Free Republic

Part III. “Fake News?” – No Way! The story about the Parkland shooting, though tragic, has resulted in several positive outcomes. It has spawned journalists into action to do more investigative reporting. This three-part story covered in the past several days was investigated and is verifiable. The University of South Florida failed to report the incidents involving foreigner Abdul Quddos Hussein, who allegedly burglarized two buildings at the USF location in Tampa – the Registrar’s Office and the College of Engineering. However, the Department of Education allowed USF to get away with lying to them, thereby failing to uphold the...

The West knows what Ankara is up to, but won’t call it by its name. Turkish hostage-taking has become one of the most pressing problems in relations between Ankara and its Western allies. It is something that everyone knows is happening, but political leaders and diplomats are reluctant to call it by its name.The most recent case concerns German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who was arrested in Turkey in February 2017 on accusations of propaganda for a terrorist organization. Yucel, a correspondent for Die Welt known for his journalism about Turkey’s crackdown, had written articles based on the hacked emails of...

Today I reported on the refusal of CNN International (CNNi) to broadcast an award-winning documentary, "iRevolution", that was produced in early 2011 as the Arab Spring engulfed the region and which was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain. The documentary, featuring CNN's on-air correspondent Amber Lyon, viscerally documented the brutality and violence the regime was using against its own citizens who were peacefully protesting for democracy. Commenting on why the documentary did not air on CNNi, CNN's spokesman cited "purely editorial reasons".

Top Democrats are calling on Congress to give the FBI $300 million to fight potential foreign interference in this year's midterm elections, a request that comes just days after the Justice Department indicted Russians for meddling in the 2016 presidential contest. The letter being sent Wednesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and top Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations committees calls on Republicans to provide the funding as part of "a robust and urgent response" to the Russian government's attempts to interfere in American elections. "Congress must respond immediately to attacks...

A group of leading senators is calling on newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to immediately launch an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to sway foreign elections by sending taxpayer funds to "extreme and sometimes violent political activists" that promote leftist causes, according to a copy of the letter. The lawmakers disclosed multiple conversations with foreign diplomats who outlined active political meddling by the Obama administration's State Department, including the use of taxpayer funds to support leftist causes in Macedonia, Albania, Latin America, and Africa. **SNIP** The latest disclosures of this activity mirror efforts by the Obama...

News item | 05-02-2018 | 11:13The Netherlands and Turkey have recently held talks at various levels. At this stage, these talks do not yet offer a perspective to normalizing the bilateral relations. Minister Zijlstra: 'Recent talks offered Turkey and the Netherlands an opportunity to come closer to each other, but we have not been able to agree on the way normalization should take place.' Therefore the Dutch government has decided to officially withdraw the Netherlands’ Ambassador in Ankara, who has not had access to Turkey since March 2017. As long as the Netherlands has no Ambassador to Turkey, the Netherlands...

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta said Thursday that President Trump risks a "constitutional crisis" by pushing for the release of a GOP memo detailing alleged government surveillance abuses over objections from the FBI.In an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, Panetta said he worries that the system of checks and balances in the federal government is breaking down. ADVERTISEMENT "There is no question, Chuck, that it is breaking down the process as it was designed to work so that all sides would have say in the process," Panetta said on MSNBC's "MTP Daily.""We have check and balances. But you have to establish ways...

The NY Times published an interesting piece today on the burden of regulations and how they apply to one mid-sized apple farm in upstate New York. What’s interesting is that the piece while not anti-regulation, is certainly skeptical of the increasing volume of regulations and the burden they place on small businesses forced to comply with a litany of over-lapping requirements from several different agencies.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in what started as a probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and any potential collusion with the Trump campaign, is reportedly investigating former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn for an alleged plan to “forcibly remove” a Muslim cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania and send him back to Turkey.

The U.S. State Department consists of the most entrenched group of life-long professional political bureaucrats in any sector of the government.  The scope of the mindset really comes to the surface within leaks from inside the Deep State machine that became the basis for a Politico article today.   You really have to read it to fathom the scope of elitism.The article, and the sentiment carried from within the bureaucracy which frames the construct, highlights the level of indignation within the agency toward President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as they carry out foreign policy objectives. The article contains...

