Free Republic

Florida’s top Congressional Democrats broke with President Barack Obama on Tuesday over his administration’s decision to issue Fidel Castro’s niece a visa to attend a conference this week in San Francisco. The opposition of Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz came just hours after Republicans had blasted away at the visa decision —while failing to acknowledge that Republican President George W. Bush’s administration had allowed Mariela Castro to visit the United States three times a decade ago.

The UK’s double-dip recession is deeper than originally estimated, according to new figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). An updated assessment shows that gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of 2012, revised from last month’s initial estimate for the quarter of 0.2%. ...Although last month some analysts believed that the GDP estimate could be revised upwards, today’s second estimate confirms that the UK is in recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

Supporters of independence for Scotland will launch on Friday what they say is the biggest grassroots campaign in Scottish history, a move that could result in the demise of a 305-year-old union with England and the breakup of Britain. Seeking to tap into a cocktail of historical rivalry, opposing political tastes, and a perception that the British parliament in London does not nurture Scotland's national interests, the "Yes Scotland" campaign says it wants to win a referendum on independence in 2014 and for the country to become fully independent by 2016.

Europe’s Greek tragedy has now entered its final act, with potentially fateful consequences for the global economy—and for Barack Obama, whose reelection may hinge on the decisions of Germany in the coming weeks. The 2012 election will pivot on the public’s evaluation of the president’s economic stewardship, and a perceptible decline in the U.S. growth rate—which a badly handled Greek exit from the Eurozone would cause—could easily spell the difference between victory and defeat. Obama’s fate, then, may well lie in Angela Merkel’s hands. That doesn’t mean, though, that there’s nothing he can do about it. What are the economic...

Uncle Sam could soon be coming after you on Canadian soil. According to an article in Embassy Magazine, the Harper government is moving forward on several initiatives that could give U.S. FBI and DEA agents the ability to pursue suspects across the land border and into Canada. But, according to a RCMP officer, they're doing it in "baby steps." "We recognized early that this approach would raise concerns about sovereignty, of privacy, and civil liberties of Canadians," RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, the Mounties' director general for border integrity, told the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on May...

The advent of a new administration in Paris has shifted the balance of power in the European Union away from Berlin and German austerity — a development that has been welcomed in Athens as a source of renewed hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for the Greek population. by Giorgos Malouhos With regard to what we have seen in recent years, something changed at yesterday’s extraordinary summit: there were no “guidelines” prepared a few hours in advance by the German chancellor and the French president. François Hollande did not adhere to the “tradition” established by Nicolas...

GOP Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed concern Wednesday about the extent of the Obama administration’s efforts to protect the Pakistan doctor who was sent to prison in Pakistan for treason after helping to find Usama bin Laden. "This has been handled very poorly right from the time of the raid," King told FoxNews.com. Dr. Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the Al Qaeda chief in a May 2011 raid. The operation...

The Muslim Brotherhood quickly staked a claim Thursday for its candidate to advance to a runoff vote, saying its exit polls showed him leading in Egypt's landmark presidential election to succeed ousted leader Hosni Mubarak. As vote-counting began, exit polls by several Arab television stations also suggested the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi was ahead of the pack of 13 candidates. The reliability of the various exit surveys was not known, and a few hours after the end of two days of voting, only a tiny percentage of the ballots had been counted. But the swiftness of the Brotherhood's claim showed its...

Once again Europe's leaders have swooped into Brussels and vanished hours later without offering any clear way out of the pulsating crisis at hand. Greece scarcely made it on to the agenda. The hard decisions have been delayed until the next summit in late June. There was no agreement on use of the European bail-out fund (ESM) to shore up Club Med banking systems and take the strain off the sovereign states. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said the EU is at a "crucial moment" in its history. "We have reached a point in which the process...

First results after polls closed at 9pm last night showed Mohammed Morsi, the leader of the Brotherhood's political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, taking an early lead, seemingly confirming the group's own earlier exit polls. Analysts stressed that the count would be long and difficult, with a formal result only due on Tuesday. But other campaigns, including that of Amr Moussa, the former Arab League secretary-general long considered the front-runner, also said Mr Morsi was ahead and at least likely to gain one of the two spots in next month's run-off. Whether he will go on to win that...

