Free Republic

U.S. President Barack Obama met with members of Egypt's Islamist opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, earlier this year, according to a report in Thursday editions of the Egyptian daily newspaper Almasry Alyoum. The newspaper reported that Obama met the group's members, who reside in the U.S. and Europe, in Washington two months ago. According to the report, the members requested that news of the meeting not be publicized. They expressed to Obama their support for democracy and the war on terror.

The Foreign Office mounted a fightback yesterday against allegations that Jack Straw and Colin Powell had expressed serious doubts about whether Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction before the start of the Iraq war. As Tony Blair faced allegations from a former Cabinet colleague that he had "duped" the British people over Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities, the Foreign Office issued a detailed rebuttal of allegations, made in the Guardian newspaper, that were seized on by news media around the world. The paper said Mr Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Mr Powell, his United States counterpart, had privately expressed serious doubts...

Last year, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet and her senior staff secretly met with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity — the Muslim Brotherhood, who are involved in the current uprising in Egypt. Walid Phares, director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized the partnership concept: “Through the so-called ‘partnership’ between the Jihadi-sympathizer networks and U.S. bureaucracies, the U.S. government is invaded by militant groups.” Just recently, a Washington, DC-based legal group uncovered documents from the Department of...

The White House disclosed Monday that President Barack Obama met former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev last week, as the United States and Russia intensify efforts to "reset" strained relations. Gorbachev was at a White House meeting with Vice President Joe Biden on Friday when Obama informally dropped by, his spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Hillary Clinton spent Thursday morning flying to North Carolina - unbeknownst to her press corps - to meet with John Edwards at his home in Chapel Hill — where the two former rivals discussed a possible Edwards endorsement. Clinton officials would not discuss the sit-down, calling it a private meeting. And Edwards aides confirmed the meeting, and said he has another private get together scheduled with Barack Obama on Monday. Those aides say he’s been “in talks” with Clinton and Obama “for weeks” about an endorsement, though he has not yet said who he will endorse or when he will...

This morning, the Boston Globe dropped a bombshell of a story...though they seem to have little idea just how major it is. The title was "Bishops seek out opinions, in private: conference focus is church future," and began by explaining that some top bishops "met secretly with a group of prominent Catholic business executives, academics, and journalists to discuss the future of the church." The gathering was convened by former Boston College trustee Geoffrey Boisi and was called "The Church in America: The Way Forward in the 21st Century." Cardinal McCarrick hosted the event at the John Paul II Cultural...