Free Republic

If you ask most people about the role of the Secret Service, they would say it protects the president and presidential candidates. However, the Secret Service now has various other functions unrelated to presidential protection, raising the question of whether guarding the president should be an “also.” Additionally, the president used to be guarded by big, strong men. Why is it wrong to consider that men and women have different skills and sizes, and perhaps guarding the president should remain the domain of big, strong men? The “Our Protective Mission” section of the Secret Service website explains that its original...

As usual, Biden’s federal government is aiming for the wrong target. Twenty armed IRS agents reportedly raided a Montana gun store, but only for forms filled out by gun purchasers. The Biden administration is apparently compiling data on gun owners.The Washington Free Beacon reported in January 2022 that the Biden administration had almost a billion of Americans’ gun purchase records in an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) database. It seems the administration is still gathering data on legal gun owners. This comes as Biden and Democrats push gun-grabbing measures and the IRS is set to hire 87,000 more agents...

What began as a fairly straightforward U.S. policy of arming the Ukrainians with defensive weapons against Russian aggression has now expanded into a dangerous and rapid escalation. We now have embarked on the inevitable slippery slope of mission creep and where we will end up will probably not be where we had intended. If history has taught us anything, it is that before engaging in an armed conflict, we must have a clearly defined end state and the strategy (the ends, way, and means) of achieving it. Right now, we have neither. The New York Times on Wednesday published an...

The U.S. military has requested that the White House grant it more freedom in its approach to fighting a terror group that has been wreaking havoc in North Africa in recent years, Military.com reported. Aggressions by the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia could erupt into an all-out war, but the head of U.S. Africa Command was looking for ways to avoid turning the country into a "free-fire zone," he said Friday. Specifically, Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser was looking for "a little bit more flexibility" to "process targets in a more rapid fashion," he told reporters at the Pentagon. That "flexibility"...

Bill Maher said after watching the recent Democratic primary debate co-hosted by Univision he realize there was a "real change" in the Democratic party's position on illegal immigration. It used to be comprehensive immigration reform, Maher said, now it's "you get across that river, you're here to stay." "Did you see the Democratic debate on Univision about a week ago?" Maher asked on Friday's edition of his HBO show Real Time. "Because there has been a real change with the Democrats, too. Mission Creep, I would call it. I understand their position was comprehensive immigration reform. Now, in front of...

The Ebola crisis has the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the spotlight. Despite consistent reassurances from CDC head Dr. Tom Frieden that he has the right plan in place to combat Ebola, past mistakes by his organization raises serious questions regarding its competency. A major part of CDC’s problem is a result of its bureaucracy’s drift into areas away from infectious disease. Obesity, gun violence and alcohol are now topics of concern for the CDC. In “CDC Mission Creep: A Dangerous and Wasteful Distraction,” FreedomWorks’ Josh Withrow wrote an analysis about the degree to which the CDC has strayed...

The Pentagon is preparing for a longer bombardment of Syria than it originally had planned, with a heavy barrage of missile strikes followed soon after by more attacks on targets that the opening salvos missed or failed to destroy, officials said. The planning for intense attacks over a three-day period reflects the growing belief in the White House and the Pentagon that the United States needs more firepower to inflict even minimal damage on Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, which have been widely dispersed over the last two weeks, the officials said.

(CBS News) The Pentagon has expanded the list of potential targets for a U.S. military strike on Syria, based on intelligence indicating that the Assad regime has moved around equipment used to deploy chemical weapons in anticipation of a potential attack. A Pentagon official insisted to CBS News correspondent David Martin that the scope of the operation has not changed, which President Obama has described as limited and tailored. The military began adding new targets to the list as Syrian troops started moving equipment "they think might be targeted and hiding some of it so the U.S. cannot find it...

* Shift would help fighters with non-lethal assistance * Steps intended to show greater support to Syria opposition * State Department has no comment; no monetary figures given (Adds quotes, background) WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The United States is expected to provide medical supplies and food aid to Syrian fighters, a policy shift to directly help those opposing President Bashar al-Assad's forces on the ground, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States continues to oppose providing lethal assistance and said it also will not provide such...

