Free Republic

America First! The world is a very dangerous place! The country of Iran, as an example, is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, trying to destabilize Iraq’s fragile attempt at democracy, supporting the terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, propping up dictator Bashar Assad in Syria (who has killed millions of his own citizens), and much more. Likewise, the Iranians have killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East. Iran states openly, and with great force, “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” Iran is considered “the world’s leading sponsor of terror.” On...

"I guess the audio recordings of the moments during, before and after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing are going to start being released as of today. Because the international discussions about the order for this brutal murder, its organiztion, preparations and perpetration have made it necessary to present "new evidence". Today or this week seems to be the most convenient time to do this...." Commentator Ibrahim Karagul In Turkey's Pro-Government "Yeni Safak" newspaper 11/19/2018 "it's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape." US President Donald J. Trump In "Fox News Sunday" interview that was broadcast 11/18/2018 The man who puts...

Germany’s foreign minister said Berlin has banned 18 Saudi nationals from entering Europe’s border-free Schengen zone because they are believed connected to Khashoggi’s killing. The German government says it has halted previously approved arms exports to Saudi Arabia amid the fallout from the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Germany said a month ago it wouldn’t approve any new weapons exports to Saudi Arabia, but left open what would happen with already approved contracts. Germany’s economy ministry oversees the authorization of arms exports. Ministry spokesman Philipp Jornitz said Monday that “the German government is working with those who have valid...

Benjamin Netanyahu has declared himself to be Defense Minister of Israel saying that the security situation makes early elections "irresponsible". His move come after the die was cast for early elections in Israel with Netanyahu's refusal to make Education Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett Defense Minister. Minister Bennett and another Jewish Home cabinet member Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked were reported to be resigning. Their announcement at 3:30 AM Eastern time US turned into an announcement that they were not resigning. They were critical of policies that hurt Israel's ability to fight its enemies but in the end...

So back to the tragic murder of Jamal Khashoggi. My intelligence sources tell me he had worked as an intelligence agent for the Saudi intelligence service, GID, for around 20 years. At one point he was sent by GID to Sudan to meet Osama bin Laden and to try to lure him away from terrorism. He failed. Khashoggi had always been close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the people who took over Egypt under Morsi following the so-called Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood is a hard-line Islamist organisation dedicated to the introduction of Sharia and the creation of an Islamic caliphate....

President Trump will be in fire ravaged California today. At least 71 are dead as a result of the "Camp Fire" with more than 1-thousand missing...... The Central Intelligence Agency believes that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul on October 2nd....... The government of Yemen and Houthi rebels are set to atttend negotiationa aimed at ending the three-year civil war.... In France today one protester was killed when protesters gathered at some 2,000 locations in opposition to RISING GASOLINE PRICES..... The name of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned today saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for "surrender to Hamas terror". This could set the stage for new elections.... A thousand protesters were on the streets of the southern Israeli city of Sderot near the Gaza border last night protesting the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas..... "The worst deal in history" That's the response of "Mr. Brexit" Nigel Farage to Prime Minister Theresa May's plan for Britain to withdrawal from the European Union. He said all it achieves is a 40 billion pound payment to the EU for the deal. Brexiteer activists...

Progressive pundit Cenk Uygur argued recently the Bible is pro-abortion. The founder of The Young Turks — a far-left outlet — employed a passage from the Old Testament to make his case. Uygur, taking Numbers 5 out of context, claimed it’s “a fact” Scripture endorses abortion. “You’re wrong about your Bible,” he said, speaking to Christians. “You’ve been misled; you’ve been lied to. Your religious and political leaders have kept you in ignorance. The Bible is actually pro-abortion — that’s a fact.” Uygur went on to suggest abortion has never been a religious issue. “It was never about the Bible,”...

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran is abiding by the deal reached in 2015 with major powers that aimed at preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons in exchange for economic incentives. In a confidential quarterly report distributed to member states and reviewed by The Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has been abiding with key limitations set in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The issue has grown more complicated since the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in May from the deal and then re-imposed sanctions. Iran’s economy has been struggling ever since and...

In northern California 29 are dead and hundred are reported missing because of the "Camp Fire" that started last Thursday and consumed the town of Paradise on Friday, burning over 6,700 structures in the town of 26,000. 228 people are reported missing according to the Butte County Sheriff...... President Trump was in France yesterday at an American cemetery..... The President was in attendance earlier at a ceremony in Paris along with the leaders of more than 60 nations.... Polling data for the European Parliament elections next May shows Marine Le Pen's National Rally Party, formerly the National Front..... Two-hundred thousand...

