Free Republic

With little fanfare, another taboo in U.S.-Iran relations has shattered. Jim Slattery, a former six-term Democratic Congressman from Kansas, late last year became the first former or current American legislator to visit the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Tehran to attend a conference on countering violent extremism, Slattery encountered a largely friendly reception from both officials and ordinary Iranians and came back equipped to present a more realistic and upbeat depiction of Iranians than is usually found on Capitol Hill. Speaking Monday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, Slattery conceded that there are elements in Iran that still oppose any...

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.

The most outrageous thing about President Barack Obama’s “extremism” summit Wednesday was not that it failed to identify Islamic terror as the primary threat. Nor was it that there were several Muslim representatives with extremist views present. Nor was it that the president still refuses to acknowledge ISIS (or ISIL) as “Islamic”—even while referring to it by an acronym whose first letter stands for “Islamic” (rather than the transliterated Arabic acronym, “Daesh”). Rather, the most offensive thing about Obama’s “extremism” summit was that the “dog and pony show” (as it was called by no less a liberal than MSNBC’s Andrea...

Bill Browder rose from rebellious grandson of the former head of the Communist Party USA, Earl Browder, to the leading foreign capitalist in Russia, as the founder and CEO of the high-flying hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management. But his rise was matched by a brutal and deadly fall, in which the Russian government would steal and destroy Browder’s company, and physically threaten its employees, culminating in the imprisonment, torture and death of Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky — the man for whom on account of Browder’s lobbying, the Magnitsky Act was named. Browder and a deceased Magnitsky would both be convicted...

Judicial Watch obtains the first court-ordered production of Strzok-Page communications from the FBI (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has received 87 pages of records from the Department of Justice revealing former top FBI official Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page’s profanity-laced disdain for FBI hierarchy and policies. The DOJ, meanwhile, is resisting Judicial Watch’s request for a court order to preserve all responsive Page-Strzok communications. Strzok and Page’s anti-Trump text messages became center-stage amid allegations of bias at the Bureau, and both have been subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary and the Oversight and...

What Six Years of ‘Reset’ with Russia Have Wrought by CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER August 27, 2015 On September 5, 2014, Russian agents crossed into Estonia and kidnapped an Estonian security official. Last week, after a closed trial, Russia sentenced him to 15 years. The reaction? The State Department issued a statement. The NATO secretary-general issued a tweet. Neither did anything. The European Union (reports the Wall Street Journal) said it was too early to discuss any possible action. The timing of this brazen violation of NATO territory — two days after President Obama visited Estonia to symbolize America’s commitment to its...

PUNTA BRITO, Nicaragua — One of the largest engineering projects in history would start here, on this desolate and pristine crescent of dark-sand Pacific beach. From in front of the hammock-swinging shrimpers on the porches of their tin-and-wood shanties, the trench would run east in sinuous curves up through the mangroves and banana fields until it reaches the shores of Central America’s largest freshwater lake, then cut across the Caribbean highlands and through indigenous territory, ending its journey 172 miles away on the beaches of the Atlantic. They call it the Grand Inter-Oceanic Canal: an audacious $50 billion plan by an...

The White House has finally divulged the names of American Muslim leaders who met with President Obama this week, including Imam Mohamed Magid, who has advised the administration on formulating responses to incidents that Islamists consider offensive. After stonewalling journalists for two days about the names of the participants at the meeting Wednesday, the White House quietly attached the list of attendees to the end of its daily press briefing transcript Thursday evening. The guest list identified Imam Magid as a representative of the Adams Center, a large mosque in Sterling, Virginia. He has also served as president of the...

Gangs with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material through Moldova to buyers from the Middle East, including the Islamic State group. CHISINAU, Moldova — In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists, The Associated Press has learned. The latest known case came in February this year, when a smuggler offered a huge cache of deadly cesium — enough to contaminate several city blocks — and specifically sought a buyer from...

""Judicial Watch: New FBI Records Show FBI Leadership’s Conflicts of Interest Discussions on Clinton Email Investigation"" Advised of possible conflict of interest between Jill McCabe candidacy and Clinton email investigation, Comey responded that he “has no issue with it” Dep. Dir. McCabe used official FBI email to promote wife’s candidacy: ‘Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 79 pages of Justice Department documents concerning ethics issues related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s political campaign. The documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited...

