Free Republic

Protests against the arrest of a pro-Palestine Columbia graduate student are being organized by a Marxist revolutionary group that is pro-Communism, anti-Israel, and has potential links to the Chinese Communist Party. Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel encampments at Columbia University, was detained earlier this month by the Trump administration, with the Department of Homeland Security arguing that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” The People’s Forum helped organize some of the campus chaos and is now organizing protests to free Khalil. Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) is the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel group...

An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran last year. Asif William Rahman, 34, had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after he was arrested for absconding with records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last October that indicated Israel was planning to launch airstrikes in response to a massive Iranian missile attack. Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top secret documents, leaked the stolen information on social...

A Pakistani national was arrested in Canada this week for allegedly plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York City on the anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas militants against Israeli civilians. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the terrorist organization ISIS, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). “The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS,...

The small South Caucasus nation of Georgia has become a multi-billion dollar hub for the international used car market. The vehicles are mostly sourced from the US, and many appear to be ending up in Russia. Equivalent in size to more than 40 football pitches, it hosts thousands of vehicles up for sale. He says that his company has responded to “a lot of demand for Western-produced vehicles”. Today the firm has 600 employees.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is recovering in intensive care after having emergency surgery to drain blood from his brain, a medical note published by the country's government said. The leftist politician, known as Lula, had reduced travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from a trauma he suffered to the back of his head after falling at his home in late October.

[Catholic Caucus] Pope says Church must ‘confront forms of paganism’ in secularismIn his meeting with his brother Jesuits in Belgium, Pope Francis call secularization a “complex phenomenon” and noted sometimes the Church must “confront forms of paganism.”Speaking to 150 Jesuits in Brussels on Sep. 28, the pontiff answered a question from a member living in Amsterdam, one of the most secularized cities in the world.In his reply, Francis noted he didn’t mean a paganism like the one in the ancient world.“We do not need a statue of a pagan god to talk about paganism: The very environment, the air we...

It’s been obvious for years that China has a Potemkin economy, kept alive by slave labor, market bubbles, and government underwriting. it can’t last forever. The latest grim forecast about the economy comes from Peter St Onge, an economist with a much deeper fund of knowledge about and understanding of the Chinese economy than I could have in a thousand lifetimes.The biggest hint that the Chinese economy was in trouble was the demise of Evergrande, a massive property developer in China. The bankruptcy was huge, with the company’s assets valued at a probably inflated $245 billion and debts of $300...

U.S. Air Force Captain Daniel Alwan breached operational security, revealing in a now-deleted post that he’s in Israel preparing for a strike on Iran. Meanwhile, ten U.S. Air Force Stratotankers—critical for mid-air refueling of fighter jets—were spotted en route to the Middle East. Is the Biden-Harris administration likely to lead us into a war before the election?

Huh. This sure reeks of election desperation, doesn't it? After welcoming Venezuelan immigrants -- including violent gang members and other criminals -- into the U.S., the Biden administration is not extending their legal status. NEWS — The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who were allowed to fly to the U.S. under a sponsorship program, according to officials and internal documents.https://t.co/KCL5242Ncn — Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) October 3, 2024 CBS News Reports: The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who were...

It’s been a couple of weeks since the infamous “Signalgate” controversy erupted. Just as most Americans had moved on from this non-scandal, we have finally learned how Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, got into the encrypted group chat on Signal in the first place. For sure, this story was overblown from the get-go. Goldberg clearly oversold the chat as containing classified war plans, though a review of the chat, which Goldberg eventually published, proved the chat to be a real nothingburger. That said, the mainstream media quickly pounced on the story, and Democrats used the incident as a...

President Biden said Thursday that the US is “discussing” the possibility of Israel bombing Iranian oil facilities as payback for a volley of nearly 200 rockets fired at the Jewish state on Tuesday — causing a spike in global crude prices. Biden said the oil strike option was under consideration when asked directly by a reporter as he left the White House. “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway,” the retiring 81-year-old president said ... Within 45 minutes of Biden’s remark, crude oil futures spiked to about $74 per barrel from its opening price of $70.10,...

Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jessica Aber, who was found dead at the age of 43 by Virginia authorities on Saturday, was at the helm of high-profile investigations into intelligence leaks, allegations of war crimes against Russian-linked individuals and people suspected of providing sensitive U.S. technology to Moscow before she stepped down at the start of the year. Why It Matters Aber, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, resigned in January after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. She had risen to lead one of the most important federal prosecutor's offices and roughly 300 prosecutors, civil...

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...

In a rare and extraordinary pushback, new FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday night that media reports claiming a female agent ran a “honeypot” operation against Donald Trump during the Obama years was not true and unfair to the agent. “A female agent was falsely referenced in the media this week as part of an alleged whistleblower disclosure- she was NOT a honeypot,” Patel wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “I have reviewed the matter, again, and she did the limited job assigned to her. These actions were also reviewed by Special Counsel John Durham and...

Leading white supremacist and antisemite says he’s backing the Jewish candidate over Trump because of former president’s ‘full-throated subservience to Israel and the Jewish lobby’JTA — David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, endorsed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is Jewish, on his radio show Tuesday. Duke, long one of the United States’ highest-profile white supremacists and antisemites, has repeatedly sought political office while spreading conspiracy theories about Jews. In his endorsement of Stein, he said that she was the candidate with the strongest stance against “Jewish power” because she opposed Israel’s military campaign.“Although Dr....

Asher Fredman אשר פרדמן @fredman_a: When I served in Lebanon last October, we found huge Hezbollah weapons caches - together with USAID care packages (not to mention UNICEF folders). From the American taxpayer to Hezbollah, with love. @elonmusk. Feb 5, 2025

Intelligence firm Graphika said a Beijing-linked campaign known as "Spamouflage" spread disinformation about Spain's deadly floods last year. A Chinese online influence operation impersonated a human rights group in Spain to spread calls on social media for the Spanish government to be overthrown following deadly floods in Valencia last year, according to research by intelligence firm Graphika. The Chinese state-linked campaign — dubbed "Spamouflage" by analysts — posed as the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders on social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok and X to circulate content criticising the government's response to the floods that killed at least 225 people last...

A congressman has condemned internet trolls currently gloating over the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 'Seems like leftists opposed to killing terrorists in the Middle East support killing CEOs in Midtown Manhattan,' wrote Representative Dean Phillips after Wednesday's murder outside a Hilton hotel in NYC. Phillips, a Democrat who represents 50 year-old Thompson's home district in Minnesota, spoke as online ghouls rejoiced in the cold-blooded execution of the healthcare chief. Among them were one tweeter who wrote: 'Brian Thompson ran a company based off exploiting people during the most vulnerable times in their life. 'I'm not sad he's dead.'...

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was accused of insider trading and fraud by tghe Department of Justice before he was assassinated on Wednesday in Manhattan. Thompson, 50, was shot dead in what NYPD officials believe was a targeted attack as he exited the Hilton hotel before an investor conference. His killer remains on the loose. Last year the DoJ launched a probe into whether the nation's biggest insurer, led by Thompson, was unfairly restricting competitors and running a monopoly. The DoJ then filed a lawsuit in October naming Thompson and other executives, accusing the CEO of failing to tell investors about...

Muslim suspect who shot Jewish man in Chicago planned attack on synagogue. Authorities say data from Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi’s phone reveals antisemitic motives, including synagogue locations marked days before attack, searches for 'Jewish community center' and 'gun store' and over 100 antisemitic and pro-Hamas images and videos. Itamar Eichner|11.24.24. A Muslim man accused of shooting a Jewish man and firing at police officers in Chicago last month had researched the locations of synagogues and Jewish schools in the days leading up to the attack, prosecutors said during a detention hearing Friday. Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, an undocumented immigrant from Mauritania,...