Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a presidential hopeful and leading non-interventionist voice in the Republican Party, believes the United States should seek "respectful" relations with Russia and avoid antagonizing President Vladimir Putin over the ongoing political turmoil in Ukraine, where a Kremlin-backed government collapsed last week. "Some on our side are so stuck in the Cold War era that they want to tweak Russia all the time and I don't think that is a good idea," Paul said on Tuesday, in an interview with The Washington Post. Paul's comments underscore the latest foreign-policy fissure in the GOP, where the party's...

Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)... his connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups and individuals in the U.S. is irrefutable. One such individual is Abdurahman Alamoudi. Another is Suhail Khan, whose father helped found the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). His mother sat on the board of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter... Norquist helped Khan become the White House gatekeeper relative to selecting Muslim leaders who the Bush administration partnered with before and after 9/11. Those Muslim leaders belonged to Muslim Brotherhood front groups. ... Last year it was...

The Iranian regime’s Press TV accused Saudi Arabia and Israel of planning to replace the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount with a Jewish temple.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Press TV reported, via Religion of Peace: Saudi Arabia is supporting the Israeli regime in its plan to replace the holy al-Aqsa Mosque with a temple, an analyst tells Press TV in an interview. Saab Shaath was talking to Press TV on Saturday, one day after Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel called for the construction of what he called “the Third Temple” to replace the holy site. “Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently in place...

Damascus (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday with Iran's foreign minister that Saudi Arabia's political and religious ideology is "a threat to the world," state television reported. He was referring to Wahhabism, an ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim tradition which is predominant in Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Syria's revolt against Assad. "President Assad warns during his meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of the threat posed by Wahhabi thinking to all the world, not just to the region," the report said. "The Syrian people and some peoples in the region...

An 8 ½-minute video address by self-styled Caucasus Emirate head Doku Umarov has been posted on YouTube just hours after Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov told journalists in Moscow on December 18 that “I officially state that Umarov is long dead.” Kadyrov has prematurely declared Umarov dead several times before. The video footage was dated autumn 2013 and shot outdoors. There are still some leaves on the trees visible in the background. As is the norm in such claps, Umarov is seated in front of the black jihadi banner and flanked by two younger fighters, one of whom he identifies...

A Sunday Times story headlined “Two Old Foes Unite Against Tehran” suggest, according to a diplomatic source, that Israel’s Mossad is working with the Saudis on contingency plans for an attack on Iran, should the latter not take down its nuclear weapons program in the deal to be signed in Geneva this week. The Israelis and the Saudis are convinced that the Geneva talks that seek to place limits on Tehran’s military nuclear development are nothing more than appeasement, Munich style, and will do little to slow Iran’s effort to possess a nuclear warhead, which it can then mount on...

If there is a country Saudi Arabia and Iran despise more than Israel, it’s each other. When it comes to Syria, Iran’s most prominent ally, the prospect of removing Bashar al-Assad has a pavlovian effect on the Saudis. ... Putin beat Barack Obama and John Kerry like a couple of drums. While Obama saw an opportunity to spin a resounding defeat into an opportunity to back down under the guise of a diplomatic stalemate as the preferred option, there were consequences. One of those consequences involves Saudi Arabia’s anger with the U.S. for not dealing with Assad. Consequences aren’t necessarily...

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented show of anger at the failure of the international community to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues, said on Friday it would not take up its seat on the United Nations Security Council. The kingdom condemned what it called international double standards on the Middle East and demanded reforms in the Security Council. Riyadh's frustration is mostly directed at Washington, its oldest international ally, which has pursued policies since the Arab Spring that Saudi rulers have bitterly opposed and which have severely damaged relations with the United States, Saudi...

Despite it being overwhelmingly clear that the American people want nothing to do with the civil war in Syria, the Pentagon has proposed entering the war. Under the proposal U.S. involvement will escalate from providing weapons to rebels via the CIA to direct support and training of rebel forces by the U.S. military. ...

Half of Syrian rebels are hardline Islamists: British study AFP - Jihadists and members of hardline Islamist groups make up almost half of forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to extracts from a British defence study published in Monday's Daily Telegraph. The analysis by defence consultancy IHS Jane's, due to be published in full later this week, puts the number of rebel forces at around 100,000, the Telegraph reported. But these fighters have split into as many as 1,000 bands since violence flared two years ago, the study concluded. Of the rebel forces, IHS Jane's estimates that around...

