Free Republic

The four rockets fired on Galilee came from the new Iranian terror front on the Golan "Israel’s top government and military went on a high level of preparedness Tuesday, Aug. 18 in expectation of the first terrorist attack to be orchestrated by Iran from Syrian or Lebanese borders. ... Iranian Al Qods and Hizballah officers were building a new terrorist network raising Israeli suspicions that one of their plans was to seize an Israeli location or part of one and try and hold out against an Israeli counter-offensive of tanks and assault helicopters. .. three radical terrorist movements staff the...

Israel is working to convert Boeing 767 into a long-flight refueling tanker "US defense and air industry sources report that the Israeli Air Force may give up on the US Boeing’s KC-46A Pegasus as its future refueling tanker for long-range flights because of delays in its delivery." "Israel had first planned to take the Pegasus to replace its converted Boeing 707 when delivery was first to the US Air Force was scheduled for August 2017. But this week, the company put the date back by another eight months and the price increased by half a billion dollars. American sources point...

House votes to repeal country-of-origin labeling on meat WASHINGTON (AP) — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry. The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month, ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it's up to Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation from the two countries. The law was initially written at the behest of northern...

US and Hizballah coordinate spy drone flights over Qalamoun, share US combat intelligence Another strange pair of bedfellows has turned up in one of the most critical Middle East battlefields: the United States is helping Hizballah, Iran’s Lebanese surrogate, in the battle for control of the strategic Qalamoun Mountains. ...a US special operations unit, stationed at the Hamat air base on the coast of northern Lebanon, is directing unarmed Aerosonde MK 4.7 reconnaissance drone intelligence-gathering flights over the Qalamoun Mt arena, 100 km to the west. However, it turns out that the data the US drones pass to Lebanese army...

Obama turns a smiling face to Israel. Biden: Iran has enough material for 8 nuclear bombs "pRes_ _dent Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have gone out of their way in the last fortnight to shower friendly gestures on Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and even Ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer. .... on April 23, Biden was the keynote speaker at the Israeli embassy’s Independence Day reception. ... Biden went on to warn: “Let’s not kid each other. They already have paved a path to a bomb’s worth of material. Iran could get there now if they walked away...

The Lausanne deal: Exercise in spin and counter-spin "Tehran countered with its own version the next day, after the lead Iranian negotiator Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, dismissed the American accounting as “spin.”" The Iranian version departs substantially from President Barack Obama’s assurance of “a deal that meets our core objections ...” ..... "Iran’s version of the Lausanne deal: Iran’s nuclear program including enrichment will continue. None of Iran’s nuclear facilities or related activities will be stopped or shut down or suspended and activities will continue at Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Arak..... The Iranians say: The Arak heavy water research...

"Egypt goes to war on ISIS, masses troops against Islamist Libyan stronghold at Darnah" Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi has deployed his troops for all-out war on ISIS strongholds in Libya, the first Arab ruler to challenge the Islamists in a fellow Arab country .... Our Washington sources report that the Obama administration’s planned spring campaign to free Iraqi Mosul from the Islamic State’s occupation is stuck in the sand. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike accuse the president of having no clear war strategy and of holding back from the US-led coalition the fighting manpower necessary for a successful operation. .......

Houthi Yemen coup moves Iran’s Middle East hegemonic ambitions forward - upheld by Washington"The strings of the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels’ coup which toppled the Yemeni government in Sanaa were pulled from Tehran and Washington. US intelligence and shared US-Iranian support helped the Houthis reach their goal, which is confined for now to parts of central Yemen and all of the North.... Friday, Feb. 6, the rebels dissolved parliament and seized power in the country of 24 million. They propose to rule by a revolutionary council. ... debkafile’s Saudi intelligence sources reveal that the dominant figure of the uprising was none...

Romney tells donors he is considering 2016 campaign Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential campaign in 2016, ... “I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines ... Zwick said.... Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign. The former Massachusetts governor held a lengthy meeting on Friday with about 30 major...

Syrian rebel Yarmouk Brigades ditch US and Israel allies, defect to ISIS The Syrian rebel militia Al Yarmouk Shuhada Brigades, backed and trained for two years by US officers, mostly CIA experts, in Jordan, and supported by the Israeli army, has abruptly dumped these sponsors and joined up with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, debkafile’s exclusive military and counter-terrorism sources reveal. The sudden defection of this 2,000-strong anti-Assad force leaves IDF defense formations on the Golan, US and Jordanian deployments in the northern part of the kingdom, and pro-Western rebel conquests in southern Syria in danger of collapse....

Some Ebola Patients Should Get Placebo in Drug Tests: FDA "Edward Cox, director of the FDA’s Office of Antimicrobial Products, said Wednesday that some patients with Ebola need to forgo potentially life-saving treatments so researchers can see how they fare compared to those who receive the experimental drugs .... Cox noted that randomised studies would be "challenging," but they are necessary ..."

GOP wins in Mass., N.H. would raise Romney stockFormer Bay State governor Mitt Romney’s high-profile campaign stops for Republicans Charlie Baker and Scott Brown this week indicate the exploding popularity of the former presidential nominee — and GOP wins in those races could vault him to the top of the 2016 White House sweepstakes. “He’s been extremely well-received across the country and he’s the only candidate with an instant national network,” said Saul Anuziz, former GOP chairman in Michigan. “He would definitely be a viable candidate.” .... A Brown victory over incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, home...

IDF Opens Hospital for Palestinians, Hamas Prevents Access The IDF has opened a temporary hospital for Palestinians on the Israeli side of the Erez Crossing. Even as terrorists fire rockets at Israel, the hospital is treating wounded civilians in cooperation with the Red Crescent. Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza, has prevented Palestinians from entering Israel in order to reach the hospital.Click for video: Israeli doctors treat wounded Palestinians at an IDF hospital near Gaza.

Massachusetts now forced into border spat It’s finally been confirmed what was suspected all along — Massachusetts is feeling the pain of the chaotic border crisis. Forget the denials. Secret flights of illegal immigrants have made their way to Bedford and Boston. .... We’ve learned from immigration officials that four planes filled with detainees ... as the U.S. scrambles to cap the immigration crisis. .... This should alarm everybody in the Bay State, because we don’t know how many illegals are passing through or hanging around; what communicable diseases they may carry; if any are sex offenders, drug-runners, gang members...

Romney rips N.H. official’s ‘vile epithet’ (Calls on town officer to quit) [Mitt Defends Obama] May 17, 2014 - "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has called on a New Hampshire town official to resign for calling President Obama a racial epithet. The Wolfeboro, N.H., police commissioner who has stood by his comment calling President Obama a racial slur is facing a growing cascade of calls to step down, including from the tiny lakeside town’s most famous summer resident — one-time Obama opponent Mitt Romney. “The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community ,”...

Rand Paul calls for Republican shakeup - ‘Evolve, adapt or die’(after meeting Team Romney yesterday) "National Republicans — still smarting from Democratic drubbings in the last two presidential contests — face a stark scenario of “evolve, adapt or die” as they plot their next campaign to take back the Oval Office in 2016, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told the Herald yesterday in an exclusive interview. Paul ... said the Republican Party has to rewrite its standard platform to woo minorities into a broad coalition that can win national races. A Tea Party favorite and a former ophthalmologist,...

GOP seeks coverage choices in health law they hate " ..... House Republicans quietly secured a recent change in President Barack Obama's health law to expand coverage choices, a striking, one-of-a-kind departure from dozens of high-decibel attempts to repeal or dismember it. Rory Cooper, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said, "This is another in a series of changes to Obamacare that the House has supported to help save Americans from being harmed by the law, and we're glad to see the President signed it into law." Cantor was involved in negotiations on the legislation, which were...

EPA Tested Deadly Pollutants on Humans to Push Obama Admin’s Agenda "The Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting dangerous experiments on humans over the past few years in order to justify more onerous clean air regulations. The agency conducted tests on people with health issues and the elderly, exposing them to high levels of potentially lethal pollutants, without disclosing the risks of cancer and death, according to a newly released government report. These experiments exposed people, including those with asthma and heart problems, to dangerously high levels of toxic pollutants, including diesel fumes, reads a EPA inspector general report obtained...

Western sources: Israel Air Force hits SS-21 batteries, first attack in Syrian war on nuclear-capable missiles Western military and intelligence sources report that Israeli Air Force strikes in Lebanon and Syria overnight Monday, Feb. 24 came on the heels of the first use in the three-year Syrian war of a Russian-made nuclear-capable Tochka (Point) surface missile - NATO-coded SS-21 Scarab - which carries a 480-kilo warhead with a range of 70 km. These missiles were fired earlier Monday in the Syrian-Hizballah battle for Yabroud. There was no information about the effect of the Israeli strikes.

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation. Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. ... Ingram ... is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office...