Free Republic

President Barack Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser in New York on Tuesday evening that he had “ended two wars” during his presidency. In its recently released human rights report on Iraq, however, the State Department said that the Iraqi government had “lost effective control” over a large part of Iraqi territory to the Islamic State terrorist group. Also, according to the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2014, the group that the administration now calls ISIL was founded in the 1990s by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and fought against U.S. forces in Iraq before Obama removed U.S. troops from that...

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Congressmen Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) issued a press release today on a startling discovery they made during a July 17 meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna: There are two secret side deals to the nuclear agreement with Iran that will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the U.S. public. One of these side deals concerns inspection of the Parchin military base, where Iran reportedly has conducted explosive testing related to nuclear-warhead development. The Iranian government has refused to allow the IAEA to visit this site. Over the...

House Speaker John Boehner vows to do 'everything possible' to stop President Obama's newly struck Iran nuclear deal, as Congress formally begins consideration of the hard-fought pact.

“The U.S. Empire received a big boost from the 9/11 attack.” Former Rep. Ron Paul, the father of presidential candidate Rand Paul and past two-time candidate for the Republican nomination himself, writes in his new book that he believes “Zionism has played a role in our post-9/11 march toward empire.” Paul’s book, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity, was released last Friday. “Zionism has played a role in our post-9/11 march toward empire, and its influence has encouraged extreme interference in the Middle East,” Paul writes in a chapter entitled “Making America...

Head of state-affiliated Saudi TV channel reveals Saudi Arabia will 'seriously try to get' nuclear weapons following Iran deal. While US President Barack Obama claimed he prevented a nuclear arms race in the Middle East when he presented the Iran deal last Tuesday, a key source in Saudi Arabia laid bare that claim by expressing the country's sense of urgency to acquire its own nuclear weapon. Jamal Khashoggi, head of the Saudi Al Arab news channel that is owned by a prince of the ruling Saudi royal family, and who previously was the media aide to Saudi Arabia's ambassador to...

If President Barack Obama and other world leaders hoped the nuclear agreement with Iran would lead to normalized relations down the road, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has nipped that prospect in the bud. Speaking Saturday about the deal, the Islamic holy leader denied a wider shift in foreign policy. “We have repeatedly said we don’t negotiate with the U.S. on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues. There are some exceptions like the nuclear program that we negotiated with the Americans to serve our interests,” Khamenei said. Iranians are excited about the ramifications of the deal,...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowing to defy American policies in the region despite a deal with world powers over Tehran's nuclear program was "very disturbing".

A short while after the Islamist terrorist attack in Chattanooga, it came out that the French magazine Charlie Hebdo—its staff members the victim of an Islamist terrorist attack in France—will no longer draw cartoons of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. “We have drawn Muhammad to defend the principle that one can draw whatever they want,” Laurent Sourisseau, the magazine’s editor, said. “We’ve done our job. We have defended the right to caricature.”One can understand the impetus: Sourisseau survived the shooting after taking a bullet to the shoulder. When you just barely make it out of a slaughter in which 11 of your...

The United Nations approved U.N. accreditation Monday for the London-based Palestinian Return Center in a defeat for Israel which claims the organization is affiliated with Hamas and “openly promotes terrorism.” The center, which describes itself as an independent consultancy dedicated to find a solution for the Palestinian refugees in accordance with international law, has denied the Israeli allegations. It announced last Friday that it was starting legal action against Israel’s U.N. Mission for alleged defamation. […] Israel’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador David Roet said before the vote that the center “is not what it claims to be.” Roet said world media...

A senior Iranian cleric delivered Friday prayers in Tehran while standing behind a podium that declared, “We Will Trample Upon America,” according to photos released by Iran’s state-controlled media. Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, who was handpicked by the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader to deliver the prayers, delivered a message of hostility toward the United States in the first official remarks since a final nuclear deal was signed between Iran and world powers in Vienna last week. Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser and expert on rogue regimes, said that the official remarks by Iranian officials and clerics...

Vice President Joe Biden and a team of senior White House officials on Monday attempted to placate the American Jewish community’s concerns about the recent Iranian nuclear deal during an hour-long conference call with leaders and rabbis, according to an audio recording obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Biden spent nearly an hour trying to convince top Jewish leaders to support the nuclear accord and promised them that if Iran ever violates the deal, the United States is still prepared to carry out a military strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. However, Biden also conceded that the United States...

Is Jeb 'caving' on Iran? Scott Walker stokes Republican friction over whether to unravel nuke deal on 'day one' in 2017 or let it simmer. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the two calmest legs of the Republican Party's leading presidential triumvirate, are turning Iran into a vicious political primary footbal. The Wisconsin governor, Walker, is seizing on Bush's calm and unexcited approach to a nuclear deal reached last week by the Obama administration. He has pledged to invalidate the bargain on the first day of his presidency. The former Florida governor with the more famous political surname has said a...

Last week's successfully concluded Iran agreement is one of the two most important achievements of an otherwise pretty dismal Obama presidency. Along with the ongoing process of normalizing relations with Cuba, this move shows that diplomacy can produce peaceful, positive changes. It also shows that sometimes taking a principled position means facing down overwhelming opposition from all sides and not backing down. The president should be commended for both of these achievements. The agreement has reduced the chance of a U.S. attack on Iran, which is a great development. But the interventionists will not give up so easily. Already they...

The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the Iran nuclear deal and paving the way to lifting longstanding sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The 15-0 approval of the Iran nuclear deal clears one of the largest hurdles for the landmark pact, which will now go before the US Congress where it may face an uphill battle for confirmation. The UN vote came shortly after the European Union approved the nuclear deal, okaying the pact between the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany and Iran that lifts punishing economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange...

Germany believes Iran should rethink its stance on Israel as last week’s nuclear deal means it must “bear new responsibilities, at home and abroad”, Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday during his visit to the Islamic republic. […] “With the nuclear agreement and the economic recovery that will surely come after it, Iran will also bear new responsibilities, at home and abroad,” he told delegates at a conference in the capital. “You must understand that for us Germans, the security of the state of Israel is also of great importance. I understand how difficult the debate is, and we...

Over 28 years as head of the Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman emerged as a forceful torchbearer for American Jews. He counseled presidents and diplomats, CEOs and celebrities. He took on prominent figures over anti-Semitic remarks or representations—actor Mel Gibson among them—and accepted any ensuing apologies on behalf of an entire community. No other U.S. Jewish leader has wielded as much influence with policymakers, faith leaders and U.S. Jews. On Monday, Foxman retires as national director, a major moment of transition in American Jewish life that raises questions about the future of the organization known as the ADL. […] The ADL...

Reports that at least 50 girls were taken from the UK to Somalia for female genital mutilation are being investigated by Scotland Yard.Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Tonge contacted the Metropolitan Police after spotting a large group of girls on a flight from Heathrow last Saturday.The girls were said to be aged 11 to 17 and with their mothers or grandmothers.It comes as Bedfordshire Police secured the UK's first FGM protection order, preventing two girls from going abroad.The Metropolitan Police said officers from the Specialist Crime and Operations Command were investigating Lady Tonge's report.Speaking to the BBC, Lady Tonge said the...

Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration's decision to take the Iran deal to the United Nations before the U.S. Congress votes on it. Kerry made the remarks in an interview this morning on ABC News: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The ABC reporter, Jon Karl, asked, "But the bottom line, the UN is going to vote on this before Congress gets to vote on this?" "Well, they have a right to do that, honestly. It is presumptuous of some people to say that France, Russia, China, Germany, Britain ought to do what the Congress tells them...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- The family of the man who killed four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga said in a statement that their son suffered from depression and was not the person they knew. "There are no words to describe our shock, horror, and grief," said the statement, provided Saturday to the Associated Press by a lawyer representing the family of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. "The person who committed this horrible crime was not the son we knew and loved. For many years, our son suffered from depression. It grieves us beyond belief to know that his pain found its...

Not one day – not twenty-four hours after the Chattanooga jihad mass murder – the symbol of American individualism, capitalism, and the capital of the world, the Empire State Building, one of the foremost symbols of American freedom, celebrated the Muslim “holiday” of Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is the most violent month of the year in the Islamic world, because Ramadan is the month in which Muslims renew their devotion to Allah, and violent jihad is a supreme act of devotion to Allah. All told, 2,988 people were shot, burned, blown up, beheaded, or hacked to death...