Free Republic

Saratu Dauda had been kidnapped. It was 2014, ... Kidnapped from their dormitory exactly 10 years ago, the 276 captives known as the Chibok Girls were catapulted to fame by Michelle Obama, by churches that took up the mostly Christian students’ cause and by campaigners using the slogan “Bring Back Our Girls.” “The only crime of these girls was to go to school,”... Their lives have taken wildly different turns since the abduction. Some escaped almost immediately; 103 were released a few years later after negotiations. A dozen or so now live abroad, including in the United States. As many...

<p>At least nine protesters were handcuffed and loaded into police cruisers at a peaceful, pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday at the University of Texas hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group and a chapter of the national Students for Justice in Palestine. And several more were arrested at the university's South Lawn.</p>

Israeli troops foiled an attempted stabbing attack near the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, the military said Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces said a female Palestinian assailant tried to stab troops of the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion, who were stationed at an army post at a junction near the settlement. “The troops engaged and opened fire at the terrorist who held a knife and charged toward the force,” the military said. The woman was killed, the army said. No troops were hurt in the incident. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA identified the alleged assailant as Maimouna Abdel Hamid...

Aidan Parisi pledged to 'resist' and called for 'intifada' after Columbia ordered him to vacate his on-campus apartment.. For more than two weeks, Columbia University graduate student Aidan Parisi has defied the university’s suspension, refusing to vacate his dorm room on the school's Manhattan campus. The school announced Parisi’s suspension on April 4 following his participation in a pro-Hamas event. And while Columbia leaders have pledged to enforce the suspension, they have yet to follow through. In the meantime, Parisi has contributed to the mayhem that has engulfed the campus over the past several days, serving as a leader of...

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met with Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine on Friday and they agreed – after Niger’s demands – that the US would militarily withdraw from the country, according to a State Department official. In the coming days, there will be conversations over the timeline for the withdrawal with the Department of Defense, the official said. The major drawdown will significantly impact the US troop presence on the continent of Africa, and the move comes amid serious US concerns about the country’s deepening relationships with Russia and Iran. The New York Times first reported...

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday said it was readying to deploy two reserve brigades for missions in the Gaza Strip, as the military appeared to move ahead with plans for an offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah as it seeks to remove the Hamas terror group from its last major redoubt in the enclave. The 679th “Yiftah” Armored Brigade and the 2nd “Carmeli” Infantry Brigade, which had been operating on the northern border, were set to take responsibility for areas of central Gaza that have remained under Israeli military control since troops largely pulled back from other...

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media says in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency says. It gives no other detail. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.

The charges against activist and independent journalist Tommy Robinson were dropped on Tuesday after a judge at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court found that a police order banning him from a protest in London was unlawful. Mr Robinson, 40, was arrested in central London on November 26th for supposedly violating a ban from attending a pro-Israel demonstration. Police argued that he refused to comply with the order and therefore used synthetic pepper spray on him, placed Robinson in handcuffs and arrested him. ... Speaking outside the courthouse on Tuesday alongside one-time UKIP backer Lord Pearson of Rannoch and broadcaster Katie Hopkins,...

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an “obstacle” in a two-state solution between Israel and Gaza and said he should resign. In an interview with RTÉ’s Six One News during a visit to Ireland, Pelosi spoke about the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Netanyahu’s deadly counteroffensive that has left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead, according to local health officials. “We recognize Israel’s right to protect itself. We reject the policy and the practice of Netanyahu,” she said. “Terrible. What could be worse than what he has done in response?” “He should...

The Israeli military's intelligence chief has resigned, saying he took responsibility for the failures before Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Major General Aharon Haliva would retire once his successor was selected. He acknowledged in a letter that his intelligence directorate "did not live up to the task we were entrusted with". He is the first senior figure to step down over the attack, which was the deadliest in Israel's history. Israeli military and intelligence officials missed or ignored multiple warnings before hundreds of Hamas gunmen breached the Gaza border fence that day...

Hardline Iranian parliamentarian and member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Javad Karimi Ghodousi tweeted on April 22 implying that if granted permission, Iran could test its first nuclear weapon within one week.[17] Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Deputy Chairman Shahriar Heydari stated on April 22 in response to Karimi Ghodousi’s tweet that Iran has no ”intention” to build or use nuclear weapons.[18] Heydari cited Khamenei’s 2003 fatwa as the reason Iran is not seeking to acquire or use nuclear weapons. Heydari stated that Karimi Ghodousi's tweet may have been taken out of context.

Sen. John Fetterman reiterated his criticisms of activists calling for cease-fire in Gaza, and slammed fellow Democrats for their “crazy” response to the attacks Iran has launched against Israel, in an interview with Fox Digital. “It is not appropriate or legal or helpful to advance your argument if you show up in a Starbucks with a bullhorn and start yelling at people,” he told Fox News Digital in a Friday interview. He also claimed such protests don’t “make you noble.” “It just makes you an (–*&*(,” Fetterman (D-Pa.) said. Since the onset of the war between Israel and terrorist group...

Another Joe Biden foreign policy disaster is in the works. Joe Biden already turned over the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan to Taliban terrorists in September 2021. Biden abandoned Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years in July by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ secret departure more than two hours after they left. The Taliban quickly took control of Bagram Air Base, which is only 30 miles north of Kabul, on August 15th and released thousands of terrorists held at its prison. The Americans and Afghans...

Holder spent several years at Covington before he became attorney general and rejoined the firm after his stint at the Justice Department. He now advises clients on a range of issues including "cultural and social responsibility," raking in as much as $2,295 an hour for conducting racial equity audits.The former attorney general also weighed in on Israel's war against Hamas last week. Appearing alongside former Obama secretary of defense and longtime Israel critic Chuck Hagel, Holder called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "small Man" and described Israel's response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as "extremely disturbing."...Hagel, who served as...

President Biden marked the coming of Passover in a message Sunday, tying the Jewish holiday to the Israel-Hamas war and doubling down on his support for Israel in the conflict. “This holiday reminds us of a profound and powerful truth: that even in the face of persecution, if we hold on to faith, we shall endure and overcome,” Biden wrote. “We can never forget the horror of Hamas’ despicable atrocities.”

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel, its close ally. Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from...

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said he voted against additional aid to Israel to oppose a “blank check” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Khanna was one of the 37 Democrats who voted against sending more funding to Israel on Saturday amid its ongoing war in Gaza. The House approved a long-awaited foreign aid package on Saturday that includes more funding for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

MOSUL, Iraq, April 21 (Reuters) - At least five rockets were launched from Iraq's town of Zummar towards a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters. The attack against U.S. forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against U.S. troops.

Israeli strikes hit the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killing 22 people, including 18 children. Health officials say Israel continues to carry out daily raids near Rafah. Israel vows to expand its ground offensive.

What else do you remember from that day? Where were you? What did you talk about? I was with them, I walked around with them – they were on a high. Ketziot is an open-air facility. That particular wing is surrounded by a wall and there's netting above it but you see the sky. The prisoners who had arrived there to be freed hadn't seen the sky for 20 years. In the prisons they had come from, they'd spend the entire day in their cells, maybe going out for an hour or two. Suddenly they see the horizon. They're happy....