Free Republic

Earlier this month, Senator John McCain indicated that it was time for the United States to consider selling lethal weapons to Vietnam after a 30-year embargo. The recent maritime standoff between Beijing and Hanoi over Chinese oil exploration off the central coast of Vietnam exposed Hanoi’s many strategic weaknesses. Providing Vietnam with coast guard and maritime systems as a first step - and eventually radar, fighter aircraft and spare parts for leftover American military equipment - would bolster Hanoi’s strategic capabilities vis-a-vis China and give substance to the "comprehensive partnership" announced last year between Hanoi and Washington. But more than...

Gerardo Hernandez, a spy for Communist Cuba and the man responsible for the murder of four humanitarian workers (three of whom were American citizens) over international waters, was freed from prison last year by the Obama administration, due in part to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This was revealed at a February 6, 2015, celebration of Hernandez’s release, along with two of his fellow Cuban agents (collectively known as the “Cuban 5.. At the beginning of the event, an IPS official thanked all who who took part in the 17-year campaign and singled out a number of organizations that...

One black-and white photo shows Heinrich Himmler on an idyllic family outing, holding his wife's hand while his blond, pigtailed daughter is picking flowers. Others show the SS Nazi leader feeding a little fawn or taking a bath at Lake Tegernsee near his home in Bavaria. The family-friendly, intimate scenes are part of a previously unseen collection of photos, recipe books and about 700 letters and notes believed to be written by Himmler, one of the Nazis most responsible for the Holocaust. Excerpts from the collection appeared in seven full pages of the German paper Welt am Sonntag on Sunday....

History shows totalitarian regimes fall when brave people rise up. As the future of Hong Kong, time is on the side of Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam.Three prominent leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement were sentenced to prison this week for leading a protest last year. Joshua Wong received 13 and a half months; Agnes Chow, 10 months; and Ivan Lam, seven months. Wong has already been in prison a few times as the result of his activism.They are young. Lam is 26. Wong is 24. Chow turned 24 this past Dec. 3, the day after she received...

HONG KONG (CNN) — Thousands of pro-democracy protesters jammed the streets of Hong Kong’s central business district Saturday night and early Sunday, clapping and cheering just hours after an ultimatum by government leaders: Let city workers back in their offices soon, or else.

The death of Apple Daily marks the end of Hong Kong's free press, and the west must ask: is it wise to continue empowering the CCP's destruction of values we cherish?The Chinese Communist Party and pro-Beijing Hong Kong authorities forced Apple Daily, the last pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, to cease operation this week. The death of Apple Daily marks the end of a free press in Hong Kong, once one of the freest places on the planet.Founded By a Refugee of CommunismThe newspaper was founded 26 years ago by outspoken Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai. Born in mainland China,...

The U.S. is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel, in connection with the downing of planes 30 years ago, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The potential indictment — which would need to be approved by a grand jury — is expected to focus on Cuba's deadly 1996 shootdown of planes operated by humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. The plan comes as the U.S. heaps pressure on the Cuban government. The Trump administration has threatened heavy tariffs on any country...

An Antifa whistleblower going by the name Eric said Thursday on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” that he left the now-designated terrorist organization after a decade due to “pressure” and “ostracization” from other members. On Sept. 17, President Donald Trump announced the designation of militant far-left network Antifa as a terrorist organization and called for investigations into its financial backers. Fox’s Jesse Watters asked Eric, who wore a face mask to protect his identity, whether the organization’s ideology was “full blown communism.” “I mean, a lot of it is. So a lot of it is — these are accelerationism. It’s...

The alleged wannabe assassin at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was radicalized by rhetoric and believed that murdering members of the Trump administration was justified morally and spiritually. While no evidence thus far directly links him to the Southern Poverty Law Center, one must wonder how many acts of violence like this one could have been inspired by the SPLC’s misguided manifesto that the ends justify the means.The Southern Poverty Law Center has long cloaked itself in the mantle of a noble crusader against hate and extremism. The 11-count federal indictment handed down by a grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama,...

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a grand jury indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center for making fraudulent payments of millions of dollars to members of the Ku Klux Klan and other neo-Nazi organizations. One leader of the 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Va., received roughly $270,000 over an eight-year period. Others had affiliations with the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Aryan Nations, the Nationalist Socialist Party of American Nazis and the Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club. Several of the informants were also being paid while simultaneously being featured in SPLC publications — including on its...

Was this illegal part of a Venezuelan or Cuban military intelligence operation? Why, again, was he let in? Joe Biden's open borders may be about more than just replacing the electorate. The New York Post found that one of the most malevolent of the border surgers, a Venezuelan illegal named Leonel Moreno, who famously urged other illegals to squat in Americans' homes and waved hundred-dollar bills around to boast of his public benefits on TikTok, is being investigated by the feds for his military intelligence work for the Marxist dictatorship back home. According to the Post: Joe Biden's open borders...

