Free Republic

Shhhhhh. You had me at “John Kerry should be prosecuted.” The news cycle moves so quickly in the Trump era that not only is my attention span down to six seconds but in the rush to keep up with major stories I’m apt to miss things like the president calling on Twitter for a former Secretary of State to be prosecuted for undermining his foreign policy. That happened a few weeks ago, in late April. Trump doubled down on it today during a media availability:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a sudden, unscheduled trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, as an aircraft carrier and Air Force bombers headed to the Middle East amid warnings that Iran was contemplating an attack on U.S. troops in the region. The surprise visit came after Pompeo abruptly canceled a trip to Germany, where he was scheduled to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. The State Department initially said only that the change was made because “pressing issues” had arisen. Pompeo’s visit to Baghdad, which followed an Arctic Council meeting in Finland, took on an air...

Unusually specific intelligence reports about fresh Iranian threats to American forces in the Middle East triggered a request by the U.S. military command in the Middle East for additional assistance as a deterrent against possible aggression, U.S. officials said Monday. That threat prompted the Trump administration to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier and its strike group, along with several bombers, as extra force in the region, the officials said. U.S. officials say the intelligence, which emerged late last week, indicated that Iran planned to target U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, to orchestrate attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb strait...

The violent spasm from Hamas-run Gaza isn't just another episode in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict or merely another incident in a cycle of violence in which the Palestinians are given no agency. It is a significant escalation that tests the prevailing rules of the game with Israel where Iran is demonstrating its ability to intensify the conflict by meddling in Palestinian affairs. Despite the ceasefire previously hammered out by Egypt, a sniper from Iran's proxy—the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)—opened fire across the Gaza fence wounding an Israeli officer and soldier on Friday. The attack is all the more brazen as...

Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to take the side of Hamas and Islamic Jihad last night after terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at civilian targets in Israel by Hamas this weekend. “How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends? The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace,” the Minnesota Democrat said in a tweet Sunday night

**SNIP** Kourani had allegedly been recruited as part of a plan to exact revenge for the car-bomb killing of a terror mastermind whom a former CIA agent called “probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we’ve ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else.” Kourani was, by his own multiple admissions, trained in explosives and small arms, along with secure communications, survival and interrogation as a member of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization (ESO), also known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO). Or simply 910. “Or Hezbollah black ops,” the FBI adds in court papers. Kourani was born in Lebanon...

BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and their Russian allies pounded the rebel-held northwest of Syria with air strikes on Saturday, sources in the area said, as artillery hit a Turkish military position there, underlining the risk of wider escalation. The upsurge in violence in Idlib and nearby areas in the last five days has strained a Russian-Turkish deal that has staved off a government offensive since September. The area is part of the last major foothold of the Syrian rebellion.

IDF tanks and helicopters began attacking terrorist targets belonging to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesperson's Unit reported on Saturday.

Abdur Rahman al-Ghani posts that Democracy is evil and Islam will overtake the world. The South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF), the umbrella organization for South Florida’s many Islamic extremist groups, like most organizations, has a presence on social media. But unlike most organizations, this one’s Facebook page is managed by an individual who has previously used this same outlet to publicly degrade Jews, homosexuals and America and to call for violence. This piece is not meant to change this organization, SFMF, but to expose it. SFMF was founded in April 2017 and incorporated in December 2017. Among its founding organizations...

Not hard to believe when you consider the level of infiltration by terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood groups like CAIR, ISNA, MAS, MSA, et al etc. Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terror group and we can purge these monsters. Since 2007, federal government agencies have handed over $47 million to 61 Islamic institutions in the forms of 411 various grants and contracts. By Sam Westrop, May 2, 2019: In total, if the government’s own data is accurate, at least $41 million was given to institutions either controlled or under the partial influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami (a violent South Asian Islamist...

