Free Republic

A furious Joe Biden called Donald Trump 'sick' and a 'loser' in his first campaign speech of 2024 saying 'we nearly lost America' on January 6. The president, 80, launched an incensed attack on his predecessor and potential 2024 general election rival at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, where George Washington organized an army to fight the British in 1777. Biden condemned the Republican frontrunner for his 'lies' and for making his White House campaign about 'himself' in the remarks marking the third anniversary of the Capitol Riot. At his first public event since a Caribbean vacation, Biden said 'democracy is...

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday invoked Article 99 of the UN charter for the first time, citing a “severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” as the war rages on between Israel and militant group Hamas. In a letter to José Javier De la Gasca Lopez Domínguez, the current UN Security Council President, Gutteres said he expects “public order to completely break down due to desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.”

US President Joe Biden hinted that he could support a Gaza ceasefire if Hamas released all the 222 hostages it seized from southern Israel on October 7. During a White House event, a reporter asked him, “Is the United States supporting a hostage for a ceasefire deal.” Biden responded, “We should have a ceasefire,” he said and then corrected himself. “We should have the hostages released and then we should talk,” Biden said. He spoke as the Israeli army has amassed at the Gaza border and is prepared for a ground campaign to oust Hamas from the Strip. The US...

President Biden said in an interview aired Sunday night that Israel should not occupy Gaza following a devastating terror attack by Hamas, claiming the move would be a “big mistake.” Biden was speaking to CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that was filmed Thursday when he was asked about the expected military action on the Gaza Strip by Israeli Defense Forces. “I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said when asked if he would support an Israeli occupation of Gaza. ... I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.” The Israeli government gave...

Jamal Khashoggi hated America and Jews. That’s why Biden loves him. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his confirmation hearing by reciting a family history of antisemitism. A month later he unveiled a ban named in the memory of an antisemite. “Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs,” Blinken claimed. Those beliefs that Khashoggi gave his life for included his contention that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were real, and that Jews were deceivers with no connection to Israel. It also included the Muslim Brotherhood member’s support for the Hamas war against Israel. Last October,...

An armed protester at "Clock Boy" Ahmed's mosque in Irving, Texas, told a Houston-based radio station that his December 12th armed protest is planned for a mosque that he says has been connected to terrorism. David Wright III told KTRH AM740 in Houston that a Richardson, Texas, mosque has funded terrorist groups. He said of the mosque, the Islamic Association of North Texas, "Back in 2005, there was an investigation into that mosque and the Holy Land Foundation which was tied to that mosque, and they found they had funded terrorist groups." The Holy Land Foundation was one of the...

The US government already had to crack down on one Swiss bank, UBS, fining it $780 million earlier this year for illegally aiding American citizens in evading their taxes. Now, it’s Credit Suisse in the crosshairs for helping clients in Iran, Libya, Sudan, and other countries perform illegal transactions. The bank has since “accepted and acknowledged responsibility for its criminal conduct” and is now settling with New York City, New York State, and the federal government on fines totaling nearly $1 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal: “The men announced a $536 million settlement by Credit Suisse, one of...

On Sunday, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, arrived in Iran for talks on the nuclear agreement, as part of what appears to be an attempt by the UN nuclear watchdog to evaluate whether Iran ran a military nuclear program in the past.

House Panel to Ask for NSA Spying Probe A congressional panel will ask the National Security Agency's internal watchdog to investigate whether the super-secret spy agency eavesdropped without warrants on a Muslim scholar and later hid that evidence in a 2005 terror prosecution that got him a life sentence.The House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and the judge overseeing the case want the NSA's inspector general to find out if the government failed to disclose evidence that might have cleared the name of a Northern Virginia spiritual leader Ali al-Timimi, Rep. Rush Holt (D- New Jersey) told the New York Times.That...

