Free Republic

Terrorists use terrorism because it works, although not against everybody. The Soviet Union’s flaws were without number, but the effete, obsequious squeamishness that characterizes the current American approach to Islam was not among them. From 1986: The Jerusalem Post said the Soviet secret police last year secured the release of three kidnaped Soviet diplomats in Beirut by castrating a relative of a radical Lebanese Shia Muslim leader, sending him the severed organs and then shooting the relative in the head. The incident began when four Soviet diplomats were kidnaped last September by Muslim extremists who demanded that Moscow pressure the...

In 1976, the British Royal Air Force had a problem. In the event of war, Soviet Backfire bombers flying from Europe could have devastated resupply convoys sailing from the United States to Europe. The RAF needed a warplane with enough range to patrol the vast Atlantic — and enough payload to haul long-range, bomber-killing missiles. Plane-maker Hawker Siddeley suggested adding 12 U.S.-made Phoenix missiles to the Avro Vulcan bomber. The addition would have required extensive modifications to the Vulcan’s radar. Blueprint via @AvroVulcan617 In any event, the RAF dropped the idea. To defeat the Backfires, the U.S. Navy deployed carrier-based...

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi provided al-Qaida with chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction before changing heart and agreeing to destroy his arms program, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin has learned. Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kussa told U.S. and UK spy agencies that tens of thousands of weapons had been produced at 10 secret sites in the country. Kussa has named hundreds of what he termed "sleeper" al-Qaida agents in Britain and the U.S. Gadhafi's dramatic turnaround has earned him a future meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush. He was welcomed back on to the world stage...

"Matt Bruenig is researcher of poverty and welfare systems at the think tank Demos." By now, it is well established that capitalism is fundamentally built upon threats of force. As libertarian philosophers Robert Nozick and Matt Zwolinski have explained, the only way to turn unowned natural resources (such as land, minerals and other goods) into privately owned property is by violently preventing all others from using them. This one-sided exclusion destroys freedom of movement and cuts many people off from the things that they need to survive.

When Osama bin Laden was banished from Sudan in 1996, he left the country in a rented Soviet jet — an aged and antique Tupolev flown by a Russian pilot he did not trust. With him were a few bodyguards, his military commander, Saif al-Adel, and two sons named Sa’ad and Omar — both young men in their late teens. Although it was the corrupt Islamic government of Sudan that had robbed Osama bin Laden of much of his vast personal wealth, he blamed America for his misfortunes, according to Pulitzer Prize-winner Lawrence Wright. “He held America responsible for the...

The Russian ambassador to Poland has prompted outrage here for putting some of the blame for World War II on Poland, creating a new spat amid deepening tensions between the nations. Ambassador Sergey Andreev of Russia on Friday described the Soviet Union’s 1939 invasion of Poland as an act of self-defense, not aggression. Poland’s Foreign Ministry responded on Saturday, saying the ambassador “undermines historical truth” and seemed to be trying to justify the crimes of Stalin, then the Soviet leader. World War II began after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sealed a pact in 1939 that included a secret...

Delivers speech and asks Senate to rename plaza in front of Chinese embassy after pro-democracy dissident and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Dr. Liu Xiaobo WASHINGTON, D.C. –  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor asking colleagues for unanimous consent to  his resolution that would rename the plaza in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. as “Liu Xiaobo Plaza,” after Dr. Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been imprisoned, along with his wife, Liu Xia, for seeking basic human rights denied to him by the...

New York, September 16, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today which, according to a copy viewed by CPJ, bans at least 41 international journalists and bloggers from Ukraine for one year. The journalists and bloggers were among 388 people named as representing an "actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," according to news reports. "We are dismayed by President Poroshenko's actions, including a ban on dozens of international media covering Ukraine," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "While the...

The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a historical record of the Soviet era work camps, police state and subtle oppressions and outright torture under the Russian government between the First World War and 1956. What are some of the lessons we can draw from this book? What have too many forgotten of the death camps of the Soviet Union?

The Soviet Union may have collapsed, but its decades’ long reign of terror shall not be forgotten. The 20th century was marked by intense tragedy due to the pernicious ideologies of National Socialism and global communism that killed over 100 million people. Millions suffered and died under the tyrannical rule of both Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, respectively. While the former usually receives resounding condemnation, the latter – particularly the Soviet variant – is wholly ignored by many today. That is why it is imperative to celebrate Black Ribbon Day on August 23rd,...

