Free Republic

Iranian forces in Syria did not ask the Syrian government, or even notify Syrian leaders, before launching 20 missiles at Israel just after midnight on Thursday, Fox News reported. “It appears that the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria wants to distance itself from Iran’s military activity in its very own back yard,” Fox News’s David Lee Miller reported from the Golan Heights on Thursday. Miller said that Fox News had learn from European sources that, “The Iranian major general in charge of the Al-Quds Force in Syria, Qassem Soleimani, launched last night’s attack against Israel without the knowledge or...

The Latest on Malaysia's election (all times local): 11:50 p.m. Malaysia's long-serving former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is confident the alliance of opposition parties he heads has defeated the ruling party in national elections. The Election Commission's official counts are lagging behind unofficial counts that show the opposition ahead of Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling National Front. Mahathir accused the commission of holding back results. The commission did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment. Mahathir, 92, told a news conference that the ruling coalition is "left far behind and the likelihood is that they will not...

The college student, then just 18, left little doubt of her intentions when federal agents in Minnesota approached her last fall following a thwarted attempt to go to Afghanistan. Tnuza Hassan offered a surprisingly forthcoming account of her itinerary and the reasons behind it in the September encounter: The St. Catherine University student said she wanted to join al-Qaida and, when pressed by an FBI agent, conceded that she would be willing to kill if ordered. Agents later found an image of the twin towers in flames on a cellphone she ditched before flying overseas. But four months passed before...

The White House is ramping up an 11th-hour effort to build support for President Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, just days before she is scheduled to face a grilling from the Senate Intelligence Committee over her role in the agency’s controversial detention and interrogation program. For weeks, the CIA has led the charge on promoting now-deputy director Gina Haspel—a forward-leaning PR campaign that some critics have said is inappropriate for the clandestine agency. Only late last week did the White House stand up the kind of broad-based press campaign typical of other high-stakes nominations, issuing a swath of laudatory...

Not enough German high school students receive Islam religion lessons, according to a new study by the media info service Mediendienst Integration.Around 54,000 students at 800 schools across the country currently receive Islam religion lessons, a significant increase on the 42,000 who attended such lessons two years ago, according to official statistics from Germany’s 16 state education ministries. But this is still much less than the 580,000 students who would potentially be interested in such lessons, a number that came out of a 2008 report entitled “Muslim Life in Germany” carried out by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees...

Hamas Engineer 'Negotiated Arms Deals With North Korea, Assassinated by Mossad' in Malaysia Report in The New York Times cites intelligence officials saying Batsh was killed as part of Mossad attempt to stop Hamas operations overseas, reveals ties to North Korea Haaretz | 26.04.2018 09:19 Updated: 12:26 PM Fadi al-Batsh, the Hamas engineer gunned down in Malaysia last week, was reportedly involved in talks with North Korea on arms intended for Gaza, The New York Times reported Thursday. To really understand the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz According to the report, Batsh was killed as part of an alleged operation by...

As we seem to be inching ever closer to World War 3, heated rhetoric and threats between nations are becoming everyday occurrences. Israel has threatened to strike Russian systems in Syria after it was threatened with “catastrophic consequences” if it does. Russia will send advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Bashar al-Assad, officials said Monday, warning Israel not to attack the new air defense systems or suffer “catastrophic consequences.” But Israel, in turn, threatened to strike those very systems anyway. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that Israel may strike the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems in Syria if they are...

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that Israel may strike the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems in Syria if they are used against Israel. "One thing should be clear - if someone fires on our planes, we will destroy them," Lieberman said in an interview with the Israeli website Ynet. "What's important to us is that the weapons defense systems that the Russians transfer to Syria are not used against us. If they are used against us, we will act against them."

One SNP MP predicted another referendum “in the next two years”.what, then, to make of this week’s utterance from her normally gung-ho Westminster colleague Pete Wishart? The latter is neither a surgeon nor, it feels uncontroversial to say, particularly smart or savvy, but he somehow seems to have detected a change in the wind. In an article for iScot, one of those odd little pro-independence newsletters consumed only by diehards and MI5, he struck a cautious tone in relation to a new vote. “There is only one thing that determines my approach to a second independence referendum and that is...

Four years ago, 32-year-old Sam Sally left her hometown in Indiana for a vacation in Turkey. The family went from a mundane life of sports cars and a delivery business to joining Islamic State fighters and seeing their son become the face of ISIS propaganda against America. During the trip, Sally claims her husband, Moussa, duped her and her children -- Matthew, 10; Sarah, 5; and her two youngest who were born in the so-called ISIS caliphate -- into joining Islamic State militants in Syria. Sally said, "All I saw was a bunch of drug-using thugs that came from their...

