Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As most Americans recoiled in horror at scenes of rioting and chaos in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, some right-wing and anti-government extremists saw the violence as the fulfillment of a patriotic duty or opportunity to advance their agenda. Among the inspired was Mike Dunn, a 20-year-old follower of the "boogaloo" anti-government movement, whose adherents anticipate a revolution toppling the federal government or a second U.S. civil war. Dunn, who lives in Virginia, said three or four groups of loyalists under his command helped storm the Capitol this week amid a motley mix of rioters who supported...

Armed protesters have arrived at multiple state capitol complexes across the country Sunday morning. This follows a special bulletin from the FBI last week that warned: “armed protests” were being planned at 50 state capitols and the US Capitol in Washington, DC, ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. While the protesters are being identified across various platforms as members of a so-called “boogaloo” movement, they largely appear to be anti-government – some of whom call themselves “liberty boys,” and others who oppose the conservative Proud Boys. Their sudden emergence surrounding the inauguration is curious to say the...

The Obama administration approved a grant of $200,000 of taxpayer money to an al-Qaeda affiliate in Sudan, the Middle East Forum (MEF) discovered. The grant was approved ten years after the US Treasury designated the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) as an organization which funds terrorists. Government officials also authorized the release of at least $115,000 of the grant after they realized that the Khartoum-based ISRA was on the Treasury’s list of terror organizations. ISRA, also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), was designated as terror-supporting organization in October 2004, due to its connection with Osama bin Laden and...

A congressman out of Western Pennsylvania is calling for Congress to remove Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) from her committee assignments after two new incidents involving anti-Semitism, saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was “emboldening” Tlaib’s “dangerous, hateful bigotry” by remaining silent on the issue. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) is calling for the removal of Tlaib from her congressional committees after Tlaib reportedly attended a conference last week that was described as “anti-Israel.” The call also comes after Tlaib recently promoted a highly inflammatory tweet on her Twitter account that used a phrase that has long been associated with extremist...

President Trump Echoes Judicial Watch Concerns about Dirty Voter Rolls Records Show Obama DHS Scanned Georgia Election Site in 2016 Three Congresswomen Star in Forum with Terror Financiers, Anti-Semites President Trump Echoes Judicial Watch Concerns about Dirty Voter Rolls In his forceful and comprehensive address to the nation this week on widespread election fraud, the president referred to the many dirty voter rolls across the country. Here’s what he said: It’s a widely known fact that the voting rolls are packed with people who are not lawfully eligible to vote, including those who are deceased, have moved out of...

Post echoed rhetoric of anti-Israel terrorist groups Rep. Rashida Tlaib scrubbed a tweet on Monday that included an anti-Semitic phrase often used by terrorist groups that seek the destruction of Israel. Screenshots show that Tlaib retweeted a Saturday post that included a graphic promoting Palestinian solidarity and the phrase "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free." The Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Hezbollah regularly use the phrase as a rallying cry against the Jewish state. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah used the phrase in remarks in which he also called Israel a "cancerous growth" that needed to be...

Congress should reprimand three of its members for participating with financiers of Islamic terrorism in a conference sponsored by an anti-Semitic group with deep ties to Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group that calls for eradicating the state of Israel. The legislators who joined forces with the extremists over the Thanksgiving weekend include Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are Democrats with a history of supporting anti-Semitism. Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women in Congress and their tenure as elected officials has been marred with tremendous controversy. The powwow they recently...

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced a four-count superseding indictment charging MICHAEL ROBERT SOLOMON, 30, and BENJAMIN RYAN TEETER, 22, with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (Hamas) and firearms violations. SOLOMON and TEETER, who were initially charged via federal criminal complaint on September 3, 2020, will be arraigned before a Magistrate Judge in U.S. District Court at a later date. SOLOMON and TEETER have been ordered to remain in detention pending further proceedings.According to the superseding indictment and documents filed with the court, in late May of 2020, the FBI...

Action Follows Last Month’s Seizure of 92 IRGC DomainsSAN FRANCISCO – The United States has seized 27 domain names that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unlawfully used to further a global covert influence campaign.As described in the seizure documents, all 27 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC. Four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted audiences in the United States, to covertly influence United States policy and public opinion, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration...

If Donald Trump doesn’t take the Oath of Office on January 20, 2021, one principal but little-noted reason for this may be that he crossed one of the most powerful and least accountable forces in the nation: the military-industrial complex. As Trump said last September, “the top people in the Pentagon…want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy. But we’re getting out of the endless wars, you know how we’re doing.” Now, however, that Joe Biden has been anointed “President-elect”...

