Free Republic

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, destruction and debate over historical analogies. Is this the summer of 1914, with great powers stumbling into a horrific global conflict? Or is it the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939? What about Moscow’s 1939-40 Winter War against Finland? Will Vladimir Putin’s gambit end like the Soviet Union’s 1979-89 misadventure in Afghanistan? Matt Pottinger has been thinking of another conflict. Mr. Putin’s attempted conquest, and his burgeoning partnership with China’s Xi Jinping, reminds Mr. Pottinger of the Korean War. “In 1950, Stalin and Mao and Kim Il Sung badly miscalculated how easy the...

Keith Ellison is Minnesota’s incumbent Fifth District congressman, deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and DFL candidate for Minnesota attorney general. He was a long-time apostle of hate on behalf of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, though the local Minnesota media haven’t gotten around to revisiting the issue as Ellison seeks statewide office. Now he is an apostle of hate on behalf of the causes of the increasingly mainstream far left of the Democratic Party. Speaking last week at a debate with GOP candidate Doug Wardlow, Ellison explained that he had operated under the impression that Farrakhan...

Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed How Bill Clinton concealed it from the public and U.S. intelligence. October 7, 2015 Arnold Ahlert    A bombshell report by the Washington Times reveals that fecklessness in the face of terror isn’t a condition exclusive to the Obama administration. "Bill Clinton’s administration gathered enough evidence to send a top-secret communique accusing Iran of facilitating the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist bombing,” the Times states, "but suppressed that information from the American public and some elements of U.S. intelligence for fear it would lead to an outcry for reprisal, according to documents and interviews.” Nineteen American...

U.S. Sent Cash to Iran as Americans Were Freed Obama administration insists there was no quid pro quo, but critics charge payment amounted to ransom By Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee Aug. 2, 2016 7:51 p.m. ET 52 COMMENTS WASHINGTON—The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward. Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane,...

Some conservatives have begun speculating the unrest in American cities—even as late as Monday night in Washington, DC, as “protestors” unsuccessfully worked to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson and set up an autonomous zone across the street from the White House—may in part be an attempt to affect the upcoming presidential election, with the chaos and violence intended to make it as difficult as possible for Donald Trump to win a second term. Lending credence to this idea is the fact that at least one board member of Thousand Currents—the group fiscally sponsoring the most organized part of...

As America witnessed inflation and expanding government spending in the 1970's along with political scandal in the form of Watergate a new face came onto the political scene. The new face created a notion of someone who was a different kind of Democrat who looked like he was from the outside of politics... Early on in the 1976 Presidential Campaign the media would seize on the religious aspect of Jimmy Carter's life with description: "Born-Again Christian" Jimmy Carter won a narrow victory in 1976... Some watershed moments would certainly be Iran where Carter would pull the rug out from under...

New depths to Jimmy Carter’s fecklessness have emerged through the declassification of State Department cables relating to the fall of the Shah of Iran. As reported by the BBC, the Ayatollah Khomeini, in January 1979, secretly sought Carter’s assistance in overcoming opposition from Iran’s military, still loyal to the shah. Khomeini promised that if he could return to Iran from exile in France, which the United States could facilitate, he would prevent a civil war, and his regime would not be hostile to Washington. The soon-to-be Supreme Leader of Iran certainly knew a sucker when he saw one. What Carter...

Had you have taken a direct flight from London to Seoul yesterday afternoon, by the time you would have landed you might have been none the wiser that anything had happened at all. At near midnight South Korean time, President Yoon Suk-yeol imposed martial law across the so-called “land of the morning calm.” Only six hours later it was subsequently, and pointedly, revoked. As South Korean citizens continue with their daily lives, the political establishment has once again entered a period of precarity. Yoon has scored a significant own goal; its implications do not end there. It is no understatement...

It is becoming apparent that some very powerful people behind the scenes have been running the country independently of who is in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial seats of power. When they get upset, they drive whomever they don't like or over whom they have no control out of power. These same people or entities have know all of the things that Obama and Hillary and those directed by them did, but said nothing about it because they were doing the bidding of the powerful. They also know what the media has been doing and obviously approve of it. All...

Totalitarian killers in pursuit of a murderous utopian agenda can always count on the New York Times to transform them into noble representatives of the popular will. Whether Stalin or Hitler, Pol Pot, or Mao, Fidel, Che or Arafat, the Times will humanize them. The archetype was cuddly Uncle Joe Stalin as seen through the eyes of Walter Duranty. Count on Duranty's successors to enlighten us about how personable these tyrants are...

