Free Republic

When Republican members of Congress learned in November 2011 that the Obama administration was contemplating a swap -- Taliban terrorists for captured ArmySgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- they wrote to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of their fears. Mrs. Clinton wrote back that they had nothing to worry about. The White House would follow the law requiring a 30-day heads-up. "I want to make clear that any transfer from Guantanamo will be undertaken after consultation with Congress and pursuant to all legal requirements for transfers, including those spelled out in the FY2012 [National] Defense Authorization Act," she said of the law...

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations. Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million. The arrest was carried...

If you want to understand the Islamic forces that are gaining strength in Egypt and scaring people here and abroad, let me tell you about my dinner in the home of Muslim Brotherhood activists. First, meet my hostess: Sondos Asem, a 24-year-old woman who is pretty much the opposite of the stereotypical bearded Brotherhood activist. Sondos is a middle-class graduate of the American University in Cairo, where I studied in the early 1980s (“that’s before I was born,” she said wonderingly, making me feel particularly decrepit). She speaks perfect English, is writing a master’s thesis on social media, and helps...

Venezuela’s Tarek El-Aissami The Americas Report | Oct 03, 2008  By Nicole Ferrand [...] Mr. El - Aissami is a Venezuelan national of Syrian descent who, before becoming Minster of Interior and Justice, occupied the position of Deputy Interior Minister for Public Security. His father, Carlos Aissami, is the head of the Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi Baath political party. Before the invasion of Iraq, he held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, "the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden." Tarek's great-uncle Shibli el-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A postal worker says a mysterious leaking package from Yemen has left him seriously ill, but the U.S. Postal Service denies the package ever existed. The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, in a story printed in Sunday's Miami Herald and The Ledger of Lakeland, reported that Jeffrey A. Lill suffers from extreme fatigue, tremors, and liver and neurological problems. The symptoms are consistent with toxic exposure, problems that he said began after he handled the leaking package on Feb. 4, 2011. The center tracked down co-workers who said that they saw and smelled the package and that...

The search warrant executed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at MedCure Inc headquarters here on November 1 is sealed, and the bureau and the company declined to comment on the nature of the FBI investigation. But people familiar with the matter said the inquiry concerns the manner in which MedCure distributes body parts acquired from its donors. MedCure is among the largest brokers of cadavers and body parts in the United States. From 2011 through 2015, documents obtained under public-record laws show, the company received more than 11,000 donated bodies and distributed more than 51,000 body parts to medical...

Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gangbanger as the Trump administration has alleged. Van Hollen (D-Md.), who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador on Thursday, accused President Trump of trying to change the subject on due process concerns, while he himself attempted to shift the discussion from MS-13. “What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when asked about Abrego Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties. “The subject at hand is that he and his administration are...

A Doña Ana County magistrate judge has abruptly stepped down after an alleged Tren de Aragua gang affiliate who is in the U.S. illegally was reportedly arrested at his home and charged with possession of a firearm or ammunition. Judge Jose “Joel” Cano reportedly submitted a letter of resignation on Mar. 3 of this year. Judge Cano, a former police officer who took the bench in 2011, told a Border Hawk source that he did indeed resign but did not comment further. Border Hawk contacted the judge’s office on Apr. 1 and was told by a clerk that he had...

A long profile on Hillary Clinton in the Washington Post earlier this week highlights (the 2011 Libyan intervention) as a key indicator of her approach to foreign policy. Clinton claims that the Libyan bombing campaign was an example of “smart power at its best.” If she actually believes that, it raises serious questions about her judgment, as well as about her ability to analyze foreign policy dispassionately and with the best interests of the United States at heart. If Clinton is willing to point to Libya as a “signature moment in her four-year tenure” as secretary of state, as the...

A federal judge in Maryland has granted a preliminary injunction and ordered the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in error, by Monday.

