Free Republic

Taliban Swap: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the report on the possible desertion of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be produced "fairly soon." Does it expose his trade for terrorists as another administration disaster? bfrrIt's bad enough that the Obama administration is conducting a clearance sale of al-Qaida detainees at Guantanamo, releasing the worst of the worst like a candy dispenser. But as the Islamic State spawns terror cells in Europe, and al-Qaida, the demise of which was greatly exaggerated, is linked to the terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris as revenge for...

WASHINGTON - The top US military officer said on Wednesday he has recommended bolstering Lebanese forces grappling with the fallout from Syria's civil war by sending in military trainers and accelerating arms sales. General Martin Dempsey also said he had recommended helping Iraq better deal with the re-emergence of al-Qaida. "We've made a recommendation that as we look at the challenges faced by the Lebanese armed forces, the Iraqi security forces with a re-emerging al-Qaida in Iraq, and the Jordanians, that we would work with them to help them build additional capability," Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon. snip

welve men have been arrested in Toronto on terror charges, Canadian police have confirmed. They are also holding five youths. Police said the men were planning to commit a series of "al-Qaeda-inspired" terrorist attacks in southern Ontario. They had obtained materials used in bomb-making, including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. Officials said the group "posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks." Ammonium nitrate is a commonly-used fertiliser. "To put it in context, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with...

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A Moroccan accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers received training in encryption techniques at an al Qaeda camp in Iran in 1997, an Iranian defector said on Friday. But his testimony to a German court was promptly undercut by comments from Germany's intelligence services, who questioned his credibility and said his evidence was worth very little. Hamid Reza Zakeri, the cover name of a man who says he worked in Iranian intelligence and defected in 2001, was testifying toward the end of Germany's second major trial of suspected members of al Qaeda's Hamburg cell....