Free Republic

American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have “high confidence” that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence. But intelligence officials have cautioned that they are uncertain whether the electronic break-in at the committee’s computer systems was intended as fairly routine cyberespionage — of the kind the United States also conducts around the world — or as part of an effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential election. The emails were released by WikiLeaks, whose founder, Julian Assange,...

AS HILLARY CLINTON puts together what she hopes will be a winning coalition in November, many progressives remain wary — but she has the war hawks firmly behind her. “I would say all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump,” leading neoconservative Robert Kagan told a group gathered around him, groupie-style, at a “foreign policy professionals for Hillary” fundraiser I attended last week. “I would say that a majority of people in my circle will vote for Hillary.” As the co-founder of the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, Kagan played a leading role in pushing for America’s...

One of the terrorists who cut the throat of a village priest in an attack claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Isil) had been turne back from Syria and was under police supervision, wearing an electronic tag. -excerpt- It was also last night reported that the church had been on a "hit list" found on a 24-year old Algerian jihadi who had planned attacks last year in a Parisian suburb. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer sciences student, was arrested by French police who are investigating whether he was directed to carry out attacks on churches by Isil.

Still reeling from a truck attack in the French resort city of Nice on Bastille Day that left 84 dead and more than 300 wounded, France was hit yet again with Islamic terrorism, this time in the northern French town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. The carnage began at approximately 9am on Tuesday when two knife-wielding Muslim terrorists, chanting their battle cry of “Allahuakbar,” burst into a church during morning mass and took hostages. They then proceeded to murder, Jacques Hamel, an 86-year-old priest by slitting his throat before being shot dead by police snipers. Another hostage, gravely wounded by the attackers, is...

If the Obama administration needs any more clarity on what radical Islamic terrorism is all about, it was provided by Islamic State butchers in a Catholic Church in Normandy, France when they beheaded 86-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel as they chanted – wait for it “Allahu Akbhar” (God is great) As the Daily Mail reports: Two ISIS knifemen who stormed a church in Normandy forced an elderly priest to kneel before filming themselves butchering him and performing a 'sermon in Arabic' at the altar, a terrified witness has revealed. The attackers, claimed as 'soldiers' by ISIS, were both known to...

As the United Nations continues to drown in mega-scandals ranging from the systematic rape of children by UN “peace” troops to the vicious persecution of the whistleblowers who expose UN crimes, the global outfit's own inspectors have revealed that the prevailing approach to fraud within much of the UN is to basically ignore it. Indeed, many UN entities “continue to remain in a state of near denial with regard to fraud,” the investigators reported. The findings of the UN Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) highlighting widespread fraud, corruption, and impunity across the UN system, among other problems, represent another devastating blow...

Minister of Climate and Environment Vidar Helgesen has come under fire for publicly voicing his support for US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “It can be problematic that he is being explicit in his support,” Hilmar Langhelle Mjelde, Senior Researcher at the University of Bergen, told NTB. “As a senior politician and minister, the most appropriate thing would be not to announce one’s support or opposition toward a potential head of state. In an international context, party politics should ideally stop at the national border, and we must be able to work with a President Trump as well as a President...

AUSTRALIA has officially gone two years without people smugglers successfully bringing an ­illegal boat into the country. ..... The government’s uncompromising turnback policy has led to 28 boats being turned around, with 700 people on board, since Operation Sovereign Borders was implemented when the Coalition came to power in 2013.... nobody has died at sea during the operation. ..... It is stark contrast to the 50,000 people who arrived illegally on more than 800 boats during six years of Labor. More than 1200 people died at sea during the period.....

The leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee has already rocked the party's convention this week, but it might not be over quite yet. Cybersecurity experts and Democratic strategists worry that more emails could come out in what might be a slow drip of hacked messages deployed strategically throughout the election cycle for maximum impact. "Like everyone in DC, I immediately searched my name," an unidentified strategist who works with the DNC told BuzzFeed News. "I wasn't in there, which I was happy about, until I realized just how sinister this leak actually was." Russia is a prime suspect...

PHILADELPHIA — The Clinton campaign is bracing for another WikiLeaks email dump. Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign's communications director told reporters she wouldn't be surprised if the rogue organization notorious for publishing hacked documents releases more emails from the trove it stole from the Democratic National Committee. Palmieri said the campaign was not concerned about any of its emails or documents being released, and downplayed the impact another dump could have on the rest of the Democratic convention that will officially nominate Clinton for president Tuesday evening in a roll call vote of delegates. "We're not concerned about our emails....

