Free Republic

Obama to Sacrifice Israel in Exchange for Less Jihad Iranian dancers perform their blessed nuclear dance on the first National Nuclear Technology Day, in 2006. (The Lede)The Obama administration is going to offer the Iranian regime technical aid for its nuclear program in exchange for less jihad in the region. The move will put Israel in great danger.The Jerusalem Post reported: At a security conference in Munich, the two leaders met to discuss ongoing negotiations over the nuclear program— and that program only, according to American officials. But the warning from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underscored core motivations...

Relax America, we now have an official national security strategy. President Obama delivered a long-overdue national security strategy document to Congress Friday, emphasizing diplomacy over military power and warning against American over-reach in world affairs. The 35-page policy document released yesterday tweaks our previous strategy of Leading From Behind® (LFB). You may recall that the primary tactic of that successful strategy was “don’t do stupid stuff.” As that proved inordinately more difficult to implement than we had HOPE-d, we’ve augmented it – with our new strategy of “don’t do anything.” It’s an extension of our popular “wait and see” attitude...

Susan Rice pushed back on critics of President Obama's foreign policy Friday as she unveiled the White House’s new national security strategy. Rice, the White House's national security adviser, said in a speech at the Brookings Institution that the nation is “stronger than we have been in a very long time” despite the bitter debates raging in Washington. “Too often, what's missing here in Washington is a sense of perspective. Yes, there is a lot going on. Still, while the dangers we face may be more numerous and varied, they are not of the existential nature we confronted during World...

Harith bin Ghazi al Nadhari, a senior AQAP sharia official, was killed in a US drone strike on Jan. 31. A US drone strike in southern Yemen on Jan. 31 killed Harith bin Ghazi al Nadhari, a senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) sharia official. Nadhari's death was confirmed in a "martyrdom" statement issued by the group via Twitter and other web sites earlier today. Nadhari praised the attack on Charlie Hebdo's offices just days after the massacre on Jan. 9. He did not claim responsibility for the operation, but another senior AQAP official subsequently did. The...

Now is the time for the U.S. to renew its affiliation with Egypt. Good things have happened since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due in part to the freeze in U.S. presence with regard to Egypt, relations between Al Sisi and Netanyahu are vigorous. Egypt plans on purchasing five billion cubic meters of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar reserves. For the past year, Israeli and Egyptian forces have been working side by side to counter agitation in the Sinai, especially near the border with Gaza. Al Sisi has made distinct overtures that he wants an end to militant Islam...

Last September President Obama cited his drone program in Yemen as a successful model of US anti-terrorism strategy. He said that he would employ the Yemen model in his effort to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But just a week ago, the government in Yemen fell to a Shite militia movement thought to be friendly to Iran. The US embassy in Yemen's capitol was forced to evacuate personnel and shut down operations. If Yemen is any kind of model, it is a model of how badly US interventionism has failed. In 2011 the US turned against...

Sanaa - A Shiite militia on Sunday set a three-day deadline for political parties to resolve the power vacuum in Yemen since the president and prime minister offered to resign last month. The Huthis and their allies urged parties "to reach a solution and fill the vacuum" within three days or "the revolutionary leadership" would "take care of the situation of the state". ... The militia, which overran Sanaa in September, seized the presidential palace and key government buildings on January 20, plunging the country deeper into crisis and prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his premier to tender their...

The sight of vast graves opening and the undead clawing out should unnerve us all. But we haven’t even noticed. As more blood flows than any horror film offers, it’s brought the hope of eternal life to bygone empires we all thought dead and buried — and good riddance. Blinded by the flash of headline events, we fail to see the strategic arcs of our era: the agonized collapse of Europe’s empires — climaxing in the Soviet Union’s demise — and now, amid the chaos and fanaticism, the belief on the part of once-mighty powers that they can rebuild fallen...

Yemeni officials said that Shiite rebels have captured a key military base south of the capital, where U.S. advisers had previously trained counterterrorism forces. They say that the Republican Guard camp captured on Thursday was used by American experts until 2012 to train local forces battling al Qaeda’s powerful Yemeni affiliate. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, have seized a number of key military facilities in recent days, including the headquarters of the paramilitary special forces. They took control of the capital in...

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...

The Obama administration says it is "in a war against al Qaeda." But at the same time, it is trying to release 54 more Gitmo detainees, 47 of them from Yemen, which is one of the "dark corners" where al Qaeda operates. "We say we're in a war against al Qaeda," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "We have just never said we have been in a war against terrorism, which is a tactic...We are, however, at war against al Qaeda, its manifestations in Yemen, its manifestations in South Asia, its manifestations...

The US Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen released an emergency message today warning ALL US CITIZENS to “depart immediately.” The embassy went on to say US citizens are responsible for making their own travel arrangements.

The New York Times launched some weapons grade stupidity on Sunday with an article by Rod Nordland and Eric Schmitt citing “experts” claiming that the Iranian-backed Houthi militias in Yemen that have swept though critical parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa, are not just moderates, but possible U.S. counter-terrorism partners.Because of the ongoing Houthi offensive, Yemen’s Information Minister admitted last week that the government had lost effective control of the country. JUST IN: Yemeni Info Minister @NadiaSakkaf tells me government control in Yemen is "almost non-existent". Intv airs 8pm CET // 2pm ET— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) January...

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...

Writing for the online Politico newsmagazine, Ross argues that American allies in the region are growing more apprehensive over what they see as growing Iranian influence in the region. Former US peace envoy Dennis Ross (L), seen here with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000 Former US peace envoy Dennis Ross (L), seen here with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000. (photo credit:REUTERS) Dennis Ross, the veteran Mideast hand and former peace envoy, criticized his former boss, US President Barack Obama, for “not being tough enough” with Iran in light of the stalled nuclear talks and the recent...

At a time when America's ability to track and respond to dangerous international threats is already spread thin, Yemen as it exists today is on the verge of collapse amid reports that violence from Shiite Muslim rebels has forced the country's top leaders to resign... Prime Minister Khaled Bahah also announced his resignation, saying Yemen's leaders did not want to be dragged into "an unconstructive political maze," according to the BBC. Instability in Yemen, which had been divided into North and South Yemen before 1990, threatens both regional and world security... Attacks by Houthi rebels -- who are thought to...

(Reuters) - No sooner had Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced his resignation than his country's tenuous political fabric began to disintegrate. Provinces across a nation barely held together by a complex web of tribal and religious alliances said they would no longer take military commands from Sanaa after the Iranian-allied Shi'ite Houthi group besieged Hadi's home and palace this week. The emerging fragmentation of the Arabian Peninsula country has sparked fears of the "Somalization" of a state which is home to a revitalized al Qaeda insurgency as well as a neighbor to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. For Washington,...

Obama: Is he irrelevant, or an advocate for Iran-backed terror? Even as President Obama gave his State of the Union address to the joint chambers of Congress Tuesday night, another domino was falling in Iran’s line-up of nation-state influence. Yemen’s leadership was on the brink of capitulation just as Obama was gloating over a failed foreign policy as being effective. Others have already pointed out how facts of Yemen and Somalia’s chaos contradict the president’s previous glorying in those states as testaments of his policy’s success. His idea as to what qualifies as success appear to deviate from that of...

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...

How long will it take Obama to understand that Islamic State can only be comprehensively defeated by military action undertaken on the ground by a properly equipped, authorised United Nations international force? There are some 60 States in the American-led coalition pledged to degrading and destroying Islamic State—but only 21—regarded as “key members” were at the Conference in London on 22 January—which UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond described in these terms: “Today, 21 key members of the global coalition met in London to review and discuss our efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL not just through military force, but by...