Free Republic

President Donald Trump has secured the release of two American hostages held captive by Houthis in Yemen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.  "We join all Americans in welcoming their newly regained freedom," he tweeted. The two Americans, Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada, and the remains of a third, Bilal Fateen, were released in exchange for the return of about 250 of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Oman, according to the White House.  Oman's state news said the American captives were flown out of Yemen on an Omani plane. It said 250 "Yemeni brothers" who received treatment in Oman have been returned to Yemen's...

In the wake of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, there are rumors that several other states could be next to sign an agreement with Israel. While there are hurdles to normalizing relations with some states in the Middle East, there are others who view the UAE decision as a trial balloon and will react positively based on how the next weeks and months play out between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. What follows is a list of some countries that reports suggest may be in line to normalize relations. Bahrain Bahrain was long thought to...

CAIRO, March 29 (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said early on Sunday that the kingdom's air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles on Saturday night launched by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group towards Riyadh and the city of Jizan, Saudi state news agency (SPA) said citing the coalition's spokesman. The coalition's spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malki, said in a statement that no fatalities had been recorded so far. He said destroying the missiles caused some shrapnel to fall on residential neighbourhoods in the two cities, SPA reported. The spokesman added that firing missiles at this time by the Houthis and...

A projection of how many will die from Covid-19 infection in the United States and the President signaling a longer duration for the coronavirus situation but first A riot broke out at a prison in northeastern Syria housing Islamic State detainees and operated by Kurdish elements of the "Syrian Democratic Forces". Some prisoners escaped and others took over a floor of the prison.... The shape of a new "unity" government in Israel is emerging that will raise the profile of the political faction headed by the former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz that calls itself the Israel...

"Hello Goodbye" by the Beatles, a number one song from early 1968 here in the USA. That's around the time my father left the factory to higher paying and longer lasting government employment as inflation kicked in here in the USA. Lyndon Johnson was ramping up government with Medicare and Medicaid and the cost of medical care was beginning to skyrocket, debt was beginning to accumulate and wow here we are 23 trillion dollars plus later. The 2021 federal budget proposed by President Trump adds another 966 billion to that. Well the currency is devalued and its easy to tell...

Jury deliberations in the rape and sexual assault trial of movie mogul and Democratic Party donor Harvey Weinstein set to begin Tuesday.... Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was a vocal critic of President Trump and lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the President, found guilty of attempted extortion... The Russian and Turkish military leader talking about the situation in Syria's Idlib province.... In Syria today two Syrian soldiers killed when their helicopter was downed with Turkish weaponry..... Another pro-Israel delegation making a trip to Saudi Arabia.... The Acting US Attorney in Washington opting to drop a criminal...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. at his direction has conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year's deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors. Al-Rimi is a founder of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The affiliate has long been considered the global network’s most dangerous branch for its attempts to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland. Trump said the U.S. and its allies are safer as a result of his death. “We will continue to protect...

“I do not fear Trump. We must thank the new American president because he showed the real face of America and because he exposed what we have been saying for decades about the political, moral and economic corruption in it.” This is the recent statement made by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against the newly-elected US administration. Yes, we’re passing through a new phase. There has been a major transformation following the reactive years of isolationism which show the depth of the roots that America has returned to in terms of engaging with world crises and contributing to managing...

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

The polls have closed in Austria's special election called after a video sting operation against the anti-mass immigration Freedom Party. The Freedom Party is still standing in spite of the situation, but with a reduced share of the vote..... The talks to form a new government continued in Israel Sunday..... As Israel moved into the Rash Hashanah New Year holiday, details of the upcoming pre-indictment hearing involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out. The evidence review hearing will be spread out over two weeks and start on Wednesday...... From Saudi Arabia news of the murder of a bodyguard of King...

Houthi rebels in Yemen say they have captured a large number of Saudi troops after a major attack near the border between the two countries. A Houthi spokesman told the BBC that three Saudi brigades had surrendered near the Saudi town of Najran. He said thousands of soldiers had been captured and many others killed. Saudi officials have not confirmed the claim. The operation was the largest of its kind since the conflict began, the spokesman said. Colonel Yahiya Sarea said Saudi forces had suffered "huge losses in life and machinery". All those captured would be paraded on the Houthi-run...

"This can't wait until I finish high school" That's what one protest sign said today as students in the United States and around the world skipped classes to protest about climate change.... Britain's Prince Andrew called an "abuser" and a "participant" by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Guiffre... The Battle of Brexit. The Conservative Party closing ranks against Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party as Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeks to cut a deal with the European Union that is seen as a "fake Brexit"...... Meanwhile in Brussels Friday Boris Johnson's Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay meeting with European Union Chief Negotiator...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is blaming Iran for drone attacks Saturday against Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure. The attacks, attributed to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, sparked huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies. But in Saturday tweets, Pompeo says "there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen" and points the finger at Tehran. He adds, "Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply."

(Moderator, if I can't excerpt the BBC, please note) Drone attacks have set alight two major oil facilities run by the state-owned company Aramco in Saudi Arabia, state media say. Footage showed a huge blaze at Abqaiq, site of Aramco's largest oil processing plant, while a second drone attack started fires in the Khurais oilfield. The fires are now under control at both facilities, state media said. A spokesman for the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks. The military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, told al-Masirah TV, which is owned by the Houthi movement...

<p>In recent months, the Yemeni Houthi movement has intensified drone and missile attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities. The coalition has reacted by striking the movement's positions in northern Yemen. Yemen's Houthis have stated that they attacked an "important target" in the Saudi capital Riyadh with an armed drone, Reuters reported citing a spokesman.</p>

China and Russia declare “solidarity” with Iran after Gulf tanker attacks “Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed solidarity with Iran…even as the U.S. Navy revealed evidence the Iranians were behind the terrorist attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.” The two oil tankers were Japanese and Norwegian. The U.S. military released a video it says “shows Iran’s Revolutionary Guard taking an unexploded mine from the hull of one of two oil tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman.” Tehran’s usual response was denial, and it also accused the U.S. of “waging...

...twenty-one sailors from the M/T Kokuka Courageous who had abandoned their ship after discovering a probable unexploded limpet mine on their hull... At 4:10 p.m. local time an IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Gashti Class patrol boat approached the M/T Kokuka Courageous and was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine from the M/T Kokuka Courageous (video attached). The United States has no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East. However, we will defend our interests.

Lots of differing accounts from different media sources. Some say the tankers were attacked, a couple say “ torpedoed”. Bottom line, there was an incident nvolving two large oil tankers, one is on fire.

Dubai: Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said on Tuesday that two oil pumping stations for the East-West pipeline had been hit by explosive-laden drones, calling the attack "an act of terrorism" that targeted global oil supplies. Falih condemned the attacks in a statment saying: "The latest acts of terrorism and sabotage in the Arabian Gulf... not only target the Kingdom but also the security of oil supplies to the world and the global economy." "These attacks prove again that it is important for us to face terrorist entities, including the Houthi militias in Yemen that are backed by Iran,"...

WASHINGTON — An American kidnapped two years ago in Yemen while helping coordinate aid for Unicef and the Red Cross also had a second, secret role: He was shipping materials for elite military commandos under a clandestine contract his employer had with the Pentagon. The arrangement with Special Operations forces has never been made public. {snip} Mr. Darden’s work offers a rare look into the shadowy world of military contractors that operate in lawless war zones like Yemen, Somalia and Libya. But arrangements like the one Transoceanic had with Special Operations forces can cast suspicion over aid workers, potentially putting...