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Israeli officials were briefed over the weekend by a US team regarding developments in negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 world powers, a senior diplomatic source told Arutz Sheva. According to the source, the head of the Israeli team being updated was National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen, while United States Under Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, led the briefing. Sherman, the leading US representative in talks with Iran, last updated the Israelis on the looming deal a few weeks ago. At the briefing, the US clarified that while significant gaps exist between Iran and world powers, there is still a...

In a new James O’Keefe video doctors, staffers, and a top official are captured on hidden camera speaking about the problems that continue to plague the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA doctor tells undercover Project Veritas journalist: “We’re way below water in terms of the ability to supply, to meet the requests that’s demanded.” According to VA Undersecretary/ Brigadier General: “Once you’ve entered the appeals process all bets are off, the only solution to that is changing the law or more people.”

The Washington Times has uncovered what it calls "deep-seated doubts" among Pentagon brass regarding President Obama's strategy in degrading and defeating ISIS. This revelation undercuts the official White House line that would indicate a unified front between the president and military officials. One Pentagon official, said to be involved in counterterrorism analysis, asked incredulously, “What strategy?” He went on to say, “We are now floating along, reacting to ISIS.” The general consensus among top military officials is that the president will never activate their recommended plan of sending in ground troops, a strategy that is believed to be the only...

An advisory group reviewing U.S. hostage policy for the White House is expected to recommend that families of Americans held overseas not face the fear of prosecution if they pay ransoms, according to a report Sunday. "There will be absolutely zero chance of any family member of an American held hostage overseas ever facing jail themselves, or even the threat of prosecution, for trying to free their loved ones," one of three senior officials familiar with the review said in a report on ABC's "This Week." The family of slain American journalist James Foley, who become the first American executed...

SAN FRANCISCO — J.C.X. Simon—one of the so-called "Zebra Killers" convicted of multiple murders of white San Franciscans in the 1970s—has died, prison officials said Friday. Simon, 69, was pronounced dead at San Quentin prison at 11:59 p.m. Thursday after being found unresponsive in his cell, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said. The cause of death is unknown pending the results of an autopsy.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper continued his prosecution of the Obama administration for not sending a high-level official to the Paris Unity Rally yesterday. He lit into former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, now a CNN contributor, on Monday, asking what the administration was thinking in skipping the rally. Carney argued the security challenges of a president in an open rally would have distracted from the rally’s Franco-centric message. “I take your point on the president,” Tapper responded. “But Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, somebody else from the administration? Chuck Hagel?” RELATED: Zakaria on U.S.’s Absence from Paris Rally: Why God...

US President Barack Obama's administration is coping with underwhelming performance on various fronts according to officials cited in the New York Times on Friday, who suggested he may replace some senior administration officials - including US Secretary of State John Kerry. "There is an inflection point in every presidency, and this certainly is a logical one, if the president feels he might be better served by some replacements on his team,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the paper. Citing the Ebola crisis in Africa that has spread to a few isolated cases...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is re-establishing a law enforcement group to fight those it designates as domestic terrorists, with an announcement expected on Tuesday, Department of Justice officials said. Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence of such criminals on a national level, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The group will coordinate cases that involve Americans who may be spurred to violence for political or prejudicial reasons.

May. 28, 2014 - 5:27 - Marine who served beside Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi says he claims prison officials chained him to a bed, treated him like the 'worst gun smuggler' #MarineHeldinMexico

The chief of an Army medical center has been relieved of his command because of problems with patient care, and the Pentagon has ordered a review of its health care system, defense officials said. The commander was replaced Tuesday at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and three deputies were suspended, the Army said in a statement. The shake-up comes after two deaths this month of patients in their 20s and problems with infection control at the facility that were pointed out in March by a hospital accreditation group, according to two defense officials. They spoke on...

Church officials say they will “combat evil” by hosting a positive worship service to counter a Harvard group’s Satanic mass planned for Monday evening. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston will host a Eucharistic procession from MIT to a nearby church for an hour of prayer, The Boston Globe reports. The religious procession will end up at St. Paul’s Parish in Harvard Square, just a 10-minutes walk from the Queen’s Head Pub in Memorial Hall the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club is set to hold a “black mass.” A black mass is a ritual performed as a parody of the...

