Free Republic

The jihadis were wearing suicide vests – are authorities still unclear as to motive? Residents of the Spanish seaside resort of Cambrils fled in terror in the early hours of Friday after five terrorists wearing suicide vests launched the second ramming attack in the country in a matter of hours. (Telegraph) Spanish police say they have killed five people in the town of Cambrils to stop a second attempted van attack after an earlier one in Barcelona. The attackers were wearing explosive belts, police said. August 17, 2017: BBC: Thirteen people died and dozens were injured when a van ploughed...

TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - The number of asylum seekers who illegally crossed the U.S. border into Canada more than tripled last month, according to Canadian government data released on Thursday, as migrants worried about the U.S. administration's immigration crackdown head north.More than 3,100 people walked across the border illegally in July to file refugee claims and were arrested, up from 884 in June, the federal government said. Ninety-six percent of them went to Quebec, where an influx of asylum seekers, primarily Haitians, is sparking a backlash from opposition politicians and anti-immigrant groups in the primarily French-speaking province.

A new version of the Mi-28UB “Night Hunter” - a modern attack helicopter - will be transported to Russia’s air base in Syria in the coming weeks. The war machine’s manufacturers are keen to test its modified armor and missiles on the front line. A military industrial source told RBTH this: “Russian Helicopters [corporation] strengthened the helicopter’s front armor and enhanced its ‘brains.’ ” So in the very near future, an advanced version of the “battle bird” will be carrying out search and destroy missions against ISIS in the Middle East. One of the chopper’s new features gives full control...

Tillerson, Mattis rebuff Bannon claim of no 'military solution' for North Korea Published August 17, 2017 Fox News Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday rebuffed White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s claim to a liberal magazine that “there’s no military solution” for North Korea’s nuclear threats. Bannon unloaded in an interview published late Wednesday by The American Prospect. He hammered the importance of what he called the “economic war with China,” dubbing the tensions with Pyongyang a “sideshow” and rejecting the notion there’s a military solution. Asked Thursday about those comments, Tillerson and Mattis...

Barcelona terrorist attack today- Result of open borders & lax immigration laws. Are you listening #SantuaryCities?https://twitter.com/Julien_Assange/status/898215932799012865  

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted two former information technology (IT) aides of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — Pakistani-born Imran Awan and his wife Hina Alvi — on four counts of conspiracy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.The FBI arrested Awan at Dulles International Airport July 24 as he was preparing to board a flight to Pakistan. When his wife Alvi left the U.S. for Pakistan in March, federal authorities found more than $12,000 in cash hidden in a suitcase. She had withdrawn the couple’s three children from local schools and does not intend to...

Also indicted was Awan’s wife, Hina Alvi, who also worked as an IT aide in Democratic congressional offices. The charges don’t have a direct relationship to their work in congressional offices, but the criminal charges add to the political heat directed toward their congressional employers, especially Wasserman Schultz.

Far-right blogger and provocateur Chuck C. Johnson said on Thursday that he helped arrange a highly unusual meeting between Orange County GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week. Rohrabacher said in a statement that he plans to bring information to President Trump from the three-hour meeting, which took place Wednesday in London at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange has been living in asylum since 2012. He would not detail that information to The Times, but in an interview Thursday morning with the Daily Caller, Rohrabacher was more explicit, saying he and Assange talked about “what might...

CNN's Wolf Blitzer was anchoring the network's breaking news coverage Thursday afternoon on the possible radical Islamic terror attack in Barcelona, Spain when he made the inartful and arguably pathetic assertion that the truck attack could be "a copycat" of the neo-Nazi car attack on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Declaring that “the final word has been spoken as far as I am concerned,” President Reagan defended his planned visit Sunday to the German military cemetery at Bitburg, telling foreign reporters yesterday that “I think it is morally right to do what I am doing and I am not going to change my mind about that.” Vice President George Bush, meanwhile, who has refrained from public statements on the Bitburg controversy, told a United States Chamber of Commerce meeting in Washington yesterday that “Ronald Reagan has not changed on his abhorrence of the Holocaust — he never will. But the...

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in which a van plowed into crowds in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Thursday, the group's Amaq news agency said.

