Free Republic

(Screenshot from funeral of Hamas leader in Qatar, attended by Emir of Qatar.)What do you get if you back an Islamic terrorist group that launches a regional war?If you’re Qatar, you get Article V protection, normally allotted only to NATO allies, that declares the United States has to respond to any attack on the Islamic terror state which harbored the mastermind of 9/11.On top of that Qatar, a tiny slave state with a small military, gets to sign a high-profile agreement to have its pilots trained on a US Air Force base right here.Turkey, fresh off putting its Al Qaeda...

Hamas has recalled about 7,000 members of its security forces to reassert control over areas of Gaza recently vacated by Israeli troops, according to local sources. The Palestinian group also appointed five new governors all with military backgrounds, some of whom previously commanded brigades in its armed wing. The mobilisation order was reportedly issued via phone calls and text messages which said the aim was to "cleanse Gaza of outlaws and collaborators with Israel" and told fighters to report within 24 hours. Reports from Gaza suggest that armed Hamas units have already deployed across several districts, some wearing civilian clothes...

This is necessary to end the war and ensure a just and lasting peace in UkraineLONDON, October 10. /TASS/. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany are working together on the potential expropriation of Russian sovereign assets, the UK prime minister's office said in a statement following a phone call between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Vladimir Zelensky. "Reflecting on his discussions with the leaders of France and Germany this morning, the Prime Minister said all three countries were united in wanting to drive progress towards using the full value of the immobilized Russian sovereign assets to end the war...

An analysis of the Russo-Urainian War in 2025. I look at events essentially from the draw down in Kursk to the overall trajectory of the combat lines. Finally, I take a look at constraints on the west and challenges faced.

An incident involving sightings of aerial objects in Lithuanian airspace led to a temporary shutdown at Vilnius Airport over the weekend, according to investigators. The sightings, which officials have now confirmed were nearly two-dozen unauthorized hot-air balloons, delayed flights for several hours on Sunday. The balloons were reportedly carrying contraband cigarettes into the country’s airspace, investigators said. Officials with Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said the incursion was one of the largest of its kind in recent memory, impacting close to 6,000 passengers on Sunday morning. The incident unfolded amid heightened concerns over recent reports of alleged drone incursions in...

The board is set. The pieces are moving. Two days ago, Donald J. Trump presided over a grand celebration marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy’s founding called: Titans of the Sea: A Salute to the Fleet. Trump headlined a massive rally-like gathering, joined by First Lady Melania Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Navy Secretary John Phelan. In his 45-minute speech, Trump explicitly mentioned Venezuela multiple times, celebrating that ‘the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water’. He also hinted at land-based operations, saying the U.S. would ‘turn attention...

Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed Poland and the Baltic states for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Merkel, who led the country from 2005 to 2021, made the explosive claim in an interview with Hungarian outlet Partizan. She said she blamed Poland and the Baltic states for the severance of diplomatic ties between Russia and the EU, which she said led to the invasion just a few months later. In her telling of history, Poland's refusal to support the Minsk Agreements, a pair of key international agreements between Russia and the EU, emboldened Putin to properly invade Ukraine in...

The U.S. will provide intelligence to Ukraine for long-range missile strikes inside Russia targeting its energy infrastructure, it has been reported. Citing unnamed officials, The Wall Street Journal said that President Donald Trump had allowed the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to help Kyiv attack the sites that generate revenue for Vladimir Putin’s war machine. The United States has been sharing intelligence with Kyiv for a long time but the Wall Street Journal report, carried by other outlets, suggests that Washington wants to make it easier for Kyiv to hit energy sites that are integral to Russia’s economy. The U.S. has...

