Free Republic

A top White House national security adviser and key proponent of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran is the focus of a congressional inquiry following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration’s efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House. Since that...

Muhammad and Freya are among the most popular first time baby names on Irish passports in 2016, the Irish government has revealed. The rise in Arabic names is a reflection of the increasing multicultural nature of Ireland and where new immigrants are coming from. The 2011 census showed 50,000 Muslim migrants living in Ireland, up from 36,000 in the census taken in 2006. Freya means “beloved” in Arabic, while Muhammad means “praiseworthy” and is also, of course, the name of Islam's founder. They ranked at numbers 42 and 117, respectively. …

Sweden’s Migration Agency accepted 77 percent of the record 112,000 asylum claims it processed in 2016, it has revealed in its end of year figures. The agency processed twice as many decisions in 2016 as it did in 2015, putting on track to clear the backlog built up during Europe’s refugee crisis. Some 17,000 asylum seekers were registered as refugees, 47,000 were given a permit due to “alternative needs of protection”, and 5,880 withdrew their applications. “We’re handling it,” the agency’s General Director Mikael Ribbenvik told Sweden’s TT newswire after issuing the figures in a press statement. “In the autumn...

Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Germans on Saturday to hold firm to democratic values in the face of jihadist terror, urging them to counter “murderers who are full of hate” with compassion and cohesion. In her New Year’s address delivered less than two weeks after a Tunisian suspect rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, Merkel acknowledged it was “bitter and sickening” that the attack and others in July were carried out by asylum seekers. Nevertheless, she defended her decision in September 2015 to let in tens of thousands fleeing war from mostly Arab...

Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year message. Referring to the deadly truck attack in Berlin by a Tunisian asylum seeker, she said it was "sickening" when acts of terror were carried out by people who had sought protection. She said 2016 had been a year of "severe tests". But she also said she was confident Germany could overcome them. "As we go about our lives and our work, we are saying to the terrorists: 'You are hate-filled murderers, but you do not determine how we live and want to...

Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling Germans in her New Year message that their country is stronger than terrorism and the government will do everything to ensure “security in freedom.” Merkel said in her annual televised address being broadcast Saturday that 2016 had been “a year of severe tests,” the toughest of them Islamic extremist terror. She added, however, that she is “confident for Germany.” On Dec. 19, 12 people were killed in a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that rampage, as it did for two attacks in Bavaria in the summer...

French citizens will contribute an extra €1.60 ($1.67) on their property insurance policies to help finance a fund for victims of the extremist attacks that have recently hit the country. The measure comes into force on Sunday and requires policy holders to contribute €5.90 instead of €4.30. French government officials said in October when they revealed the scheme that about 90 million insurance policies are floating the fund, which currently has reserves of €1.45 billion. …

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has joined the outgoing U.S. administration in defending the two-state solution as the best way to achieve lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A spokeswoman for the 28-nation bloc reiterated the EU's support for the two-state solution on Thursday, the day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tore into Israel for settlement-building.

The New York Police Department is now allowing officers to wear beards and grow turbans in a bid to accommodate Sikh recruits. Sikh officers will be allowed to wear turbans in place of the traditional police cap and grow beards up to a half-inch long, which are required for religious reasons. Police Commissioner James O'Neill announced the new rules that affect all religious members on Wednesday following a graduation ceremony for new police recruits.

French MP Meir Habib called his country’s hosting a Paris “peace conference” next month to which neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority were invited to be a “disgrace.” “This conference is a disgrace. It isn’t a peace conference. It’s an international disgrace. President Obama failed a thousand percent in everything he did in the Middle East. He left 400,000 people to die in Syria, and all of their murderers will go free. Now a few days before the end of his term, he wants to go to this conference to force Israel back to the ’67 borders, the ‘Auschwitz borders,’”...

The best way to fight terror is with “openness”, European Union (EU) head Jean-Claude Juncker has said, stressing that Europe must continue to receive migrants in the wake of the deadly truck attack in Berlin. Speaking to Funke Mediengruppe on Saturday, the president of the European Commission warned that the “rhetoric of exclusion” strengthens terrorists, and called for more EU involvement in nations’ internal security. Standing firm on the idea that liberalism is the best response to repeated attacks on Europeans, the EU chief said: “Our values, our way of living together in freedom, coexistence, and openness are the best...

