Free Republic

The Trump administration has designated 21 Latin American and Caribbean criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” with the latest an Ecuadorian group added to the list on Wednesday. The announcement came during the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru where he is focused on the US strategy to combat drug trafficking in Latin America. The label was once reserved for groups like the Islamic State group or al-Qaida that use violence for political ends — not for money-focused crime rings. But Trump’s aim was to increase pressure on the groups and anyone who the...

Conservatives should understand something before the American voter is forced to explain it to us at the ballot box: an economy is experienced before it is measured. Economists can discuss growth rates, employment figures, productivity, investment, markets, and inflation until the average citizen’s eyes glaze over, but the working American conducts a considerably more primitive calculation. What did I earn, what did everything cost, and what remained afterward? If the answer to that final question keeps getting smaller, no political party should expect a statistical lecture to improve his disposition. Republicans understood this perfectly during the Biden administration. We correctly...

Yesterday I shared an excerpt from my memoir Keeping the Tryst, from the end of chapter 37. That excerpt dealt with my life on September 10th, 2001. And the last thing that I did before falling asleep late that night was to thank God for all of the good that He had brought into my life. If the previous several months could have been that good, I had no doubt that the rest of my life could be just as amazing. I was 27 years old, with everything ahead of him. I was in love, I had a good job,...

We remember those slaughtered by Usama bin Laden, over 5,000 after including cancers caused by this. Mozart's Requiem, July 30, 2021.

It took less than one minute from the time a second plane struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, for Fox News anchor Jon Scott to utter the name of Usama bin Laden on air. Scott’s chilling, eerie intuition before the towers collapsed seems remarkable two decades later – while the Al Qaeda founder has been known as the terrorist who masterminded the attacks for years, many Americans didn’t even know who bin Laden was at the time. "I still remember the events of that day so vividly. It seems like it happened, you know, a couple of...

The U.S. national average price of diesel on Thursday surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time , according to price tracker GasBuddy, as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s refineries have squeezed supply. Diesel fuels trucks, trains, ships and heavy equipment that keep global supply chains moving. It is also crucial to running farm equipment. The latest surge in fuel costs is adding to inflationary pressures that have already strained consumers and businesses this year, creating a political headache for President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers as they seek to defend thin congressional majorities in...

A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least six people over a three-year span....

"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). Don’t confuse prisoners of war with the enemy. Sometimes in the heat of battle we might lose perspective on who the real enemy is. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that our struggle isn't against sinful people, but against the evil system and the supernatural forces that influence their attitudes and actions. In his assault on the kingdom of God, Satan has assembled a highly organized army of...

On September 12, just one day after the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will convene its annual conference, CAIRCon, in Washington, D.C. The notable timing has brought renewed attention onto CAIR itself. The organization has faced years of controversy over its history and affiliations, including terrorism-related designations or restrictions in Texas, Florida, and the United Arab Emirates that have raised questions about CAIR’s support for organizations such as Hamas, and its leaders’ praise for antisemitic events such as October 7. Its continued partnership with academic figures under scrutiny for antisemitism, such...

Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has published a video of himself using a hammer to attack a monument in Poland dedicated to soldiers from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War Two partisan formation that fought against the Soviet Union but was also responsible for massacring Poles. Braun declared that the monument, which was also recently vandalised by other unknown perpetrators, should be removed as it “insults the memory of victims of the Ukrainian genocide against Poles” and “glorifies Nazism”. The incident comes amid recent tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv over World War Two history, and in particular...

Israel has blown up a key tunnel network built by the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, causing a 4.1 magnitude tremor from a blast that filled the night sky with flames and billowing plumes of smoke. The explosion on Thursday, which sent shockwaves rippling across the region for miles, obliterated the major underground complex built by the Iran-backed terrorist organisation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday evening it had demolished the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon. It is understood 1,100 tons of explosives were used. Footage released by Israel's defence minister Israel Katz shows the dark night...

