Free Republic

Analysis In an unprecedented joint public appearance, CIA Director William Burns and MI6 Chief Richard Moore assert the enduring strength of their intelligence agencies Last week, the heads of major Western intelligence agencies made a striking public appearance, first with a provocative op-ed and then in a high-profile interview with the Financial Times editor. Although some questions remained unanswered, their statements provided critical insights into their covert and overt operations. William Joseph Burns, Director of the CIA, and Richard Peter Moore, head of MI6/SIS, both distinguished diplomats before their current roles, asserted with conviction that their organisations are more formidable...

OPINION China’s recent outcry over the alleged breach of ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ with the Philippines reveals a profound irony, given the history of its coercion and deceit There is a huge amount of insincerity and gall involved in the Chinese complaint that the Philippines had torn up the bilateral ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ between Beijing and Manila. While the term ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ has an implicit assumption of ‘trust’ as a fundamental tenet besting a relationship, which may otherwise not be legally binding -- to even imagine that there has been any element of ‘trust’ between these two sparing countries, is to put oneself...

Decades ago, KGB spy Yuri Bezmenov defected to America and exposed a four-step plan the Soviets engineered to bring down the United States: demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and normalization. Demoralization was the first and most critical step, and it involved infiltrating the institutions upon which our society was built. Although the Soviet Union is long gone, demoralization is still occurring in the United States, but it’s coming from within, especially from our academic institutions . I know this firsthand because I almost became another demoralized, nihilistic American youth until I learned to turn my left-leaning college experience to my benefit. I...

This timeless warfighter’s aphorism used to be the motto of many a US Military Brigade and Battalion prior to our woke transformation. I am not sure if this quote is currently allowed in our new military of pronouns, experimental vaccines, transgender surgery, and Critical Race Theory.The quote is often attributed to General George S Patton, however if you analyze it deeper, the statement goes back much further. It is a corollary of the Roman aphorism, “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” which translates to, “To secure peace, prepare for war”. Yet even the Roman Axiom is merely a corollary to Sun...

Milley as the top ranking military officer met with top military officials in the Pentagon two days after the MAGA riot and telling them to keep him in the process for all military actions, including the use of nuclear weapons. It also involved outreach to Milley's counterpart in the Chinese military to provide reassurances the US would not strike its rival, according to the book. 'If you get calls, no matter who they’re from, there’s a process here, there’s a procedure. No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that...

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is pouring cold water on new reporting from Bob Woodward, detailed in the Washington Post Tuesday, that General Mark Milley vowed to give China a heads up if President Donald Trump ordered an attack. He's also dismissing calls from Alexander Vindman, the "whistleblower" behind Trump's first impeachment over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for Milley to resign. From the Washington Post's reporting on Woodward's book: In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing...

President Joe Biden again walked away from answering any questions from reporters about the thousands of Americans stranded in Afghanistan on Tuesday. [cut] Biden, when finished, turned to the side and walked out, ignoring questions being asked. Those questions included Fox News’s Peter Doocy, who asked, “Can you guarantee every Amerian will be out before the troops leave?”

All of them :) are my favorite because they are ALL effective at various times in a war.

There has been an interesting paradox that has arisen in the past decade regarding those agents of social justice. The meme goes that they are weak and frail, incapable of much, and they can't handle it if their feeling gets hurt. Contrast that with the reality. Books are being burned, history is systemically subject to malpractice, journalists willingly report lies, people are losing their jobs, whole institutions are being razed, monuments torn down, and children's futures are being destroyed. In the end, only one can be true: Either a social justice warrior is a profile of powerful systemic change or...

I may be going with a group to Washington, D.C., for the 6th. I expect a crowd of over 1M people there. Busses are being leased all over the country, all headed the same direction. I just hope we leave early enough to avoid the traffic snarls we’re certain to run into. I also hope everyone who goes understands how enticing a target that many patriots in one place makes for those who are trying to steal this country away from us. We’ll have to trust the security forces there to keep us safe, but I’m also aware that the...

