Free Republic

President Barack Obama, in a bid to reconcile with the Teheran regime, has blocked legislation that would hold Iran accountable for the Hizbullah bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines in 1983.

The relationship between the Jewish community and the Church of England has taken a downward turn following its decision to strengthen ties with an anti-Israel group. The Jerusalem Post has learned that the Board of Deputies of British Jews has pulled out of meetings this week with Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the archbishop of Canterbury. A motion is also set to be raised at the board’s monthly meeting in which the deputies will call on the organization to sever all ties to the Church of England. At its General Synod in York on Monday, the Church’s highest legislative...

Terry Waite has met the leadership of Hizbollah, the militant group accused of kidnapping and holding him for five years, in an extraordinary gesture of “reconciliation”.The former hostage spoke for two hours to one of its most senior figures at their stronghold in Beirut, his first encounter with the organisation held responsible for masterminding his kidnapping 25 years ago. Accompanied by The Sunday Telegraph, he travelled to Lebanon to highlight the plight of Christians who have fled the Syrian civil war. Mr Waite offered the reconciliation to Hizbollah to help with the Christians’ plight at a secretly arranged, late night...

In my days of captivity, it sustained me. Now, I fear the Church of England that shaped me has gone for ever ... The church of my childhood was hardly a pretentious building. Locally it was known as the 'Tin Tabernacle', as it was largely constructed from corrugated iron sheets and no more than 50 years old. It was the daughter church of the ancient Cheshire parish church several miles away. During heavy rainstorms, the service had to be suspended, as the noise of rain falling on the iron roof blotted out all other sound. This unpretentious building boasted a...

What on earth is Terry Waite doing campaigning for the release of the British prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? These are the same kind of people who kept the former church envoy chained to a radiator in Beirut for five years. I know Waite is one those who believes you should love your enemy. But you can take forgiveness too far. At long last the Americans have broken their silence and revealed details of exactly why four of the British detainees should not be freed. They all trained at al-Qa’ida camps in Afghanistan, learning bomb making, assassination and urban warfare. They...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Terry Waite, back in Lebanon for the first time since he was freed from years of captivity at the hands of Islamic militants, says he would gladly meet his erstwhile kidnappers. "I wouldn't mind meeting with them at all," the former Church of England envoy said on arrival at Beirut airport. "I'm sure that they have changed, that they have grown and developed, just as much as I have." Waite, who had helped free Western hostages held by extremists in Libya, Iran and Lebanon, came to Lebanon in 1987 to negotiate more releases. Accused of being a...