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U.S. officials consider removing Castro regime from terror listU.S. officials are considering removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, even as Cuban allies continue to launch military attacks and trade for weapons. As part of President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that he would normalize relations with Cuba, Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to review Cuba’s terror designation and issue a report in six months. While reports indicate that the administration is leaning toward removing Cuba from the terror list, such an action would conflict with the Cuban regime’s support for Colombian militants, Iran, and...

President Barack Obama’s eagerness to cut deals with Cuba at almost any cost could yield a “strategic disaster” in which the Russian military winds up controlling Guantanamo Bay, Cuba scholar Jaime Suchlicki told “MidPoint” host Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV. The historic re-start of diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba ordered by Obama does not alter the fact that the communist nation’s rulers neither want nor feel they need improved relations with the United States, said Suchlicki, director of the Cuban Institute at the University of Miami. Just look at all the demands issued by Cuban leader Raul Castro, said...

Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton railed against the Obama administration’s arguments for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Thursday, saying in a Senate hearing that Islamic terrorists should “rot” at the camp in Cuba before they “rot in hell.” “In my opinion, the only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there right now,” Cotton, a veteran, said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe.” “As far as I’m concerned,” Cotton said, “every last one of...

Two distinct but ultimately inextricable controversies have swirled around U.S. foreign policy in recent days, both more or less involving Cuba. The normalizing of relations with Havana, which had slipped from the headlines, has returned with a vengeance thanks to Raúl Castro's ever-growing list of demands, which may eventually grow to include Pres. Obama's confession that it was actually he who ordered Navy Seals to assassinate José Martí in 1895. Specifically, Cuba's demand for the return of Guantánamo has enraged many on both the U.S. right and in Democratic circles. More importantly, Cuba's demand coincided with the onset of coverage...

Cuba wants Guantánamo Bay back. And if President Obama wanted to, he could just give it to them. The White House has lately been pushing for normalizing relations with Cuba, which have been suspended since the 1959 communist revolution. President Raúl Castro said that one precondition for normalizing ties with the United States would be returning the 45 square mile U.S.-controlled territory at Guantánamo Bay. Though most noted for its terrorist detainee facility, the U.S. has maintained a naval station there for over 100 years. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest rejected Castro’s demand, saying that while President Obama...

“Commentary By Adina Kutnicki by Adina Kutnicki AS patriots await the official (Allah-wash) report regarding Bergdahl's (military-related) status, there are certain facts which are indisputable. We will get to that. BUT intertwined with the upcoming Pentagon's evaluation - re the aforementioned deserter and traitor - underlies the "logic" behind trading him for top Taliban leaders. IN this regard, it begs the question: why would the leader of the free world trade any soldier, let alone one with "questionable" loyalty, for high value, prized terror leaders? Well, if one's leanings are Islamist-infused, the question becomes the logical inverse: why not? Not...

In 2008, then-candidate Obama made a promise to close Guantánamo Bay, which could be chalked up to political talk. However, every time the State of the Union speech comes around, he continues to talk of closing Gitmo. Using the same narrative numerous times, he has not come to grips with the error of his ways. What the president seems to be ignoring is the rate of recidivism. Liz Cheney noted that the Bush administration probably released more detainees than this administration. However, an important point she makes is that the Obama administration should look upon this as a cautionary tale....

End prison perks for ‘fake’ Muslims President Obama and his administration seem quick to assert that the multitude of terrorist acts perpetrated in recent history are done by individuals who do not represent the religion of Islam. This is their justification for not identifying these enemies of freedom as Islamic radicals or Islamic terrorists. The Obama administration would have America believe that killers such as Sept. 11, 2011, mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and U.S. Army “workplace violence” purveyor Nidal Hasan are somehow false Muslims because their terrorist crimes are not in accordance with the tenets of Islam. If all this...

In the latest of many fringe benefits extended to the world’s most dangerous terrorists the Obama administration is allowing Guantanamo Bay prisoners—including a senior Al Qaeda operative—to speak with family via video chats similar to Skype. The captives are “high-value” detainees locked up in a special top-security wing of the military compound at the U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba. Two of the terrorists recently had video conferences with family for the first time since their incarceration, according to a Spanish news agency that identifies them as Abu Faraj al Libi and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. Al Libi was...

