Free Republic

Jamal Khashoggi hated America and Jews. That’s why Biden loves him. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his confirmation hearing by reciting a family history of antisemitism. A month later he unveiled a ban named in the memory of an antisemite. “Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs,” Blinken claimed. Those beliefs that Khashoggi gave his life for included his contention that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were real, and that Jews were deceivers with no connection to Israel. It also included the Muslim Brotherhood member’s support for the Hamas war against Israel. Last October,...

Democrat optimists may believe that Biden's travel to the Middle East will be a foreign policy success, which would impact Democrat chances of remaining in control of Congress. Israel and Jordan have important commercial shipping seaports in the Gulf of Aqaba. Tiran and Sanafir, islands in the Strait of Tiran, are strategic to international shipping between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. Egypt and Saudi Arabia each claim control of this strait. It is reported that Joe Biden is working behind the scenes to broker a deal that would transfer sovereignty of these islands from Egypt to Saudi...

In a televised statement, a spokesman for the rebel group, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sarea, said ballistic missiles and drones hit the oil giant’s facilities in Ras Tanura, a major port on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast and one of its largest refineries, and military positions in nearby Dammam. Saudi state media later confirmed the Ras Tanura attack, quoting an unnamed Energy Ministry official saying that one petroleum tank farm was attacked Sunday morning. The official said shrapnel from a ballistic missile fell near Aramco’s residential area in Dhahran, which hosts thousands of employees and their families, but there were no...

Pinning the death of Jamal Khashoggi on Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is important to those who want to return to the Obama-era alignment of the U.S. with Iran, not Saudi Arabia, as our principal relationship with the Middle East Muslim world. MbS, as he is known, is a committed modernizer, favorable to warming relations with Israel. Damaging his global standing with the tar of culpability for the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi could even lead to his fall from the pinnacle of power in Riyadh.Caroline Glick explains who Khashoggi really was — not an actual "journalist" or "columnist"...

“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel. Specifically, the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS). This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with Coalition partners. The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to...

There was finally a trial held in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, though most people probably weren’t aware of it. The entire thing was done in secret, with only a handful of people being allowed to attend. Despite this complete lack of transparency, their business concluded today with a number of guilty verdicts and five people being sentenced to death. Of course, if you were expecting any sort of punishment for Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman or the members of his inner circle, I’d like a double shot of whatever you’ve been drinking. (NY Post) A court in Saudi...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Francis said Tuesday that the latest round of financial scandal at the Vatican is actually a success story, because the situation was revealed thanks to an internal Vatican probe, which he said demonstrates that new controls are working. The pontiff also called both owning and deploying nuclear weapons “immoral,” saying that point should be added to the Catholic catechism, and suggested that it might be time to re-think the veto power wielded by a handful of countries in the United Nations Security Council. His comments came during an airborne news conference on the return...

Jared Kushner gave permission to Saudi ruler Mohammad bin Salman to arrest Jamal Khashoggi before he was killed and dismembered, a whistleblower claims. However, Turkish intelligence intercepted the call and President Recep Erdogan then used the information to force President Trump to remove his troops from northern Syria, according to the Spectator. The report claims that investigators on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee are aware of these allegations and are planning to dig further into them while pursuing the impeachment inquiry over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

While the Left was spinning conspiracy theories about conservatives and Russian trolls on social media, its own social feeds were filled with Iranian and Qatari propaganda showing a Pallywood production of "starving children" in Yemen caused by the Saudi campaign against Iran's Houthi Jihadis. The Iranian-Qatari propaganda has been so successful that even a number of Republicans voted for a Qatari Senate resolution targeting the Saudis and backing Qatar, and by extension, Iran. But the media has been the greatest vector for propaganda on behalf of the Iranian terror campaign in Yemen. Take the latest Washington Post report on the...

The Washington Post’s ties to Islamic terrorists are a national security risk. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is not only the richest person in the world, with an estimated $156 billion, but is a heavyweight political donor who has outspent other S&P 500 CEOs by a factor of 10. Bezos was the 12th biggest political donor of the 2018 cycle, coming in behind Bloomberg and Soros. And, even more importantly, Bezos owns the Washington Post. The powerful political tabloid sets the agenda in the government city, but it’s also raising questions about whether Amazon is a security risk for reasons that...

