Free Republic

“The U.S. is playing games with India. But America must understand that the world has changed, times have changed and India has changed.” Those were tough words from India’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, but they fell on deaf ears in Washington. At issue is the case of India’s deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and handcuffed by U.S. marshals as she dropped off her daughter at school on the morning of Dec. 12. Later, the 39-year old career diplomat was locked up, stripped naked and subjected to a search of her body cavities in...

The State Department on Monday said it has no evidence that “core al Qaeda” was behind last year's terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. “We have no indications that core al Qaeda, which I think is what most people are referring to when they talk about quote ‘al Qaeda,’ directed or planned what happened in Benghazi,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a briefing. The statement appears to leave open the possibility that associates or followers of the terrorist network were involved in the assault. The comments come on the heels of a New York Times investigation published over the...

United States Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Israel the release of Jonathan Pollard, Channel 10 News reported on Friday. According to the report, Kerry’s offer was made as part of the discussions surrounding the upcoming planned release of 26 terrorists from Israeli jails as a “gesture” to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Kol Yisrael radio, which also reported about Kerry’s offer, said it relates to the fourth stage of the terrorist release and is conditional upon Israel agreeing to release Israeli Arabs who have committed acts of terrorism. Israeli officials were quoted by both outlets as having said...

Increasingly vocal in its frustration over U.S. policies in the Mideast, Saudi Arabia is strengthening ties elsewhere, seeking out an alignment that will bolster its position after it was pushed to the sidelines this year. It may find a solution in France, whose president is ending the year with 24 hours of high-level meetings with the Saudi leadership in a visit intended to showcase commercial and diplomatic strength. […] The Saudis also watch with trepidation at the warming ties between Iran and the West. The way the nuclear talks were handled—with U.S. officials secretly meeting their Iranian counterparts before more...

The wife of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told Turkey’s Anatolia News Agency that “the departure of Hillary Clinton from the Obama Administration has been a major setback for the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts to overthrow Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi.” “You would expect that a person appointed by President Obama would ensure a continuation of previous policies, but we have found this not to be the case,” Mrs Morsi complained. “Kerry ‘expresses his concern,’ but he doesn’t carry through like Mrs Clinton did. She and Ambassador Stevens were working to supply weapons for the Islamic cause. But now he is dead and...

It is the natural tendency of radical movements to be outflanked by radicalism. On Tuesday the UN announced that it was seeking an unprecedented influx of cash to facilitate aid operations in Syria and for Syrian refugees. More than 60 percent of the aid is to be spent on the burgeoning refugee camps of Syrian civilians in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. The refugees are currently suffering through harsh winter conditions and unprecedented sums are needed to support several million Syrians. The tragedy of the refugees is underscored by increasing failure of the Syrian rebels to make any gains against the...

Unable to ignore millions of cancellation letters and a rare presidential apology, fact-checkers at PolitiFact and the Washington Post designated “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” as their “Lie of the Year.” Reeling from Obamacare’s deceptive sales tactics, Americans dread its fallout but know that our system allows us to Think Again. We can repeal and replace bad laws. But we can’t reverse the fall-out from Iranian nukes, which explains President Kennedy’s warning that while “domestic policy can defeat us, foreign policy can kill us.” It also explains the backlash from allies and Congress against...

US Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated on Sunday that Israel will be safer the day the recently-reached deal on Iran´s nuclear issue is implemented. Kerry, addressing the Brookings Institution´s annual Saban Forum, recognized Israel´s concern over Tehran´s disputed nuclear ambitions, saying the possibility of a weaponized nuclear Iran stood as an existential threat to Israel. "We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Period. Not now, not ever," he said.

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Secretary of State John Kerry confirms there is a deal on Iran's nuclear program in Geneva.

Secretary of State John Kerry tried Sunday to rally support for a six-month deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program in the face of lukewarm reaction from congressional allies and hostility from critics. -snip- Lawmakers took to the airwaves Sunday morning to question whether the deal would work, with some suggesting that the Obama administration had made a strategic miscalculation. -snip- Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee," expressed skepticism about the deal on "Fox News Sunday," saying "I think we all greet it with skepticism." He said that the arrangement suggested that Iranian...

The ink isn’t even dry on the temporary Iran nuclear deal and it already has that distinct “passed it to find out what’s in it” scent.

On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry told the Organization for American States that “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.” After the assembled delegates applauded, Kerry proceeded to misquote the doctrine as “a United States declaration about how and when it will intervene in the affairs of other American states.” In fact, the Monroe Doctrine declared that the U.S. would oppose European intervention in the Americas. In other words, the plain meaning of the Monroe Doctrine was exactly the opposite of that which Kerry ascribed to it. The Monroe Doctrine protected the new Latin American states from intervention...

The secretary doesn’t agree with Obama’s team, especially Susan Rice, on how to deal with Egypt. Unfortunately for Rice, Kerry is the one on the ground—and he’s doing things his way. Before Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent trip to Cairo, National Security Adviser Susan Rice told him to make strong statements in public and private about the trial of deposed President Mohamed Morsi. On his own, Kerry decided to disregard the White House’s instructions. The tension between the national security adviser and the secretary of state spilled over into public view in the past week, when Rice laid out...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will unexpectedly travel to Geneva on Friday afternoon to meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, NBC News reports. Nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations resumed in Geneva Thursday morning. Word of Kerry's impending arrival is the strongest sign so far of an agreement on a first step toward a comprehensive final deal, according to NBC. Earlier, a senior American official and Zarif both said a deal could be reached Friday. The United States was pressuring Iran to halt its nuclear program in return for a limited and reversible reprieve on...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - KerryÂ’s Peace Process ExplodingPosted By P. David Hornik On October 7, 2013 @ 12:31 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments On Saturday night a Palestinian terrorist snuck into the Israeli community of Psagot, north of Jerusalem and near Ramallah, and either shot or stabbed a nine-year-old girl, Noam Glick. Noam was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem and, fortunately, is in stable condition.The terrorist, however, melted back into the Palestinian population and has not yet been apprehended, and the attack was part of a pattern.In the Jewish year that ended on the Rosh Hashanah...

The federal shutdown has disrupted a training program for diplomatic security officers that was ramped up after last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. officials confirmed Thursday. The prolonged closing of a key training facility could mean significant delays in efforts to beef up protection for U.S. diplomats abroad, enhancements that were ordered after an independent review board criticized the State Department for its handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack, officials said. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, a facility operated by the Department of Homeland Security in Glynco, Ga., was shuttered Tuesday due...

Secretary of State John Kerry has been looking a little different lately. His face is a bit fuller, a bit wider. It’s no big deal. It could be anything: allergies, some new medication, a classic combination of crying and stress eating. (I know I would be!) There are plenty of YouTube commenters who lean toward the clone/double/Illuminati reptilian shapeshifter theory. Really, who’s to say? People only noticed because Kerry’s been in the news so much lately. But because he was in the news so much on account of pressing business in Syria, it didn’t seem like the best moment to...

JERUSALEM — The threat of US military action against Syria remains "real", Washington's top diplomat said on Sunday a day after striking a deal with Russia to destroy Damascus's chemical weapons stockpile. "The threat of force remains, the threat is real," US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs." Kerry's remarks were made following a four-hour meeting with Netanyahu at which the two men discussed the US-Russian agreement on eradicating Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons, and also talked...

Once, when I was a White House reporter for a mainstream news organization, my editor ran a story on the front page. Mind you, we only put two stories on the front page, so it was a big deal. As I remember, it was a first-rate piece that presented some really important information. It deserved to be on the front page. It so deserved to be on the front page that, in fact, it had been there a couple of weeks before. That’s right, the editor ran the same story twice, in the same place. He deserved to be fired....