Free Republic

Stealth Fighters09.01.159:24 PM ET Michael Weiss Russia Puts Boots on the Ground in Syria ....Several sources consulted for this story said the Pentagon is being unusually cagey about Russia’s reinvigorated role in Syria. A former U.S. military officer told The Daily Beast, “I’m being told things like, ‘We really can’t talk about this.’ That indicates to me that there’s some truth to these allegations.” Some of them are verifiable. On Aug. 22, the Bosphorus Naval News website showed the Alligator-class Russian ship Nikolai Filchenkov, part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, two days earlier passing through Istanbul’s famed waterway en route...

No Russian jets were deployed to Syria in order to launch attacks against Islamic State militants (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) and Syrian rebels, a military source told RT, dismissing reports in Israeli media. "There has been no redeployment of Russian combat aircraft to the Syrian Arab Republic,” the source told RT on Tuesday. “The Russian Air Force is at its permanent bases and carrying out normal troop training and combat duty.” On Monday, the Israeli news site Ynet News cited Western diplomats as saying that a Russian “expeditionary force” has arrived in Syria to set up camp at a government...

This is one of the great scandals of the Obama administration–really, of the post-war era. But our Democratic Party media, fearful of what may be coming in next year’s presidential election, have consistently downplayed it. The Los Angeles Times reports: “Foreign spies use hacked data to identify U.S. intelligence agents.” Foreign spy services, especially in China and Russia, are aggressively aggregating and cross-indexing hacked U.S. computer databases — including security clearance applications, airline records and medical insurance forms — to identify U.S. intelligence officers and agents, U.S. officials said. At least one clandestine network of U.S. engineers and scientists who...

i24news Published August 31st 2015 10:08pm Russian jets take to Syrian skies to combat IS Russia begins military intervention against IS in Syria; IS closes in on Damascus Russian fighter pilots, jets and helicopters will begin arriving in Syria in the coming days to join in the offensive against the Islamic State (IS) and rebel-aligned targets within the failing state Israeli news site Ynet News reported Monday. According to Western diplomats, Russian expeditionary forces have already arrived in Syria to set up camp in an Assad-controlled airbase near Damascus, and will operate as a Russian forward operating base. Thousands of...

The bomb was constructed on the basis of the Kh-38ME modular aircraft guided missile, according to the manufacturer. ZHUKOVSKY (Sputnik) — A unique Grom-2, possessing the destructive utility of both a missile and a bomb, has been developed in Russia, general director of the Tactical Missile Systems Corporation said Wednesday. “Grom-2 is in fact a glide bomb, as there is another warhead weighing 130 kilograms [286 pounds] instead of an engine with a total weight of 250 kilograms," Boris Obnosov told journalists. According to Obnosov, the Grom-2 was constructed on the basis of the Kh-38ME modular aircraft guided missile. Russia's...

Gwen Ifill, a star news anchor on the taxpayer funded Public Broadcasting System’s Washington Week and PBS Newshour, took to Twitter on Wednesday to mock Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. PBS News Anchor Gwen Ifill Mocks Israeli PM Netanyahu After Democrats Support Obama Iran Nuke Deal Kristinn Taylor Sep 2nd, 2015 12:10 pm 2 Comments Gwen Ifill, a star news anchor on the taxpayer funded Public Broadcasting System’s Washington Week and PBS Newshour, took to Twitter on Wednesday to mock Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ifill retweeted an Obama administration propaganda tweet from the administration’s @TheIranDeal Twitter account that itself...

Two more Democrats announced support Tuesday for President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, putting the White House a single senator away from assuring it can prevent Congress from scuttling the agreement and leaving GOP leaders hoping to avoid an even bigger embarrassment of losing to a filibuster. With about 10 Democrats still to decide, it’s a lock that at least one of them will back Mr. Obama, giving him the 34 votes needed to uphold his expected veto of a bill to halt the deal.

GENEVA, September 1, 2015 - UN Watch released a new report today documenting 12 different Facebook accounts operated by UNRWA officials (see images below) that openly incite to antisemitism and terrorism, and urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl to terminate the responsible officials, condemn the offending posts, and establish a commission of inquiry, comprised of representatives of top donor states (see chart at right), to investigate the culture of impunity for perpetrators of racism and incitement that pervades UNRWA. “The pattern and practice of UNRWA school principals, teachers and staff members posting antisemitic and terror-inciting images...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that her country would welcome Iran’s participation in negotiations aimed at ending the civil war in Syria, but also criticized the Islamic Republic for its comments against Israel. […] Previously, most Western powers were reluctant to see Iran have any role in diplomacy over the Syrian crisis, as Tehran is the strongest supporter of President Bashar Al-Assad and has provided him with financial and military support. At the same time, Merkel added that Iran’s opposition to Israel needed to change. “It is not acceptable how Iran continues to talk about Israel,” she said,...

