Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is restricting the information Border Patrol agents and sector chiefs can share with the media as a surge of migrants tests the agency's capacity at the southern border, according to four current and two former Customs and Border Protection officials. The officials say the restrictions are seen as an unofficial "gag order" and are often referred to that way among colleagues. The officials requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media about the topic. Border Patrol officials have been told to deny all media requests for "ride-alongs" with agents along the...

Myanmar security forces killed at least 38 people Sunday in one of the deadliest days since the military seized power in a coup, and declared martial law in six areas after Chinese-funded factories were set on fire. The heaviest casualties were in an industrial suburb of the largest city Yangon, where military and police opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing at least 22, according to the advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which said Hlaingthaya district "became like a battlefield." In one unverified image, a protester can be seen huddling under a makeshift shield as he holds...

As we all know, the last election was a “tipping point” election on many different levels. An election won with the use of illegal last-minute changes to state election laws has led to a rogue regime that threatens the very foundations of America. This is being achieved through highly questionable executive orders, the decimation of the concept of national sovereignty and an attack on fossil fuels, the lifeblood of our economy. Moreover, Biden is converting our military into a social justice agency and transforming our intelligence services into witch-hunters for conservatives who dared to protest a stolen election. More alarming...

Democrats, the crisis makers, may discover that they’re mired in a crisis of their own making. The Biden administration has enjoyed no honeymoon. The cabal that addled Joe Biden fronts really didn’t want one. Bridge-building, comity, and compromise are passé. What Ron Klain, Susan Rice, and a knot of plutocrats and “progressives” who pull Joe’s strings want are crises. Manufactured crises are just as good as the real deals. They’re opportunities not to be wasted. Not wasted for what, you may ask? Not wasted for power and money. Democrats’ reflexive appeals to compassion and kumbaya are shabby, if serviceable, ploys....

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is demanding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “tear down” the wall surrounding the U.S. Capitol, highlighting the hypocrisy of Democrats who spent the last four years decrying such boundaries as unacceptable, particularly on the U.S. border. “You protect what you love,” Boebert said in the newly released ad outside of the U.S. Capitol. “President Trump built a big, beautiful wall because he loves America and he wanted to secure our country and protect us from drugs, illegal aliens pouring into our communities, and sex traffickers.” “Democrats, they fought him every step of the way. And now, welcome...

A task force empowered by Nancy Pelosi to review security following the Capitol riot on January 6th has recommended the formation of a “quick reaction force” of federal officers to provide security at that location. The House Speaker announced in January that retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré would lead a team of experts in a security review of the Capitol following the riot. “We suffered a devastating attack on the Capitol that threatened the lives of and traumatized Members of Congress, staff and support workers,” she announced at the time. Fox News reports that Honoré’s task force made...

Robert Mugabe, the longtime leader of Zimbabwe who was forced to resign in 2017 after a military takeover, has died. His successor Emmerson Mnangagwa confirmed Mugabe’s death in a tweet Friday, mourning him as an “icon of liberation.” Mugabe was a former guerrilla chief who took power after the end of white minority rule in 1980 and presided over a country whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil and human rights violations.

Putin enemy found dead in London eight days after Skripal poisoning, as counter-terror police launch investigation ounter-terrorism police have opened an investigation into the “unexplained” death on British soil of an arch enemy of Vladimir Putin, just eight days after the nerve gas assassination attempt on a Russian double agent. Nikolai Glushkov, 68, the right-hand man of the deceased oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Mr Putin’s one-time fiercest rival, was found dead at his London home on Monday. A Russian media source said Glushkov, the former boss of the state airline Aeroflot, who said he feared he was on a Kremlin hit-list,...

Back in March, Radio Sweden reported on the Swedish right-wing extremists, who went to Ukraine in order to support the cause of "nationalist", in their opinion, the revolution. Now, for the head of one of them, the separatists announced a cash award of 80,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (about 5000 euros). Italian war correspondent Fausto Biloslavo / Fausto Biloslavo able to meet with several Swedes fighting in Ukraine against the pro-Russian separatists. German edition of the Swedish Radio, he said that he met with Swedish neo-Nazis during his time with the battalion "Azov" in eastern Ukraine. According to him, the Swedes, whom...