A reader asked me the other day why I was writing about marijuana legalization in Canada instead of President Trump's tangled relationship with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman.Simple.  Because it's more fun to go to Canada to write about pot than to write about the Mideast. But now that I'm back in the U.S.A., let me address the Saudi issue. I told you so.For as long as I've been writing about Saudi Arabia, I have had nothing but bad things to say about the place. A month after the 9/11 attacks, I wrote, "If Saudi Arabia had only sand, we...

Don't look now, but Donald Trump is on the verge of accomplishing one of the biggest goals he endorsed during the 2016 presidential campaign.  He promised he would debunk the notion that the Beltway crowd was capable of micromanaging the Mideast.Thanks to Saudi Arabia's recent conduct, we now have irrefutable proof of that thesis.  The way Trump did so was brilliant. He named as his envoy to the Mideast a Jersey guy whose prior experience in diplomacy consisted of  getting the Eatontown Township Committee to cooperate on his plan for remaking an aging mall his family owns there.Jared Kushner then went...

Saudi Arabia has executed an Indonesian maid who killed her employer during a rape attack, sparking outrage in Jakarta. Ms Tursilawati, who was working in the city of Ta'if, was found guilty of killing her employer in June 2011.  Indonesian President President Joko Widodo called Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, demanding to know why Jakarta had not been informed about Monday's execution of mother-of one Tuti Tursilawati. It was the fourth time in three years that Saudi Arabia had failed to notify Jakarta before executing an Indonesian migrant worker.     'We have called Saudi Arabia's foreign minister and conveyed our protest,' Mr...

President Trump has approved an emergency declaration because of wildfires in California. Its been a brutal week of wildfires affecting northern California with nine deaths in the town of Paradise, 6,700 structures were destroyed there in the town of 26,000 when the fire suddenly swept through causing confusion and traffic jams in the midst of the raging inferno. 35 PEOPLE ARE REPORTED MISSING THERE..... Yesterday, a new fire spread rapidly in southern California..... President Trump tweeted about the situation at around 3am this morning: "There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that...

Egypt is considering a law which would ban the burqa in public places in a crackdown on Islamic extremism. The Muslim-majority nation has faced a series of extremist attacks including the shooting of six Coptic Christians by ISIS last week. A draft law to be considered by the Egyptian parliament calls for a burqa ban in public spaces including hospitals, health clinics, schools, cinemas, theatres and museums. Women who wore the full face veil would be punished with a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds, equivalent to $56 or £42, the Jerusalem Post reported.

From the window of a helicopter crossing the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the Emirati military base looms into view — an expanse of clay-coloured barracks guarded by US Patriot missile systems. This used to be a quiet corner of Yemen, its palm-fringed beaches reaching for miles. Now Emirati forces have made it a showcase of increasing military might. Once best known for holiday beaches and a lackadaisical approach to tax regulation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become one of the most powerful and interventionist forces in the Middle East.

Good Morning, its Election Day Tuesday November 6th, 2018 Will today's election results see the return of Speaker Pelosi to the House of Representatives?.... Speaking at the final Republican rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri last night, media personality Rush Limbaugh said Democrats cannot accept the results of the 2016 election that made Donald Trump President of the United States.... President Trump told the media yesterday as he left for his final round of campaign rallies that he probably won't meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend in Paris when the end of the First World War will be remembered.... The...

Just ahead of U.S. sanctions on Iran set to snap back on Monday targeting primarily the energy, shipbuilding, shipping, and banking sectors, Iran’s most prominent conservative cleric has announced that if oil exports are halted, Saudi tankers will be confiscated and Gulf countries attacked. Powerful Shia cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda is the Friday Prayer leader in Mashhad, considered Iran’s spiritual capital and among the holiest places in Shia Islam, and sits on the government’s “Assembly of Experts” but has no formal government role or decision-making ability. However, he’s a powerful leader and chief spiritual force behind Iran’s conservative faction who...

CAIRO — Egypt said Sunday that security forces have killed 19 militants in a shootout, including the gunmen suspected of killing seven Christians in an attack on pilgrims traveling to a remote desert monastery.The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said the militants were tracked to a hideout in the desert west of the central province of Minya, the site of Friday’s attack, which also left 19 people wounded.It said the alleged militants opened fire when they realized they were being besieged by security forces. It did not say when the shootout took place. The ministry published photographs purporting to...