Free Republic

Weeks before he was abducted, alleged members of a kidnapping network tied to ISIS were busted in London. Syrian extremists saw it as a reason to accelerate abductions. American journalist James Foley was captured in Syria in November 2012, just weeks after the British government arrested and charged three British citizens, who were alleged members of a group of foreign fighters associated with the Islamic State, for the kidnapping of two other Western journalists. It remains unclear whether these accused terrorists who later slipped through the fingers of the British legal system were part of the same extremist cell that...

Hamas said that an Israel airstrike in Gaza killed three of its senior military leaders early Thursday. The Palestinian militant group claimed that the men -- identified as Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Mohammed Barhoum and Raed al-Attar -- were killed along with three other people in a strike on a four-story building near Rafah, a town in the southern part of the coastal territory. The trio had played a key role in expanding Hamas' military capabilities in recent years, including digging attack tunnels leading to Israel, training of fighters and smuggling of weapons to Gaza, Israel said. Hamza Khalifa, an area...

EXCLUSIVE: Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department's top brass told FoxNews.com. “The Assistant (Police) Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” said the insider. “He was beaten very severely.” According to the well-placed source, Wilson was coming off another case in the neighborhood on Aug. 9 when he ordered Michael Brown...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say military planners are weighing the possibility of sending more American forces to Iraq mainly to provide additional security around Baghdad. A senior U.S. official says the number of troops currently under discussion would be fewer than 300, but there has been no final decision yet by Pentagon leaders. The talks come as American fighter jets and drones conducted nearly a dozen airstrikes in Iraq since Tuesday when Islamic State militants threatened to kill a second American captive in retribution for any continued attacks.

Hamas' military chief is believed to have been killed in an airstrike in Gaza early Wednesday, Israeli intelligence sources tell Fox News. Israeli officials said Wednesday the country's military targeted Mohammed Deif after militants fired rockets at Israeli cities just hours before a temporary cease-fire was set to expire. The Times of Israel reported that a house believed to be the home of Deif was hit early Wednesday. Dief has escaped numerous Israeli assassination attempts in the past. It was not immediately clear whether he was there at the time of the attack. A Hamas spokesman said Deif was not...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says American fighter jets and drones conducted nearly a dozen airstrikes in Iraq since Tuesday, even as Islamic State militants threatened to kill a second American captive in retribution for any continued strikes. The militants released a video Tuesday showing U.S. journalist James Foley being beheaded. The official says the airstrikes were in the area of the Mosul Dam and were aimed at helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces create a buffer zone at the key facility. The strikes have helped Iraqi and Kurdish troops reclaim the dam from the insurgents.

109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded "means-tested programs" — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of 2014. But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time. When those receiving benefits from...

You’ve seen the story of the Mike Brown family autopsy, and the grand press conference they produced to deliver it to the public. But a closer look points out why the Scheme Team actually used New York Times Frances Robles to deliver the ruse: Frances worked with the Scheme Team in 2012 (2012 bio below) while she was at the Miami Herald and was part of their inner circle of media types willing to sell the Trayvon Story. The actual truth appears to be – a rather controversial person Shawn Parcells, who is NOT a forensic pathologist, was used by...

The patient may have been exposed to the Ebola virus, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will conduct blood samples. "In order to protect our patients, staff and physicians, even though infection with the virus is unconfirmed, we are taking the actions recommended by the CDC as a precaution, just as we do for other patients with a suspected infectious disease," said Dr. Stephen Paroli, an infectious disease specialist, in the Kaiser news release. "This includes isolation of the patient in a specially equipped negative pressure room and the use of personal protective equipment by trained staff, coordinated...

Gov. Rick Perry has been booked on two felony counts of abuse of power for carrying out a threat to veto funding to state public corruption prosecutors. Perry, who is mulling a second presidential run in 2016, turned himself in Tuesday at the Travis County courthouse. He vowed he'd fight the charges "with every fiber of my being." The Republican is accused of coercion and official oppression for publicly promising to veto $7.5 million for the state public integrity unit run by the Travis County district attorney's office.

Even the New York Times editorial board thinks the grand jury indictment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry is baseless. In an editorial dripping with contempt for their own conclusions, the Times is compelled to confess that there is really no there there. “One has to read this editorial to appreciate the angst it engendered in the Gray Lady’s panel of handwringers,” Ed Morrissey observed. “It’s an expert lesson in the use of weasel words.” Conservatives have rallied to Perry’s side following this baseless indictment. Democrats have scrambled to disassociate themselves from his accusers. Many thought that Perry may end up...

Warning for link - can be distressing. Evil straight from the pits of hell': American journalist James Foley reportedly beheaded by ISIS

A video posted by ISIL terrorists in Iraq purports to the show the beheading of an American photojournalist who has been missing since 2012. The group claims the beheading is a message to President Obama to end the American intervention in Iraq. James Foley is a photojournalist who has worked for several news organizations. According to a website set up in his honor, he went missing while covering the conflict in Syria in 2012. In the video, they show journalist Steven Joel Soltoff, a journalist who worked for TIME, The National Interest and Media Line. Soltoff seems to have been...

Cases in West Africa's Ebola outbreak this year have risen to 2,240, including 1,229 deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, reporting the toll in four countries, including Nigeria. While Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and No. 1 oil producer, appears to be containing its smaller outbreak, Liberia and Sierra Leone are struggling to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus among their populations. On Friday, these small two West African nations and a medical charity chided the WHO for its slow response, saying more action was needed to save victims threatened by the disease and hunger.

On Monday night, the Washington Redskins ran onto the field of play in their exhibition game with their hands up. The goal, according to safety Brandon Meriweather, was to “show our supporters what’s going on in St. Louis.” More specifically, Meriweather was referencing the supposed circumstances surrounding the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson; early witness reports stated that Brown had raised his hands before beings hot by Wilson. The Redskins were hardly the only people parroting the “hands up” meme – that meme has now gone national, with protesters and rioters in Ferguson utilizing it, hundreds...

ROME - Pope Francis was grieving the loss of three family members on Tuesday following a traffic accident in Argentina. A Vatican spokesman confirmed to NBC News that the pope's niece and two great-nephews had died. Father Federico Lombardi said "the pope has been informed and he is painfully sorry," adding that the pontiff had asked for prayers. Police in Cordoba told NBC News that a call came in just after midnight about an accident involving a cargo truck and a Chevy Spin. The Chevy driver - Francis' 35-year-old nephew, Emanuel Bergoglio - was in intensive care in an induced...

Companies that have recently laid off workers are scheming to get President Barack Obama to give them more guest-worker visas by executive action. After the New York Times reported that Obama is working on crafting executive actions behind closed doors after having met with representatives from "Oracle, Cisco, Fwd.US, Microsoft, Accenture, Compete America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," which Politico detailed, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted the White House for "actively working against the interests of the American worker." Sessions mentioned that American politics is at "a crisis point," as companies that "are laying off current employees in droves,"...

Longtime NBC announcer Don Pardo, best known as the often-heard, rarely-seen constant during 38 seasons of constant change at "Saturday Night Live," died late Monday. He was 96.

President Barack Obama is sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson, Missouri, to meet with federal law enforcement authorities investigating the police shooting of an unarmed teenager. Obama says Holder will travel to the St. Louis suburb on Wednesday.

Breaking news banner, no excerpt.