The Department of Justice announced Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against a Colorado corporation for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers. The complaint alleges that in 2016, Crop Production discriminated against at least three United States citizens by refusing to employ them as seasonal technicians in El Campo, Texas, because Crop Production preferred to hire temporary foreign workers under the H-2A visa program. “In the spirit of President Trump’s Executive Order on Buy American and Hire American, the Department of Justice will not tolerate employers who discriminate against U.S. workers because of a desire to hire temporary foreign visa holders,”...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTcYR5O904

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visit to Washington, D.C. was intended as a way of improving his worsening image as a tyrant. So why did he reportedly orchestrate a bloody assault by his bodyguards on peaceful demonstrators outside the residence of the Turkish ambassador – an incident that completely overshadowed his feel-good meetings?Some perspective on this mêlée helps put it in context: The embassies of Nazi Germany and communist Russia never carried out a comparable attack on United States soil; visits to the U.S. by infamous dictators such as Fidel Castro, Leonid Brezhnev and Hugo Chávez never led to...

  President Obama is engaged in acts that may go against the Logan Act which prohibits Americans from committing treason by acting with other governments against the US. A summary of the Logan Act follows: The Logan Act (18 U.S.C.A. § 953 [1948]) is a single federal statute making it a crime for a citizen to confer with foreign governments against the interests of the United States. Specifically, it prohibits citizens from negotiating with other nations on behalf of the United States without authorization. Congress established the Logan Act in 1799, less than one year after passage of the Alien...

Germany has passed a law in lightning speed to rid themselves of Erdoğan’s political shows. The law bars foreign leaders from holding rallies in the country. Following the new Erdoğan rally crisis with the AKP regime, the Federal Government of Germany passed a law yesterday restricting foreign politicians’ ability to run election campaigns in the country. The law is dubbed the “Erdoğan Act” in the public, while notices have been sent to foreign representation offices in Germany. The law concerns countries outside of the European Union. Foreign state representatives and politicians won’t be allowed to run election campaigns in the...

On Tuesday U.S. officials, under the guise of anonymity, leaked the name of the suicide bomber responsible for the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester before the British police had officially named him causing greater skepticism for allies sharing intelligence with the United States. There is something seriously wrong in the intelligence community and it borders on TREASON. American journalists published the name before the British journalists. The British police had not confirmed the identity of the attacker, Salman Abedi. Since it was an ongoing investigation, the British government had indicated it may not release the name at...

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly has promised the big business lobby tens of thousands of cheaper, blue-collar foreign workers despite President Donald Trump’s ‘Hire American’ initiative. During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kelly told Senators that he was lobbied by the financial and open borders lobby to expand the H-2B visa, and also by pro-American worker groups who see the visa as a detriment to Americans’ wages and job opportunities. “They’re caving to the business interest, rather than the people that elected them,” pro-American lawyer John Miano told Breitbart Texas. “Everyone but the very top...

Foreign YPG volunteers seen in the vicinity of Jarablus. Photo: ARA News At least nine foreign volunteers, who had joined the ranks of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to combat ISIS in Rojava-Northern Syria, were arrested by the Asayish security force in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, media sources reported on Thursday.Foreign volunteers are increasingly becoming victim of the problems between the Kurdish parties.“Internationalists Callum Ross (Rizgar Çiya), Ozgan Ozdil (Dêrsim Agir), Anthonî Degatto (Rustem Fist), Justin Schnepp (Şervan Agir), Mirko Bruna (Mirko Cûdî) from Italy, Paola Andolina (Azadî Raperîn) from Italy, Damien Rodriguez (Şêrzad Azad) from the US, Fernando...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a frequent critic of the Trump administration, blasted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for suggesting that America’s foreign policy must stray from its core values at times. Tillerson said it was important to “understand the difference between policy and values,” in an address to State Department employees Wednesday. He said that that “America First” means that U.S. national security and economic interests will sometimes override the demand for other countries to adhere to American values. “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our...

Turkish authorities have launched a massive detention operation, arresting more than 1,000 people nationwide on Wednesday. The Turkish government says the arrests are aimed at supporters of the U.S-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for last year's failed coup attempt. And these arrests are by no means the end of the operation. Anadolu Agency, a state-run news service, says the government aims to arrest another 2,000 people. Germany's Deutsche Welle newspaper reports roughly 8,500 police officers undertook raids in all 81 provinces in Turkey