Free Republic

President Obama should think before bowing to Saudi Arabia's new king in his Tuesday visit. King Salman has a history of funding al-Qaida, and his son has been accused of knowing in advance about the 9/11 attacks. When it comes to jihadism, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud is more of a hardliner than his older brother, King Abdullah, who died last week of a lung infection. As such, any commitment he makes to helping the U.S. destroy al-Qaida and Islamic State terrorists should be viewed with great suspicion. The 79-year-old Salman once ran a Saudi charity tied to al-Qaida and...

Defense Spending: The venerable A-10 Warthog, designed to stop Soviet tanks, and the perfect weapon to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State, as President Obama promised, faces a budgetary chopping block. We have noted the irony of how Obama was going to war against the Islamic State with weapons systems he had scrapped, ending the production runs of the F-22 Raptor and Tomahawk cruise missiles. They were dismissed by the administration as relics of the Cold War even as Russia was rearming and trying to reassemble the old Soviet Union. We've also mentioned the phasing out of the A-10 Thunderbolt,...

the split began during a power struggle of who would lead Islam after the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632 AD. A conflict developed between those who wanted the growing religion headed by qualified leaders and those who believed authority belonged to the direct heirs of Mohammed. The Prophet’s son-in-law, Ali, ruled as caliph for five years before being assassinated. His sons, Hassan and Hussein, were excluded from the succession and both were later killed. Their adherents evolved into the Shia, whose name derives from the term shi’atu Ali, Arabic for “partisans of Ali,”... Shia devotees would see the...

Remember how Richard Nixon told us to watch what he does, not what he says? Good advice. Well, Barack Obama — our POTUS who makes Nixon and Clinton seem like Diogenes — thinks like a postmodern agnostic, professes to be a Christian, but acts like a Shiite. During Obama’s presidency the influence of Ayatollah Khamenei’s Iranian Shiite regime has spread across the world like the proverbial wildfire, reaching from North Africa into Iraq, Lebanon (via Hezbollah), Syria (via Assad whose red line on chemical weapons famously faded into invisibility), Gaza (via improved relations with Hamas) and now into Yemen (via...

Newspapers across the country are afraid to run this comic strip penned by outspoken conservative cartoonist Jim Davis. But we here at the Spring Hill Courier aren’t afraid of controversy. Je suis Charlie!

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group have posted an online warning that the "countdown has begun" for the group to kill a pair of Japanese hostages. The posting which appeared Friday shows a clock counting down to zero along with gruesome images of other hostages who have been beheaded by the Islamic State group. The militant group gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a 72-hour deadline — which expired Friday — to pay a $200 million ransom for the two hostages.

On Tuesday, Barack Obama adamantly defended his policy of emptying the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, demanding that Congress get on board with it as well. As Jim Hoft noted at the time, the military leadership present at the State of the Union address didn’t appear too enthusiastic about it:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Perhaps the New York Times has an explanation for that stone-faced reaction. At the same time that Obama bragged about “turning the page� on war and the end of combat operations in Afghanistan, one of the men transferred from Gitmo worked to establish a...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reacted to the news that House Speaker John Boehner had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress, calling it a “departure from protocol.” “The typical protocol would suggest that the leader of a country would contact the leader of another country when he is traveling there and that’s certainly is how President Obama’s trips are planned when we travel overseas,” he said. “This particular event seems to be a departure from that protocol.” Netanyahu’s visit was announced earlier this morning after Obama’s State of the Union address....

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has raged for decades, and despite numerous attempts to broker peace, an end to the violence does not appear likely anytime soon. Opinions on both sides of the debate are fierce and passionate, and nearly everyone has feelings of some kind regarding the geo-political situation.

Long War Journal reports that the Obama administration has released Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri from a U.S. prison – not from Gitmo, but from a civilian jail after a federal terrorism conviction. Al-Marri is an al-Qaeda operative who was planted as a “sleeper” in the United States by Khalid Sheikh Mohamed to await instructions on carrying out a second wave of attacks after the 9/11 atrocities – against water reservoirs, the New York Stock Exchange, U.S. military academies, and other targets. The Justice Department quietly sprung him on Friday so he could return to his native Qatar, a country the...