On Aug. 11 at the port of Severodvinsk in northern Russia, a huge and imposing black shape emerged from a dry-dock, observed by ranks of uniformed dignitaries. The Russian navy’s latest submarine is 574 feet long, displaces no fewer than 18,000 tons of water and packs two nuclear reactors. Named Moscow, she’s actually a refurbished, 1980s-vintage ballistic-missile sub that once prowled underneath the Arctic ice, cradling nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, awaiting Armageddon. Today, as best as any outside observer can tell, the Moscow has a new mission. She appears to be part science vessel, part spy ship, part commando transport, and...

Fifteen years after one of the worst disasters in Russian naval history — the sinking of the Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea in which all 118 crew members died — the number of Russians who blame the authorities for not doing enough to rescue the sailors has dropped. The tragedy occurred on Aug. 12, 2000, making it one of the first serious challenges faced by Russia's new president Vladimir Putin. While at the time and in the immediate aftermath, the president's actions were criticized, a poll published Monday by the independent pollster Levada Center showed that 40 percent of...

Here's what we know: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for selling U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union after one of the most sensational Cold War-era espionage trials. They were convicted in 1951 owing, largely, to the testimony of David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother. Here's what we don't know: How credible Greenglass' testimony was in court. Greenglass himself spent nearly a decade in prison for his role in the conspiracy. The Army sergeant stole nuclear intelligence from Los Alamos, N.M., and said he passed it on to the Rosenbergs. At the trial, he said Ethel Rosenberg typed...

Two pilots killed as Tu-95MS bomber crashes after all 4 engines fail Five crew safely parachuted from stricken jet in latest of spate of accidents afflicting military aircraft. The accident was the sixth involving Russian military aircraft this summer, reported news agencies. The ministry said the crash was probably caused by a malfunction, although other causes were not ruled out, reported Sputnik News Agency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to ask Tajikistan for the lease of a former Soviet airbase that was refurbished by India in 2007. Government sources told Mail Today that use of the Ayni airbase for the Indian Air Force, tops the agenda for discussion with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon when the prime minister arrives on a state visit on July 12. Tajikistan marks the last leg of Prime Minister Modi's eight-day tour of the five Central Asian Republics and Russia. The Ayni airbase near Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe has long been key to expanding India's strategic footprint in Central Asia. India...

Bloomberg Published Security Service of Ukraine Report on Russian Presence Recently, most of the Ukrainian media reported with reference to the document published by Bloomberg that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) revealed information about Russian generals and military officers that command mercenaries of the DPR and LPR in Donbas. This information was confirmed by US intelligence after they had received the SBU report on June 16. The report identified five Russian generals and a colonel in command of combat operations in the east of Ukraine. According the Ukrainian Security Service, the pro-Russian terrorists are commanded by: Major General Oleg...

Bad ideas take a long time to die Since the start of the 21st Century, the leftward lurch in Latin America has been unmistakable. By early 2008, the nations of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and, to a certain extent, Mexico and Peru, have all embraced center-left political parties or movements. The reason for the tilt is a familiar one: the siren song of government-mandated wealth redistribution and increased levels of social spending have resonated with people with a long history of economic and development troubles. “I think it’s difficult for conservative candidates to...

(CNN)What was once the gleaming pride and joy of the Soviet space program now lies covered in dirt and bird droppings in a disused hangar in Kazakhstan. With their broken windows, missing tiles and ransacked interiors, these shuttles are a haunting -- and fascinating -- piece of space history, rarely seen by the outside world. Indeed, when 36-year-old Russian photographer Ralph Mirebs discovered the derelict shuttles and rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome, he was touched by the sad end for these "wonderful winged machines."

MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it was outraged by Poland's destruction of a Soviet war monument, warning Warsaw of the "most negative consequences" after what it said was a flagrant violation of an agreement between the two countries on protecting memorial sites. Poland has been one of the most vocal critics of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. Russia and Poland share a history of conflicts and the disagreement over war memorials is likely to add to tensions. "Warsaw must finally understand that the 'war of monuments' unleashed in Poland may have the most negative consequences,...