Free Republic

Ben Carson's remarks on foreign policy have repeatedly raised questions about his grasp of the subject, but never more seriously than in the past week, when he wrongly asserted that China had intervened militarily in Syria and then failed, on national television, to name the countries he would call on to form a coalition to fight the Islamic State. Faced with increasing scrutiny about whether Carson -- who leads in some Republican presidential polls -- was capable of leading US foreign policy, two of his top advisers said in interviews with The New York Times that he had struggled to...

The Clinton Foundation will “amend” its tax returns for the last four years, to correct “errors in the report of donations from foreign governments,” as reported by Fox News. Foundation President Donna Shalala said in a statement that the returns were revised after a voluntary review of the charity’s past tax returns. She added that the corrections were not required by law. “There is no change in our bottom line numbers: assets, liabilities, and net assets,” Shalala wrote in a statement to the foundation’s supporters that was obtained by Reuters. “There is nothing to suggest that the Foundation intended to...

Shares in Standard Chartered fell sharply after the Asia-focused UK bank said it would raise $5.1bn (£3.3bn) and cut 15,000 jobs by 2018. There was further bad news as Standard Chartered said it was the subject of two investigations by the Financial Conduct Authority relating to monitoring of sanctions and anti-money laundering compliance. The job cuts are part of a restructuring programme to take place over the next three years, but gave no details. The bank employs 86,000 people worldwide, but only about 1,800 in the UK. Standard Chartered remains under investigation by US authorities related to transactions involving Iranian...

Former Senator George Mitchell famously said that,“God does not take sides in politics.” Mitchell’s observation might be about to change in the upcoming 2016 election. The highest ranking Catholic in government, Vice President Joe Biden is rumored to be considering a presidential run. The timing of his announcement is reportedly in late September. With the critical 25% swing Catholic vote at play in this election, Biden may find a powerful, and surprising ally in his presidential bid. As they say, politics make strange bedfellows, and this upcoming fall, Biden will have a powerful compadre in his presidential election bid: a...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced that she will appear at a rally in Washington this week protesting the U.S. nuclear agreement with Iran. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) will join Palin at the event along with several politicians, broadcasters, and other leaders concerned about a deal that President Obama has secured enough support for in the Senate to stop the GOP from blocking it. “We walked away from the draft of that treaty giving a win to Iran, our sworn enemy,” said Palin. “Iran, who immediately after the deal was struck, started mocking us...

Russia Has Published Books I Didn’t Write! A dodgy imprint has compiled old material by several U.S. and British analysts, without their permission. The aim is pro-Putin spin. A new foreign-language edition is normally cause for celebration in an author’s household. But in this case the news that two books have been published under my name by the Moscow publishing house “Algoritm” has prompted puzzlement mixed with consternation. One of them is called "How the West Lost to Putin". The other is "With Putin or without him: what awaits Russia in the next 10 years". I had no idea about...

A new report released by the National Security Network argues that the F-35 is ultimately inferior relative to foreign fighters and even older aircraft models in the U.S. arsenal. As the most expensive weapons program in Pentagon history, at an estimated cost of $1.4 trillion, the F-35 has attracted a significant amount of both praise and negative attention. Gen. Joseph Dunford recently stated that while he’ll consider reviewing the total number of F-35s that the DOD is planning to purchase, the overall program will be left intact, dimming the hopes of some critics who think that the program should be...

Michelle Obama says she´ll do more foreign travel to promote education for girls in developing countries. The first lady announced a new program earlier this year to help adolescent girls improve their lives by attending and staying in school called, ´Let Girls Learn.´ She since has traveled to Japan, Cambodia and London to promote the initiative and even stopped to have tea with Prince Harry. (Photos) While in London she traveled with her daughters Malia, 16, 14-year-old Sasha and her mother, Marian Robinson. Mrs. Obama says the U.S. will continue to urge developed countries to join the effort. And when...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry. The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month, ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries. Both have said they plan to ask the WTO for permission to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on American goods. The House voted 300-131 to repeal labels that tell consumers what countries the meat is from — for...

f you were laid off from your job, would you be willing to train your replacement if your company threatened to take away your severance pay if you didn’t do it? And how would you feel if your replacement came from India, and the only reason your company was replacing you was because the foreign worker was a lot less expensive? Sadly, this is happening all over America – especially in the information technology field. Huge corporations such as Disney and Southern California Edison are coldly firing existing tech workers and filling those jobs with much cheaper foreign replacements. They...

