Free Republic

Baghdad, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, escalating a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country. In a rare intervention at Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala, a message from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the highest religious authority for Shi'ites in Iraq, said people should unite to fight back against a lightning advance by militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Fighters under the black...

A spokeswoman for the State Department referred to the Taliban operatives released from Guantanamo Bay as part of the deal to retrieve Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl as "gentlemen." In a Monday afternoon appearance with Andrew Mitchell on MSNBC, Marie Harf, the deputy spokesperson at State and an alumna of the Obama campaign, argued with Mitchell over the question of whether or not Congress should have ben notified about the exchange before it occured. Noah Rothman at Hot Air documents the conversation, and near the end of the interview, Harf defends the deal against questions about whether or not the Taliban operatives...

It would be stupid to even think about asking the question: Whose side is Obama on? Anyone who doesn’t know by now must have just returned from a very long vacation. For the record, let the evidence stand to prove that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim and as a Muslim he must wage war against anyone who fights other Muslims. So how does the the so-called Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military wage war against American soldiers who are fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan? By making it difficult for them to fight. For one thing, by changing the Rules...

When in 2011 President Obama announced, against the advice of his commanders, the complete withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq, he grandly declared “the tide of war is receding.” Two days later, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, answered critics such as John McCain, who said the president’s announcement was a victory for Iran. Said Mrs. Clinton: “No one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward.” This week these promises have been rendered hollow by the humanitarian and strategic crisis unfolding in Iraq. There, key northern cities have been falling...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday that Iraq will need more help from the United States as it seeks to push back a violent Islamic insurgency that has captured two key cities and threatens to press toward Bagdad. Obama did not specify what type of assistance the U.S. would be willing to provide but said he had not ruled out any options. "We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter," Obama said during an Oval Office meeting with Australian Prime Minister...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has quietly repatriated a dozen detainees from a small U.S. military prison in Afghanistan, moving a modest step closer toward winding down the United States' controversial post-9/11 detainee system. President Barack Obama, in a letter to Congress released on Thursday, informed U.S. lawmakers that about 38 non-Afghan prisoners remained at the Parwan detention center outside of Kabul, down from around 50 a few months ago.

Well, gee, $1 trillion or so just doesn’t buy what it used to. Take Iraq, for example. Or, should I say: Take Iraq, please, someone — and fix it. Fend off the nasty Islamic fighters of ISIS and keep that miserable sinkhole for American lives and money from coming back to bite us — again. Do you understand now, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Bolton and all you neocon nutjobs, why the invasion of Iraq in 2003 wasn’t a very good idea? President Obama sure does. Because now he’s neck deep in another crisis in this place, a country...

Bowe Bergdahl: a Prisoner of WAR, a deserter taken hostage by the Taliban or an enemy combatant? If it isn't the first of the three rather the second, why then are all cable news outlets describing this as a prisoner swap? Why aren't they calling this an enemy combatant ( Taliban 5)/deserter or a EC/deserter swap? If Bowe Bergdahl deserted, then would he have then as well forsake the military, and thus his uniform? Would Bowe Bergdahl then be an enemy combatant?

A field report made public through Wikileaks’ Afghan War Diaries disclosures provides a raw account of the first hours of the search for then-private Bowe Bergdahl, and includes initial Taliban and U.S. accounts of his behavior the night he was captured. “Geronimo reported a B Co missing soldier after he did not show up for the 0900 morning roll call at Mest OP, grid 42SVB 59236 47877 Yahya Khail District, Paktika. A full search was ordered,” the report begins, noting that “all remaining units had reported 100% accountability.” Forty minutes later, “Pathfinder and tracking dog team arrived at Mest OP...

WASHINGTON — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told medical officials that his captors locked him in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape, and while military doctors say he now is physically able to travel he is not yet emotionally ready for the pressures of reuniting with his family, according to American officials who have been briefed on his condition. Continue reading the main story RELATED COVERAGE Bowe Bergdahl, left, in 2009. His former platoon mates gave sharply contradictory accounts of how he viewed the war.Bergdahl Was In Unit Known For...

