Free Republic

This continues my attempt to bring noteworthy books to the attention of Freepers. Vanity? Not really, but it is a way for me to organize in a short review the main points of relevant books to our current economic, military, or political issues. "Armies of Sand" is an analysis by former CIA analyst and AEI scholar Kenneth Pollack. Although this was in part his doctoral dissertation, he has gone on to write many books about the military and especially the Middle East. He begins by looking at the Six-Day War and Arab/Egyptian military ineffectiveness, noting the AE military superiority of...

A senior member of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas has encouraged Palestinians across the globe to kill Jews, drawing outrage from both Israeli and Palestinian officials as well as a UN envoy. In video from a speech to participants of weekly protests on Friday, Fathi Hamad, a member of the movement's top political body, can be seen calling on Palestinian Arabs across the globe to carry out attacks. "If this siege is not undone, we will explode in the face of our enemies, with God's permission. The explosion is not only going to be in Gaza but also in the West...

Failed jihad suicide bomber: “I don’t like life on Earth, my only reward is Allah” JUL 14, 2019 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties, for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed.” (Qur’an 9:111) It would be refreshing if one of the Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. who insist that Islam forbids jihad suicide bombing would explain, on Islamic grounds, how these women are misunderstanding Islam. But that will not happen. “Failed Female Suicide Bomber: ‘I don’t want...

The Hamas March to Destroy Israel by Khaled Abu Toameh July 15, 2019 at 5:00 am https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14548/hamas-march-destroy-israel By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the "Three No's," the organizers of the "Great March of Return" have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: "We don't recognize Israel's right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it." Hamas's two...

A U.K. newspaper has published more leaked memos revealing a British ambassador’s blunt assessments of the Trump administration, including one in which the envoy to Washington claimed President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal to spite predecessor Barack Obama. In the May 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch called Trump’s decision to abandon the international accord “an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons” because the pact “was Obama’s deal.” Darroch wrote the memo after then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Washington in a failed attempt to persuade the...

Attackers first deployed a suicide bomb at the entrance gate to the Asasey Hotel in Somalia’s port city of Kismayo on Friday evening. At least four gunmen then stormed the hotel, which is frequented by politicians, patrons and lawmakers. At least 14 hours passed before Somali troops shot dead all four attackers inside the hotel compound, Col. Abdiqadir Nur, a local police officer, told the Associated Press. Reports on the death toll were conflicting. Initial reports said 12 people died in the attack. The president of Somalia’s Jubbaland region told Reuters on Saturday the death toll had risen to 26...

President Trump would have designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization right after his inauguration in 2017, but has faced strong opposition from the Swamp JULY 12, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM This latest push for the designation appears to be the result of Trump’s recent meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in May. Be sure to watch the video at the end where Muslim...

July 11, 2019 Inquiry & Analysis Series No.1464 Reports: Personnel Changes In Top Syrian Security Echelons – Under Russian Pressure By: O. Peri and H. Varulkar* Introduction In recent days, Facebook pages identified with the Syrian regime have reported on personnel changes in the upper echelons of the Syrian security and intelligence apparatuses. Among those replaced were the chiefs of the general intelligence, political security, criminal security, and Air Force intelligence apparatuses. It was also reported that National Security Bureau director 'Ali Mamlouk, who is known to be close to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, has been replaced and appointed vice...

The official story is that northern Iraq is at peace. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has largely been defeated; the Iraqi Army and its allies are in charge. But for Christians, the persecution continues. Those who can are getting out. Those who stay are preparing themselves for more violence. "Things are bad more than any other time," Fr Behnam Benoka tells me at his church in Bartella, a ghost town protected, if that's the right word, by soldiers with Kalashnikovs. "It's harder even than before Isil." ...

Asmara (Agenzia Fides) - In Eritrea, even the last Catholic hospital has been closed. On Friday 5 July, the nuns who ran the facility in Zager were forcibly taken away by the police and seals were placed on the doors. The nuns were told to leave the hospital immediately and were prevented from taking hospital equipment with them. The hospital provided maternity services and general medical assistance for the village of Zager some thirty kilometers from the capital, Asmara. In recent weeks, 22 Catholic hospitals and clinics have been closed. Some observers read in this wave of requisitions a response...

