Free Republic

PARIS — Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared Saturday that France was at war with radical Islam after the harrowing sieges that led to the deaths of three gunmen and four hostages the day before. New details emerged about the bloody final confrontations, and security forces remained on high alert.

A restaurant in an Australian town has sparked reactions that range from outrage to praise after placing a “Sorry, No Muslims” sign outside its front doors , according to various media reports. The sign was handwritten on a chalkboard displayed outside the Eagle’s Nest Bar and Grill, a restaurant located in the Queensland, Australia town of Longreach. Australia’s Brisbane Times reports that on Nov. 19, Longreach local Helen Day posted pictures of the sign on the restaurant’s Facebook page and wrote: Just a bit surprised to see the sign up [reading] “Sorry No Muslims” … what’s that about? I certainly...

We have now had 13 years without another terrorist attack on United States soil. Do you think the end justified the means? Can anyone NOT remember where they were or what they were doing on September 11, 2001, the day the two planes hit the twin towers in New York? Will we ever be able to forget the images of innocent civilians jumping hundreds of floors to their death to avoid being consumed by flames? Who could imagine that when 125 people left their homes for work at the Pentagon that they would never return home to their families? What...

<p>Torture is repulsive. Even on the scaffold or in front of a firing squad, a man can meet death with dignity. The torturer sets out to strip his victim of dignity, to break him, to violate not only his body but also his soul. In England, torture was outlawed in 1660, and for most of the past 350 years, that seemed to be a final verdict. Torture had been a barbarous relic of the dark ages. Anyone who suggested that it might still have a role would have been laughed to scorn; no doubt he would also have been in favour of burning witches.</p>

U.S. embassies around the world are bracing for a potentially explosive report about to be released that details what the CIA did to terror suspects in the days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and the fear is that its release could threaten American lives. The report, due to be released Tuesday by the Senate, is described as shocking in its very graphic descriptions of secret interrogations, including some details that have never been heard before. All U.S. facilities around the world are being urged to review security and brace for the reaction, with concern particularly high in areas where...

<p>Officials at Fort Sam Houston say they’ve taken into custody the driver of a vehicle that military officials say contained explosive materials, and which sparked a lockdown at the San Antonio Army base.</p> <p>The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter that the lockdown was being handled by military police, and the sheriff’s department had no units assigned to the case.</p>

Egypt responded strongly to a Hamas jihadi terror attack that killed 30 Egyptians soldiers, with helicopter strikes, a curfew of 100,000 people, and the announcement they are going build a security wall.  to control the border with Gaza.  Unlike President Obama, Egyptian President Al-Sisi has no trouble identifying the enemy and didn’t feel the need to assure people that Islamic terrorists are lone wolves, representing nothing and no one.  Instead he asserted the attack was supported by foreign forces.  He vowed to protect the lives of Egyptian military at home and to pursue an “extensive war” against the jihadists,...

Like many liberal criticisms of market-based solutions to public policy problems, the idea of privatized armies is likely to conjure images of rogue mercenaries advertising in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine. However, many of today’s paid civilian soldiers are highly skilled and professional former Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Marines. They often are employed by private contractors because of their effectiveness as support staff, training instructors, security personnel, and occasionally as combat-ready operators. They are trained and ready to kill the enemy, not “degrade” him. Such contractors have been instrumental in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; filling...

So they say… kind of. According to state-run TASS, Sergei Lavrov met with new Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi during the UN General Assembly currently taking place in New York, and pledged to support them against ISIS: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed Russia is ready to support Iraq in its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, first of all the one from the Islamic State (IS). Lavrov had meeting with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. …“During the meeting, Lavrov confirmed Russia’s support for Iraq’s independence, territory integrity and sovereignty,” the ministry said....