Oslo Police plan to send Mullah Krekar, the former refugee who turned into a threat to national security, to the small community of Kyrksæterøra in the county of Sør-Trøndelag when he’s released from prison later this week. Krekar’s attorney Brynjar Meling raised immediate objections. “This is clearly something Krekar can’t accept,” Meling told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) after the controversial Muslim cleric’s fate was made public Tuesday afternoon. “Being moved so far from his family (in Oslo) is such an infringement that we will take this to court.” Norwegian authorities are using a new law to restrict Krekar’s movements pending his...

The Islamic State militant group has released an online video saying it will kill 2 detained Japanese nationals unless Japan pays ransom within 72 hours.

An online video released Tuesday purported to show the Islamic State group threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless they receive a $200 million ransom in the next 72 hours. The video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, mirrored other hostage threats made the group. The man speaking also resembled and sounded like a British militant involved in other beheadings by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of Iraq and Syria under its self-declared caliphate.

(IraqiNews.com) On Thursday, a local source in Nineveh province said, that the ‘Wild Boar’ aircraft which belongs to the U.S. Air Force has carried out four air strikes that killed and wounded dozens of ISIS elements, adding that the aircraft sparked panic in the ranks of ISIS. The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “The U.S. aircraft A-10 Warthog (Wild Boar) carried out, at dawn today, four air strikes on gatherings of ISIS elements in the village of Sultan Abdullah in Makhmour district, southeast Mosul,” adding that, “The raids resulted in the death and injury of dozens of ISIS...

Europe must do more to better integrate its Muslim communities, and not "simply respond with a hammer," US President Barack Obama said Friday in the wake of last week's terror attacks in France.

Covertly taken photos of CIA interrogators that were shown by defense attorneys to al Qaeda inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison represent a more serious security breach than the 2003 outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, the agency's former general counsel said Wednesday. John Rizzo, who was the agency's top attorney until December, said in an interview that he initially requested the Justice Department and CIA investigation into the compromise of CIA interrogators' identities after photographs of the officers were found in the cell of one al Qaeda terrorist in Cuba. "Well I think this is far more serious than...

WASHINGTON, June 22 - Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

WASHINGTON D.C. — In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons critical of Islam — most of which depicted the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. By February 2006, protests were erupting around the world over those dozen cartoons. Between February and May of that year, nearly 200 people died because of the outrage stoked over those cartoons. The uprising brought to the forefront real questions about speech and the nature of free expression. Questions like whether free societies should draw boundaries around free speech and if yes, where? Why should Muslims be the only sect immune from offense? Can...

The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies. Christopher Lee Cornell, of Cincinnati...

Lawmakers are now going public with their concerns that we could see a similar terror attack to what we saw in Paris last week. Some have even said publicly there could be sleeper cells here in the United States. And experts believe Houston remains a prime target for the bad guys. Patrick Poole is a terrorism and national security analyst for PJ Media, and told KTRH our oil and energy industry is what appeals to the terrorists. “Houston is a big sea trade center. You have the oil industry here. And you have a Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound near Houston,” Poole...

llow Americans and People of France, First, allow me to express my deepest sympathies at the tragedy that struck the people of France on Wednesday, January 7th, and then on Friday, January 9th. Seventeen families are now without sons, daughters, parents, brothers and sisters, and we in the U.S. and its Congress join the people of France in mourning and unity. Freedom of speech was also attacked on January 7th by cowards who lack the maturity and tolerance to allow anything they find sacrilegious to be said. These attackers in Paris were Islamic extremists, which leaves them on a unfortunately...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday met with leaders of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), and spoke about the renewed global awareness of the need to fight Islamist terrorism following last weeks attacks in Paris. "I think the war against terror will not succeed if it’s founded on hypocrisy, and I’ve yet to hear any world leader condemn the comments by (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, not one," said Netanyahu...

