Free Republic

The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013. One member of the delegation, a Brotherhood-aligned judge in Egypt, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom in which he held up the Islamic group’s notorious four-finger Rabia symbol, according to his Facebook page.

'Muslim Brotherhood call for ‘long, uncompromising jihad’ The Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt just days after a delegation of the Islamist group’s key leaders and allies met with the State Department, according to an official statement released this week. Just days after a delegation that included two top Brotherhood leaders was hosted at the State Department, the organization released an official statement calling on its supporters to “prepare” for jihad, according to an independent translation of the statement first posted on Tuesday. The statement also was issued just two days before a major terror attack...

Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994. The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress. In...

LONDON — The United States pressed Argentina to end its investigation of Iranian complicity in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in which nearly 100 people were killed. Western diplomatic sources said the administration of President Barack Obama urged Argentina on several occasions to either stop or limit the investigation into the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires. The sources said the U.S. appeals marked one of the demands by Iran for a reconciliation with Washington. “Argentina had hard evidence against at least one Iranian leader, which prevented him from traveling abroad,” a source said.

The White House plans a conference next month on efforts to counter violent extremism — in light of this past week’s shootings in France, and earlier attacks in Canada and Australia. The meeting will highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting and inspiring others in the United States and elsewhere to carry out violent acts.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says to meet Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and François Hollande in Astana on January 15 [Headline only]

Inside the power struggle at Clinton, Inc. In December, the board of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation approved a salary of more than $395,000, plus bonus, for its Yale-educated CEO, Eric Braverman, while voting to extend his board term through 2017, according to sources familiar with the arrangement. Braverman, who had worked with Chelsea Clinton at the prestigious McKinsey & Company consultancy, had been brought in with the former first daughter’s support to help impose McKinsey-like management rigor to a foundation that had grown into a $2 billion charitable powerhouse. But in January, only weeks after the board's...

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson has requested the Department of Justice turn over communications from 16 FBI and DOJ officials, including former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sent Wednesday, the Wisconsin Republican requested “all documents and communications” — which includes emails, memos, notes, texts, iPhone instant messages, and voicemails — from 16 employees between January 1, 2015, to the present.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested documents from a 2016 Green Party presidential candidate as part of the committee’s Russia probe, according to a new report. Last week, candidate Jill Stein contacted Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked as her communications director and acting campaign manager from January to August 2015, because the committee had requested documents from the campaign, BuzzFeed reported Monday. Trainor said that he was contacted because his personal cellphone had been given as the “primary point of contact” to those trying to reach Stein, such as producers from the Russian state-funded media company, RT News. Stein had...

Mohamed Elibiary, the former Department of Homeland Security Advisor who was relieved of duty last year after his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood became publicly known is now praising Allah and the Obama Administration in response to South Carolina’s decision to remove the Confederate Flag. Taking to twitter, Elibiary applauded Obama’s efforts to shame the South into giving up history for political correctness while praising federalism. No joke…

Immunity agreements offered to two of Hillary Clinton's top aides prevented the FBI from looking into the circumstances surrounding the use of BleachBit, a digital deletion tool, to destroy the former secretary of state's emails. In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch Wednesday, four Republican committee chairmen demanded to know why Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, two witnesses who also served as Clinton's personal attorneys, were granted such expansive protections despite the FBI's awareness that they had participated in potentially illegal activities. For example, the FBI agreed to limit its search to emails written after June 1, 2014, but...

The alleged gunman who shot Rep. Steve Scalise and others Wednesday made a negative post about the representative on his personal Facebook page in January 2015. James T. Hodgkinson, the man believed to be the gunman at a baseball field in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday morning, posted to his personal Facebook page on Jan. 8, 2015 that “here’s a Republican that should Lose His Job, but they Gave Him a Raise.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced in a closed-door meeting Tuesday she would name the first Muslim lawmaker to the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. A senior Democratic aide said Rep. André Carson of Indiana would be named in the “coming days” to the key national security-focused panel. The California Democrat told lawmakers of the appointment during the members’ weekly caucus meeting. Carson would be the first Muslim to serve on the committee and was the second Muslim to be elected to Congress. He already serves on the House Armed Services Committee and worked for the Department of Homeland Security’s...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said those who criticize the appointment of Democratic Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) to the Intelligence Committee because he is a Muslim are “un-American.” Schiff, who is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he has been “deeply disturbed” by the reaction by some to Carson’s appointment last week. “I am deeply disturbed that since his appointment to the committee, Congressman Carson has been subject to vicious, anti-Muslim attacks online and in social media, questioning his loyalty to our country solely because of his faith.”(continued)

...But what’s interesting about the decision of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is that just last month — on December 11 to be precise — he made a lengthy post on his campaign blog about why he’s running again in 2014...

Tony Podesta's firm failed to file legally required disclosures after emails with his WH adviser brother A high-dollar lobbyist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign failed to file legally required disclosures for his advocacy on behalf of a foreign government in discussions with Clinton’s future campaign chairman, according to a political law expert. High-powered Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta emailed his brother John, a top White House adviser who would later chair the Clinton campaign, in January 2015. Tony wondered if John would attend a meeting with the Indian ambassador to the United States. “I’m at Camp David Friday,” John...

PARIS -- A police officer says two hostages are being held by a gunman in a jewelry store in the southern French city of Montpellier. The officer, who could not be named speaking about an ongoing situation, said the attacker has locked himself inside the downtown shop, with police ready to intervene outside. He said it is unclear whether the hostage-taking is related to the massacre Wednesday in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

President Barack Obama’s choice to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico has withdrawn from consideration. The White House says Maria Echaveste cites a prolonged confirmation process as well as her family’s best interests. …

Myanmar's ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu has called the UN's special rapporteur for human rights in Burma a "whore" during a public address in Yangon. The leader of the controversial 969 nationalist movement hit back at Yanghee Lee for an earlier comment in defence of the stateless Rohingya Muslims, who are persecuted in the country's western Rakhine state. "We have already made public our Race Protection Law, but without even studying it, this bitch [kaungma in Burmese] keeps on complaining about how it is against human rights!" Wirathu shouted. "Can this whore really be from a respectable family background?" he asked...

Lawyers for billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once claimed he co-founded the Clinton Foundation as they touted his relationship with the former president during plea negotiations. In an attempt to boost Epstein's image before he was sentenced for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008, his attorneys tried to emphasize his close ties with Bill Clinton, Fox News reports. A July 2007 letter to the South Florida State U.S. Attorney's office, written by lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Gerald Lefcourt, claimed that Epstein had been part of the original group that set up the Foundation's Clinton Global Initiative, focusing on...