Free Republic

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United States is sending troops to Nigeria to help train the West African nation's military in fighting extremism, Nigerian authorities said Wednesday, as a multifaceted security crisis spreads in the north of the country.The American personnel won't engage in combat or have a direct operational role, and Nigerian forces will have complete command authority, Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spokesman for Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, said in a statement.“At the invitation of the Government of Nigeria and in continuation of our longstanding security cooperation and military-to-military partnership with the United States, Nigeria will host a contingent of...

Top U.S. intelligence agencies are cooperating with Kurt Olsen, who worked with Trump to undermine the results of the 2020 election. President Donald Trump has directed top U.S. spy agencies to share sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election with his former campaign lawyer, known for pushing debunked theories of electoral fraud, according to four people with knowledge of the effort. The intelligence that top U.S. spy agencies are furnishing to Kurt Olsen — now a temporary government employee in the White House — is meant to support a probe he is leading into whether Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was...

The United States plans to reduce the number of personnel it has stationed within several key NATO command centers, a move that could intensify concerns in Europe about Washington's commitment to the alliance, three sources familiar with the matter said this week. As ​part of the move, which the Trump administration has communicated to some European capitals, the U.S. will eliminate roughly 200 positions from the NATO entities that oversee and ‌plan the alliance's military and intelligence operations, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. Among the bodies that will be affected, said the sources, are...

President Trump was briefed on new options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official confirmed Sunday. Mr. Trump appeared to lay out his red line for action on Friday when he warned that if the Iranian government began "killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved." "We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts," he said at the White House. "And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts." On social media, Mr. Trump offered his support for the protesters, saying that "Iran...

The United States is planning military strikes in Venezuela against drug cartels in the coming weeks. Donald Trump is yet to approve the actions which are in response to President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. sees as illegitimate, not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from getting out of Venezuela. It would largely consist of drone strikes against leaders and members of gangs, as well as drug labs, NBC News reports. They follow a recent lethal strike on a vessel allegedly affiliated with a terrorist organization 'trafficking illicit narcotics'. The attack killed 'three male narcoterrorists' took place in the US...

In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC. The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official. But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according...