Free Republic

U.S. airline regulators are banning all flights between the U.S. and airports in Turkey as the country fought to overcome a military coup attempt that left at least 161 people dead and scores more wounded Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration ban includes commercial and private planes operating into or out of Turkey, as well as flights to the U.S. by non-U.S. carriers via third countries. (SNIP) Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Ankara issued a statement Saturday warning that U.S. government officials have been told not to use the airport in Istanbul and that U.S. citizens in the country should seek...

Top U.S. State Department officials, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were warned in an email not to blame the obscure “inflammatory” Internet video for the 2012 attack on Benghazi. That email was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya three days after the September 11 attack, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and two days before then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice blamed the event on the video while speaking to five Sunday talk shows, according to Fox News. “The film’s not as explosive of an issue here as it appears to be...

Cassandra Butts, former deputy White House counsel and a classmate and friend of President Barack Obama, has died, her family and Obama said. She was 50. […] Obama nominated Butts in 2014 to be the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. Hers was one of several nominations that the Senate has failed to act on. …

The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela has temporarily stopped scheduling appointments for first-time visa seekers because of the consular staff is insufficient to serve the overwhelming demand, the consular office announced. The measure applies to all new tourist and business visas, for which an average of 1,800 applications were being filed daily. "We had to make this decision because in the last eight months [Venezuela's] Foreign Ministry hasn't responded to various requests to increase personnel," said Lola Petrova, the embassy spokeswoman. She said that with the current number of employees they can handle 800 daily appointments at the most. In an...

Two people have been hacked to death at an apartment, including an editor of a transgender magazine in the Bangladesh. Another person was also killed and one person injured when three attackers entered their apartment in Dhaka posing as couriers and attacked them with sharp weapons, police said on Monday. Julhas Mannan ran a transgender magazine Rupban and previously worked at the US embassy.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A US woman has appeared in court for allegedly insulting the United Arab Emirates in public while waiting for a taxi at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. The National, a state-owned newspaper in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, says the 25-year-old woman appeared Monday in the Federal Supreme Court. The newspaper says the woman, whom it did not identify, told the court she’s been jailed since Feb. 23. It quoted her as saying two men approached her at the airport and that she “refused to engage with them and nothing happened.” The report did...

RadarOnline.com has obtained a top-secret State Department briefing that rips U.S. Ambassador Kennedy’s work at the American Embassy in Japan, citing “confusion among staff” and other “major” issues! President Obama appointed Kennedy, 58, as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan in 2013. Since then, an investigation has uncovered and detailed 65 charges against the facility, which employs 727 people and has a yearly budget of almost $100 million. Most notably, the report revealed that Kennedy often runs over that budget, and that they found $2.3 million in “funds [that could be] put to better use.” There is also reported “confusion among...

The College of St. John the Baptist in the Dominican Republic has erected a sign banning the U.S. Ambassador to that country from entering the campus.The banner across the front of the school says, "The entrance of the U.S. Ambassador of the United States is not permitted in this institute." In recent days the Catholic Bishops of the Caribbean country sent a strong letter condemning the behavior of the openly gay U.S Ambassador, who has been using his post to promote his lifestyle and the homosexual agenda. Brewster, often in the company of his "husband," is charged by the Bishops...

Police closed off Pariser Platz in central Berlin on Friday morning after a man placed a suitcase in front of the US embassy, demanding revenge for Osama bin Laden. The man arrived at the embassy, which lies adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate, at 7.25 am, a statement from the embassy reported. Going to the main entrance, the man handed a guard a US passport and said he wanted to renew it. The guard told him he had to go to consular services and provided him with the address. Out of nowhere, the man punched the guard in the face, the...

This is really bad. From the Associated Press: BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad confirms that “several” Americans are missing in Iraq after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said Sunday that “We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans.” His comments came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around...

