Free Republic

The EU’s justice commissioner has accused internet giant Google of leading a campaign to shoot down data protection reforms. Speaking in Lyon, France on Monday (18 August), the commissioner, Martine Reicherts, said: “Google and other affected companies who complain loudly” about a recent EU court verdict on personal data are “detractors … attempting to throw a new spanner in the works”. The Luxembourg-based EU court in May ruled that Google must remove links to any content that is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” or face a fine.The ruling was based on the bloc’s 1995 data protection law, which are...

<p>Vice President Joe Biden’s office stonewalled a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for his travel expenses, according to Ronald Kessler’s new tell-all book on the Secret Service, The First Family Detail.</p> <p>Kessler, a former Wall Street Journal and Washington Post investigative reporter, filed a FOIA request in April 2013 with the Air Force for the details and costs of Biden’s personal trips.</p>

Rep. Trey Gowdy was bombarded with requests from fellow Republicans, eager to take part in the latest congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack. But when it became clear that he intended to lead the inquiry behind closed doors, far from the spotlight, the requests soon fell silent. “If you want to get on the news, then go rob a bank,” Gowdy, R-S.C., said, recounting his message to several Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill, dashing their hopes of being featured in what they assumed would be high-profile televised hearings. SNIP “I can get more information in a five-hour deposition...

The president is scheduled to make a statement from the briefing room at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Speculation has been intense over what else might be going on – an announcement on immigration policy, perhaps? That’s not supposed to come until the end of summer. Maybe some personnel changes? Certainly that could wait until Obama’s two-week vacation is over. In part, the diversion from vacation may be intended to show that the president is active and engaged amid various world crises, from Iraq to Ukraine to Ferguson. But, it must be noted, the two-day hiatus was on the books before...

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Ousted “Meet the Press” anchor David Gregory was paid $4 million to leave NBC and signed a contract not to speak out against the network, sources told Page Six. Gregory, 43, who moderated the show for six years, was unceremoniously dumped from the political program on Thursday after dismal ratings and months of speculation about his departure. He has been replaced by NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd.

A riderless horse, with boots reversed in the stirrups, has become the indelible symbol for life under the heartless regime of Barack Hussein Obama Sometime today the 53-year-old playboy president of the United States will be heading back to D.C. for a mission which the mainstream media describes as “mysterious”. No one seem to know why he’s temporarily back in town for two days mid-holiday, and Barack Hussein Obama isn’t saying. In the face of the open fact that transparency is a broken Obama administration promise, today should go down as ‘Skulk Sunday’. Even as surrealistic as the BHO administration...

FERGUSON, Mo. — Unrest returned to the streets of this St. Louis suburb early Saturday as hundreds of demonstrators, angered by the shooting death of an unarmed African-American teenager by a police officer, engaged in a standoff with the police that was punctuated by threats and a new round of denunciations of law enforcement practices. The confrontation, the first serious one since the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Thursday assumed responsibility for security operations here, ended at about 4 a.m. when the authorities, prompted by the gradual dispersal of demonstrators, pulled back to their nearby command post. The Associated Press...

A key official overseeing the ObamaCare launch last fall asked a subordinate to “delete” an email exchange on the matter, according to newly released records, fueling Republican concerns that the administration may be hiding internal discussions from Congress. “Time and again, the self-proclaimed 'most transparent administration' has been anything but,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement. “And now we know that when HealthCare.gov was crashing, those in charge were hitting the delete button behind the scenes.” Upton and other GOP committee leaders on Friday released an email exchange from Oct. 5, 2013, shortly...

The State Department has reportedly approved a contract worth up to $545,000 to help train department officials to effectively testify at congressional hearings after a series of poor performances. The Washington Times reports that the department has hired a company called AMTIS, Inc. to train staffers to effectively speak with lawmakers and testify at congressional hearings. […] The reported contract followed a series of embarrassments for the department at congressional hearings. …

On July 31, when all eyes were focused on the Ted Cruz-stoked chaos unfolding in the House chamber over the border bill, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee did something rather remarkable. It voted to declassify its Benghazi report. After two years of investigation, it found no evidence to buttress any of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. We didn’t get this news from committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). Nope. There was a story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday. A press release...

