Free Republic

In an unusual alliance, a House Democrat and Republican have teamed up to urge the Obama administration to stop trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad and focus all its efforts on destroying Islamic State militants. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat, and Austin Scott, a Republican, introduced legislation on Friday to end what they called an "illegal war" to overthrow Assad, the leader of Syria accused of killing tens of thousands of Syrian citizens in a more than four-year-old civil war entangled in a battle against IS extremists, also known as ISIS. "The U.S. is waging two wars in Syria,"...

ISIS can be defeated, but it will take much greater will on the part of President Obama, an exponentially more robust air campaign with more reasonable rules of engagement and Arab ground forces to get the job done, according to retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney. McInerney spent 35 years in uniform and rose to the role of assistant vice chief of staff, the number three position in the Air Force. He also served as a combat pilot in Vietnam and as vice commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe. He said the first step is for Obama to...

The stories told by five top Syrian Christian leaders about the horrors their churches are experiencing at the hands of Islamic extremists are biblical in their brutality. Bishop Elias Toumeh, representative of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, tells of the funeral he led ten days ago for the headless body of one of his parishioners in Marmarita. Rev. Adeeb Awad, vice moderator of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, explains how the rebels blew up his church and then pointed the finger at the regime. Bishop Armash Nalbandian, primate of the Armenian Church...

A leading Christian bishop in Syria has welcomed Russia's intervention in the country's civil war, saying the West should follow Vladimir Putin in backing President Bashar al-Assad rather than rebel groups dominated by Islamic extremists. Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, who is based in the war-ravaged northern city of Aleppo, said Mr Putin's involvement had brought "hope" to many of Syria's Christian minority, who thought it might force the warring sides to the negotiating table. In an interview with The Telegraph during a visit to London, he also urged Britain and America to re-examine their assessment of President Assad, who he claimed...

Crimea was left without electricity supplies from Ukraine on Sunday after pylons carrying power lines to the Russia-annexed peninsula were blown up overnight. It was not immediately clear who had damaged the pylons, but a Russian senator described the move as an "act of terrorism" and implied that Ukrainian nationalists were to blame. Crimea receives the bulk of its electricity from the Ukrainian mainland and its seizure by Russia last year prompted fury in Kiev and the West, which then imposed economic sanctions on Russian companies and individuals. Russia's Energy Ministry said emergency electricity supplies had been turned on for...

The terror group have sunk to a new low after shocking pictures emerged of the toys booby-trapped with explosives. Iraqi forces seized almost 20 dolls after foiling a major ISIS bomb plot to target Shia Muslims. Security forces in Baghdad disabled and destroyed 18 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) hidden inside the hollow bodies of the toys, which were re-dressed in clothing. ISIS intended to use the doll-bombs to massacre millions of Shia Muslims during the annual pilgrimage for Arbaeen, next month.

Russia is not welcome to join the US-led coalition in Syria, as France has proposed, until it changes its “focus” and stops “propping up” President Assad, the US State Department said. Yet, Washington continues to insist their goal isn’t defeating Assad. “If other nations not in the coalition [the US-led coalition] want to join it and become part of it and focus on the fight against ISIL [Islamic State/IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] that’s a conversation we’re certainly willing to have,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said. An appeal to expand the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State came from French President...

Syrian President Bashar Assad has said that the internationally agreed upon 18-month timeline for political transition in Syria may only begin after Islamic State and other terror groups are defeated in the country. “There will be no point in deciding any timetable, because you cannot achieve anything politically while you have the terrorists taking over many areas in Syria, and they’re going to be – they are already – the main obstacle of any real political advancement,” Assad said in an interview with Italy’s RAI UNO channel. After the terrorists are defeated, the political transition in Syria won’t require a...

KILLIS, Turkey The 15 Chechens looking to cross the border from Turkey to Syria didn’t strike Abdullah as particularly important or unusual. It was early summer in 2012, and as a smuggler based in the Turkish border town of Killis, Abdullah, who’d fled his home village in Syria because of fighting on the outskirts of Aleppo, was used to secretive groups of foreigners – journalists, aid workers and many recently aspiring jihadists – hiring him to cross Turkish military lines at the border while avoiding what was then still a significant Syrian government presence in northern Syrian. “In 2012, everyone...