Perhaps more is going on than I can see, but what is visible to 75 million Trump supporters, those who have endured ridicule and scorn for supporting their president, is that nothing is happening. This is Trump’s administration and he’s the boss... *snip* The buck stops with him. If nothing is happening, then that’s on him. Is he flailing away in a vain attempt to win a second term? *snip* At one level it sure seems that way. The clock is ticking with important electoral dates breezing by, getting ever closer to the final date of Jan. 20? On the...

I’m impatient, as I expect most American Thinker readers are as well. We have been promised a coming storm that will be biblical, or a Kraken released on Deep State conspirators. Despite Attorney General Barr acknowledging spygate as “one of the greatest travesties in American history,” there has not yet been a reckoning. A mid-level FBI attorney, Kevin Clinesmith, pled guilty to falsifying a document which became one of the lynchpins of a FISA warrant on Carter Page and subsequent spying on Donald Trump and his campaign, but he has yet to be sentenced. His co-conspirators are writing books, teaching...

Journalists seem to have no interest in just why Joe Biden's handlers have so frequently called "lids" on his campaigning in this final stretch, and totally pulled him out of public view for virtually this entire week. Nope: in fact, it's a carefully calculated strategy. Joe Biden is a brilliant, modern-day Sun Tzu, adopting his maxim to not interfere when your enemy is destroying himself. At least, that's the explanation of Biden's disappearing act . . . if you believe CNN. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

       “Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of WarConsider our enemies revealed:         Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

President Trump will not immediately grant House Republicans' request to declassify and publicize currently redacted sections of the recently released FISA application used by the FBI to justify the surveillance of an ex-Trump aide, the White House said Monday. Republicans on the House intelligence committee asked Trump last month to declassify portions of the surveillance warrant application for Page, according to a letter obtained by Fox News. The heavily redacted application outlining the justifications for surveiling Page, which was approved and renewed several times by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), was released over the weekend after a Freedom of...

When President Trump made his startling comment during bipartisan televised White House gun discussions about taking guns first and due process later, I suspected he was doing the same thing he had done during similar immigration discussions a few weeks earlier. He likes to toss out ideas and let them be debated. He heartens his opponents, and because they are so emotionally driven, they overreach, and he comes across looking reasonable while they look extreme. His proposal for a deal, when it comes, seems reasonable to the public. This is "unpresidential" behavior because in the previously existing culture of politics,...

The history of war is filled with examples of effective strikes that were surprise attacks. George Washington crossing the Delaware River to rout the Hessians on Christmas night is one example. No one expected it. D-Day itself was a huge surprise. Hitler was looking at other areas while the allies stormed Normandy. One of the world's famous books is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It summarizes stealth and what is necessary to win wars. "All warfare is based on deception." "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."...

MAINESTATEGOP AND THE NEW ENGLAND ALLIANCE FOR LIBERTY AND FREE MARKETS PRESENTS A NEW BLOG  EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY BY KYLE WEISSMAN  We've had many history articles on our blog, The story of The Battle Of Lepanto being our best one, we've had many requests for more history related articles. So, we're presenting a new blog, EVENTS IN HUMAN HISTORY by our very own Kyle Weissman.  Kyle Weissman is one of our original founders of the New England Alliance For Liberty and Free Markets, He has been very very active in the free state movement in New Hampshire and...

Trump puts America first, takes pride in our country, and has the business savvy and the uncommon good sense to steer our Ship of State back toward the course it was designed to follow It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.—Sun Tzu, (circa 544-496 BC), “The Art of War” One of...

In a war first, Syrian allies Russia and Iran have begun unleashing “suicide” drones that land and explode, presenting another challenge to rebels trying to oust the regime of president Bashar Assad. AP reported on Thursday that a Russian-owned broadcasting company is flying drones over the capital of Damascus, and its video shows the utter destruction of Rebel-held neighborhoods by Syrian government bombardment. The opposition news agency Syria Mubasher reported that six remotely controlled drones struck near fighters for Ahrar al-Sham, killing and wounding them, near the western city of Ma’ara al-Nuiman. Ahrar al-Sham is an al Qaeda-linked coalition that...