MANILA - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that she is optimistic a peace pact between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will happen before President Arroyo steps down in 2010. Clinton said she believes Mrs. Arroyo is ready to make "difficult decisions" regarding the peace talks with the MILF before the end of her term.

Over the objections of reputed gang figure Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow's lawyers, a federal judge has ordered that the government's evidence in a sweeping criminal case that includes political corruption charges against state Sen. Leland Yee must be kept secret for now. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer imposed the restrictions Monday on every lawyer and defendant in the case, finding the material should be kept under wraps while both sides prepare for trial. Breyer rejected the free speech arguments of Chow's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, who insisted he should be able to reveal evidence to combat the government's public charges.

**SNIP** The investigation extended to Yee after an undercover FBI agent who had infiltrated Chow's group was introduced to the senator and allegedly persuaded him to trade political favors for campaign contributions. Lim became enmeshed in the case due to his political backing of Yee. According to a 137-page FBI affidavit, Yee introduced Lim to the undercover agent as a man who could secure guns. The agent, the FBI said, had asked Yee to facilitate an arms deal in exchange for more campaign money. The accusations prompted the Philippines government to open a probe into whether Lim had links to...

So, while watching the evening news, I see the French citizens out marching in the streets holding hands, singing and carrying banners that say "Not Afraid." That's all well and good, but here's a thought...kick the Muslims out of your country and your problems will be solved. The French are finally seeing what multiculturalism and political correctness are really all about. They have allowed invaders to legally immigrate to their country, set-up their own separate system of government, and even go so far as to allow "infidel free zones" where only Muslims are allowed to be. How stupid is that?...

As a kid we used to say “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”We were wrong. Words are dangerous. Words can be deadly. Words (or lack of them) can inspire terrorism. As radical Islamic Jihad threatens our countries, our children and our free speech, there is a new Neville Chamberlain. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.The problem is in the words Obama says and doesn’t say. The words he uses to praise Islam and the words he refuses to say to denounce radical Islam are dangerous to America.Ask any general. The key to fighting...

Retired attorney Kurt Richard Haskell conjectured on the Paris attacks on Sunday during an interview from Costa Rica with 1776 Channel, which can neither confirm nor readily dismiss his theories. “The Muslims being used in these plots are being trained overseas by undercover CIA pretending to be Al Qaeda/ ISIS. I think all of them were trained that way. They think they are in terrorist training camps when they are instead being trained to be patsies.” -Kurt Haskell during interview with 1776 Channel Haskell ran for U.S. Congress in 2012 as a Democrat in Michigan’s 7th District where he received...

Opinion: White House Obama's Paris snub wasn't an oversight By Byron York | January 12, 2015 | 4:33 pm The uproar over whether President Obama or another top administration official should have attended the massive unity rally in Paris has obscured an important point about the White House's reaction to the latest terror attacks in Europe. The administration no-shows were not a failure of optics, or a diplomatic misstep, but were instead the logical result of the president's years-long effort to downgrade the threat of terrorism and move on to other things. "The analogy we use around [the White House]...

Paris (AFP) - This week's three million copies of Charlie Hebdo, the first post-attack issue of the French satirical weekly, will defiantly feature caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, its lawyer said Monday. The special issue, to come out on Wednesday, will also be offered "in 16 languages" for readers around the world, one of its columnists, Patrick Pelloux, said. Charlie Hebdo's lawyer, Richard Malka, told French radio the upcoming publication will "obviously" lampoon Mohammed -- among other figures -- to show staff will "cede nothing" to extremists seeking to silence them. The two gunmen who slaughtered 12 people in their...

More than 40 European leaders and almost every French official turned out for the massive unity rally in Paris Sunday — but there was no sign of the U.S. Neither President Obama or Vice President Biden made the trip to Paris, although dozens of other world leaders and officials put ceremony aside and jostled for space amid the crowds in a stirring show of support against terrorism. The U.S. did send Attorney General Eric Holder to attend a pre-march terrorism summit convened by French President Francois Hollande. Holder, 63, joined with Hollande in condemning the recent Paris attacks in the...

