Free Republic

Have you ever noticed what Paul Manafort’s major crime was? After two years of investigation, after the predawn raid in which his wife was held at gunpoint, after months of solitary confinement that have left him a shell of his former self, have you noticed what drew the militant attention of the Obama Justice Department, the FBI, and, ultimately, a special counsel who made him the centerpiece of Russia-gate? According to the indictment Robert Mueller filed against him, Manafort was an unregistered “agent of the Government of Ukraine.” He also functioned as an agent of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president from...

Former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov, a top adviser to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych (thanks, CIA!), was shot dead this morning outside the American School of Madrid shortly after student drop-off. Spanish media reports that 2-3 suspects are being hunted. Portnov faced treason charges in Ukraine and was accused of collaborating with Russia ... Former president Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014. According to the US Treasury Department, Portnov was "credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine's courts and undermining reform effort." He was sanctioned by the US for corruption and bribery in 2021 under the...

When Uruguay announced last year that it would be taking in five families fleeing Syria's devastating civil war, residents of this small town pulled together and lobbied to host one. Then in November, locals welcomed a newly arrived Merhi Alshebli, his wife and their 15 children with food and seeds to plant vegetables. People in Juan Lacaze, a coastal city of fishermen and paper factory workers in southwestern Uruguay, wanted to do their part to help a country where more than 200,000 have been killed in the fighting.

For more than a decade, the United States has nurtured a secret intelligence partnership with Ukraine that is now critical for both countries in countering Russia... Nestled in a dense forest, the Ukrainian military base appears abandoned and destroyed, its command center a burned-out husk, a casualty of a Russian missile barrage early in the war. But that is above ground. Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders. On one screen, a red line followed the route of an explosive...

If the Zuma launch goes well, it will mark SpaceX's 17th launch of 2017. If the landing goes off without a hitch, it will be the company's 20th overall successful landing. This includes landings on drone ships at sea as well as on land. Very little is known about the Zuma mission, as no government or commercial entity has claimed it.  Usually, even the National Reconnaissance Office — the branch of the government responsible for maintaining spy satellites — will say when a payload is theirs while keeping the mission details classified. But for some reason, whatever agency is behind...

JOHANNESBURG — Top leaders of South Africa’s governing party ordered President Jacob Zuma to step down on Tuesday, saying that his continued presence was eroding the “renewed hope” felt since the election of new party leaders in December. Ace Magashule, secretary general of the African National Congress, said that the party had not given Mr. Zuma a deadline to respond, but added that he was certain that the president would deliver a reply the next day. “Let’s leave it to President Jacob Zuma,” Mr. Magashule said at a news conference at party headquarters in Johannesburg. In a meeting with party...

My country, Venezuela, is on the verge of social and economic collapse. This slow-motion disaster, nearly 15 years in the making, was not initiated by falling oil prices or by mounting debts. It was set in motion by the authoritarian government’s hostility toward human rights and the rule of law and the institutions that protect them. -excerpt- I am writing from a military prison, where I have been held since February as a result of speaking out against the government’s actions. I am one of scores of political prisoners in my country .... -excerpt- ... Venezuela’s road to ruin was...

While much of the world has focused on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, opposition forces in Venezuela continue to battle the brutal regime of Nicolas Maduro. While opposition forces battle for their basic human rights, the world, and in particular the government of the United States has remained largely silent. In February of this year, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was arrested by government officials on charges of "inciting unrest" for leading, at the time, peaceful protests against the policies of Nicolas Maduro and his ruling United Socialist Party. Despite the overriding belief that he was being held illegally, few world...

Russia's Communist Party and European leftist parliamentary groups have denounced the ousting of the Ukrainian Communist party from the country's parliament as a breach of free speech. Leader of the Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, called the ban, set to go into effect on Thursday, the latest attempt to "massacre" the party of his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Symonenko. "Attempts to muzzle them and do away with them are evidence of the cowardice and hideousness of those who are doing this," Zyuganov told state-run Rossiya 24 television channel on Wednesday. Ukrainian parliament voted to oust the party after Symonenko on Wednesday...