In his annual Christmas address to the nation, German President Joachim Gauck has said that anger and rage at terrorism must not turn into hatred and violence. He called instead for good judgment and attention. […] Gauck warned that these emotions should not be allowed to dominate, adding that anger must not turn into hate and violence. Instead, it is about being united and defending compassion. Anyone who is “sensitive, responsive and helpful” can “transform anger and rage into forces that resist the hatred, violence and contempt of others,” Gauck said in his last Christmas speech as the German President....

In his traditional greeting to the Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention taking place in Toronto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commended the Muslim community for its contributions to Canada and reiterated his commitment to combat Islamophobia and politics of hate and division. “Canada is stronger because of the contributions of its Muslim community. We are stronger because of you. And that’s why every day we just chose hope over fear and stand up to the politics of hate and division,” said Trudeau. “That is why our government supports initiatives that encourage inclusion and equality, combats Islamophobia and strengthens the protection...

CHRISTMAS treats have been taken off a menu and replaced with 'winter delicacies' over fears the phrase would offend Muslims. A function held at the Austrian embassy in Germany still served traditional festive fare such as Lebkuchen but rebranded them as 'winter delicacies'. The event was a presentation by the Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, who has written the book What Do Muslims Do at Christmas?: Islamic Faith in Everyday Life in Germany. The invitation to guests, from ambassador Nikolaus Marschik, was described as a “cosy get-together with winter delicacies.” A reporter attending the...

Europe’s open borders may symbolize liberty and forward thinking for some — but they increasingly look like the continent’s Achilles’ heel. Europe’s No. 1 terrorism suspect crossed at least two borders this week despite an international manhunt, and was felled only by chance, in a random ID check. The bungled chase for Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri is just one example of recent cross-border security failures that are emboldening nationalists fed up with European unity. Extremist violence, they argue, is too high a price to pay for the freedom to travel. Defenders of the EU’s border-free zone say the security...

He was just looking for a better life. It’s not his fault. ------------------- "In what might possibly be the fakest news headline in this era of "fake news," the Associated Press delivers a whopper of a headline that actually sympathizes with a vicious murderer." “Troubled Berlin attack suspect sought better life in Europe.” The article then drips with compassion: "Desperate and drifting, Anis Amri took the path trodden by countless other North African teenagers: an illegal boat journey to Europe in hopes of a better life. He fell into crime instead — and is now suspect No. 1 in the...

MILAN, Dec 23 (Reuters) - The suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was killed in a pre-dawn shoot-out with police in a suburb of the northern Italian city of Milan on Friday, Italy's interior minister said. "The man killed was without a shadow of doubt Anis Amri," Marco Minniti said, referring to the 24-year-old Tunisian who is suspected of driving the truck that smashed through a Berlin market on Monday killing 12 people. Minniti told reporters that Amri was stopped by two policemen at around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) in front of the Sesto San Giovanni train station,...

>> Read full context at RCP. The most interesting part: MANES: I'm referring to the November 8 election. There's been so much sort of collective good that's going on. And I'm not trying to downplay that. But there is so much licensed hate right now. And I'm hearing it more often than I've ever heard it in my life.

A State Department spokesman on Monday chose his words carefully in condemning the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey and the killing of 12 people run down by a truck at a Christmas market in Germany. He said he “couldn’t rule out” that the shooting in Ankara may have been a terror attack, and referred to “the horrendous events” in Berlin. President-elect Donald Trump had no qualms preempting investigations and calling both incidents — along with a shooting near a mosque in Zürich — “terror attacks.” “Today there were terror attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany — and it...

The United Nations (UN) is biased against Israel and obsessed, Ban Ki-moon acknowledged. “We must never accept bias against Israel within UN bodies,” he said in a statement delivered Friday to the UN Security Council, summarizing his 10 years in office. Ban admitted that the UN has a “disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel” and that “in many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively.” “The Secretary General admitted the clear truth, the UN’s hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past...