Free Republic

Via Mediaite, an easy lay-up here for a guy who (a) warned the world about Saddam’s WMD threat more than once as president, (b) cautiously declined to take a firm position against the war at the time, and (c) is of course married to someone who cast a vote in the Senate to invade.But never mind that. This is an interesting counterfactual: What would have happened to Iraq during the Arab Spring and Syrian uprising if Saddam had endured? Clinton implicitly assumes that ISIS advancing on Baghdad is the worst possible outcome of the past 10 years, which is...

The United States Congress approved a massive defense spending bill Friday that provides for an enhanced air campaign against the "Islamic State" terror group, as well as the training of Iraqis and moderate Syrian rebels. The legislation, which passed 89 votes to 11 in the Senate, includes US President Barack Obama's $5-billion (4-billion-euro) request for funds to combat the Islamic State. Of that, $3.4 billion will be allocated to the deployment of US forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, and $1.6 billion will be used to equip and train Kurdish forces for two years. "American air power had changed...

...its lowest levels against the dollar for almost a year, amid investor nervousness about emerging markets. By evening trade in Istanbul the currency had fallen beyond TL2.30 to the US dollar, more than 1 per cent down on the day and the weakest level since January, when the Turkish central bank moved to increase interest rates -- a dramatic shift in policy that at the time halted a precipitous drop in its value. ...Turkey is far from alone in being affected by strong US economic data that has heightened expectations of a US Federal Reserve interest rate rise and so...

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the sharp fall in global oil prices is the result of “treachery,” in an apparent reference to regional rival Saudi Arabia, which opposed production cuts. Oil prices have plunged by more than 40 percent since June to around $65 a barrel, placing severe strain on Iran’s economy, which is already hobbled by international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. An OPEC meeting last month failed to reach agreement on production curbs, mainly because of Saudi opposition. Rouhani told a Cabinet meeting Wednesday that the fall in prices is at least partly “politically motivated,”...

WASHINGTON – In a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday that sounded like the first foreign policy address of a presidential campaign, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called for a return to the international politics of President Ronald Reagan. Cruz contrasted Reagan’s approach with the Obama-Clinton policy of not putting distance between the U.S. and traditional allies, such as Britain and Israel, in the hope of “domesticating” long-standing enemies such as Russia and Iran. “This backfired,” Cruz argued. “The end result is that Churchill is no longer welcome in the Oval Office. He recalled one of Obama’s first acts...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the sharp fall in global oil prices is the result of "treachery," in an apparent reference to regional rival Saudi Arabia, which opposed production cuts. Oil prices have plunged by more than 40 percent since June to around $65 a barrel, placing severe strain on Iran's economy, which is already hobbled by international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. An OPEC meeting last month failed to reach agreement on production curbs, mainly because of Saudi opposition.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday asked lawmakers debating legislation to authorize the war against the so-called Islamic State not to rule out the use of U.S. ground troops in combat. “The president has been clear that his policy is that U.S. military forces will not be deployed to conduct ground combat operations,” Kerry began. “However,” he added, "while we certainly believe this is the soundest policy, and while the president has been clear he's open to clarifications on the use of U.S. combat troops to be outlined in an AUMF, that does not mean we should preemptively bind...

Interpol (The International Criminal Police Organization) has requested the arrest of the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and global Sunni Islamist diaspora, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose radical past includes praising suicide bombers against innocents as martyrs and describing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as Allah’s gift to the world. Interpol is charging the terror Sheikh with agreement, incitement, and assistance to commit premeditated murder, facilitating a prison escape, arson, vandalism, and theft. Qaradawi has been known to espouse horrifically anti-Semitic sentiments, often praising figures such as Adolf Hitler and his Holocaust of 6-million Jews. “he managed to put them [Jews]...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is often touted by the West as a “peace partner” of Israel’s, recently declared that there are six million “Palestinian refugees”, and that he is one of them. Abbas’s comments were made in an interview with the Egyptian daily Akhbar Al-Yawm, published last week and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). In the interview, Abbas reiterated that he did not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, because this contradicted the Palestinian interests by “harming Israeli Arabs and preventing the return of the Palestinian refugees.” He said that there were six...

Jordan’s King Abdullah believes battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other terrorist groups is “our third world war.” Speaking to “CBS This Morning,” Abdullah stated that ISIS is a Muslim problem that they need to take ownership of. “We need to stand up and say what is right and what is wrong. This is no reflection of our religion. This is evil and all of us have got to make that decision,” Abdullah, who is in Washington to meet with President Barack Obama, said. “We have to stand up and say this is the line that is...

