Free Republic

Robert McFarlane, a national security advisor to former President Ronald Reagan who was involved in the Iran-contra scandal, has died at the age of 84. McFarlane died on Thursday in Lansing, Michigan, according to the New York Times, and was visiting family when he passed away.

President Ronald Reagan’s former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane recently honored Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, tainting his former boss’s legacy in so doing. Making matters worse is that Abubaker Y. Ahmed Al Shingieti, the Vice President of the organization that hosted the event was for years a high ranking henchman in Sudan’s terrorist regime and is today a stealth jihadist who leads a Muslim Brotherhood front group. Last year, it was reported that McFarlane may have illegally represented the government of Sudan and that the FBI seized documents in a raid of his apartment. One of the...

There's an old Groucho Marx riff in which he launches a new career as a stick-up artist -- while worrying that his native cowardice may not induce the requisite fear among his victims. Sure enough, after a little time in a dark alley he springs out to confront his first victim, points his gun to his own head and says, "Take one step closer and I'll kill myself." Such is the posture today among pundits on the far right of the Republican Party as Sen. John McCain moves closer to receiving his party's nomination. Consider the destructive implications of their...

There's an old Groucho Marx riff in which he launches a new career as a stick-up artist -- while worrying that his native cowardice may not induce the requisite fear among his victims. Sure enough, after a little time in a dark alley he springs out to confront his first victim, points his gun to his own head and says, "Take one step closer and I'll kill myself." Such is the posture today among pundits on the far right of the Republican Party as Sen. John McCain moves closer to receiving his party's nomination. Consider the destructive implications of their...

CIA's Haq cover-up is part of a pattern November 1, 2001BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Unnamed CIA officials flat out lied when they told reporters that the first they had heard from Abdul Haq was his futile plea to be saved from the Taliban fighters who surrounded him and then murdered him last Friday. That fits the pattern of deceit, arrogance and ignorance that describes the U.S. role in the murder of the legendary Afghan commander. Actually, the Central Intelligence Agency had been in contact with Haq's representatives since last February. It was not a congenial liaison. The CIA's reaction ...

What do these people have in common?: George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, William J. Casey, Dick Cheney, Tom Delay, Raymond Donovan, William Frist, Lewis Libby, Robert McFarlane, Oliver North, John M. Poindexter, Karl Rove, Kenneth Tomlinson, Caspar Weinberger. Answer: they are all conservative Republicans who have been accused by the liberal press and/or prosecuted for criminal acts under pressures brought by liberal politicians. All of them have been persecuted by the threat of legal action or by actual indictments for political reasons. None have been found guilty although some have had to go through the expense of an appeal...

As president of the United States, Ronald Reagan initiated a sweeping and unprecedented program of covert actions and economic-warfare initiatives that acted to greatly weaken the Soviet economy, its support for "wars of liberation," and its hold on its power in Eastern Europe, former top Reagan administration officials said. The elements of these programs were contained in top-secret national-security directives signed by Reagan in 1982 and 1983, these sources told United Press International. "Any kind of covert-action program had to be expressed in a presidential finding," after consultations with attorneys, a former Reagan White House official explained. He said one...

What's Good for Russia Is Good for America By ROBERT McFARLANE Published: September 26, 2003 MOSCOW ~~ As President Bush meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia today and tomorrow at Camp David, he should take the opportunity to chart a new course for Russian-American relations. The logic for such a change is compelling, especially regarding United States interests in Iraq, and it is clear to Russian officials in both government and industry. This new thinking is the product of several factors involving the common experience of Russia and the United States as victims of terrorism and a common interest...