Free Republic

A dramatic spike in fatal terrorist attacks by radical Islamists is likely to grow worse, and spread to more parts of the globe, during the next two years. Those are among the Investigative Project on Terrorism's conclusions after a detailed examination of trends in global terrorism.

In light of last week's terrorist attacks in Brussels, Ted Cruz says, "we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." I am not sure what he means by that, but I am pretty sure it is neither fair nor smart. "This is a war," the Republican presidential candidate emphasized the day of the attacks, suggesting that the patrolling and securing he had in mind was akin to what the military does in hostile territory. The implication seemed to be that American Muslims are an enemy population that needs to be pacified --...

The "safe space" created by political corruption is one reason terrorist organizations can infiltrate, collect intelligence, launch attacks and frankly, continue to exist. This is a global phenomenon, and it isn't new. In the mid-1990s and after 9/11, western intelligence services found evidence that Balkan criminal gangs had assisted Islamist terrorist networks. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, European criminal gangs assisted anarchist terrorists. The new fear was that Balkan smugglers assist Islamists -- for money. Some Balkan gangs run human trafficking operations. That produced a hypothetical thought: crime gangs could help al-Qaida move terrorists into Western Europe....

Half of the American electorate wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country, according to a Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday. Even if Donald Trump's campaign peaks tomorrow and he never makes it a single inch closer to the Oval Office, he will have done lasting damage to our politics. Trump's demagoguery has inspired millions of Americans to indulge their most wrongheaded intuitions about minority groups in their midst. He has shifted the terms of respectable debate to the point where Ted Cruz – a man who has called for armed patrols of Muslim neighborhoods, and whose top...

Call it noblesse oblige — John Forbes “Liveshot” Kerry has ever so generously offered the hoi polloi out here in flyover country some tips on how to avoid being murdered this summer by “migrants” and/or “lone wolves.”

It's not over. It's never over. After last week's deadly airport and subway bombings in Brussels, the Belgian government remains on high alert for jihad attacks and espionage at its nuclear facilities. One Belgian nuke plant security guard was murdered recently and his ID is missing. Two of the Brussels bombers reportedly spied on the home of a top senior scientist in the country's nuclear program. ISIS has been implicated in an alleged insider plot to obtain radioisotopes from one of Belgium's nuclear plants for a dirty bomb. Two former Belgian nuke plant workers left their jobs to fight for...

Teddy bears, tears, candles, cartoons, murals, mosaics, flowers, flags, projections, hashtags, balloons, wreaths, lights, vigils, scarves, and more. These are the best solutions the Western world seems to come up with every few months when we are slammed by another Islamist terrorist attack. We are our own sickness. Since the world learned of the dozens dead, hundreds injured, and hundreds of thousands affected by Monday’s attack on the NATO and European Union capital, we have seen an outpouring of what is commonly known as “solidarity”. This word – most commonly associated with hard-left politics, trades union activism, socialism, and poseur...

In her farewell letter as she was leaving to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jaelyn Young told her family she was guilty. "I found the contacts, made arrangements, planned the departure," prosecutors say she wrote last August. "I am guilty of what you soon will find out." Tuesday, she admitted the same to a federal judge in Aberdeen, Mississippi, pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock will sentence the 20-year-old Young at a later date. The former Mississippi State University student faces up...

The recently refurbished tarmac at Maine’s busiest airport contains the usual mixture of gravel, water and chemical binder, but what gives this asphalt its jet-black color is crude oil supplied by the Islamic State group. The Portland International Jetport’s new pavement isn’t the only blacktop of its kind on American soil. Four hundred miles south, highways outside Philadelphia are lined with the same mixture, as are hundreds of potholes on the streets of New York City. These are but a few of the many places where ISIS’ oil ends up as part of an illicit business that helps fund the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel Tuesday to leave posts in southern Turkey due to security fears. The two agencies said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana, the Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave. The so-called "ordered departure" notice means the relocation costs will be covered by the government. In a statement, the military's European Command said the step "allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region."

