Free Republic

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has congratulated United States President Donald Trump on the elimination of Islamic State terror-movement leader Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Bin Salman said the historic operation was another step in the fight against terrorism...

Syrian and Turkish armies opened fire on each other today for the first time since Ankara began its incursion against the Kurds. Artillery and machine-gun fire was exchanged near the village of Assadiya, south of the border town of Ras al-Ain, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Six Syrian soldiers were killed, according to the war monitor. President Bashar al-Assad had bolstered Kurdish strongholds in northern Syria after Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan began his offensive on October 9 to establish a 75-mile wide, 20-mile deep buffer zone.

PENTAGON – President Trump "went off script" during his call on Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before he announced that the U.S. would withdraw all troops from northeast Syria ahead of a Turkish military operation in the region, a well-placed senior U.S. military source told Fox News on Wednesday. During the phone call, Trump had talking points, according to the source: “Tell Erdogan to stay north of the border." “He went off script," the source said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will repel any attempt to take Syria’s oil fields away from U.S.-backed Syrian militia with “overwhelming force,” whether the opponent is Islamic State or even forces backed by Russia or Syria, the Pentagon said on Monday. The U.S. military announced last week it was reinforcing its position in Syria with additional assets, including mechanized forces, to prevent oilfields from being taken over by remnants of the Islamic State militant group or others. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper offered some of his most detailed remarks to date about the mission at a news briefing on...

RUSH: You know, Trump did not tell any Democrats — and you know what’s fascinating, folks? If I may add. There are four reporters — and I don’t remember all their names. Maggie Haberman is one from the New York Times, and there’s another one at the New York Times, Schmidt, maybe. There’s a couple from the Washington Post. And these four reporters are the primary reporters of leaks. And so they have accrued great reputations as having inside knowledge right inside the Trump administration. They’ve got sources in the Oval Office. And not a one of those four reporters...

... There will never be peace between the Arabs and Israel. Why not? Because, as noted, the Arabs don't want peace with Israel; they don't want Israel, and will look for any excuse to avoid any kind of peace agreement. As Netanyahu once observed regarding the prospects for peace in the area: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence; if the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel." Or, as Golda Meir before him observed: "Peace will come when Arabs will love their children more than they hate...

In Iran, Eshaq Jahangiri Kouhshahi, the first vice president of the President Hassan Rouhani's regime, said on Oct. 22 that $22 billion of the country's resources were taken to Istanbul and Dubai under the pretext of increasing the value of the country's troubled rial currency. However, the miserable dollar price of the rial was not reduced from the act, and the $22 billion was not returned to the country. Something else was going on. Iran is facing unprecedented economic instability, a horrifying nightmare, along with corruption, embezzlement, and looting. It's institutionalized, so what we can infer from this is that...

As the Justice Department's review into the now-debunked Russia collusion probe becomes more public, one issue likely to dominate debate is whether the FBI treated Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump differently during the 2015-16 presidential election. Exhibit One in that debate may involve a December 2015 event that has been kept from public view for most of the last three years. A half dozen sources with direct knowledge tell me that Clinton's presidential campaign was given a defensive briefing from U.S. intelligence that month about a possible foreign threat. Government officials have known for months about the briefing but were...

For four years while Clinton was Secretary of State, she embarked on the greatest pay for play scam in the history of our country. Literally raking in hundreds of millions of dollars for the Clinton Foundation slush fund. All while trading off her position as Secretary of State. Largely from donations from foreign powers and entities. And then four more years with John Kerry leading the capitulation to Iran, Russia, and China. From the Middle East to Ukraine, to the South China Sea. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton and the Obama White House proceeded to commit the greatest crimes...

The United States took two prisoners during the raid on the compound of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, officials said on Oct. 28. The Oct. 26 raid left al-Baghdadi and several top ISIS members dead, as well as several children who were killed when al-Baghdadi detonated a blast in a dead-end tunnel, President Donald Trump said over the weekend. In an update during a briefing at the Pentagon on Oct. 28, military leaders said two men were taken prisoner. “There were two adult males taken off the objective, alive,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said...

