Free Republic

What is it going to take to wake people up? Russia is deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, and there is lots of talk in the Russian media about using such weapons to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine. The theory is that once the Russians show that they are willing to use tactical nukes, the U.S. and the other western powers will back off. But that won’t be what happens. Instead of backing off, the Biden administration will respond by using U.S. tactical nuclear weapons against Russian targets in Ukraine. And once both sides have used...

Here is what I wonder. Did David Petraeus allow himself to be blackmailed by the minions of Barack Obama? The testimony Petraeus gave Congress on Benghazi shortly after the assassination of our ambassador to Libya was a restatement of the patently false narrative foisted on the country by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and their underlings -- to wit, that the assault on the American consulate was a spontaneous demonstration in reaction to the Coptic Christian's Youtube video. Petraeus had to know better. The Benghazi bungle took place on the anniversary of 9/11. There was plenty of intelligence available to Petraeus...

In an exclusive interview with RT, President Bashar Assad said that the conflict in Syria is not a civil war, but proxy terrorism by Syrians and foreign fighters. He also accused the Turkish PM of eyeing Syria with imperial ambitions. Assad told RT that the West creates scapegoats as enemies – from communism, to Islam, to Saddam Hussein. He accused Western countries of aiming to turn him into their next enemy. While mainstream media outlets generally report on the crisis as a battle between Assad and Syrian opposition groups, the president claims that his country has been infiltrated by numerous...

(Reuters) - Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, the United States backed a U.N. committee's call on Wednesday to renew debate over a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade. U.N. delegates and gun control activists have complained that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from Republican rival Mitt Romney if his administration was seen as supporting the pact, a charge Washington denies. The month-long talks at U.N. headquarters broke off after the United States - along with Russia and other major arms producers - said it had problems with...

(Reuters) - U.S. officials in Libya have begun to look for recruits for a commando force which they plan to train to fight militants, a former commander of Libyan rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday. There was no immediate U.S. comment. After a wave of anti-American violence in the Arab world in September during which the U.S. ambassador to Libya died in an Islamist militant attack, President Barack Obama took measures to improve the security of U.S. diplomatic installations in the region. A team of about 10 Americans from the embassy in Tripoli visited a paramilitary base in...

Obama supporters celebrating his election night win discuss Israel and Netanyahu.

Drudge has a link to an article titled "NEW FILM BLASTS OBAMA'S RECORD ON ISRAEL..." posted at Foreign Policy Magazine. That article links to the trailer of this video: Daylight: The Story of Obama and IsraelFast Forward to the 0:57 mark and listen as Obama states: "I want to make sure we end before the call to prayer"

Iranian ships and submarines have deployed an undisclosed number of Iranian troops and weapons at the Eritrean port town of Assab, according to opposition groups, foreign diplomats, and NGOs in the area. The city of Assab sits at the Horn of Africa in the Arabian Sea. As such, Assab offers a strategic position as the world nervously eyes the precarious routes through which a seaborne oil traverses daily. Local sources have reported that Iran recently sent soldiers and a large number of long-range and ballistic missiles. The military basing came after Iran signed an accord with Eritrea to revamp the...

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday he would raise American concerns about the unintended consequences of any military action against Iran during his upcoming meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Reuters reported. Panetta and Barak are due to meet on Friday in Halifax, Canada. Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Canada, Panetta said the United States believed the most effective way to confront Iran still was to use diplomatic pressure and sanctions. “Obviously to go beyond that raises our concerns about the unintended consequences that could result,” Reuters quoted Panetta as having said. Echoing remarks he made...

Barbara Boxer, a top Jewish U.S. senator and the sponsor of major pro-Israel legislation, blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lashing out at President Obama on Iran. “I write to you as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress to express my deep disappointment over your remarks that call into question our country’s support for Israel and commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a letter sent Wednesday in a rare instance of a pro-Israel lawmaker making public an unhappiness with an Israeli leader. “Your remarks are utterly contrary to the extraordinary United States-Israel...

