Free Republic

The leading Democratic candidate for a Virginia House seat the party is targeting in 2018 moved to the state just a year-and-a-half ago, but you'd never know it from watching his campaign's first ad.Roger Dean Huffstetler, who is both outraising and outspending his Democratic opponents in Virginia's largely rural fifth district, announced his campaign less than a year after he moved in the summer of 2016 to Charlottesville, a blue city located near the center of a rural red district. His first ad—which, based on a nearly $50,000 expenditure, appears to have been created by a major D.C. advertising firm...

US B-52 bomber unleashes record-setting payload FEBRUARY 7, 2018 A US Air Force B-52 bomber launched a record-setting series of strikes this week in northern Afghanistan — dropping 24 precision-guided munitions on Taliban fighting positions during 96 hours of air operations “to destroy insurgent revenue sources, training facilities, and support networks,” according to US Forces Afghanistan. The 24 precision-guided munitions dropped by the B-52 Stratofortress are the most ever dropped by one of the Air Force’s oldest active aircraft, the service said in a press release. Weighing 185,000 pounds, the B-52 first entered service in the 1950s during the height...

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, America’s longest-serving bomber, set a new record for the most smart bombs dropped on the Taliban in Afghanistan, the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan revealed Tuesday. Shattering the previous record set in November, the American bomber dropped 24 precision-guided munitions during a 96-hour air campaign against Taliban training and narcotics facilities in Afghanistan, Fox News reports. The conventional rotary configuration on board allows the B-52s to easily unleash hell on the terrorists. “The Taliban have nowhere to hide,” Gen. John Nicholson, the unit commander, reportedly said in a statement. “There will be no safe haven for any...

The U.S. military is pulling its forces from an American-led coalition base in Iraq and shifting them to Afghanistan following the defeat of Islamic State group militants in the country. Western contractors at the base say U.S. troops began the drawdown over the past week, with groups of soldiers leaving the base on daily flights. The exact scale of the redeployment was unclear. According to various estimates, as of 2016, there were more 5,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq, with nearly 4,000 deployed to support and assist local groups fighting ISIS militants. The remaining personnel included special operations forces,...

Captain Mark Nutsch rode past dead and dying men, the air filled with the iron scent of blood and the acrid stench of gunpowder. Smoke hovered above the field. The horsemen charging alongside him raised their rocket-propelled grenades and fired at the enemy ahead, the resulting explosions rocking them in their saddles. Would the plan work, or was it a death sentence? Either way, this was not how modern warfare was supposed to be fought. A cavalry charge, headlong into enemy gunfire – it was the sort of reckless risk of human life that belonged in the pages of a...

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base. “At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s...

<p>The protests started in Cottbus after Syrians attacked several Germans within a matter of days. For example a German man and a German boy were attacked with knives by Syrians. After other incidents, tensions in the town became so high that it stopped the acceptance of new refugees.</p>

An attacker driving an ambulance packed with explosives detonated them Saturday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, leaving 95 people dead and 191 others injured, Afghan officials said. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes a week after militants stormed a Kabul hotel. The blast occurred around 12:45 p.m. local time after the vehicle passed through a security checkpoint, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told CNN. Police identified the attacker at a second checkpoint, Rahimi said, but couldn't stop him before he detonated the explosives in a central area near the old Interior Ministry building, a...

KABUL — Islamic State gunmen stormed the offices of a British charity in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday morning, killing three people and wounding at least 20, officials said. The attack came as the country was still reeling from an even deadlier assault on an international hotel in Kabul on Saturday night that left at least 22 people dead. The toll could have been much higher in the course of the nine-hour gun battle between the militants and soldiers, but it appears that staff of the Save the Children charity were able to hide in a “safe...

The new war drama 12 Strong begins with a news clip about the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. It then flashes to clips featuring the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.The feature then flashes to a house where young father Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) is introduced at home with his wife and child. Nelson is a veteran who has finally returned home to the desk job he requested.Then, September 11th happens.Like so many others, Nelson recommits that day to facing down the enemy that made such an attack possible. Under the command of Max Bowers (played...

