Free Republic

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria in the last 10 days and will soon join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes, two Lebanese sources told Reuters. "The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advances by the Syrian army and its allies," said one of the sources familiar with political and military developments in the conflict. "It is possible that the coming land operations will be focused in the Idlib and Hama countryside," the source added. The two sources said the operation...

Bedford, New Hampshire (CNN)Jeb Bush and Donald Trump clashed over how to handle the Syrian refugee crisis -- and just about everything else, including whether Bush is really friends with Marco Rubio -- during dueling Wednesday night town hall events in New Hampshire. By the end of the night, Bush had even told Trump to put on his "big boy pants." In their most substantive policy dispute, the two disagreed sharply over whether refugees who fled the Middle East amid ISIS' rise should be allowed in the United States. "I think we're duty-bound to provide support," Bush said in Bedford.

With the announcement Wednesday that the Teamsters union will delay endorsing anyone for president, rumors are now circulating the union is looking at Republican Donald Trump.The news of a delay comes as a particularly harsh blow to Hillary Clinton. As the Democratic frontrunner, she is the most likely to pick up support from the labor movement. With her hesitance to take a firm stance against President Barack Obama on trade and her more recent opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, she has found herself at odds with unions. According to Fox News correspondent James Rosen, leadership within the Teamsters wants to...

Trump answers questions about Russia, ISIS, Syria, and Iran. Don Lemon asks Trump if he's a homophobe and a racist. Tells Lemon that the Syrian refugees that he hears the Obama administration will accept up to 200,000 people that they are going back to Syria, and they could be possibly infiltrated by ISIS. Much more...

Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett threw Hillary Clinton under the bus Wednesday at the Washington Ideas Forum, where she told interviewer Andrea Mitchell that the White House gave Clinton guidance forbidding her from using private email. “Yes, there were. Yeah, absolutely,” Jarrett said when asked if the White House sent guidance to Cabinet secretaries about not using private email. “Obviously we want to make sure that we preserve all government records, and so there was guidance given that government business should be done on government emails and that if you did use a private email that it should...

Author Robert Spencer wrote Sept. 4 in Front Page Magazine, “This is no longer just a ‘refugee crisis.’ This is a hijrah.” Hijrah is the Islamic doctrine of migration, which is a form of stealth jihad. “To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act,” Spencer wrote. He cited the following Quranic text: “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Quran. “And whoever leaves his...

ew York (AFP) - Russia's dramatic entry Wednesday into the Syrian war put the United States on the back foot once again and left Washington struggling to regain the military and diplomatic initiative. As US Secretary of State John Kerry was in New York trying to coordinate with his Kremlin opposite number Sergei Lavrov, a Russian officer contacted the US embassy in Baghdad. His message was simple: Russian jets are about to launch air strikes in Syria, please stay out of their way. Kerry quickly protested to Lavrov that this was not in the spirit of Moscow's promise to agree...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Political newcomer Ben Carson raised more than $20 million in the past three months to fuel his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign said Wednesday, a haul of campaign cash that shatters records and sets a new bar for his GOP rivals. As other campaigns scrambled to bring in final donations before the end of the fundraising period at midnight, Carson's senior team celebrated its massive haul at its suburban Washington campaign headquarters. Two dozen staffers shared a red, white and blue chocolate cake topped with frosted numbers "$31,000,000" — the total amount the...

KEEENE, N.H. — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would send back Syrian refugees taken in by the U.S. if he's elected president. "I'm putting the people on notice that are coming from here from Syria as part of this migration," Trump said during a rally in Keene, New Hampshire. "If I win, they're going back." ... "They could be ISIS," said Trump, who questioned why Syrians were fleeing their country instead of staying and fighting. ... Secretary of State John Kerry announced earlier this month that the U.S. would significantly increase the number of migrants it...

The Taliban have seized the Bala Hisar fortress in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. The fighters achieved the victory, despite NATO airstrikes and government efforts. More than 40 people died and 330 were injured in the fighting, including civilians. Many others have fled from the provincial capital. This is the biggest coup for the Taliban since 2001, led by the group’s new leader Mullah Mansour. They have emptied safe deposit boxes at banks, seized weapons and vehicles, and released prisoners. It was also a public relations victory. Kunduz is one of Afghanistan’s richest cities. It is also a key...