Washington (CNN)White House officials pressured Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to increase the pace of detainee transfers from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, the outgoing secretary acknowledged to CNN's Barbara Starr in an interview Friday. "Not everyone at the White House has agreed with me," said Hagel of his methodology for deciding on detainee releases. Disagreements between Hagel and officials in the President's inner circle have been widely reported during his short tenure as secretary of defense. But in his interview with CNN, Hagel spoke with uncharacteristic candor about friction related to the prisoner release. "We've had a lot...

IRS Cover-Up Expands to Justice Department Exchanging Terrorists for an Army Deserter? Will Senate Endorse Obama’s Lawlessness?IRS Cover-Up Expands to Justice Department In an interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News about a year ago, President Obama said that President Richard Nixon was actually more liberal in his policies than Obama is. But, while comparing their policies, Obama conveniently left out one chilling similarity: Both presidents used the virtually unbridled power and authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target their political opponents. In fact, in many respects Obama’s IRS abuses actually have been much worse than Nixon’s. As...

Chuck Hagel has only about a week to go on his tenure as Secretary of Defense, and CNN’s Barbara Starr finds out that a man on the verge of retirement doesn’t have a lot of reason to keep his mouth shut. Hagel makes it clear, although still with some caution, that the Obama administration put pressure on him to increase the frequency of releases from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. In doing so, Hagel has handed the new Republican majority on the Senate Armed Services Committee a perfect opening to demand answers on Barack Obama’s efforts to empty...

This week, multiple news outlets independently reported that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be charged with desertion. It was a charge that almost everyone saw coming and one that comported with what the soldier’s former colleagues had told media outlets. Within hours of this report, the Pentagon insisted that no formal decisions had been made with regards to Bergdahl’s case. It is a relatively safe bet, however, that the Pentagon will not be reiterating National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s claim that Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Bergdahl’s release from captivity was controversial. Not because,...

The good news: The discomfort over the embargo of Cuba has led to a good bargaining position in talks with the US. The bad news: Raul Castro’s the one that thinks so. Far from being grateful for the diplomatic overture from Barack Obama, Castro wants the US to pay reparations for the economic damage that Castro says the embargo caused, plus the immediate return of control over Guantanamo Bay, as the opening ante for normalizing relations: Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on...

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica—Cuban President Raúl Castro demanded Wednesday that the U.S. return the base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Mr. Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense.” Mr. Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in...

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch, who has been nominated by President Obama to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, will testify in front of the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee as part of her confirmation process today on Capitol Hill. Lynch will be forced to address a number of controversial topics and will field tough questions from lawmakers. Some of the topics on the tape for discussion: -President Obama's executive amnesty. -The Department of Justice role in the IRS targeting scandal. -Closing of GITMO and release of GITMO detainees . -The broken relationship between...

Transparency: The administration is said to be hiding for reasons of damage control a report on the soldier we traded five Taliban leaders for. Bowe Bergdahl's lawyers have already been given a charge sheet for desertion. Both Fox News and now NBC News have reported that Sgt. Bergdahl will be charged with desertion. "I have been told and confirmed by two other sources that his attorney has been given what we call a charge sheet," retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a respected military analyst, told Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Monday. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski quoted senior defense officials on Tuesday...

NBC cited defence officials and said the charges could come against the soldier within a week. But Lt Col Alayne Conway, spokeswoman for Army public affairs, said no decision had been made yet in the Bergdahl case. She said: "We are aware of the inaccurate media reporting. To be clear there have been no actions or decisions on the Sgt Bergdahl investigation.  "The investigation is still with General Mark Milley, commanding general of Forces Command, who is reviewing now the Army's facts and findings to determine, impartially, any appropriate next steps and possible actions - which ranges from no further action to convening...

The Obama administration says it is "in a war against al Qaeda." But at the same time, it is trying to release 54 more Gitmo detainees, 47 of them from Yemen, which is one of the "dark corners" where al Qaeda operates. "We say we're in a war against al Qaeda," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "We have just never said we have been in a war against terrorism, which is a tactic...We are, however, at war against al Qaeda, its manifestations in Yemen, its manifestations in South Asia, its manifestations...

The Obama administration's nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned -- and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion. Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel's Republicans, and by...