Free Republic

Take a barbaric army, add strategic jihadists—and a new evil is born. Organized and disciplined, ISIS is grabbing territory to build a state. On their hit list—the state of Israel. As ISIS continues to advance on the Syrian town of Kobani and close in on Turkey’s border, experts in Islamic radical movements think the terror group may merge with its al-Qaeda mother organization soon. Together, the group would represent the greatest terror threat to the civilized world. “I think Britain, Germany and France will witness significant attacks in their territories by the Islamic State. Al-Baghdadi [the leader of the...

Partly blaming unrest in the Middle East on President Barack Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday that Obama has not spoken firmly and forcefully on Israel’s behalf and that the country no longer trusts it has the full support of the United States because of him. The Republican governor’s remarks came as Israel targeted civilian institutions with suspected ties to the militant organization Hamas and declared it would step up its bombardment of northern Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas rockets. …

In 2012, the Obama administration produced a draft National Intelligence Estimate that reached a surprising conclusion: al Qaeda was no longer a direct threat to America. That classified assessment, which has never before been publicly disclosed, was in keeping with the message coming from the White House. President Obama rode to re-election in 2012 partly on the success of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. At rallies and in press conferences, the president and top officials publicly said al Qaeda was on the run. But some senior U.S. intelligence officials, like Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Flynn, fought...

Partisan political advantage, gained at the real or potential life-threatening expense of American personnel undertaking high-risk assignments, was the deep moral issue driving prosecutors in the 2005 Valerie Plame name exposure scandal. An even more disturbing and exploitative example of high-level Washington political operatives exposing low-level American field personnel to greater physical risk is the moral issue at the core of the on-going Benghazi scandal. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said national security concerns drove his pursuit of Bush Administration officials involved in exposing Plame's status as a covert CIA agent. For Fitzgerald, Plame's precise operational status at the time her...

CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova says he'll be happy if Democrats decide not to appoint members to the special select committee on Benghazi that Republicans plan to establish. "I'm delighted the Democrats don't want to participate. All they would do is obstruct," diGenova told WMAL talk radio in Washington, D.C. Monday morning. "The president is going to pay a price ultimately," he added. "It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but his performance and Leon Panetta's was shameful that night." DiGenova says on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks that killed four Americans,...

May 5, 2014 11:24 AM Wanted: Recording of Prep Call Before Susan Rice’s Post-Benghazi TV Interviews By Deroy Murdock I like the way Jim Guirard thinks. The former Democratic U.S. Senate aide is a conservative who sees things not just “out of the box,” but “out of the District.” The long-time chief of staff to the late U.S. senator Russell Long (D., La.) offers imaginative suggestions for unraveling various scandals and controversies in the national debate. His intriguing ideas and writings are gathered at TrueSpeak.org. Guirard now is focused on a detail in the previously obstructed Benghazi e-mail that finally...