Free Republic

In his last few days as President, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a televised speech in which he warned the nation about the dangers of .. the “military-industrial complex” (MIC). ... Eisenhower wisely delivered his speech warning the nation about the MIC when he was leaving office .. not wanting to anger the CIA. ... written for Facui. Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the...

Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weapons are on the negotiating table between Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and Afghanistan’s Taliban government, according to at least one insider. Presidentish Joe Biden’s bungled bugout from Afghanistan resulted in a windfall for the new radical Islamic government, including artillery, attack helicopters, and thousands of HUMVEES, machine guns, radios — all left behind as our orderly withdrawal degenerated into a rout. The Department of Defense estimates the total value of the gear Biden left behind at a whopping $7.12 billion, and now Putin is reportedly offering to buy whatever he and the battered Russian...

Life often takes us in unexpected directions, but Maria Sue Bell’s life has been more rollicking and full of surprises than most. Back in 1984 and 1985, Bell served in the Army National Guard and was on Army Active Duty until Jan. 31, 1986. In a warning sign of what was to come, the criminal complaint against Bell says that she “received an Other Than Honorable (OTH) Discharge deemed Good for Service in lieu of a Court Martial,” although the reason for this has not been disclosed and has now been overshadowed by far more serious misconduct: Bell was sentenced...

Greg Kelly on who can be running the show in the Biden Administration, the main difference between Biden and Trump and more on NEWSMAX's Greg Kelly Reports.

American aid to Ukraine has eclipsed the annual expenditure of “endless” wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As the protracted war between Ukraine and Russia continues unabated, congressional lawmakers and President Joe Biden have appropriated $110 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine. Some pro-Ukraine advocates have contended that the costs of aiding Ukraine’s fight with Russia amounts to “peanuts” in “grand strategy terms.”

Detectives with the Homicide Bureau of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the scene of a shooting at Mabel’s Roadhouse, where an off-duty sheriff’s deputy took his own life, officials confirmed Friday morning. A Sheriff’s Information Bureau official confirmed that an off-duty deputy took his own life in a shooting at the bar some time before 2 a.m. The deputy, who was 33 years old, served two tours in Afghanistan during his four years in the Marines, and had three years with the department, according to his father. Becky Hansmann, owner of the bar, who made the post Friday...

"Israel should stop all incitement and provocation and avoid any unilateral actions that might lead to aggravation of the situation," the Chinese diplomat said at a joint press briefing on Sunday with Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry. Qin also called for "maintaining the status quo" at Jerusalem's most important holy site - after an ultranationalist Israeli cabinet minister visited the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary - or the Al-Aqsa Mosque - Islam's third holiest shrine. The visit by Itamir Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, was seen by Palestinians as a provocation...

First, the data on what's happening in Iran. Start with the count:Days: 121 Protests: 282 citiesFatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 627 identified by MEKDetentions: 30,000 Now here's the latest news:Iran’s nationwide uprising entered its fifth month following a day of major rallies and demonstrations against the mullahs’ regime in various cities of what's known as Sistan and Baluchistan province, especially the provincial capital of Zahedan. A large number of locals took to the streets on Friday in the Baluch cities of Zahedan, Rask, and Khash, chanting slogans specifically targeting regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the paramilitary Basij...

While turning a blind eye to the starving Afghan population, on Jan. 4, a Taliban senior leader professed the group has an "obligation" to protect Chinese nationals looking to invest in the country’s mineral and oil wealth. The comment comes on the heels of a December attack that targeted Chinese investors who frequent Kabul’s Longan Hotel. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the assault. On Jan. 5, the Taliban announced it had killed eight ISIS-K members, including those responsible for the hotel attack. The following day, China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas signed a significant...

In the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the ouster of the Afghan national government in August 2021, alarming reports indicated that the insurgents had potentially accessed biometric data collected by the U.S. to track Afghans, including people who worked for U.S. and coalition forces. Afghans who once supported the US have been attempting to hide or destroy physical and digital evidence of their identities. Many Afghans fear that the identity documents and databases storing personally identifiable data could be transformed into death warrants in the hands of the Taliban. A March 30, 2022, report from Human Rights...

