Free Republic

What Quagmire? Even in Withdrawal, Russia Stays a Step Ahead By MARK LANDLERMARCH 15, 2016 WASHINGTON — For five years, President Obama has steadfastly rejected the argument that the United States could intervene in Syria, alter the equation on the battlefield and avoid being sucked into a quagmire. Now, it appears that President Vladimir V. Putin has done exactly that.

Russia on Sunday accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions, while Turkish authorities imposed curfews on two mainly Kurdish towns where Turkey's security forces are set to launch large-scale operations against Kurdish militants. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia has evidence of Turkey's "creeping expansion" in northern Syria. "According to our information, they are digging in a few hundred meters from the border inside Syria," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian REN TV broadcast on Sunday. Calls placed to Turkish officials weren't answered. In southeastern Turkey,...

A blatant propaganda campaign is underway in the Council on Foreign Relations-dominated major media aimed at convincing Americans that "Islamic fundamentalism" is the new global threat we must prepare to battle. According to the managers of public opinion, the new Muslim threat is not only more sinister than any residual communist menace, but is probably more dangerous than communism ever was.It would, no doubt, strike the uninformed as very odd then to learn that the same Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) operatives in government and the media who are most loudly declaiming against the scourge of "militant" and "fundamentalist" Islam...

A prominent Russian millionaire with high-level ties to the Kremlin has been found dead inside a Washington hotel, a Russian official and a senior U.S. official told ABC News. Mikhail Lesin, the former head of media affairs for the Russian government who's been accused of curtailing the country’s press freedoms, had been staying at Hotel Dupont when he was found Thursday, according to officials. It's unclear why the long-time adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Washington, but the Metropolitan Police Department is now investigating his death. On Thursday, U.S. authorities notified the Russian embassy in Washington that one...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after authorities in Washington confirmed an autopsy shows blunt force trauma caused the death of a former aide to the Russian president, Russian officials say they've been requesting information about the probe without results. ... Lesin was a media adviser to Putin who helped found the English-language news service Russia Today.

A Russian TV scion with strong links to President Vladimir Putin was killed by 'blunt force trauma to the head.' Now speculation is mounting that the Kremlin could have been involved in the death of Mikhail Lesin - the founder of station RT. According to reports Mr Lesin, who is said to have fallen out of favour with Moscow, became closely linked to the FBI and was widely believed to have become an informant.

On Thursday, more than four months later, one of the questions surrounding Mr. Lesin’s death was answered: The office of the chief medical examiner in Washington announced that he had not died of a heart attack, but rather of blunt force injuries to his head.

NATO military commander Philip Breedlove howled the other day that Russia is 'weaponizing' Syrian refugees. US senator John McCain said exactly the same thing at the Munich Security Conference a couple of weeks ago. Famous "philanthropist" George Soros said the same a month ago. McCain, Breedlove and Soros claim that Russian combat operations in Syria are part of a wider plot to destabilize Europe by sewing divisions in the EU. Western media then uncritically picked up and transited these bizarre claims. Tara McCormack over at Spiked has a great rebuke: Kosovo has produced the third-highest number of refugees after Syria...

The Russian task force in Syria has demonstrated remarkable efficiency and professionalism, according to a German magazine citing confidential NATO analysis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested building a new city in northern Syria to house some of the millions of refugees escaping the country’s civil war, reports said Saturday. Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul late Friday that the new city would be located near the Turkish border and said he had even discussed the idea with US President Barack Obama. “I am going to tell you something. What is the formula? We found a city in the north of Syria,” said Erdogan, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.

To ensure that its sellout to a nuclear Iran would make its way through Congress, the Obama administration withheld until after the Iran vote a letter written by al-Qaeda chieftain Osama Bin Laden pegging Iran as being the terror group's chief financier. In a 2007 letter, bin Laden criticized an operative for threatening to attack Iran. “We expect you would consult with us for these important matters, for as you are aware, Iran is our main artery for funds, personnel, and communication, as well as the matter of hostages,” he wrote. Ties between Iran and al Qaeda have been reported for years, with numerous ways...

New charge against Donald Trump: He's a Russian agent?

Trump Gains Among Christians in the Middle East By Ray Hanania February 18, 2016 Donald Trump may have angered Muslims with his broad swipes at Islamic terrorism and violence, but he has garnered more positive sentiment from Christians in the Middle East. ...snip... Trump's comments have gained strong support among Arab Christians and Middle East Christians who feel as though mainstream Muslim activists have failed to fully confront extremists. Though Muslims reject the radicals' tactics of terrorism and violence, arguing that they twist the true face of Islam, their leadership fails in strategic communications. Trump is honest and compensates for...

The US has been dumping so many weapons into the Syrian conflict that there is now an apparent surplus. ISIS has since taken to selling them online. Last year, the Free Thought Project reported on a video, apparently recorded just outside of Aleppo, Syria. The video illustrated just how insane the US "War on Terror" has become. In the video, the U.S. backed, armed, and financed Free Syrian Army, (aka moderate rebels, aka ISIS-linked terrorists) are firing a U.S. supplied anti-tank TOW guided missile. Of course, the 'moderate rebels' firing a US missile is nothing out of the ordinary. However,...

Washington could become the first state in the nation to impose a direct tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline and natural gas. A ballot measure before the state Legislature would create a carbon tax of $25 per metric ton of fossil fuel emissions burned in Washington, while reducing taxes. ...

And so, just like that, with a sweeping victory in South Carolina, Sanders' Socialism crawls back into its cage and crony capitalism is alive and well. As Edward Snowden so perfectly sums up... . 

A video published online by a Syrian rebel group shows what appears to be a direct hit by a US-made BGM-71 TOW on the turret of a Russia-supplied T-90 tank of the Syrian Army. The video is one of a multitude of instances of the use of TOW missiles by rebels in Syria, but it may be the first time the anti-tank weapon was used against the advanced T-90 main battle tank. The clip shows the optically-guided missile approaching the partially-covered tank, followed by a bright explosion and a cloud of smoke. Moments later one of the tank crew members...

What a surprise it's not that ex-MSNBC action hero Ed Schultz just served up a textbook example of why Godwin's Law -- he who first invokes the Nazis in making an argument, loses -- still applies. When he's not toiling away at his new Kremlin-backed Russia Today "news" show, Schultz does a podcast weekdays that's available at YouTube and his website. Right out of the gate in Monday's podcast, Schultz mocked GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's repeated claims that, once elected, he'll build a wall to secure the border with Mexico -- while getting Mexico to pay for it. Based on...

To Counter Turkish Threat, Russia Sends Fighter Jets to Its Base in Armenia By Julio Severo Russia has moved several MiG-29 fighters and other aircraft to its military base in Armenia, after Turkish threats of a more direct military intervention in Syria. The Russian base in Armenia is located some 40 kilometers from the Turkish border. Four Russian MiG-29 jets, a modernized MiG bomber and a transport helicopter have been dispatched to the air base near the Armenian capital Yerevan. Relations between Turkey and Armenia have always been tense, because Turkey refuses to recognize its Ottoman Empire committed a...

The military base that was hit by the car bomb is considered one of the most important military centers of the Russian forces on the Syrian coast, located some 15 kilometers from Latakia.