Free Republic

The Obama administration is considering slowing its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan for the second time, according to U.S. officials, a sign of the significant security challenges that remain despite an end to the U.S. and NATO combat mission there. Under the still-evolving plans, Army Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, could be given greater latitude to determine the pace of the drawdown in 2015 as foreign forces scramble to ensure Afghan troops are capable of battling Taliban insurgents on their own, the officials said. The options under discussion would not alter what is...

Political Correctness: The Army has announced that as a result of Congress' making victims of attacks by foreign terrorist acts eligible, the Fort Hood victims will get Purple Hearts, and civilians will get Defense of Freedom medals. That language broadened the definition of an attack on eligible victims to include an assault by "a foreign terrorist organization." The definition includes attacks by a perpetrator or perpetrators in contact with a foreign terrorist organization or "inspired or motivated by a foreign terrorist organization" prior to the attack. The Nov. 5, 2009, attack on Fort Hood by Maj. Nidal Hasan, in which...

This clip has made the rounds over the last few days -- which is simultaneously understandable and slightly confusing. I'll explain in a moment, but here's the exchange that's garnered significant attention:

Members of the Obama administration have insisted that the Taliban are not terrorists. Those responsible for the recent Paris killings are not radical Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular. Jihad is a "legitimate tenet of Islam." And "violent extremism," "workplace violence" or "man-caused disaster" better describe radical Islamic terrorism. Domestic terrorism is just as likely caused by returning U.S. combat veterans, according to one report by a federal agency. What is the point of such linguistic appeasement? The word "appeasement" long ago became pejorative for giving in to bullies. One side was aggressive and undemocratic; the other consensual and...

“Commentary By Adina Kutnicki by Adina Kutnicki AS patriots await the official (Allah-wash) report regarding Bergdahl's (military-related) status, there are certain facts which are indisputable. We will get to that. BUT intertwined with the upcoming Pentagon's evaluation - re the aforementioned deserter and traitor - underlies the "logic" behind trading him for top Taliban leaders. IN this regard, it begs the question: why would the leader of the free world trade any soldier, let alone one with "questionable" loyalty, for high value, prized terror leaders? Well, if one's leanings are Islamist-infused, the question becomes the logical inverse: why not? Not...

Semantics: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck ... well, you get the idea. But not this White House, which called the Fort Hood massacre by a self-proclaimed jihadi yelling "Allahu Akhbar" "workplace violence." Despite Army denials, desertion charges appear likely and imminent in the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his combat post in Afghanistan. The White House line that we traded five Taliban generals for him because "we leave no man behind" is wearing thin. We do and should leave deserters behind, and if we ever get our hands on them, their...

State Dept: Murder of Americans Not Terrorism, But Acts of TerrorPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 2, 2015 @ 8:48 am In The Point | 16 Comments Translating from Obamanese to English can be hard work, because the Obamanese use English words with very specific coded meanings known only to them, their lawyers and their professors of political correctness.Obama Inc. originally refused to call Benghazi terrorism, but Obama did generally reference “Acts of Terror”, an issue that came up in the Obama-Romney debate.Is the distinction between terrorism and “Acts of Terror” significant? Apparently to Obama Inc. it is. State Department...

State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki declined on Friday to directly say whether the murder of three U.S. civilians at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday—which the Taliban claimed responsibility for--was an act of terrorism. “Obviously any attack that kills contractors, that kills individuals who are working there in harm’s way, is horrific and a tragedy but I’m not going to put new labels on it today.” She also said: “We see a difference between Taliban and ISIL.”

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – When Pakistani Taliban militants stormed a Peshawar school and massacred 150 children and teachers, nobody could fight back. Shabnam Tabinda and some of her fellow teachers want to change that -- and are practicing how to shoot terrorists.

Obama and his Obamanistas have told so many outright lies about the Taliban over the years that we can now devote a lengthy article to it. It started way back in 2008 when Obama was campaigning for the presidency. Back in those days he was saying that Iraq was a sideshow and that President Bush had “taken his eye off the ball.” According to Obama, the good war was in Afghanistan and he was going to concentrate on Afghanistan, where the Taliban were fighting US forces, when he got to be president. That turned out to be campaign rhetoric. Sure,...

