Free Republic

Saudi authorities on Saturday released billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, people familiar with the matter said, more than two months after he was detained in a widespread crackdown on corruption in the kingdom. Prince al-Waleed is already at his house in Riyadh and is expected to resume his business activities as normal, two people said. The 62-year-old prince was one of dozens of royals, senior government officials and businesspeople rounded up in early November, a wave of arrests the Saudi government billed as the first volley in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s campaign against graft but which was also seen...

....Pop music from the 1970's and I certainly listened to popular music but on the fringes like crossover songs on country radio, shortwave radio which I listened to a lot back then..... The mess in Syria that Donald Trump is helping to clean up by his decision making in recent days a scheme by the inside the beltway political elites, the European elites, the financial power of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arabs. The jihadists Al Qaeda movement Bin Laden admirers and followers unleashed on Syria..... But lets remember that Republicans like Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Thomas Massie of...

"This is about manslaughter, rape and more" The words of US Senator, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, speaking on the floor of the Senate Thursday. What information does the FBI have about the Saudi government's role in spiriting its citizens out of the United States to avoid criminal prosecution?..... The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed today that Boeing turned over documents it discovered "some months ago"..... The maker of Zantac recalling the product in the United States and Canada..... Johnson and Johnson recalling 33-thousand bottles of baby powder..... The State Department's internal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a US delegation to Israel at the end of the month to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, a senior administration official said on Thursday. Kushner has been leading President Donald Trump's effort to develop a peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians. After proposing a $60 billion aid package for the region last summer, he has yet to unveil a proposed political plan that gets at the thorniest issues in the decades-old conflict, with Netanyahu struggling to form a governing coalition. The official, speaking on condition...

Saudi, Sudanese Troops Arrive in Aden Area After Yemen Denies Deal With Separatists © AFP 2019 / SALEH AL-OBEIDI 00:19 17.10.2019 CAIRO (Sputnik) - Saudi and Sudanese troops, tanks and other military hardware rolled into the southern Yemeni province of Aden on Wednesday, a local government source said. The deployment of troops allied with the Yemeni government comes a day after it denied that a deal would soon be inked with separatists that would allow the cabinet to retake its interim seat in Aden. The reinforcements have been stationed west of the key port city between the Aden airport and...

Pentagon Hasn’t Extended Carrier Lincoln Deployment as More Troops Headed to Saudi Arabia By: Megan Eckstein and Sam LaGrone October 11, 2019 1:25 PM THE PENTAGON – Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has not extended the deployment of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group even in the midst of what the Pentagon described as a buildup of forces in Saudi Arabia to defend U.S. forces and interests against Iranian aggression, a Defense Department spokesman told USNI News. Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley briefed reporters Friday and noted that 3,000 forces have been authorized...

What is the "Name of the Game? We are told the troops need to come home but it looks like they're going "home" to Saudi Arabia..... Raging rants against the ruler Assad of Syria, Iran and Russia coming out of Washington in recent years including President Trump's mouth.... Ukraine has been getting Russian energy but its needs to get good US energy like our liquid natural gas. So yes that friend of Texas energy interests Rick Perry Secretary of Energy in the game asking the POTUS to talk to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky... I say let Zelensky testify to...

Issued on: October 12, 2019 South LawnOctober 11, 20194:45 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  So, we just made what, I guess, is one of the biggest deals that’s been made in a long time, with China.  The Vice Premier has just left my office.  We have a great deal.  We’re papering it now.  Over the next three or four or five weeks, hopefully it’ll get finished.  A tremendous benefit to our farmers, technology, and many other things — the banking industry, financial services.And, I guess, by now, you know pretty much we’ve had a very, very good couple of days with China. ...

Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper announcing the deployment of 1,800 additional US troops to Saudi Arabia.... The move comes hours after explosions were reported on an Iranian oil tanker..... Iran hailing the notion of mediation in its relations with Saudi Arabia..... Intense fighting in northeastern Syria as the Turkish military continues its attack to take Kurdish controlled territory..... Citing a Kurdish source and one at the Pentagon "Newsweek" reported today that some US Special Forces got caught in the Turkish shelling..... In Syria Friday one Russian soldier and two Syrian soldiers wounded when an improvised explosive device exploded..... The Russian...