MILWAUKEE —With Gov. Scott Walker out of the race, the Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed 20 percent of Republicans favor Donald Trump for president, followed by Ben Carson at 16 percent and Marco Rubio at 14 percent. Related Carly Fiorina has 11 percent of the support followed by Jeb Bush with 7 percent, Ted Cruz with 5 percent, and Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, and John Kasich each at 3 percent On the Democratic side, Hillary Rodham Clinton was ahead with 42 percent followed by Bernie Sanders at 30 percent and Joe Biden, who hasn't announced a run,...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy is not even Speaker of the House yet, but there is already a group ready to fire him. A group of prominent right-leaning organizations formed a coalition Wednesday dubbed "Fire Kevin McCarthy," pledging to remove the California Republican should he be chosen to replace John Boehner when he retires at the end of next month. "Having worked with Kevin McCarthy in the House, I'll admit he's a friendly guy," former Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in a statement announcing the formation of the coalition. "But we need a dramatic change in House leadership — we can't afford...

Demonstrating a new level of tension with Israel, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority declared Wednesday that it was no longer bound by the Oslo Peace Accords and subsequent agreements that formed the basis for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his annual General Assembly speech, Mr. Abbas accused Israel of having violated these pacts, which date back two decades and outline security, economic and other arrangements in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel during and after the 1967 war. He asserted that there was no reason that the Palestinians should remain faithful to them as long...

Leaked Audio: Hillary Clinton Calls at Private Fundraiser for Infrastructure Bank to Resemble Clinton Global Initiative Hillary Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser in New York last Thursday that she plans as president to create a “national infrastructure bank” modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. This was the first time that Clinton, who has long supported the formation of a government-controlled bank to invest in national infrastructure projects, cited the Clinton Global Initiative—the flagship arm of her family’s controversial foundation—as an investment model for her proposed...

Carly Fiorina’s recent interview with Jan Mickelson on WHO Radio on Friday is getting some attention namely because of what she denied. “Here in Iowa when you say Supreme Court decisions are the law of the land that sets us off because Iowans got bludgeoned by court decisions here, and we went through Civics 101 and we don’t accept propositions that court decisions are the law of the land,” Mickelson said. “Actually, with all due respect Jan, I think that is a quote from someone else, not from me. I know there are many Republican candidates, Kasich among them, who...

Implores Republican leadership to honor their commitments to defund Planned Parenthood and Obama’s Iran nuclear deal WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today released the following statement upon the Senate’s passage of a short-term continuing resolution maintaining the use of taxpayer dollars to fund Planned Parenthood and the President’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran:“Today was a win for the Washington Cartel, and another setback for the American people.  Republican leadership chose to abandon its constitutional power of the purse and to fund 100 percent of President Obama’s failed agenda.  This was a mistake, and it’s why people are...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a potential major shift in policy, U.S. military commanders want to keep at least a few thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016, citing a fragile security situation highlighted by the Taliban's capture of the northern city of Kunduz this week as well as recent militant inroads in the south. Keeping any substantial number of troops in Afghanistan beyond next year would mark a sharp departure from President Barack Obama's existing plan, which would leave only an embassy-based security cooperation presence of about 1,000 military personnel by the end of next year. Obama has made it...

Pope Francis met with Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis during the pope’s visit to the United States, the Vatican confirmed on Wednesday morning. Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a spokesman for the Vatican, said to The Washington Post, “I do not deny that the meeting took place, but I have no comments to add.” The meeting between Davis, who went to jail for six days after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and the pope was announced late Tuesday by Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom nonprofit that is representing the elected Rowan County clerk in her ongoing legal struggles. Liberty...

Seven killed, dozens injured as Guangxi’s Liucheng county rocked by series of suspected parcel bombs Fifteen locations, many of them public buildings, are targeted across Liucheng county including a prison, county government offices and a centre for disease control Staff Reporter, Mimi Lau PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 September, 2015, 6:30pm Part of a building (left) collapsed after the multiple explosions in Liucheng county, Guangxi province, China. Photos: Weibo Seven people were killed, 51 injured and two were missing after a series of explosions rocked seventeen locations across Guangxi province’s Liucheng county, Liuzhou city, on Wednesday afternoon, Chinese media reported. The...