Mike Pompeo may not be the secretary of state, but he’s already made more history than most people with the title. Earlier this week, the White House made the world’s jaws drop when the president announced that the CIA Director had spent Easter in a secret meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. If Democrats didn’t think the Kansan was capable of diplomacy, they must have second thoughts now. As even the Washington Post admits, it was a groundbreaking moment for the United States. “No CIA director is publicly known to have ever met with North Korea’s leader and...

The links of the terrorist group Hezbollah with criminal gangs in Colombia to obtain financing With the help of drug traffickers from the Oficina de Envigado, terrorists wash assets and receive money from drug trafficking in the Middle East and Africa 29 mar. 2018 GoogleTranslate: Thus, they are indoctrinated in Islam to convert them into so-called "lone wolves", individuals who carry out terrorist actions alone, without the support of a team. This generates alarm among the authorities, taking into account that in Colombia there are more than 40 thousand Muslims, and five mosques and 10 centers ... ( - Así,...

Time to call out the phony militant racists Arab Muslims who cry "racism"... Some pose as "leftists socialists", only to jump on their hate wagon. latest, Fresno State professor stirs outrage, calls Barbara Bush an 'amazing racist' BY BRYANT-JON ANTEOLA bjanteola@fresnobee.com April 17, 2018 09:13 PM Updated April 18, 2018 04:05 PM A Fresno State professor called former first lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” who raised a “war criminal,” and expressed no concern that she could be fired or reprimanded for her outspokenness on social media. Randa Jarrar, who in her Twitter messages describes herself as an Arab-American and...

Sweden may be known for its popular music, IKEA and a generous welfare state. It is also increasingly associated with a rising number of Islamic State recruits, bombings and hand grenade attacks. In a period of two weeks earlier this year, five explosions took place in the country. It’s not unusual these days — Swedes have grown accustomed to headlines of violent crime, witness intimidation and gangland executions. In a country long renowned for its safety, voters cite “law and order” as the most important issue ahead of the general election in September. The topic of crime is sensitive, however,...

Behind the Headlines by Justin RaimondoAntiwar.com April 8, 2002 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA POSTREL?Post-9/11: Who speaks for libertarianism – the Old Right or the Neocon Clones? A note from the author: I apologize, in advance, for the sheer length of this column, but since it addresses the sell-out of basic libertarian principles by people and institutions who purport to speak in its name, I thought it important to address these questions thoroughly, with extensive quotations from those I name. Too bad, in attacking Antiwar.com, these pathetic losers didn't do the same – but then what can one expect from craven...

...John Sopko, the head of SIGAR, indicated in Friday’s audit that Taliban terrorists and other jihadists who are killing and maiming U.S. troops are stealing millions of dollars worth of American taxpayer-funded fuel, some of which may originate from Iran...

"It’s often easier, Congress has found, to just let the president do what he wants. "...It would be perfectly normal for the Trump administration to argue it doesn’t need Congress’s approval to go after Assad. It would court a fight over when and why the executive branch can get America’s military involved in operations overseas without input from Congress — but that fight has been going on for decades. "Indeed, the Obama administration made legal arguments for justifiable unilateral force that could be interpreted to validate what Trump did on Thursday night." {snip} "... By May 2016, according to a...

“I applaud the president for taking military action against the Assad regime for its latest use of chemical weapons, and for signaling his resolve to do so again if these heinous attacks continue,” McCain said in a statement. “To succeed in the long run, we need a comprehensive strategy for Syria and the entire region,” he added later. “The president needs to lay out our goals, not just with regard to ISIS, but also the ongoing conflict in Syria and malign Russian and Iranian influence in the region. Airstrikes disconnected from a broader strategy may be necessary, but they alone...

You cannot make this stuff up. Groups of Palestinians in Gaza lit hundreds of tires on fire last Friday during the second weekend of a six-week-long planned protest in the border region between Israel and the coastal enclave. The protesters lit the tires in order to blur the vision of soldiers in the region and attempt to prevent them from opening fire, according to a Gaza-based source. “We have been informed by the Israeli side that imports of tires have been halted until further notice,” Muhammad Hamdan, a spokesman for the PA Transportation Ministry told The Jerusalem Post. In the...

A van is reported to have driven into pedestrians in the city of Muenster, in western Germany. A police spokeswoman has said there are "several dead, probably including the suspect".