Free Republic

A former high-level Obama administration intelligence official has guaranteed the $250,000 bail for the New York City lawyer who allegedly firebombed an unoccupied NYPD police cruiser early Saturday, calling the suspect her "best friend," Fox News has confirmed. The Washington Free Beacon first reported that Salmah Rizvi, who served in the Defense Department and State Department during the Obama administration, went to bat for Urooj Rahman, who was arrested this weekend alongside Pryor Cashman associate Colinford Mattis. Rizvi, an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray, told the court: "Urooj Rahman is my best friend and I am an...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was “Chaos”, which I didn’t like, & changed to “Mad Dog”... ...His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom “brought home the bacon”. I didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him, and many...

California police at an anti-lockdown protest in Sacramento, California stood down after a Marine veteran challenged their integrity for enforcing unconstitutional orders. https://youtu.be/DTqipTcwxyA 

Gruesome photographs of dead Iraqis, allegedly killed by US Marines in Haditha, will soon be made public. That is, if the leaks keep coming and the anti-war crowd has its way.The photos were given to the Washington Post by the enemy within. An unnamed "defense official". He or she gave the Post the entire Naval Criminal Investigation Service report into the incident at Haditha.On January 7, the Post published, Marines' Photos Provide Graphis Evidence in Haditha Probe. "Among the images," according to the article, "there is a young boy with a picture of a helicopter on his pajamas, slumped over,...

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council aide and impeachment witness President Donald Trump fired Friday, was just doing his job, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told students and guests at a Drew University event here Wednesday night. Over a 75-minute speech and Q&A session, Kelly laid out, in the clearest terms yet, his misgivings about Trump’s words and actions regarding North Korea, illegal immigration, military discipline, Ukraine, and the news media. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said that Vindman is blameless and was simply followed the training he’d received as a soldier; migrants...

There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there. Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President...

Former secretary of defense Jim Mattis told aides he would rather 'swallow acid' than allow Trump to throw a $50million 'Victory Parade', and said the president's summit with Putin was a display of the White House seeking 'instant gratification', a new book reveals. Mattis, who was known as 'Mad Dog' during his career in the military, resigned in December 2018 following Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. The defense chief's former speechwriter Guy Snodgrass has detailed his clashes with the president in new book, Holding The Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon With Secretary Mattis, obtained by DailyMail.com ahead of...

Over the last week or so, Gen. James Mattis has been running around hawking his new book, but it was revealed on Sunday that he's planning to cash in on his government service in a much more swampy way.

After the surprise resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis last December, Democrats were quick to politicize the news, and have certainly been hoping ever since that Mattis would provide them with new information they could use to attack Donald Trump. He does have a memoir coming out, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, but it looks like it’s Barack Obama and Joe Biden who get the bulk of the criticism. Prior be being Secretary of Defense under Trump, Mattis served as commander of U.S. Central Command under Obama and Biden. Mattis had predicted that Iran would continue to provoke...

  With his resignation and a new book coming out the Left was eager to hear Mattis snipe at Trump. They weren’t expecting him to jackhammer their ‘Scandal-Free’ golden boy.One of the most controversial decisions of Obama’s presidency was the Iran deal.Obama had to give up a HELL of a lot to make his Iran deal happen, and every new revelation makes that ‘deal’ he struck look even worse. Prior be being Secretary of Defense under Trump, Mattis served as commander of U.S. Central Command under Obama and Biden. Mattis had predicted that Iran would continue to provoke the...

Former secretary of defense James Mattis repeatedly refused MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell's invitations to criticize President Donald Trump in an interview Thursday. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, resigned in December over policy differences with Trump, specifically the president's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria. Mattis, an advocate of cultivating alliances and American engagement, said he had "no choice" but to depart. Mitchell quoted a portion of Mattis's new book Call Sign Chaos that criticized the Obama administration—including former vice president and 2020 candidate Joe Biden—for leaving the Middle East in "disarray" and "our friends confused." "Aren't we at...

During former Defense Secretary James Mattis's MSNBC interview with Andrea Mitchell, he refused to criticize President Trump, even though she pressed him firmly to do so on various issues. Mitchell tried to get Mattis to say Thursday if he thinks he is "normalizing" decisions Trump makes by not saying how he truly feels about them, such as when former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired via Twitter. Each time, Mattis maintained that it is inappropriate for former military men and administration officials to undermine the current commander in chief. "Your personal library has thousands, thousands, 7,000 books in it....

Jim Mattis, the former Marine Corps general and Pentagon chief, has lashed 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden for fueling the rise of ISIS by insisting on the total withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq. "You may want a war over. You may declare it over. You may even try to walk away from it. But the bottom line is the enemy gets a vote, as we say in the military, and we simply have got to understand that terrorism is going to be an ambient threat," he said in an NPR interview. As vice president, Biden was tasked by President...

While famously media shy during his time in government, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis offered a brief glimpse into his thoughts on today’s political environment in an essay and interview last week, but the appearance left several questions unanswered. These rare media appearances are not random, as Mattis will be appearing at several events in the coming days to promote his new book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. The two pieces delve into why the former Marine Corps general chose to serve as secretary of defense and why he resigned. There are some new details about the journey,...

In late November 2016, I was enjoying Thanksgiving break in my hometown on the Columbia River in Washington state when I received an unexpected call from Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Would I meet with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the job of secretary of defense? I had taken no part in the election campaign and had never met or spoken to Mr. Trump, so to say that I was surprised is an understatement. Further, I knew that, absent a congressional waiver, federal law prohibited a former military officer from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of departing military...

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis took several implicit swipes at President Trump’s leadership in an op-ed published Wednesday, warning about the fallout from fractured alliances and increasing divisiveness under the current administration. Mattis’ comments were included in a lengthy essay adapted from a forthcoming book and published in The Wall Street Journal. They amount to the most extensive remarks from him about his time in the Trump administration since he quietly resigned in January.

Seven months after General James Mattis left his post following a series of policy disputes with US President Donald Trump, Army veteran Mark Esper has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Esper, who was confirmed by the Senate in a vote of 90-8, is taking the reins from acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and comes into his role amid a series of global challenges. Those challenges include mounting tensions with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and the growing military challenges posed by Russia and China in the Middle East. With the growing tensions in the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon...

On Morning Joe, Tuesday, Mika Brzezinski says she'd "love to hear" from former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis or other former members of the Trump administration to hear about the "dysfunction" in the Trump administration and the "erosion of our credibility on the world stage." Brzezinski implored Mattis to contact her to trash the Trump administration and the standing of the United States in the world. The moment came after the BBC's Katty Kay said that foreign allies have become skeptical of US claims regarding Iran, and would need hard evidence before supporting any American move in the area. Said Brzezinski:...

Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has a book coming out this summer, but he warns that it will not be a "tell-all" about President Donald Trump. "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead" will be published on July 16, Random House announced Tuesday. Co-written with Bing West, the book will be an "expansive account" of the retired general's military career, according to the publisher. Mattis will write about conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq and use those experiences for lessons on war and peace. The book was under contract before Mattis became defense secretary in early 2017, although it will touch...

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to carry out orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options in various attempts to prevent tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria from escalating, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest account of Trump’s own officials trying to check his worst instincts. "The president thinks out loud. Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation," a former senior national security official told The New Yorker. "We prevented a lot of bad things from...