U.S. president outsmarts Putin -- leaves him with Syria headaches as U.S. withdraws. According to conventional thinking, President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeast Syria opened the door to a resurgence of ISIS. “Make no mistake, President Trump ignores the national security threat posed by ISIS at our nation’s peril,” Senator Bob Menendez, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week. How foolish Senator Menendez and his fellow critics look now after President Trump announced on Sunday that a special operations raid, which he had approved and closely monitored, resulted in the cowardly death...

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis racked up thousands of replies before deleting a tweet suggesting Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “suffered” when he was killed Sunday during a U.S. military operation in northwest Syria. [snip] Ms. Curtis, a critic of Mr. Trump, reacted to the president’s speech on Twitter, suggesting that al-Baghdadi was “blown up” and that he suffered like “all living things” do, including dogs. “He may have died a coward @realDonaldTrump but ALL living things suffer when they are blown up,” the actress wrote. “Anyone who has experienced warfare, unlike yourself, would know that. War is brutal. Dogs...

Multiple Defense Department sources confirmed to Newsweek on Monday that the dog's name is Conan. During a Sunday morning press conference to announce the death of Baghdadi, Trump said the dog was injured when the Islamic State leader detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and three children. Defense Department sources said that Conan, the dog wounded from the special operations Syria raid which resulted in the death of Baghdadi is named after Conan O'Brien the comedian versus the barbarian.

Accompanied by the image of a blood-splattered cross and star of David Billboards belonging to the traditionalist Muslim Justice and Development Party (AKP) municipality are on public display in Konya, central Turkey, featuring the verbatim text of Koran 5:51 (in accurate Turkish translation). Accompanied by the image of a blood-splattered cross, and star of David, the text simply re-states Koran 5:51: O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliya' (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but Auliya' to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of...

U.S. president outsmarts Putin -- leaves him with Syria headaches as U.S. withdraws According to conventional thinking, President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeast Syria opened the door to a resurgence of ISIS. “Make no mistake, President Trump ignores the national security threat posed by ISIS at our nation’s peril,” Senator Bob Menendez, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week. How foolish Senator Menendez and his fellow critics look now after President Trump announced on Sunday that a special operations raid, which he had approved and closely monitored, resulted in the cowardly death...

JERUSALEM, Israel – The US military operation that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dedicated to Kayla Mueller, a young Christian woman who was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by the Islamic State. Mueller, 26, was abducted by ISIS in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria while serving on a humanitarian mission with Doctors Without Borders. US officials said Baghdadi tortured and repeatedly raped her at his compound before announcing in 2015 that she died in captivity. Her body has never been recovered. White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told NBC's Meet the Press" on Sunday...

On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” former National Intelligence Director James Clapper commented on the reported death Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. Clapper warned the death could “galvanize” ISIS. Clapper said, “What is going to be interesting is to the extent to which this negatively affects ISIS or does it galvanize ISIS, the remnants of ISIS, which still survives as an ideology and has franchises in other places besides Syria.” He added, “ISIS is more than just Baghdadi, as important as he was. 14,000 to 18,000 fighters yet remaining and the franchise are branches in...

Diplomatic Reception Room 9:20 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world. The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. U.S. Special Operations Forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in northwestern Syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. The U.S. personnel were incredible. I got to...

Hollywood figures took to social media on Sunday and went after President Donald Trump after he announced the death of the murderous ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the hands of U.S. military forces in Syria. “The more Trump talked and revealed certain info (which he probably shouldn’t have), it’s clear he had/has relatively distant knowledge of the details of this raid,” actor Jeffery Wright said of Trump Sunday morning national address from the White House. ‘”I got to watch *most* of it.’ Good Special Forces got Baghdadi despite suspect & corrupt US leadership now.”

The CIA targeted and killed ISIS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in a separate raid, from the one that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a U.S. official confirmed to The Daily Beast. “We never stopped patrolling, we never stopped analyzing intel and developing targets. We just slowed down during the Turkey invasion,” the official told The Daily Beast’s Spencer Ackerman. Newsweek reports that as Trump announced the death of Baghdadi, Hellfire missiles targeted Muhajir by Ayn al-Bayda, near Jarablus in Aleppo province. The operation that targeted Muhajir comes just one day after a raid targeted ISIS’ leader in the Idlib...