Free Republic

Few Americans could fathom the notion that the United States is so indebted to China that one of Beijing’s spies could get away with espionage – especially with an White House in love with espionage prosecutions. But that might be the only reasonable explanation for the Obama administration’s decision to pass on prosecuting a State Department contractor who was allegedly paid thousands of dollars to someone believed to be a Chinese agent seeking information on Americans. According to Fox News, a November 2014 FBI affidavit that was filed in U.S. district court in Maryland indicates that the FBI launched a...

Dr. Warren Weinstein, an American aid worker held hostage by al Qaeda, was accidentally killed in a U.S. counter-terrorism operation, as was an Italian hostage, Giovanni Lo Porto, and another American who was an al Qaeda leader, the White House announced on Thursday. Officials also announced that a separate operation killed Adam Gadahn, another American who became a prominent al Qaeda member. The White House said it was unaware the four were present at the sites. President Obama was set to make a statement after 10 a.m. ET. "The operation targeted an al-Qa'ida-associated compound, where we had no reason to...

The White House says U.S. counterterrorism operations killed American and Italian hostages held by Al Qaeda, as well as two Americans who were working with the terror organization. It says the U.S. recently concluded that American Warren Weinstein and Italian national Giovanni Lo Porto, hostages held by Al Qaeda, were killed in a January operation in a border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The White House says it also believes two other Americans were recently killed in a counterterrorism operation in the same region.

Sunday, we found out that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin removed himself from the running for Governor of West Virginia, but during the same announcement, he endorsed Hillary Clinton as his favorite presidential candidate. When Senator Manchin endorsed Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign on Sunday, he described Clinton as warm, compassionate, engaging, and tough. In 2008, Manchin waited until the Democratic candidate was already decided before endorsing Barack Obama.

We are learning more about one of the six Minnesota men accused of trying to join ISIS. The sister of 20-year-old Guled Omar spoke to WCCO Wednesday evening. “I believe that my brother is innocent and that he didn’t do anything wrong,” Shukri Omar said. Omar gathered with Somali community members at the Brian Coyle Center Wednesday to support the four men arrested in Minnesota. Two other Minnesotans were arrested on Sunday in San Diego. Guled Omar was active on social media. In his Twitter feed, we found Omar threatened to sue the U.S. government after federal agents kept him...

Several Republicans are expected to offer amendments to strengthen the bill. Vote on the bill itself expected next week.

...Here’s the high-level summary. There are more details below. • Canadian company Uranium One owned uranium mines in the US and Kazakhstan. • Uranium One's mines account for 20% of the uranium mined in the US. Uranium is used for nuclear weapons, and it's considered a strategic asset to the US. • Russia’s state-owned atomic agency, Rosatom, bought a 17% stake in Uranium One in June 2009. • The Russian atomic agency decided it wanted to own 51% of Uranium One in June 2010. To take a majority stake in Uranium One, it needed approval from a special committee that...

Adnan Abdihamid Farah's parents took his passport away last year when it came in the mail, and his mother would later tell authorities she feared her son would "disappear." She also stopped the 19-year-old from traveling with his brother, Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, when the siblings told her they were going to Chicago. Mohamed - who was older and given more freedom - made the trip and instead ended up in San Diego, where authorities say he was bound for Mexico and ultimately the Islamic State group in Syria. "I cry all day," their mother, Ayan Farah, said Wednesday. "I don't...

A nine-ship Iranian convoy believed to be laden with weapons bound for rebels in Yemen turned around Thursday after being followed by U.S. warships stationed in the area to prevent arms shipments, multiple sources in the Pentagon told Fox News. The sources said the nine-ship convoy is south of Salalah, Oman, and now headed northeast in the Arabian Sea in the direction of home. The ships, which include seven freighters and two frigates, had sailed southwest along the coast of Yemen heading in the direction of Aden and the entrance to the Red Sea. They appeared to drop anchor in...

Heartbreaking news, and a demonstration of the limit of remote-control warfare. The US drone program in Pakistan inadvertently killed two Western hostages being held by al-Qaeda, including an American whose family had repeatedly appealed for his release based on his age and health: A U.S. drone strike in January targeting a suspected al Qaeda compound in Pakistan inadvertently killed an American and Italian being held hostage by the group, senior Obama administration officials said.The killing of American development expert Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto is the first known instance in which the U.S. has accidentally...