<p>Colonels and commanders who defected from Libya's military attended a ceremony in June to proclaim support for the revolution.</p> <p>RUJBAN, Libya — For months now, military leaders in the rebel capital, Benghazi, have boldly predicted lightning advances by their fighters and an imminent rout of the forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Tripoli that would finally snuff out his brutal four-decade rule.</p>

In its statement, NATO said that "a column of military vehicles, including tanks," were spotted Thursday around al-Brega where Gadhafi forces "had recently been operating." During what it called "a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario," leaders in the military alliance ordered a strike after determining these vehicles posed "a threat to civilians."

Sen. John McCain on Sunday said Libyan civilians are dying in large part because the Obama administration has refused to commit the full weight of the nation’s military to the fight to overthrow strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi. “This thing could have been over a long time ago,” Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican who was the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” (snip) A quicker end to the fighting, which must include the removal of Col. Gadhafi from power, Mr. McCain said, would make it less likely that terrorists would gain a foothold in Libya.

The UK is to send helicopters to Libya following similar announcements by France. Britain and France are to deploy attack helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the military stalemate, particularly in the important coastal city of Misrata, security sources have told the Guardian. In a significant escalation of the conflict, the Apaches – based on HMS Ocean – will join French helicopters in risky operations which reflect deepening frustration among British and French defence chiefs about their continuing inability to protect civilians. Apaches, which are being used in counter insurgency operations in Afghanistan, can manoeuvre and attack small...

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Libya's Moamer Kadhafi will "inevitably" leave or be forced from power, US President Barack Obama said on Thursday, as NATO declared it had significantly degraded the strongman's war machine. UN chief Ban Ki-moon told AFP, meanwhile, that attempts to secure a ceasefire in Libya have failed and the humanitarian crisis is worsening. Rebels fighting to overthrow Kadhafi also said they were increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Nafusa mountains even after a gaining control of the western lifeline city of Misrata. "Time is working against Kadhafi," Obama said in a major speech in response to...

Libyan rebels scored their most important victory in the nearly three-month old uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, when they captured the airport in Misrata on Wednesday, virtually taking control of the city. Gaddafi’s forces had been besieging Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, for two months and had driven the rebels into an area around the harbour, where they were subjected to constant rocket and artillery fire. Two Western journalists, one American and one British, were among the people killed by the heavy barrage during this time. “The airport and its approaches were the last remaining pieces of significant terrain in the city...

President Obama has authorized the use of aerial drone strikes in Libya to aid rebels fighting to oust dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Thursday. Gates stressed that even though the United States will begin using the armed Predator drones in Libya, American soldiers will not be deployed to the country. He said the Libyan people will have to remove Gadhafi themselves, though the U.S. "can provide them with some cover from the air." The announcement falls in line with the Obama administration's pledge to not put American boots on the ground to remove Gadhafi from power....

The Libya crisis....shows more clearly than ever how most E.U. countries are unwilling to match their defense ambitions with any broad strategic goals. .... At first, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, balked at giving NATO that role, hoping that France could take the lead. But eventually he had to realize that Europe was not going to become a defense player in its own right with France at the helm. “Libya confirmed France’s worst beliefs,” said Clara Marina O’Donnell, a defense expert at the Center for European Reform, a research organization in London. “It could not rely on its E.U. partners.”...

Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda, the Obama administration has notified Congress it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to the rebels’ effort to drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime from power. “The president’s proposed actions would provide urgently needed nonlethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya,” said Joseph E. Macmanus, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, in an April 15 letter. A copy of the letter, sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was obtained by The Washington Times.

British military officers will be sent to Libya to advise rebels fighting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces, the UK government has said. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the group would be deployed to the opposition stronghold of Benghazi. The BBC understands 10 UK officers and a similar number from France will give logistics and intelligence training. Mr Hague said it was compatible with the UN resolution on Libya, which ruled out foreign military ground action. He stressed that the officers would not be involved in any fighting and the move was needed to help protect civilians.

The UK prime minister has said the terms of the UN resolution on Libya are a "restriction" on the coalition powers who have been trying to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone. David Cameron said because under the resolution there would be no invasion or occupation in Libya the mission was made more difficult. He said it should also mean "things like helping, as we are, the interim transitional national council, assisting the rebels with non-lethal equipment, as we have done". "We've given them body armour, we've given them communications equipment. But of course, clearly we should be doing...