I know the adage goes “let him who is without sin, cast the first stone,” but some people deserve to be written a ticket to damnation…with the greatest sin being utter stupidity. Meet televangelist Rick Joyner (pictured), who recently made headlines for openly praying to God for a military takeover of the U.S. government. While appearing on ”Prophetic Perspective on Current Events,” Joyner claimed that democracy in America has failed and that the nation might not last even to the end of President Barack Obama‘s term. Why not? Well, according to Rev. Crazy Town, America is teetering toward tyranny. You...

Pope Francis did not denounce me to Argentinian junta, says priest Francisco Jalics, who was imprisoned for five months in the 1970s, says he and the new pope reconciled in 2000" Jonathan Watts The Guardian, Wednesday 20 March 2013 ..."I myself was once inclined to believe that we were the victims of a denunciation," Jalics said. "[But] at the end of the 90s, after numerous conversations, it became clear to me that this suspicion was unfounded. It is therefore wrong to assert that our capture took place at the initiative of Father Bergoglio."... ...The latest comments follow a less categorical...

The IDF Civil Administration on Thursday took the unprecedented step of rejecting a government plan to normalize the status of the Sansana community in the South Hebron Hills. In Israel, as in other democracies, military officials are beholden to policy decisions made by civilian officials and are expected to implement their directives in good faith. The Civil Administration decision that "there is no justification for a new settlement, as [new homes] can be constructed within an existing settlement" comes 12 years after Sansana was established. In 1997 a Nahal outpost was established at Sansana, but the first homes were not...

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak two months ago. The blogger, Maikel Nabil, 26, had assailed the Egyptian armed forces for what he called its continuation of the corruption and anti-democratic practices of Mr. Mubarak. Mr. Nabil often quoted from reports by established human rights groups. “Maikel is the first prisoner of conscience in Egypt after the revolution,” Adel Ramadan, one of his...

At the very least, the administration has wasted a huge amount of the nation’s time. At worst, Obama is in fact not eligible to be President. Would that be uncomfortable? Would it be inconvenient? Would it be problematic? Of course. But this nation has survived many traumatic events in its past and would survive this. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land- and it must be upheld.

In my last post on Burma, I reported the second meeting in as many months between Senator Jim Webb and Nyan Win, the foreign minister for the Burmese junta. This time the meeting was in Washington, which required that Win be granted a visa waiver (he, like the rest of the junta's senior figures, is on a prohibited list). [snip] Foreign Minister Nyan Win is actually Major General Nyan Win in the Burmese Army. Before heading up the Foreign Ministry where he became the point man for explaining away the butchery his regime visits on the Burmese people, he was...

Barack Obama got to play peacemaker during his staged meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. In a throwback to Bill Clinton's famous photo op on the White House Lawn with Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, Obama stood between the men, holding their arms as the two shook hands.

Thousands of Guineans on Wednesday cheered a young army captain chosen as de facto head of state by the military junta that took over the West African country in a coup after the death of President Lansana Conte. The installation of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara as leader of the world's top bauxite exporter went ahead despite international condemnation and statements opposing the coup from civilian leaders and the top military commander. The coup leaders, calling themselves the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), appeared unopposed in their control of the Guinean capital Conakry two days after Conte's death from...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/11/20081117-3.html For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary November 17, 2008 White House News Statement by the Press Secretary on Burma Burma: Continued Arbitrary Sentencing In the last few days in Burma, Than Shwe's brutal regime arbitrarily sentenced additional pro-democracy activists to harsh prison terms. This brings the total number of persons convicted since November 7 to at least 86. Brave Burmese patriots such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, and Htay Kywe, were among those who have been sentenced to 65 years' imprisonment for their peaceful participation in the August...

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food and stepped up a campaign to evict displaced citizens from aid shelters, an international human rights group said Thursday. London-based Amnesty International also said authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert aid despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the problem weeks ago. "Unless human rights safeguards are observed, tens of thousands of people remain at risk," Amnesty said in a report released Thursday. "Respect for human rights must be at the center of the relief effort." More than a...

U.S. Navy ships positioned off the coast of Myanmar will soon leave the area after the country's junta refused to give them permission to deliver aid to cyclone victims, a top U.S. commander said Wednesday. Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Essex and other ships will resume their previous operations Thursday.