Newly declassified documents show informant Stefan Halper was motivated in part by "monetary compensation" and was paid nearly $1.2 million from FBI over three decades. ********************************************************************** Akey FBI informant in the widely-debunked Russia collusion case was paid nearly $1.2 million over three decades, was motivated in part by "monetary compensation," and continued snitching even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, newly declassified documents show. The nearly 700 pages of once-secret documents, obtained by Just the News, were recently turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Committee...

Syrian rebel forces have uncovered a network of huge underground tunnels beneath the Qalamoun Mountains bordering Syria and Lebanon. The subterranean labyrinth, which cost millions of dollars to build, was funded by Iran for the purpose of transferring advanced weaponry to its proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. In the below video uploaded to s social media, photographers ride a motorcycle inside the sophisticated, huge well-built tunnels while describing the batteries for firing surface-to-surface missiles that they see, stored within. A smaller but equally sophisticated tunnel system was found beneath Syria’s presidential palace in Damascus and the home of Assad’s brother, Maher...

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has a new project. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand. The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million...

Republicans introduce bill to eliminate presidential 'czars' By Michael O'Brien - 01/06/11 04:15 PM ET A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years. The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration. The bill defines a czar as...

The Color Revolution is restless. Beginning in the former Soviet republics in the early 2000s, it moved along the coast of North Africa with the so-called Arab Spring in the 2010s, and, into the current decade, has spread further. The ostensible purpose of Color Revolutions—named after the Rose Revolution, Orange Revolution, and Tulip Revolution in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, respectively—is to replace authoritarian regimes with Western liberal democracies. American and European intelligence services are often heavily involved in these revolutions, with ambitions not only to spread modern ideologies but also to undermine geopolitical opponents. The West’s favored methods of supporting...

The modern history is able to provide many eloquent examples of use of practice of double standards in an international policy. First, it concerns ambiguity of approaches of influential western powers and the leading international organizations as to the estimation of election campaigns, and other democratic processes taking place in the states of the former USSR. Therefore, at elections in the countries where the ruling political regime is pro-Western, the international observers recognize that elections meet the European and international standards. On the contrary if a ruling regime or the winner of election has not pro-Western orientation, observers, as a...

Chief Justice John Roberts is facing renewed scrutiny after his past connection to Chief Judge James E. “Jeb” Boasberg has come under the spotlight. Boasberg, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court by former President Barack Obama in 2011, was later tapped by Roberts in 2014 to serve on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which approved surveillance on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The connection has drawn sharp criticism, as Boasberg now finds himself at the center of an impeachment effort led by House Republicans. Boasberg, who currently serves as the Chief Judge of the U.S. District...

A federal judge who temporarily blocked President Trump’s bid to rapidly deport Venezuelan gang members via the 18th century Alien Enemies Act is facing an impeachment push — including by Elon Musk. Shortly after the judge’s temporary order was issued, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) announced plans to file articles of impeachment against the judge, drawing praise from Musk. “Necessary,” Musk wrote on X after Gill revealed his plans to introduce articles of impeachment against the judge. Earlier in the day Saturday, US District Judge James Boasberg imposed a 14-day restraining order on Trump’s ability to use the 1798-era Alien Enemies...

forum.internet-haganah.com/showthread.php?272 "Sign that the goods are meant for the IRGC?" (October 27, 2011) SNIPPET: "The modules in question are radio transmitters used in IED's that killed and wounded American service members in Iraq. They were purchased from a US firm through intermediaries in Singapore. Final destination? Tehran." SNIPPET: "Mahan Air is no ordinary airline. Rather it appears to be the official air transport arm of the IRGC's Qods Force."

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is demonstrating an appalling ignorance on the Iranian nuclear issue and the threat it poses to world security. In fact, several times during the recent GOP debates he blamed the animosity against the U.S. in the Middle East on America's foreign policy. Paul recently argued on "Fox News Sunday" that sanctions should be removed altogether to get Iran to act differently and that the U.S. response to Iran's nuclear pursuit was an "overreaction." He added that Iran does not pose a threat to either the U.S. or the region. The congressman from Texas insists that...