Free Republic

In May, an American investor tried to sell top German economic officials on an audacious plan to buy a Russian undersea pipeline. Despite years of international friction over the pipeline, he proposed to eventually activate it and deliver natural gas to Germany. The investor, Stephen P. Lynch, had already made the pitch to the Trump administration, which he was betting would want U.S. control over a pivotal piece of energy infrastructure. Now the Germans wanted to hear for themselves about Mr. Lynch’s proposal to lead a takeover of the much-criticized pipeline on the floor of the Baltic Sea, called Nord...

I nominate Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, as the most inconsistent, mysterious, and therefore most unpredictable major politician on the world stage. His victory in a referendum last Sunday formally bestows him with near-dictatorial powers that leave Turkey, the Middle East, and beyond in a greater state of uncertainty than ever.Here are some of the puzzles:Mystery #1: Holding the referendum. The Turkish electorate voted on April 16 in a remarkable national plebiscite that dealt not with the usual topic – floating a bond or recalling a politician – but with fundamental constitutional changes affecting the very nature of their...

Washington, DC ~ Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for DeliveryGood afternoon, everyone.  Thank you for joining us.Today, we are announcing the results of Project Python, a multilateral interagency operation targeting the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also known as CJNG.  This operation was led by the DEA, and on behalf of the Department, I want to thank Acting Administrator Dhillon for his strong leadership in the fight against transnational organized crime. And I want to express my appreciation for the courageous law enforcement professionals of the DEA – the men and women who, day in and day out, put...

SANDY — A Utah couple is being accused of money laundering and smuggling oil into the U.S. alongside Mexican cartels, after they were arrested during a multi-state raid by U.S. Marshals, according to court documents. James Lael Jensen and his wife, Kelly Anne Jensen, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Wednesday. The couple and two of his sons are being federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 2,881 shipments of oil from Mexico that they knew were illegal. The family is accused of moving at least $300 million from Mexico to the U.S. The couple was arrested...

<p>WASHINGTON — After a bombing killed 19 U.S. airmen at a barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the Clinton administration struck back by unmasking Iranian intelligence officers around the world, significantly disrupting Iranian-backed terrorism, according to a high-level U.S. official and a former top official who was serving at the time of the operation.</p>

PRAGUE, August 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Moscow's new diplomatic assertiveness was on display for the world to see during last month's G8 summit in St. Petersburg. And one controversial topic that dominated the run-up to the summit has remained in the spotlight -- Russia's repeatedly stated intention of following its own democratic path, dubbed "sovereign democracy." The concept was formulated by Vyacheslav Surkov, the deputy chief and prime ideologue of President Vladimir Putin's administration. Surkov began floating the new ideology during speeches to activists of the pro-presidential Unified Russia party in February and May. Sovereign Democracy As outlined by Surkov...

While Greenpeace denied it played more than a peripheral role in the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline owner claimed the group organized a campaign of misinformation and direct training to the protesters... ANorth Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over its role in months-long protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. After two days of deliberation, the New York Times reported, the jury returned the verdict. Energy Transfer, the owner and operator of the pipeline, filed the lawsuit in North Dakota state court against...

Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (file photo) Serving as president of Estonia between 2006 and 2016, and foreign minister before that, Toomas Hendrik Ilves has always been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin's Russia. Speaking by Zoom from Estonia, Ilves pours water on the idea of negotiating with Russia and says that Georgia's position on the war in Ukraine is "absolutely despicable." RFE/RL: There are many people who think that the roots of what is going on now in Ukraine, and what happened in Georgia in 2008, go back to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest and the refusal...

Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers reported, as Moscow moves to recapture parts of its border province that Kyiv seized in a shock offensive. According to Telegram posts by a Ukrainian-born, pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) inside the pipeline, which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe. Some Russian troops had spent several days in the pipe before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near the town of Sudzha, blogger Yuri Podolyaka claimed....

JD Vance and his family were confronted by angry pro-Ukraine protesters during their trip to Vermont. The family was then moved to an 'undisclosed location'. US Vice-President JD Vance and his family were met with intense protests during their weekend trip to Vermont. Angry pro-Ukraine protesters criticized Vance for being 'mean' to Volodymyr Zelensky during the Ukrainian President's visit to the White House on Friday. The protesters booed Vance and told him to 'go ski in Russia"...

