Free Republic

The internet was abuzz following a story by David Samuels on the jerk who admitted he manipulated the truth to get the president’s absurd deal with Iran accepted (accepted, that is, by the Democrats in Congress who blocked a Republican resolution to reject it). In case you missed it I’ll provide a quick summary of the salient parts, but that shouldn’t be the end of the story: the press having allowed itself to be flimflammed into being mere White House megaphones needs to redeem itself, should it care to win back even the tiniest shred of credibility. It probably won’t,...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a whopping $500 billion loss in revenue for the Gulf nations in 2016, which is 30 percent more than the $390 billion lost in 2015. The massive shortfall has crippled the gulf economies, which are facing record budget deficits and seeking external funding to overcome it. Many experts believe that $100 per barrel oil prices are history, and we might not revisit those prices for more than a decade. It implies that the recent crisis will not end as quickly as the downturn in 2007-2009. The oil-dependent nations will have to figure out...

Christianity is demonized and its history distorted by its usurping enemies: in the West, by a host of "isms"--including leftism, moral relativism, and multiculturalism--and in the Middle East, by Islam While Christianity continues to be physically erased from the Middle East, lesser known is that its historical role and presence is also being expunged from memory. Last month a video emerged showing Islamic State members tossing hundreds of Christian textbooks, many of them emblazoned with crosses, into a large bonfire. As one report put it, ISIS was “burning Christian textbooks in an attempt to erase all traces of” Christianity from...

INTERVIEW WITH MIDDLE EAST ANALYST AVI MELAMED! RECORDED LIVE Saturday (4/23) 8 AM EST!!! Avi Melamed is an internationally acclaimed Middle East expert. He is a former Senior official on Arab Affairs and Intelligence official, and is now an independent Middle East strategic intelligence analyst, private lecturer, and Fellow of Intelligence and Middle East Affairs at the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. Fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, he has spent decades operating in Arab cities throughout the region, often in high-risk positions at sensitive times. Melamed is also author of the new book, Inside the Middle East. Interview begins...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration recently seized six churches as state property in the volatile southeastern part of Turkey. As World Watch Monitor reports: 'After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. 'But to the dismay of the city’s handful of Christian congregations, this includes all its Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Unlike the state-funded mosques, Turkey’s ancient church buildings – some of which pre-date Islam – have been managed, historically, by church foundations.' Because of this...

Everyone wants a piece of Djibouti. It’s all about the bases. ... the New Jersey-sized nation. Yet its quiet stability within the volatile Horn of Africa has made the country of just 875,000 people a hub for the world’s superpowers. ... The stars and stripes flutters alongside the runway where military and passenger planes touch down: Camp Lemmonier, America’s only permanent military base in Africa, hosts 4,500 troops and contractors who conduct missions against al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Shabab in Somalia. The outpost, leased for $60m a year, shares an airstrip with the international airport, ... Djibouti also hosts France’s...

The Central Intelligence Agency and its regional partners have drawn up plans to supply more-powerful weapons to moderate rebels in Syria fighting the Russia-backed regime in the event the country’s six-week-old truce collapses, according to U.S. and other officials.

Iran's defense minister on Saturday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry's for what he called his “foolish” accusations that Tehran is "destabilizing" the Middle East, AFP reports. If the United States seeks "stability" it should "leave the region and stop supporting terrorists," Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said, quoted by the website of state television. "If John Kerry thought about these subjects, he would no longer utter nonsense and foolish words," added the Iranian minister. The comments came after Kerry, speaking on a visit to Bahrain on Thursday, condemned "the destabilizing actions of Iran," noting that the United States was taking...

Panama Papers SCANDAL! & Is a new Crisis brewing in the Middle East? Recorded Saturday (4/9) 8 AM EST This week, world elites were rocked by the release of the Panama Papers, demonstrating that world leaders, their friends and family, and the super wealthy routinely use offshore companies for tax avoidance. Meanwhile, reports out of the Middle East indicate a growing concern of Iran's activity. From Yemen to Iraq to Gaza, Iran continues to fund and arm terrorist insurgencies that are reshaping the region. Not only Israel, but the Gulf states and their Sunni allies are preparing for potential confrontation....

Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication. The Christian communities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon are well on the way to joining their Jewish cousins. The Jewish communities of these states predated Islam by a millennium, and were vibrant until the 20th century. But the Arab world's war on the Jewish state, and more generally on Jews, wiped out the Jewish populations several decades ago. And now the Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication. The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians at the hands of Sunni...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said it would not be difficult to agree on a new government including opposition figures, but his opponents responded on Wednesday that no administration would be legitimate while he remained in office. Assad, bolstered by military victory in the desert city of Palmyra, was quoted by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying a new draft constitution could be ready in weeks and a government that included opposition, independents and loyalists could be agreed. While the distribution of portfolios and other technical issues would need to be discussed at Geneva peace talks, which resume next month,...

Katie Gorka, President of the Council on Global Security, discussed what Christians can do to help in the war against Christianity with host Stephen K. Bannon on SiriusXM radio’s Breitbart News Saturday: On a special Holy Saturday edition of Breitbart News Saturday, host and Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon will continue the discussion on the global war on Christianity we began on the Good Friday episode and will continue through to Easter Sunday.

An explosion ripped through a crowded Pakistan park where Christians were celebrating Easter on Sunday, killing at least 60 people, officials told the Associated Press. About 300 people were injured when a bomb detonated in the parking area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in the eastern city of Lahore. A suicide bomber is suspected of being responsible for the blast, though authorities continue to investigate. The explosion reportedly occurred just outside the exit gate and near rides for children. "When the blast occurred, the flames were so high they reached above the trees and I saw bodies flying in the air," Hasan...

My friends at the AIPAC conference are shocked, shocked that so many fellow attendees gave Donald Trump an ovation last night. Just like my Republican friends are shocked that so many fellow Republicans have voted for him. Why the surprise, though? Is it at all surprising that a rightward-tilting, nationalistic, often-anti-Muslim pep rally of 18,000 people (many paid to be there by a handful of billionaires) would applaud a rightward-tilting, nationalistic, often-anti-Muslim leader of pep rallies? The weirdest shock of all, though, came from AIPAC itself, whose leader apologized this morning for Trump’s having insulted President Obama. Choking back tears,...

Ted Cruz's foreign policy team is taking aim at Donald Trump's bromance with Vladimir Putin as it courts wary anti-Trump elements within the Republican establishment. Daniel Vajdich, a member of Cruz’s recently announced national security team, blasted out an email last week inviting “GOP Russia hands” to join a Ted Cruz Russia Working Group, slamming Trump’s praise for the Russian president last year and asking for help “pushing back against Donald Trump’s dangerous Russia policy.” ...

Interview with Nonie Darwish begins at 34:00 minutes into the program. Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American human rights activist and critic of Islam, and founder of Arabs for Israel, and is Director of Former Muslims United. Visit her website here: www.noniedarwish.org We interviewed Nonie about Egypt today, the Obama administration's unbelievable activism on behalf of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Islamic situation in Europe. Topics of Discussion (prior to interview): > Capture of the Paris attacks mastermind in Brussels > Soros-instigated rioters form anti-Trump/anti-Free Speech movement > Will there be a third party? & more . . .

In the Yemeni port city of Aden earlier this month, Islamists attacked a Catholic home for the indigent elderly. The militants, believed to be soldiers of the Islamic State, shot the security guard, then entered the facility where they gunned down the old people and their care-givers, including four nuns. At least 16 people were murdered. Such atrocities are no longer seen as major news events. Most diplomats regard them – or dismiss them -- as “violent extremism,” a phrase that describes without explaining. On America’s campuses, “activists” are deeply concerned about “trigger warnings” and “microaggressions.” Massacres of Christians in...

Obama became annoyed... President Obama’s favorite journalist Jeffrey Goldberg made headlines in Israel when The Atlantic published his latest article about the President. In his lengthy piece titled “The Obama Doctrine,” Goldberg gave an overview of Obama’s foreign policy and discussed the President’s disillusionment with the attempts to change the Middle East for the better. Yes, Obama really thought that his policies in this problematic region would bring a positive change when he entered the White House at the beginning of 2008. “This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East,”...

A great, well done YouTube clip where Mark Halawa, a Palestinian, explains, in Arabic (easy to read English subtitles) to other Palestinians the true history of what they call their "homeland". With humor and historical facts, he tells them that they have been lied to. Mark is about to make other clips like this.

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison, who served in the Reagan administration.President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have until March 17th to issue a determination that ISIS’ attacks on Christians in the Mideast are genocide. Time is running out. The foot-dragging and hesitancy of this administration in calling it genocide is inexplicable. Why do they have to be prodded to do what is right? All of us have seen the horrific images of 21 Coptic Christians lined up on a North African beach and beheaded. These Egyptian martyrs died with the name of Jesus on their...