Free Republic

Boko Haram has evolved from a local terrorist group to a regional and global security threat....Since then, Boko Haram has increased its frequency of terror attacks in Nigeria, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and expanded geographically to launching attacks in other West and Central African countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. ...snip.... The U.S. support is also coming rather late in the game. The U.S. commitment of troops in Cameroon came only after China, Russia, Germany and France had already committed to help Cameroon, through defense cooperation agreements (Russia) and by providing sophisticated military equipment (China, Germany) and...

BATA, Equatorial Guinea—Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, according to U.S. officials. The officials declined to describe details of the secret intelligence findings. But they said the reports raise the prospect that Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of the U.S.—a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and Pentagon. Principal deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer visited Equatorial Guinea in October on a mission to persuade...

Brice Oligui Nguema, the leader of Gabon’s transitional government and the military figure who led the 2023 coup, has claimed a decisive victory in the country’s presidential election, securing 90.35% of the vote, according to provisional results released by the Ministry of the Interior on Sunday.

(no url available yet) NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News says journalist and former President Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger has died.

It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

In accordance with section 506A(a)(3)(B) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2466a(a)(3)(B)), I am providing advance notification of my intent to terminate the designation of the Central African Republic, the Gabonese Republic (Gabon), Niger, and the Republic of Uganda (Uganda) as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). I am taking this step because I have determined that the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger, and Uganda do not meet the eligibility requirements of section 104 of the AGOA. Specifically, the Government of the Central African Republic has engaged in gross violations...

Before his removal in a military coup, Gabon’s hopelessly corrupt President Ali Bongo was courted by Obama and feted from Washington to Davos. The US war on Libya which destabilized the region may not have succeeded without him. When a military junta arrested President Ali Bongo Ondimba on August 30, Gabon became the ninth African nation to depose its government through a military coup. As citizens of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali did before them, crowds of Gabonese poured into the streets to celebrate the removal of a Western-backed leader whose family flaunted its lavish lifestyle while more than a...

A veteran South African official detailed meeting with an unprepared and “desperate” Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, begging for local help rolling back the popular coup in Niger. The recent BRICS conference might give Nuland even more to fret about. When US Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, traveled to South Africa on July 29, her reputation as a blunt instrument of Washington’s hegemonic interests preceded her. According to a veteran South African official who attended meetings with the senior US diplomat in Pretoria, however, Nuland and her team were demonstrably unprepared to grapple with recent developments...

The United States has invested millions of dollars in foreign assistance to an African country whose military staged a successful coup against the sitting president on Wednesday. The U.S. has sent roughly $100 million in direct foreign assistance to Gabon, a country located in the Sahel region of Africa, since 2001, according to ForeignAssistance.gov. A number of Gabon’s military forces arrested President Ali Bongo Ondimba in a successful coup that sought to overturn the results of a highly contentious election on Wednesday. Approximately $10 million of the direct foreign aid was purposed for the promotion of stability and peace in...

Army officers have appeared on national television in Gabon to say they have taken power. They said they were annulling the results of Saturday's election, in which President Ali Bongo was declared the winner. The electoral commission said Mr Bongo had won just under two-thirds of the votes in an election the opposition argued was fraudulent. His overthrow would end his family's 53-year hold on power in Gabon. Gabon is one of Africa's major oil producers, while nearly 90% of the country is covered by forests. It joined the Commonwealth in June 2022, becoming one of its few members not...

Cross-section of the Earth’s interior: crust, upper- and lower-mantle, and outer- and inner-cores. Credit: Mikio Fukuhara, Alexander Yoshino, and Nobuhisa Fujima ========================================================================= Rather than being created solely during supernova explosions, chemical elements could also be produced deep within the Earth’s lower mantle. It has long been theorized that hydrogen, helium, and lithium were the only chemical elements in existence during the Big Bang when the universe formed, and that supernova explosions, stars exploding at the end of their lifetime, are responsible for transmuting these elements into heavier ones and distributing them throughout our universe. Researchers in Japan and Canada are...

Catchy campaign ad with the usual Democratic lies such as VP Cheney and Scotter Libby were responsible for her CIA outing in the press. "My Assignment" — Valerie Plame for Congress

Joseph C. Wilson, the long-serving American diplomat whose clash with the administration of President George W. Bush in 2003 led to the unmasking of his wife at the time, Valerie Plame, as a C.I.A. agent, resulting in accusations that the revelation was political payback, died on Friday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 69. Ms. Plame said the cause was organ failure.

VIDEO It is the name that dares not speak its name around Valerie Plame. Although Plame falsely (according to a Washington Post fact check) accused Scooter Libby of leaking her name, the true culprit was Deep State insider Richard Armitage of the State Department. Just the sound of his name makes Valerie Plame very very uncomfortable.

The Washington Post "Fact Checker" column gave former CIA operative and current Democratic New Mexico congressional candidate Valerie Plame three "Pinocchios" for her claim that former George W. Bush administration official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby leaked her identity. Plame blamed Libby for the leak in a campaign ad released Monday, but according to the Post's fact-check, there is no evidence he disclosed her role to columnist Robert Novak. Novak wrote the piece that reported that Plame, identified as a CIA operative, suggested sending her husband, Joe Wilson, to Niger to look into a report that Saddam Hussein had sought uranium...

... The threat of bringing in dangerous diseases is higher than ever, yet there are no mandatory and universal screenings, quarantines, or universal detention before illegal immigrants are released into our communities, often within hours. According to preliminary weekly data used internally by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and given to CR by a border patrol agent who must remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press, over 550 African migrants were apprehended in Texas in just one week - from May 30 through June 5. The lion's share come from Democratic Republic of Congo, the...

Good morning. The latest from President Trump on the border wall funding talks is that there was a "productive meeting" between his representatives led by Vice-President Mike Pence and the representatives of the Congressional Democrats...... An 18-year old Saudi Arabian woman is holed up in a hotel room at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand resisting efforts to force her back to Kuwait where she says she will be forced back to Saudi Arabia..... The Google translation reads: "Macron you're screwed, chicks are in the street" That was part of the banner held by hundreds of women yellow vests protesters on...

Soldiers in Gabon have attempted a coup, announcing the establishment of a "restoration council" after taking over the national radio station. There were reports of shots being fired in the capital Libreville on Monday. Reading out a statement, the military officers condemned President Ali Bongo who addressed his compatriots last week from Morocco for the first time since reportedly suffering a stroke in Octo

President Trump announced that U.S. troops will be sent to Gabon, in anticipation of “violent” demonstrations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) if and when the results of the December 30 presidential election are announced...The Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC is still growing, but not as quickly as had been feared. The outbreak total is 613 cases, including 565 confirmed and 54 suspected cases. Health officials are still investigating 54 suspected infections.

Qatar will leave the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as of next month, its energy minister told media today, adding that the decision was part of a long-term strategy for growing its international presence on energy markets with a focus on gas. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, but it has Australia breathing down its neck as well as emerging competition from the United States and other, smaller, producers. “Qatar has decided to withdraw its membership from OPEC effective January 2019 and this decision was communicated to OPEC this morning,” Saad al-Kaabi said, as quoted by...