Free Republic

Top Republicans in Congress -- including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- criticized President Donald Trump over his decision to remove US troops from northern Syria as Turkey plans a military offensive there. McConnell urged Trump to reverse his move, saying "a precipitous withdrawal of US forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime."

Graham said that he and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., plan to introduce “veto-proof” bipartisan sanctions that will call for Turkey’s suspension from NATO if it invades Syria and attacks Kurdish forces. “This decision to abandon our Kurdish allies and turn Syria over to Russia, Iran, & Turkey will put every radical Islamist on steroids,” Graham added. “Shot in the arm to the bad guys. Devastating for the good guys.” Nikki Haley, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was unequivocal in her criticism. We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have...

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...

Iran is using advanced models of centrifuges to enrich uranium, President Hasan Rouhani confirmed today. The move marks another breach of the 2015 nuclear agreement which lifted economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for strict limits on the country's nuclear program. In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- a move which Iran says nullified its own obligations. Trump has since reinstated sanctions on Iran. Iran has already taken steps that are in breach of the landmark deal. It started increasing uranium enrichment beyond the purity threshold it...

COSTELLO: To most Americans it's an outrage -- a rape victim violated by seven men -- not only blamed for her own attack, but sentenced to prison and 200 lashes. The 19-year-old victim, interviewed by the Human Rights Watch organization, said: "Everyone looks at me as if I was wrong. I wanted to die." In Saudi Arabia, woman cannot travel without permission from a male relative. And that night, the Saudi victim -- without permission -- met a male friend to retrieve some photographs. Both were abducted and raped. She says: "The first man with the knife raped me. I...

I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Wait… you still need a hint? It rhymes with “rump.” Yes, Virginia Senator (and failed Vice Presidential candidate) Tim Kaine sat down yesterday with CNN’s John Berman to talk about the recent attack on a major Saudi Arabian oil refinery. Given all of the finger-pointing that’s been going on, surely he would be able to shed some light on things and offer a bit of clarity, right? Of course. And he quickly did, pinning the blame on Donald Trump for creating an atmosphere of war by continually “provoking” Iran...

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said Thursday that she would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal and end sanctions in response to Iran's involvement in drone attack against Saudi Arabia oil facilities if she was president. "What I would do is, I would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal to prevent Iran from continuing to move forward in building a nuclear weapon that puts us and the world further at risk," Gabbard said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum." " And number two... end those crippling sanctions. Every day that we don't do this, every day we continue down this...

(Video) Tulsi Gabbard: Trump response to Saudi oil strikes a 'disgrace' Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination criticized President Donald Trump’s response to an attack on an oil production facility in Saudi Arabia. Gabbard went on to argue Saudi Arabia’s promotion of extremist Wahhabi ideology was a bigger threat to the United States than Iran. Partial transcript as follows: CAVUTO: All right, so the interpretation I have is that you want to bring back that Iran deal, get — move back to that. .... GABBARD: No,...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) launched a profane attack on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy on Monday evening, denouncing the idea of defending Saudi Arabia: “We are not your prostitutes. You are not our pimp.

An editorial in the official Iranian Fars News today tacitly admits the goal of the Saudi attack this past weekend was to bring down Donald Trump’s 2020 Presidency. The title of the piece: The Iranian who Overthrew Carter Also Overthrows Trump Here is a translated version of the editorial from Fars News: Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, immediately accused Iran of seizing an attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil field, claiming that there was no evidence that the drones were fired from Yemen, Iranian soil had been fired. However, he did not provide any evidence for his allegations,...

Trump Hits Back At Lindsey Graham: If You Think It Was Weak Not To Bomb Iran, Remind Yourself How Iraq Turned Out My favorite thing about Trump is how little he gives Graham on foreign policy despite Graham kissing his ass relentlessly in hopes of turning him into a hawk. It’s commendable on the merits, in that Trump’s reluctance to wage war is a welcome corrective to the McCain/Graham-style of hyperinterventionism that ruled the GOP for years. But it’s also gratifying on a gut level, even as a Trump skeptic. “One of Trump’s more likable qualities is his penchant for...

Putin offers to sell Saudi Arabia its missile defense systems in the wake of the attack on its oil facilities. “We are ready to help Saudi Arabia so that she can protect her territory,” he says. “She can do so in the same way that Iran has already done in buying the S-300 Russian missile system and the same way that Turkey has already done in buying the S-400 Russian missile system,” Putin adds at a press conference in Ankara, alongside the Turkish and Iranian leaders. The US has blamed Iran for the attack on the Saudi oil facilities.

Saudi Arabia displayed remnants of what it described as Iranian drones and cruise missiles used in an attack on Saudi oil facilities as “undeniable” evidence of Iranian aggression. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said a total of 25 drones and missiles were launched at two oil plants in last weekend’s strikes, including what he identified as Iranian Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and “Ya Ali” cruise missiles.

RIYADH — The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said that preliminary investigations indicated that the weapons used in the attacks on two Saudi Aramco oil facilities are Iranian. The Coalition spokesperson Col. Turki Al-Maliki said that an investigation into Saturday's strikes, which had been claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, was still going on to determine the launch location. The drones used in the attack were of the Ababil make, a low-technology drone, the spokesperson added.“The investigation is continuing and all indications are that weapons used in both attacks came from Iran,” Al-Maliki told...

The Houthis, a rebel army fighting against Saudi-led interests in Yemen, claimed credit for launching the attacks on Saturday. However, the U.S. government now says it believes the assault was launched from Iran, and that it may have involved cruise missiles rather than drones.The strikes centered on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq refinery. Abqaiq is the world’s largest oil refinery, processing about two-thirds of the total Saudi supply each day. Saudi Arabia is the world’s second-largest producer of crude oil behind the United States.Several large Saudi oil fields were also attacked. Those attacks, along with the disruption of the Abqaiq refinery...

ANKENY, Iowa -- As many presidential candidates call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanuagh, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard focused on other issues during her campaign stop in Ankeny. Gabbard opened up the town hall by referencing a CNN article and criticizing President Donald Trump for “bending the knee to the wishes of Saudi Arabia” and for using American military to “carry out that country’s wishes.” “People like Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration, they’ve been trying to go to war with Iran for a really long time and they are really taking action and laying down the...

The Houthi rebels of Yemen have launched numerous attacks using drones and even missiles on Saudi Arabia in the months leading up to Saturday morning's attack on two Saudi oil installations. The attacks coming from a southerly direction where the Iranian backed rebels have been fighting a Saudi military coalition backed by the United States and United Kingdom in a brutal war widely condemned with the United Nations recently saying that all sides in the conflict and those nations behind them may be guilty of war crimes. Now the United States says that based on: "data" and "satellite images" Iran...

Because we have done so well with Energy over the last few years (thank you, Mr. President!), we are a net Energy Exporter, & now the Number One Energy Producer in the World. We don’t need Middle Eastern Oil & Gas, & in fact have very few tankers there, but will help our Allies!

A wise man once wrote that 'wisdom is vindicated by her children.' (Matthew 11:19) Or, to put it another way, that we can judge who is truly wise by how their actions work out. If we accept that axiom, then the wisdom of electing our president should be becoming increasingly obvious. Undeniable, really. A case in point: Back in the 1970s, the economy of the Western world was held up for ransom by a few relatively unstable Middle Eastern nations. This, because they, by an act of nature, owned much of the energy upon which the modern world depends. Since...

A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had reason to believe it knew who was behind the attack — his secretary of state had blamed Iran the previous day — and assured his Twitter followers that “we are ... locked and loaded” depending on verification and were waiting to...