Free Republic

Thousands of soldiers marched solemnly Sunday through the crowded streets of Dublin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising against Britain, a fateful rebellion that reduced parts of the capital to ruins and fired the country’s flame of independence. The Easter parade through Dublin featured military ceremonies at key buildings seized in 1916, when about 1,200 rebels sought to fuel a popular revolt against Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. […] Many Dubliners opposed the insurrection as an act of treason in time of war, but public sentiment swiftly swung in the rebels’ favor once a newly arrived...

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone. CIA Director John Brennan has admitted that ISIS was decimated under George W. Bush, but has grown by 4,400% under Obama. In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies yesterday, CIA director John Brennan made a startling admission: The Islamic State was “decimated” under George W. Bush and had just “700-or-so adherents left” following the surge in Iraq. Said Brennan: [ISIS] was, you know, pretty much decimated when US forces were there in Iraq. It had maybe 700-or-so adherents left. And then it grew quite a bit in the...

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called on Tuesday for a “European pact for freedom and security” following the attacks in Brussels claimed by the ISIS group that killed around 35 people. “Today they hit Belgium, but they also hit the capital of the European Union,” Renzi said in a speech, vowing that “it will take months, perhaps years, but we will beat them”. […] “Europe must go all the way this time. We must invest in a common security and defense structure,” he said, adding that the debate over defense integration has been raging since 1954, when a plan to...

An Israeli minister on Tuesday suggested Europeans had ignored the danger of “Islamic terror cells” and focused on criticizing Israel instead, in a statement in response to the Brussels attacks. While offering condolences over the deadly bombings, Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis also hit out at Europe over its labeling of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. “I will repeat: many in Europe have preferred to occupy themselves with the folly of condemning Israel, labeling products, and boycotts,” Akunis, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on his Facebook page. …

A British man has been charged with using social media to incite racial hatred after posting anti-Muslim tweets in the days after the Brussels attacks. Matthew Doyle was charged Friday after more than a day of questioning by police. The 47-year-old is scheduled to appear in court Saturday. He is charged with publishing or distributing written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting and likely or intended to stir up racial hatred. …

“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us,” President Obama told reporters in Argentina on Wednesday. “They’re not an existential threat to us,” he said. A few sentences later, he described climate change as a “major” problem. […] “And so it’s important for the U.S. president and the U.S. government to be able to work with people who are building and who are creating things and creating jobs and trying to solve major problems like climate change…” At the same news conference, Obama thanked the Argentine president for supporting the Paris climate change agreement. It is worth remembering...

The South Carolina Senate has passed a bill setting up a registry for refugees that could be the first of its kind in the country if it becomes law. The bill, which passed Wednesday and now heads to the House for consideration, would require all refugees to register with the state Department of Social Services. The information would be shared with state police. The bill holds the sponsor of a refugee responsible for damages if a refugee were to commit an act of terrorism. …

Security officials have told The Associated Press that the Islamic State group has trained at least 400 attackers and sent them into Europe for terror attacks.[…] The officials say the fighters have been given orders to find the right time, place and method to carry out their mission. …

In response to the Brussels terror attacks, the German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière called on Tuesday evening for stronger European cooperation on exchanging personal data. “Data protection is all well and good, but in times of crisis security comes first,” de Maizière told public broadcaster ARD. “The external borders of the Schengen zone have too many gaps in them. We need a register which shows who’s coming in and who’s leaving.” The minister also called for joining up the various “data pots” which security services in EU member states compile. “Europe as a whole is threatened and we need...

In the wake of Tuesday’s deadly terrorist attack in Brussels, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade called the Obama administration’s strategy against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) “a complete failure.” “Days after Belgian law enforcement captured alive ISIS terrorist Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected ringleaders of the deadly Paris attacks, terrorists retaliated in Brussels by launching a series of explosions at the airport and train station. Thirty-four civilians are dead and 170 are injured,” Rep Ted Poe (R-TX) said in a statement Tuesday hours after blasts rocked a terminal of the...