A top Pentagon official began interviewing Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Wednesday morning at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, confirmed to The Hill. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl has been tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s 2009 disappearance from his Army base in Afghanistan. Dahl was appointed to the case in mid-June and Fidell told Reuters last week that Dahl is expected to complete the probe within 60 days from his appointment.

What’s the fastest way to admit guilt? Censor the truth. Reader, you put the pieces together on this one, and trust your instincts. What follows is a true account of the events of 48 hours, and more broadly, of several years. It is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with American politics in the Age of Obama, where both parties are complicit in a national suicide pact. Beyond the corrupt politics of petty corruption, the political establishment is not only silent about an ongoing genocide in the Middle East and North Africa, but actively providing support, weapons, and training...

SAN ANTONIO -- Three San Antonio Police officers are being investigated for possibly using excessive force, after a May 20 incident in west San Antonio left a man with injuries to his face, skull and neck. Roger Carlos was in the 10600 block of Westover Hills Boulevard taking photos of a building that will soon be home to his wife's medical practice, when he was approached by three officers around 2:30 p.m. The officers were identified as an undercover drug task force officer and two SAPD SWAT members. According to an SAPD incident report released to the I-Team, the officers...

An Italian journalist who until Tuesday was embedded in Gaza has backed the IDF’s account of a rocket strike on a school playground in central Gaza’s Shati refugee camp on Monday. At least 10 people were killed in the attack—most of them children—and some sources claimed the death toll was as high as 30. Palestinian sources were quick to blame Israel, claiming that an Israeli fighter jet fired missiles directly at the playground and nearby hospital. Israel denied the accusations, saying that Hamas rockets aimed at Israel from the area misfired, and struck both the school and the hospital. Verifying...

Today, Life Dynamics Inc., a national pro-life organization, has released their second report exposing how the abortion industry covers for child sexual predators.This new report, entitled, “The Cover-Up of Child Sexual Abuse”, shows clearly that the failure of abortion clinics to comply with mandatory reporting laws is having profound, real-world consequences for the victims of child sexual abuse.Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics Inc. explains: “In almost every case of adult men having sex with minor girls, the perpetrators are aware that the relationship is illegal and could land them in prison. They also know that one of the most...

Some truths CNN reveals only accidentally. One such truth Anderson Cooper shared on the night of July 17. In speaking about the shoot down of Malaysian airliner MH 17 earlier that day, Cooper referred back to “July 17, 1996, when TWA Flight 800 was shot down off the coast of Long Island in New York.”

Faraj al-Shibli did not lack for enemies, it would appear. The Libyan government held him for a time after the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, at least long enough for the FBI to interrogate him. Two days ago, another militia grabbed him in the former Cyrenaica capital of Marj, a town just off the Mediterranean, 96 kilometers from Benghazi. Yesterday, locals found his body: Faraj al-Shibli, who was suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been found dead, a Libyan source and locals in the town of Marj said....

Border Patrol agents are dropping off undocumented immigrants at bus stations and now at airports. Some said those who crossed illegally into the U.S are able to purchase plane tickets and board flights without a picture I.D as required for everyone else. National Border Patrol Council said while they are unaware of immigrants boarding planes without identification in the Rio Grande Valley. A union representative out of the Laredo sector told us that it is happening in Laredo and it’s happening quite often. We spoke to National Border Patrol Council #2455 in Laredo, and what they told us was shocking....

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has finished undergoing therapy and counseling at an Army hospital in San Antonio and could return to active duty as early as Monday, a defense official tells CNN. Some critics of the swap have said Bergdahl was a deserter who endangered colleagues searching for him. An Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after his disappearance concluded he left his outpost deliberately and of his own free will, according to an official who was briefed on the report. But there was no definitive conclusion Bergdahl was a deserter because that would require knowing his intent, something...