Free Republic

As President Obama moves toward launching military strikes against the Syrian regime, some have been quick to charge him with hypocritically following in the footsteps of the president he long sought to repudiate: George W. Bush. Ron Paul kicked things off two months ago with a baseless charge of "fixing the intelligence and facts around the already determined policy." More recently, a leading Russian legislator claimed Obama would be "Bush's clone" because "just like in Iraq, this war won't be legit." Fox News columnist and strident U.N. critic Anne Bayefsky declared that Obama will be seen as a "hypocrite or...

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger in Germany's upcoming election have both said they wouldn't participate in military action against Syria. Merkel said that "Germany will not participate" in a military strike as she faced center-left rival Peer Steinbrueck during a televised debate Sunday before the Sept. 22 vote.

Leverkusen has been trying out the model of decentralized housing for 11 years. When the program began, the existing shelters were dilapidated, and plans for a new shelter had to be shelved, partly because of local protests. This led the city to decide to place at least individual families in private apartments. Today, 200 refugees live in apartments in Leverkusen. The city pays the rents, which cannot exceed €256 per person, not including expenses. The Catholic charity association Caritas and the refugee council help them find apartments. According to calculations by Frank Stein, the head of the city's social services...

U.S. President Barack Obama had a huge blow for mutiny in the U.S. military leadership planned military strike against Syria apparently. The soldiers could not see any strategy of the President - and expressed grave concerns against the action. Never before has a president so openly refused to follow by the the soldiers in America. U.S. President Barack Obama had planned military strike against Syria apparently The surprising over from U.S. President Barack Obama of his plans Syria is apparently due to a massive mutiny in the U.S. Army. The Washington Post reports that up to the ordinary soldiers could...

Israeli intelligence can tie the recent gas attack against the Syrian rebels to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the German publication Focus reports. U.S. Naval War College Professor John Schindler tweeted the story, adding that Israel shared the information with the U.S. and other allies.

As the rays of early evening sun lingered over the giant wooden mast that protruded through the pine forest, two cars passed through the gates of the German radio station and sto1pped outside the three-storey transmission building. n the following minutes, seven SS officers posing as Polish partisans, would carry out a simple act that would leave one man dead on the station steps – and provide Adolf Hitler with the excuse to invade Poland , plunging the world into six dark years of conflict. The events that took place in the fading light of August 31, 1939 around Gliwice...

During my middle school and early high school years, my family owned a Volkswagen Type 2 Camper Van. We used to take it camping in the mountains or at Disney World, and it was as much fun as a conversation piece as it was as a vehicle. I wanted that vehicle for my own so badly, and my dad told me he’d give it to me when I turned 16. I imagined how great it would be to have a cool drink waiting for me in the icebox at the end of the day, and of course I knew it...

Chris Hayes discusses the United States considering military action in Syria with former Congressman Tom Perriello, Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!" and Eli Lake, senior national security correspondent for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Four children, ages 7 to 14, have been forcibly taken from their home by police armed with a battering ram, and their parents have been told they won’t see them again soon, all over the issue of homeschooling, according to a stunning new report from the Home School Legal Defense Association. HSLDA, the world’s premiere advocate for homeschoolers, said the family of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich has battled for several years Germany’s World War II-era requirement that all children submit to the indoctrination programs in the nation’s public schools. The shocking raid was made solely because the parents were providing...

Egyptian security services arrested on Wednesday a retired U.S. officer and 12 jihadis in Sheikh Zuwayed, North Sinai, German news agency DPA quoted a security source as saying. The U.S. national possessed documents, some including information on Sinai. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. officer is being interrogated by authorities in Arish without giving further details on the documents or circumstances of the arrest. The American national arrested on Tuesday was referred to a military prosecutor in Ismailia to be interrogated, said a security source. A 55-year old American called James Henry was previously arrested, and...