The highest court in Massachusetts on Thursday issued a public reprimand against a district court judge who was accused of allowing an immigrant to escape US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. The case dates back to 2018 when Judge Shelley Joseph was accused of colluding with the immigrant’s attorney and a court officer to allow him to escape out a back door of the courthouse after a hearing on charges that included drug possession. The decision by the Supreme Judicial Court follows a recommendation for the reprimand by a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct. It concluded that...

A few months after 9/11, freeper Starrgaizr took it upon himself/herself to collect the links to the many threads that were posted on this site on that day, from the first post about the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center, on through into the night.Here are the Free Republic threads from September 11, 2001.Some of you may recognize many of the names on these posts. They are part of real world history, frozen in cyberspace and time, a memorial to what happened on that day as we saw it on this site.

His push to rebuild the Twin Towers — and the Freedom Tower design he never got credit for. “This country is different today, and it’s going to be different than it ever was for many years to come.” --Donald Trump, Sept. 11, 2001. A lot has been made about the special occasions President Trump has presided over during this term: America 250, the FIFA World Cup, and the ensuing Summer Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028. However, another important, albeit more somber, event Trump will preside over is the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Any ordinary native...

I was in New York in the spring of 2002, as I often was then, representing National Right to Life as a registered NGO at the United Nations. On a day off from fighting the death cult at the UN, a group of us went down to Ground Zero. The ruins, the destruction, the death- it was overwhelming. I’m glad I went, but I did not go back for another 21 years. I had friends visiting in New York in the Fall of 2023, and one of their must-sees was, of course, a visit to Ground Zero. I went for...

A Minnesota State Fairgoer was savagely attacked by a group of “young men” who fractured his jaw in multiple places — turning his night out with friends into a “hellish nightmare,” his fianceé claimed. Sammy Kimbrough, 45, was left in critical condition and needed emergency reconstructive surgery Saturday night after the brutal assault that knocked him unconscious and left him bloodied at the annual event in St. Paul, Minn. “Last night, Sammy was brutally assaulted by a group of young men in a completely senseless act of violence,” Kimbrough’s fianceé Heather Hoffman wrote on Facebook Sunday. “Anyone who knows Sammy...

I have been a member of Free Republic since February 20, 1998, and from day one I began working on my profile page. As of today it is almost where I want it to be. Yet, the one part that stands out is my personal tribute to the memory of September 11, 2001. In this memory are many, many images from that day, and some which followed. After the images is a list of the names (listed in groups alphabetically) of each and every person who died that day in New York City, the Pentagon, and in the field of...

September 11, 2001, was just an ordinary Tuesday. That morning at around 8:30 a.m. on the East Coast, most people were either at work or on their commute. Kids were settling in at school. Whether the TV or radio news was background chatter or the focus, suddenly there were interruptions announcing that at 8:46 a.m. an American Airlines Boeing 767 (with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel) had crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center’s North Tower. The jet hit between the 93rd and 99th floors of the 110-story skyscraper. Hundreds of people were instantly killed, and others were trapped...

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,” a terrorist declares on the Flight 93 cockpit recording. That’s followed by the sounds of the terrorists assaulting a passenger. “Please don’t hurt me,” he pleads. “Oh God.” As the passengers rush the cabin, a Muslim terrorist proclaims, “In the name of Allah.” As New York firefighters struggle up the South Tower with 100 pounds of equipment on their backs trying to save lives until the very last moment, the Flight 93 passengers push toward the cockpit. The Islamic hijackers call out, “Allahu Akbar.” Mohammed Atta had advised his...

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) held a press conference Thursday demanding that transgender immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody receive hormones and other specialized medical care. Green appeared alongside representatives of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus and the Montrose Center at a press conference addressing what they called the “maltreatment of transgender immigrants.” During the event, Green read from a letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concerns about the treatment of transgender detainees. “Dear Secretary Mullin, I write to express my deep concern over reports of hazardous conditions for transgender immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement...