Free Republic

President Barack Obama on Thursday went over the heads of the traditional press corps and took questions on Twitter for a half hour using his new account @POTUS. The 140 character limit did not seem like a constraint to the notoriously long-winded president. Although set up to discuss climate change after a tour of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Obama addressed a variety of different subjects, including the upcoming NBA Finals. The president responded to someone who said he was more worried about his student loans than climate change.

Armed U.S. drones are flying over the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an American official said Friday, primed to defend U.S. troops and diplomats on the ground—or to attack insurgents challenging the Iraqi government if President Barack Obama orders such strikes. “We have the necessary forces not only to protect our own forces, but to be prepared should the President make a decision to do something more,” a senior Pentagon official said Friday. “We’ve got both manned and unmanned over Iraq, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody that some of our drones have armaments.”

United States officials are not entirely confident they know who is behind the airstrikes being reported against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria forces in western Iraq. From ABC News: According to the U.S. official, the United States has “pretty good information that the Syrians are behind the fighter aircraft bombing in western Al Anbar,” a province in Iraq that includes the Syrian border. The official said the United States is still trying to gather more information that Syria was behind the strikes...A U.S. official also said it was not clear whether the Iraqi government requested or authorized Syrian air...

U.S. intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned top government officials that Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki and his policies were gravely antagonizing his country's Sunni population, two U.S. security officials said on Friday. The officials said the warnings were contained in secret intelligence reports and analyses presented in the last two years to policymaking officials, including President Barack Obama. This contrasted with public comments by the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who in his annual presentation to Congress on "worldwide threats" in January made only bland references to religious tensions in Iraq.

ISIS TERRORISTS BEGIN ASSAULT ON BAGHDAD— Baghdad International Airport under Assault– Here’s a new image reportedly of an explosion at the Baghdad airport. The Battle for Baghdad has begun…

Officials say three planeloads of Americans are being evacuated from a major Iraqi air base in Sunni territory north of Baghdad to escape potential threats from a fast-moving insurgency. Several hundred American contractors are still waiting to leave.

IRAN has sent special forces and elite troops to Iraq to bolster efforts by the government to halt the advance of militants. A 150-man unit of the Quds Force, the elite section of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has deployed to Iraq, supported by a team of Saberin, Iran's equivalent of the SAS. They will assist Iraqi forces as they regroup after the loss of Mosul and Tikrit. With troops already fighting in Syria to defend the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Iran's decision to send soldiers into Iraq underscores its concern that another key ally is under threat.

President Barack Obama refused to rule out U.S. action in Iraq against Sunni Islamist militants who have surged out of the north to threaten Baghdad, threatening to divide the country and establish their own jihadist state Vice President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by telephone. The White House signalled on Wednesday that it was looking to strengthen Iraqi forces rather than meet what one U.S. official said were past Iraqi requests for air strikes.

Conservatives need to knock off the nauseating accolades to Obama for the killing of Osama bin Laden. If you want to honor someone, it should be our magnificent Navy SEALS and the military personnel who supported the mission. Nothing can deter a SEAL from his mission–except for a dithering politician. The Ditherer in Chief took 16 hours to make up his mind after the intel was solidly in place. He left our SEALS, the CIA and other senior officials to cool their jets as he tended to more important matters like perfecting his golf swing. When he finally did act,...

President Obama is in Asia - instead of at home making a key foreign-policy decision. He has said he will not clarify his strategy in Afghanistan until he returns Thursday, thereby further kicking the Afghan can down the road. This is an astonishing act of cowardice and dithering. Unless the president quickly turns around his political fortunes, his administration will be mired in failure. (snip) Mr. Obama has had more than enough time to make a decision on how to proceed. Yet the administration is paralyzed; there are a variety of conflicting voices. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. supports...

<p>MSNBC and Bloomberg are reporting that the Obama administration is denying reports by CBS News and the AP that Obama has decided to send nearly 40,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan.</p> <p>Both outlets report that Obama has not received final recommendations from his advisers and he would then need time to review them.</p>