Trump is clearly listening to the NEOCONS, and he may believe their BS that Russia’s economy is collapsing, so Russia can be defeated in three days, as Kinzinger was claiming. Mark Rubio is a Neocon. I believe Trump hired him as a compromise to the Neocons. But he is taking us into World War III in slow motion. Trump is listening to the wrong people, and he had better look unbiased at why Putin is being put into a precarious position. He has insulted the dignity of Russia and reduced it to a meaningless 4th-world country. If Putin is replaced...

n the past few weeks, Russian drones and jet fighters have repeatedly penetrated the airspace of Poland, Estonia, and other NATO members. Western officials have reacted harshly to those episodes, shooting down intruding drones and, in the case of President Donald Trump, issuing threats to attack even manned Russian aircraft if such incidents continue. NATO leaders and their supporters in the news media are responding to the rising tensions by reviving an idea from the earliest days of the Kremlin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine: imposing a no-fly zone over that country. It is an especially provocative and dangerous...

The Caribbean is a powder ked ready to explode.In the last few days, there has been a surge in activity on the maritime siege of Venezuela and the operation against the drug Cartels.The Trump administration has reportedly declared – in a memo to Congress – drug cartels to be ‘unlawful combatants’, further declaring the United States to be in ‘armed conflict’ with them.Then, yet another alleged drug boat was destroyed on the Caribbean.A squadron of US F-35’s are detected flying over coastal city of Maiquetia, according to the Bolivarian Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. After all these developments, multiple reports note...

Georgian police used pepper spray and water cannon to force protesters away from the presidential palace in the capital Tbilisi on Saturday, amid a large demonstration on the day of municipal elections, a Reuters witness said. A group of protesters attempted to force entry to the presidential palace, after some opposition figures called for a "peaceful revolution" against the incumbent Georgian Dream party, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian. The country's pro-Western opposition has been staging protests since last year, when Georgian Dream won an election that its critics say was fraudulent.

Ralph Pezzullo and Stephen Gardner get deep into why Trump is gearing up for war with Venezuela. Imagine being briefed with evidence that Venezuela has been rigging elections with US AID tax payer money. Imagine learning they also been rigging elections in the US. https://amzn.to/46PPAun Stolen Elections sounds like a spy novel but its all true. http://ralphpezzulloauthor.com/ Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and others have been briefed on the mechanics of rigging elections. This is why some many have been fired, Tulsi Gabbard says our election systems are vulnerable, Trump won the presidency but his down ticket went...

I simply don't trust the MSM to tell us what Putin actually said (shades of Russia!Russia!Russia!). Below is the link to the video and the YOUTUBE auto-generated TRANSCRIPT. The video and TRANSCRIPT are long; if you want to skip to the comments, I recomment you return to the forum and click on the comments link there.[H/T Delta7]WATCH: Putin Full Speech at Valdai Forum in Sochi | Gaza, Ukraine & EU Relations | AC15DWS News88.6K subscribersOct 2, 2025 ransomnote: The transcript is an computerized interpretation of the spoken word. The translator in the video speaks with an accent so there are...

Shocking Statements From Putin🗣️😮New Massive Strike On Energy Sector💥⚡️Military Summary 2025.10.03

Trump’s memo to Congress grants him wartime powers to strike, kill, and detain cartel fighters without trial ============================================================== AMERICA'S military is preparing to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela, it's reported - as Donald Trump declared a full-scale war on drug cartels. The President stunned Washington by formally declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations”. The move, revealed in a secret memo to Congress, gives Trump sweeping wartime powers to strike, kill and detain cartel fighters without trial. And it comes as the Pentagon quietly builds a force big enough to grab...

Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics - headed to America to poison our people. Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth @SecWar Earlier this morning, on President Trump's orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics - headed to America to poison our people. Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were...

During an EU summit Wednesday, leaders discussed the plan, with the idea winning support from bloc heavyweights France and Germany, according to officials involved in the discussion. However Belgium, whose approval is critical because it hosts Euroclear, reiterated concerns about the plan and sought assurances that its financial interests would be protected. Earlier, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who hosted the summit, told reporters that the bloc sees financial support to Ukraine as critical. “And I think that the idea from the Commission is actually quite a good way forward,” she said. The European plan seeks to resolve several problems...

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.”President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week. The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered...