Free Republic

Making a faithful confession The world is starting to perk up its ears. Reports of Christians fleeing cities in Iraq; pictures of Islamic militants marking the doors of the faithful as a sign that they must leave or be killed; stories of men being killed, women raped, children beheaded: All are now in the news … and all are for the sake of Christ. We mourn. We pray. And yet we wonder, “What can I do? What does this matter to me?” * Repent. There may well come a day when we face the same suffering that has befallen the...

While President Obama is physically surrounded by water, soaking up sun and sand, his foreign policy is under heavy siege as critics pound the administration from all sides. The commander-in-chief’s limited military moves to stifle the Islamist extremists in Iraq, which many Republicans say are mere pinpricks and Democrats worry will escalate U.S involvement, can be credibly linked to the White House’s inaction in the Syrian civil war. And on that point – Syria – former secretary of state and Democratic 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton unloaded on her former boss’s “failure to help build up a credible fighting force,” creating...

Kosovo police say they have arrested at least 40 people in a major operation targeting Islamic radicals suspected of fighting alongside extremists in Iraq and Syria. […] The police operation is the largest ever against suspected Islamic radicals in Kosovo. Authorities have been on alert as a growing number of ethnic Albanians have joined militants in Syria and Iraq and appeared on social media in attempts to lure more followers. …

Proof that history is always subject to Change

LONDON, United Kingdom – Today's anti-Israel protests in London reportedly attracted around 150,000 according to organisers, making the rally the largest since Israel's war against the terrorist group Hamas began over a month ago. The Independent newspaper quotes London's Metropolitan Police in saying that the march from the BBC's studios on Regent Street to Hyde Park "was entirely peaceful and no arrests were made". But photos obtained exclusively by Breitbart London show a dark side of the protests that mainstream media organisations refuse to report. The march, which was attended by Members of Parliament, media commentators and more, also played...

Kurdish and pro-Israel activists found common ground at a rally in front of the White House on Saturday, as a group of Kurdish activists joined pro-Israel demonstrators in solidarity with the Jewish state's struggle against Hamas. Both Israelis and Kurds have been fighting for survival against fanatical Islamist foes in recent months...

Hillary Clinton, the front-runner among potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates, is sharply distancing herself from President Obama's foreign policy, particularly in Syria, as Americans appear to continue losing confidence in his handling of key international affairs. Clinton, who as secretary of state was Obama’s top diplomat, suggested during an in-depth interview with The Atlantic magazine that the president’s foreign-policy mantra of “don’t do stupid stuff” lacked sufficient depth.

“When you get farmers, dentists and folks who have never fought before going up against a ruthless opposition in Assad, the notion that they were in a position to suddenly overturn not only Assad but also ruthless, highly trained jihadists if we just sent a few arms is a fantasy.” - Barack Obama to CBS on June 22 Editor's note: Obama reiterated the statement to Tom Friedman of The New York Times in an interview published on August 9. In one sentence, U.S. President Barack Obama disregarded the thousands of soldiers who defected from the Syrian Army since the uprising...

As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) continues its bloody conquest of Iraq and Syria and begins invading Lebanon, all in the name of establishing a global Sunni Muslim caliphate system, signs of support for the extremist are being seen among Israel’s Arab citizens. Channel 10 exposed on Sunday that in recent months black ISIS flags have been commonly seen in Arab-Israeli towns in northern and coastal Israel, notably in the cities of Nazareth and Akko. The flags have been seen flying among both Muslim and Christian Arab citizens of Israel, an ironic move given that ISIS...

At least 20,000 Iraqis have safely fled Mt Sinjar: officials IRBIL, Iraq: At least 20,000 civilians who had been besieged by jihadists on a mountain in northern Iraq have safely escaped to Syria and been escorted by Kurdish forces back into Iraq, officials said Sunday.The breakthrough coincided with US air raids on Islamic State fighters in the Sinjar area of northwestern Iraq Saturday.Shawkat Barbahari, an official from the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq put the number of people who escaped the siege and crossed back into Iraqi Kurdistan at 30,000."The Kurdish peshmerga forces have succeeded in making 30,000...