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday morning warned citizens of a Christmastime terrorism threat against Westerners in one of the city's most popular expat districts. Beijing authorities put swaths of the city under lockdown, stationing armed guards on street corners and in pedestrian plazas. "The U.S. Embassy has received information of possible threats against Westerners in the Sanlitun area of Beijing, on or around Christmas Day," the embassy said in an email to American citizens living in Beijing. "U.S. citizens are urged to exercise heightened vigilance. The U.S. Embassy has issued the same guidance to U.S. government personnel." The...

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara will scale back its services on Monday and Tuesday due to a possible security threat, an embassy official told Reuters.

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Threat Level in Brussels Elevated to Highest Level, November 21, 2015 The U.S. Embassy in Brussels informs U.S. citizens that Belgium has raised its threat level for Brussels from level 3 (high) to level 4 (imminent attack). For the rest of Belgium, the threat level remains at level 3. The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to shelter in place and remain at home. If you must go out, avoid large crowds. The Embassy will provide further information as received and is available. Please Note: The U.S. Embassy will continue to update and inform the community...

PARIS-A State Department spokesman confirms that Americans are among the injured in the Paris terror attacks. The department's deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, says Saturday that "the U.S. Embassy in Paris is working around the clock to assist American citizens affected by this tragedy." He would not comment if any were killed.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro took it Monday to the airwaves, in interviews to Israel’s Army Radio and Reshet Bet, suggesting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should try a different approach than simply objecting to President Obama’s deal with Iran. According to Shaprio, Netanyahu should accept the deal as a fait accompli and begin planning for the day after. Such measures would includes discussions over strengthening security relations to cope with Hezbollah’s rearming and defense measure that would protect Israel from Iranian missile threats. “So far, the prime minister is not prepared to hold talks,” he told Army Radio....

THE US government will this year begin the construction of a new Embassy compound in Harare valued at $199 million. This comes after the Department of State Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) awarded a tender to B.L. Harbert, International of Birmingham, Alabama for the construction work. The new Embassy will be located on a 16.5-acre site in the Bluff Hill area. The complex will include an office building and associated support facilities. US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton, revealed this information in Harare recently. He told delegates at an embassy function that the decision was a sign of US...

(VNRN) - Any new U.S. Ambassador will always attract the attention of Vietnamese everywhere, but when President Barack Obama nominated Asia pro Ted Osius, it generated a little more than the usual high interest. You see, Osius is openly gay. Regardless of whether the nominee’s sexual orientation was a factor, the nomination hopefully will usher in more LGBT rights in Vietnam. Certainly Osius is qualified to be ambassador. He has served as Deputy Chief of Mission before, in Indonesia from 2009 to 2012. For the past year, he has been an Associate Professor at the National War College. Osius had...

Obama bundler Jodie Evans, far left, protests in Yemen with al Qaeda tied group al Karama, June 17, 2013. Photo via al Karama. Obama bundler Jodie Evans and Code Pink, the leftist group she co-leads, have been found to be working with a group whose leaders have recently been declared terrorists and al Qaeda supporters by the Treasury Department. This is not the first time the Democratic Party allied group has been caught in bed with terrorists. As this writer has reported over the years, Code Pink works with terrorists, state sponsors of terrorists, the Democratic Party and President Barack...

Some of the men involved claim they were forced to participate by their supervisors at the ArmorGroup security firm. The scandal could yet again call into question the role of private contractors in US military missions...They show naked men, employees of the security firm, whose genitals are only barely covered with a kind of black beer mat. The men are drinking, dancing naked around a fire, licking each others nipples and grabbing each others testicles. They perform sex acts, pour vodka down each others' naked backs and drink it from the buttocks. It now appears that some of the men...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that his chamber is unlikely to approve an American ambassador to Cuba, dishing out a quick rebuff to President Barack Obama and his drive to normalize relations with the U.S. neighbor and longtime Cold War foe. The Kentucky Republican also suggested that the GOP — which controls Congress — would fight Obama administration efforts to fully lift trade and travel restrictions that have limited American commerce and tourism with the communist-led island nation. McConnell said the country was led by "a thuggish regime." The comments by McConnell came a day after Obama and...