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report – Parts 1 and II on the morning after an terrorist bombing rampage at three idyllic Sinai desert resorts – with two dozen known dead and scores still missing – the first clues have been found to the identities of the hands behind the massacre and their targets. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources report that the explosives used to tear away the entire frontage of the Taba Hilton and hit the Nueiba oasis campside further south on the Red Sea coast were of Iranian manufacture; the same make as the bombs used in the 1996 Khobar Towers...

President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he would scrap Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline, a grandiose project that was once intended to establish the country’s dominance in southeastern Europe but instead fell victim to Russia’s increasingly toxic relationship with the West. It was a rare diplomatic defeat for Mr. Putin, who said Russia would redirect the pipeline to Turkey. He painted the failure to build the pipeline as a loss for Europe and blamed Brussels for its intransigence. The decision also seemed to be a rare victory for the European Union and the Obama administration, which have appeared largely...

Only by overlooking important forces in markets and politics can anyone assert that Saudi Arabia is letting crude prices fall mainly to extinguish competition from North American shale oil. With oil, the Saudi regime always takes the long view. With security, however, its motivations are more immediate. The kingdom faces unusually intense threats: Islamic State (IS) militancy in Iraq and Syria, the chance that Iran won’t agree by a Nov. 24 deadline to suspend its nuclear ambitions, terrorist insurrections from restive Yemen, durability of the menacing government of Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus. Falling oil prices hurt the IS and Iran,...

If you think Vladimir Putin has enough worries on his plate ..., the turmoil in Ukraine and Russia’s sputtering economy, think again. A new potential source of trouble is brewing out in the eastern Mediterranean — one that could not only undermine Putin’s efforts to rebuild Russia’s influence in the Middle East, but his current strong hand in Europe. The threat: Israel’s recently discovered offshore gas deposits — one of the biggest global finds of the past decade. Those fields, dubbed Tamar and Leviathan, promise Israel an unprecedented degree of energy independence and a lucrative export market to its Arab...

An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed murder charges against former president Hosni Mubarak in connection with the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his nearly three-decade reign. The ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who spearheaded the Arab Spring-inspired uprising nearly four years ago -- many of whom are now in jail or have withdrawn from politics -- and will reinforce the perception that Mubarak's autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by a new president, former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Saturday's verdict concludes Mubarak's retrial along with his two sons, his security chief...

The Facebook page of Mamoun Abunaser, an UNRWA school principal in Syria, carries an exhortation to support Palestinian "resistance." Image: Facebook Further examples of officials employed by UNRWA engaging in anti-Semitic activities online continue to surface, with no indication that the international organization’s management intends to clamp down on the incitement. As The Algemeiner reported last week, several UNRWA employees were among the many Palestinians who openly celebrated last Tuesday’s terrorist atrocity at a synagogue in Jerusalem, during which four worshippers and a police officer were brutally murdered. UNRWA is a body devoted solely to Palestinian Arab refugees from the...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday the international community’s failure to advance a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is spurring governments and parliaments to take action to recognize the state of Palestine—and “that momentum will grow.” The U.N. chief said at the U.N. commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People that the international community must assume “a collective failure” for not being able to get a peace deal. “Indeed—as we see around the world—governments and parliaments are taking action,” Ban said. …

Malik Obama, the president’s Kenyan half brother, was photographed in 2010 at a public event in Yemen wearing a “keffiyeh”—a special scarf—bearing two anti-Israel slogans of the terror group Hamas, it emerged today. “Jerusalem is ours—WE ARE COMING,” reads one saying. “From the river to the sea,” says the other statement. That rallying cry refers to Palestinian militants’ belief that the territory representing Israel, with the Jordan River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, rightfully belongs to them—and Israel should not exist. The photo appears on the website of the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a group...

MALIK OBAMA, brother of Barack Obama has been pictured at a charity function wearing a Hamas scarf (keffiyeh) that bears a well-known Palestinian slogan – ‘Jerusalem is ours – WE ARE COMING!’ While in Sanaa, Yemein in 2010, President Barack Obama’s brother Malik Obama was at an event billed as the Orphans Development Fund (ODF) Conference. It’s quite the ironic title considering a group photo Malik is in that he has posted to his website. In the photo, he can be seen wearing a Hamas scarf (keffiyeh) that bears a well-known Palestinian slogan – ‘Jerusalem is ours – WE ARE...

Sheikh Samir Aasi, Imam of the main mosque in the city of Akko (in above photo: front row, third from left), openly condemned the massacre that took place last week in a Har Nof synagogue. This terror attack was perpetuated by two Palestinian men, who entered during morning prayers and shot worshipers dead as well as stabbed them with meat cleavers. Aasi made the trip from Akko to Har Nof to participate in a pluralistic faith assembly attended by clergy from all of Israel's faiths. The assembly was held in the synagogue where the attack took place. Aasi spoke...