Turkey has summoned Russia's ambassador in protest over the "intensive" bombing of Turkmen villages in northern Syria by Russian warplanes, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters on Friday. In the meeting with the ambassador, Andrei Karlov, Turkey called for an immediate end to the Russian military operation, which is near the Turkish border, the foreign ministry said in a statement. "It was stressed that the Russian side's actions were not a fight against terror, but they bombed civilian Turkmen villages and this could lead to serious consequences," the foreign ministry said

How could Isis be eliminated? In the region, everyone knows. All it would really take would be to unleash the largely Kurdish forces of the YPG (Democratic Union party) in Syria, and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ party) guerillas in Iraq and Turkey. These are, currently, the main forces actually fighting Isis on the ground. They have proved extraordinarily militarily effective and oppose every aspect of Isis’s reactionary ideology. But instead, YPG-controlled territory in Syria finds itself placed under a total embargo by Turkey, and PKK forces are under continual bombardment by the Turkish air force. Not only has Erdoğan done almost...

PBS NewsHour, a daily US television news program shown on the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), used footage of Russian airstrikes against ISIL targets, claiming that they were US airstrikes, an Information Clearing House article revealed.

Originally appeared at German Economic News. Translated by Susan Neumann. Hey, Muhammad Barack Obama Al-Husseini: My boots haven't been licked for awhile. Please bend down and start with the left boot Could it be any more clear who is on the right side, and who is on the wrong side of this conflict? The Islamist theocracy Saudi Arabia is getting heavy ammunition equaling billions of dollars from the United States. It remains to be seen whether this economic booster shot for the U.S. defense industry will lead to consequences in Syria. The Saudis are fighting covertly against the Russians. The...

A sobering warning: Like illegal aliens, Islamic State terrorists don't use official border crossings The totalitarian mass murderers of Islamic State are hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons and using them against their enemies in the West, a reporter who was embedded with the Salafi jihadist fighters in occupied Syria is warning. German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, who spent 10 anxious days living in Islamic State-held Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor in Syria with the jihadists, wants the world to know that the terrorist group is deadly serious about unleashing a “nuclear tsunami” on those who oppose its efforts to create an Islamic...

RT spoke to Jurgen Todenhofer, the first Western journalist who was allowed to enter territory controlled by the so-called Islamic State. A year ago, he spent 10 days among the terrorists, also visiting Raqqa, the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate. To arrange the journey, Todenhofer held Skype discussions with Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) for six months before they agreed to his visit. Finally, the jihadists gave him official guarantee safety. “It was in their interest to fulfill their promises that I would come back alive – and I came back alive,” he said. After spending several days with ISIS militants,...

(Biden): And what my constant cry was that our biggest problem is our allies – our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends – and I have the greatest relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with – the Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad except...

Astudy conducted by the US based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimated that Israel had 115 nuclear bombs in its possession in 2014. The study was composed by the institute's founder David Albright, and was part of a more comprehensive study on the worldwide inventory of plutonium. The study estimated that Israel produced plutonium at a rapid pace in the past 50 years since the inception of its nuclear reactor in Dimona, acquiring 660 kilograms of plutonium, taking into account an estimation error of 150 kilograms. A single nuclear bomb requires 3-5 kg of plutonium, the study estimated....

The Russian military has launched cruise missiles against Islamic State positions in Syria from both the Mediterranean and Caspian seas, one of which killed over 600 terrorists in the Deir Ex-Zor Province, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said. “On November 20, the warships of the Caspian Fleet launched 18 cruise missiles at seven targets in the provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo. All targets were hit successfully,” he reported to President Vladimir Putin. Overall, there are 10 warships taking part in the operation, six of which are in the Mediterranean. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) have been suffering huge...

Once a Muslim like Obama rules a country it falls under the Islamic concept of religious conquest of the infidel aka fatih and is to be forever ruled by a Muslim or to be retaken in jihad if need be. As soon as Obama became president, in the eyes of the "Ummah" (Muslim community) the USA is "fatih" (conquered) and the non Muslims dhimmis of that land to be enslaved as the Muslims see fit. If it falls out of the hands of Muslims then a jihad needs to be waged till it returns to Muslim rule. As soon as...

A few days after the Paris attacks that left hundreds dead and injured, Russia confirmed that a homemade explosive device was detonated on board MetroJet Flight 9268 in October, killing all 224 passengers. Since then, ISIS published images of the bomb that was detonated inside the airplane, saying that the Russian flight wasn't the original target. Instead, ISIS wanted to shoot down a Western plane. The image below shows a Schweppes can, a detonator and a possible trigger switch, The Telegraph notes. The picture was posted in the latest edition of the Dabiq propaganda magazine, right alongside pictures of passports...