Today the Obama White House insisted the Taliban was not a terrorist group. This comes after the Taliban slaughtered 132 children at a school in Pakistan in December. Charles Krauthammer responded to this latest idiocy: It slits throats. It attacks buses. It drives car bombs into markets and it’s not a terrorist group. Look you can’t parody this administration… And also the idea that the war is winding down is preposterous. Tell that to anybody that lives in Afghanistan. This is a fantasy. Obama is pretending that the War on Terror, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq is...

They act like terrorists, they regularly kill civilians like terrorists, but the White House does not consider the Afghan Taliban to be a terrorist group. “They do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. They do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained today, but “they have a different classification.”

In an article from ABC in June 4, 2014, " White House National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden noted that the Taliban was added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) by executive order in July 2002, even if it is not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the State Department." "Though the State Department has not designated the Afghan Taliban as an FTO, it has designated the group’s sister network, the Pakistani Taliban, as well as the Haqqani Network, a group closely associated with the Taliban "

No doubt because of my background investigating, prosecuting, and studying terrorism, the cynical claim by White House spokesmen that the Taliban is not a terrorist organization has annoyed me even more than the Obama administration’s nonstop lying usually does. No surprise then that I could be found railing about it on The Kelly File Thursday night. In that spirit, ten thoughts for the weekend: 1. Under federal law, there are only three requirements for a group to qualify as a “foreign terrorist organization”: It has to be (a) foreign, (b) engaged in “terrorist activity” (bombings, assassinations, etc., carried out to...

Last Monday retired Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer, citing unnamed military sources, told Bill O’Reilly that the Army was planning to charge Bergdahl with desertion. He claimed that his sources confirmed Bergdahl’s attorney was given a charge sheet. It didn’t take Obama’s spin doctors long to have the Pentagon lying and denying that any charges were filed or any charge sheet presented to Bergdahl’s attorney Eugene Fidell. At the time of writing Mr. Fidell declined to speak to the press. In a surprise move NBC cited an anonymous senior defense official who said that Bergdahl will be charged with desertion very...

One of the best 30-or-so minutes on radio since I've been listening beginning in the early 1940s. One caller and one scheduled guest. KSFO Morning Show Podcast It's a four hour show. Pick the 30 January hour 0500 - 0600. The caller (27:30) is a military Afghanistan vet who explains the Taliban in concise and precise language. (Hint: there are two kinds of 'em.) The scheduled guest Jan Morgan (36:20) owns a shooting range in Arkansas who will not permit Muslims as customers. She describes an incident when she did permit 'em but no more.

BREAKING: TALIBAN CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR MURDER OF THREE AMERICANS AT KABUL AIRPORT On Wednesday White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz argued that the Taliban is not a terrorist group, but instead an “armed insurgency.” On Thursday White House Spokesman Josh Earnest doubled-down on the idiocy. Earnest told reporters: “They have a different classification. They have a classification that does allow us to place financial concessions against them that have succeeded in limiting their capability. They’ve been effective. And that is different than an organization like Al-Qaeda that has much broader global aspiration to carry out acts of violence and...

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reported that “several US officials” “suspect” that one of the five detainees traded for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “has returned to militant activity” on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Lead.”

This week, multiple news outlets independently reported that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be charged with desertion. It was a charge that almost everyone saw coming and one that comported with what the soldier’s former colleagues had told media outlets. Within hours of this report, the Pentagon insisted that no formal decisions had been made with regards to Bergdahl’s case. It is a relatively safe bet, however, that the Pentagon will not be reiterating National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s claim that Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Bergdahl’s release from captivity was controversial. Not because,...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber struck a funeral in Afghanistan for the victims of an earlier Taliban attack, killing 16 people and wounding 39, an Afghan official said. The attack took place in eastern Laghman province, according to the local governor's spokesman, Sarhadi Zwak. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the blame is likely to fall on the Taliban who have staged similar attacks in the past.