Ahead of a possible presidential run, Hillary Clinton appears to be distancing herself from what she called President Barack Obama's foreign policy "failure": the decision not to intervene during the early stages of the Syrian civil war. In an interview with The Atlantic published on Sunday, the former secretary of state says the "failure" of the United States to those protesting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led to the rise of al-Qaida-inspired groups like ISIS, the militants currently creating havoc in Syria and Iraq. “The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who...

Joy Reid made this absurd comment during her August 4, 2014 MSNBC show: "So far the war in Gaza has left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead – the population equivalent to 100 9/11s."  Others – e.g., Politico, have already debunked her use of “population equivalent.”  Her comment is absurd for another reason: it insinuates that IDF operations in Gaza, launched for the purpose of ending Hamas rocket attacks, amount to terrorism on a grand scale. In effect, Reid is accusing Israel of being a terrorist state. We should agree that 9/11 was a terrorist attack against the United States.  Those...

Fighters Abandoning Al-Qaeda Affiliates To Join Islamic State, U.S. Officials Say By Greg Miller August 9 U.S. spy agencies have begun to see groups of fighters abandoning al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Africa to join the rival Islamist organization that has seized territory in Iraq and Syria and been targeted in American airstrikes, U.S. officials said. The movements are seen by U.S. ­counterterrorism analysts as a worrisome indication of the expanding appeal of a group known as the Islamic State that has overwhelmed military forces in the region and may now see itself in direct conflict with the United States....

BAGHDAD — Thousands of desperate Iraqi Yazidis who have been trapped by Islamist extremists on a parched mountaintop for almost a week trekked Friday into Syrian territory, seeking refuge in another war-ravaged country.

Turkey's defense minister on Saturday ruled out a Turkish military intervention against Islamic State fighters in Iraq, and said his country was not involved in U.S. airstrikes against the extremists near the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil. Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told reporters central Anatolian province of Sivas that his country had not provided "any support to the U.S. so far." He cited Turkey's responsibility toward 49 Turkish citizens taken hostage by the IS from the Turkish consulate in Mosul in June. The hostages include diplomatic staff, special forces police and children. Due to this, Yilmaz said, "it is impossible...

A court in Egypt has dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing. The ruling will effectively prevent the banned Islamist movement from formally participating in parliamentary elections expected later this year. The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group in December.

Hamas states on Saturday that it would continue attacks on Israel, if Palestinian demands it put forward in indirect talks in Cairo were not met. Palestinian demands include lifting the siege, reopening the border crossings, and allowing construction material into the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are also demanding free passage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, freedom of fishing within 12 miles of the coast, reopening the Palestinian airport in the southern Gaza Strip, construction of a seaport and cancellation of buffer zones along the border with Israel. At the same time, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said the group...

WASHINGTON (AP) - For years, Kurdish officials have beseeched the Obama administration to let them buy U.S. weapons. For just as long, the administration has rebuffed America's closest allies in Iraq. U.S. officials insisted they could only sell arms to the government in Baghdad, even after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke a written promise to deliver some to the Kurds. Their peaceful, semiautonomous northern region had been the lone success story to come out of the 2003 U.S. invasion. The U.S. has resisted arming the Kurds because Washington's aim is to keep Iraq united. A strong Kurdish army could hasten...

Women Stoned To Death In Syria For Adultery BASSEM MROUE BEIRUT (AP) — A cleric read the verdict before the truck came and dumped a large pile of stones near the municipal garden. Jihadi fighters then brought in the woman, clad head to toe in black, and put her in a small hole in the ground. When residents gathered, the fighters told them to carry out the sentence: Stoning to death for the alleged adulteress. None in the crowd stepped forward, said a witness to the event in a northern Syrian city. So the jihadi fighters, mostly foreign extremists, did...

Scratch the surface of most of the world’s armed conflicts and you won’t see an ideological struggle or deep-seated ethnic or religious hatred that has erupted in a war of all against all. Rather, what you’ll find is a collection of thugs for hire, some in uniforms and some not, who are taking advantage of the chaos of war to prey on the weak. Sometimes this involves stealing oil or diamonds, or sexual brutality. But it’s pretty rare that it involves some larger design. True, the hooligans who take part in these orgies of destruction will often claim loyalty to...