As Obama’s national security advisor, Rice was a key architect of the West’s of the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, which was the foundation for everything that has happened in Ukraine since then. All the needless death and destruction was built upon the Maidan madness that Rice and her friends deliberately designed.If you’re wondering why she’s so angry and defensive—simultaneously claiming to have in-depth personal knowledge of the dynamics driving the negotiation while confessing she hasn’t talked to a single person involved in any of it—it’s because everything happening in Ukraine today was deliberately set in motion by her utter...

Castro's (unregistered) agents-of-influence are frantically busy this week thanks to their (unregistered) accomplices in the Fake News Media. All claim an earth-shaking "transition" is underway in Cuba! Needless to add, according to these (unregistered) foreign agents, President Trump should promptly avail himself of this golden opportunity to embrace those harmless, innocent, free- health-care providers that U.S. policy has unjustly and vicariously “bullied” for ‘lo so many years. Could anything be more transparently facetious and idiotic? To quote the late Joan Rivers: “Can we talk?” In fact, what’s happening as Cuban “President” (dictator) Raul Castro “steps down” in favor of Cuban...

Iran Threatens to Flood Gaza With 'Millions' of Iranian Fighters Head of Iranian government's Basij paramilitary force claims 'millions' of volunteers have applied to fight in Gaza and Syria. By Mark Langfan First Publish: 11/19/2014, 2:14 PM Reuters The head of Iran's Basij paramilitary force has claimed it is raising an army of "millions" to flood Gaza and Syria to support Tehran's allies. Fars, Iran’s semi-official newspaper, reported that that Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Commander the Basij paramilitary force, as saying: "Millions of Basijis (volunteer forces) are ready in Iran to be dispatched to Syria and Gaza and they...

General or partial assessments of the number of victims in the war in Ukraine reveal the high human cost of an armed conflict unprecedented in Europe in the last eight decades. With estimates of nearly two million military casualties, it is reminiscent of the worst conflicts experienced in the 20th century on the Old Continent. The most conservative figures — around half a million deaths on the Ukrainian side — are five times higher than those of the Balkan War (1992-1995), which totaled 100,000, of whom 13,500 were civilians. The Ukrainian Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances has just...

Thousands of illegal immigrant children who have been arrested for crossing the U.S. border are merely pawns "in a political game" by President Barack Obama, Rep. Marsha Blackburn charged to Newsmax on Saturday. "I find it just horrific that these children would be used for a political point," the Tennessee Republican said after touring a detention center at Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma. .... Blackburn spent about two hours at the Fort Sill center with Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who appeared on Newsmax TV on July 3 to tell "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner how he was denied access when...

Michelle Obama's tour of China begins today, during which she will share the limelight with the country's First Lady, Peng Liyuan. Cathy Newman isn't sure who will say less...She’s one of the world’s most glamorous First Ladies, a star in her own right, and a supportive, caring wife to a super-powerful president. Move over Michelle Obama: China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan is now so famous in her own right, the American president’s wife will find herself having to share the spotlight when the two get together today. During Obama’s visit to China, she’ll no doubt find president Xi Jinping’s wife...

On May 30, 2014, The New York Times published a story by Ian Johnson about what seems to be a concerted government effort to clamp down on Christian churches in Wenzhou, the city with the highest percentage of Christians in China. It has long been known that there are regional differences in official attitudes toward religion, not always reflecting the views of the central government. It is conceivable that the events in Wenzhou could be a relatively local matter. But at any rate one aspect of the story makes one wonder: The provincial head of the Communist party who initiated...

This week's demolition of a massive Protestant church in the eastern city of Wenzhou highlights the growing uneasiness of the ruling Chinese Communist Party over burgeoning numbers of Christians in the nominally atheist country, analysts said. Authorities completed on Monday the demolition of the 85,000-square foot (nearly 7,900-square meter) Sanjiang church, which once dominated the city with its soaring spires, gleaming white walls, and stained glass windows, saying it had far exceeded the size allowed in the building permit. Christians in Wenzhou, whose large numbers have earned it the nickname "the Jerusalem of the East," launched a frantic campaign to...

Christians have flocked to defend a church in eastern China after Communist Party officials claimed it was an "illegal construction" and announced plans to demolish it Thousands of Chinese Christians have mounted an extraordinary, round-the-clock defence of a church in a city known as the 'Jerusalem of the East' after Communist Party officials threatened to bulldoze their place of worship. In an episode that underlines the fierce and long-standing friction between China's officially atheist Communist Party and its rapidly growing Christian congregation, Bible-carrying believers this week flocked to the Sanjiang church in Wenzhou hoping to protect it from the bulldozers....