MK Dr. Anat Berko (Likud), an expert on investigating terror, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday about the wave of bombings in Brussels earlier in the day that left 34 murdered, which was later claimed by Islamic State (ISIS). “Jihad tourism is returning home,” said Berko, referencing the large number of Muslim jihadists who left Europe for Syria and other battlefronts in the Middle East, and have now made their way back home. “The terror assault on European soil is nothing new. This is not the first assault, and also not the last. Jihad tourists are returning home to the...

“I fear that we ain’t seen nothing yet. According to Europol 3,000 to 5,000 European jihadists, who went to Syria to fight in the ranks of IS and similar terrorist groups, have meanwhile returned to Western Europe. Some of them hid among the hundreds of thousands of Islamic asylum seekers that entered Europe from Asia and Africa. “This is intolerable. Open borders are a huge safety risk. Our citizens are in mortal danger if we do not restore control over our own national borders”.

President Barack Obama is pledging that the U.S. will “do whatever is necessary” to help Belgium bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorist attacks that killed more than two dozen people at the airport and a subway station. He says the U.S. stands “in solidarity” with Belgium in condemning “these outrageous attacks against innocent people.” …

A British vote to leave the European Union could cost the economy £100 billion and 950,000 jobs by 2020, according to research commissioned by employers' group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The CBI said "Brexit" would deliver a serious shock to the British economy, regardless of any trade deals the country could negotiate with its former European partners. "This analysis shows very clearly why leaving the European Union would be a real blow for living standards, jobs and growth," CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said in a statement on Monday. "The savings from reduced EU budget contributions and regulation are...

An Australian TV station has released a shocking report showing its crew being attacked by masked men in a Stockholm suburb known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ due to its primarily Somali population. Since the report was filmed last month, Swedish police have dropped all charges, despite the migrants throwing missile and punches, fly kicking the journalist, and even running one over with a car. The Channel Nine crew and high-profile Australian news correspondent, Liz Hayes, had traveled to the Swedish capital to investigate how the migrant “overload” has affected Swedish society. Upon entering a migrant area, Rinkeby, they were quick to...

Hungary is clearly opposed to the reference in the text of the EU-Turkey agreement on migration, according to which migrants should be transported from Turkey directly to Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. EU leaders have decided that the routes of people smugglers must be closed, which means that order must also be restored at the borders, Orban told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday morning after the EU-Turkey summit on easing the worst migration crisis in Europe since WWII, according to hungarytoday.hu. EU and Turkey have released a statement following their meeting in Brussels on Monday, in which...

Germans turned out in force to vote in three state elections on Sunday, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party looking to profit from popular angst about Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcome of more than a million migrants. The election is the biggest test year of the German public response to the influx, totaling more than a million last year alone and showing no sign of halting, of refugees and other migrants from the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Merkel, who says Germany is a rich enough country to host desperate people and has a moral obligation to shelter...

EU countries should record data on visitors entering the visa-free area in Europe, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has said. “We want to know who is coming,” he added. The new travel registry would boost the security of European nations, de Maizière said in (an) interview (with) “Die Welt” published on Saturday. Specifically, the interior minister referred to the so-called Schengen visa-free zone, which currently incorporates 28 European countries, most of which are EU members. According to de Maizière, officials need to gather data on the visitors from countries outside the Schengen zone. …

The German interior ministry is appealing against a decision by the Berlin authorities to allow an Islamist to name his son Jihad, the Arabic word used for holy war. Reda Seyam fought for 18 months for permission to give his sixth child the name after the registry in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg initially rejected his application, saying the name was inappropriate because of its association with terrorism, and "may endanger the child". This week a court overturned the ruling, on the grounds that Jihad was "a recognised male forename in the Arab world and loved by Muslims"...

The streets are deserted after dark in a sleepy Swedish town which is a now no-go zone for women after eight sex attacks in three weeks. Women have been warned by police not to walk alone at night after the once peaceful town of Östersund was shaken to its core by a string of vicious attacks on females and even children by groups of young men of 'foreign origin'. First, two 10-year-old girls were groped at a bus stop by a gang of men who threatened to rape them. The following day, a woman told police she was punched in...