Free Republic

Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon.  In 1982, following Operation Peace for Galilee, JINSA reported on the international terrorist haven that had arisen in Fatahland – the southern part of Lebanon controlled by Yasser Arafat.  Aside from the expected mélange of Middle Easterners, there were Japanese Red Army, German and Italian Red Brigades, Nicaraguan Sandinistas, Salvadorans, Colombians and Peruvians.  There were Iranian Shi’ites, East Germans and Bulgarians.  Before there was Iraq, there was Lebanon, again.  Religious Iran and secular, Ba’athist Syria made a deal to use Syrian-controlled Lebanon as a base for Hizballah to attack Israel.  Today, Israel...

… “Drivers are taking matters into their own hands. I know I sat on the hotline for over an hour and a half,” Zack said of calling ICE recently. “But I couldn’t get through.” Other drivers made calls to the hotline about “deliveristas” whom he knows often gather at the north end of the parking lot of a Rio Rancho Walmart parking lot, he said. On June 5, a team of federal law enforcement agents swept the Rio Rancho Walmart, detaining as many as a dozen “deliveristas” from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere, according to delivery drivers who either witnessed...

The trial of two Iranians and six others, who tried to smuggle 2.2 tons of cocaine to the island, exposed networks spanning the Middle East and Venezuela. JNS Staff. July 9, 2025 / JNS) An Irish court on July 4 sentenced two Iranian nationals in connection with a transnational drug trafficking operation involving more than 2.2 tons of cocaine, as authorities investigate suspected links to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime, Irish media reported. The men—Soheil Jelveh, 51, a former captain of the cargo vessel MV Matthew, and Saied Hassani, 39, a senior officer with significant maritime experience—received sentences of 17.5...

MIAMI – A Miami man was sentenced to life in federal prison after pleading guilty to traveling to Colombia for the purpose of having sex with minors.According to court documents, law enforcement officers stopped Stefan Andres Correa, 42, on the jet bridge at Miami International Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Bogota, Colombia. During an outbound border search, officers discovered nine cellular phones in Correa’s possession. A search of the cellular phones uncovered over 100 videos of Correa having sex with over 50 minors. The minors were between 11 and 17 years of age. A search of...

Officials claim they used coins discovered inside a shipwreck off the coast of Colombia to prove the doomed vessel is the legendary San José that was carrying a $20 billion treasure when it sank. The Colombian government used an unmanned vehicle to inspect the wreckage of the 18th-century craft to prove it has found the lost Spanish galleon. The submersible carried out a non-intrusive investigation to document areas of the shipwreck that have yet to be photographed that contained coin-like objects, according to a study from Antiquity. Coins found in a hoard area in the ship’s stern were photographed and...

A 15 year-old-boy has been arrested after a Colombian senator running to be the country's next president was shot and "critically" injured at a campaign rally in Bogota, authorities have said.

Chaos erupted on Saturday evening after right-wing Colombian Presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was shot in the head during an event in Bogota, according to Colombian media. Uribe was rushed to a hospital after being shot in the head. According to Colombian media, Miguel Uribe is in serious condition. The 15-year-old shooter is in custody according to Bogota mayor Carlos Galan. Multiple shots rang out as Miguel Uribe delivered remarks to a crowd in the Fontibon district.

When Noor Abdalla came home from the hospital last month, she put the car seat carrying her newborn on the kitchen floor and burst into tears. “I walked into the house by myself with this beautiful baby, and I think it just kind of hit me,” she says, sitting on a gray sectional in her Morningside Heights apartment. “I have to do this alone.” Her voice cracks, and she reaches for a Kleenex to dab at her eyes. “I think I’m doing so well, until people start to ask me questions.” It’s late May, and her baby, Deen, is napping...

A Colombian radiology specialist says a mysterious metal orb discovered in his country is an unidentified flying object (UFO) of extraterrestrial origin, though experts remain skeptical of the claim. Jose Luis Velasquez, the radiology specialist, determined the extraterrestrial origin after inspecting the object and finding no marks indicating the metal orb had been welded together or contained joined parts in any way, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, from a creator who labels their content as entertainment. The object - known as the "Buga Sphere" - was discovered in Buga, Colombia earlier this year, according to video in...

Smugglers living along key migration routes thrived off the U.S. border crisis, but are now left with next to no income after illegal migrants have largely given up trying to reach the southern border under the Trump administration’s watch. Residents living in the Darien Gap — a vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama that serves as a pivotal way station for northbound migrants — took advantage of the endless number of illegal immigrants who trekked across their lands during the Biden-era, according to locals who spoke with the Associated Press. Noticing an opportunity from those that needed to be...