British 15-year-old gained access to intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran by pretending to be head of CIA, court hears A 15-year-old gained access to plans for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran by pretending to be the head of the CIA to gain access to his computers, a court has heard. From the bedroom of the Leicestershire home he shared with his mother, Kane Gamble used “social engineering” – where a person builds up a picture of information and uses it manipulate others into handing over more – to access the personal and work accounts of some of America's...

“The full extent of child sexual assault committed by Afghan security forces may never be known.” After 15 years of failure and undefined missions in Afghanistan, this administration claimed to finally have discovered an innovative idea. Let’s invest even more American lives in propping up the Afghan security forces, they suggested, as if we weren’t doing that for the past 15 years. But who are the Afghan forces, and how are they really distinguishable from the Taliban, or at least enough to justify the human and capital cost of a deeper investment? A new inspector general report paints a grim...

A Russia-led initiative involving China and Pakistan that seeks a political settlement to Afghanistan’s civil war has the makings of a diplomatic alliance that could supplant the United States as the leading power in Central Asia. The grouping was unveiled after a third meeting in Moscow late last month and may be expanded to include regional powers Iran and Turkey, which formed a separate tripartite grouping on Syria with Russia in talks preceding the parleys on Afghanistan. The Afghan government reacted angrily to the Moscow meeting, to which it had not been invited, because the meeting proposed the relaxation of...

Where Is Assad Getting His Fighters From? (It's Not Just Lebanon and Iraq) Colin P. ClarkePhillip Smyth January 2, 2018 In early December, senior Trump administration officials suggested that approximately 80 percent of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s defense against insurgents in the country’s ongoing civil war is being provided by forces imported from outside of the country. The lion’s share of these fighters is being trained and equipped by Iran, the Assad regime’s most ardent supporter. Interestingly, however, these foreign fighters, almost of all which are Shia Muslims, are not merely comprised of Lebanese and Iraqis, but include significant numbers...

In the last half of last year, U.S. armed forces under President Donald Trump’s direction launched 2,000 air strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. That constitutes more raids than in all of 2015 and 2016 combined, the last two years under President Barack Obama’s command. “The huge spike in airstrikes is the product of new rules of engagement, adopted as part of a strategy that President Trump announced in August,” reports the Washington Post. “U.S. forces can now strike Taliban targets at will, whereas under the Obama administration they were restricted to defending Afghan forces under imminent attack.” Like the...

Even as Democrats continue to obstruct and play politics, I have never stopped fighting for the people, and I have no intention of changing course. I promised Jan. 20, 2017, would be remembered as a new day for all Americans – the day the people became the rulers of this nation once again. For the past 365 days, that promise has been my guide. We are putting America first, making real change in Washington, and creating opportunities for all of our people. From coast to coast, there is a renewed spirit. Our country is roaring back more quickly than anyone...

Security forces battled a group of three or four gunmen who stormed the popular western-style Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital Kabul Saturday. Details of the attack, including information on any casualties, were unclear but the attackers appeared to have included suicide bombers, Reuters reported, citing Afghan ministry spokesman Najib Danish for the information. The hotel came under attack around 9 p.m. local time. Reuters reported that there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest in a long series to have hit Kabul. U.S. officials in Kabul told Fox News the hotel was on fire.

12,513 Afghans became permanent residents in ’16. Their country is in the middle of an endless civil war between the Islamic terrorists who hate us and the Islamic terrorists who really, really hate us. Only 31% of the population of Afghanistan can read. Around 1,000 of the Afghans we took in have jobs. 8,190 don’t have jobs. 3,158 are marked as unknown. That’s an 8% employment rate. The left has been shrieking that wrapping up Temporary Protected Status for aliens from El Salvador will wreak havoc on our businesses and economy. In ’16, we took in 23,449 Salvadorans. Around 3,000...

Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency By GINGER THOMPSON and SCOTT SHANE WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables. In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be...

SAS soldier 'chopped off ISIS thug's head with SHOVEL and used his gun to kill more militants' The British sergeant was said to have run out of ammunition during a bloody battle in Afghanistan By Chris kitching Updated 20:40, 7 JAN 2018 An elite SAS soldier cut off an ISIS fighter's head with a spade after he ran out of ammunition during a bloody six-hour battle, it was claimed. After killing the jihadist, the British sergeant used the enemy's gun to kill more militants. The brutal battle is said to have occurred six weeks ago in war-torn Afghanistan. The British...