Free Republic

A U.S. Spanish-language news network that lobbied Hillary Clinton’s State Department on U.S. policies toward Mexico reported on those policies without disclosing its lobbying expenditures and is covering the U.S. presidential election without informing views of its company’s donations to the Clinton Foundation. The network, Azteca America, has employed two Clinton confidantes since late 2008 to lobby the State Department on various initiatives affecting U.S. relations with Mexico, where its parent company is based, during and after Clinton’s tenure at the head of the agency. Mexican parent TV Azteca, a foundation associated with the company, and that foundation’s U.S. counterpart...

WASHINGTON — Traveling the world as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was a vocal booster of legislation to fast-track congressional action on global trade agreements. She also spoke in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would lift barriers to trade with 11 Asian and Pacific Rim countries. Now, with the release last week of her latest financial disclosure statement, Clinton has revealed the flow of a different kind of trade dollars. Companies and coalitions aligned with her past positions on the trade legislation ponied up more than $2 million of the nearly $12 million in speaking fees Clinton hauled in...

He really wants to know! "ISIS is executing homosexuals — you want to talk about gay rights?" Ted Cruz was at his Ted Cruz-iest today after a meeting with local officials in Beaumont, Texas. The senator and GOP presidential candidate faced questions from reporters about gay marriage, and responded with this, according to a report in the Washington Post. “Is there something about the left — and I am going to put the media in this category — that is obsessed with sex? “ISIS is executing homosexuals — you want to talk about gay rights? This week was a very...

All 20 Republican lawmakers who voted against an amendment that prevents illegals from enlisting in the U.S. military refused to answer questions from Breitbart News regarding the expedited citizenship most illegals would have been eligible for once they joined the armed forces. They also each refused to answer whether they agree with House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) calling their Republican colleagues who voted for the amendment “xenophobic” and “un-American.” That means that for now, the 20 Republicans who defected and joined Democrats in opposing the amendment are allowing Pelosi’s comments to remain unchallenged. ... There is a core...

"..........Indeed, The Libertarian Mind is a mixture of “whatever” the individual deems to be his interest. “Whatever” can consist of the reasonable libertarian outcry against big government and abusive regulations, or its excellent affirmation of free markets, rule of law and property rights. But “whatever” also consists of the throwing off of moral restraints that inhibit gratification and self-interest. Thus, the author obsesses about the urgent need for same-sex “marriage,” the end to pornography restrictions, and the right to legal drug use.Throughout his explanation,...(h)abits like drug abuse, for example, are only seen from the individual’s perspective of happiness and not...

A French mayor, Robert Chardon, is calling for governmental legislation that will ban Islam. He said in a recent statement: We must ban the Muslim faith in France. He also stated, “It’s the only solution for most of France’s problems,” and, “We also need a Marshall Plan to send Muslims to countries where the religion is practiced.” This man is the mayor of Venelles, a French town with a population of about 8,000 people, and he is more righteous than any of the politicians in Paris. It is amazing how small town people have a better understanding of how to...

And quite a bit more, including the potential for ISIS to rise to seize ground and declare a caliphate. In a memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to the National Security Council, the CIA, and the White House five days after the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, the DIA concluded that the attack had been planned for more than a week and was retribution for an American drone strike that had killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in June 2012. Moreover, the attack had been planned for the anniversary of 9/11 as a propaganda coup for AQ and...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush was recently asked about the “Draw Muhammad” contest in Garland, TX that was attacked by two jihadists, and what Mr. Bush thought of event organizer and ardent counterjihadist Pamela Geller. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was not, but a new book gives insight into how she might think about the issue given her support as Secretary of State of a policy put forth by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN that comes into direct conflict with the First Amendment. As Maj. Stephen Coughlin (Ret.) writes in his “Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in...

America and Iran on Monday took another step towards direct military co-operation in Iraq as pro-government forces prepared a counter-attack to retake the key western city of Ramadi. Iran’s defence minister, Hossein Dehghan, flew into Baghdad for talks with the government after the Iraqi army fled from a concerted attack by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Ramadi, the capital of the majority-Sunni Anbar province.

Despite what the Pentagon may say, the "degrade and defeat" strategy against the Islamic State terror group isn't going well. Instead, the militants gained control of the provincial capital of Ramadi after months of contesting it with Iraqi Security Forces and Sunni tribes. And that means the Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) now has a superhighway or sorts across Syria and Iraq. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest region. The province is predominantly Sunni and abuts onto Baghdad, which is only a little more than fifty miles away. Now that Ramadi has fallen, ISIS will have...

