Free Republic

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday, a recognition that lifting the sanctions did nothing to entice the socialist regime to host a free and fair election. The Biden administration lifted some of the strictest U.S. sanctions on dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime last year as part of a dialogue in which Maduro agreed to host a presidential election sometime in 2014. The deal collapsed rapidly; Maduro scrapped it in October and launched a new wave of violence against anti-socialist dissidents, likely bankrolled by new oil profits. The Biden sanctions relief lasted...

A Massachusetts college professor was fired for posting a Facebook status encouraging Iran to list 52 American cultural sites that it would bomb, according to new reports. Asheen Phansey, the director of sustainability at Babson College in Wellesley, shared the since-deleted post — a response to a tweet by President Trump stating that the US had picked out 52 Iranian cultural sites for destruction — on Tuesday. “In retaliation, Ayatollah Khomenei [sic] should tweet a list of 52 sites of beloved American cultural heritage that he would bomb,” said the post, first obtained in a screenshot by the website Turtleboysports.com....

It looks to me like the 2020s are starting not with a bang, but more the thud of a surgical strike I’ll never witness in real time… as the disintegration and social malaise of the previous decade come to an end, two situations are holding my attention for the current one: Suleimani's slaying and the situation surrounding Second Amendment rights in Virginia, among other states. An effective military is beneficial to us, as the warrior caste well realized has always been crucial to the stability of a society, from the Akkadians long ago to the Germans in recent centuries; however,...

The best way to neutralize Iran is to have them overstretch. An older, forgotten grand strategy where adversaries bleed each other is in the Western interest. Here’s all one needs to know about what is happening in Iraq: As France 24 reported, “Iraqi security forces made no effort to stop the protesters as they marched to the heavily-fortified Green Zone after a funeral held for those killed in the US air strikes, letting them pass through a security checkpoint leading to the area.” Consider that for a moment, and let the anger surge through your veins.These are the same people...

Why the hysteria about Russia? From the tone of what passes for policy discourse in Washington, one would think that Russian troops were massing on the country’s western border and that opposition activists were being executed by the hundreds. Some realities in Russia are indeed disturbing, but a sense of perspective is needed. If Moscow were really the capital of a brutally authoritarian anti-American state, things could be far worse — and profoundly damaging to U.S. national interests. But demonizing Russia doesn’t change conditions there and only undermines our ability to get what we want and need. Domestically, Russia is...

Tammy Baldwin has come under fire for taking a $60,000 contribution from the Council for Liveable World. In the October 18 debate with Gov. Tommy Thompson, Baldwin went on to deny having any knowledge of the group. The Council is a Pro-Iran operation that opposes sanctions against Iran and supports the current Iranian political regime. The Council’s position on Iran reads:(emphasis added) Unfortunately, United States policy has been to publicly threaten and insult Iran while taking provocative actions such as adopting a policy of regime change, attempting to increase unilateral sanctions, deploying additional military assets in the region, and arresting...

A speedy, effective response by newly trained Libyan security guards to a small bombing outside the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi in June may have led United States officials to underestimate the security threat to personnel there, according to counterterrorism and State Department officials, even as threat warnings grew in the weeks before the recent attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The guards’ aggressive action in June came after the mission’s defenses and training were strengthened at the recommendation of a small team of Special Forces soldiers who augmented the mission’s security force for several...

(Adapted from this essay) Steadily burgeoning evidence indicates that one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, despite Ms. Clinton’s protestation, was inadequately vetted for either family, or personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Diligent, open source investigation has already uncovered and documented numerous alarming connections. One can reasonably infer that a serious, formal Congressional investigation of the overall extent of Muslim Brotherhood influence operations—as requested by Representatives Bachmann, Gohmert, Franks, Westmoreland, and Rooney—might yield even more disturbing findings. Pending these sorely needed Congressional inquiries—replete with their probing investigative tools—much can still be gleaned from the public...

We caught up with Congressman Ron Paul after his speech at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit in Phoenix over the weekend. One of the themes of that speech was that America cannot impose democracy upon the rest of the world. However, unaddressed was whether America ought to protect allies who are free and wish to remain so. Here was our follow-up with the congressman. NRB: David Horowitz and others have been critical of the effect that your foreign policy would have upon Israel... How would you describe a libertarian vision for alliance that could support democracies where people...

SNIPPET: "While Hizb ut-Tahrir, a pro-jihadist group which met openly near Chicago last weekend, is surprisingly candid about its desire to re-establish an Islamic Caliphate, literature available at its conference shows the group also views Christians and Jews as untrustworthy enemies of God. More than a dozen issues of a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) newsletter called The Shield were obtained from the conference by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. The publication repeatedly condemns interfaith "outreach initiatives" and shows HT believes in the death penalty for Muslims who leave the faith. HT pushes a radical ideology that is similar to Al Qaeda,...

"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum," President Obama said Wednesday, just days after speaking emotionally about the Holocaust during a visit to Buchenwald, a former Nazi concentration camp, with Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. Read more at the link.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday. The Marines two weeks ago launched a preliminary inquiry into whether Cpl. Joshua Belile, who returned home from Iraq in March, violated military law or rules in singing the song, a four-minute video of which was posted on the Internet. In the song, titled "hadji girl," Belile sang to fellow troops at a base in Iraq about encountering an Iraqi woman and...