Link only - Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations

Last week, GOP chief weasel, Reince Priebus, was squawking about Hillary Clinton and how she allegedly gotten all this money from the kings of other countries, which would, of course, be illegal. The supposedly unbiased PolitiFact decided to look at his claims. Their findings: "Priebus said Clinton took "money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen." The monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Oman have contributed to the Clinton Foundation, but Yemen, which does not have a king, has not.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved, 19 to 0, legislation granting Congress a voice in negotiations on the Iran nuclear accord, The New York Times reported. The legislation will now go to the full Senate, after President Barack Obama earlier withdrew his opposition rather than face a bipartisan rebuke. Republican opponents of the nuclear agreement on the committee sided with Obama’s strongest Democratic supporters in demanding a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month’s nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. The bill would mandate that the administration send the text of...

“I’ve paid my taxes, obeyed the laws and have been a good citizen supporting the community with donations,” the former SCE worker wrote. “I voted for President Obama and was appalled that he implemented a rule change, which allows work permits to H-1B spouses. My future votes will only go to candidates that support reforms to the H-1B visa program that preserve the American worker.”

You've heard it from Big Government lobbyists. You've heard it from Big Business lackeys in both political parties. And you've heard it from journalists, pundits and think-tankers ad nauseam: The H-1B foreign guest worker program, they claim, requires American employers to first show that they searched for and tried to recruit American workers before tapping an ever-growing government-rigged pipeline of cheap foreign workers. The foot soldiers of the open-borders brigade are lying, deluded, ignorant or bought-off. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee brought top independent academics and informed whistleblowers to Washington to expose the truth. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, hosted...

Earlier this month, I spent two days in Guatemala meeting with Central American leaders about our mutual efforts to tackle one of the most significant and urgent challenges facing the Western Hemisphere: bringing stability to this impoverished and violent region. The president and I are determined to address conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and help these countries on their path to economic prosperity. To that end, we requested $1 billion in next year’s budget to help Central America’s leaders make the difficult reforms and investments required to put the region on a more stable and sustainable path.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton defended his foundation's acceptance of donations from foreign governments on Saturday, pointing to the track record of his global philanthropy as Hillary Rodham Clinton nears an announcement on 2016 presidential campaign. In an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative University, the ex-president sought to address critics who have questioned the receipt of donations from foreign governments while the former first lady served in the State Department and after she departed in early 2013. "My theory about all of this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments," Clinton told...

The Present and Future Timeline of Libertarian Foreign Policy RE: Iran I have long believed that Iran was THE problem in the Middle East, and given that they are clearly DaWon's heart throb thy are worthy of continued monitoring. Their presence on the word stage is a continued source of confusion for Libertinians who tend to fall into the pattern of thinking below. 1. All nation states are evil, in fact equally evil, so no nation state including the USA should engage in actions against other nation states like Iran (or even extra-national entities like ISIS). 2. Since all nation...

The Transportation Security Administration said it is unlikely to detect and unable to extinguish what an FBI report called “the greatest potential incendiary threat to aviation,” according to a classified document obtained by The Intercept. Yet despite that warning, sources said TSA is not adequately preparing to respond to the threat. Thermite — a mixture of rust and aluminum powder — could be used against a commercial aircraft, TSA warned in a Dec. 2014 document, marked secret [PDF here]. “The ignition of a thermite-based incendiary device on an aircraft at altitude could result in catastrophic damage and the death of...

The Clinton Foundation accepted millions from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was secretary of State, according to a report in the Washington Post. Officials with the foundation disclosed the donations from seven countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Algeria, Australia, Norway and the Dominican Republic, to the Post on Wednesday. The report is the latest to shine a light on the Clinton Foundation's fundraising practices, which have attracted scrutiny as Hillary Clinton prepares for a 2016 presidential bid. The foundation during Clinton's tenure was under a self-imposed ban on accepting contributions from foreign governments, meant to address concerns from the Obama...