Free Republic

Another day, another shot across the bow from Donald Trump aimed squarely at China. Having already participated (and in the case of one, precipitated) two mini diplomatic snafus with Beijing in just the past two weeks, Trump is sending a clear message to Beijing that US-China trade under his administration will be anything but business as usual, by creating a National Trade Council inside the White House to oversee industrial policy and has decided to appoint a hard core China hawk to run it. According to the FT, which broke the news, Trump has chosen Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist...

Truncated title. Full title: Philip Haney: Orlando Shooting ‘Remarkably Similar’ to San Bernardino, ‘There’s a Lot of Overlap in the Two Networks’ Department of Homeland Security whistleblower Philip Haney, who said an investigation into radical Islam that might have stopped the San Bernardino jihad attack was scuttled by DHS for politically-correct reasons, joined SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon for a special edition of Breitbart News Sunday on the evening after the Orlando shootings. Haney said he had some “devastating things to share” with the Breitbart News Daily audience about the Orlando case, based on his “expertise on the global Islamic...

Imagine a hotel room at the Plaza Hotel, shopping at Bloomingdales and dining at the Rainbow Room in Benghazi. Yes Benghazi, after all the most feared leader, Muammar Gaddafi is dead and all is calm after the attack on American interests in 2012. So, never let a good crisis go to waste. Libya had and has a deadly history where some elites had high aspirations for a new Libya. Trey Gowdy, the Chairman of the Benghazi Commission likely has some documented trails on Hillary’s future dreams for Libya, but you don’t and should know even more of the story. Libya,...

Firearms Trace Data 2012 New York SampleBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives WASHINGTON - -(Ammoland.com)-  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today released firearms trace data for all individual states and territories for calendar year 2012.The 2012 report includes first time released demographics data which includes a state–by–state breakdown of crime guns recovered and traced, age ranges of firearm possessor at the time of recovery, the type and caliber of firearms, and the criminal offense associated with the crime gun.Firearms tracing provides information on the movement of a firearm from its first sale by a manufacturer...

Just a few minutes ago our jib operator Justin came up to me. He said, ‘Glenn, out of all of the things you’ve covered in your life where does this fit in importance? And I said ‘Most people are going to think this is maybe 20 or 50.’ In the last 50 years this is we’ve had the Watts Riots, and the death of the Martin Luther King and the things that I have covered in the last 40 years, I would say this is top five. Maybe number 2. And possibly number one in importance. Number one, is clearly...

Anyone who believes that NATO’s overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi is a “success” for President Obama’s foreign policy should listen to the speech of Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council, at the “liberation day” celebrations in Benghazi: “We are an Islamic country,” the de facto president of Libya proclaimed to the crowds shouting “Allahu Akbar.” “We take the Islamic religion as the core of our new government. The constitution will be based on our Islamic religion.”

BENGHAZI, Libya – The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East says President Barack Obama has invited the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council to open an office in Washington D.C., but he stopped short of formal recognition. Tuesday's statement by Jeffrey Feltman comes hours after NATO launched its most intense bombardment yet against Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold of Tripoli.

It was here at the courthouse in Benghazi where the first spark of the Libyan revolution ignited. It’s the symbolic seat of the revolution; post-Gaddafi Libya’s equivalent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square. And it was here, in the tumultuous months of civil war, that the ragtag rebel forces established their provisional government and primitive, yet effective, media center from which to tell foreign journalists about their “fight for freedom.” But according to multiple eyewitnesses—myself included—one can now see both the Libyan rebel flag and the flag of al Qaeda fluttering atop Benghazi’s courthouse. According to one Benghazi resident, Islamists are driving...

Libya's interim authorities have named Tripoli academic Abdurrahim al-Keib as the new prime minister. The National Transitional Council (NTC) made the announcement days after declaring the country "liberated" following the death of Colonel Gaddafi.

This sort of thing really warms the heart: Muammar Gaddafi's 'trophy' body on show in Misrata meat storeGaddafi's body is now a Libya tourist attraction: (supposedly buried now) Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's problems. Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next to Gaddafi's body. They posed for...

The bodies of 53 people, believed to be supporters of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has been found in a hotel that was under the control of anti-Gadhafi fighters, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The rights group said it found the bodies clustered together at Hotel Mahari in Sirte on Sunday. About 20 residents were putting the bodies in body bags to prepare them for burial when Human Rights Watch found them. "We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently (Gadhafi) supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte, and some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot," said...

