Free Republic

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today asked for unanimous consent on his bill, the Expatriate Terrorist Act of 2014, that would strip Americans who join ISIS of their citizenship. Senator Hirono, D-Hawaii, objected. In his remarks offering the bill, Sen. Cruz discussed the rising threat of ISIS, his concerns with President Obama’s plans to arm the Free Syrian Army, and the support then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once gave to legislation, introduced in 2010 by former Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown, that closely mirrors the ETA of 2014. Specifically Sen. Cruz said: “All too often the...

(CNN) -- Hundreds of Kurdish fighters from Turkey have arrived in the Syrian Kurdish town of Ayn al-Arab to join a Kurdish militia group battling to hold off ISIS forces, activists said Saturday. Clashes continue in the area between the militia, called the People's Protection Unit (YPG,) and the ISIS fighters, according the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The latest ISIS advance in Syria has brought a swath of the country's north-central Kurdish region under siege, with Kurdish leaders warning of another humanitarian crisis without international intervention. The Syrian Kurdish town of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobani as it is...

A former Marine Corps Commandant told an audience that President Obama’s strategy to defeat Islamic State militants doesn’t have a “snowball’s chance in hell” of succeeding. Speaking at a conference in Washington, General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Crops at the end of the Bush administration and beginning of the Obama administration, said that he was skeptical that the U.S. had reliable ground forces in Iraq, the Daily Caller reported Friday. In June, Gen. Conway blasted the White House over the controversial prisoner swap of five terrorism suspects for alleged deserter Bowe Bergdahl.

Don’t let a rare act of bipartisanship fool you. Just because Congress came together (miraculously and quickly before, ahem, their midterm elections) in passage of a continuing resolution which also authorizes the training and arming of Syrian troops, doesn’t mean that the American people - or the military for that matter – are fully buying into the president’s plan. All the hustle and bustle on Capitol Hill this week laid bare the confusion and political calculation behind the White House’s recent push to go after the ISIS (ISIL) terrorist group, which increases its threats against the U.S. and its...

Pictures have emerged showing the Israeli Navy corvette Eliat (first ship of the Sa'ar 5 class) fitted for the first time with the new AESA radar MF-STAR by IAI. The MF-STAR - Multi-Function Surveillance, Track and Guidance Radar was fitted as part of an upgrade program for the 3 vessels of the class. Saar 5 class corvette Eilat fitted with the new IAI Elta EL / M-2248 MF-STAR (forward mast) The three Sa'ar 5 corvettes were built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in the USA for the Israeli Navy, based on an Israeli design. They are the largest surface warships in...

While there have been plenty of low-level terror bombings in Baghdad in recent months, until Sept 18, the more complex, infantry-based combat had been limited to the north....But in the evening of the 18th, utilizing a combination of VBIEDs, suicide bombers, mortars, and, according to Shafaaq, RPGs, ISIS fighters struck in the Khadhmiya Neighborhood in northern Baghdad. Khadimiyah is a majority-Shi’a neighborhood, actually a Shi’a holy city subsumed by Baghdad. It is the site of a major Shi’a shrine, the Al Khadhimiya Mosque, which is was built over the tombs of two major Shi’a imams. It is also the site...

Turkey's energy minister has declared a gas pipeline a "peace corridor" linking the Caucasus with the Balkans. "We open the project as a peace corridor that is the result of 15 years hard work by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Through the South Caucasus pipeline and its backbone, the Trans-Anatolia pipeline, we connect the Caucasus with the Balkans. I wish every country could understand the true value of these projects and contribute with us," Taner Yıldız said while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the South Caucasus pipeline in Baku on Sept. 20. The minister said energy security "ranks as one of...

ANKARA: Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey on Saturday, fleeing an onslaught by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, as Kurdish and opposition officials called for international help. The massive influx came as 49 Turks kidnapped by ISIS jihadists in Iraq in June were freed and returned to Turkey for emotional reunions with their families. On Saturday, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said at least 45,000 Syrian Kurds had crossed into the country. "As of now, 45,000 Syrian Kurds have crossed the border and entered the Turkish soil from eight entrance points," he said....

Ottawa confirms it has ratified a foreign investment treaty with China, more than two years after the controversial agreement was signed, as CBC News first reported Friday. The controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) will come into force on Oct. 1, said International Trade Minister Ed Fast in a news release Friday afternoon. […] China ratified the deal quickly, but the Harper government did not. The deal has also faced opposition from the NDP, as well as a First Nations group who challenged the agreement in court. The NDP issued a statement saying “the agreement will give...