US President Donald Trump has said he thinks his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to give up Crimea to Russia as part of a peace deal - despite Kyiv's previous rejections of any such proposal. Asked if he thought the Ukrainian president was ready to cede control of its southern peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, Trump replied: "I think so." He made the comments to reporters after returning from the Vatican, where he held a brief meeting with Zelensky before Pope Francis's funeral. Trump said that meeting had "gone well" and that Crimea had been...

<p>A U.S. military charter aircraft flying from Afghanistan has been forced down in Iran by Iranian fighter jets, according to officials familiar with the incident.</p>

CHEYENNE — Already facing serious federal charges for allegedly carrying 18,000 rounds of ammunition through Wyoming, Ricardo Paez-Quinones, 35, dug himself into an even deeper hole on Friday. Paez-Quinones was a no-show for his bond hearing on Friday morning in U.S. District Court, leading Judge Alan Johnson to put out a bench warrant for his arrest. Johnson suspected that the topic of his bond was what led Paez-Quinones to avoid coming to court, leading him to engage “in some form of self-help.” “We can receive an explanation for that at a later time,” Johnson remarked. Paez-Quinones is an illegal immigrant...

We already know that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was completely unjustified and unnecessary for many reasons …***Now we're learning that due to a secret Obama-era program, the Presidential Information Technology Committee (PITC), there's a very good chance that the Biden Administration has had control of the originals of many, or all of the documents at issue this entire time.The PITC was created in March 2015 by Executive Order in response to an October 2014 incident in which Russian hackers breached Executive Office of the President computers. ...A 2015 Memorandum of Understanding between the members of the PITC set out the...

FBI Lisa Page’s Chilling Admission: “If they start digging deep, we are screwed…”.. • Newly declassified Crossfire Hurricane documents reveal FBI attorney Lisa Page’s fear that the media, following a New York Times article, might start "digging deep" into the Crossfire Hurricane investigation—exposing their plot to undermine President-elect Donald Trump. • On November 7, 2016, Lisa Page reacted to a New York Times article about Russian propaganda efforts tied to the 2016 election, specifically mentioning "lots of HRC-related emails." • Her response in a message to colleagues—“if they start digging deep, we are screwed”—suggests the FBI team was hiding something...

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...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is razing the in-house Pentagon think tank that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) accused last month of "egregious waste, fraud and abuse." Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Thursday, "As part of the Department's ongoing commitment to strengthening our national defense, the Secretary of Defense has directed the disestablishment of the Office of Net Assessment (ONA) and the development of a plan to rebuild it in alignment with the Department's strategic priorities." "This decision ensures that our resources are focused on the most pressing national security challenges while maintaining accountability...

Trump pressured NATO, armed Ukraine, and imposed tough policies on Russia, while Europe postures without action—leaving real deterrence to the U.S. Fable One: Donald Trump Is Appeasing Russia?Who wiped out the Wagner group in Syria? Who sold offensive weapons to Ukraine first? Who warned Germany not to become dependent on the Russian Nord Stream II deal? Who withdrew from an unfair missile deal with the Russians? Who cajoled and berated NATO members to meet their military investment promises made following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine? In contrast, who originally conceived a Russian “reset” in 2009? Who publicly virtue-signaled pushing the...

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 strikes targeted facilities in parts of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed group. U.S. B-2 bombers and other aircraft struck five underground Houthi weapons storage locations in parts of Yemen that the Iranian-backed rebel group controls, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday. The facilities, which officials said were hardened, housed "various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region," Austin said. Houthi rebels have attacked civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The group was suspected in an attack in August. The strikes were the first...

With his hands and feet handcuffed, tied leg to leg with other detainees, José Daniel Simancas Rodríguez was put on a plane. He says he was told he would go to Miami.Hours later, when they landed, Simancas and his fellow passengers were transferred to a bus with the windows covered by bags. By then he already suspected where he had arrived: Guantanamo. What he did not imagine was that this was just the beginning of a nightmare that would last 15 days.Simancas was one of 177 Venezuelans deported by the United States who had been transferred to the US naval...