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been warned against attacking Israel in case of a strike on his country, senior officials in the European Union told Kuwait’s al-Rai newspaper. According to the officials, Assad realizes that a potential Western assault would be a response to his army’s use of chemical weapons and not as a means to affect the current balance of power in Syria. …

German people are flocking to national email providers and demanding encryption services normally reserved for corporate security in the wake of the US spying scandal, German justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told journalists in Berlin on Wednesday (28 August). “German users have reacted to the NSA [the US’ National Security Agency] scandal by switching to German email providers … and they are demanding encryption of their emails so far reserved to telecom companies. There is a great opportunity for private encryption,” the minister said. She claimed that “some 80 percent have done so” already. …

Libya's largest western oilfields closed when an armed group shut down the pipeline linking them to ports, its deputy oil minister said on Tuesday, reducing its oil output to a trickle. ...

BRUSSELS - Germany has indicated it will not take part in any military strike on Syria, as France and the UK signal readiness to join a US-led intervention. Philipp Missfelder, the foreign affairs spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, said in the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily on Tuesday (27 August) that: "The [German] army has, through its current international operations, already reached the breaking point." He added that a Western strike could create a "spiral of escalating violence" by drawing Iran and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, deeper into the conflict. He also said military action without a UN...

Nearly five years into his presidency, Barack Obama confronts a world far different from what he envisioned when he first took office. U.S. influence is declining in the Middle East as violence and instability rock Arab countries. An ambitious attempt to reset U.S. relations with Russia faltered and failed. Even in Obama-friendly Europe, there's deep skepticism about Washington's government surveillance programs. In some cases, the current climate has been driven by factors outside the White House's control. But missteps by the president also are to blame, say foreign policy analysts, including some who worked for the Obama administration. Among them:...

The European Commission is planning use of EU budget funds for the next rescue of Greece, roping Britain into future responsibility for shoring up the eurozone currency structure. Günther Oettinger, Germany's EU commissioner, said on Sunday that a third package worth over €10bn will be needed in 2014 and will partly come in the form of direct help rather than a debt haircut for existing creditors. Most of the rescue aid so far for Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, and Spain's banking system has come from the eurozone's rescue machinery, outside the EU treaty structure. Use of EU budget funds appears not...

Tensions boiled over at the election rally of Germany’s anti-euro party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), when far-left activists attacked the leader on Saturday.Bernd Lucke was pushed to the ground in the northern city of Bremen and one campaign worker was attacked with a knife. It is the latest in a string of scuffles between the far-left and the party which is calling for the return of the deutsche mark. Over in Berlin, 150 far-right nationalists protesting against a new home for asylum seekers were met by a 750 strong force of counter demonstrators. The issue of refugees is proving a...

Germans aren’t the only ones with interests at stake in next month's election. The US is watching too—and Washington is hoping that, once the campaign is history, Germany will show more leadership on global issues. … “Clearly there are a lot of pent-up issues that will require the attention of the new German government,” says Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Those issues, from Washington’s perspective, tend to boil down to a consistent message: The US wants Germany to increase its involvement and leadership when it comes to global affairs. As...

Israeli customers of the global car rental agency "SixT" have expressed their surprise and anger at the company's decision to unilaterally erase Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights from its maps of Israel. Information gathered by Arutz Sheva reveals that the company's European branches made the decision to take the politically-charged step, which effectively takes sides in the as-yet unresolved dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. A number of customers contacted Arutz Sheva after carrging out their transactions in Israel through the company's Israeli branch, "Shlomo Sixt," only to find upon arriving in Europe that the company had erased...

Two-thirds of over-50s want a referendum on EU membership before the next general election. A survey has revealed that almost half of this age group would vote to leave the European Union against 33 percent who would vote to stay in. The poll will make interesting holiday reading for David Cameron. In July, the Prime Minister ordered his MPs to support Tory backbencher James Wharton’s bill, which pledges a vote by the end of 2017. … Of those surveyed by Populus on behalf of Saga, 73 percent said an in/out referendum should be held. Support increased with age, rising to...