Free Republic

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms expenditure around the world. The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

Iranian officials on Monday accused the United States of violating the recent comprehensive nuclear agreement by working behind the scenes to stop American companies from conducting business with Iran, according to regional media reports. Iran has been complaining for months that it is not being granted enough sanctions relief under the agreement. These complaints have reportedly pushed the Obama administration to consider offering Iran greater concessions, including access to the U.S. dollar and American financial markets.

The Women of Courage award has always been terrible. This time though one of the worst awardees isn't in the Muslim world, but in Slovakia. As Director of the Human Rights League (HRL) – Slovakia’s premier NGO providing legal and other assistance to foreigners –attorney Zuzana Stevulova has emerged as the country’s most prominent advocate for refugee and migrant rights. In a country where the majority of asylum applications are rejected, she has won numerous cases at Slovakia’s Supreme Court on behalf of clients in expulsion and asylum proceedings. Since the start of Europe’s migration crisis, Ms. Stevulova has been...

Never before in recent history has the United States faced a country that has so persistently sought to kill Americans or attack Americans only to avoid consequences after every outrage. It’s not just a matter of: •The 1979-1981 hostage situation. •Assassinating an Iranian dissident in suburban Washington, DC. •The 1983 Marine Barracks bombing. •Seizing American hostages in Lebanon. •The 1996 Khobar Towers attacks. •The facilitation of transport for the 9/11 hijackers to and from Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. •Sheltering of senior al-Qaeda leaders post-9/11. •Smuggling of explosively-formed projectiles into Iraq and weaponry to the Taliban to kill Americans....

When it comes to genocide, John Kerry is like the bank guard in that wonderful little Life Lock bank television ad. You know the one. It's where two gunmen break into a bank, smash a glass counter, wield weapons, take a hostage and shout, "Nobody move." Bank employees and customers hit the ground, except for a lone bank guard who is still standing. One woman lying on the floor looks up and says, "Do something." The guard looks around and pleasantly explains, "I'm not a security guard. I'm a security monitor. I only notify people if there is a robbery."...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intends to go ahead with the appointment of Ran Baratz as head of the country’s public diplomacy strategy, which was put on hold after harsh comments Baratz made on Facebook against President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and President Reuven Rivlin came to light. Channel 2 News reported on Thursday that Netanyahu had sent a letter to the Civil Service Commission, asking that it review Baratz’s appointment, and the Civil Service Commissioner said in response that there is a difficulty in approving Baratz’s appointment, which may not meet certain requirements. But the Prime Minister’s...

Two weeks ago the State Department officially declared the extinction of Christians and other minority religious groups by ISIS a genocide. Unfortunately, despite making the declaration Secretary of State John Kerry also announced the Obama administration wouldn't be changing military strategy in Iraq and Syria in order to stop it. Now, adding horror the the ongoing nightmare for Christians trapped in the region, ISIS is holding at least 43 Christian families hostage in Raqqa and will not allow them to leave.

The Obama administration may soon tell foreign governments and banks they can start using the dollar in some instances to facilitate business with Iran, officials told The Associated Press, describing an arcane tweak to U.S. financial rules that could prove significant for Tehran’s sanctions-battered economy. While no decision is final, U.S. officials familiar with internal discussions said the Treasury Department is considering issuing a general license that would permit offshore financial institutions to access dollars for foreign currency trades in support of legitimate business with Iran, a practice that is currently illegal. Several restrictions would apply, but such a license...

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Wednesday that Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities are crucial for the country’s defense, and — in an apparent swipe at an influential former president — added that those who argue that this is a time for talks rather than for missiles are either ignorant or traitors. At a time when some U.N. Security Council members are mulling a response to Iran’s recent missile launches, Khamenei used an address to Iranians marking the birthday of Mohammed’s youngest daughter to laud the program. He praised the recent demonstrations of missile prowess by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps...

Stop by your local post office and you might just see a poster of Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono hanging next to the Most Wanted posters of bank robbers and fugitives. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information about the Communist terrorist leader. But all the State Department had to do was ask Secretary of State Kerry. Obama did the wave with the Cuban dictator and Kerry met with Timochenko , the leader of FARC, a Marxist terrorist organization that appears on his own department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations a little above Al Qaeda. Timochenko is a...