DAKAR, Senegal — A girl perhaps no more than 10 years old detonated powerful explosives concealed under her veil at a crowded northern Nigeria market on Saturday, killing as many as 20 people and wounding many more. The blast inflicted devastating damage on shoppers at the Monday Market in Maiduguri, the shopping hub in a city that is at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency. The explosion, witnessed by dozens of people, represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber. The terrorist group has increasingly employed women as suicide...

CNN host said that there may be a "backlash" against Obama for his failure to join world leaders today in Paris, condemning Islam, Muslim terror. Most likely Obama was on the golf course today.

While politicians, pundits twist themselves in knots trying to understand why BHO refuses to blame terror on radical Islam, is the answer there but no one is willing to say it.......Is BHO a radical Muslim? Why is Holder, the AG, sent to Paris to represent the US in an historical international event?

he whole thing began when pro-abortion feminist Jodi Jacobson tweeted this: Jodi Jacobson @jljacobson Follow .@Drshow whether the pope, Muhammed, rabbis, or leaders of the religious right in this country or elsewhere, they are all game for critique. 10:16 AM - 9 Jan 2015 While this is a true statement — no person or group is above criticism — Jacobson takes it too far:

Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama will not join other world leaders at Sunday's Paris march in tribute to the victims of this week's Islamist attacks in France, a US official told AFP. Ever since the bloody shooting that killed 12 people at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday -- followed by separate attacks that left five more people dead -- Obama has made repeated declarations in support of America's "oldest ally."

As journalists worldwide reacted with universal revulsion at the massacre of some of their own by Islamic jihadists in Paris, Al Jazeera English editor and executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr sent out a staff-wide email. “Please accept this note in the spirit it is intended — to make our coverage the best it can be,” the London-based Khadr wrote Thursday, in the first of a series of internal emails leaked to National Review Online. “We are Al Jazeera!” Below was a list of “suggestions” for how anchors and correspondents at the Qatar-based news outlet should cover Wednesday’s slaughter at the Charlie...

The jihadist was heard claiming his attack - and the Charlie Hebdo massacre - were motivated by French military action in Mali and Syria No one answered but the line remained open for several minutes, capturing the terrorist speaking to a hostage. During a five-minute rant he says: "Every time, they try to make you think Muslims are terrorists. I was born in France. If they hadn't been attacked elsewhere I wouldn't be here." He later adds: "'I'll tell them to stop attacking the Islamic State, stop unveiling our women, stop putting our brothers in prison for everything and anything."...

Yemen: Another Failure The Obama Administration Touted As a Success Katie Pavlich | Jan 09, 2015 As law enforcement officials hone in on two Islamic terrorists who carried out an attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this week, we're learning more about where the terrorists came from, what their backgrounds are and where they received their training. There are three suspects total. Two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, are still on the run but officials know where they are and have been in contact with them throughout the morning. The youngest of the terror suspects turned himself in earlier...

A new issue of Inspire, the English-language online magazine produced by al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, is devoted to “jihad on America” and suggests targeting major American figures as well as Western commercial airliners, according to a report Wednesday by SITE Intelligence Group. The issue is the 13th since Inspire was first published online in 2010. Its founder, Samir Zafar Khan, was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents but grew up in New York state. Khan, a blogger on jihadist themes who was well-known to U.S. intelligence, is believed to have traveled to Yemen and joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian...

To understand why I am have a problem with Islamists, you must first consider the nature of my business. This is not a coffee shop. This is a live fire indoor shooting range. People come here to buy, rent, and shoot lethal weapons. In the range, people are shooting guns in close proximity to each other, so my patrons depend on me and my discretion regarding who I allow to shoot beside them. One mistake in judgement on my part could cost innocent people their lives. The primary reasons I am do not want Muslims shooting at my range are...

