Free Republic

Some U.S. lawmakers still take their jobs seriously, especially members of the House Committee on Homeland Security. You see, as a crowning component of his fetish for “normalizing” relations with (embracing and subsidizing) the Terror-Sponsoring Castro-Family-Crime-Syndicate (called “Cuba” by Obama and his lapdog mainstream media) President Obama has given rapid and enthusiastic approval for six U.S. airlines to start flying one hundred direct flights a week from nine airports in Terror-Sponsoring Cuba to fifteen airports in our homeland.In light of this, some members of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security thought it prudent to check on what security measures...

April 03, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Imperial Judiciary Goes GlobalBy the Editors In 2004, the Supreme Court sowed the seeds for a national-security upheaval when it ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that war prisoners held outside the United States had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court. Last year, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices continued the seismic shift, holding that the right they had invented in Rasul — a right extended to aliens whose only connection to the United States is in waging war against it — was somehow rooted in our Constitution. Thursday, the inevitable earthquake...

DIRE STRAITSTerrorists under the bed By Anil Netto PENANG, Malaysia - As United States troops pour into the southern Philippines to help in tracking down the armed Abu Sayyaf group, focus in the war against terrorism has clearly extended to Southeast Asia. The US troop deployment coincides with a Newsweek magazine report citing secret Federal Bureau of Investigation data that apparently showed that Malaysia was a primary operational launch-pad for the September 11 attacks on the US. Ironically, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, where more than 40 alleged militants have been detained without trial since last May, forcefully denied ...

PESHAWAR: Fear and uncertainty continue to spread among Pakistan’s Christian minority following the tragic death of an 18-year-old Christian youth who succumbed to injuries sustained in a deadly shooting incident in Peshawar. According to local residents, Silas, son of Ejaz and a resident of Father Colony in Peshawar, died on Wednesday after battling critical gunshot wounds for several days. The attack reportedly occurred when unidentified armed men opened fire on two Christian boys a few days earlier, leaving both seriously injured. Silas remained under treatment following the attack, but his condition deteriorated due to the severity of his injuries. His...

The Taliban has introduced a new family law with no minimum age for marriage, prompting warnings from rights groups that the rules risk normalising child weddings in Afghanistan. UN Women's special representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson, said the new legislation represented 'another serious development' in the erosion of women's rights nearly five years after the group returned to power. The agency warned the rules failed to establish a minimum age for marriage and mark a departure from laws in force before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, when Afghanistan criminalised forced child marriage. According to UN Women, the new regulation...

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the 2000 Democratic Party vice presidential nominee, during the Friday Fox Business Network broadcast of “Mornings with Maria,” warned that the United States is headed toward another “Cold War.” Lieberman, who was responding to the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to take over the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, called on the United States to “remain strong” militarily and economically to combat the Asian superpower’s increasing provocation.

As dawn breaks, hundreds of men gather at a dusty square in Chaghcharan, the capital of Ghor province in Afghanistan. They line the roadside with weary faces, hoping someone will come along offering any work. It will determine whether their families eat that day. The likelihood of success, however, is low. Juma Khan, 45, has found just three days of work in the past six weeks that paid between 150 to 200 Afghani ($2.35-$3.13; £1.76-£2.34) per day. "My children went to bed hungry three nights in a row. My wife was crying, so were my children. So I begged a...

On Monday, the European Union announced sanctions on Israelis, including Daniella Weiss, the 80-year-old former mayor of a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria, and on Tuesday, it invited the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group allied with Al Qaeda, to come to Brussels for talks. “Extremisms and violence carry consequences,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Israel. Obviously. And the consequence of extremism and violence is an invite to Brussels.At least if you’re a Muslim terrorist. Over the last decade, Islamic terrorists associated with ISIS, an Al Qaeda splinter group, have killed over 34 people in two bombing, four...

Sweden, together with the European Commission, will hold talks with the Taliban. The goal is to enable deportations to Afghanistan - but the announcement is being criticized. "A deal with extremists," says Annika Hirvonen (MP). Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M) tells TT that the Swedish government has been "very proactive" in the EU on securing deportations to Afghanistan. The issue of being able to carry out more criminal deportations, i.e. of people who have been convicted of crimes in Sweden or who pose a threat to Sweden's security, is one of my most important priorities, he says. According to Forssell,...

MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - Russia is establishing a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and is encouraging ‌other countries in the region to expand cooperation ‌with Kabul, a senior Russian security official was quoted on Thursday ​as saying. Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Islamist Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal ‌from Afghanistan after ⁠20 years of war. Interfax news agency quoted Russian official Sergei Shoigu as saying cooperation ⁠with Kabul was important for the security and development of the region. Shoigu, who is secretary...

