Free Republic

It has become well-accepted in the West that Europe and the United States ought to welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Based on the available evidence, that accepted perspective spells disaster for the character and safety of the West.

Washington (AFP) - At least three Russian military transport planes have landed in Syria in recent days, US officials said Tuesday, as Washington worries about the sort of assistance Moscow is providing to Damascus. The aircraft have landed at the airport in Latakia on Syria's Mediterranean coast over the past several days, US officials told AFP on condition of anonymity. Two of the aircraft were giant Antonov-124 Condor planes and a third was a passenger flight, one of the officials said. The Russians have installed modular housing units -- enough for "hundreds" of people -- at the airport, as well...

A Texas man admitted Wednesday in federal court in New York that he acted as a secret agent for the Russian government and headed an operation over about 10 years to export military technology to that country. Alexander Fishenko, a naturalized U.S. citizen and owner of Houston-based Arc Electronics Inc., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to numerous crimes, including money laundering, obstruction of justice and acting as an agent of the Russian government in the United States. A sentencing date hasn’t been set. Prosecutors say he headed a scheme to purposely evade strict export controls for cutting-edge...

"You want everybody educated to their potential. You want people to reach their potential. That still won't work for some people in a highly developed market system. I mean if this were a sports-based system, you could give me a PhD in football, and I could practice eight hours a day, and I might be able to carry the water from, not onto the field, but from the locker room to the bench. There's just some people don't fit well into a highly skilled market-based economy. They're perfectly decent citizens. We'll send them off to Afghanistan, but they are not...

Hungarian Camerawoman Fired for Kicking, Tripping Migrants N1TV said employee dismissed because she ‘behaved unacceptably’ Associated Press Sept. 9, 2015 7:41 a.m. ET 1 COMMENTS BUDAPEST—A Hungarian camerawoman has been fired after she was caught on video kicking and tripping migrants entering Hungary across the border with Serbia. The N1TV Internet channel said their employee, widely identified in Hungarian media as Petra Laszlo, has been dismissed because she “behaved unacceptably” at a makeshift gathering point where police take migrants immediately after they enter Hungary near the village of Roszke. In videos posted online, Laszlo can be seen kicking at least...

President Obama’s urgent call to construct a new fleet of heavy Coast Guard icebreakers to monitor the contested Arctic is belied by his recent budgets that slashed funding for even one new ship. Mr. Obama, in a game of polar ice chess with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his 40-plus icebreakers, made the gap one of his themes as he toured Alaska last week. Officials say the U.S. needs to keep pace in the face of an increasingly serious challenge by Russia, which is making new territorial claims on the Arctic. But even by the White House’s own internal projections,...

U.S. President Barack Obama’s Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Anti-ISIL Coalition, Brett McGurk, who was in Ankara this week to finalize the Incirlik agreement between Turkey and U.S., has said Washington “can’t succeed against Daesh without Turkey,” speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News in an exclusive interview via Skype. “The threat of Daesh is extremely serious. It’s not going away. It’s growing. It’s a challenge the world has never seen before,” McGurk said, emphasizing the two countries’ close collaboration up to now. He also said Turkish F-16’s will fly with U.S. jets from Incirlik very soon and the only...

GREEK FOREIGN MINISTRY CONFIRMS RECEIVED U.S. REQUEST TO DENY RUSSIA USE OF GREEK AIRSPACE FOR AID FLIGHTS TO SYRIA

Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople underlined the importance of ecumenical ties with Rome, and criticized the resistance of the Russian Orthodox Church, in an August 29 address. The Ecumenical Patriarch—recognized as the “first among equals” of the world’s Orthodox leaders—stressed the primary importance of ecumenical affairs, and reiterated that his role involves “protecting the unity of the whole Orthodox Church.” He said that opposition to ecumenical unity reflects a “diabolical” impulse. Patriarch Bartholomew said that his continuing contacts with the Holy See are a critical component of his ecumenical work. He expressed his enthusiasm for the planned worldwide Orthodox...

