Free Republic

The move, mandated by a law passed six months ago, represents the greatest reduction of U.S. spying capabilities since they expanded dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Under the Freedom Act, the NSA and law enforcement agencies can no longer collect telephone-calling records in bulk in an effort to sniff out suspicious activity. Such records, known as 'metadata,' reveal which numbers Americans are calling and what time they place those calls, but not the content of the conversations. Instead analysts must now get a court order to ask telecommunications companies like Verizon Communications to enable monitoring of call records...

EXCLUSIVE - Lebanese Official Claims To Breitbart: NATO 'Okayed' Turkey's Downing Of Russian Jet. [ Full title ]. Turkey could only have shot down a Russian Su-24 military jet after securing permission from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), charged Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in an exclusive interview with Breitbart. The Turks cannot afford to shoot down a Russian plane, being a member of NATO, without asking the permission of NATO. They have to ask NATO. It's NATO, said Jumblatt, a member of parliament and leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party. Jumblatt is considered the leader of Lebanon's historic...

On CNN, a reporter played the "But if it is" game on whether or not the shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs was the result of the shooter targeting the clinic over their abortion practices, calling it the "latest" such incident. "If this was a targeting of Planned Parenthood it would be the latest in a string of attacks on abortion providing facilities or on doctors who work with them." If it was, you see. But this is a very liberal (pun intended) use of the words "latest" and 'string", which imply an ongoing series of...

Colorado Springs police responded this afternoon to reports of an active shooter at a Planned Parenthood facility:

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.

Following a lengthy standoff with police, the suspect in the shooting Friday at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Co. has surrendered to police and is in custody. His name and motive have not yet been released. Eleven people, including a reported five police officers, were injured in the shooting. The standoff began a little after 11:30 a.m. local time and ended just before 5 p.m. From NBC News: The gunman walked out of facility just before 5 p.m. local time, and officers took him into custody, officials told NBC News. Several more people were injured, with the total...

As of November 23, there had been 2703 shootings which resulted in 440 deaths year-to date in heavily gun-controlled Chicago. That is an increase of approximately 400 shootings over the same time last year. [Snip] Chicago implemented a "violence tax" at suburban Cook County gun stores in April 2013. The tax is gathered on each gun and bullet sold within the county. Then, in 2014-the first full calendar year after the implementation of the tax-the Chicago Tribune reported 434 deaths-a 19 death increase over 2013.

A retired truck driver flying through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is warning American flyers their experience may not be secure, after he was able to pass a loaded handgun through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. Speaking to Britain’s Daily Mail, the flyer says while packing his gun was purely accidental, he feels the TSA should have caught it prior to departure. The incident happened on November 5, as 67-year-old Blake Alford was preparing to fly from ATL to Chicago Midway Airport (MDW). In his bag was a Ruger .38 pistol, loaded with a full magazine of seven hollow-point bullets....

First there was that incident at the Trump rally in Alabama. You know, the one where a protester with, shall we say, some ideas that are not terribly compatible with those of Trump or many of his supporters, showed up. He wound up on the ground, taking a beating and throwing some punches of his own before security booted him from the gathering. And then this week, much of the country learned of news that what has seriously been described as masked men shot five people protesting what they believe to be a questionable police shooting near a Minneapolis police...

Zebulum Lael James, a 22-year-old black student at Jackson State University, is accused of going on a shooting spree...Both of the targets police in Jackson say James "randomly" shot were white women, Suzanne Hogan and Kristy Lynn Mitchell. Three black men murder minister's pregnant wife. Foreign white female student murdered by black man.... Islamic black man cuts head off woman in Oklahoma. Over 100 teens swarm Memphis mall knocking out shoppers. 9/6/14 White couple beaten by black gang in Missouri. Caught On Camera: 72-Year-Old Man Sucker Punched On Sidewalk. NYC 8/13/14 Google: 4 Black Men Beat Hot Dog Vendor With...