For years, I have written about Gov. Maura Healey blocking the construction of more natural gas pipelines in Massachusetts that would increase our supplies and reduce costs. As attorney general, one of her first acts was to commission a study by a greeny organization that predictably downplayed the need for more capacity, despite 33 other studies, including one by Gov. Deval Patrick, that all concluded the Commonwealth had a major problem. Now the chickens have finally come home to roost with exorbitant bills hitting rate payers. It was the most predictable, most easily-prevented disaster ever. Trying to avoid responsibility, Healey...

In Minnesota, climate activist Jessica Reznicek self-reported to the Waseca Federal Correctional Facility Thursday to begin serving an eight-year prison sentence for damaging parts of the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Reznicek and fellow activist Ruby Montoya set fire to five pieces of heavy machinery being used to construct the pipeline. The two then moved up and down the pipeline’s length, destroying valves and delaying construction for weeks. Reznicek’s imprisonment came the same week the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in a major new report that the Earth could face runaway climate catastrophe unless...

Senator Bernie Sanders' Vermont office was set ablaze by a suspected arsonist who is on the run. Burlington firefighters were called to the senators office on the third floor of One Church Street around 10:45 am on Friday. Police said an unidentified man entered the vestibule of the office, sprayed an accelerant on the door and set it on fire, reported NBC5.

"No pipelines exist to feed gasoline in from other states.".. If you thought that the LA wildfires exposed just how mismanaged California is, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Russia. China. Venezuela. Iran. More than a dozen countries make gasoline at state-owned refineries. Could California be next on the list? Let’s see what do all of those places have in common? Tyrannical regimes. Miserable lives for much of the population. High levels of migration. Radical politics. Sure, California belongs on that list. California policymakers are considering state ownership of one or more oil refineries, one item on a list of options...

"Andrzej Duda told the BBC that the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which have not been used since 2022, "should be dismantled". This, he said, would mean the likes of Germany would not be tempted to restore Russian supplies to boost its own struggling economy. "I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia's aggression against Ukraine and that they will push through a decision to never restore the pumping of gas through this pipeline," he said. The Polish president, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, insisted that economic sanctions against Russia were working and European...

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during an interview on Sunday, a week before he steps down, that China has penetrated America’s water treatment plants, electric grid, and other critical civilian infrastructure, and is lying “in wait” for an opportunity to cyberattack at a time and place of its choosing. Asked on CBS’s 60 Minutes about Chinese penetration of U.S. cyber and infrastructure, Wray said China’s cyber program is the largest in the world and has stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than every nation combined. Then, he added: But even beyond the cyber theft. There’s another part...

When Russia seized Crimea in March, it acquired not just the Crimean landmass but also a maritime zone more than three times its size with the rights to underwater resources potentially worth trillions of dollars. Russia portrayed the takeover as reclamation of its rightful territory, drawing no attention to the oil and gas rush that had recently been heating up in the Black Sea. But the move also extended Russia’s maritime boundaries, quietly giving Russia dominion over vast oil and gas reserves while dealing a crippling blow to Ukraine’s hopes for energy independence. Russia did so under an international accord...

The company behind the project cancelled it and the steel that was in ground has been removed, but it’s on the president-elect’s energy to-do list. Donald Trump is looking to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day back in the White House, according to three people familiar with the president-elect’s plan, even though no companies are trying to build it anymore. Trump believes declaring the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project back on the table would drive the pro-oil message he delivered in his campaign, said people involved in the transition team discussions about the idea. Trump also wants...

During an interview with UpNorthLive News on Friday, 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) responded to a question on attempts by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) to thwart pipeline projects in the state by saying that “we need to create good-paying jobs. We need to make sure that we’re tackling energy prices. But we also need to make sure that we’re protecting the natural resources,” “And, as the states deal with this, the Vice President and I are committed to making sure that we’re dealing with all those issues, good-paying jobs, price of energy, but,...

Kamala Harris is trying to pretend she never wanted to ban fracking, but Pennsylvania energy workers see through her BS. Harris said in 2020 .. she certainly supported a fracking ban, a fact she is now trying to deny. Her insincere reassurances following on years of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on gas and oil do not impress energy workers ... ... she's out there saying whatever she can to make people try to swing her way ... nobody believes that [she will not ban fracking].” ... don't believe anybody in that [Biden] administration.” Considering Kamala is still affirming her dedication...