Free Republic

The Army says former private Chelsea Manning will lose her military healthcare benefits despite President Obama’s commutation of her prison sentence. “If Pvt. Manning is discharged with a dishonorable discharge, she will lose her entitlement to [military] benefits, including gender-transition care at [military] medical treatment facilities,” Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith told USA Today Wednesday. Smith said Manning’s dishonorable discharge was included in the terms of the 35-year prison sentence imposed on her in 2013. Manning was convicted of leaking classified information about U.S. national security activities that were later publicly disclosed by WikiLeaks. Smith said Manning could appeal her discharge...

Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday blasted President Obama's decision to commute former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning’s 35-year prison sentence. “To commute Private Manning's sentence was a mistake," Pence said in a pre-recorded interview with Fox News that will be broadcast Wednesday evening. The vice president-elect echoed the words of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who on Tuesday said Obama treated "a traitor like a martyr.” "Private Manning is a traitor and should not have been turned into a martyr, as Senator Cotton said. Private Manning's actions compromised our national security, endangered American personnel downrange, compromised individuals in Afghanistan...

In a taped interview with CBS's John Dickerson that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," Obama said that fact "says something about what's happened to the Republican Party over the course of the last eight, 10, 15 years." Obama also reiterated what he said in a news conference on Friday: that he doesn't think the dark picture of America that Trump painted in his nomination speech is true, even in the wake of an attack on a Munich mall later that day that killed at least nine people.

VIENNA (AP) -- Key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran's ability to build a bomb even before the end the pact, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The document is the only text linked to last year's deal between Iran and six foreign powers that hasn't been made public, although U.S. officials say members of Congress have been able to see it. It was given to the AP by a diplomat whose work has focused on Iran's nuclear program...

As a veteran of Special Forces (and a keen observer of military affairs) I decided with my unique perspective to wade through the 800-plus pages of the Select Committee Report on the Benghazi debacle, which as we all know cost 5 Americans their lives. It is, as you can imagine, a rather daunting task; and far too much material to cover in a single post. So, instead, I will comment on those glaring errors in judgement, actions, and questions remaining as strike me (from a military standpoint) while reading the Report; here in bite-sized parts. It should be keep in...

Tuesday, our president came to us live from the Treasury Department. Allegedly, the purpose was to update Americans on the horrific Islamist terrorist attack at an LGBT club in Florida, as well as offer an update in the war against ISIS. But Obama reserved the second half of the speech for a vicious partisan diatribe. It would be as if FDR, partway through his “Day of Infamy” speech, began bashing Republicans for not supporting lend-lease. The first sign that the president’s remarks were headed south came when he lapsed into yet another tired attempt to link effective counterterrorism with the...

Just four days after U.S.-led global powers and Iran completed their nuclear deal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, reaffirmed the "Death to America" mantra that has pervaded his regime since its establishment in 1979, stating, "The entire country is under the umbrella of this great movement." Iran has killed hundreds of Americans in the Middle East, both directly and through its terrorist proxies. It has threatened U.S. regional interests by funding anti-Israeli terrorists, propping up Syria's terror-backing Bashar al-Assad and de-stabilizing U.S.-backed governments. Moving forward, this deal will enable Tehran to threaten U.S. security more directly in at least...

(CNSNews.com) – Fifty-three House members are demanding to know whether the April 6, 2012 and June 6, 2012 bomb-attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya were immediately included in the President’s Daily Brief – those two attacks occurred before the fatal Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 other Americans. “When was President Obama made aware of these two attacks on the Benghazi compound?” the letter asked. “Were these two attacks included in the President’s Daily Brief immediately after the attacks took place?” The Presidential Daily Brief is a daily national security and intelligence report...

If George Washington was alive today he would dress down the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for cowardice. The man from Chicago exhibited dastardly behavior by the abandonment of Americans at the hand of Muslim Terrorists. The American tradition of never abandoning those under his command on the battlefield while hiding in lofty comfort several thousand miles away. Standing by and doing nothing while watching your men being murdered by uneducated savages is criminal. Only a man who never defended this country can show total disregard for his fellow Americans. If Thomas Jefferson was alive he would berate the...

