Free Republic

"Administration Calculated It Had Little to Gain in Offering Concessions to Putin, Whose Motivations Have Been Confounding" President Barack Obama's 15 seconds of face time with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, while American and Russian warships patrolled the eastern Mediterranean, spoke to a deep chill that has created one of the biggest complications to the U.S.'s plan to strike Syria. Mr. Obama used the opening day of a Group of 20 meeting in St. Petersburg to press his Syria agenda, speaking for an hour with Japan's prime minister. With Mr. Putin, the summit's host, he simply shook hands and...

Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the opening of Arms Trade Treaty for signature today. The Obama administration plans on signing the treaty “as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily.” The United Nations passed sweeping legislation in April that will regulate the international arms trade and could lead to a national gun registry in the United States. No wonder Democrats love it! There’s more… In March the pro-Second Amendment Senate Bill 139 passed 53-46. 46 Democratic Senators voted against the bill which would: “Uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering...

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert has unearthed a new culprit in the Benghazi saga: fellow Republican John McCain. Conservative radio host Frank Gaffney asked Gohmert to comment on McCain’s “hobnobbing with jihadists” during his recent trip to Syria. Gohmert brought up a similar trip of McCain’s to Libya, where he feels McCain’s policy to depose Muammar Gaddafi unleashed the Muslim extremist forces that later attacked the American Consulate in Benghazi.

On October 27th, 2012, only days before the presidential election, I wrote: If Barack Obama is reelected, will he face impeachment over Benghazi — a yet more unpleasant and far more wrenching result than to lose an election? It could happen — and in my estimation should happen — the way revelations are playing out over the bloody terror attack that took four American lives and has led to weeks of prevarication and obfuscation. The scandal thus far has at least tarnished and quite possibly implicated everyone from the CIA director, to the secretaries of State and Defense, to the...

(AP) - Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen advanced during fierce battles with rebels on Saturday capturing at least one village in a strategic area in Homs province near the Lebanese border, activists and state media in Damascus reported. The latest fighting came as U.S. officials said the Obama administration was poised to send millions more in non-lethal military aid to rebels trying to oust President Bashar Assad. The clashes around the contested town of Qusair, close to the Syria-Lebanon boundary, had intensified over the past two weeks amid a fresh offensive by the Syrian army and a pro-government militia...

Breitbart News has learned that the Saudi National questioned after the Boston Marathon Bombing had his deportation order records altered, rescinding his deportation order. The alteration occurred the night before Secretary Napolitano vehemently denied the existence of any deportation order in testimony before the House of Representatives. Sources with knowledge of these matters says the change occurred subsequent to Secretary John Kerry's closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Saudi Minister and around the time of the meeting between the Saudi Minister and Obama later on Wednesday evening. The Saudi National has been identified as Abdulrahman Ali Al-Harbi. There is...

Mr Kerry told the meeting in Istanbul that the US would provide Syrian rebels $123m in new, non-lethal aid. He said President Barack Obama was committed to a "democratic, unified, post-Assad Syria". More than 60,000 have died in the two-year uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Mr Kerry also announced that all aid from the 11 countries known as the Friends of Syria would now be channelled through the Turkey-based Free Syrian Army group headed by Gen Salim Idris. The meeting in Istanbul brought together the foreign ministers of countries opposing the government of President Assad. Mr Kerry said the meeting had...

On his radio program today, Glenn Beck stated that the original "person of interest" had an outstanding deportation order for suspected terrorist activity. A reporter for The Blaze uncovered this information and will report on his radio program and web site later this morning.

BRUSSELS, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- European Union (EU) foreign ministers on Monday asked Hamas to renounce violence and recognize the right of Israel to exist. "We have urged Hamas and all other factions to renounce violence, to recognize Israel's right to exist, and to disarm," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU presidency, told reporters. The foreign ministers, in a meeting, asked the newly elected Palestinian Legislative Council to "support the formation of a government that is committed to a peaceful and negotiated solution of the conflict with Israel, based on existing agreements and onthe road map,...

No More Deaths, a volunteer coalition composed of advocacy groups whose work is to support illegal immigrants with water and medical aid, recently held a meeting in Bisbee to train volunteers in dealing with both law enforcement and illegal border crossers they refer to as "guests". The primary speaker for the workshop was Margo Cowan, who has defended undocumented people for 35 years. Cowan was indicted in 1972 by the Nixon Administration on 52 counts of aiding and abetting illegal aliens; the charges were dropped by former President Jimmy Carter. Cowan currently serves as legal counsel to Rep. Raul Grijalva....

An intelligence source says that United States Defence Secetary Donald Rumsfeld last week ordered the drawing up of contingency plans for a possible invasion of Syria, New York Newsday reported Thursday.According to the newspaper's website, Undersecretary of Defence Douglas Ferth is working on a policy paper highlighting how the nation of Syria's support of terrorist groups is a threat to the region.But the newspaper also reported that a senior Pentagon officer said he was unaware of any new planning involving Syria.Secretary Rumsfled said Wednesday that Syria had allowed Iraqi regieme figures to enter the nation and provided Iraq with military...