After winning a second White House term, US President Barack Hussein Obama aims to start direct, fast-track nuclear talks with Tehran as soon as December, even before his January swearing-in, on the assumption that Iran’s window of opportunity is very narrow – just three months, Washington sources disclose. White House go-betweens with the office of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warn that Iran’s campaign for the June 14 presidential election gets going in March. After then, it is estimated in Washington, that Khamenei, whose ill health keeps his working-day short, will be fully absorbed in a struggle to purge...

U.S. leaders haven't spoken of disarmament lately. Why not? Iran is on the verge of creating a nuclear weapon. This is bad news for the U.S. and Israel, who have warned Tehran against holding nuclear power. The U.S. needs to step in and mollify at the crucial moment. Israel has been able to sabotage any Iranian progress in developing nuclear prowess, but no one has produced a key to a more peaceful route to reconciliation. So where are the peacemakers? Israel wants the U.S. to step in or even lead the way to block Iran's new nuclear ambitions. Iran, which...

Cuba came up again at a Bachmann campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday when a supporter asked her to amplify on her debate comments. This time, the Minnesota congresswoman cited “reports” that Hezbollah, the militant Muslim group based in Lebanon, had established training sites in Cuba and might even set up missile sites 90 miles from U.S. soil.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta urged India on Wednesday to build a closer military relationship with the United States, but Indian leaders appeared more interested in buying U.S. weapons than in aligning strategically with Washington. Senior Indian officials made it clear in two days of talks that they will continue to set their own course on U.S. national security priorities, including isolating Iran and building up Afghanistan's military forces, sometimes in tandem with Washington and sometimes not. Panetta is visiting Asia this week to bolster military ties as the Obama administration, wary ofChina's growing clout in the region, seeks to...

India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, debkafile's intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets. By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's assets and the oil embargo which the European Union's foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan....

Iran’s extremist militias and their proxies were behind a recent string of terror attacks against Israeli diplomatic targets around the globe and might seek to strike the United States, U.S. counterterrorism officials said Wednesday.“We have seen an uptick in operational activity by the Quds Force over the last year or so,” National Counter-Terrorism Center Director Matthew G. Olsen told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.Mr. Olsen said the Quds Force, the elite division of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for operations abroad, “poses a threat beyond the immediate [Middle East] region,” including to...

The U.S. military's top officer made statements Thursday which appear to warn Israel that it should not expect U.S. assistance if it chooses to attack Iran's nuclear weapons program. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, said such an attack would "clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran's nuclear program," The Guardian reported Thursday. He added: "I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it." Dempsey said he did not know Iran's nuclear intentions, seeing as intelligence does not reveal intentions. What was clear, he said, was that the "international coalition" applying pressure...

U.S. intelligence agencies don't believe Iran is actively trying to build an atomic bomb. A highly classified U.S. intelligence assessment circulated to policymakers early last year largely affirms that view, originally made in 2007. Both reports, known as national intelligence estimates, conclude that Tehran halted efforts to develop and build a nuclear warhead in 2003. The most recent report, which represents the consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but that it has not sought to do so. Senior U.S. officials say Israel does...

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is threatening to impose sanctions on India over its continued economic ties with Iran amid disagreements between Washington and New Delhi over how much and how soon the latter is reducing oil imports from the (in US eyes) pariah nation. India has "failed" to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be "forced" to impose sanction, unnamed administration officials were cited as telling Bloomberg wire service. A decision in this regard could come as early as June 28, they added, implicitly offering New Delhi a ten- week...

Ahmadinejad: 'World forces must destroy Israel' Uh, except all the 'world forces' the Iranians will be able to muster-up for the would-be Jew-crushing Jihad would be themselves, Hezbollah, Hamas... maybe what's left of Syria -not one sovereign country- and Israel will wipe-the-floor with all of them, anyway. Alas, the only hope for ME peace this decade was a strong, timely, and principled stand against Iran's rogue atomic weapons program- with Obama, obviously that didn't happen. Rather, feckless appeasement efforts and thinly-veiled contempt for the Jewish state has Tehran smelling weakness- like a red cape to the bull.In the worst-case scenario -Obama...