VALHALLA, N.Y. — It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote — a different Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time. Resolutely nationalistic Russians want his body back. His great-great-granddaughter, Susan Sophia Rachmaninoff Volkonskaya Wanamaker, says “nyet.” Or she might, if she spoke Russian, but probably not. In a conversation about where his remains belong, she repeatedly used words like “dignity” and “respect.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that the European refugee crisis is “a direct consequence” of President Obama’s failed foreign policy and that he does not support the Iran nuclear deal. Cheney, who was vice president in the George W. Bush administration, said Obama has helped to “create a huge vacuum” in Iraq for terror groups like the Islamic State to flourish and kill by failing to secure an agreement with Iraqi leaders to keep U.S. troops in the country after the war. “That contributed directly to the refugee crisis,” Cheney told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a crisis of...

Sarah Palin knows the position she wants in a Donald Trump administration: Energy secretary. "I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations," she told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." But Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee, might be the first potential cabinet member to openly speak about dissolving their office.

<p>Look forward to joining @JakeTapper on @CNNSotu this Sunday from Alaska! We'll discuss what @POTUS missed during his visit to the "Last Frontier"!</p>

WASHINGTON (CNN) —Sarah Palin knows the position she wants in a Donald Trump administration: Energy secretary. "I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations," she told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." But Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee, might be the first potential cabinet member to openly speak about dissolving their office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday blamed the migrant crisis in Europe on the United States for imposing its own standards on countries in the Middle East and Africa while failing to understand their culture and traditions. In the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, Putin told the media that it was an “absolutely expected crisis.” “We in Russia, and your humble servant, said several years ago that there would be massive problems if our so-called Western partners carry out what I have always called an ‘incorrect’ foreign policy, especially in the regions of the Muslim world, in the Middle...

BEIRUT (AP) — Anti-government violence erupted Saturday in a southern Syrian province that had largely stayed on the sidelines of the country's civil war. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggesting that Russia was planning to expand its military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad prompted a warning from the U.S. that such actions could lead to a confrontation with coalition forces. The violence in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority sect, followed the killing of a prominent cleric in rare explosions Friday that claimed the lives of at least 25 others, activists and pro-government media said. Rioters holding the government...

Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad. The anonymous officials say Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for up to 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving the Syrian port city of Latakia. Russia has also requested the rights to fly over neighbouring countries with military cargo aircraft during September, according to the reports. The claims, which will raise fears that Russia is planning to expand its...

Does Italy still exist, or is it, as Metternich puts it, a geographic expression? By joining the Euro, it lost its monetary sovereignty. It lost its territorial sovereignty after its defeat in the second world war with occupation by the Americans who have never left since then. It lost its military sovereignty as it is now reduced to taking orders from the USA and organising pretend peace missions in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and bombing Libya (thanks also to grandpa Napolitano)/ The fall of Gaddafi is the cause of the immigration of biblical proportions - from that country that no...

Iran did not go mad and threaten to hit all NATO installations in Turkey because it wanted 3.5 million Turkish citizens to die from the chemical warhead of a Syrian missile. It went mad and threatened because it viewed the defensive NATO assets in Turkey as a threat to its offensive missile capabilities. Iran's reaction to the NATO assets in Turkey revealed its intentions to attack. It could be a coincidence that the U.S. and Germany (most likely to be followed by Spain) have decided to withdraw their Patriot missile batteries and troops from Turkey shortly after agreeing to a...

Why aren't any of the current migrant surge going to Russia and China instead of just the EU? Or any migrant surge? Don't the Russians have huge, sparsely-populated territories dotted with ghost towns in Siberia? Don't the Chinese have dozens of newly-constructed, completely unpopulated cities with 65M homes sitting empty? Ban Ki-Moon down at the UN thinks it's so damn important that Europe save/support/welcome the refugees. So how many migrants have been invited to come live in his South Korea? They seem to be doing pretty well these days, what with Europe and the US buying so much of their stuff- What about...