Erik Prince says his old private army could have dealt with the Islamic State militants on their own—and that Republicans need to start fighting ‘like we pay them to.’ Erik Prince has a message for ISIS: You’re lucky Blackwater is gone. On Friday night, the controversial founder of the private military company had plenty to say about what the organization he once ran could be doing in the fight against the so-called Islamic State—and also why Republicans need to stop being such losers. “It’s a shame the [Obama] administration crushed my old business, because as a private organization, we could’ve...

The United States is at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), the White House and Pentagon said Friday, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly declined to use that phrase. “In the same way that we are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates around the globe, we are at war with ISIL,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that while the effort was "not the Iraq war," they should "make no mistake, we know we...

The use of the W-word could have both legal and political implications. Top Obama Administration officials have publicly given conflicting accounts in recent days over a fundamental question of the new U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria: Is the nation at war? With 158 airstrikes carried out on ISIS targets and more than 1,600 troops deployed to Iraq in various capacities, Secretary of State John Kerry told ABC News Thursday that the nation was not in fact at war with the militant group. But by Friday afternoon, the White House and the Pentagon were...

A day after Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned against "war fever," administration officials on Friday said the U.S. is indeed waging a war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL). However, the administration is still trying to draw a distinction between this new "war" and the previous war the U.S. waged in Iraq, which included putting American troops on the ground in Iraq for combat operations. "The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with al Qaeda and its al Qaeda affiliates all around...

The Obama administration said for the first time Friday that the United States is “at war” with ISIS militants. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, used the language at least three times during his daily briefing with reporters. “The U.S. is at war with ISIL in the same way the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the group. Minutes earlier, a Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, used similar terminology. “This is not the Iraq war of 2002,” he told reporters. “But, make no mistake, we know we are at war...

(P) resident Obama came into office in 2009, telling the American people he would end the wars against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Six years later, facing a broader and more lethal terrorist threat, he is now telling us why we need to go to war again. To say Obama can't seem to make up his mind in the war on terrorism (a designation his administration stopped using the day he entered the Oval Office), is putting it mildly. If anything, his naive plan of withdrawal and retreat and the way it was carried out in the face of a...

Obama: 'We Tortured Some Folks' By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY In startlingly blunt phrasing, President Obama on Friday acknowledged the CIA’s use of brutal interrogation tactics in the years after the Sept. 11 attack, even as he defended the agency’s top spy, who is a veteran of the era. “We tortured some folks,” Obama said to reporters during a news conference Friday. “We did some things that were contrary to our values.”

President Barack Obama is thanking the outgoing director of the National Counterterrorism Center as he wraps up a 24-year career in the federal service. Obama says most Americans may not know Matt Olsen’s name, but he says they are safer because of his dedicated service. …

“We Kill People Based on Metadata,” Admits Former CIA/NSA Boss Written by Alex Newman font size decrease font size increase font size Print E-mail “We Kill People Based on Metadata,” Admits Former CIA/NSA Boss Essentially confessing to mass murder and multiple other crimes, retired Gen. Michael Hayden, the former boss of both the NSA and the CIA, admitted that the Obama administration has been murdering people around the world based solely on the so-called metadata collected by U.S. intelligence agencies. The controversial insider’s remarks confirmed growing fears and warnings by critics of the out-of-control federal government that, despite efforts to...

One Nigerian official's wish for Boko Haram: "Find them, kill them." ....... "I love this about America," he said with a tone of, if not love, then certainly reverence. "Find them, kill them. Don't wait for judicial manipulation." As the parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls become more desperate, and their protests in Abuja grow larger, he may be repeating those four words to himself like a mantra.

On a recent trip to Egypt with a delegation of national security experts and journalists we had the opportunity to meet with senior-level Egyptian security officials, as well as several members of the country’s various religious and civil society movements. The message being disseminated in the Western press about Egypt is contrary to the reality on the ground. A recent Los Angeles Times article repeats the accusation that Egypt’s response to terrorism is in fact the reason Egypt is in such trouble. This narrative has become entrenched in some circles of the US foreign policy establishment. To quote directly from...