Free Republic

Vladimir Putin has responded angrily after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border, describing the move as a "stab in the back" that would have "serious consequences" for the countries' relations.....

Russian tanks armored against anti-tank missiles and ground forces began to enter northern Syria via a military airfield in Aleppo, Lebanese newspaper "As-Safir" affiliated with Hezbollah reported . The newspaper estimated that the airport will be the third in which Russian Air Force aircraft will be deployed.

A 72-year-old woman was raped in her own backyard in Traiskirchen, Austria. The suspect was arrested, and is a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. From today’s Kleine Zeitung.

I have a strong dislike of the current fashion among American's decrepit and unreadable newspapers for "fact-checker" columns, because the practice attempts to cloak run-of-the-mill hacks in an aura of dispassionate authority that they do not, in fact, possess. Case in point: The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler, who has awarded "four Pinocchios" to Donald Trump, for claiming to recall seeing "thousands" of Jersey City Muslims celebrating on September 11th 2001. Mr Kessler wrote: Trump says that he saw this with his own eyes on television and that it was well covered. But an extensive examination of news clips from that...

Pentagon expanding internal investigation into altered military assessments.

Islamic State terrorists are seeking experts to repair captured military aircraft for future use in suicide attacks against U.S. and allied forces in Iraq.The terrorist group that occupies large areas of Iraq and Syria has two Russian-made Sukhoi aircraft and three Russian helicopters that it plans to use in the attacks, according to a recent report in a London-based Arabic language news outlet.The Oct. 22 report in Al Arabi Al Jadid quoted a high-ranking officer in Baghdad assigned to the command of the international military coalition in Iraq as saying the aircraft were obtained during Islamic State military operations in...

Yesterday on these pages, Barry Shaw ruined a perfectly good treatment of Islamic terrorism with a dollop of vicious anti-Catholicism. Referring to Islam's campaign against the infidel, Shaw wrote: It is their version of the Christian/Catholic Crusades that not only set out to conquer the Holy Land, slaughtering non-believers along the way.  It also drove out and slaughtered the Jews of Spain, Portugal, Britain, and other European countries.  It conquered and converted much of Africa, Central and South America, and spread into Asia. What was done on the name of Christ is now being done in the name of Mohammed...

Iraqi security forces who are backed on the ground by both U.S. and Iranian advisors, are still yielding positions to the Islamic State, a new video from the militant group has revealed.The propaganda video released Monday details a recent skirmish with Iraqi security forces for a lonely outpost near the town of Samarra, to Baghdad’s north. The ISIS fighters come equipped with machine guns loaded onto flat bed trucks, using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades as they draw nearer to the building. The timing of the events filmed couldn’t be verified, and the U.S. military dismissed the video as pure ISIS propaganda.By the middle...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Jerusalem Tuesday, shortly after Kerry landed in Israel. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wi5hu0ZlHU "Good morning, John. I'd like to welcome you again to Jerusalem," Netanyahu began. "You are a friend in our common effort to restore stability, security and peace. There can be no peace when we have an onslaught of terror – not here or not anywhere else in the world, which is experiencing this same assault by militant Islamists and the forces of terror.״ "Israel is fighting these forces every hour," he continued. "We are fighting them directly...

our Israelis have been injured in a car attack at Tapuach junction, along Route 60 in Samaria, just after 8:20 am Tuesday. Video Initial reports indicate that the terrorist arrived at a bus stop at the popular junction and began ramming his car into as many Israelis he could see. IDF and security forces neutralized the terrorist on-site. Magen David Adom (MDA) reports that four people - among them two IDF soldiers and a Border Policeman, all in their twenties - are suffering from light injuries; all are fully conscious. Two are ranking officers: a Lieutenant Colonel and a Colonel....

