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Senior Obama administration officials say the U.S. military launched a secret mission earlier this summer to rescue a number of Americans held captive by militants in Syria but failed to find them.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3190591/posts Alexander Khomchenko, volunteer rescued hundreds of women and children from hot spots, still held captive by the "DNI" After prayers, Alexander Khomchenko, Valera Yakubenko Roksolana taken by 16 militant terrorists to the SECURITY SERVICE building. After witnessing his interrogation, Roksolana released, and Alexander and Valera, packed in the trunk of the car and taken to the military enlistment office in Makeyevka. Prior to this, all personal items have undergone a thorough inspection. Alexander identity of the pastor of the Church was found considered as accusation against him already, and a few comments that NKVD workers considered defamatory. Back in...

A classified military assessment of Iraq’s security forces concludes that many units are so deeply infiltrated by either Sunni extremist informants or Shiite personnel backed by Iran that any Americans assigned to advise Baghdad’s forces could face risks to their safety, according to United States officials. The report concludes that only about half of Iraq’s operational units are capable enough for American commandos to advise them if the White House decides to help roll back the advances made by Sunni militants in northern and western Iraq over the past month. Adding to the administration’s dilemma is the assessment’s conclusion that...

About 200 Americans under contract with the Department of Defense at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq are trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad, according to WND sources. The sources, private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq, said Friday their former colleagues effectively have been abandoned by the U.S. military and are fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The U.S. contractors are at Balad to help the...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "An Iranian-backed Shia terror group that claims it seeks reconciliation with the Iraqi government has kidnapped a US civilian in Baghdad. The US recently released the top leader of the group under the guise of a reconciliation program, but the release actually was related to a hostage exchange. The Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US civilian contractor, in Baghdad in late January. Salomi went missing in Baghdad sometime after Jan. 23, the US Department of Defense noted in a press release on Friday. The League of the...

Family members of an American woman and Canadian man who went missing in Afghanistan in 2012 have released videos showing the couple captive. Caitlan Coleman, sat next to Joshua Boyle, appeals to "my president, Barack Obama" for help. The videos were emailed to Ms Coleman's family by an Afghan man months after she and Mr Boyle went missing. The families of the captive couple said they decided to make the videos public because of Bowe Bergdahl's release. They said their were disappointed the two were not freed as part of a prisoner swap deal that led to US soldier, Sgt...

Eight members of a military monitoring mission were captured on April 25 and are held hostage in the city of Sloviansk by pro-Russian separatist forces, OSCE said on Friday. The monitors were traveling by bus from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast, Ukraine's interior ministry said. “Communication with military observers in Donetsk lost,” OSCE said in its Twitter microblog. “The military verification team – led by Germans, and composed of eight members, (including) four Germans, one Czech, one Danish, one Polish and one Swedish.”

Yesterday, Ted Cruz had his first authored bill get signed into law, but the freshman Senator from Texas probably didn’t too excited by the victory. Despite unanimous support in both chambers of Congress for the new law, President Barack Obama sounded less than enthusiastic about enforcing the bill he signed yesterday that would block the proposed Iranian envoy to the UN from receiving an entry visa to the US: It’s the oddest of legislative couples: President Obama and one of his biggest critics, Ted Cruz.Obama on Friday signed a Cruz-backed bill aimed at blocking Iran’s appointed ambassador to the United...

Ukraine's state security service on Tuesday said that pro-Russian separatists have placed explosives in a building they seized in the eastern city of Luhansk and are using weapons to hold around 60 people against their will. Pro-Russian separatists occupied the SBU building on Sunday evening in one of a series of attacks in the east of the country. At least nine people were injured when the separatists broke doors and windows throughout the building and raised the Russian flag.

Hostages captured after the 1979 siege on the US Embassy in Tehran are seen in this undated file photo.Former American hostage Barry Rosen, held by student extremists at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for more than a year, said Monday it would be an “outrage” and “disgrace” if Washington gave a visa to one of the militants recently named by Iran as its new U.N. ambassador. “It may be a precedent but if the president and the Congress don't condemn this act by the Islamic Republic, then our captivity and suffering for 444 days at the hands of Iran was...

Today in History: Ronald Reagan inaugurated and Iran released the hostages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hOaGH3QOx9g#t=569

Workers at a tire plant in Northern France have taken two managers hostage until Goodyear (the firm that owns the plant and has been trying to shutter it for years) meets the mabor unions demands. WSJ reports, as Goodyear winds down operations with the plant almost idle, French labor law requires the company to keep all workers employed, which means many of them don't work more than a couple of hours a day while still getting full salary. The situation is why Titan International's Maurice Taylor blasted that he "would be stupid" to operate the plant on that basis

Four U.S. military personnel are being held in Libyan government custody, the State Department said Friday night. The circumstances and location of their detention were not immediately clear.

A U.S. government contractor kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan in 2011 has recorded a video message calling on the Obama administration to negotiate with his captors, saying he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten.”

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON – Four members of a violent guerilla organization were indicted on Friday on conspiracy and hostage-taking charges stemming from the kidnapping of more than 60 people in Colombia in 2000, including three United States nationals."

Thirty-four years ago today, Iranian “students” stormed the US embassy in Tehran, Iran with the approval and, later, outright support, of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran and the Islamic Revolution. This should properly be regarded as the opening action in the modern era of a global Islamic jihadist insurgency directed at the US in particular and the West in general. To be sure that insurgency is not homogenous and has been executed in fits and starts with often violent disputes between Islamic jihadist factions, but a global insurgency it is nonetheless. To those of us old enough...

'Three killed' in Norway bus hijack Breaking news Three people have been killed in the hijacking of a bus in Norway, media reports say. The suspect, a man in his 50s of foreign origin, has been arrested, police told Norway's TV2 news channel. The man was said to have been armed with a knife. There were no immediate details of the number of injured. The attack - which was initially reported as a traffic accident - took place around 17:30 local time (GMT) in the central town of Ardal.

My quick translation: A non ethnic Norwegian entered a bus n the fjordlands of Western Norway, then proceeded to slay all the passengers with a knife. There were only 3 passengers onboard so casualties are relatively low I suppose.

Two French radio journalists were killed by gunmen in northern Mali on Saturday shortly after being abducted in the town of Kidal, French and Malian officials said. The French government confirmed that 58-year old Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, 51, both journalists at RFI radio, had been found dead.

Defence sources said the “surgical” operation showed the “precision, skill and courage” of British special forces after they stormed the cave where Helen Johnston, 28, was held, and killed her kidnappers. David Cameron spoke individually to the soldiers to thank them for an “extraordinarily brave” mission. He warned that anyone who took British citizens hostage faced “a swift and brutal end”. Miss Johnston, a committed Christian, along with Moragwa Oirere, a Kenyan colleague, and two Afghan women who worked for the same aid agency, were said to be physically well after their ordeal. Miss Johnston’s parents expressed their gratitude to...