Thanks to oil, Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in the region — before becoming the continent’s poorest, ravaged by corruption and feckless economic policy. And amid the economic decline, high-ranking government officials became conspicuously wealthy. But how? According to U.S. indictments, former government officials, and regional experts, officials linked to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and members of Maduro’s government built a massive drug syndicate — while most of the country increasingly struggled to find food to eat, or medicine to care for the sick. “Venezuela was a narco state several years ago, but it has become darker and...

Five boats thought to be Iranian tried to stop a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials. The boats withdrew after a warning from a British warship operating in the area. The incident comes as a Royal Navy warship was said to be offering extra protection to a second tanker in the Gulf following a threat from Iran to seize a British vessel. Sky News understands HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, has been travelling with a tanker, British Heritage, according to a ship tracking website and a defence source. Tensions have been rising since...

July 9, 2019 MEMRI Daily Brief No.190 'The Americans Are Good People...' – Ask The Qatari Emir By: Yigal Carmon* A popular Arab saying goes, "The Americans are good people – they can easily be deceived." There is no better proof of this observation than the Emirate of Qatar, which for over a quarter of a century has successfully fooled American administrations, both Republican and Democrat, pretending that it is America's ally while actually being the polar opposite. For over two decades, Qatar has been fostering and advancing nearly every terror organization that murdered Americans. It has praised Osama bin...

Iran is planning to charge foreign ships a toll in exchange for "protection" across the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route and a flashpoint in the escalating dispute between the United States and the Islamic Republic. A member of the Iranian Parliament's presidium said foreign commercial entities should compensate Iran as "the true provider of security in the region and international waters," according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency. Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi claimed ships enter Iranian waters on their way through the strait and should therefore pay a toll. That assertion doesn't jibe with clearly defined international agreements, former...

The following is compiled from Roger Stone's "Is former CIA Director John O. Brennan a Muslim?," WND, a videotaped speech by John Brennan in Saudi Arabia, and a Juan Guandalo interview with Tom Trento. Roger Stone posted a controversial Instagram suggesting John Brennon should hang for treason. A former Marine and combat veteran, Juan Guandolo worked for eight years in the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division as a “subject matter expert” in the Muslim Brotherhood and the global spread of Islamism. Guandolo created the Bureau’s first counterterrorism training/education program and twice received United States Attorney’s Awards for investigative intelligence. Guandolo is also...

Debate within the United States over the correct policy for dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran has long been centered on the idea of a dichotomy between engagement and war. Defenders of the status quo continue to suggest that in order to avoid armed conflict, we must turn a blind eye to the theocratic regime’s domestic repression and its propensity for mischief-making beyond Iran’s borders. Starting with that assumption, anyone who recommends a decisive alternative policy is painted as a warmonger.But this is a false narrative, which serves the interests of the Iranian regime and has roots in its...

Just over a year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron came to the United States to import two different species to Washington. One was a French oak tree and the other was a crackdown on free speech. Ironically, soon after the tree was planted, officials quickly dug it up to send it to quarantine. However, the more dangerous species was his acorn of speech controls, a proposal that resulted in rapturous applause from our clueless politicians. Ultimately, the tree died and the acorn has not fared much better. While our politicians may applaud Macron like village idiots, most Americans are hardcore...

A court in Gibraltar has ruled the ship can be detained for a further 14 days. Iran later summoned the British ambassador in Tehran to complain about what it said was a "form of piracy". Mohsen Rezaei said...: "If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it is the authorities' duty to seize a British oil tanker." Gibraltar said there was reason to believe the ship was carrying Iranian crude oil to the Baniyas Refinery in the Syrian Mediterranean port town of Tartous. The territory was initially able to detain the ship for 72-hours, but Gibraltar's Supreme Court granted...

LONDON/DUBAI, July 5 (Reuters) - An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened on Friday to seize a British ship in retaliation for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by Royal Marines in Gibraltar. "If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it is the authorities' duty to seize a British oil tanker," Mohsen Rezai said on Twitter. The Gibraltar government said the crew on board the supertanker Grace 1 were being interviewed as witnesses, not criminal suspects, in an effort to establish the nature of the cargo and its ultimate destination. British Royal Marines boarded the ship off the coast...

By boycotting the conference in Bahrain, in fact, Palestinian leaders had already sent a message to the world that they would rather see their people continue to suffer economic hardship than receive billions of dollars in aid.... Rather than spitting in the faces of businessmen, Palestinian leaders should be working closely with Israel and the US and any other party that wants to help the Palestinian people. Abbas and his old guard officials are evidently hoping that the US and international community will continue pouring millions of dollars on them without holding them to account.... They want the conflict to...