Foreign diplomacy doesn’t always resolve world-class problems, but it sure does rake in the swag. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was given a half-million bucks worth of diamond and ruby jewelry by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and received $58,000 worth of bling from Brunei. The lavish gifts were among a treasure trove of keepsakes bestowed upon U.S. leaders in 2012, the State Department disclosed Thursday. ... Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden got a bare-breasted female bust from Liberia. The Constitution prohibits U.S. government employees from keeping presents worth more than $350. But officials at the U.S....

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top Pentagon officer repeatedly warned against the costs and potential entanglements of military involvement in Syria. Now he's testifying on behalf of the White House. The nation's top military officer warned repeatedly in recent months that getting US military involved with Syria is a dangerous proposition... Did he change his mind or is he just doing the White House's bidding? In the past, he has made it clear that US military intervention could tip the balance of power in favor of Islamist rebels who don't necessarily have the interests of the United States at heart...

Clarification: Dale Gavlak assisted in the research and writing process of this article, but was not on the ground in Syria. Reporter Yahya Ababneh, with whom the report was written in collaboration, was the correspondent on the ground in Ghouta who spoke directly with the rebels, their family members, victims of the chemical weapons attacks and local residents. Gavlak is a MintPress News Middle East correspondent who has been freelancing for the AP as a Amman, Jordan correspondent for nearly a decade. This report is not an Associated Press article; rather it is exclusive to MintPress News. Ghouta, Syria —...

Syrians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta say Saudi Arabia provided chemical weapons for an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group which they blame for the August 21 chemical attack in the region, a Mint Press News report says. The article co-authored by a veteran AP reporter, said interviews with doctors, residents, anti-government forces and their families in Ghouta suggest the terrorists in question received chemical weapons via Saudi spymaster Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud. The report quoted the father of a militant as saying that his son and 12 others were killed inside a tunnel used...

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia's gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria. The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warships poised for missile strikes against Syria, and Iran threatening to retaliate. The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $US112 a barrel.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has now weighed in decisively on the Egyptian imbroglio by declaring his strong support for his “Egyptian brothers against terrorism, deviance, and sedition.” And the brothers he has in mind are not the Saudis’ long-term clients in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) but their military oppressors. To underscore the decisive nature of this shift, the kingdom’s state-controlled press promptly wrote off the Brotherhood as “no longer relevant politically,” in stark contrast with Washington’s feeble efforts to prove the opposite. By siding openly with the military and pledging economic aid, the Saudi monarch has essentially given carte...

(CNSNews.com) – In a blunt warning to countries critical of the Egyptian military crackdown and considering suspending aid, longstanding U.S. ally Saudi Arabia suggested that the decisions they make now will have long-term consequences for their relationships in the Arab and Muslim world. Saudi Arabia has led the way in supporting the Egyptian military’s actions, first in removing the Muslim Brotherhood administration early last month and in its subsequent steps against supporters of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Its warning came as policymakers in the U.S. and Europe mull the question of continuing financial assistance to Cairo following the...

(CNSNews.com) – In a blunt warning to countries critical of the Egyptian military crackdown and considering suspending aid, longstanding U.S. ally Saudi Arabia suggested that the decisions they make now will have long-term consequences for their relationships in the Arab and Muslim world. Saudi Arabia has led the way in supporting the Egyptian military’s actions, first in removing the Muslim Brotherhood administration early last month and in its subsequent steps against supporters of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Its warning came as policymakers in the U.S. and Europe mull the question of continuing financial assistance to Cairo following the...

A 25-year-old Kenyan woman has come forward with allegations that she was kept as a domestic slave for three months by Saudi Arabian diplomats living in Northern Virginia. The allegations come to light two weeks after News4 first reported an investigation into possible human trafficking at a Saudi-owned compound in McLean, Va. The Kenyan woman -- who goes by the name Sheila -- said she was brought to the U.S. from Kenya by way of Saudi Arabia last summer, by people who forced her to work long hours each day, seven days a week, as a domestic worker. "I used...

A traveler from Saudian Arabia was reportedly arrested after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker. On Saturday, Hussain Al Kwawahir, who flew from Saudi Arabia through Amsterdam, allegedly told authorities that he was in the U.S. to visit his nephew who attends the University of Toledo. But The Detroit News also claims that he will be arraigned on Monday in federal court for purportedly lying to a Customs and Border Protection Agent about the pressure cooker and for allegedly using an altered passport. When asked about the passport, which had a missing page, Al Kwawahir apparently told...