Free Republic

(CNN)Some time in May 2014, Paul Overby, an American writer in his 70's, disappeared as he was traveling between Khost in Afghanistan and North Waziristan in Pakistan -- a region rife with the Taliban and terror groups such as al Qaeda. He has not been heard from since. On Wednesday, his wife went public for the first time with his disappearance, providing a statement to CNN and other media outlets. . . Overby's wife, who asked not to be identified by name, last heard from her husband on May 16, 2014, as he was preparing to cross the border into...

US Ambassador Robert Ford resigned from his State Department post a month ago, after a long and difficult time as the envoy to Syria. Ford showed great personal courage in his service while Bashar al-Assad instigated attacks on Western embassies and eventually provoked a massive civil war which has turned into a regional threat, thanks to the collapse of his power in large regions of Syria. The collapse of American policy in Syria over the past year was presumed to have prompted Ford’s departure, which he confirms with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview today.This is interesting for more...

The State Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau apologized on Tuesday for promoting a controversial Muslim scholar whose organization has reportedly backed Hamas and endorsed a fatwa authorizing the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The apology came on the heels of a Friday Washington Free Beacon report detailing the CT Bureau’s promotion of Sheik Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the vice president of a radical Muslim scholars group that was founded by a radical Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans.” Bin Bayyah himself is one of several clerics who endorsed a 2004 fatwa, or religious...

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...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is clamping down on a technique that government officials have long used to join in public discussions of well-known but technically still-secret information: citing news reports based on unauthorized disclosures. A new pre-publication review policy for the Office of Director of National Intelligence says the agency’s current and former employees and contractors may not cite news reports based on leaks in their speeches, opinion articles, books, term papers or other unofficial writings. Such officials “must not use sourcing that comes from known leaks, or unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information,” it says. “The use of such...

Victims of land grabs in Myanmar have eagerly tested new-found freedoms by protesting and sending petitions to the president and parliament, to no avail. Now some are turning to old ways: Curses and black magic. Coffins marked with the names of those who seized property have been set ablaze. In rugged central regions of the country, aggrieved villagers have prayed for mountain gods to unleash their wrath. […] Land seizures by the military, the government and private companies linked to junta cronies have long been commonplace in this Southeast Asian country, whether for development or the extraction of natural resources....

Top Obama bundler Jodie Evans with Marxist tyrant Hugo Chavez and Barack Obama The Obama State Department this week disavowed its promotion of a Muslim cleric after it was reported by the Washington Free Beacon that the cleric, Sheik Abdallah Bin Bayyah, endorsed a fatwa in 2004 authorizing Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. At the same time, the Obama administration continues to deal with Obama funder and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans who helped deliver cash and humanitarian aid to “the other side” in Fallujah in 2004 and made a personal statement in 2005 supporting the killing of...

As an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) poll revealed earlier this month demonstrated, anti-Semitism is a worldwide phenomenon. And while a focus on anti-Semitism has cropped up in Europe and in the Middle East, at least one group of Jews in Guatemala were brave enough to speak of their own plight in the Central American press. Over thirty Jews are being expelled from San Juan La Laguna, a small Guatemalan town—all at the express request of the locals. …

The White House will investigate how Obama's press team managed to accidentally leak the name of the CIA's Chief of Station in Kabul. Chief of Staff Denis McDonough has deputized White House counsel Neil Eggleston to look into how the name of the top U.S. spy in Afghanistan ended up on Obama's itinerary for his weekend trip to Afghanistan, which was emailed to an estimated 6,000 members of the press. Eggleston will review what led to the disastrous mistake and make recommendations to prevent such a disclosure from happening again.

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.” “I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according...

White House officials have been holding private meetings this week aimed at soothing lawmakers’ concerns over the U.S. posture in Syria, the future of the American military presence in Afghanistan and defense spending. The meetings come as a frustrated White House seeks to push back at criticism of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. But the White House outreach appeared to be having little effect on some lawmakers’ concerns. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tuesday night’s White House meeting with chief of staff Denis McDonough and national security adviser Susan Rice as...

