Free Republic

POPE FRANCIS ABANDONS CHRISTIAN SYRIAN REFUGEES, TAKES ONLY MUSLIMS TO VATICAN INSTEAD Spokesman Massimiliano Signifredi called the incident 'regrettable' - adding: 'The problem here is the three Syrians arrived after the March 20 deadline. They arrived just after the agreement between the European Union and Turkey. Mr Signifredi said: 'Our staff went to Lesbos and spoke with the people who were selected. But everything was decided by the Vatican. CHRISTIAN BROTHER AND SISTER REFUGEES FROM SYRIA SAY THEY HAVE BEEN ‘LET DOWN’ BY POPE FRANCIS AFTER HE LEFT THEM BEHIND IN A LESBOS REFUGEE CAMP DESPITE PROMISES THEY WOULD BE...

Back in August 2011, I was part of a Congressional delegation weeklong visit to Israel. One of the special parts of this visit, which included our spouses, was to sit with Prime Minister Netanyahu in his cabinet room and discuss Middle East security policy. It was there -- and I will never forget -- that PM Netanyahu very presciently warned we should not consent to a complete withdrawal of our military footprint from Iraq. He strenuously conveyed to us there would be a vacuum created and who -- or what -- would fill that void could be very dangerous. And...

The center-left Social Democratic Party said on Tuesday that Germany should scrap a law against insulting foreign leaders — which has been used by the Turkish President to target a German comedian. “The honor of a head of state is just as important as the honor of a normal citizen,” SPD leader in the Bundestag (German parliament) Thomas Oppermann said in Berlin. SPD MPs are ready to repeal the paragraph banning insults against foreign leaders, Oppermann went on, calling it an “antiquated rule” that should not be updated but simply abolished. Changing the law would also allow the federal government...

Merkel allows prosecution of German comedian who mocked Turkish president By Rick Noack April 15 at 9:30 AM German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cleared the way for the prosecution of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, whose poem mocking Turkey's president has become the centerpiece of a clash between Germany's free-speech traditions and the government's efforts to safeguard its important relations with Turkey. In a news conference Friday, Merkel emphasized that it will now be up to German courts to decide whether Böhmermann is guilty of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But critics — including members of her own government —...

A German comedian whose satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed a bitter row about freedom of speech has decided to suspend his own TV show, he announced on his Facebook page on Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against the popular comic Jan Boehmermann who could be convicted under the rarely-enforced section 103 of the criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states. Merkel's decision has appalled rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch which on Saturday called on the German authorities to defend freedom of speech "even...

Erdogan Germany has a well-known period in its history where it gave in to a dictator. Things didn’t work out so well for a lot of people. Now there’s another dictator exerting his influence, apparently. This time, the dictator is from Turkey. New York Times bestselling author and Christian evangelist Joel Richardson blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for approving a criminal probe against German comedian Jan Böhmermann. The satirist’s supposed crime is reading a satirical poem about Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Richardson, who highlights the plight of Middle Eastern Christians in his new documentary “Global Jesus Revolution,” said...

Now will we grasp that the United States is not our friend, but a foreign country whose interests are often different from ours? President Obama's blatant intervention in our internal affairs is not a sudden breach of a soppy 'special relationship'. The USA's only real special relationship is with Saudi Arabia, a 70-year old hard pact of oil, money and power, welded together with such cynicism it out to make up gasp. Barack Obama's open desire for us to stay inside the EU is by no means the first or worst example of White House meddling here in these islands....

Norway's minister of migration and integration has sparked outrage after floating in the Mediterranean Sea in an orange survival suit to experience being rescued from a refugee's "perspective." Sylvi Listhaug, a Progress Party member known for her hard-line stance on immigration, travelled to the Greek island of Lesbos to familiarise herself with the rescue work carried out by Norwegian vessel Peter Henry von Koss.

With the topic of Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Sept 11 attack on everyone's lips, if certainly not those of president Obama who is currently in Riyadh where he is meeting with members of Saudi royalty in what may be his last trip to the Saudi nation as US president, many have been clamoring for the information in the suddenly notorious "28-pages" (following the recent 60 Minutes episode) to be released to the public so the US population can finally relegate all those "conspiracy theories" surrounding the real perpetrator behind the Sept 11 terrorist attack to the "conspiracy fact" pile.It...