Today, following a national security criminal investigation, the RCMP Ottawa Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) arrested and charged two individuals from Ottawa with a number of terrorism offences under the Criminal Code of Canada. Ashton Carleton Larmond (D.O.B. 1990-11-21) has been charged with Facilitating terrorist activity (Sec. 83.19), Participation in the activity of a terrorist group (Sec. 83.18), and for Instructing to carry out activity for a terrorist group (Sec. 83.21 (1)). Carlos Larmond (D.O.B. 1990-11-21) has been charged with Participation in the activity of a terrorist group (Sec. 83.18) and for Attempting to leave Canada to participate in...

Daily Caller France’s Multiculturalist Agenda Makes Jews Pack Their Bags 4:50 PM 01/06/2015 Ryan Girdusky Political Consultant As more French Jews face anti-Semitic attacks, many are leaving for Israel. Most of the attacks have come from Muslims, whether immigrants or French-born, many of whom have not assimilated into French society – if not rejecting French society entirely. Compounding the dangerous situation, France’s left-wing government refuses to acknowledge the scope of this crisis, apparently more afraid of losing Muslim votes they depend on than in defending France’s half-million Jews. Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is expecting “Little Paris” neighborhoods to pop...

I had lunch yesterday with three gentlemen who are very well read, who follow the news attentively, and who would shudder to think they are victims of ideological censorship. Yet not one of them — and the trio includes a very famous former reporter (a first-class reporter at that) for one of the country’s top newspapers — had heard a word about Egyptian President Sisi’s remarkable New Year’s Day speech, in which he called upon Muslim leaders and scholars to carry out a “religious revolution.” All three watch TV news ... so they were surprised that they hadn’t heard about...

As the Islamic invasion advances, mosques are proliferating across the United States at breakneck speed. And there appears to be no end in sight. Since 9/11, the number of mosques in America has grown by 75%. The timing of this is no coincidence. Mosques are a symbol of Islamic supremacism. Islam attacks. Then it plants a triumphal mosque on the battlefield. And another. And another. And another. The proliferation of mosques is also a sign of our incomprehensible response (or lack thereof) to the threat of Islam. War has been waged against the United States and what have we done?...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized the religion of Islam in the wake of the terrorist attack on the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that resulted in 12 dead. According to Maher, there is no deny the connection of Islam to the attack. “It’s not a presume – no, no it’s Muslim terrorists,” Maher said. “This happens way too frequently. It’s like it’s like Groundhog Day, except the groundhog kept getting his head cut off. ...more (w/video)...

12 DEAD IN PARIS MASSACRE: Islamic gunmen execute French police officer as he pleads for his life after terror attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo at centre of Mohammed cartoon storm Masked gunmen storm Paris headquarters with AK-47s shouting 'Allahu akbar!' and 'the Prophet has been avenged' Stalked building asking for people's names before killing the editor and cartoonist during weekly editorial meeting Horrific footage shows a police officer begging for his life before being shot in the head at point-blank range Killers fled in stolen car across eastern Paris after a 'mass shoot-out' with police officers and remain on...

Ten people have been reported killed in a what appears to be a terrorist attack in the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satire magazine on boulevard Richard-Lenoir in Paris (Paris XI). A policeman has also been wounded. At least 2 or 3 gunman are believed to have been involved, shooting Kalashnikov rifles. According to La Figaaro, the gunman are on the run after a shootout with policemen. The magazine has published anti-ISIS and Prophet Mohammed cartoons in the past.

In a grotesque twist of the saying "live by the sword, die by the sword", an Islamic State executioner in Syria who carried out beheadings for the jihadist group has been found with his head cut off. The body of the Egyptian man, known to be the deputy emir of the feared al-Hesbah (or Hisbah) force in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, was recovered near a power plant in al-Mayadeen city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The corpse showed signs of torture and carried the message "This is evil, you Sheikh" written on it. The severed...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, thin and pale, arrived in court Monday looking like the college student he was before he was accused of bombing the Boston Marathon... ...Judge O’Toole told prospective jurors that picking a jury could take up to three weeks, with opening statements possibly starting Jan. 26... ...Mr. Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to a 30-count indictment against him, including 17 counts that carry the death penalty. If the jury finds him guilty on even one of those counts, it must then decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or to death... ... on Monday, he proceeded...