Free Republic

A letter written in Kurdish by a prisoner in Turkey’s southeastern Elazig prison has been censored by prison authorities for being in an “unknown language.”The letter, written by political prisoner Murat Akkurt to his brother, who is being held in Bitlis prison, was censored and prevented from being sent by prison authorities for being in the Kurdish language, reported Dihaber.The incident is the latest in a string of similar acts of censorship by the government. Signs in the Kurdish language were removed by state appointed trustees following the dismissal of Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) mayors following Turkey’s coup attempt.The Kurdish...

US Central Command General Joseph Votel has promised the defence of Manbij from any possible attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups, according to reports.In a visit to the autonomous region in northern Syria (Rojava) on Friday, which was reported by Kom News, General Votel met with Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) officials in a four hour meeting.Speaking to AFP, SDF spokesperson Talal Silo commented on the meeting saying, “We talked about the coordination between the SDF and Washington and increasing support for the SDF. They promised us heavy weapons for the upcoming...

Americans' patronising views of their southern neighbour are ill-informed, outdate and about to backfire on them Visiting California, I'm always shocked how Americans-even vaping, Prius-driving liberal Democrats-treat their Mexican staff. Need someone to toil in the sun for 12 hours on minimum wage? Need a nanny who won't kick off when you're constantly late? Hire a Mexican. Employers engage little with these people who inhabit their yards and homes(the language barrier is cited) but if they do, the tone is exquisitely patronising. Mexicans aren't so much individuals as a class of biddable brown Untermensch. Likewise President Trump has addressed the...

<p>The Judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, wrote in his ruling that Trump's comments were "disturbing and disappointing" but didn't constitute unlawful command influence. Nance agreed with prosecutors' arguments that Trump's comments amounted to campaign-trail rhetoric, and the judge wrote the comments shouldn't harm potential jurors' impartiality.</p>

Some disturbing news out of the Netherlands this week. The campaign of upstart politician and Member of Parliament Geert Wilders has suspended all public appearances and rallies in a move which is expected to last through the election next month. Wilders has been a constant target of threats throughout his career but now things have gotten extremely serious. A plot was uncovered which could have placed him in extreme peril, hence this move to stay out of the public eye for a while. (NewsTalk.com) Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherland’s rising populist anti-migrant right, has suspended public campaigning...

"...veterans of past administrations and members of Congress from both parties criticized the decision to put Mr. Bannon on the principals committee, saying that it risked injecting politics into national security. President George W. Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, was generally kept out of sensitive national security meetings. Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, attended some national security meetings but was not given formal status." "As for Bannon, who may be cut from the NSC, Trump's decision will be carefully watched as such a move would be potentially perceived as a relaxation of Bannon's influence over Trump, a topic which...

Shortly after the mainstream media erupted in hysteria and neo-McCarthyistic attacks against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for having a routine conversation with the Russian Ambassador and for once having dinner with the President of Russia as part of an event, aging warmonger Senator John McCain recently announced that he had traveled illegally into Syria to meet with U.S. troops illegally stationed there as well as to meet with ISIS supporter and President of Turkey, Recep Tayip Erdogan. McCain also met with the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and crown prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu...

One day after president Trump remarked in a speech at a conference that a friend thought "Paris is no longer Paris" after attacks by Islamist militants, French President Francois Hollande fired back at Donald Trump on Saturday. During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Trump repeated his criticism of Europe's handling of attacks by Islamist militants saying a friend "Jim" no longer wanted to take his family to Paris. Hollande said Trump should show support for U.S. allies. "There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show...

A Republican congressman has called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and was in touch with President Donald Trump’s team during the campaign. Rep. Darrell Issa of California says it would be improper for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to lead the investigation. Issa made the comments Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” …

The first Latin American president to visit Donald Trump at the White House told the U.S. leader Friday he prefers “bridges to walls,” sending him a gentle rebuke of his controversial proposal to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a U.S.-educated former Wall Street banker, has emerged as an unlikely leader in Latin America, taking a strong stand against Trump’s “America First” agenda while many in the region remain silent. Kuczynski, 78, characterized his meeting with Trump as “cordial and constructive” and said he told Trump he was interested in the free movement...

