Free Republic

"When we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation techniques, techniques that I believe and I think any fair-minded person would believe were torture, we crossed a line," Obama said. "And that needs to be ... understood and accepted. And we have to, as a country, take responsibility for that so that hopefully we don't do it again in the future." In the remarks, Obama was referring to a soon-to-be-released Senate Intelligence Committee report detailing the CIA's controversial interrogation and detention program following the 9/11 attacks. The document is a nearly 700 page summary of the full 6,800 page report...

Bill Clinton admitted he had the opportunity to kill Bin Laden. VIDEO http://video.foxnews.com/v/3709081317001/family-members-of-911-victims-on-clintons-missed-chance/#sp=show-clips

Asked by a convert to distill the Torah’s essence, Rabbi Hillel — Judaism’s great sage — taught, “What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor.” Like the Golden Rule that roots most ethical traditions, Hillel’s first-century precept aimed at inspiring a better society, one that brought order, dignity and peace to an otherwise cruel and warring world. That too much of the world still inhabits a darker moral universe — preferring violence, hate and death — is perhaps humanity’s greatest challenge. As Nazi refugee Albert Einstein understood, defending our collective values is the humane response. “The world...

Hamas has been disseminating to its followers in the Gaza Strip a detailed terrorism training manual that teaches would-be bombers how to make explosives and conceal them in household items such as televisions, according to documents seized by the Israeli military during recent raids. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers discovered the handbook on the ground in the Gaza Strip as they conducted raids of homes and other facilities used by Hamas to plan its terror activities. Hamas’ terrorism manuals instruct readers on how to build homemade explosive devices and how to set them to explode in unlikely places.

JERUSALEM — Israel entered its latest conflict with Hamas armed with a high-tech arsenal, real-time battlefield intelligence and strong domestic support for dealing a heavy blow to Hamas. But again on Friday, Israeli forces were taken by surprise, this time with two soldiers killed and one taken prisoner when militants once again attacked from a tunnel in Gaza. “Hamas has changed its doctrine and is using the tunnels as a main method of operation,” said Israel Ziv, a retired general who headed the military’s Gaza division and its operations directorate. “This is something we learned amid the fighting.” Of the...

At his press conference today Barack Obama accused the United States of torture. Obama drops drone bombs instead. In his mind, it’s more ethical. The AP reported, via Free Republic: President Barack Obama says in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the United States did things that were wrong and crossed the line. He says, quote, “we tortured some folks.” Obama is commenting on a Senate investigation into the CIA’s interrogation techniques. A report on that investigation’s results is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Obama says it’s important to remember how horrified Americans were after 9/11. But he...

By the decision of the President of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) revealed the evidence collected during July 2014 testifying to the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine. This includes evidence of the shelling of Ukrainian cities and the killing citizens, as well of evidence of the conveying of weapons into our territory. The head of the SBU presented this evidence today at a news briefing at the office of the Security Service of Ukraine. “The evidence base in our possession proves the military terrorism from Russia”, — said the he Head of the Security Service of Ukraine...

After failing to attract al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is now trying to gain the support of Libya's Ansar al-Sharia. An ISIS supporter recently endorsed the terror group on a global jihadist forum. On July 23rd, the militant urged ISIS followers to repost his comments on social networking websites, in order to push Ansar al-Sharia in Libya to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Earlier this month, Abdelmalek Droukdel's al-Qaeda subsidiary refused to recognise the self-proclaimed caliphate and instead renewed allegiance to the parent organisation led by...

Though Hamas started the latest round of conflict with Israel, it seems to have calculated--wrongly--that Israel would not launch a ground invasion. Members of the Hamas terrorist organization are reportedly so desperate for food after three-and-a-half weeks of war with Israel that they are seizing United Nations food coupons to keep their members fed--and to prevent them from surrendering to Israeli soldiers out of sheer hunger.

Israelis applying for visas at the United States Embassy have not received them since July 11. The American embassy has stopped issuing ordinary visas and cut back on ongoing services to American citizens due to staff reductions because of the security situation.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Fusion TV's Jorge Ramos that part of the reason Hamas hides rockets in schools and civilian areas is "Gaza is small." "I'm not a military planner but Hamas puts it's missiles, it's rockets in civilian areas, part of it is Gaza is pretty small and its densely populated," she said as neglecting the question of whether or not Hamas should have rockets in area to begin with.

President Barack Obama repeatedly asserted during the 2012 campaign that al-Qaida had been "decimated" and was "on the run," but according to remarks made by a senior intelligence official, "it's exponentially growing." "It's not on the run, and that ideology is actually ... sadly, it feels like it's exponentially growing," Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said Saturday at the Aspen Institute's Security Forum. Flynn said the current terrorist threat is not coming from a collection of lone actors, but from a well-financed and cohesive group that is effective at exploiting young jihadists. "These organizations that...

There should be no sympathy for a terrorist aggressor like Hamas who fires thousands of rockets indiscriminately into largely populated centers in Israel, targeting civilians.

President Obama appears reticent to help Israel stamp out Hamas once and for all because his administration is being run by a “Muslim Sisterhood,” nationally syndicated talk-host Michael Savage told his listeners.""With the likes of senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, U.N. Ambassador Stephanie Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice guiding Obama’s foreign policy, America appears to be siding with the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement founded in Egypt in 1928 that seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and has spun off violent jihadist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas.It was the Muslim Brotherhood that governed Egypt in the wake of...

Pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine reportedly have suffered their biggest battlefield setbacks in months as the U.S. and European countries prepare to ramp up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin by imposing more sanctions against Moscow later this week. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine army forces had made rapid gains near the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed July 17 and were apparently trying to split the territory held by the rebels into two parts between the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Officials on both sides of the fighting also told the Journal that the Ukraine...

Thousands attend EID prayer at Toyota Park BY NICK SWEDBERG Correspondent Updated: July 29, 2014 2:08AM Thousands of Muslims filled the field at Bridgeview’s Toyota Park Monday morning for an unusually somber Eid prayer ceremony in the light of heightened hostilities between Israel and Gaza. Volunteers collected signatures for the 5,000 postcards brought to the event. They intend to mail them to President Obama over the latest deaths in recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The postcards, which 10 chapters of the American Muslims for Palestine across the country distributed Monday, demand that the White House intervene in the fighting...

Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, the country’s leading Sunni authority, called for “jihad” against Israel to liberate “Palestine’s sacred land from Jewish foreign occupation.” He also lamented the lack of Arab action in confronting Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza.

The wife of Cameroon’s vice-prime minister was kidnapped and at least three people were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants in the northern town of Kolofata on Sunday, Cameroon officials said. A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town’s mayor, was kidnapped in a separate attack on his home. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist militant group, has stepped up cross-border incursions into Cameroon in recent weeks as the country has deployed troops to the region, joining international efforts to combat the militants.

One man's quest to explain his brother's mysterious jail cell death 19 years ago has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. What some consider a far-flung conspiracy theory will be at the forefront during a trial set to begin Monday in Salt Lake City. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was brought by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue against the FBI. He says the agency won't release security camera videos that show a second person was with Timothy McVeigh when he parked a truck outside the Oklahoma City federal building and...

The Voice of America has just published a report implicating wealthy Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris in the funding of global jihad. The report also points out the role played by Islamic charities in the financing of Jihad.