10 minute video.

A subsidiary of a Chinese state-run energy firm signed a deal Thursday to extract oil in the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas, a subsidiary of the state-run Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, will invest up to $150 million annually, which will increase to $540 million in three years, to pump oil in the Amu River Oil Basin, according to a statement released by the Taliban government. The contract, which represents the Taliban administration’s first international energy deal, was signed in the presence of the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar...

(excerpt) "If someone does not accept the accusation, they torture him to accept it. Confessions under coercion and the beating of the accused have no place in sharia (Islamic law) and our country's Constitution," Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi said in a Friday prayers sermon, according to his website. Ismaeelzahi is based in Zahedan, capital of the impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province, home to Iran's Baluch minority. Authorities have reportedly pressured him by banning him from traveling abroad and restricting his travels and contacts within Iran.

Among the many incendiary claims in Spare, Prince Harry's upcoming memoir, the boast that he killed 25 Taliban while serving as an Army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan will do him the most long-term damage by far. I doubt he will recover from it. Most of the revelations in his book amount to a further public airing of his family's dirty laundry, an endeavour to which he and wife Meghan have devoted their lives since running off in a huff to California. Jaw-dropping as some of them are, their real import serves merely to confirm what most had already concluded about...

Among the many incendiary claims in Spare, Prince Harry's upcoming memoir, the boast that he killed 25 Taliban while serving as an Army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan will do him the most long-term damage by far. I doubt he will recover from it. Most of the revelations in his book amount to a further public airing of his family's dirty laundry, an endeavour to which he and wife Meghan have devoted their lives since running off in a huff to California. Jaw-dropping as some of them are, their real import serves merely to confirm what most had already concluded about...

The Taliban have expressed their fury after Prince Harry revealed he killed 25 enemy 'chess pieces' during his deployment in Afghanistan, in his tell-all memoir Spare. Speaking to MailOnline, the infamously brutal militants taunted the Prince, saying they had the last laugh over the West and the 'big mouth loser' Duke of Sussex by recapturing the country in 2021. The Taliban said while their Mujaheddin 'chess pieces' are the ultimate victors of the conflict, Harry had 'fled to his grandmother's palace' and is now struggling to maintain a place in the Royal Family, in response to the claims made in...

It’s always frustrating to read about the many ways the federal government wastes our money, from millions spent putting lizards on treadmills to thousands spent on art classes in Kenya. But regular government waste pales in comparison to the appalling reality that the US just left billions in taxpayer-purchased military equipment behind in Afghanistan—to fall right into the hands of the Taliban. The Times of London reports that the US simply abandoned a truly astounding arsenal of military equipment and weapons. This reportedly includes up to 22,174 Humvee vehicles, nearly 1,000 armored vehicles, 64,363 machine guns, and 42,000 pick-up trucks...

some of America’s largest cities are more dangerous for young males than a war zone like Iraq or Afghanistan. The study, conducted by the JAMA Network, included the cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York City. ... Zip codes with the most violence in Chicago and Philadelphia had a notably higher risk of firearm-related death than US military personnel who served during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ... violence the same or greater than the risks faced by soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan; in some places, the death risk was almost double that of war.” ......

(JNS) On the front pages of newspapers around the world, we are now privileged to witness the extraordinary strength of women oppressed by fanatical forms of Islam. In Iran, these women are emerging as our heroines. Young and old, they are willing to expose themselves to imprisonment, violence and potential death in order to achieve liberation. In Iran, they are leading the charge for regime change and thus the end of one of the most evil dictatorships of this century. There is no sign that these women are slowing down. Yesterday, Vida Movahed, who became known worldwide for a...

DOD report notes 'tables, chairs and cots broken' by Afghans, 'tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter and holes' ... A new Department of Defense (DOD) report found that the U.S. military bases that housed Afghan evacuees suffered $260 million in damages, with the Air Force saying the damage was "unrepairable." The DOD inspector general reported last week that the eight bases housing the refugees in Texas, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Virginia, New Mexico and Indiana are asking for repair money after they sustained over a quarter-billion dollars in damage. Over 17 days, 120,000 evacuees were taken to...