Free Republic

President Obama is pushing back against the idea that he’s been outmaneuvered in Syria by Russian President Vladimir Putin since the two met at the United Nations on Monday. Obama appeared frustrated by the suggestion during a press conference this afternoon, dismissing it as a notion only talked about in the Washington D.C. “Sometimes the conversation here in the Beltway differs from the conversation internationally,” Obama responded. Obama accused Putin of acting in Syria “out of weakness,” repeatedly referring to Russia’s weakening economy. He also compared his coalition to act against ISIS in Syria to Putin’s unilateral decision to prop...

Hassaké (Agenzia Fides) - "US Senator John McCain protested saying that the Russians are not bombing the positions of the Islamic State, but rather the anti-Assad rebels trained by the CIA. I find these words are disturbing. They represent a blatant admission that behind the war against Assad there is also the CIA". This is what Syrian Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo says to Agenzia Fides with regards to recent developments in the Syrian conflict, marked by the direct intervention of Russian military forces against the positions of the jihadi militias. "Western propaganda", said Archbishop Hindo "keeps talking about moderate rebels,...

The ever-growing proof of an anti-Israel prejudice at The New York Times (NYT) is so extensive and persistent that the paper’s partiality is now undeniable (see this endless archive of bias reports). […] On September 10th, the NYT singled out Jewish lawmakers on the Iran deal. On September 15th, the NYT suggested that the Israeli who was murdered by rock-throwing Palestinians had died of a “self-inflicted accident” after the attackers had merely “pelted the road” (rather than his car). The National Review provided a detailed critique of this farcical “reporting.” […] On September 29, (Diaa) Hadid used an anonymous European...

On Wednesday the Obama administration was caught off guard by Russia’s rapid rise in Syria. As the Russians began bombing a US-supported militia along the Damascus-Homs highway, Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, at the UN. Just hours before their meeting Kerry was insisting that Russia’s presence in Syria would likely be a positive development. Reacting to the administration’s humiliation, Republican Sen. John McCain said, “This administration has confused our friends, encouraged our enemies, mistaken an excess of caution for prudence and replaced the risks of action with the perils of inaction.” McCain...

The shooter at the centre of the Parramatta police HQ terror attack was a 15-year-old boy from Iran. The 'radicalised' youth gunned down police finance department employee and father-of-two Curtis Cheng at close range before being killed by a police officer. In a press conference with New South Wales premiere Mike Baird, Police commissioner Andrew Scipione confirmed the teens actions were 'politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism'. En route to the killing the youth, originally from Iran, had visited Parramatta Mosque, The Daily Telegraph reported. Witnesses of the attack on Friday afternoon said after the killing, the teen paraded...

Iran is expanding its already sizable role in Syria’s multi-sided war in the wake of Russia’s airstrikes, despite the risk of antagonizing the U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies who want to push aside President Bashar al-Assad. Politicians in the region close to Tehran as well as analysts...say a decision has been made, in close coordination with the Russians and the Assad regime, to increase the number of fighters on the ground through Iran’s network of local and foreign proxies. The support also could involve more Iranian commanders, military advisers and expert fighters usually assigned to these units, these people...

Kerry Tells Colbert: 'Memories of Vietnam Made Me Seek Iran Deal' – Video Speaking to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, the US secretary of state says his time served in Vietnam helped motivate him to seek a deal with Iran over their nuclear program. ‘[Vietnam] was a war in which too many of my friends died, under circumstances that might have been averted had different choices been made by people in positions of responsibility,’ Kerry said

Vladimir Putin is meeting western leaders for the first time since Russia launched airstrikes in Syria, amid a growing rift over who it is targeting.

On September 3, 2015, not two months after the July 14 announcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action at Vienna and its celebration at the White House and in Europe, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dropped a bombshell. In a speech to the Iranian Assembly of Experts, he backtracked from the agreement, demanding a new concession: that the sanctions be "lifted," not merely "suspended."[1] If that term is not changed, said Khamenei, there is no agreement. If the West only "suspends" the sanctions, he added, Iran will merely "suspend" its obligations. Giving further credence to his threat, he announced...

This was a bad idea when Fiorina pushed it yesterday and it’s still a bad idea today. Is one worse than the other, though? Fiorina wants an NFZ to protect American-backed rebels from Putin’s bombs; Hillary wants one for “humanitarian” reasons, the same sort of thinking that produced the paradise you and I know as modern Libya. It’s worth risking a world war to help decide which barbarians ultimately prevail in Syria, no? “I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to...