American and Spanish officials say the autonomous region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain is "a major Mediterranean center for radical Islamists" and the United States has proposed setting up an intelligence hub at the US Consulate in Barcelona to counter the growing threat, according to diplomatic cables that were obtained by Wikileaks and published by the Madrid-based El País newspaper on December 11.The three cables, all of which are from the US Embassy in Madrid, say that Catalonia has become "a prime base of operations" for Islamic terrorists; and thanks to uncontrolled immigration the region, it now has a...

The number of asylum seekers who illegally crossed the U.S. border into Canada more than tripled last month, according to Canadian government data released on Thursday, as migrants worried about the U.S. administration's immigration crackdown head north. More than 3,100 people walked across the border illegally in July to file refugee claims and were arrested, up from 884 in June, the federal government said. Ninety-six percent of them went to Quebec, where an influx of asylum seekers, primarily Haitians, is sparking a backlash from opposition politicians and anti-immigrant groups in the primarily French-speaking province. The Montreal suburb of Boucherville has...

.... Congressional Appropriations Act, FY 1901, signed 6 June 1900 Congress passed an act of appropriations for $2,500 that enabled the “Secretary of War to have reburied in some suitable spot in the national cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, and to place proper headstones at their graves, the bodies of about 128 Confederate soldiers now buried in the National Soldiers Home near Washington, D.C., and the bodies of about 136 Confederate soldiers now buried in the national cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.” Remarks: More important than the amount (worth substantially more in 1900 than in 2000) is the move to support reconciliation...

Two armed men reportedly entered a restaurant after the van crash occurred, incident in progress. BARCELONA - A van plowed into crowds in the heart of Barcelona on Thursday and Spanish media reported at least 13 people were killed, in what police said they were treating as a terrorist attack. The death toll was reported by Cadena Ser radio, citing police sources. Police said some people were dead and injured but did not confirm the number of casualties. They said were searching for the driver of the van. Spanish newspaper El Periodico said two armed men were holed up in...

Full Title: BREAKING NEWS: At least 13 dead and dozens injured in Barcelona terror attack after van crashes into pedestrians in Las Ramblas tourist district before 'two gunmen take hostages at restaurant' 13 dead and dozens hurt as van drives into crowds of people in Barcelona amid reports of gunshots nearby Emergency services have rushed to the scene near the Las Ramblas tourist area as people urged to stay away The driver of the van is being hunted as he fled after ploughing into pedestrians outside a kosher restaurant Also being reported that two gunmen have taken hostages in a...

At least 13 people have been killed and dozens injured after a van in Barcelona ploughed into pedestrians and two men entered a restaurant with guns. Pictures and video emerging from the scene show police cars and ambulances near the Las Ramblas, a busy tree-lined promenade in the centre of the city. Gunfire was heard at the Corte Ingles store in the area after police announced a 'massive crash'. Horrifying footage from the scene shows dozens of victims lying injured on the floor. It is believed the van hit pedestrians before gunmen ran into a nearby restaurant to hold diners...

Las Ramblas attack: van hits crowd in tourist area of Barcelona Police say several people injured in ‘massive crash’ on Las Ramblas in Spanish city A van has crashed into a crowd of people in central Barcelona, causing an unknown number of injuries, with local media reporting at least one armed man had subsequently entered a restaurant in the area. Spanish police, who said they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack, said several people were injured in the “massive crash” on Las Ramblas, a wide boulevard in an area of the city popular with tourists.

Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers “within hours” if the United States imposes any more new sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday. “If America wants to go back to the experience (of imposing sanctions), Iran would certainly return in a short time — not a week or a month, but within hours — to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations,” Rouhani told a session of parliament broadcast live on state television. Iran says new U.S. sanctions breach the agreement it reached in 2015 with the United States, Russia, China and three European...

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in says North Korean nuclear-tipped ICBM is a “red line” White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said he was pushing the U.S. administration to take a harder line on China trade and not put complaints against its trade practices in the backseat in hope that Beijing would help restrain leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea would be “crossing a red line” if it put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea’s president said on Thursday, but the United States had promised to seek Seoul’s approval before taking any military action. North Korea’s rapid...