Ros-Lehtinen calls out Chinese government in Seoul Posted By Josh Rogin Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 4:15 PM House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) participated in a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in Seoul Thursday and chastised the Chinese government for forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees who flee to China. "I too was a refugee," she said, standing beside Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and South Korea Assemblywoman Park Sun Young. "Having fled communist totalitarianism in Cuba, I have walked their lonely road and have experienced both the fears and the hopes that combine to motivate their arduous...

National Security: New documents obtained by a watchdog group show our commander in chief gave the name of a Navy Seal Team 6 commander to the makers of a movie about Osama bin Laden. Valerie Plame, call your office. Those documents, recently obtained by Judicial Watch, reveal that the Obama administration not only spiked the football and did an end-zone dance after the Navy SEALs dispatched bin Laden from his Club Pakistan abode, but was also willing to expose to the other side our playbook and the name of a SEAL commander. "These documents, which took nine months and a...

New Launch Facilities Under Construction at Musudan-ri, Possible Iranian Connection By 38 North New satellite photos from April 29, 2012 indicate that a major upgrade of North Korea’s Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground—more commonly referred to as Musudan-ri—underway since summer 2011, is making rapid progress. The new construction is intended to support future launches of rockets larger than the recently tested Unha—more capable liquid fueled space launch vehicles or missiles with intercontinental ranges—that will also overfly Japan, further aggravating regional tensions. In addition to a new launch pad under construction, much of the nearby village of Taepodong has been razed to...

The Muslim Brotherhood, a group that was once thought virtually extinct in Syria, has surprised everyone by staging a comeback. The Islamist group is, according to Reuters, a “dominant force” in the Syrian opposition. Similarly, in Egypt, the MB has become perhaps the most powerful group in the wake of the Revolution.This doesn’t sit well with everyone in the American conservative movement, and two factions are vying to define the Republican response to the increased power of political Islam. Leading what might be called the ‘to-hell-with-democracy’ strain of thought is Andrew McCarthy, a national-security columnist for National Review and senior...

30 N.K. officials either executed or killed: rights group 2012-05-24 21:58 Thirty North Korean officials, once involved in inter-Korean talks, are believed to have been executed either by firing squad or killed in staged traffic accidents, a human rights advocacy group said Thursday. Amnesty International raised the suspicions in its annual report, citing unconfirmed reports in July. The alleged purge suggests that North Korea used the officials as scapegoats for soured inter-Korean ties. Tensions still persist on the Korean Peninsula over the North's two deadly attacks on the South in 2010. North Korea has also ratcheted up military threats against...

A woman yesterday took command of a frontline warship for the first time in the Navy’s 500-year history. Commander Sarah West, 40, is now in sole control of HMS Portland, a Type 23 frigate and its mostly male crew of 185.

The two most important criminal organizations in Mexico are engaged in all-out war, and the most spectacular battles are being fought for the cameras as the combatants pursue a strategy of intimidation and propaganda by dumping ever greater numbers of headless bodies in public view — the victims most likely innocents. No longer limiting themselves to regional skirmishes, the older, established drug-smuggling Sinaloa cartel is now fighting the brash, young paramilitary Zetas crime organization across multiple front lines in Mexico in a desperate fight, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and security analysts on both sides of the...

A Senate panel expressed its outrage Thursday over Pakistan's conviction of a doctor who helped the United States track down Usama bin Laden, voting to cut aid to Islamabad by $33 million -- $1 million for every year of the physician's 33-year sentence for high treason.

The underwear bomb that surfaced in Yemen this month has reignited concern that al-Qaeda's bomb-makers are finding innovative ways to hide explosive devices - even placing them within the body. How worried should we be? A body cavity device would be just the latest chapter in the deadly cat and mouse game played between al-Qaeda and Western security officials when it comes to aviation. The terror group has consistently sought out new means of evading airport security regimes.

Ignore what the candidates say they'll do differently on foreign policy. They're basically the same man.If Barack Obama is reelected, he ought to consider making Mitt Romney his new secretary of state. I propose this far-fetched howler not because I'm trying to get into my own Dumb Idea Hall of Fame, or because white-male secretaries of state seem to be going the way of the dodo at Foggy Bottom (we haven't had one since Warren Christopher departed in 1997), or because I believe deeply in bipartisanship. (Although I do; it's been a long time since we've had a secretary of...