Free Republic

Intelligence officials informed President Donald Trump two weeks before he took office that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed his spying operation to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to a new report. .... Intelligence officials informed President Donald Trump two weeks before he took office that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed his spying operation to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to a new report.

Breaking News: 21 Killed in Shootout Between Mexican Gangs Near U.S. Border

Stocks fell sharply Thursday after an unexpected spike in jobless claims and as global jitters pushed the dollar higher. -snip- The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 300 points, or almost 3 percent, and the CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, spiked more than 20 percent to above 43, its highest level in over a year.

Pakistanis do not doubt that President Obama's troop buildup will give U.S. and allied forces more wherewithal to uproot Taliban militants from their strongholds in Afghanistan. What worries them is that the strategy will push Afghan Taliban over the porous border and bolster the ranks of brethren militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, security experts say. Pakistanis remain skeptical that Obama's new blueprint for winning the war in Afghanistan will pacify their volatile, unstable neighbor to the west. They put little, if any, trust in Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government has been crippled by widespread corruption, and they doubt that...

President and Commander In Chief Barrack Obama was at West Point tonight to announce his plans for continuing the war in Afghanistan. Finally, in what was over three months after General McChrystal had asked for an additional forty thousand troops, a request that included the warning that without these troops the war may be lost, in another narcissistic, uninspiring and consistently contradictory speech Obama gave the Nation his answer. While leaving out the fact that Obama has been insisting for the last two years during his campaign that Afghanistan is a war that must be won, he shamelessly explained why...