University of Massachusetts President William M. Bulger asked FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. more than 20 years ago to keep his gangster brother James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger ``out of trouble,'' a Winter Hill Gang hit man told a federal jury yesterday during shocking testimony also linking the retired agent to two mob murders. John Martorano, a remorseless killer of 20 men, claimed Whitey Bulger told him the Bulgers had a friend at the FBI after William helped Connolly escape poverty and the siren song of crime in their South Boston neighborhood. ``He said he was told that Connolly owed...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran, which the United States accuses of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, has a stake in the world's biggest open-pit uranium mine in the African state of Namibia, the mine's owner told Reuters. Rossing Uranium Limited, which is majority owned by Anglo-Australian firm Rio Tinto, sells its uranium to nuclear power plants in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Sweden. Graham Davidson, the general manager for operations at Rossing, said in a letter to Reuters that the company's board of directors only permits the sale of uranium for use in generating electricity. "The government of Iran has...

<p>Two years ago, Robert Philip Hanssen, 59, a former very senior FBI official with 27 years of service, was sentenced to life in prison. Hanssen had been spying for the Russians and betrayed American intelligence sources and electronics secrets from as early as 1979.</p>

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece “Alien,” the film will return to theaters for a limited time starting on April 26. Tickets are now available for purchase at Fandango or wherever tickets are sold. Be sure to check out the unique homage poster, TV spot, and preview of an exclusive conversation between Ridley Scott and Fede Alvarez, the director/writer of the upcoming theatrical release “Alien: Romulus,” which will appear on prints of “Alien” in theaters April 26. One of the most influential sci-fi/horror films of all time, “Alien,” which was released in June 1979...

Every year on February 6th, America gets to celebrate anew the birth of its 40th President, Ronald Reagan, who was born on February 6, 1911. We remember and revere him not just because of his service to our nation, but for how he made us feel when he was President. We were patriotic, proud, and powerful under the Reagan presidency – all traits we seem to currently be lacking – and longing for. Americans love to remember Reagan because they love to recall the feeling they had when he was president - bold and unapologetic on the world stage, he...

The trial in Sweden of Hamid Noury, an agent of the Iranian regime, ended on May 5th. The prosecutor told the court that there was plenty of evidence to show that Hamid Noury committed the crimes he had been charged with and she asked for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict is expected later. The court case in Stockholm has been a direct embarrassment to Iran’s executioner president, Ebrahim Raisi, dubbed ‘The Butcher of Tehran’ for his hands-on role in the killing of thousands of political prisoners, including teenagers and even pregnant women, during a notorious massacre...

For about eight months in 1979, the Knack was a pop sensation. Its debut album, Get the Knack, sold 5 million copies, while “My Sharona” blared on car radios throughout the summer. The band’s brash sound and Fab Four affectations seemed to incite Knackmania overnight. Then, suddenly, it was all over. The records stopped selling, and the girls stopped screaming. The Knack’s strict no-interview and no-TV policy backfired; critics dismissed the band’s Beatlesque packaging as shallow hype and attacked singer-guitarist Doug Fieger for the sexist arrogance of his lyrics. By November 1980 the Knack had fallen apart. Although the...

Carter owes the people of Iran an apology. ... Carter's critics always point to his handling of the Iran hostage crisis as the most glaring flaw in his time in office. During the course of that 444-day nightmare, a student mob held 52 U.S. diplomats and civilians hostage, and no amount of negotiation—or attempted military action—could get them released. Thankfully, that sad chapter finally ended on Jan. 20, 1980, the day President Ronald Reagan took the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol. But Carter's true transgression—the original sin that has complicated and shaped U.S. policy in the Middle East...

Many find it shocking the Department of Justice (DOJ) could be capable of ginning up false allegations against a former president in a previous election and would again do the same prior to the 2024 election. This shock, however, is a mark of just how drastically conservatives have failed to recognize the long decline of the DOJ and its ultimate transformation into a political subsidiary of a radicalized Democratic Party. Conservatives would do well to observe seminal moments that have led the country’s top law enforcement entity to its present dire state. In that review, all roads ultimately lead back...

The late 1970s was a brilliant time for music. Whilst new wave and post-punk were in their heyday, a strange sub-genre of rock ‘n’ roll was also starting to come together: power pop. With The Replacements and The Cars cutting their teeth during this period, another band broke through in 1979 and set the standard for everyone else who followed, The Knack. Their debut album, Get the Knack, is a cult classic, boasting their most famous song, ‘My Sharona’. A catchy and dynamic piece, you can hear the origins of parts of Weezer’s sound within it, and the material is...