Libya's new regime fighters retreated under heavy fire from Muammar Gaddafi loyalists in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday as their leaders backtracked on an announcement they had captured one of his sons. The setback came as the National Transitional Council backtracked on claims it had captured Gaddafi's son Mutassim. The advancing fighters, who had been hoping to mop up the last pockets of resistance in two residential neighbourhoods in the northwest of the city, withdrew at least a mile to the central police headquarters they had captured on Tuesday, according to reports. "We have been told to retreat to...

TRIPOLI, Libya—Six weeks after the fall of Tripoli, the palmy days of rebel unity have begun to disintegrate into a spiral of infighting, political jockeying and even the occasional violent flare-up threatening to derail Libya's post-Gadhafi transition. Regional rivalries between fighters from the western mountains and Tripoli have in recent days come perilously close to exploding into open warfare in the capital. In some neighborhoods, multiple leaders claim sovereignty for their groups amid a deepening battle over the makeup of a citywide military council.

Four Republican senators traveled to Libya on Thursday, reports The Associated Press. Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) are expected to meet with members of the governing National Transitional Council and later tour Tripoli's Martyrs's Square. The senators were strong supporters of President Obama's decision to authorize U.S. involvement in NATO's campaign to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a move which faced opposition from both Democratic and GOP lawmakers. Although opposition forces now control the capital and much of the country, fighting has continued and Gadhafi remains on the loose.

Fighters aligned with Libya's National Transitional Council have launched a fierce two-pronged assault on Sirte with the support of heavy artillery, tanks and NATO warplanes. Al Jazeera correspondents said NTC fighters on Saturday had pushed into the center of the city, overrunning positions that forces loyal to deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi had held for months. Gaddafi's forces battled the attackers with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and snipers as explosions rocked Sirte and its outlying areas and plumes of smoke rose into the sky Ambulances have been carrying casualties from the fighting, with one medic estimating that one NTC fighter had...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Barack Obama promised the Libyan people that the world will stand with them as they reshape their country following the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime. Speaking at a high-level United Nations meeting Tuesday, the president warned that there would still be difficult days ahead in Libya, as Gadhafi loyalists make a final stand and the country's provisional leadership grapples with the complex task of setting up a new government. But Obama said it was clear that Libya was now in the hands of the people. "After decades of iron rule by one man, it will...

As leader of the newly formed Tripoli Military Council, Abdel Hakim Belhaj is arguably the most powerful military man in the Libyan capital. He stood victorious inside Col Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound last month, after fighters from his Tripoli Brigade broke through the defences of the ousted leader's fortress in the heart of the city. ... Mr Belhaj - known in the jihadi world as Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq - commanded the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). ... There, Mr Belhaj is alleged to have developed "close relationships" with al-Qaeda leaders and Taliban chief Mullah Omar, according to...

... But he also warned that he could quit as head of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) if he loses control of the revolution, amid possible revenge acts by insurgents. ... "I hail the leaders of these groups and I trust their words but some actions of some of their followers worry me. This might be the reason or the cause of my resignation," he said. But he added: "My role after the fall (of Kadhafi) will continue unless I lose control of the goals and inspiration that I aim for ... But I expect that revolutionaries will be...

The UK is to expel all employees of the Libyan Embassy, Sky sources have said, in a move likely to increase Muammar Gaddafi's isolation. There are eight staff members who work at the embassy in Knightsbridge, west London, Sky understands. Foreign editor Tim Marshall said the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) would replace the Gaddafi workers. "This is the official British confirmation and when all the existing Gaddafi staff are out, the NTC representatives in London will come in, and they will be officially recognised as representing the state of Libya," he said. More to follow...

Libyan rebel leaders met with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy here on Wednesday and asked him to support their plans to mount a military offensive on Tripoli aimed at toppling Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The delegation of rebel chiefs, which included senior officers from the port city of Misrata and a member of Libya's National Transitional Council, the main opposition group to Col. Gadhafi, said they needed more weapons and logistical assistance to oust the North African autocrat. "With a little help from some friends, we will be in Tripoli very soon, within days," NTC member Souleiman Fortia told reporters after the...