Citizens from Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia would all have their claims fast-tracked within three months on the assumption that they were likely to fail. Markus Lammert of the European Commission said it would be a "dynamic list" that could be expanded or reviewed, with countries suspended or removed if they were no longer seen as safe. Ever since EU countries saw an influx of irregular migrants in 2015-16, they have sought to reform asylum rules. A pact on migration and asylum was agreed last year, but the EU says as it does not come into force...

Rumors are swirling around ActBlue, a key fundraising platform for the Democrats, which has repeatedly given money to progressive politicians and far-left groups like Black Lives Matter. Critics, including lawmakers and investigative journalists, have noticed suspicious financial activity that may indicate a vast network of fraud. For context, the House Administration Committee recently uncovered evidence that illegal donations from China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela might have been laundered to Democratic campaigns through ActBlue. In response, the committee sent a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones to begin an investigation. In any case, Walter Curt, a prominent investigative journalist, took to...

A previously released classified document from 1954 is making the rounds again on the internet after its release years ago. The document claims Adolf Hitler survived World War II and was living in South America. The document was the CIA’s response to the allegations that Hitler was living in Colombia and had been for several years. Here is the full document Analysis of Document HVCA 2592 Suggesting Hitler Survived World War II.

A gang of Colombian migrants made off with millions of dollars worth of gems in heists in several states, funneling some of the booty to a Putnam Valley jewelry peddler who melted down and fenced the gold, federal prosecutors said this week. The “South American Theft Group” operated in Florida, Georgia, California and elsewhere targeting traveling jewelry salespeople, and stores, from September 2019 to August 2021, authorities said. Their biggest score came in February 2020, when they robbed as much as $2.6 million in merchandise from a traveling jewelry salesperson in Boynton Beach, FL, court records show. The year before,...

An illegal immigrant who once served as an aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has reportedly self-deported to Colombia, praising the "freedom of movement" in the South American nation after working in Congress despite being in the country illegally. Diego de la Vega was born in Ecuador and immigrated to the United States as a 7-year-old in 2001 on a visitor’s visa that he overstayed, Migrant Insider reported. The news raises thorny questions about his employment status for the Queens-based congresswoman. "It’s bittersweet. I hadn’t left the country in 23 years — from age seven to age 30," de la...

A migrant transgender woman wanted by federal immigration officials allegedly stalked and raped a boy in Manhattan this week, The Post has learned. Nicol Suarez allegedly followed the 14-year-old into the bathroom at Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem Tuesday and attacked him, police and sources said. The boy then left the bathroom and flagged down witnesses, who alerted police, the sources said. Suarez, 30, who is originally from Colombia, was arrested nearby the following day and charged with first-degree rape. Suarez was wanted in New Jersey and Massachusetts at the time, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a...

BREAKING: 8.0-magnitude earthquake hits the Caribbean Sea - PTWC

LINK: Bill Whittle: Five Hole DiplomacyThis is a 15 min video (The Right Angle Series) on Bill Whittle's website where each episode (up to two or three a week if things allow) involves each participant (Bill Whittle, Scott Ott, and Stephen Green) the opportunity to choose the subject of discussion, and it is a free-flowing discussion of the issue that I have found both highly entertaining and informative.In this episode, they discuss Colombia's refusal to accept flights of illegal immigrants, and Trump's unique style of "diplomacy" which Bill Whittle has deliciously coined as "Five Hole Diplomacy".

Deportation flights between the U.S. and Colombia resumed Tuesday after a diplomatic dispute. **SNIP** Migrants Arrive in Colombia Two Colombian Air Force planes landed in Bogota Tuesday with over 200 migrants. Petro greeted them with a message on X, calling them "free" and in "a country that loves them." Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo confirmed that none of the deported individuals had criminal records in the U.S. or Colombia. Conditions on US Deportation Flights Migrants returning on the U.S. flights described inhumane conditions, including being shackled during transport. José Montaña, a migrant from Medellín, recalled the shackling: "We were shackled...

So. Much. Winning. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has called on his fellow countrymen who are skulking in the United States to come home and help build their own country. What a novel idea. Why didn't anybody think of that before? Petro has been feuding with Trump for what seems like years, but in reality has been only two weeks, and he appears to be giving up the fight. Not that he puts it that way. He thought he was the unstoppable force, but he discovered that Donald Trump is the immovable object which was as harmed by Petro's petulance as...