Free Republic

When Christopher Steele was hired to compile his “dossier” on Donald Trump in 2016, he already had an extensive history of presenting private intelligence analysis to U.S. policymakers. The former British spy had for years been funneling reports on Russia and Ukraine to senior State Department Russia analysts. Materials recently turned over to Congress show that while Steele was giving memos to State he also maintained close ties to the billionaire Russian industrialist Oleg V. Deripaska. Some congressional investigators are thus concerned that his memos may have been a channel of Russian disinformation. Here’s how Steele got his work distributed...

Veteran reporter Bob Woodward said Friday that he conducted a thorough investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion while researching his latest book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” but found no evidence of a conspiracy. “Did you Bob Woodward hear anything in your research or your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?” conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Woodward during an interview. “I did not. Of course I looked for it, looked for it hard,” replied Woodward.

The two members of Congress who received campaign contributions from convicted Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have selected charities to receive the funds, their spokespeople tell the Washington Examiner. Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., are the only current members of Congress to receive contributions from Manafort, who pleaded guilty to foreign lobbying and witness tampering crimes Friday after being convicted of tax and bank fraud last month. Harris, who received $500 during his first campaign for Congress in 2008, will give the funds to the Pregnancy Center North, campaign coordinator Nicole Beus said. The Baltimore-based center says...

President Trump reportedly wanted to immediately and publicly acknowledge that U.S.-led forces engaged Russian mercenaries in Syria earlier this year, killing hundreds of them, but senior National Security Council staff, led then by H.R. McMaster, intervened, saying it would be unnecessarily antagonizing to Moscow. The president is said to have wanted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to immediately acknowledged and “take credit” for fending off the Russian mercenaries.

The Associated Press news agency on Wednesday acceded to a Russian request to delete the term "former ally" from an article mentioning the relationship between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II. The article, which was published at the beginning of the month in media outlets worldwide, including Haaretz, was about a Ukrainian city commemorating the 75th anniversary of the destruction of its Jewish community. It included the claim that "in June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union, its former ally." On Wednesday, ten days after the article was published, AP amended the text. The news agency...

The United States accused Russia on Thursday of pressuring an independent panel of U.N. experts to alter a report on sanctions against North Korea that included alleged sanctions violations "implicating Russian actors." U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed disappointment in the panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea "for caving to Russian pressure and making changes to what should have been an independent report." She called it "a stain" on the experts' important work. Haley said the panel should release the original report, which cited "a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products" for North Korea in violation of U.N....

In wooded northern Russia, near the Finnish border, archaeological digs by a patriotic historical group are unearthing controversy. The Russian Military History Society, which was created by the Kremlin, says it is seeking the remains of Soviet soldiers who died when the region was occupied by Nazi-aligned Finns during World War II. But human rights activists allege the organisation is trying to cover up Stalin-era repressions in the Sandarmokh forest, in Karelia. “The search for the remains of soldiers from the Second World War on the site of mass executions by the NKVD...looks like an attempt to manipulate memory," Memorial...

Sen. Tom Cotton says that the Trump administration should unilaterally withdraw the United States from its “Open Skies” treaty, which governs how each country conducts aerial surveillance regarding military activities and forces as a means of assurance. Entered into force on 1 January 2002, the treaty has 34 signatories, but the Arkansas Republican says that it is favoring Russia to the detriment of the United States.

On September 12th, in an interview with Fox News, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley claimed that US and its allies, most members of the UN Security Council, would "address" an attack on civilians in Syria's Idlib province, not just a chemical attack. She said that any attack that hits civilians in Idlib would be "dealt with" by the US and allies, as Washington seeks to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russia, from retaking Idlib, which is the last remaining militant stronghold in the country....

U.S. intelligence officials now say they suspect Russia is responsible for attacks on U.S. embassy and diplomatic personnel in Cuba that caused some hearing loss and brain damage. The attacks began in late 2016 and continued, off and on, into 2018, and have caused a major rift in U.S.-Cuban relations.

