Free Republic

Now we know one reason why Obama bowed to the Saudi monarch. The Saudi Kingdom gave the Obama team suitcases of jewels during their infamous Apology Tour.

Saudi Arabia has banned Muslims from outside the kingdom from performing the annual hajj pilgrimage this year in an attempt to control the spread of coronavirus. The nation has seen 161,005 cases of COVID-19, with 1,307 confirmed deaths, the biggest outbreak in the Gulf region. But the pilgrimage ban marks the first time in Saudi Arabia's recent history that Muslims outside the kingdom have been barred from performing the hajj, which last year drew 2.5 million people.

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,� notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change� in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.� And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

A Saudi official said Tuesday that the hajj pilgrimage, which usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world, will only see at the most a few thousand pilgrims next month due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The kingdom’s Hajj Minister Muhammad Benten said a “small and very limited” number of people — even as low as just 1,000 from inside the kingdom — will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage to ensure social distancing and crowd control amid the global virus outbreak. “The number, God willing, may be in the thousands. We are...

Saudi Arabia sparked one of the art world’s biggest mysteries when it paid $450 million for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” painting three years ago. Since then, the kingdom has kept the world’s priciest painting out of sight—fueling mounting questions about its fate. Now, some answers are starting to emerge. The kingdom’s new Ministry of Culture plans to keep the masterpiece in storage until it can build a new museum to unveil it, according to people familiar with the matter. The plans—kept secret until now—are part of a multibillion-dollar push by the Saudis to become a major international art destination,...

Obama Used National Security to Spy on Americans Opposed to Islamic Terrorists Obamagate redefined opposition to Islamic terrorism as a national security threat. Mon Jun 8, 2020 Daniel Greenfield 55 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. We know when Obamagate ended, but we don’t know when the policy of spying on Americans began. The tangled roots of the domestic surveillance of political opponents by the NSA predate the alarmism about Russia. Tracing them back into the fetid swamp takes us not toward...

Your obsession with The Father is my delight and so it is now our dialog is about to increase in that Now you Shall hear and see All of Heavens hosts for I AM opening up the Heavenlies to you completely for it is My Will for you to walk with Me as I exist ~ ~ ~ You shall be my manna from heaven from me to others feed them Me The Bread of Life

Defense Minister Benny Gantz orders IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi to “step up preparations for the IDF,” his office says, ahead of the potential annexation of portions of the West Bank. “Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, to step up preparations for the IDF ahead of diplomatic efforts on the agenda in the Palestinian arena,” the statement reads. Gantz says he also plans to appoint a point-person to coordinate between the different government bodies involved in the process. “In addition, a joint team will be formed that will...

The sustained plunge in global oil prices has brought deep, unexpected shifts on the geopolitical landscape, with impacts felt in the Arctic and the Middle East, and in the fortunes of the American heartland and the future of the Russian-Chinese strategic alliance. A U.S.-engineered market truce has helped energy prices rebound slightly this month after flatlining in April, but analysts say reverberations will likely be felt for years to come as they chip away at the foundational international partnerships in the post-World War II era and create new alliances and rivalries. Analysts say there is no way the U.S. and...

Israel's Annexation Plan of the Jordan Valley European thinking, Abdullah’s reaction, and Israel’s rights. Thu May 28, 2020 Joseph Puder The new Israeli government is considering extending Israeli law and sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, which is within area C of the Oslo Accords. The Accords, which gave Israel both military and administrative control in the area, also contains a large bloc of Jewish-Israeli communities. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a short visit to Israel (April 22, 2020) told reporters: “As for annexation of the (Jordan Valley) West Bank, the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions.” He added,...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

A police raid on a business operating in spite of a Repbublican governor's emergency orders but first.... "Analysts have long talked about the end of an American-led system and the arrival of an Asian century. This is now happening in front of our eyes. If the 21st century turns out to be an Asian century, as the 20th was an Amercian one, the pandemic may well be remembered as the turning point of this process" The words of the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell...... In Idaho last Thursday state police raiding the Hardware Brewing Company in Kendrick. The...

The Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey open for business today..... Car-rental company Hertz filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in Delaware today.... Economic advisers to the President see better economic news later this year...... For the first time since a major economic downturn in 2002, Argentina is in default on a loan tonight..... Iran's top military commander says his country has intelligence on US military movements in the Persian Gulf region and far beyond....... A successful test of a laser weapon by the United States........ The US is considering a nuclear weapons test for the first time since 1992.........

A prominent Saudi princess has appealed to the kingdom's king and crown prince to release her from prison as the holy month of Ramadan began, according to a letter published on her official website and Facebook account. Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 56, a businesswoman, writer and rights activist, went missing in March 2019. Only recently did she publicly communicate that she has been held at Ha'ir prison in the capital Riyadh for over a year and is sick. The youngest child of the late King Saud, Princess Basmah has been particularly critical of the kingdom's treatment...

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Jerome Powell says more stimulus spending is needed to prevent a slow and painful economic recovery...... In Washington state authorities are gearing up for testing, contact tracing and quarantine efforts that will include children's "camps" in the name of fighting Covid-19..... More clashes tonight in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem as Orthodox Jewish residents sought to meet publicly in spite of Israeli government restrictions.... "Gestapo" was the message shouted at police in Lakewood, New Jersey Monday..... Police in Ukraine asking for the addresses of all the Jews in one community.... The family...

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemns Orthodox Jewish bonfires that have drawn large crowds in Israel tonight..... The lines are being drawn here in Pennsylvania over a regulated re-opening of business in the state... Four south-central Pennsylvania counties with Republican majority commissioners (Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York) setting this Friday as the date for moving to a 'yellow' phase but Wolf warning of consequences including loss of state funding.... Interpol has issues a 'red notice' for the arrest of the wife of a US diplomat accused by British police in the killing of a motorcyclist in 2019..... An...

A restaruant where customers can sit down has been open for business in Kendrick, Idaho since May 1st in violation of the coronavirus martial law house arrest order of Republican Governor Brad Little. Now the Hardware Brewing Company being threatened with an alcohol license suspension by the Idaho State Police..... Anti-house arrest lockdown protests in several German cities today Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne..... An incident being called "fatal" involving an Iranian logistics ship near the port of Jask with unofficial reports calling it a "friendly fire" incident..... Al Qaeda affiliated jihadists in northwestern Syria launched a surprise attack on government...

The United States stopping a United Nations Security Council vote on the coronavirus situation citing the inclusion of "false narratives" from China.... The United States tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists.... The unemployment rate in the United States was 14.7 percent for April...... Tesla trying to resume work at its factory in Fremont, California.... Ohio State University is paying out some 41 million dollars to settle lawsuits with 162 survivors of sexual abuse by a former school doctor.... (Warning: Disturbing Content) The woman who's accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 is ready to take a lie detector...

The U.S. military is removing Patriot antimissile systems from Saudi Arabia as part of a shift of forces and equipment in the region following a buildup last year in response to Iranian threats, a U.S. official confirmed on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Washington is moving four Patriot missile batteries from the region. The U.S. official confirmed to The Hill that two Patriot systems will come from Saudi Arabia — along with the roughly 300 military personnel deployed to man them. The two systems had been sent to the country last year after a Sept. 14 strike...

Since the Department of Education began cracking down on the failure to report riches from abroad, colleges across the country have become much more meticulous in their disclosure of assets from foreign funding, with some digging up records dating back to 2013. A D.C.-based nonprofit has found that U.S. schools previously failed to report $1 billion, based on its comparison of the new disclosures with last year’s, now revealed to be massively incomplete. Of that $1 billion, “About one-third came from countries known for their influence operations in America,” according to the Clarion Project, whose research challenges “Islamism, white supremacy,...