U.S. military officials are preparing to deploy thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia. During a Friday news conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said collected evidence shows Iran was responsible for attacks on Saudi oil facilities. 1,500 additional forces will be deployed to the region, including fighter squadrons and air defense systems. Iran’s state news agency announced the explosion of an oil tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday morning. Two missiles reportedly struck a vessel that belongs to the National Iranian Oil Company. A video released on the same day reportedly shows U.S. military vehicles near the Syria-Turkey...

Roughly 1,800 U.S. service members, as well as several dozen fighter jets and other air defense implements, will be sent to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Kingdom amid heightened tensions with Iran, the Pentagon announced Friday. Officials said the U.S. is set to ship two F-15 squadrons, two Patriot missile batteries, one anti-missile defense system known as THADD and other planes. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he informed Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman earlier Friday about the additional troops “to ensure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia.” "Saudi Arabia is a longstanding security partner in the...

A federal court case about a Louisiana law that regulates abortion clinics and the doctors who perform abortions will be heard by the US Supreme Court...... The man behind the knife attack that killed four and wounded on at the Paris police headquarters Thursday had converted to Islam in 2008..... The "Wall Street Journal" reporting Friday increasing concern from US officials that Turkey will launch a major military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria.... "This has nothing to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This has to do with their corruption" In part that is one...

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBC) has told CBS that oil could reach “unimaginably high numbers” if a war with Iran were to erupt, which he suggested could happen if “the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran.” And while MBS is known to engage in hyperbole when it comes to the threat Iran poses, recent events suggest he may have a point here. But what are these unimaginably high numbers he is suggesting? $100 per barrel? $300 per barrel? And what would the world look like if prices really went that high?

Many may have hitherto been led to believe that the Houthis were a ragtag armed force lacking in sophistication. Many, seeing the drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil plants, may have declared it to be a false-flag attack carried out by Riyadh to boost Aramco’s market value; either that or it was an operation carried out by Iran or even Israel. On Saturday September 28, the Houthis put paid to such speculation by confirming what many, like myself, have been writing for months; that is, that the asymmetrical tactics of the Houthis, combined with the conventional capabilities of the...

A friend with ties to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who must remain anonymous sends the following.Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia continues its modernization and economic diversity program.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the gradual changes in public dress codes.  Currently, women in professional settings may do away with the veil and in some cases the head covering (hijab) depending upon work conditions and family traditions.  In fact, the mutawa, the Saudi religious police, effectively lost enforcement authority about three years ago.  And of course, women are allowed to drive. Now...

The polls have closed in Austria's special election called after a video sting operation against the anti-mass immigration Freedom Party. The Freedom Party is still standing in spite of the situation, but with a reduced share of the vote..... The talks to form a new government continued in Israel Sunday..... As Israel moved into the Rash Hashanah New Year holiday, details of the upcoming pre-indictment hearing involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out. The evidence review hearing will be spread out over two weeks and start on Wednesday...... From Saudi Arabia news of the murder of a bodyguard of King...

A massive fire on Sunday ripped through a new high-speed train station leaving at least five people injured in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah. Videos posted on social media showed black plumes of smoke billowing out of the Haramain train station and helicopters flying over the scene. Online videos showed nearly a dozen people on the roof of the structure.

"Before the breathin' air is gone...." "Before the sun is just a bright spot in the night-time" The song with those lyrics by Three Dog Night "A Walk In The Country" moving up the Top 40 chart 49 years ago today. I was young back then with fear of nuclear catastrophe being put into me among other things but also the fear of environmental catastrophe.... Fear when I was young expressed into the cassette recorder microphone. It of course reminds me of Greta Thunberg's rage this week: "You stole my childhood" Wow! I was young, I was bullied and sexually...

Saudi Arabia will begin offering visas on Saturday for the first time to non-religious tourists, days after the country was criticised at the UN for its grim human rights record. The kingdom – which has imprisoned and tortured women’s rights activists, carries out regular public executions, and was responsible for the high-profile murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi – has said it is opening up to holidaymakers as part of a push to diversify its economy away from oil. The new visa programme for citizens of 49 countries, including the UK and the US, was announced by Saudi...

We start with the story of the political drama in Washington. Three House committees controlled by Democrats issuing a subpoena aimed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo..... Also word coming out Friday night of the resignation of Kurt Volker, US Special Envoy for Ukraine. Volker a longtime inside the beltway figure and Executive Director of the McCain Institute..... Brexit deal talks resuming again as we go into the weekend..... The Greater London Authority referring Prime Minister Boris Johnson to police...... Police in Nigeria say they have freed more than 300 students from an Islamic school where they were being abused........