Free Republic

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned European Union leaders that violence from Islamic extremists could escalate if the EU rejects Turkey as a member... Turkey signed the association agreement for EU membership in 1963 and it is expected that a two-day EU summit this week will finally decide to begin formal membership talks, probably in the second half of next year... Taking Turkey’s 69 million, mainly Muslim, population into the Union is widely disputed... In Germany, leader of the Christian Social Union Edmund Stoiber told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that his party in government would do what it...

Here is a live map of different war zones. You can zoom in or out just like on Google Maps. Hover over different icons and more. Check out how close ISIS is to Baghdad. Yikes!

In the latest of a series of revelations, the Turkish authorities have allegedly been providing electricity to Tel Abyad -- a northern Syrian city just across the border from the Turkish city of Akçakale -- which is controlled by militants linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). More stunning is the not-so-secret presence of ISIL militants on the streets of Akçakale, in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, a reporter with the Birgün daily claimed in a piece published on Friday. His account echoes many other reports, revealing the risks Turkey is facing as fighting between Kurdish...

Paris – As the June 30 deadline approaches for a final nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, Iranians from all over the world overcrowded Villepinte Hall on Saturday June 13. They were Iranians from all walks of life with different tendencies, gathered in an annual meeting staged by National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The crowd wore Blue- colored shirts and stayed applauding the speakers for hours, featuring burning desire for freedom and democracy and demonstrating their desperate to topple the ayatollahs in Iran. Hundreds of figures and MPs from the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and the Middle...

With the June 30 deadline for a deal with Iran on halting its nuclear weapons program fast approaching, the Obama administration is playing its usual bait-and-switch game. When talks first began, the administration said its goal was to dismantle Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Now the administration seems willing to accept any deal the Iranians are willing to agree to that might slow Iran's race, even marginally, to build a bomb. In return, U.N. economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy would be lifted. But those sanctions are the one point of leverage we have against one of the most brutal...

Two MPs resign amid reported deaths of 15 people as outrage at government's response to pro-democracy protests spreads. Secret police raided homes near Damascus overnight, rights campaigners said , as popular opposition to President Bashar al Assad mounted following the bloodiest attacks on pro-democracy protesters. Security operatives in plain clothes wielding assault rifles broke into homes in the suburb of Harasta just after midnight on Sunday, arresting activists in the area, known as the Ghouta, or the old garden district of the capital. Security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad killed at least 112 people in the last two days...

Hezbollah, a radical Islamist movement, is recruiting Druze, Christian and Sunni men to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Lebanese daily news website the Daily Star reported Wednesday. The recruitment process, which is taking place in east Lebanon, is reportedly still ongoing. The new recruits are offered weapons and trainings to “to counter the threat of ISIS and its affiliates.” Lebanon is engaged in a battle against jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front along its northern and northeastern border with Syria

Ever since assuming office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama has had an affinity to tackle problems in respect to the Iranian regime through rapprochement and appeasement. This approach has manifested itself in giving unwarranted concessions to Tehran regarding its nuclear program and its regional ambitions, and ignoring the chaos and mayhem caused by the Iranian regime in the region. Obama thinks such tactics will eventually lead to the resolution of the problems that are riddling the Middle East. The reality is, the continuation of this failed policy will inevitably cause the exacerbation of the turmoil and possibly lead to...

Exemplar of the Obama administration – a US embassy hire, is ….. a terrorist. This is hardly the first time. Just like the “security force” the Obama administration hired to “protect” the consulate in Benghazi. They were savage jihadists, too. Now imagine this – the Obama administration is importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims –“refugees”– from this war torn region. If this is how the treasonous administration vets security personnel, what hope do Americans have that these “refugees’ have been properly vetted? None. On the contrary … “Security Guard at U.S. Embassy in Egypt Arrested as a Terrorist”, OODA Analyst,...

The former chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency delivered a stinging critique of the Obama administration’s Mideast policies on Wednesday, slamming its refusal to define the enemy as Islamic extremism, arguing that its approach towards Iran amounts to “wishful thinking,” and saying the U.S. has lost the trust of its allies in the region.

Israel has often complained that UNRWA, the UN body dealing with "Palestinian refugees," merely exists to continue the conflict without resettling the people it treats as the UN does with all other refugees, but apparently the Palestinian Arabs are unhappy with the organization too - for not giving them enough, and for giving too much to their brethern in Syria's Yarmouk neighborhood. Residents of Gaza defined as "refugees," namely the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, are protesting against UNRWA after the latter transferred resources to displaced Palestinian Arab residents of the Yarmouk...

