Free Republic

There are growing signs of a potentially destabilising rift between the king of Saudi Arabia and his heir, the Guardian has been told. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are understood to have disagreed over a number of important policy issues in recent weeks, including the war in Yemen. The unease is said to have been building since the murder in Turkey of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA has reportedly concluded was ordered by Prince Mohammed. However, these tensions increased dramatically in late February when the king, 83, visited Egypt...

Obama Scandal: Former President Obama and his political supporters have repeatedly stated that his administration was scandal-free, unlike administrations before and after. "We're probably the first administration in modern history that hasn't had a major scandal in the White House," Obama himself said. A new book puts the lie to that statement. Never mind that the left-leaning big media basically ignored major scandals during the Obama years, ranging from the IRS targeting scandal and the VA's deadly waiting lists for veterans to Hillary Clinton's illegal use of an unsecured, hackable home-brew server for her official duties as secretary of state...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0U-j5Ej7fQ

Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel and Russia are to form a joint team to examine the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria. Israel is seeking the removal of Iranian forces and has vowed to keep its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in the neighbouring country. Netanyahu met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow to discuss Iran's presence in Syria. "I made it unequivocally clear that Israel will not allow the military entrenchment of Iran in Syria, and I also made it unequivocally clear that we would continue to take military action...

The media and political elites who pose as defenders of the poor beleaguered Palestinians don't care about them at all.  They are merely pawns in an effort to rid the world of Jews, starting with the half of world Jewry living in the historic homeland of Jews, Israel.  This has been proven beyond a doubt by the reaction – really a lack of any reaction – to Syria's bombing of a large Palestinian settlement, in the course of that nation's civil war and ongoing ethnic cleansing of Sunni Muslims, who stand in the way of Iran's effort to establish a Shia...

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The United States is offering $1 million for information on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden's son. The State Department said in a notice Thursday that Hamza Bin Laden is "emerging as a leader" of terrorist organization al-Qaida and is offering the reward through its "rewards justice" program for any information on his location in any country. The announcement said that since August 2015, Hamza has released audio and video messages on the Internet encouraging his followers to "launch attacks against the United States and Western allies." He has also threatened attacks against America for killing...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is being accused of antisemitism again after accusing pro-Israel Americans of “allegiance to a foreign country” at an event on Wednesday evening in Washington, DC. Laura Kelly, reported at the Jewish Insider that Omar told an audience of supporters at the Busboys and Poets café: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” meaning Israel.....The idea that Americans who support Israel owe “allegiance” to Israel, or are guilty of dual loyalty, is a familiar antisemitic theme — and has been...

Watching the events unfold some 24 hours ago one saw a confident and fairly accurate posture in the media in general and social media in particular by Pakistan as it successfully flexed its military muscle against India. India, on the other hand, came off as confused denying anything had happened until Pakistan proved the Indian MIG was downed and pilot captured. Pakistan showed its military strength and its apparent self-confidence. And why shouldn't it be confident. Right now the Pakistan created and backed Taliban of Afghanistan are involved in negotiations with the United States.......

By: Hassan. Mahmoudi After the nationwide uprising started in Iran in Dec.2017 the US – Iran relation entered into a new phase of escalation, and now perhaps more so than ever, US relations concerns about Iran dominate the American media and policy-making discussions. The United States has a set of policies to change Iran’s behavior In his first speech as secretary of state, Pompeo declared that Iran must withdraw all its forces from Syria, stop supporting its allies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. It must halt production of long-range missiles, stop uranium enrichment allowed under the nuclear agreement,...

"I would like to sincerely apologise for not being able to continue my service and for all my shortcomings during my service," he wrote on Instagram on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, he urged fellow diplomats not to follow his lead and suggested that he had resigned because he felt he had been sidelined. "I hope my resignation will act as a spur for the foreign ministry to regain its proper statutory role in the conduct of foreign affairs," he said. He was also quoted by the centrist newspaper Jomhuri Eslami as saying in an interview that political infighting was...