Turkey supports terrorists and has a terrible humanitarian and human rights record The first-ever United Nations-sponsored World Humanitarian Summit is scheduled to take place May 23-24, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Turkey’s “compassionate leadership” in hosting the summit and its “admirable commitment to humanitarian action.” Turkey’s hosting of the UN humanitarian summit is a travesty. Ban Ki-moon’s praise of Turkey’s “compassionate leadership” and “admirable commitment to humanitarian action” is a disgrace. Did perhaps the Secretary General have in mind the so-called Turkish “charity” known as the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief...

The four nuns running a nursing home in Aden, Yemen, killed by the Islamic State earlier this month, belonged to the Missionaries of Charity, established by Blessed Mother Teresa.

The always-astute Jed Babbin calls out the pusillanimous PC poseurs who determine our "war-fighting" strategy, and explains why we're losing a battle against a stone-age army of suicidal savages. If you've had it with teddy bears and candles, and are culturally predisposed to agree with the late Air Force general Curtis LeMay when he said, "If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting," read this: Je suis fed up with the politically correct methods and means of counterterrorism pursued by America and its Western allies. There’s so much of that stupidity controlling what we do, with so many bad...

It’s been  exactly one week since the Muslim Underbelly of Sharia Leaning Ideological Misanthropes™ (M.U.S.L.I.M.)  - whoops, sorry snowflakes, I forgot my trigger warning – blew up the Brussels airport.Snowflakes: Please remove your meltdown to the nearest safe space.And already the security theatre authorities have sprung into action: Brussels attacks: Security scanners could be installed at airport entrances' in wake of bomb terror. Case for installing a security perimeter outside airport arrival halls will be examined during an emergency meeting of experts that has been called for March 31, according to EU sourcesSecurity scanners could be installed at the entrances...

An EgyptAir airliner has been hijacked and forced to divert to Larnaca airport on the south coast of Cyprus. Flight MS181, an Airbus A320 carrying 81 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, was taken over after a passenger said he was wearing an explosives belt. Negotiations are under way but no demands have been made by those in control of the plane, reports say. A local journalist has told the BBC that some passengers had been seen leaving the plane.

They're 'on the defensive' dontcha know. Considering the genocide, the bombings, and the crucifixions, you might be inclined to think that the United States has employed a somewhat lackluster approach to dealing with ISIS. It seems that every other day we hear some new story of the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the planet’s most horrific terrorist group. However, if it feels like their rampage is out of control, you should really just relax. ISIS is losing. They’re “retreating,” and they’re “on the defensive.” That’s the word from elderly socialist coot (and would-be President) Bernie Sanders. He’s had it with Republicans...

Apple won a major victory in its showdown with the government when the US Justice Department (DOJ) abandoned its plans on Monday to force the company to write software to bypass iPhone security measures. The Justice Department told a federal court on Monday that it no longer needed Apple's help to access data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, and requested that its original order for Apple's technical assistance be withdrawn. According to the DOJ, the reason it withdrew is because it was successfully able to access the data on the iPhone without Apple's help....

Dear Omar Alnatour: Thank you so very much for offering “anyone $10,000 if they can find me a verse in the Quran that says it’s ok to kill innocent people or to commit acts of terror.” My 1999 Toyota is on its last legs, and your generous gift will enable me to replace it with a modest but fully operational used midsize sedan. Or maybe (since it has been years since I’ve had a break), if I can keep the jalopy going for awhile, I will use your ten grand take a vacation to Paris and Brussels -- before it’s...

Shortly before Europe was hit with the recent terror attack in Brussels, one prominent European leader was warning that the growing tsunami of Middle Eastern immigrants flooding into the West is actually an organized plot by internationalist extremists to destroy liberty, nationhood, Western civilization, and Christendom. Speaking last week at Hungary's National Museum in a historic speech that was largely ignored or distorted by the establishment press, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (shown) called on Europeans to unite against the threat emanating from the European Union headquartered in Brussels. The question, he said, is whether Europeans will live as slaves...

The Islamic State terrorist organization known as ISIS first outlined their strategy to attack the West in a 99-page manifesto issued in January of 2015 under the title of “Black Flags from Rome.” ISIS states that their strategy in the West is to do “hit and run tactics and then go into hiding in order to waste millions and billions of dollars on police while shutting down major cities.” The manifesto further notes that, “once the media attention dies down, the Islamic State will tell another ‘Sleeper Cell’ to carry out another attack again.” Their reason being that “this will...