The leader of a powerful Iraqi Shiite militia that is operating against the Islamic State has threatened to attack the US after members of allied militia were killed in a blast in Anbar province over the weekend. Shiite militias have claimed that the US killed the militiamen in an airstrike, but US officials denied that aircraft were operating in the area when the blast took place. Akram Abbas al Kabi, the “secretary general” of the Harakat Nujaba, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, blamed the US for a an explosion near Abu Ghraib last weekend that purportedly killed 10 members of the...

The feeling is growing in the international commentariat that the Islamic State may win: That the group will continue to gain territory in Syria and Iraq and will consolidate a permanent government, a state ensconced in the Islamic caliphate its leadership has proclaimed. I ended a recent article on a note of bravado, writing that in spite of its successes on the battlefield and elsewhere, it remains all but certain that Islamic State will ultimately be ground up and destroyed. Today I am less certain, and I have started to imagine what would happen if ISIS actually prevails. I am...

When American tanks smashed into Baghdad, Saddam had already completed construction of an anthrax production facility, which was a week away from going live. If it had been permitted to go into production, this one facility could have produced ten tons of weaponized anthrax a year. Experts estimate that anthrax spores that infect the skin will kill 50 percent of untreated victims. Inhaled anthrax will kill 100 percent of untreated victims and 50 percent of those receiving immediate treatment. That means that a mere 1 percent of Saddam’s annual production (200 pounds) sprayed by crop-duster over New York City would...

The comfortable, suburban Christians who are sitting in their armchairs and tut-tutting at us for being so uncharitable as to hold a Muhammad cartoon contest should take careful note of this. Islamic law asserts authority over non-Muslims. To send the signal that we will submit to Sharia blasphemy laws regarding drawing Muhammad, even if we are doing so out of a misguided sense of “respect,” will only embolden Islamic supremacists to make more demands. The endpoint of these demands is shown in this incident in Egypt. These comfortable, suburban Christians in the West are ensuring a future of harassment, persecution,...

LONDON, May 16 (IranMania) - Iran is working to obtain long-range missiles which could threaten the whole of Europe, the former head of Israel's military intelligence said, AFP reported. "Iran already has surface-to-surface missiles capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads with a 1,500 (930 miles) kilometer range but it will in the future have missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers, which will threaten the whole of Europe," Aharon Zeevi told a conference in Tel Aviv. Iranian President Mahmoud "Ahmadinejad is promising the end of history in two or three years' time and I suggest that we believe him,"...

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Against the backdrop of a pending deal over Iran's nuclear program, an unprecedented meeting took place in Washington, D.C., last week. The meeting between Israel and Saudi Arabia sent one more signal of an historic geopolitical change taking place in the Middle East. At the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel's incoming director general of the Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, met with Anwar Majed Eshki, his Saudi counterpart. These historic enemies shared an identical message: Iran is trying to take over the Middle East and it must be stopped. The meeting took place in public, but Israel and...

By Ariel Kahana Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — June 5, 2015 … President Barack Obama recently accused Israel of failing to live up to the high standards of Jewish moral responsibility. So for his benefit, here is a list of Israel’s contributions around the world that show its incredible moral responsibility. Jewish values “in many ways came to be my own values,” U.S. President Barack Obama told a sympathetic Jewish audience two weeks ago, eliciting enthusiastic applause. Anyone who saw Obama’s address at the Adas Israel congregation in Washington on May 22 could have easily thought that the American president...

Islamic State (ISIS) has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq and set up 'branches' as far away as Libya and the Sinai Desert - but now, it has set its sights on Algeria. Months after successfully conquering the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, Algerian authorities say that ISIS has attempted to expand westward to conquer the largely-desert border region between the two countries. On Thursday, the Algerian army raised its alert level to the highest level and has drafted some 50,000 troops to ward off ISIS ahead of an anticipated invasion...

To achieve success, Al Nusrah will have to continue to fend off multiple adversaries, including the Islamic State. Much of the second part of Al Jazeera’s interview was spent discussing Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization. Mansur gave Julani ample room to explore the differences between the two sides. In so doing, Julani said that scholars they trust have deemed the Islamic State to be “kharijite,” that is, similar to an early sect of Islamic extremists. Julani accuses the Islamic State of killing 700 members of Al Nusrah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor alone. And, he argues, while the...