Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey on Monday will have trade and energy issues at its heart, but is not expected to bridge deep differences over Syria and Crimea. The two issues have tested a relationship usually kept on track by mutual economic advantage: Russia is Turkey's main energy supplier, and Ankara is Moscow's second biggest trade partner after Germany. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has strongly criticized Russia's backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And Turkey has strong links with the Muslim Tatar population of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March. With Erdogan and Putin set to...

Energy-rich Russia's currency extended Friday its slide into record low territory and the government lowered its crucial oil price forecast in the wake of OPEC's decision to leave its output target unchanged. The ruble shed another 1.6 percent against the dollar and stood near the 49.35 mark in evening trading on the Moscow Exchange. It gave up the same percentage point and was valued at almost 61.55 against the euro -- also a historic low. The beleaguered currency has been trying to find its footing ever since the OPEC cartel decided on Thursday evening not to cut back production to...

President Nicolas Maduro is ordering a cut in government spending as Venezuela grapples with a plunge in world oil prices that threatens to bring more hardship for the petroleum-dependent economy. ... More than 95 percent of Venezuela's export earnings come from crude oil exports, and economists say the recent decline in prices will reduce the amount of dollars available for imports when Venezuelans are already suffering from widespread shortages and the world's highest inflation.

The biggest news for the United States stock market and American consumers happened on Thanksgiving in a far off desert kingdom. Saudi Arabia has taken the big gambit of not cutting production which means downward pressure on oil will continue, and that means less revenue for them. Why would a nation that gets 90% of their revenue from oil allow the price to plunge? I’ve said it several times, but I’m more convinced this is their (last) chance to crush, or at least derail/stall, America’s fracking miracle.It’s a war without bullets, but make no mistake, it's also about no prisoners....

<p>Officials at Fort Sam Houston say they’ve taken into custody the driver of a vehicle that military officials say contained explosive materials, and which sparked a lockdown at the San Antonio Army base.</p> <p>The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter that the lockdown was being handled by military police, and the sheriff’s department had no units assigned to the case.</p>

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has issued a veiled warning to Iran over the weekend to quit what he said were efforts to spread Shiite Islam in the Arab world, adding that the kingdom was keeping an eye on the issue. In an interview with Kuwait's As-Siyassah daily published on Saturday, the king said that Saudi Arabia told an Iranian envoy that Iran was putting the Gulf region in danger, in a reference to Tehran's conflict with Washington over Iraq and nuclear policy. "We are following this issue [Shiite conversion] and we are aware of the extent of Shiite proselytism and...

Complete Headline: Saudi National Reportedly Crashes Car Containing Explosives Into US Army Post Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas A driver who rammed his car into the gates of U.S. Army post Fort Sam Houston in Texas is in custody after the ordeal on Sunday. Police have not provided much information about the situation or the suspect, but the military base, which had been placed under lockdown, has returned to normal operations. The suspect has been identified as a male Saudi national, according to KCEN TV. Authorities have not identified the man, but he is in custody. His car...

A new law in Saudi Arabia banning ‘tempting eyes’ has become the latest example of female oppression in the country. The law, which states that women with alluring eyes will be forced to wear a full veil, has been branded ‘stupid’ by dissenters and roundly criticised on social media, aina.org reports. Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, spokesman of the Saudi Arabian Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said they ‘had the right’ to force women to cover their face.

When the International Court of Justice in The Hague starts hearing complaints against Israel's security fence in the West Bank on Monday, India will be busy constructing a fence of its own. After 15 years of fighting in Kashmir that have left more than 65,000 dead, the Indians are using cement, razor wire, and electronic sensors to stymie a menagerie of Pakistani guerrilla forces. "The fence will be a permanent barrier at the border to prevent militants from entering," the head of India's Border Security Force in Jammu and Kashmir told The Washington Post last summer. "Why should we wait...