Once more the spoiler. Despite the earnest persuasion of the White House to preserve a useful weapon in the war against the terrorists, the New York Times has revealed the workings of a covert surveillance program, indisputably within the law, to use administrative subpoenas to examine, through a Belgian financial consortium known by the acronym SWIFT, the financing of international terrorism. Once the story was out, the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal covered it as well. Now the program is damaged, perhaps severely so, and the financing of terror is harder to track. This is another unnecessary leak,...

New York Times reporter James Risen is facing prison if he doesn’t reveal sources that gave him highly classified information on U.S. intelligence in Iran. Gabriel Schoenfeld says no reporter is above the law.

"Lebanese Canadian Bank to Pay $102 Million in Hizballah Laundering Case" SNIPPET: "The Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank ("LCB") will pay $102 million as part of a settlement reached this week with federal prosecutors. The LCB was accused in a December 2011 complaint of funneling money to the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah as part of a global money-laundering scheme. The "settlement shows that banks laundering money for terrorists and narco-traffickers will face consequences for their actions, wherever they may be located. This type of money laundering network fuels the operations of both terrorists and drug traffickers, and will continue to use...

SNIPPET: "The prosecution also told the court that most wanted Dawood has also been declared "international terrorist" and is facing stringent United Nations Security Council sanctions. In the running of organised criminal activities against strategic and economic security of India and its citizens, he plays a pivotal role."

U.S. officials charged an Uzbek citizen in Idaho with providing bomb-making knowledge and other support to an Islamist militant group, knowing that it would be used in an attack, authorities said on Thursday. Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, a national of Uzbekistan living legally in Idaho, was arrested in Boise and faces a three-count grand jury indictment in Idaho and a single-count indictment in Utah, prosecutors said. They said Kurbanov provided information and money to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The group supports establishing strict Islamic rule in Uzbekistan. Authorities said...

Snippet: "An Orange County pharmacist who admitted to wiring $2,050 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist activities was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison."

"Portland terrorism arrest: Emails show connection between Portland city worker and Pakistan suicide attacker, feds say" SNIPPET: "At the beginning of 2006, Reaz Qadir Khan received an email from a man he knew, goading him about Khan's past devotion to seek martyrdom for Allah, authorities said."

Those convicted Friday include 40-year-old Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, who prosecutors said used his connections as a popular imam at a mosque in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood to raise money for the group. The other defendants were two San Diego taxi drivers, 36-year-old Basaaly Saeed Moalin and 56-year-old Issa Doreh, and 37-year-old Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud of Anaheim, whose financial transfer business Shidaal Express was used to route the money, prosecutors said. Government attorneys played tapes of telephone calls, many of them between Moalin and the late Aden Hashi Ayrow, who was among the top leaders of al-Shabaab until he...

"Paraguay: Alleged Hezbollah financier detained Wassim el Abd Fadel, a Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship, faces human trafficking and narco-terrorism charges."  SNIPPET: "ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay – Wassim el Abd Fadel is behind bars inside Tacumbú prison in Asunción, Paraguay, as he awaits trial on human trafficking, money laundering and narco-trafficking charges. But Paraguayan authorities suspect the Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship’s involvement in crime is much greater, which is why he’s being investigated for financing the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Fadel, 31, was arrested on Dec. 21 in Ciudad del Este, which is on the border shared by Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, about...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Brooklyn Resident from Albania Sentenced to 15 YearsÂ’ Imprisonment for Attempting to Support Terrorism U.S. AttorneyÂ’s Office January 08, 2013 Eastern District of New York Earlier today, at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, New York, Agron Hasbajrami, an Albanian citizen and Brooklyn resident, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Hasbajrami will be removed from the United States at the conclusion of his sentence. The sentence was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for...

"Pakistani Brothers Arrested in Florida for Plotting to Obtain and Use Weapon of Mass Destruction Against Americans" SNIPPET: "MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida men of Pakistani descent have been charged with plotting to provide material support to terrorists and to use a weapon of mass destruction within the U.S., federal prosecutors said Friday. The men were identified as brothers Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, and 20-year-old Raees Alam Qazi. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Pakistan and both were arrested in the Fort Lauderdale area, prosecutors said."