx) react with volatile organic compounds (VOC) on hot, sunny days. Accordingly, "smog season" in the U.S. tends to run from approximately April 1 through September 30. A cursory look at...

While the immigration demonstrations forced congressional leaders to back away from tough measures cracking down on illegal immigrants, the American public doesn't seem to be so inclined. Pollster John Zogby said that, in a survey he conducted after the protests, 61 percent said they were less sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants as a result of the demonstrations, compared to 32 percent who said they were more sympathetic. A Gallup poll this month also showed that more than half of Americans are skeptical about the effectiveness of a wall that some members of Congress want to construct along America's...

An affiliate of one of the nation's leading abortion-rights groups is taking a hard-edged swipe at cultural conservatives by inviting young donors to a "Screw Abstinence Party."

Karl Rove, Mastermind "I just can't contain myself any longer!" crowed Rove during a routine White House press briefing. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel. I am un-f***ing stoppable!"Rove revealed that he orchestrated the entire forged document scandal including duping CBS' Dan Rather into doing a segment on Bush's National Guard service."If they weren't so damned predictable, this might actually be work," said Rove, laughing."I mean, think about it," Rove continued, "for eight months they are throwing [Michael] Moore, Kennedy and anyone else who'll say on camera that Bush is a no good Nazi."We come in with the Swifties...

A heckler (C) is dragged out of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry 's speech at the Museum Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 8, 2004.