You have to give President Obama credit: he is a transformational figure, and the American media are loath to give him the credit he deserves. Of course, the transformation he has had in mind and has partially accomplished had to be covert, for the American voters would never have chosen this course knowingly. For the scope of the change he has wrought, as well as the cleverness of his strategy, sooner or later the Islamic world is bound to proclaim him, “Obama the Magnificent.” The domestic aspect of the makeover is the lesser achievement. When the Mohammed cartoon contest in...

New York City police chief Bill Bratton is worried about ISIS. So worried, in fact, that he's going to assign 450 New York Police Department cops to fight terrororism that may come from the Islamic State. “We need to be very concerned about terrorism … The significantly increased threat from ISIS using social media to recruit people not only to go to Syria to fight, but encouraging people … to attack police, to attack government officials, to basically brainwash them under their screwed-up ideology. That threat has expanded significantly in the now 16 months I’ve been police commissioner,” Bratton said...

The European Union (EU) on Sunday denounced the death sentence handed down to Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Morsi and at least 100 others, noting the penalty stemmed from a flawed trial, according to AFP. “The court decision to seek the death penalty… was taken at the end of a mass trial that was not in line with Egypt’s obligations under international law,” the EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini said in a statement. She added that Egypt has to guarantee defendants’ rights to a fair trial and to an independent investigation, noting the EU believes the sentence will be revised upon...

At the Iowa National Security Action Summit on Saturday, co-hosted by the Center for Security Policy and the Family Leader Foundation, Admiral James “Ace” Lyons (U.S. Navy, Ret.) -- a four-star admiral and former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Senior U.S. Military Representative to the United Nations, and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations -- was speaking in the context of Hillary Clinton’s infamous e-mails when he made the following statement about Russia potentially blackmailing Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky: One more thing I want to cover. Hillary's e-mails. Hillary, the pathological liar. Now, you...

Saudi Arabia will join the nuclear club by buying “off the shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, US officials told a London newspaper.

There is an illusion that the promised agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear program will push it toward moderation, as well as economic and political openness. What will probably happen is the complete opposite. The agreement will empower Tehran’s hawks, who are currently being marketed in Iran and who are bragging that most of the nuclear program has been accomplished and that the West has finally submitted and abandoned sanctions. During the past few months of international negotiations, Iran’s security fist tightened against state rivals, voicing the regime’s self-confidence. The Kurdish rebellion a week ago in the city of Mahabad,...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants claimed full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer. Related Stories Islamic state militants say in full control of Iraq's Ramadi: statement Reuters Islamic State raises flag over local government HQ in Iraq's Ramadi Reuters U.S. hits Islamic State in Syria as jihadists press attacks Reuters U.S., allies conduct 18 air strikes in Iraq, eight in Syria Reuters U.S.-led coalition launches 24 air strikes against Islamic State -task force Reuters In a statement, the group said it had seized tanks...

The captured soldiers near area of Happiness Settlement Togliatti GRU Yesterday, during fierce fighting with the Russian DRG, imbued in the area of ​​the settlement Happiness, were captured two Russian servicemen - soldiers Togliatti GRU, the captain and the sergeant Armed Forces. Both were injured and the severity of injuries is currently unknown. Total losses from the attackers are specified, from the Ukrainian security forces killed two and three wounded. For information about these events on his page on facebook informed volunteer team InformNapalm Roman Burco: And also: Today, May 17, the headquarters of ATO also confirmed the Russian prisoners...

The posters of President Bashar al-Assad once hung proud in Syria’s capital. Supporters of the regime would confidently predict the defeat of the “terrorists” - the accepted term for the rebel opposition. In the last few weeks, however, the the insurgents have turned the tide of the civil war by winning a string of battlefield victories against Mr Assad’s forces. In the north, a newly unified rebel coalition called the “Army of Conquest” managed to capture Idlib, a provincial capital, and much of the surrounding territory.

Meanwhile, Earth to Pope Francis: It’s not declarations of angel hood or your sanction that the leaders of radical Islam want--it’s your own and all other Christian heads Having convinced themselves that they will be able to convert the centuries old Catholic Church now that Pope Francis has thrown in with Obama and Palestine, the chickens of the lib-left are heading home to roost. The pious music you can hear in the background, emanating as steadily as greenhouse gas emissions, is coming from three of the far left’s top dogs belting out “I love Pope Francis” hymns on their way...