During John Kerry's endeavors to save the JCPOA (the Iran deal) in 2018, his main point to Mohammad Javad Zarif (Rouhani's foreign minister in the last five years) was the importance of the Islamic Republic's patience until 2020, "when the Trump administration will be gone," or an earlier ousting through impeachment. If you read all the op-eds and editorials in the Islamic regime's propaganda machine, they also asked people to be patient and wait until Trump is ousted or defeated and sanctions will be over. Democrats who want Trump out of White House have not been alone. Their Islamist allies...

Palestinians uproot trees planted in memory of Jewish girl brutally murdered by jihadist The attack on 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher was so brutal that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the murder “shocking brutality,” and it has been described by many as one of “the most horrific murders Israel has ever seen.” After being raped, she was murdered because she was Jewish, and the jihadist who did it, 29-year-old Hebron resident Arafat Irfayia, was captured in a mosque after DNA evidence led Israeli authorities there. Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs Yusuf Ida’is was so incensed that Israeli authorities dared to enter a...

DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - Having joined Islamic State in Syria four years ago, the Algerian woman only abandoned the jihadists’ last scrap of besieged territory when her daughter was shot in the leg... (snip) Adnan Afrin, an SDF official, said the civilian convoys from Baghouz have included a growing number of surrendering militants. They are searched for bombs and mines before being allowed to go any further, he said. The SDF estimates about 30,000 people have left Baghouz. It aims to eliminate or force the surrender of remaining fighters, who, according to the SDF, have dug defensive tunnels....

A senior Iraqi official has told the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, "Iraq will not join the Arab states that are promoting the establishment of relations with Israel, as long as the establishment of a true and full Palestinian state with Jerusalem as a capital, an airport, a flag and an anthem is not ...

Beirut (Agenzia Fides) - The debate on civil marriage has stirred tensions in Lebanon after the newly appointed interior minister, Raya Hassan, reignited the issue for its recognition by religious authorities. Current Prime Minister Hariri lent his support to the cause since 2013 when he said, “I personally would not want my daughter to get a civil marriage but I cannot oppose it, in my capacity as prime minister.” However, several politicians, Druze leader Walid Junblatt and former president Amin Gemayel, have backed Ms Hassan’s proposal to reopen the confrontation on civil marriage. But several religious and political leaders have...

The Associated Press was "highly irresponsible" in publishing a story detailing American Robert Levinson's ties to the CIA, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday. The AP's story, held for years at the request of government officials, traces Levinson's work with the CIA before he went missing in Iran more than six years ago and "very likely puts that person in greater danger," Carney said,

U.S. 5th Fleet Commander Found Dead in Bahrain This post has been updated with additional details on the investigation. Vice Adm. Scott A. Stearney, commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found dead in his quarters in Bahrain on Saturday, according to a statement from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson. While an investigation is ongoing, the death of Stearney will almost certainly be ruled a suicide, a U.S. defense official told USNI News. An official determination on the cause of death is expected by mid-week, USNI News has learned. A Navy spokesperson didn’t have additional information on the investigation...

Although the remarkable dumpster fire that is the Jussie Smollett self-beclowning saga has captured all the headlines this week, the legally murky kerfuffle that is the so-called "ISIS bride" — Hoda Muthana — is probably the more nationally pressing story. Muthana was born in the U.S. to a father who was a Yemeni diplomat. All sides of the constitutional debate regarding the original public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause concede that if the Clause's intermediary phrase, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," means anything at all, it refers to the fact that the children of foreign diplomats are not...

The Trump administration will launch an effort to decriminalize homosexuality in countries where it is still illegal, as part of a diplomatic push for LGBTQ rights — and an effort to isolate Iran, which persecutes homosexuals. NBC News reported Tuesday that the effort is to be led by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a staunch Trump supporter who is among the highest-ranking openly gay officials ever to serve in the U.S. government. Grenell is currently among the front-runners to succeed Nikki Haley as UN Ambassador. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump...

Jew hater “Jihad” Jenny Tonge has posted the following on Facebook: It links to this article on Middle East Monitor. Let’s first start with the image. It shows Jewish Holocaust victims, not palestinians. What makes the inclusion of this fake image here even more duplicitous is the fact it is not the image Facebook automatically includes when you post this story: In other words, it looks like Tonge deliberately replaced the automatically chosen image with this fake one. But now to the story itself. Israeli Jewish journalist Asaf Shalev, who lives in California, has said that Israel had been hiding...