This is the story of two very different American presidents and how they each answered their emergency Libyan phone calls. First, the story of Ronald Reagan. When he got a call about trouble with Libya it was in August of 1981 and I happened to be having dinner with him and Nancy in Los Angeles. We had just finished eating and were having coffee when Ed Meese phoned. Meese was my father's top policy adviser, and there was a serious military crisis brewing in the Mediterranean. At the time, the United States Navy was conducting war exercises in international waters...

The current excuse is that Obama wasn’t lying when he and his cronies kept blaming a video, he was the victim of “bad intel” from the “bad intelligence” community. Oddly though Senators with less intel access, like McCain, drew the right conclusions and so did most serious commentators on the region.And the intelligence community stated that it was a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda, not a protest\murderous movie review. Two days after the deadly Libya terror attack, representatives of the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center gave Capitol Hill briefings in which they said the evidence supported an Al Qaeda or...

“Anytime a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans who were serving our country get killed, we have to figure out what happened and fix it,” he said, speaking with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in New Hampshire. “But I do take offense with some suggestion that in any way, we haven’t tried to make sure that the American people knew as the information was coming in what we believed.”

A pattern may be developing.  By now, everyone with a pulse should be intimately familiar with the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.  The Obama Administration is embroiled in a scandalous cover-up born of an obsession to perpetuate a myth that al Qaeda and radical Islamic terror withered to an inconsequential "remnant" with the death of Osama bin Laden. But within just the last week, at least two more plots to attack U.S. Embassies in Islamic countries have been uncovered.  Thankfully, local intelligence interrupted these two attacks before they...

In light of President Obama's statement in an Oct. 26 interview that the "minute" he found out about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 he issued a directive to subordinates "to make sure we are securing our personnel," House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has sent a letter to Obama demanding that he reveal exactly whom he ordered to do what on that day. “Although this response did not specifically answer the reporter’s question, your first directive would appear to involve potential actions by the U.S. military,” McKeon said in a letter...

Barack Obama said he was very offended that critics have accused him of a coverup. This is despite the fact that the administration called the terrorist attack a protest for weeks… Even though they watched 150 jihadists attack our consulate and murder our ambassador. The Politico reported: President Obama fired back at critics who have accused his administration of orchestrating a cover up over the September attacks in Libya.“I do take offense with some suggestion that in any way, we haven’t tried to make sure that the American people knew as the information was coming in what we believed,” Obama...

Rep. Chaffetz: ..."in my meeting with Gen. Ham, I asked very specifically, "did we have resources in the area?" the asnswer is "Yes", "Did we have proximity?", the answer is "Yes". And asked why we didn't send in some of those assets, the General said he was not requested to do so." -excerpt- "Was he directed by the President or the Sec'ty of Defence, he said "No""

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mg-e71IDAUw#!

About the two Navy SEAL’s killed in Libya: Quite an astounding tribute to the courage and bravery of the two former Navy SEAL’s that went to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and Embassy staff. Courageous! Recently I was teaching a class in my church on the biblical character, Joshua. You remember him – he’s the one who took over for Moses to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. God made several promises to Joshua in the opening verses of this book of the Bible named after him. Three times God instructs Joshua to “be strong and courageous.” In fact,...

From Megyn Kelly’s “America Live” today, Charlie Woods, who lost his son in the attack on the Benghazi consulate, reacts to the latest news that CIA command refused to send help. Speaking very calmly, Woods said his son deserves the same moral courage from the country’s leaders that he displayed in giving his life to save his fellow Americans: “This is not about politics … if it were about politics, it would dishonor my son’s death. It’s about honor, integrity and justice,” he said.“This news that he disobeyed his orders does not surprise me. My son was an American hero,...

Charles Woods spoke with Megyn Kelly about his son Ty Woods and called him an "honorable" man. Woods said that to make this about politics "would dishonor" his son but that he is speaking out on the "pack of lies" coming from the administration. Kelly and Woods discussed that the very act of Ty fighting back and protecting the Ambassador and those trapped in the consulate from the oncoming attack was a violation of orders Ty had received. Kelly revealed that new reports state that it is believed that Ty was shooting in protection of his fellow Americans "until the...