On May 27, this appeared on the front page of the Pakistani daily, Dawn: “Gunmen shot dead a doctor from the minority Ahmadi community in Chenab Nagar town in Punjab. Mehdi Ali, a 50-year-old heart surgeon from the United States, was attacked as he visited a cemetery in the town of Chenab Nagar.” The name of the town was changed from Rabwah to Chenab Nagar under the law of disabilities imposed on the Ahmadi community. Nations trapped in the cycle of fate can’t resist a recurrent deathwish even when they know it is a deathwish. Turks can’t live down their...

Bowe Bergdahl was “an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield” who “served the United States with distinction and honor,” asserted Susan Rice, the president’s national security adviser. Rice was speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos the morning after Barack Obama’s Rose Garden celebration of Bergdahl’s release.

"If I've lost Neuman, I've lost Middle America." That's how we imagine President Obama reacting to being scathed by MAD magazine. The Usual Gang of Idiots tweeted a parody poster yesterday for "Barack Obama's Unfortunate New Movie," titled "Trading Private Bergdahl." The tag line: "They got five Taliban leaders. We got one deserting weasel. The mission is a disaster." Obama is depicted as the lead actor, with the Taliban quintet in supporting roles. The picture is rated "NC" for "No Congressional Approval." How in the world did an administration known for political competence, if for no other kind, manage to...

The controversy surrounding the circumstances under which Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban continue to rage on. Lost in that debate is the fact that, for the first time, the White House successfully negotiated with the Taliban. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been one of the more vocal critics of the president. He told Fox News that the terms of the Bergdahl deal amount to a significant change in U.S. policy toward terrorists. “Ambassador Rice basically said to you, ‘Yes, U.S. policy has changed. Now we make deals with terrorists,’" Cruz said, referring to comments made by National Security...

ARLINGTON, Va. – As controversy grows over the release of five hardened Taliban detainees in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the Obama administration is considering springing yet another prisoner from Guantanamo Bay.

Susan Rice, United States National Security Advisor under the Obama administration, said that Bowe Bergdahl 'served the United States with honor and distinction.' Sounds like praise to me. But Chuck Hagel, who said very recently that Americans should not pre-judge Bowe Bergdahl, seems to take one line with - I guess "regular" Americans - and another with Susan Rice. Hmmm... Should Hagel and Rice both say that Bowe Bergdahl should be neither judged nor praised until all the facts are in? Funny how some WH aides can accuse Bergdahl's fellow soldiers of 'swift boating,' but won't tell people to not...

If Obama could exercise his authority as to bring home the son of Bob and Jani Bergdahl, why not use it to bring back some of America's lost honor and release a few good cleared men?So President Obama, like many presidents before him and no doubt many to follow, has employed a routine end-of-hostilities POW swap. For five Guantánamo prisoners, he has managed to bring Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl home. Bravo. But while Republicans do their level best to Benghazi-fy this rather uncontroversial news, the real story on Gitmo is elsewhere. Lost in the kerfuffle over the Bergdahl-Taliban swap is one...

Fox News reporter James Rosen claimed intelligence sources have told him not only that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl willingly collaborated with the Taliban, but that his involvement with the terrorist group may be “as serious as you can imagine.” Rosen spoke with Bill O’Reilly Wednesday night about his ongoing conversations with intelligence and Pentagon officials regarding both old and new investigations into Bergdahl’s likely desertion and possibly treasonous activities. “My reporting has shown that the intelligence community also undertook a separate [from the Army] investigation of Sgt. Bergdahl,” Rosen explained, “both his final period of active duty that culminated in...

Just when it seemed like the outrage on the political right over Benghazi had subsided to the point where only the announcement of House hearings put it back in the headlines, the exchange of captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban fighters at Guantanamo Bay came along. Now President Obama finds himself amid another foreign policy and national security controversy with fresh legs that even features Susan Rice — the White House official who played a prominent early role in the Benghazi controversy — making an encore. While it's still too soon to know whether the trade for...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Among the most tantalizing mysteries surrounding Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s departure from his U.S. military base in 2009 is this: Was he trying to find the Taliban? Or did he simply wander away and get captured? Politicians and members of the military have criticized the Obama administration’s decision to swap five jailed Taliban leaders for Bergdahl, saying the soldier may have deserted. Until now, few details have emerged about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance from his base. But The Washington Post has reached Afghan villagers who spotted Bergdahl shortly after he slipped away from his base. To them, it’s clear something...