The lessons of the Ukrainian terror famine, in the age of Putin The Ukrainian term “Holodomor” has yet to enter the world’s genocide vocabulary, as “Shoah” and “Cambodia” and “Rwanda” have done. But we should hope that the world soon becomes as familiar with “the Holodomor” as it has with “the Holocaust”: not for the sake of a comparative wickedness contest and still less to deny the singular character of Hitler’s Final Solution, but to honor the victims of one of the most pitiless exterminations of a population in history — and to take from their awful fate some important...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stressing the need to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after President Donald Trump signaled that he could accept a different outcome. […] Merkel said: “I think we must continue on the way to a two-state solution. I see no other possibility becoming reality to achieve a peace process.” …

On Wednesday Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy issued a memo to his state’s authorities, telling them to ignore federal law regarding illegal immigrants. Malloy declared Connecticut a sanctuary state. On Friday a previously deported illegal alien murdered his girlfriend and kidnapped her six year-old daughter. Oscar Obedio Hernandez, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested on Friday night.

(UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Rips Security Council’s ‘Breathtaking’ Anti-Israel Bias)United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley issued a scathing criticism of the UN Security Council over their “anti-Israel” bias on Thursday after emerging from her first regular monthly meeting at the international body. “I have to admit; it was a bit strange,” Haley said of the council’s agenda.The former South Carolina governor noted that while it is the UN Security Council’s mission to discuss ways to maintain international peace and security, their meeting on the Middle East failed to address some of the region’s most pressing issues —...

(snip) Since Trump owes his election to the presidency primarily to those "standard conservatives," what we applied to Cruz (i.e., that it is no longer considered to be politically risky for a conservative, self-proclaimed "anti-establishment" candidate to openly place a man who is a CFR member in a prominent slot) also applies to Trump. For the "standard conservative," the fact that McMaster is a CFR member is largely irrelevant. When considering how relevant McMaster’s CFR membership may be in his strategic position in the Trump administration, we should examine how closely he adheres to the CFR’s record for advancing internationalism,...

The U.S. media debate has been misleading, but the biggest problem is that the Swedish political establishment doesn’t want to know the answer. Last Saturday, another controversy erupted involving the now familiar mix of President Trump, the media, and immigration. In a speech, Trump riffed on a Fox News segment he’d seen on immigration and crime in Sweden, causing much confusion. The situation hardly improved as journalists and pundits mostly unfamiliar with the topic rushed to explain the finer points of Swedish crime statistics. So, what is the situation actually like? Nightmarish rape capital of Europe or a safe welfare...

President Trump's new National Security Advisor doesn't believe it is "helpful" to say the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism." President Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser has told his staff that Muslims who commit terrorist acts are perverting their religion, rejecting a key ideological view of other senior Trump advisers and signaling a potentially more moderate approach to the Islamic world. The adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, told the staff of the National Security Council on Thursday, in his first “all hands” staff meeting, that the label “radical Islamic terrorism” was not helpful because terrorists are “un-Islamic,” according to people...

It has become a staple of diplomatic rhetoric that, whatever problems the United States has with the current government in Turkey, diplomats must ameliorate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because Turkey is too important to NATO and also a staging ground in any operations against the Islamic State.A Turkish flag (R) flies among others flags of NATO members during the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir. Certainly, that is the position of the new administration. Vice President Mike Pence has said he foresees a “new day” in U.S.-Turkey relations. Trump himself...

MANBIJ- AKP authorities in Turkey cut off Euphrates River water from Tishrin Dam, consequently, ceasing the dam from generating electricity, and that resulted in depriving people from power.People in North of Syria particularly in Kobanî canton and Manbij are suffering from cutting off the electricity as the Turkish government cut off Euphrates water which reduced water level in Tishrin Dam Lake, and therefore, the power cut off on many North Syria areas.Since Friday night, the power totally has been cut off after ceasing Tishrin Dam from generating electricity. Soon, the management of Tishrin Dam released a statement and made the...

PHOENIX - A previously deported Mexican man wanted in his native country for aggravated homicide was removed Tuesday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Servando Camacho-Velazquez (aka El Baron), 47, was transferred to the custody of representatives from Mexico’s Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) and Mexican immigration officials by ERO officers at the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales. Camacho-Velazquez is named in an arrest warrant issued Nov. 4, 2015, by a judge in Hermosillo, Mexico. Camacho-Velazquez most recently entered ICE custody Feb. 16 after serving 18 months in the Arizona...