A jihadist serving life in prison on terror charges brought in the wake of 9/11 has claimed the Saudi Arabian royal family helped finance the plot. Zacarias Moussaoui, 46, says an unnamed Saudi Prince paid for flying lessons for him and the 19 terrorists who hijacked planes in the September 11 attacks in the run-up to the atrocities. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2837261/Saudi-prince-paid-9-11-pilots-learn-fly-Incredible-claims-20th-hijacker-serving-life-prison-terrorism-asks-testify-court.html#ixzz3JIFO3rer

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Okay. I mentioned the plummeting oil price, and there are a lot of people trying to figure out, why is this happening? There are a lot of people that do not understand what it is that's driving down the crude oil price. What explains it? When it happens and it's a mystery, people look to traditional explanations, "Well, are people driving less? Is the demand for gasoline down? The economy bad? What's going on?" And in this case that's not the answer The simple explanation for much, not at all, but for much of the drop in...

Russia and Venezuela discussed joint action to combat falling oil prices, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday after holding talks with Venezuela's Foreign Minister Rafael Ramírez the day before. Asked if the two discussed joint moves to counteract the oil price falls, Novak told reporters: "Yes, there is such an initiative. We discussed this theme and now we are working out those proposals on our side."

...After Seeing Her Face for the First Time Maybe next time he should skip out on that whole ‘arranged marriage’ thing. A Saudi groom has divorced his bride on their wedding night after seeing her face for the first time when the photographer asked them to pose for pictures. The couple, from the Western Saudi town of Medinah, had agreed to marry each other despite having not met face to face – a popular custom in certain Middle Eastern countries. But when the bride removed her veil and smiled for the camera, her new husband leapt to his feet in...

"His education was bought and paid for by the Saudis. ... '... letter of recommendation to get one of his Saudi proteges into Harvard Law'..." (Ann Barnhardt 9/5/13 interview by Elijah Johnson)

The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula terror organization, which was named Ansar Bayt al-Makdas until it swore allegiance to Islamic State (aka ISIS), has blown up the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan. The pipeline, which is 1,200 km long, and was built at a cost of $1.2 billion, is used for exporting natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the past, it was repeatedly attacked by Islamist terror groups, until Egypt's gas exports to Israel were halted. The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula notified the press that it would not allow gas to be exported to Jordan unless ISIS...

In a 17-minute audio message, purportedly from its elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group sets its sights firmly on Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam and the world's largest oil producer and exporter. The speaker does not refer to it as Saudi Arabia, since this is a name derived from the ruling tribe, the al-Saud, whose authority IS does not accept. Instead he calls it "the land of Haramayn", the land of the two holy places, meaning Mecca and Medina.

In July of 1941, after Japan occupied French Indochina, the Roosevelt administration froze Japan's assets in the United States. Denied hard cash, Japan could not buy the U.S. oil upon which the empire depended for survival. Seeing the Dutch East Indies as her only other source, Japan prepared to invade. But first she had to eliminate the sole strategic threat to her occupation of the East Indies -- the U.S. battle fleet at Pearl Harbor. FDR's cutoff of oil to Japan was thus a primary cause of WWII in the Pacific, which led to hundreds of thousands of U.S. war...

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech purported to be in his name on Thursday, saying his self-declared caliphate was expanding there and in four other Arab countries. Baghdadi also said a U.S.-led military campaign against his group in Syria and Iraq was failing and he called for "volcanoes of jihad" the world over. Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the speech - an audio recording carried on Islamic State-run social media. The voice sounded similar to a previous speech delivered by Baghdadi in July in a...

An explosion following an air strike is seen in central Kobani, November 10, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Osman Orsal *******************************************************(Reuters) - U.S.-led forces conducted 16 air strikes in Syria, most of them around Kobani near the Turkish border, and seven in the oil-producing northern region of Iraq since Monday, the U.S. Central Command said. Ten air strikes conducted by the United States and its allies near Kobani hit eight small Islamic State units, damaged three fighting positions and destroyed a logistics facility, Centcom said Wednesday in a statement.

A subtle shift may be taking place within OPEC as it heads into its most important meeting in years, according to delegates with the producer group, as the discussion over whether it needs to cut output to defend oil revenues quietly intensifies. OPEC's Secretary General Abudulla al-Badri this week urged markets not to panic over the drop in prices to a 4-year low near $81 a barrel, while Kuwait's oil minister said OPEC was unlikely to cut output when it meets on Nov. 27 in Vienna. But privately, more delegates within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are starting...