<p>WASHINGTON — More than 100 U.S. Marines were sent as reinforcements to a remote coalition outpost in southern Syria on Friday after Russia threatened to attack militants in the area, the Pentagon said.</p> <p>The troops were flown by helicopter to the base at At Tanf — a small town near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan. The base is used by U.S. special forces to train Syrian fighters who are confronting Islamic State militants.</p>

Russia’s Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has openly called for the annexation of two eastern Ukrainian regions amid media reports of a possible escalation of hostilities. Ukraine has been at war for control of the Donbass region after an uprising of pro-Russian separatists there in 2014. Russia has been accused of stoking the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than 1.6 million people, a charge that the Kremlin denies. Separatist leaders quoted by Russian state media have claimed that Kiev is readying an offensive in the region following the assassination of Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of...

Intelligence agencies investigating mysterious "attacks" that led to brain injuries in U.S. personnel in Cuba and China consider Russia to be the main suspect, three U.S. officials and two others briefed on the investigation tell NBC News. The suspicion that Russia is likely behind the alleged attacks is backed up by evidence from communications intercepts, known in the spy world as signals intelligence, amassed during a lengthy and ongoing investigation involving the FBI, the CIA and other U.S. agencies. The officials declined to elaborate on the nature of the intelligence. The evidence is not yet conclusive enough, however, for the...

Several Russian media outlets, nearly simultaneously, began broadcasting “breaking news” warnings claiming that rebels occupying the last anti-government stronghold in Idlib Province, Syria, are preparing to stage chemical weapons attacks in order to blame them on the Syrian government. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the anti-Assad rebels were preparing “fake footage of chemical attacks,” while the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation announced that the “fake footage of chemical attacks” was expected to be delivered to various TV channels and Western journalists before the end of the day Tuesday.

Russia has launched its biggest military exercise since the Cold War, involving about 300,000 service personnel, in eastern Siberia. China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in "Vostok-2018", with many Chinese armoured vehicles and aircraft. Mongolia is also sending some units. The last Russian exercise of similar scale was in 1981, during the Cold War, but Vostok-2018 involves more troops. As the exercises began, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a forum in the eastern city of Vladivostok and told him "we have a trusting relationship in the sphere of politics, security and defence"....

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser warned the Syrian government against using chemical weapons in the impending battle for Idlib Province, the last remaining rebel stronghold populated by more than 2 million people. If chemical weapons are used, National Security Adviser John Bolton promised the U.S. would deliver a counterattack ...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday (Sep 10) said he was ready to provide financial aid to Pyongyang on condition that it resolves the issues of its nuclear and missile test and abducted Japanese nationals. "If we resolve as a whole the questions of abductions of Japanese citizens (and) the missile and nuclear problem, we manage to draw a line under the unhappy past and normalise diplomatic relations, then we can provide it (North Korea) with economic aid," Abe said in translated comments to journalists after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Japan,...

As Russia launches Vostok (“East”) 18, its largest war games since the early 1980s that will involve 300,000 troops, 1,000 combat aircraft, two naval fleets, and 10,000-plus combat vehicles and artillery pieces, NATO is preparing for its own large-scale war games along Russia’s western flank. The Russian exercise, which will involve a 3,200-troop contingent from China and Mongolia, are meant to demonstrate that Moscow’s forces are not only numerous and capable, but formidable and ready defend Russian interests. But so, too, is NATO’s exercise, “Trident Junction,” according to a former Supreme Allied Commander/Europe, Adm. James Stavridis (Ret.) It will involve...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington, the latest U.S. blow against the Palestinians and an international court during the stalled Mideast peace process. Some things to know: THE GIST The administration’s move to close the PLO office in Washington is not directly connected to the Trump White House’s opposition to the International Criminal Court, although the administration is trying to link them. But the Trump administration is trotting out discussions about the two on the same day — Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year — in a move certain to inflame...

National security adviser John Bolton is expected to announced Monday that the U.S. will shutter the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) office in Washington, D.C., The Wall Street Journal reported. “The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” Bolton is expected to say, according to a draft of his speech reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Bolton will reportedly threaten the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it carries out investigations into the U.S. and Israel. ADVERTISEMENT The action against the PLO, which serves as the main entity...