On the eve of the emergency EU summit on migration in Brussels, Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said the country was "at war" with migrant traffickers, who are responsible for the deaths of as many as 1,000 migrants in the past week alone. David Cameron and other EU leaders will consider a commitment to "undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they are used by traffickers," the draft statement showed. A diplomatic source told a news agency that the EU's 28 member states were widely mobilised to approve the statement's wording, reflecting a growing willingness to...

[This is from the International Edition of SCMP] China has won the bid to co-produce a multibillion ($3Billion) long-range air and missile defence system in Turkey, in what is its largest and most advanced arms sales to a NATO country. The Turkish defence minister announced the decision to approve the US$3 billion bid by China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, rejecting rival offers from Russian, US and European firms. The winning Chinese FD-2000 system beat the Patriot, the Russian S-400 and the French-Italian Eurosam Samp-T, it was announced on Thursday. [snip]

Senior U.S. officials pressed Saudi leaders for fear of making matters worse Senior U.S. officials pressed Saudi leaders in a series of messages to quickly wrap up their air campaign in Yemen for fear of making matters worse, people familiar with the matter said, before Riyadh declared Tuesday it was ending the offensive. Yet on Wednesday, Saudi airstrikes resumed in several parts of the country after Iranian-linked Houthi militants took over a military brigade in the southern city of Taiz, provincial security officials said. There was no sign of peace talks, though the Saudis had said they were shifting to...

What no one understands is that there is no chance that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will ever be repentant, no matter how many stories of ruined lives that he hears. This is because he believes that in his murders he did a righteous deed before Allah, who commands Muslims to kill Infidels in his cause. To be repentant, he would have to cease being a Muslim, because it is his Islamic faith that makes him think he did the right thing at the Boston Marathon. But because no one wants to face the reality that Islam had anything to do with his...

Halal is a lifestyle for many adherents of Islam, and the topic of sexuality is mostly taboo among Muslims. Combining the two might seem a toxic mix, but the recent appearance of sex shops catering to Muslims -- even in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the center of the Islamic faith -- indicates there is a market for certain adult products.A store called Halal Sex Shop is expected to open soon in Mecca, according to a report on Alyaoum24, an Arabic news portal, which did not specify an opening date. Owner Abdelaziz Aouragh said the products at his store are halal-observant and...

News of America’s military men and women were wounded and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan almost overwhelmed me on some days. I may have sounded strong when I was talking to the press, but sometimes I had to push my feelings way down in order to get any words out of my mouth to make statements and answer questions. The hardest days were when President Bush went to visit the wounded or families of the fallen. If it was tough for me, you can only imagine what it was like for the families and for a president who knew that...

PAMELA GELLER'S CONTROVERSIAL GROUP WINS IN COURT Soon, you could see MTA buses in New York with the words "Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah" on the side. That's because a controversial pro-Israel group wants to run the ads—they show a man with a Palestinian keffiyeh covering his face alongside the aforementioned quote, which is attributed to "Hamas MTV," plus the slogan, "That's his Jihad. What's yours?"—and this week a federal judge decreed that the MTA must comply in order to abide by the First Amendment, Courthouse News reports. (There is no "Hamas MTV"; the ad...

A suspected Islamic terrorist's plans to mount attacks on French churches were thwarted when he accidentally shot himself and called an ambulance, leading to the discovery of loaded guns, bulletproof vests and chilling notes about his intended targets, authorities said Wednesday. French police believe the 24-year-old Algerian native was planning an imminent attack Sunday on one or more French churches in Paris when he shot himself, France’s top security official announced Wednesday. The suspect, who was not named, is a computer science student who was flagged as a risk by security officials last year, said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. He...

<p>French security services have prevented an “imminent” terrorist attack in Paris and arrested a suspected Islamic extremist, according to the interior minister.</p> <p>The suspect, a university student who appeared to have shot himself in the leg, was taken into custody on Sunday after an arsenal of weapons was found in his car and his lodgings.</p>

. In 2008 candidate "Barrack Hussein Obama" promised United States citizens that he would do anything possible to prevent the "clinically insane" Iranian Islamic State from obtaining a Nuclear Weapon. ================================ Would Obama finally "cross the red line" (Impeachment) with the America public ... if Americans KNEW that Iran had successfully designed and tested (in North Korea) a nuclear device suitable for a missile launch ? AND a treasonous President Obama (and Iranian Islamic sympathizer vis-a-via Obama's Iranian Chief of Staff Vallerie Jarret) ... had BETRAYED and LIED to the American body politic ? ================================ Is this the "clandestine military...