Tune in live on Tuesday via the below LiveStream feed, direct from Senator Gillibrand’s office, at 780 Third Avenue. The rally is from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM on Tuesday evening.

Another Stop the Iran Deal Rally about to start in downtown New York.

The 1996 terrorist attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 United States airmen was among the defining events of America’s recent experience in the Middle East. But there has been no judicial accountability. With the reported arrest of the man accused of masterminding the crime, a resolution of the case may be closer. The truck bombing at the eight-story dormitory near the Dharan Air Base was the deadliest such attack on American forces since the 1983 bombing of the Marines’ barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members. In 2006, a federal court concluded that elements...

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus wants to torpedo all the talk about a shrinking U.S. battle fleet. Republican presidential candidates are pushing a “narrative,” Mabus said, that President Barack Obama has weakened the military and, in particular, the Navy, at a time of growing demands on American power around the world. But in an interview with POLITICO, Mabus fired a salvo at critics he said don’t know what they’re talking about. “I have this funny thing about facts,” he laughed in his office on the Pentagon’s E-Ring, surrounded by paintings of classic warships. “I like to get facts into the equation.”...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released a chilling video Monday attacking opponent Jeb Bush for once suggesting that undocumented immigrants entered the United States as "an act of love." The 15-second video, which Trump posted to Instagram and Twitter, begins with the text: "Jeb Bush's Thoughts on Illegal Immigration." It plays sound of Bush, a former Florida governor, saying of undocumented immigrants, "Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love." Over the sound of Bush talking, with harrowing music playing, the Trump video flashes mug shots of Francisco Sanchez, who was charged in...

Russia has begun its military intervention in Syria, deploying an aerial contingent to a permanent Syrian base, in order to launch attacks against ISIS and Islamist rebels; US stays silent. Russian fighter pilots are expected to begin arriving in Syria in the coming days, and will fly their Russian air force fighter jets and attack helicopters against ISIS and rebel-aligned targets within the failing state. According to Western diplomats, a Russian expeditionary force has already arrived in Syria and set up camp in an Assad-controlled airbase. The base is said to be in area surrounding Damascus, and will serve, for...

The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula terror organization, which was named Ansar Bayt al-Makdas until it swore allegiance to Islamic State (aka ISIS), has blown up the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan. The pipeline, which is 1,200 km long, and was built at a cost of $1.2 billion, is used for exporting natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the past, it was repeatedly attacked by Islamist terror groups, until Egypt's gas exports to Israel were halted. The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula notified the press that it would not allow gas to be exported to Jordan unless ISIS...

The Saudi Press Agency reports that Egypt and Jordan have inaugurated a partially underwater pipeline that will allow Egypt to supply energy-strapped Jordan with 2.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. The pipeline runs almost 250 kilometers across the Sinai Desert to the Red Sea, and then continues 15 kilometers underwater to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The pipeline is scheduled to be extended in the coming years to northern Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, and Europe. Egypt has potential gas reserves of 70 trillion cubic feet and hopes to become one of the world's top 10 exporters...

CAIRO (AFP) – Unknown saboteurs attacked an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Jordan, forcing authorities to switch off gas supply from a twin pipeline to Israel, an official told AFP. The attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in northern Sinai, near the Gaza Strip, the official said. It was initially thought the pipeline to Israel was attacked.

Does Israel have oil? The very phrase Israel’s oil could change the game in the Middle East—and provoke all-out war. Could Israel really have oil? The Zion Oil and Gas Company has been looking for oil along the Mediterranean coast, and just south of the Sea of Galilee, for several years. Two days ago they announced that they had drilled a test well in their Joseph License lands (between Haifa and Tel Aviv) to 5900 meters. They earlier found large hydrocarbon deposits at the site, usually a good sign. In August of 2010, the Givot Olam company announced a find...

A survey of the natural gas field off the shore of Haifa is to be released Thursday evening in the United States. According to the Globes financial journal, the field has been discovered to be even larger than previously thought. The field's estimated size has grown several times as more surveys are conducted. In mid-2009, Yitzchak Teshuva, controlling shareholder who invested in developing the field, originally said the gas reserves could allow Israel to be self-sufficient in energy for two decades, but now it seems that this was a conservative estimate. Teshuva said Thursday, "The results indicate that in addition...