Free Republic

A European Union cyber-security agency was in Athens to conduct the largest exercise ever held on the continent to prevent attacks on Europe’s public utilities and communications networks. The director of the European Network and Information Security Agency, Udo Helmbrecht, told The Associated Press that Thursday’s one-day exercise involving 29 countries and 200 agencies dealt with attack scenarios against “critical infrastructure.” …

Police brass haven’t talked about drones as potential weapons, until now, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reported Wednesday. The NYPD is actively looking for ways to stop an attack by a drone. The department told Pegues there is no intelligence showing an imminent threat, but over the last year the country’s largest police force has been increasingly concerned about a potential terror attack from the air by a drone. “We look at it as something that could be a terrorist’s tool,” Deputy Chief Salvatore DiPace said. “We’ve seen some video where the drone was flying at different targets along the...

Egypt responded strongly to a Hamas jihadi terror attack that killed 30 Egyptians soldiers, with helicopter strikes, a curfew of 100,000 people, and the announcement they are going build a security wall.  to control the border with Gaza.  Unlike President Obama, Egyptian President Al-Sisi has no trouble identifying the enemy and didn’t feel the need to assure people that Islamic terrorists are lone wolves, representing nothing and no one.  Instead he asserted the attack was supported by foreign forces.  He vowed to protect the lives of Egyptian military at home and to pursue an “extensive war” against the jihadists,...

The “friendly fire” airstrike that killed five American soldiers in Afghanistan on June 9 is the first known case of a battlefield catastrophe that can be linked to automatic defense spending cuts that greatly curtailed prewar training. A review of the worst American fratricide in the long Afghanistan war also shows that the military’s official investigation faults a Green Beret commander, an Air Force air controller and the four-man crew on the B-1B bomber that conducted the errant strike. PHOTOS: Top 10 U.S. fighter jets But the investigation, headed by an Air Force general, does not question the use of...

Ten senior members of North Korea’s ruling party have been executed after they were caught watching soap operas. The officials were killed on the order of dictator Kim Jong-Un, taking the number of senior government and military members executed this year to 50, South Korea's intelligence agency have said. The ten were ‘executed by firing squad for watching South Korean soap operas, bribery or womanising’.

* * * SPIEGEL ONLINE: You constantly speak of fighting. Do Muslims not constantly speak of Islam being a religion of peace? Abu Sattar: It is when people submit to Allah. Allah is merciful and forgives those who follow him.

The oft-perpetuated myth, that rapid economic reforms post-Cold War drove the Eastern bloc into early recession, has been debunked by an economics professor at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute’s conference on the Cold War. In his research, economics professor Oleh Havrylyshyn, who works at the University of Toronto and George Washington University, found that “countries that moved early, moved fastest, and went furthest in market liberal and market reforms are the very same countries that have had very sharp increases in GDP per capita.” He compared Ukraine to Poland and concluded, “Poland and Ukraine had about the same standard...

As many as 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees released within the last two to three years are suspected by intelligence and Defense officials of having joined forces with the Islamic State and other militant groups inside Syria, Fox News has learned. The development has cemented fears that the U.S. military would once again encounter militants taken off the battlefield. The intelligence offers a mixed picture, and officials say the figures are not exact. But they are certain at least some of the released detainees are fighting with the Islamic State, or ISIS, on the ground inside Syria. Others...

As many as 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees released within the last two to three years are suspected by intelligence and Defense officials of having joined forces with the Islamic State and other militant groups inside Syria, Fox News has learned. The development has cemented fears that the U.S. military would once again encounter militants taken off the battlefield. The intelligence offers a mixed picture, and officials say the figures are not exact. But they are certain at least some of the released detainees are fighting with the Islamic State, or ISIS, on the ground inside Syria. Others...

You really have to watch the clip of President Obama strutting his self-righteous anger at states that are imposing Ebola quarantines. I, Barack thunders that such quarantines reflect a lack of leadership, and "that's not who I am." Thanks, sir, for letting us know what a strong leader you are. On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough scalded President Obama's self-righteous hypocrisy. Mockingly quoting the President, Scarborough said "'This is America. And we do things differently.' Unless it's Barack Obama's overseeing the military." Where of course a quarantine is being imposed on soldiers returning from Ebola hot zones. In the unkindest...