Senators are calling on President Obama to clarify his strategy on Syria, after Russia ignored repeated U.S. warnings and began bombing rebel groups there this week to shore up the Assad regime. -snip- Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the administration's biggest foreign policy critics, called on the administration to take stronger measures. "We should establish no-fly zones in Syria and make it clear that any aircraft that enters those zones will be shot down,” he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - International monitors say they have spotted a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held Ukraine this week, possible evidence of Moscow's continued interest in Ukraine even as it focuses on Syria. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, reported that its monitors had seen a mobile TOS-1 'Buratino' weapons system for the first time. The Buratino is equipped with thermobaric warheads which spread a flammable liquid around a target and then ignite it. It can destroy several city blocks in one strike and cause indiscriminate damage. Only...

BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia bombed Syria for a third day on Friday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than the Islamic State fighters it said it was targeting and drawing an increasingly angry response from the West. The U.S.-led coalition that is waging its own air war against Islamic State called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than Islamic State. "We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL," said the coalition, which includes the United States, major...

A new report confirms more White House woes with our ally Israel. A Politico exclusive reveals that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid confronted White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on two occasions to ask President Obama to reject a UN resolution that would grant Palestine statehood. Both times, Obama gave him the silent treatment. While Reid has previously shown his support for Israel, his latest request may not exactly have been for the Middle Eastern country’s best interests. The timing suggested he was trying to secure passage for the Iran Deal: The requests from Reid came as he was...

Saudi Arabia has expressed deep concern over Russia’s airstrikes in Syria, saying there was no evidence of Daesh operating in the areas targeted and that innocent civilians had been killed. Russia launched several strikes in Hama and Homs on Thursday, the second day of operations, with Kremlin officials saying that they targeted members of Daesh. Russian warplanes bombed a camp run by CIA-trained rebels, the group’s commander said. Abdullah bin Yahya Al-Moallemi, the Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, criticized Russia’s actions in a speech delivered at the Security Council on Wednesday. “As for those countries that have claimed recently...

Syrian military weakness, painfully exposed over the last few months, is the main reason for direct Russian intervention in the war – whether its goal is to strike at Islamic State or, more likely, to take on any rebel force fighting Bashar al-Assad in order to shore up his position and stave off demands that he step down. Officials and analysts say Moscow decided to deepen its involvement after the fall of the northern towns of Idlib and nearby Jisr al-Shughour in May served as a “wake-up call” about the parlous state of the Syrian army. Both were taken by...

Many Russian analysts maintain that Russia's intervention in Syria is driven by Vladimir Putin’s desire to reinstate the status of the world's largest nation as a superpower and his genuine belief that the United States has deliberately seeded chaos in the region to secure its reign there. While this assessment may be accurate, it only reveals part of the Russian president's intentions. Russia’s military engagement in Syria comes on the backdrop of three major factors: a serious threat to the survival of President Bashar Assad's regime, Russia's old Middle Eastern client; Putin's success at securing the occupation of Crimea and...

Thursday, October 01, 2015 Three Cheers for Terroristine Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog We need a terrorist state. Where the politicians are terrorists, the police are terrorists and even the men sitting at the desk when you come in to drop off a form are terrorists. There are states that support terrorists, and give safe harbor to them, but that's not good enough. We don't want another Pakistan or Iran. We're not half-assing it this time. What we want is the genuine article. Terrorists from the top down. Terrorists everywhere. A state where every branch of...

Executive Summary The Iranian nuclear deal is a full capitulation to Iran’s terrorist mastermind Mullahs, and the latest in a series of betrayals of the American people and allies by the Obama administration. At the highest level of the administration, Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, prioritized rapprochement with the terror state. Throughout the process and negotiations, she had the backing of billionaire investor (and Obama-backer) George Soros, and his multi-headed network of tax-exempt foundations. Their efforts were driven by deep-rooted anti-Semitism and personal greed. Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, a small but very connected Iranian lobby (funded, in...

Vladimir Putin has conscripted 150,000 new troops into the Russian army as the country unleashed a new wave of airstrikes in Syria - while and Iran and Islamist group Hezbollah prepare for a major ground offensive. Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country's Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today. One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were 'soldiers and officers', not advisers, adding: 'We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.' They are being...