Israeli officials denounced on Tuesday evening a report in Newsweek which said that American intelligence officials have linked the U.S. visa crisis to Israeli espionage. The report cited these American officials as saying in closed conversations that "Israel crosses the line for espionage in the United States." In response, Israeli officials told Kol Yisrael radio’s diplomatic affairs correspondent Chico Menashe that the report “smelled of anti-Semitism.” "The allegations of espionage in the U.S. are false. Israel is not spying there. The report in Newsweek smells of anti-Semitism, we are portrayed as an enemy country,” one official told Kol Yisrael. Another...

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday again went after the Obama administration on Benghazi, calling White House officials “scumbags” that “lied about” the September 2012 attacks. “Our Democratic friends, for the most part, have been in the tank over Benghazi. They think it’s to get me reelected,” the South Carolina Republican said on The Mike Gallagher Show on Thursday morning. “Some guy said this about me yesterday on the left: The only reason I cared about this was because I have six tea party opponents. Well, if that’s true, I’m the biggest scumbag in America. I don’t think that’s true. I...

Though officials at the World Health Organization are feverishly working to stop the spread of the Ebola virus in what is now seven African nations, their efforts may be for naught. In Guinea, a hot spot for the deadly contagion, government health officials have said that the outbreak is nearly under control. Yet, Reuters reports that the government “planned to stop publicly releasing the death toll to avoid causing unnecessary panic.” But panic may be in order. Despite the best efforts of emergency health workers it appears that virus may have crossed out of Africa into Europe.

The IRS’s new proposal to crack down on nonprofits was in the works a year before the tea party targeting scandal broke, according to a Treasury Department official who told congressional investigators it was spurred by pressure from outside parties. The revelation follows earlier testimony from former IRS Commissioner Steve Miller, who told investigators that they started “brainstorming” ways to crack down on nonprofits while under pressure from a senior Democratic senator who was “complaining bitterly to us” about the way groups were engaging in politics while organized as social welfare nonprofits. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and subcommittee...

Thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents may have been exposed to measles last week when an unvaccinated student at the Unversity of California, Berkeley, attended classes and rode the area's BART transit system. Public health officials in Contra Costa County, outside of San Francisco, said anyone riding BART from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7 during the morning or late evening commutes could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory virus. The young man in his 20s lives in the county and was confirmed to have measles on Wednesday. He was likely infected while traveling recently in Asia, health...

On Jan. 1, 2014, tens of thousands of defiant gun owners seemingly made the choice not to register their semi-automatic rifles with the state of Connecticut as required by a hastily-passed gun control law. By possessing unregistered so-called “assault rifles,” they all technically became guilty of committing Class D felonies overnight. Police had received 47,916 applications for “assault weapons certificates” and 21,000 incomplete applications as of Dec. 31, Lt. Paul Vance told The Courant. At roughly 50,000 applications, officials estimate that as little as 15 percent of the covered semi-automatic rifles have actually been registered with the state. “No one...

Bayonne officials are planning to have several health officials on hand and local emergency services available tomorrow when a Royal Caribbean cruise ship which recently cut its trip short due to a gastrointestinal breakout overseas arrives at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne.

The U.S. military has deployed a small number of uniformed trainers and advisers to the failed state of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed in the failed “Black Hawk Down” operation. A cell of U.S. military personnel has been stationed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu since last fall to advise and coordinate operations with African troops fighting to wrest control of the country from the al-Shabab militia, an Islamist group whose leaders have professed loyalty to al-Qaeda, according to three U.S. military officials. The previously undisclosed deployment...

My apologies for the vanity, but I could use some advice from experienced Freepers. Yesterday, I got notification from our County's election bureau that I was elected to both JUDGE OF ELECTION and MINORITY INSPECTOR of ELECTION in our precinct.I didn't run for the office, but I have suspicions that a few of my neighbors wrote me in during the November 5 election.I am curious to know why I am getting notified only now, almost two months later. I'd also like some advice as to what these positions actually do and whether I should decline the lower office as they...