In a surprise turn of events, U.S. space industry behemoth United Launch Alliance, or ULA, and Blue Origin — a secretive space startup owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos — have unveiled an American rocket engine that may end Russia's supremacy in the field. [....] The development of the engine, known as the Blue Engine 4, or BE-4, will certainly strike NPO Energomash, Russia's premier rocket engine design firm, analysts say.

The Kremlin has dismissed as "one more hoax" a report that cited Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as telling European officials that Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had made veiled threats about the security of EU members. [....] Earlier this month, Italy's la Repubblica quoted Putin as telling Barroso in a telephone conversation that if he wanted to, Russia could capture Kiev in two days....

Full Headline: Where did the green 'alien eggs' come from? Scientists baffled by UFOs (Unidentified Floating Objects) that washed up on a Sydney beach The strange round objects are thought to be a rare type of living algae, brought ashore by warmer weather and rough conditions Scientists think the algae might form into balls to protect itself from hungry fish ...

A majority of Likud voters believe that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should launch a diplomatic initiative that would eventually yield a Palestinian state alongside Israel, according to a new poll commissioned by the Geneva Initiative. The survey, which was done for the Geneva Initiative by New Wave Research, found that 53 percent of Likud voters and a majority of the general public (58 percent) believe that the government should make a renewed push toward a settlement with the Palestinians in the wake of the seven-week military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Erik Prince says his old private army could have dealt with the Islamic State militants on their own—and that Republicans need to start fighting ‘like we pay them to.’ Erik Prince has a message for ISIS: You’re lucky Blackwater is gone. On Friday night, the controversial founder of the private military company had plenty to say about what the organization he once ran could be doing in the fight against the so-called Islamic State—and also why Republicans need to stop being such losers. “It’s a shame the [Obama] administration crushed my old business, because as a private organization, we could’ve...

BAGHDAD: France carried out its first air strike against the Islamic State group in Iraq on Friday, boosting US-led efforts to unite the world against the growing threat posed by the Jihadists. More than a decade after Paris famously refused to back the invasion of Iraq, France became the first nation to join the US campaign of air strikes in the war-torn country. “This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorist organisation (IS),” President Francois Hollande said. His office said the target was in northeastern Iraq, without specifying exactly...

ISTANBUL— Dozens of Turkish hostages being held by the radical Islamic State group have been released. The hostages arrived in Turkey in the early hours of Saturday, local time, after being held for 101 days. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in a written statement that 49 Turkish hostages held by Islamic State had been released through the efforts of Turkey’s intelligence agency. The Turkish Foreign Ministry says all the hostages are in good condition. The hostages are Turkish diplomats and their families, including women and young children, who were taken in June when Islamic State militants overran Mosul, Iraq’s...

French military planes have killed a large number of Islamic State (IS) insurgents west of Mosul. An intelligence source near Mosul told Iraqi local media that on Saturday, 75 IS militants were killed in an attack by the French warplanes. The source said that French planes have been shelling IS air defense bases. According to the source, IS insurgents have started to transfer their military bases to protect themselves from US and French air strikes. On Friday, French military planes launched their first air strikes against IS militants in Mosul. This followed orders from French President Fracios Hollande’s for his...

SHACHE COUNTY, China – The month of Ramadan should have been a time of fasting, charity and prayer in China’s Muslim west. But here, in many of the towns and villages of southern Xinjiang, it was a time of fear, repression, and violence. China’s campaign against separatism and terrorism in its mainly Muslim west has now become an all-out war on conservative Islam, residents here say. Throughout Ramadan,police intensified a campaign of house-to-house searches, looking for books or clothing that betray “conservative” religious belief among the region’s ethnic Uighurs: women wearing veils were widely detained, and many young men arrested...

An Indian court Saturday sentenced 13 people, including a village headman, to 20 years in jail for gang-raping a tribal woman as a punishment for "dishonoring" her community. The 20-year-old woman was gang-raped on orders from tribal village elders who objected to her relationship with a man from a different community. The attack took place in January in a remote village in eastern West Bengal state, where the unmarried woman from the Santhal group, one of India's largest tribes, was suspected of having a relationship with a man from another village. All the 13 accused were found guilty on charges...

PRIME Minister John Key has won an emphatic victory in New Zealand’s general election to return for a third term in office. Labour Party leader David Cunliffe said in a concession speech Saturday night that he called Key to congratulate him on his victory. The result will be seen as an endorsement of the way Key’s National Party has handled the economy.