IGUALA Mexico (Reuters) - The body of a Roman Catholic priest from Uganda who went missing in southwestern Mexico has been found in a mass grave as authorities search for the remains of 43 missing trainee teachers feared massacred, the local diocese said on Friday.The remains of the priest, identified as John Ssenyondo, were dug up about a week ago and identified by the recovered skull as well as dental records. He had been missing since May, the state attorney general's office said."It was found in a mass grave with six other bodies," said a spokesperson for the diocese of...

Tyler Durden 06/06/2014 Two years ago, stories of fake tungsten-filled gold coins and bars began to spread; it appears, between the shortage of physical gold (after Asian central bank buying) and the increase in smuggling (courtesy of India's controls among others) that gold fraud is back on the rise. As SCMP reports, a mainland China businessman, Zhao Jingjun, discovered that HK$270 million of 998kg of gold bars he bought in Ghana had been swapped for non-precious metal bars. What is perhaps even more worrisome, given the probe into commodity-financing deals and the rehypothecation evaporation; these gold bars were shipped to...

When George W. Bush was president, a week didn't go by when the press wasn't dismissing his intelligence and proclaiming his administration's incompetence. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the troops in Afghanistan. Someone on his staff demonstrated truly jaw-dropping incompetence by accidentally releasing to 6,000 journalists the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan as part of Obama's welcoming delegation. That is a death sentence, not just for the agent but for all those around him. Try to imagine the media firestorm this would have created had the transgression occurred during the W...

If you recall, back in May, William Baer was arrested after voicing opposition to a school board meeting about a controversial book by Jodi Picoult titled Nineteen Minutes, a story about a school shooting that contained pornographic content. It was also required reading for ninth graders. Now a New Hampshire 4th Circuit Court of Appeals judge has blasted the school board for "silencing" him and arresting him, which was a violation of Mr. Baer's free speech.

The Pentagon is under fire for making a ransom payment to an Afghan earlier this year as part of a failed bid to win the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, according to U.S. officials. Sgt. Bergdahl was released in May after nearly five years in captivity as part of a controversial exchange for five terrorists held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ransom payment was first disclosed by Rep. Duncan Hunter in a Nov. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Mr. Hunter stated in the letter that Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made...

FBI, Hazmat Crew Outside SF Building FBI agents, San Francisco police and fire crews, and a hazardous materials team converged on an apartment building between Jackson and Polk streets Saturday morning. FBI agents, San Francisco police and fire crews, and a hazardous materials team converged on an apartment building between Jackson and Polk streets in the Russian Hill neighborhood Saturday morning, according to San Francisco police. The San Francisco FBI office told NBC Bay Area that the agency is executing a search warrant as part of a criminal investigation. The FBI said that the investigation poses "no threat to...

On Sunday, President Barack Obama traveled to Afghanistan to do a photo op with the troops amid fallout from the burgeoning Veterans Administration scandal. Announcing his visit, the White House promptly released a list of guests, including the name of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan. That officer is responsible for intelligence and drone warfare. The information was sent to over 6,000 email addresses. Oops. This is not the first time the Obama administration has compromised national security with leaks, either purposeful or inadvertent. SEAL Team Six. After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration steadfastly refused to...

In an April 20 (given the deep connections between the Brotherhood and the Nazi Party, the date may not have been an accident) story in the Jerusalem Post, the question was asked, Will Qatar abandon the Muslim Brotherhood? As they put it, Qatar is the only country who openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood. This followed the pressure exerted on Qatar to do just that from its three Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia even threatened a blockade should Qatar not comply. Clearly the Brotherhood, and their revolutionary aims, had been recognized as a threat...

The White House inadvertently blew the cover of the CIA’s top officer in Kabul during President Obama’s surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday. The name of the spy agency’s station chief in Kabul was included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in Mr. Obama’s visit with U.S. troops. The White House provided the list that was sent out in a “pool report” by a reporter traveling with the president to thousands of journalists, including foreign media, who receive the reports.