Author and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali argued President Obama's position on radical Islam is what he believes is strategic, but "it's a strategy that has failed" on Monday's "Hannity" on the Fox News Channel. Ali stated, "I'm always surprised to see people of authority here saying, what we see, these terrorist acts, the subjugation of women, the hatred of Jews and Christians, it has nothing to do with Islam. I mean, I watch that with amazement. I obviously have come to understand that it is a strategic position, that if we say these things, maybe the Islamist extremists...

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.” Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) returned to the campaign trail this weekend, making seven stops in New Hampshire with his colleague and preferred presidential candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). After the third stop, at an American Legion hall in Hudson, N.H., the two hawkish Republicans sat down for a joint interview about the refugee crisis, the need to send troops to fight the Islamic State, whether the secretary of state should resign, and what the world would look like had voters made McCain president seven years ago. WP: You both mentioned that there are senators who are late-comers to this issue,...

The Paris terrorist attackers conducted prior surveillance of at least some of the locations they attacked and showed signs of tactical planning and military-style training, a new U.S. intelligence bulletin says. The bulletin issued by the FBI, Homeland Security department and the National Counterterrorism Center warns U.S. law enforcement to review training to deal with active shooters, according to U.S. officials. The bulletin, which was described to CNN and confirmed by other U.S. officials, advises local law enforcement to go over active shooter scenarios and asks for them to be on the lookout for any suspicious people doing

Birthright Israel, the charity founded in 1999 to bring young Jews on trips to Israel, has witnessed an unprecedented increase in participation among French citizens over the past two years. The Observer has learned that 2500 French Jews will have visited Israel as part of the program this year—more than double the 1100 who went last year and a stunning 2400% increase over the 98 who visited as program participants in 2013. The gains come amid a string of high-profile attacks by radical Islamists in France, many targeting Jewish institutions. In March 2012, three linked shootings in Toulouse and Montauban...

The family of Ahmed Mohamed, the teenager arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school in September, is demanding $15 million and several apologies, their lawyers announced Monday.An attorney for the family wrote in letters published by the Dallas Morning News that they want $10 million in damages from the city of Irving, Texas, and $5 million from the local school district.  "Ahmed's reputation in the global community is permanently scarred," read both letters to Texas officials, which were sent Monday and elaborated on details from the incident.   As many as seven adults interrogated the 14-year-old, who was pressured to sign a...

US Secretary of State John Kerry called the bereaved parents of American terror victim Ezra Schwartz, 18, who was killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank last week, to express his condolences. Kerry made the call from Abu Dhabi, the first leg of his current Mideast tour which will bring him to Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday. He told reporters before contacting Schwartz’s parents that there was no justification for Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis. “Look at Ezra Schwartz, who got shot, and another young life cut short,” Kerry told reporters in Abu Dhabi, according to...

An arrest warrant concerning the 2010 attack on the Gaza-bound aid ship Mavi Marmara was issued last week against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven current and former government officials, news outlets reported Monday.Netanyahu could be arrested if he sets foot on Spanish soil.Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, former defense minister Ehud Barak, former interior minister Eli Yishai, former intelligence minister Dan Meridor, current defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, minister Bennie Begin and former head of the Navy Eliezer Marom were also named in the warrants filed by Judge Jose de la Mata of Spain’s National Court, according to the...

Below are excerpts from a speech given last Thursday before the National Assembly by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Mr. Valls emphasized the determination of the French government to bring to justice the terrorists who committed or conspired in the recent Paris massacre. He also discussed the danger of a chemical or biological attack, and the problem posed by hundreds (or thousands) of mujahideen who have traveled to Syria to wage jihad and are now returning to France.Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:(video at link)The text of Mr. Valls’ speech is available...

Former acting CIA Director Jack Devine says there is a greater risk of violence worldwide than ever before. "I think this is the most dangerous time in terms of sustained violence," he said on "The Cats Roundtable" in an interview airing Sunday on New York’s AM-970. "I have never felt more uncomfortable than I do today," he told host John Catsimatidis. "Some percentage of the world today is always either unbalanced or radicalized. When you have a small group of people who are willing to lose their lives and kill anyone they can, we're all vulnerable."