“It must be incredibly frustrating as an Islamic terrorist not to have your views and motives taken seriously by the societies you terrorize, even after you have explicitly and repeatedly stated them. Even worse, those on the regressive left, in their endless capacity for masochism and self-loathing, have attempted to shift blame inwardly on themselves, denying the terrorists even the satisfaction of claiming responsibility. It’s like a bad Monty Python sketch: “We did this because our holy texts exhort us to to do it.” “No you didn’t.” “Wait, what? Yes we did…” “No, this has nothing to do with religion....

Amnesty International has expressed alarm at reports that the authorities in Saudi Arabia are planning to execute dozens of people in a single day. The newspaper Okaz said 55 people were awaiting execution for "terrorist crimes", while a now-deleted report by al-Riyadh said 52 would die soon. They are thought to include Shia who took part in anti-government protests. Amnesty said that given the spike in executions this year, it had no option but to take the reports very seriously. The group believes at least 151 people have been put to death in Saudi Arabia so far this year -...

Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is challenging Republican leaders in Congress to officially stop taxpayer dollars from being used to bail out Obamacare. “If we don’t make this happen, then the American people have every right to be angry at the Republican leadership because this should be among our highest highest priorities at the end of this year,” the presidential contender says in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News. For years, Rubio has pressed leaders in his party to repeal the “risk corridor” provisions in Obamacare that would allow the federal government to effectively bail out insurance company losses from...

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier is an outspoken proponent of gun control (in a district which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation). So, when asked by 60 Minutes how people should respond to being near an active gunman, Lanier's response was bemusing as The Washington Times reports, saying that the "best option for saving lives before police can get there” would be for citizens to try to subdue, or even kill, the gunman.

The Obama administration has warned states to comply with federal efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in communities around the U.S. or else find their states subject to enforcement action. In a letter this week, the Office of Refugee Resettlement threatens states concerned about resettling Syrians with punitive responses if they refuse to accept the refugees. ORR explains that states may not refuse ORR-funded benefits for refugees on the basis of religion and national origin.“Accordingly, states may not categorically deny ORR-funded benefits and services to Syrian refugees,” ORR Director Robert Carey wrote in the letter. “Any state with such a policy...

For nearly two years, he was the second-most powerful Democrat in Washington, a famously confrontational, joyously profane White House gatekeeper who traded in his job as the first black president's right-hand man to run for mayor of Chicago, their shared, beloved hometown. Now, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff, is facing calls for his resignation amid disturbing questions on the latest and, arguably, most egregious, incident of police use of deadly force against an African American citizen.

A Polish government spokeswoman Elzbieta Witek has said that Poland’s former Prime Minister and current president of the European Council Donald Tusk should be tried for the way the 2010 Smolensk air crash, in which President Lech Kaczynski died, was handled. Witek said that Poland’s State Tribunal [court that handles cases against highest state officials] would be "a good thing" for Tusk. [....] “Tusk should be put before the State Tribunal, because he has a lot to answer for”, Lipinski said. “It is enough to recall giving away of the Smolensk investigation to the Russians,” he said. Lipinski reportedly accused...

WARSAW, Poland – Poland will not extradite Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski to the U.S. in an almost 40-year-old case after prosecutors declined to challenge a court ruling against it. Prosecutors in Krakow, who had sought the extradition on behalf of the U.S., said Friday they found the court's refusal of extradition to be "right" and said they found no grounds to appeal it.

Would Mayor Rahm Emanuel have been re-elected if voters had seen the video of Laquan McDonald's execution? No. Rahm would have lost the election. Why? Because he would have lost Chicago's black vote. Without the black vote, Rahm Emanuel would not be the 9.5-fingered boss of Bartertown. Black political figures would have been uneasy standing with Rahm. They would have run away. They couldn't stand with him.

CHICAGO (AP) -- After days of protests in Chicago since the release of a video showing a black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer, demonstrators were poised to disrupt Black Friday shopping with a march through the heart of the city's most famous retail district. Demonstrators scheduled the march on Friday, the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season that packs Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile. Activists hope to bring attention to the Oct. 20, 2014, slaying of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and an investigation into his shooting that some say was mishandled.