Palestinian activists have hailed a decision by SodaStream International, an Israeli-owned soft drink company, to close its controversial factory in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, calling the decision a victory for the campaign for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions.

Apple CEO Tim Cook came out Thursday, announcing that he is gay in a column in Bloomberg Businessweek. "Let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me," he wrote. Cook has not publicly discussed his sexual preferences before now, despite some rumors and speculation that he is gay. A year ago he announced support for a federal law which would have protected workers from facing discrimination based on their sexual orientation. "For too long, too many people have had to hide that part of their identity in...

Bill Maher has been banned from Berkley due to his Islamaphobic beliefs. He’s been in the hot seat for weeks now because he dared to imply there may be an innate streak of violence within Islam that has nothing to do with our foreign policy. This is blasphemy among the left; they are happy to sacrifice one of their own to the Gods of political correctness if he strays from the path. The “Why they hate us” meme is the myth that will not die. Suicidal maniacs are portrayed by both sides of the American political spectrum as rational adults...

A group of former U.S. Special Operations Veterans have launched a crowdfunding campaign, Operation Limitless Compassion, to help the Kurds fight off ISIS terrorists in Iraq. Castle International, a world-wide air ambulance company founded and operated by former special operations volunteers, is leading the way to provide pro-U.S. Kurdish fighters with desperately needed humanitarian aid, medical training, medical supplies, and combat training. Recon teams from Castle International have already deployed to northern Iraq to offer direct assistance to Kurdish fighters and more will head to the region in November. Castle International has launched two crowdfunding sites to gather donations, GoFundMe...

....Obama administration officials have called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "chickenshit" and other impolite words has raised eyebrows at home and abroad. President Obama — who is much too diplomatic to use those terms himself, even if he was really thinking them — has endured a day full of jabs about his loose-lipped underlings.... .....Not that Bibi will admit to those charges. "Our supreme interests, chiefly the security and unity of Jerusalem, are not the main concern of those anonymous officials who attack us and me personally, as the assault on me comes only because I defend the State of...

The Philippines on Thursday urged hundreds of its citizens to leave Ebola-hit west African nations, as it announced anyone who returned would be placed under a 21-day quarantine. Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the government had made a "voluntary repatriation" call to about 900 workers in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. He told a local television network that President Benigno Aquino III had also ordered those who did return would have to be isolated in a government facility. "The president has asked us to come down with a ruling, anyone coming from those countries, they must undergo a...

(Reuters) - France said on Thursday that the conditions were not yet met to deliver the first of two controversial Mistral warships to Russia, contradicting reports that Russia had received an invitation to take delivery on Nov. 14.

U.S. government officials joined health experts from throughout the Americas at an Ebola conference in Cuba on Wednesday, the latest show of cooperation between the historic adversaries on fighting the disease. The meeting organized by ALBA, a bloc of leftist-governed countries, aims to coordinate a regional strategy on the prevention and control of Ebola, which has killed about 5,000 people in West Africa but in the Americas has only reached the United States. U.S. military personnel and Cuban medical specialists are already posted in West Africa and prepared to work side by side if needed, officials have said, and Washington...

The White House on Wednesday sought to tamp down the controversy over a magazine piece that detailed deep tensions between the U.S. and Israel – and quoted an unnamed senior Obama administration official calling the Israeli leader a “chickenshit.” Administration officials, including White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, did not deny the quote. They also did not signal there would be any robust effort to find out who said it. But Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the criticism does not reflect how the rest of the administration views Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Certainly that's not the...

On Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Thomas Frieden announced a new policy on health care workers returning from Ebola-plagued West Africa. Parroting President Obama’s Saturday radio address, Frieden cautioned that Americans must be “guided by the science,” not fear. Sorry. The Obama administration’s halfway approach is based on political correctness, not science. And it is a gamble. According to Frieden, about five health care workers fly back from West Africa to the U.S. every day, landing at Chicago, Newark, Atlanta, New York’s JFK or Dulles outside of Washington, D.C. For months, the CDC did almost nothing to...