The government watchdog group Judicial Watch released 79 pages of Department of Justice documents Tuesday, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, showing conflict of interest issues regarding FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s campaign while at the FBI and his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The latest documents include a February 2015 email from Jill McCabe to her husband saying she’d been recruited for the Virginia state senate race by then-Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Ralph Northam’s office. The news that Clinton used a private email server broke just five days later, on March...

David Carr, a writer who wriggled away from the demon of drug addiction to become an unlikely name-brand media columnist at The New York Times, and the star of a documentary about the newspaper, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 58. Mr. Carr collapsed in the Times newsroom, where he was found shortly before 9 p.m. He was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Earlier in the evening, he moderated a panel discussion about the film “Citizenfour” with its principal subject, Edward J. Snowden; the film’s director, Laura Poitras; and Glenn Greenwald, a journalist.

The Obama White House has finally released the names of the fourteen Muslim “leaders” who met with the President this past week. Among the group — which included a comedian, along with a hijab-wearing basketball player and a handful of left wing activists — were a select few individuals with disturbingly close ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood.

full title...........BREAKING NEWS: Trump names Neil Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee - firing starting gun on bitter battle with Democrats.........................President Donald Trump announced his appointment tonight of Neil Gorsuch, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit judge, to the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, Gorsuch will fill the vacancy created by the February 2015 death of Antonin Scalia. Republicans must rally eight Democrats to cross party lines in order for the appointment to clear a legislative hurdle known as cloture that takes 60 votes.

What is it about the Southern Poverty Law Center that drives leftists to murder? More information is coming in about the gunman who reportedly murdered three innocent Muslims in North Carolina yesterday, Craig Stephen Hicks.Hicks is a raging Progressive leftist who fed on a steady diet of liberal media. Then he killed people. #RuhRoh The guy who murdered innocent #Muslims is a radical athiest fan of #Progressive extremists @Maddow @splcenter http://t.co/iXGVSt1YCR— Progressives Today (@ProgsToday) February 11, 2015 Pajamas Media reports: A review of the Facebook page of the man charged in these murders, Craig Hicks, shows a consistent theme of...

Earlier this week the United States and other western powers evacuated Yemen, citing concerns about security in the rapidly deteriorating country. On the way out of the country, U.S. Marines were instructed to destroy their weapons and U.S. vehicles were taken over by Houthi rebels.  Now, without a presence there, the State Department is arguing rebel Houthis can be trusted to keep their word and to respect the U.S. embassy until it can be reoccupied. Houthis have been seen on video calling for "death to America," just brought down the U.S. backed Yemeni government and have ties to terrorism.  Last...

The head of Brazil's state-run oil giant Petrobras and five senior executives have resigned in the wake of a huge corruption scandal. Maria das Graças Foster's departure follows the arrest and testimony of some three dozen executives at Petrobras and many of its suppliers. The board of Petrobras is due to meet on Friday to elect new executives. The scandal involves alleged price-fixing, bribes and kickbacks, which implicates Brazil's ruling party. Prosecutors have uncovered around $800m in bribes and other illegal funds. More than 200 businesses are being investigated and more than 80 people, including three former executives from Petrobras,...

Attorneys for The New York Times and the Justice Department are due in federal court Tuesday as part of a lawsuit seeking to force the Pentagon to release full copies of more than a thousand pages of work-related emails Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent and received from his personal account. Carter, who became Pentagon chief in February 2015, acknowledged in December he conducted official business on his personal email account during his first few months in office, in violation of department rules.

Internal State Department emails appear to show “genuine panic” during last week’s evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported exclusively this morning. After reviewing internal State Department emails, Herridge said that standard procedures to protect sensitive information were not followed during the hasty evacuation from Sana’a. She described panicked emails circulating at the highest levels of the State Department despite spokeswoman Jen Psaki downplaying the situation at her Feb. 11 briefing. …

Looks like Bank of America is down. I was just told to call back on Monday to pay my credit card bill. WOW.