Last month, UNESCO’s director general Irina Bokova issued a statement congratulating Russian- backed Syrian forces for liberating the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State (ISIS). Bokova said Palmyra “carries the memory of the Syrian people, and the values of cultural diversity, tolerance and openness that have made this region a cradle of civilization.” Bokova added, “The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime, and UNESCO will do everything in its power to document the damage so that these crimes do not go unpunished. I wish to remind all parties present of the absolute necessity to preserve this unique...

A Senate bill that would allow families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi government has achieved a rare Washington distinction, by uniting the Obama administration and some of its fiercest GOP critics. President Barack Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are rallying to kill the bipartisan plan that would make it possible for American citizens to sue foreign governments believed to be linked to terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said the plan should be reviewed through regular order before decisions are made about advancing the measure. White House Press...

The United States will buy heavy water from Iran’s nuclear program and expects it to be delivered within weeks, U.S. officials said on Friday, a move that Republican lawmakers quickly criticized. The U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, will buy 32 metric tonnes of heavy water from Iran worth $8.6 million, a department spokeswoman said. Heavy water is a component of making nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, that is not radioactive. Under last year’s landmark nuclear deal between Iran, the United States and five other world powers, Tehran is responsible for reducing its stock of heavy water, which it can...

A U.S. Army captain working in Iraq helped foil a terrorist plot to blow up a school in Denmark, according to a U.S. defense official. Capt. Bradley Grimm provided "actionable intelligence" gleaned from captured documents in Iraq about foreign fighters from Denmark that included information on threats against a Danish school using homemade explosives, according to Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the coalition fighting ISIS....

A New Jersey school board member resigned Friday after backlash over posts she made on Facebook disparaging Muslims. […] (Gladys) Gryskiewicz posted on Facebook earlier this year that Muslims should stay “in your desserts (sic) and follow your religion in your own countries.” In another post, she wrote: “Why now are we giving into (sic) the Muslims way of life? The French told them to get lost. This is what our President should be emulating.” Her comments drew outrage, including from some students, state lawmakers and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which called for her resignation. …

t seems a concerted effort is under way to conceal the identity of the Harvard law student who hurled anti-Semitic epithets at Israel's former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during her recent address at the university. During the question and answer session at her speaking engagement, someone identified merely as "the president of a student organization," invoked an age-old anti-Semitic slur, asking Livni, "how is it that you are so smelly?” He then repeated the question: "A question about the odor of Ms. Tzipi Livni, she’s very smelly, and I was just wondering." CanaryMission.org notes that great lengths are being taken...

Pushing the 2002 Arab Initiative whilst ignoring the 2004 Bush-Congress Initiative is destined to become an exercise in futility and certain failure The announcement by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that France will host a meeting of ministers from 20 countries in Paris on May 30 to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process seems to be yet another flight of fancy that is destined to end up where the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap presently find themselves after decades of fruitless negotiations. Who those 20 countries are that will attend such a meeting will make fascinating reading.

House Republicans are doubling down against the White House in a campaign to prevent Iran from doing business in U.S. dollars, the latest political spat between them and the Obama administration over implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) introduced a measure this week to make denying Iran access to dollars a hard-and-fast law, while GOP leaders have issued near-daily condemnations of the administration for not promising more forcefully that Iran won’t find a backdoor to the U.S.-based financial system. “If President Obama won’t rule out new concessions to the Iranian regime, Congress...

You know you've 'made it' when the prince of one of the world's biggest human rights abuser (and leading 'beheader') nations calls you a "disgrace to America."

I'm in Moscow with Israel Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. pic.twitter.com/hfiUetOdcy— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) April 21, 2016

[Original title too long: What the media didn’t tell you about Arabic-speaking Muslim student who got kicked off Southwest Airlines] The mainstream media went ballistic after learning that an Iraqi student was removed from a flight after an alleged ‘Islamophobic’ woman reported him because she heard him speaking Arabic. Left wing pundits and Muslim advocacy groups demanded to know why “speaking Arabic” is a reason to remove someone from a plane and were calling for boycotts of Southwest Airlines. What the media conveniently left out is that the (see-something-say-something) woman is a native Arabic speaker and said he was talking...