Jamal Khashoggi’s op-eds published in the very influential Washington Post certainly qualify as attempts to change U.S. policy against Saudi Arabia and in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Washington Post has caused itself a major scandal since it has come to light they and their martyred “reformer” Jamal Khashoggi were publishing anti-Saudi propaganda for Qatar. They tried to bury this in a pre-Christmas Saturday news dump, but that can’t stop the damage this will do to their reputation.“Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the...

It’s been a grim year for those seeking to pursue and preserve the truth. Journalists around the world have been targeted and assaulted for their work. Some have paid with their freedom; others have paid with their lives. Even the president of the United States — a country that has prided itself on having freedom of the press since its founding — has repeatedly attacked the media as “the enemy of the people.” Other world leaders have echoed this aggressive stance against the media, cracking down on reporters who have tried to hold them accountable. We are living through nothing...

• A nightmare scenario involving a potential armed showdown between Saudi Arabia and Iran would put America and President Trump in a high-stakes dilemma. • U.S. policy performs best when focused on a longer-term strategic purpose. In the Middle East, the approach must be on preventing any new conflicts, ending civil wars and unlocking the region's human potential while opposing extremism, writes Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe. • The U.S. and its Western allies should leverage the post-Khashoggi crisis to achieve some good in the Middle East, Kempe writes....

Homeland Insecurity: The New York Times thinks the Boston bombers "self-radicalized" on the Web. But it didn't look at their mosque, which has churned out other terrorists, too. USA Today, on the other hand, did look at their mosque — the Islamic Society of Boston — and found "a curriculum that radicalizes people," according to a local source quoted in the paper's investigation. "Other people have been radicalized there." In fact, several ISB members and leaders have been convicted or suspected of terrorism, including: (snipped) Abdurahman ,Alamoudi,Aafia Siddiqui, Ahmad Abousamra, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Jamal Badawi, and The Tsarnaev brothers,

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia would not have murdered prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi without American protection, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Saudi authorities staged the "worst cover-up ever" in the killing of Khashoggi in Turkey this month, as Washington vowed to revoke the visas of some of those believed to be responsible. "No one would imagine that in today's world and a new century that we would witness such an organised murder and a system would plan out such a heinous murder," Rouhani said, according...

Khashoggi’s murder is only a symptom of a much bigger problem. The biggest mistake the Trump administration made in the Jamal Khashoggi case occurred while Khashoggi was still alive: letting Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, think he could get away with something so heinous — and so heinously stupid. But the bell was rung, as it were, and there is no way to unring it. The Saudis surely made everything worse by lying about it. But the aftermath is such a complicated mess because it illuminates decisions made long before Prince Mohammed’s goons brought a bone saw to...

Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found, according to two Sky sources. The sources have told Sky News the writer had been "cut up" and his face "disfigured". One source also suggested Mr Khashoggi's remains were discovered in the garden of the Saudi consul general's home - situated around 500 metres away from the consulate. It puts paid to the explanation being put about by Saudi officials that the body was rolled up in a carpet and handed to a local collaborator who was tasked with disposing of the evidence. It comes as pictures have been...

Some conservatives have been peddling smears against missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an effort to cushion President Donald Trump from blowback over his handling of the situation with Saudi Arabia, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Efforts to raise questions about Khashoggi have made their way to Capitol Hill, where a group of House Republicans have been circulating articles from conservative outlets that tie the missing journalist to the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden, the Post reported. Among those circulating such claims is Donald Trump Jr., who last week retweeted an unsubstantiated claim insinuating Khashoggi is a terrorist sympathizer....

Since the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared over two weeks ago, details from the police investigation, including gory descriptions of audio recordings that reveal he was killed in Tarantino-like fashion, have been leaked, drip by drip, to keep the world suspended as the mystery unfolds. The calculated media strategy has proved remarkably effective for the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ensuring that the case remains front-page news around the world. But it has also served a deeper agenda — to push the United States to pressure Saudi Arabia — while shielding the government behind the news media to avoid...

Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) claimed without evidence Friday that White House adviser Jared Kushner may have prompted the Saudi government to assassinate journalist Jamal Khashoggi by including his name on an “enemies list” provided to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. During an appearance on CNN, Castro cited “reporting that Jared Kushner may have, with U.S. intelligence, delivered a hit list, an enemies list, to the crown prince, to MBS, in Saudi Arabia and that the prince may have acted on that, and one of the people he took action against is Mr. Khashoggi.” Curtis Houck ✔ @CurtisHouck Video: Here's...