The decision by three Arab states to make peace with Israel can be credited both to efforts by the Trump administration and the recognition by these Sunni states that their security would improve against the ongoing threats they face from Turkey and Iran. Iran and its proxies interfere with Arab states while promoting their Shi’ite revolutionary ideology; likewise, Turkey pushes its Sunni revolutionary ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the region. Turkey and Iran look to overthrow the Sunni Arab states that do not align with them, such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The normalization deals between the...

The message was clearly aimed at Gulf states and others that are partnered with the US. Iran has sought to reach out to its Arab neighbors, with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warning them that US President Donald Trump will be leaving in 70 days, but Iran’s regime will remain “forever.” He urged them to realize that “betting on outsiders to provide security is never a good gamble.” In Arabic and English, he called for dialogue and to work together. The message was clearly aimed at Gulf states and others that are partnered with the US. Iran was offering them...

Israeli Settlements Minister Tzachi Hanegbi warns that a Biden presidency could ignite war in the Middle East, while Egypt fears Biden would aid the resurgence of Islamists in the region. Hanegbi pointed out that Biden has indicated he will resurrect America’s nuclear agreement with Iran which was cancelled by the Trump administration. For Israel, this would represent an existential threat to national security and drastically increase the chances of war with Tehran. “If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,” said Hanegbi. Meanwhile, other Middle Eastern countries such as...

“We have nothing left in Idlib, no properties, houses, or rents. The Sharia Committee seized everything.”With these words, Issa (a pseudonym) from Idlib city described to Enab Baladi what happened to his family’s property years after the Islamic factions took control over the city. Issa added, “We had a house, an agricultural land, and a number of stores, all of which, were rented through my father’s agent, who used to transfer the rents to us on a regular base.”He continued saying, in 2019, the Sharia Committee issued a decision providing for the confiscation of any property that was not managed...

Lebanese president's daughter 'doesn't mind' conditional peace with Israel "I defend the interests of my country Lebanon first. Are we required to remain in a state of war?" • Maronite leader: "Lebanon should be the last Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel." Claudine and Mireille Aoun, daughters of Lebanon's President Aoun arrive for a state dinner given at the Elysee palace in Paris (photo credit: STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS) Claudine Aoun Roukoz, daughter of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and head of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, stressed that she would "not mind" if Lebanon makes peace with...

A security firm in Tennessee cutting a deal with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Ellison's office probing an allegation that armed guards were being recruited for polling places in Minnesota... Efforts by President Trump's campaign to monitor activity at ballot drop boxes in Philadelphia with video recording may be voter intimidation. That's the view of... Pennsylvania's Supreme Court with an elected 5-2 Democrat majority ruling that that election ballots cannot be rejected for mismatched signatures... Is this all just a political stunt? That's what Republican lawmakers here in York County, Pennsylvania are asking... More towns added to Connecticut's Red Alert...

Israel's minister of regional cooperation said Wednesday that he expects normalize relations with another Arab state before the U.S. elections. Reuters reported that Ofir Akunis, who is also a member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, told Army Radio that the announcement would come before Nov. 3. "I have a reasonable basis to believe that the announcement will come before November 3 - that, if you'll permit me, is what I understand from my sources," he said, according to the news service. "I will be very happy if the announcement will happen - and before the elections in the United States,"...

Had the terrorists targeted non-kosher establishments with non-Jewish victims, Amman would likely have been cooperative.” An FBI “Most Wanted Terrorist” poster for Palestinian terrorist Ahlam Ahmad Tamimi, one of the masterminds of the Aug. 9, 2001 bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that led to the deaths of 15 civilians, two of them Americans. Speak to policy analysts or policy-makers about the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and you’ll frequently encounter a series of truisms. For example, that Jordan is both a friend of the West and a vital, respected component of the Arab world. Or that Jordan’s peace treaty...

A Russian fighter jet on Sunday reportedly came dangerously close to an Israeli passenger aircraft while on route from the Greek island of Rhodes to Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport. The incident occurred when the Israir flight entered Cypriot air space. No casualties or damage were reported. The Russian Sukhoi Su-27 came to within a mile from the Israir Airbus A320, a distance considered unsafe, for several minutes before air traffic controllers in Cyprus warned it away. Russia has fighter aircraft stationed in nearby Syria, where it is assisting the Assad regime in the civil war, leading to crowded skies in...

A joint American-Israeli delegation landed in Bahrain Sunday, where officials will be signing a number of bilateral agreements following an announcement last month to normalize relations. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, led the delegation that flew out of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on Sunday morning. Ben-Shabbat said ahead of departure the visit will ‘translate plans to actions and concrete agreements’ with the signing of a range of deals involving finance, investment, trade, tourism, communications, technology and agriculture.