The “finest rug store in Santa Barbara” has sparked fury for proudly selling a product depicting horrific images of the 9/11 attack on New York City, the California Post can reveal. Tribal Rugs & Art was promoting one of the items as the centerpiece of its display on the sidewalk on the bustling State Street on Saturday afternoon. The controversial mat, priced at $450, shows the moment the two planes hit the Twin Towers with parts of the buildings missing where the jets collided.

Iranian authorities have hanged another 30 prisoners at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad on drug-related charges, says the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The campaign cites “local knowledgeable sources” saying 12 prisoners were executed on Wednesday June 29 and another 18 were hanged on the following Sunday. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say the executions once again were carried out in secret and en masse, with no prior notification of families and attorneys and no official announcement from the judiciary. The report indicates that on June 29, the judiciary announced the execution of one convicted murderer...

Allah may have to go back to Afghanistan. The local media has done its best for him. The newspapers in upstate New York argue that it’s been years since he stabbed anyone and since then he’s been keeping busy selling Halal food. Also he’s a refugee. The trouble began when Allah and Mohammed (full name: Waheed Allah Mohammad) stabbed his sister. His sister was looking to move to New York City and was waiting on a ride. Allah decided that she wasn’t a good Muslim girl, got a knife from his car and started stabbing her. Later, the Afghan refugee...

Nearly half of criminal suspects in violent crimes are foreign nationals in Germany, police statistics have found. According to the annual statistical release from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), violent crime in Germany fell slightly in 2025, by 2.3 percent compared with the previous year. However, the agency noted that “(n)on-German suspects continue to be significantly overrepresented in violent crime” at 42.9 percent. Data collected from various federal states across the country from the Welt am Sonntag newspaper found similar results, with around one in every two suspects of violent crimes in Bavaria, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg being foreign nationals,...

Statement by Benjamin Roberts-Smith VC MG, 19th April 2026For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I’ve acted improperly in my service in Afghanistan.As I’ve always maintained, I categorically deny all of these allegations and while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally clear my name.I’m proud of my service in Afghanistan.While I was there, I always acted within my values, within my training and within the rules of engagement.I’d also like to say I’m extremely proud of all...

Last December Belarus approached Russia with a request for a loan aimed at facilitating the switch to the Russian ruble as the main currency for bilateral trade. The global financial crisis depleted the country’s international reserves and put the economy in a rather dire condition, creating a desperate need for more funding, even after the country secured a $2 billion loan earlier in the year. But the Russians made it clear that they were not interested in giving out more money. However, after last week’s meeting of the Higher State Council of the Union of Russia and Belarus, the Assistant...

At least 11 people are known to have died after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in western Afghanistan. Provincial officials originally said four people had been killed in the attack in the Enjil district of Herat province on Friday, but later said that seven more people who were critically injured had also died. No group has claimed responsibility so far. "Unidentified armed men" riding motorcycles opened fire near the village of Deh Mehri, an interior ministry spokesperson said. The recreational area is usually crowded on Fridays. A Herat doctor told the BBC that the victims - who were...

Two of the five men Ben Roberts-Smith is accused of murdering while serving with the Special Air Service in Afghanistan have never been identified by war crimes investigators. Court documents seen by the Daily Mail show one of the Victoria Cross recipient's alleged victims is described only as 'Person Under Control 1', or alternatively 'Enemy Killed in Action 3'. Roberts-Smith is accused of murdering that Afghan male with another SAS soldier dubbed 'Person 68' at Syahchow in Uruzgan Province on October 20, 2012. Another alleged victim who is only known to authorities as 'Person Under Control 2' or 'Enemy Killed...

Violence has begun to feel routine in Pakistan, a grim normalization that reflects a deeper and more dangerous reality: the country’s security situation has deteriorated sharply, marking the sixth consecutive year of rising terrorism. The Global Terrorism Index 2026, released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, crystallizes this trend with stark clarity. While the world as a whole recorded a substantial fall in terrorism deaths by 28 percent and attacks by nearly 22 percent, Pakistan moved in the opposite direction. For the first time, it ranked number one on the index, recording 1,139 terrorism‑related deaths in 2025, a six...

Former SAS soldiers warn the prolonged war crimes investigation into Ben Roberts-Smith threatens to create life or death hesitation for troops in combat situations.The father of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan has questioned why a dedicated team of investigators has spent six years building a case against Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith while his son’s killer remains free.It comes as former SAS soldiers warn the Office of the Special Investigator’s (OSI) prolonged investigation into alleged war crimes is causing mental health issues to military families and creating life or death issues for soldiers in combat.Hugh Poate’s son Robert was...