By ending more than 6 weeks of a devastating flood that hit 2/3 of Iran’s cities and villages, still, the Iranian Government is inactive. There have been three rounds of flood strikes hitting on the Iranian Cities. Still not any real action to relieve the people’s hardship by Ayatollah Ali, Khamenei, the Supreme Leader except for a few words about these tragedies. After days of silence, the mullahs’ supreme leader showed up to speak and to respond to the US administration’s decision to end all Iran oil sanctions waivers. Khamenei attempted to save his face in order to salvage his...

Jordanian boy hails jihadist murderers, pledges himself to be “martyred for Jerusalem” The abuse of children for the sake of jihad is nothing new. They too are considered to be useful for jihadi ambitions. Consider: Palestinian Authority TV teaches children that Jews are “the most evil among creations” while “Palestinian jihadists using children as human shields”. Teachers at UNRWA summer camps have been caught on film, “declaring ‘Jews are the wolf’,” and that the children “will one day conquer Israeli cities by force.” Palestinian children have been attending jihad summer camps while Hamas has been teaching the murder of Jews...

Justin Amash has a challenger in Michigan's 3rd Congressional district.

President Trump appears set to expose more than forty years of deceptive and misleading information disseminated by the United Nations (UN) in relation to the boundaries of former Palestine. This welcome development comes with President Trump’s Special U.S Envoy Jason D. Greenblatt telling Sky News in Arabic on 19 April: "There is no reason to use the term 'two-state solution,” the reason being that, "every side sees it differently." The UN must take responsibility for creating such confusion by perpetuating intellectual and political fraud originating with its 1978 publication: “The Origins and Evolution of the Palestinian problem“(Study) Part 1 of...

"The golden days are gone and will never return. Iran doesn't have enough money to give us." -- A militant with an Iranian-backed militia in Syria, New York Times, March 26, 2019. Feeling the pressure of sanctions on Iran, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, has also (Iran’s Allies Feel the Pain of American Sanctions)[snip] Critics of US President Donald Trump and his policy regarding the Iranian government are quick to condemn him for the sanctions he has imposed on the theocratic establishment. Their argument is anchored in the idea that the only informed and effective policy that...

A wave of bombings that killed 290 people in Sri Lanka on Sunday was carried out with the support of an international network, officials said. The government has blamed a little-known local jihadist group, National Thowheed Jamath, although no-one has yet admitted carrying out the bombings. Another 500 people were injured in the suicide attacks on churches and hotels. Police arrested 24 people in a series of raids and the president's office declared a state of national emergency.

Arab leaders are pressuring the Palestinian Authority to accept the peace plan drawn up by the Trump administration, which is expected to be released this June, a source within the Palestinian Authority claims. According to a report over the weekend by the Qatari Alkhaleej Online outlet, a member of the Central Committee of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party said that Arab leaders are applying “political and financial pressure” on the Palestinian Authority to accept the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ – a framework for a final status agreement between Israel and the PA drawn up by the White...

Benjamin Netanyahu won his fifth term as prime minister of Israel. He's not the most beloved in the pantheon of Israeli leaders. As a patriarch, he has no aura. In this re-election he was haunted by allegations of corruption, and his political rhetoric of expediency lacks trustworthiness. He's not loved, or even that well-liked. The election was close, with diminished jubilation. But if you talk to Israelis and read what they write, there's a great sense of gratitude that he's still standing tall. You can hear sighs of relief from many of his countrymen and from Jews around the world...

New satellite photos published by ImageSat International (ISI) revealed that the Russian military has been deploying ballistic missile systems in Syria, according to the photographs, which are surface-to-surface missile systems capable of reaching 500 kilometers (310 miles). The Russian army has been training the deployment of an Iskander missile system at the Russian Air Force base in Syria, the Russian news agency IRNA reported. The Iskander missiles, or the SS-26, are ground-to-ground missiles designed for a range of 500 kilometers. These missiles are very effective because of their accuracy and because of their heavy warhead weighing about half a ton....