Last line of article: "The mosque in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was inaugurated in 2000, built on a plot of land that was donated by Saint-Etienne’s sister parish, Saint Theresa's."

But it is Malik's backing of Mr Trump's controversial proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the US to stamp out Islamist extremism that has raised the most eyebrows. He said: "I'm a Muslim, of course, but you can't have people going around just shooting people and killing people just in the name of Islam." . . . Malik was born to the same father but a different mother to his half-brother Barack and holds dual Kenyan and American citizenship. He and the US President were once close - Malik was best man at Barack’s wedding to Michelle .

The more details that emerge surrounding the gruesome lethal attack on a priest in northern France Tuesday, the more it appears that the attack could have been foreseen and perhaps prevented. On Tuesday morning, two jihadists associated with the Islamic State entered the parish church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy while 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel was celebrating Mass in the company of several members of the parish. The assailants seized Father Hamel and slit his throat before taking the other members of the congregation as hostages.

Earlier this week, 47 Republican senators published an open letter informing the leaders of Iran that any nuclear deal with the United States that failed to be approved by the Senate would likely expire in 2017, once President Barack Obama’s term ended. You can read the full letter here. The letter enraged progressives, who immediately began accusing the senators of treason for having the audacity to publish basic constitutional facts about how treaties work. Here is but a small sampling of the response from the outrage brigade: Has anyone ever seen anything like that letter from Senate Repubs to Iran?...

Yiannopoulos was scheduled to lead a gay pride march through one of Sweden’s Muslim ghettos, however following an intensive security review and threat assessment by Breitbart’s security team, comprised of former Navy SEALs and intelligence community operatives, Breitbart has been forced to cancel the trip. The security analysis found significant potential threats against Milo, especially in light of the recent wave of Muslim terror attacks across Europe. “After a briefing by our security team and a review of the situation in Sweden, Breitbart News has cancelled Milo’s appearance at the Pride Järva parade on Wednesday, July 27. Despite Milo’s request...

Marion Maréchal Le Pen, the 26-year-old niece of France’s Front National leader Marine Le Pen has urged her fellow countrymen to join the military in a series of tweets following the beheading of a priest in Normandy this morning.

Two junior officers managed to set fire to their mess after allegedly having a duel with flare guns after a boozy formal dinner. The 2nd lieutenants apparently climbed into kayaks in the outdoor swimming pool at Allenby Barracks in Bovington and began firing at each other on Friday night. But one of the flares, designed to call for help at sea, managed to start a major fire in the seven-storey mess, which has been badly damaged. The Royal Military Police is now investigating how a flare fight apparently started outside the building managed to cause a fire in its top...

When two fanatics pledged to ISIS slit the throat of 85-year-old Father Jacques Hamel at mass on Tuesday morning, we steadied the knife. Our tolerance for Islam’s intolerance is the greatest weapon these blood-cult terrorists have. How, exactly, did we help kill that priest? We ignored the Islamist slaughter of Christians elsewhere. When Coptic Christians were murdered in Egypt, we dismissed it as an internal matter. When Christians were butchered in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, we merely shrugged.

The Western Pacific “island chains” are a persistent feature of Asia’s maritime geography. While their underlying fundaments remain constant, their specific strategic importance has evolved over time. Different major powers have thus interpreted, then re-interpreted and re-evaluated, the value of particular islands, the role they play in national military strategy, and their operational significance in a warfighting context. Chinese naval strategists such as former naval commander Admiral Liu Huaqing have devoted considerable attention to the island chains since the mid-1980s, examining how and where the island chains can hinder or support China’s maritime goals. Yet Chinese strategists are hardly unique...

By Michael P. Ramirez July 26, 2016 Once again, the vile and wretched refuse of mankind have attacked the innocent. ​ Our prayers go out for the families of Father Jacques Hamel, and the nun who is fighting for her life. We pray Our prayers go out for the people of ​France and for people everywhere who have fallen victim to these heinous acts of terror. The terrorists who continue to commit these brutal acts, attacking an 84 year old priest and a nun, demonstrate what they truly are, cowards, who prey on the weak, helpless and defenseless. ​ As...