Free Republic

olitics: The danger of foreign influence-buying through foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation is seen in millions of dollars of donations from Issam Fares, a Lebanese politician and billionaire enemy of Israel. In the case of Hillary Clinton, the adage that the past is prologue is both a truism and a warning of possible things to come. Just as Johnny Chung famously compared the first Clinton White House to a subway turnstile in which you put money to gain access, the Clinton Foundation is looking to be that turnstile on steroids, with dangerous implications for both American and Israeli security....

OBAMA: “Two things. One is ISIL is a direct outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion which is an example of unintended consequences — which is why we should generally aim before we shoot. I never saw such a classless American president. He knows perfectly well that President George W. Bush won’t defend himself, because he – unlike Obama – does have a sense of decorum, so he quickly tries to put the blame for his own failures on Bush. This isn’t about left versus right, but about being a gentleman rather than a bore....

A remark by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that President Bashar al-Assad should be included in negotiations on a Syrian political transition provoked alarm and dismay on Monday among commentators close to Gulf Arab governments opposed to his rule. Saudi Arabia, the top oil exporter and main Arab ally of the United States, has long feared that the administration of President Barack Obama lacks the resolve to tackle Assad and that it is instead focusing on a nuclear deal with the Syrian leader's main supporter Iran

Shocking new images released today have shown ISIS terrorists toppling crosses, smashing Christian relics with hammers and erecting the black flag of ISIS on churches in Iraq. The latest photos show the militants vandalising churches in Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. Pictured in civilian clothing, the ISIS thugs are seen overturning statues, destroying religious icons and replacing Christian crosses with the chilling ISIS banner.

The Islamic War, Martin Archer, 2014The novel begins with a terror attack on a residential area in Israel, resulting in multiple causalities. It may, or may not, have involved members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Menachem Begin is the Israeli Prime Minister and Ariel Sharon is the Defense Minister. The story begins immediately after the (postponed?) end of the Iran - Iraq war in 1988. A massive armor, infantry, artillery and air attack on Israeli positions in the Golan follows the terrorist attack. The Israelis are outnumbered and suffer many thousands of casualties. Israel had anticipated a simultaneous attack via Jordan, so most Israeli tank, infantry and air resources are deployed there, rather than in...

On March 4 at 5:31 p.m., computer screens at the European Mediterranean Seismological Center lit up. A a 2.3-magnitude tremor had just rattled Aleppo in eastern Syria. But it wasn’t an earthquake. Rebel tunnelers had planted a huge stash of explosives under the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate headquarters. The underground attack represented a powerful blow against the Syrian regime. The explosion was a current adaptation of a medieval siege tactic. Pre-modern soldiers would dig a tunnel deep under an enemy castle’s walls, collapse the tunnel and bring down the castle along with it. Syria’s rebels do the same, but...

The US National Intelligence has removed Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, from its list of "terrorist threats." US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper scrapped Iran and Hezbollah from the list in an annual report recently delivered to the US Senate, citing their efforts in fighting terrorists, including the ISIL Takfiri group, Press TV reported. The unclassified version of the report titled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities,” which was released on February 26, 2015, noted Iran’s efforts to battle extremists, including those of the ISIL terrorist group, who were perceived to constitute the greatest terrorist...

Turkey has criticised United States Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting that negotiations would have to be opened with President Bashar al-Assad to end the conflict in Syria. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency on Monday that all Syria's current problems, on the fourth anniversary of the start of the uprising in March 2011, were caused by Assad’s government. "What is there to be negotiated with Assad?" Cavusoglu was quoted as saying at the end of his visit to Cambodia. "You are going to have what [kind of] negotiations with a regime that has killed...

This is not the first time that Islamic State fighters have been accused of using the regionÂ’s loose chemical weapons on pro-Western forces, but this might be the most disturbing reported use of chemical agents by ISIS. The allegation that ISIS militants used chlorine gas on Kurdish soldiers in Iraq likely represents the ultimate failure of the Obama administrationÂ’s policy toward to the Syrian civil war. According to reports, Kurdish authorities have provided evidence to international investigators that indicates ISIS used low-grade chemical weapons, likely chlorine gas canisters, against Peshmerga fighters in an attack near the Syrian border in...

15 March 2015 Syria Conflict: US Wants To 'Re-ignite' Peace Talks, Says Kerry US Secretary of State John Kerry says he wants to "re-ignite" negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad to end the conflict in Syria. Speaking as the war enters its fifth year, Mr Kerry said it was "one of the worst tragedies any of us have seen". He said the international community was upping pressure on Syria's regime to hold new peace talks, saying "we have to negotiate in the end" with Mr Assad. More than 215,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.

HARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would be willing to talk with Syrian President Bashar Assad to stem that nation's violence. In an interview with CBS News, Kerry said the U.S. is pushing for Assad to seriously discuss a transition strategy to quell the Arab country's four-year civil war. "We have to negotiate in the end," Kerry said. "And what we're pushing for is to get him to come and do that, and it may require that there be increased pressure on him of various kinds in order to do that. We've made...

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a political transition in Syria and is exploring ways to pressure him into agreeing to talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS News in an interview. Washington has long insisted that Assad must be replaced through a negotiated, political transition, but the rise of a common enemy, hardline militant group Islamic State, appears to have slightly softened the West's stance towards him. In the interview broadcast on Sunday, Kerry did not repeat the standard U.S. line that Assad had lost...

Nusra Front is the Sunni Muslim al-Qaida offshoot which is currently fighting the Iranian-backed axis of Bashar Assad and Hezbollah in Syria. Israel has opened its borders with Syria in order to provide medical treatment to Nusra Front and al-Qaida fighters wounded in the ongoing civil war, according to The Wall Street Journal. The prominent American newspaper reported that Nusra Front, the Sunni Muslim al-Qaida offshoot which is currently fighting the Iranian-backed axis of Bashar Assad and Hezbollah, "hasn't bothered Israel since seizing the border area last summer" along the Golan Heights.

New York (AFP) - CIA Director John Brennan said the United States does not want to see a chaotic collapse of the Syrian regime as it could open the way to Islamist extremists taking power. The spy agency chief said Washington had reason to worry about who might replace President Bashar al-Assad if his government fell, given the rise of the Islamic State group and other jihadists in Syria. "I think that's a legitimate concern," Brennan said when asked if the US government feared who might succeed Assad. Speaking at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations, he said...

White House Warns Europe On Greek Showdown Washington blames Europe for the lack of global recovery and is losing its patience with EMU creditor states that fail to pull their weight By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 13 Feb 2015 The Obama administration has leapt to the defence of Greece, warning Germany and Europe’s creditor powers that they must meet Athens half-way to avert a potentially dangerous rupture and a euro break-up. Caroline Atkinson, the US deputy-national security adviser, said the eurozone authorities had imposed the main burden of adjustment on the weaker deficit states and should do more to accept their share...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims she nearly cried last week after being offended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress about Iran. Now, she's seemingly just as upset about a letter sent from 47 Republican Senators to the Ayatollah of Iran, warning the regime that if a deal is made with the White House, it will only be temporary."It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pushing back hard against conservative claims that the recent Republican letter to Iranian leaders, which has infuriated the White House amid delicate nuclear talks, is akin to her 2007 visit to Syria against the wishes of the Bush administration. The office of the House minority leader issued a scathing statement Wednesday night saying her meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was part of a bipartisan effort — conducted through the Bush administration — to encourage peace in the region, and accusing Republicans of launching a "desperate" defense of their Iran letter to mask criticisms coming...

Saudi ArabiaÂ’s Attempt To Create A Sunni Alliance Against Iran Will Fail And Mecca The Pride Of The Muslims Will Be Destroyed By The Muslims Themselves! By Shoebat Foundation on March 11, 2015in Featured, General By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive) In the Middle East, everything could turn on a dime. Who would have imagined that powers such as Turkey and Iran, which both recognized Israel soon after it declared independence in 1948 would become now two of its arch enemies, while Arab states who were IsraelÂ’s arch enemies have come to realize that Israel is no longer their primary concern,...

One of the four State Department employees, who was recently disciplined by their former boss Hillary Clinton, has broken his silence concerning Benghazi and has leveled some very big charges at the former Secretary of State. He is now indicating that the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staff were the ones that led the review of the Benghazi attacks, not an independent board. The Daily Beast reports, Raymond Maxwell was placed on forced “administrative leave” after the State Department’s own internal investigation, conducted by an Administrative Review Board (ARB) led by former State Department official Tom Pickering....

The International Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic organization, is reporting that some of its members in Syria were kidnapped by the Islamic State last week and told that if the adults do not deny their Christian faith, they will be decapitated and “their children burned alive in cages.” Islamic State jihadists in Syria. (Photo: BosNewsLife) In Famvin News, a website for the Vincentian community worldwide, Rev. John Freund, a Vincentian priest, reposted a message he received from Sister Monique, with the Vincentian Daughters of Charity.Sister Monique states, “Late Sunday afternoon on 1 March 2015, I received a message...