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), together with ten House members, has asked the US State Department to investigate claims that Israel has committed “gross violations of human rights,” and depending on the results to cut military aid to the Jewish state. The letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry was dated February 17, and was published by Politico on Tuesday night after the news site received it from “an organization that provided input for it.” Leahy’s letter targets both Israel and Egypt, and is significant because the senator authored a law conditioning US military aid to foreign countries based on...

Call it noblesse oblige — John Forbes “Liveshot” Kerry has ever so generously offered the hoi polloi out here in flyover country some tips on how to avoid being murdered this summer by “migrants” and/or “lone wolves.”

"I think there is a wide swath of views that have been expressed on the campaign trail from more than one candidate that has caused concern among many foreign leaders," spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Kirby didn't name names, but his comments came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry said the 2016 race is an "embarrassment" for the United States, which was widely seen as a comment on Trump's campaign. Kerry said "every leader I meet" is shocked about the race, and said the rhetoric being used is an "embarrassment to our country."

Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign has descended into "an embarrassment" that raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States. Kerry said that everywhere he goes, every leader he meets asks about what is happening in America. "They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they're shocked. They don't know where it's taking the United States of America," Kerry said in an interview on the Sunday CBS news show "Face The Nation." "It upsets people's sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability,...

John Kerry has defended Barack Obama´s decision to stay in Cuba and stick to his diplomatic schedule after the Brussels attacks. The Secretary of State addressed the issue on CBS´s Face The Nation on Saturday. Host John Dickerson asked Kerry how he would respond to those who criticized Obama for attending a baseball game in Cuba on the day of the attacks and dancing the tango in Argentina the following day. Kerry responded by quoting conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, saying the President´s schedule was ´not set by terrorists´. The President of the US has major diplomatic responsibilities,´ Kerry said. ´He

“They’re not an existential threat to us,” President Obama said, defending his indifference to the latest ISIS terrorist attack in Europe. “Groups like can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us. They don’t produce anything,” he said. (Well, they are producing oil and bombs and fresh new terrorists, but never mind.) So what should the U.S. do to fight this non-existential threat that doesn’t produce anything? Let’s put on a show! The day after the attacks in Brussels, the State Department posted a $1.5 million grant proposal to develop “a television drama series that addresses the issue of countering violent extremism...

Vladimir Putin is worried about how America is doing. The Russian president on Thursday teased Secretary of State John Kerry, who was visiting in Moscow, for carrying his own luggage, asking whether it was a sign that the U.S. is somehow struggling. Story Continued Below "On the one hand, it’s quite a democratic way of conduct, but on the other hand, I thought probably the situation in the United States is not that good and there is no one to assist the secretary of state in carrying his luggage," said Putin, whose own country's economy has been hurting due to...

Then I thought there was something in that briefcase of yours you couldn’t trust anyone else with. Probably you brought some money to haggle with on key matters”. John Kerry said he would reveal the secret of his briefcase’s contents later, promising that it would be a surprise. “When we have a private moment, I’ll show you what’s in that briefcase. And I think you’ll be surprised. Pleasantly.” Kerry arrived in Moscow on Thursday and has been holding negotiations with Russia’s President and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The negotiations are said to concern a number of issues, such as the...

“They’re not an existential threat to us.” That was President Obama, defending his seeming indifference to the latest ISIS terrorist attack in Europe. “Groups like (ISIS) can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us. They don’t produce anything,” he said. (Well, they are producing oil and bombs and fresh new terrorists, but never mind.) So what should the U.S. do to fight this non-existential threat that doesn’t produce anything? Let’s put on a show!

The State Department on Wednesday offered a grant worth up to $1.5 million to produce a “television drama series” aimed at “countering violent extremism among young people in contemporary Afghan society.” The U.S. mission to Afghanistan put out the grant offer. “This grant will fund the development and broadcast of a television drama series in which young people grapple with everyday frustrations and lack of opportunity, while growing and learning through new experiences,” the offer said. …