Free Republic

Tipsville . . . Sneed is told that Attorney General Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder’s days are numbered. Sneed hears President Barack Obama, who is this/close to Holder, has set his sights on Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as a possible replacement “when the heat dies down on the latest hot-button scandals to hit the U.S. Justice Department,” said a top White House source. SNIP “The president will wait until the heat dies down — and a little time has passed beyond that — before he does anything to Holder because Holder is a close pal, and that’s a big deal...

Former Obama National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor has let loose on Twitter this morning, mocking the Benghazi hearing today as "amateur hour."Vietor also mocked the hearings as conspiracy theories on par with Area 51 and the moon landings conspiracy theories:Heard that Rep. Cummings asked Rep. Issa to include Thomas Pickering, cochair of ARB report in today's hearing, but Issa refused. #BenghaziWhy on earth would Issa refuse to let the cochair of an independent review board on #Benghazi testify at his hearing on the subject?Could it be that today's #Benghazi hearing has nothing to do with fact-finding but is just...

Hearing details:WASHINGTON – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today announced three witnesses who will appear at a full committee hearing, “Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage,” on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, at 11:30 AM in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. “I applaud these individuals for answering our call to testify in front of the Committee. They have critical information about what occurred before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks that differs on key points from what Administration officials – including those on the Accountability Review Board – have portrayed,” said Issa. “Our committee has been...

Dick Cheney slams Obama administration's Benghazi performance as 'a failure of leadership ... I cannot understand why they weren't ready' Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the Obama administration on Tuesday for its handling of the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, calling it 'a failure of leadership.' Cheney said U.S. leaders should have been better prepared for violence on the anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. 'They should have been ready before anything ever happened,' Cheney told MailOnline exclusively during a party in Georgetown...

Pat Smith, mother of slain State Department officer Sean Smith, who died in the September 11, 2012, attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, tore into the federal government and their efforts to investigate that deadly attack on Tuesday. In an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Smith said that she blames former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for failing to ensure her staff was secure and for not taking blame for that failure after they were killed in the line of duty. “How are you holding up?” Tapper asked Smith. “Terrible,” she replied as her voice broke with emotion....

All FReepers and lurkers in good standing are urged to join members of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com and other patriots in a show of support for whistleblowers and families of the Benghazi terror attack at a Congressional hearing this Wednesday--and to also show support for Chairman Issa and the others working to expose the Obama administration cover-up of the Benghazi attack.While the hearing is set for 11:30 a.m., supporters are advised to arrive as early as possible in the morning to get in line for seating at the hearing or to freely demonstrate outside the Rayburn Building where the...

SNIP Throughout the night, sources say Americans on the ground in Libya at times felt helpless and abandoned. "We relied on Washington for dispassionate assessment," one eyewitness told CBS News. "Instead, they [Washington officials] were asking us what help we needed. We answered: 'Send reinforcements!' " But they were told immediate help wasn't available. Embassy personnel say they repeatedly asked the Defense Attache on site in Tripoli for military assistance. "Isn't there anything available?" one Embassy official says he asked. "But the answer was 'no.'" "What about Aviano?" the official pressed, referencing the NATO air base with US assets in...

Everybody in the mission" in Benghazi, Libya, thought the attack on a U.S. consulate there last Sept. 11 was an act of terror "from the get-go," according to excerpts of an interview investigators conducted with the No. 2 official in Libya at the time, obtained exclusively by CBS News' "Face the Nation." "I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning," Greg Hicks, a 22-year foreign service diplomat who was the highest-ranking U.S. official in Libya after the strike, told investigators under authority of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Hicks, the former...

Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options. The origins of this dilemma can be traced in large part to a weekend last August, when alarming intelligence reports suggested the besieged Syrian government might be preparing to use chemical weapons. After months of keeping a distance from the conflict, Mr. Obama felt he had to become more directly engaged. In a frenetic series of meetings, the White House devised a 48-hour plan to deter President Bashar al-Assad of Syria...

The State Department is blocking local lawyer Victoria Toensing from representing whistleblowers on the 2012 Benghazi attacks, according to her legal partner and husband Joe DiGenova. Teonsing wants to represent such whistleblowers at the upcoming Congressional hearings about the Benghazi case. "The Department of State is refusing to grant clearances to Victoria and other people who want to represent the whistleblowers in an attempt to prevent the testimony," DiGenova said.

The South Korean pop star who took the internet by storm with “Gangnam Style” will be in attendance at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner as a guest of CBS News. This marks PSY’s second high-profile appearance in D.C., following his performance last year at the White House Christmas concert, which followed controversy over an anti-American song he rapped a few years ago. According to Deadline, PSY will be attending the dinner at the CBS table,

In the winter of 2010, after a decade of defending the government against bias claims by Hispanic and female farmers, Justice Department lawyers seemed to have victory within their grasp. Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm. But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas....

CALLING ALL PATRIOTS – Join Fellow Conservatives at 15th Annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner Protest Long before Code Pink came on the scene, the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com was demonstrating everywhere in D.C.–the White House, the Capitol and Walter Reed Army Medical Center to name just a few locales where you could see the conservative Internet warriors in action. Since 1999, the FReepers, as they are known, have held forth across the street from the Hilton Washington to protest liberal media bias face to face with attendees of the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Photo by Paul Bond,...

Only two patients wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings remained in critical condition Monday, but the count of injured people who were treated in area hospitals has risen sharply to 282, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. That is far higher than the initial estimate of 170. The number rose because dozens of victims delayed seeking medical care for minor wounds or symptoms that they thought would go away on their own, said Nick Martin, a spokesman for the health commission. He said the latest data, compiled Saturday by state health officials, show patients were seen at 27 hospitals...

The Saudi national who was initially detained and then ruled out as a suspect in the Boston Marathon terrorist attack had been flagged on a terror watch list and was granted a student visa without being properly vetted, sources have told me. A source close to the investigation revealed that Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi had been deemed inadmissible under the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which declares ineligible for a visa – any alien who is engaged in or is likely to engage after entry – in terrorist activity. At least two additional sources have confirmed to me...

SNIP On a trip to Israel last month, Obama secured a pledge from Turkish and Israeli leaders to normalize ties that broke down after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American. But the rapprochement has been slow, fueling concerns that Turkey may be backsliding on its commitment. Israeli and Turkish negotiators plan to meet this coming week to discuss Turkey's demand for compensation for victims of the flotilla. U.S. officials hope the discussions will jumpstart the process of restoring full diplomatic relations and exchanging ambassadors between two countries that Washington sees...

An 18-year-old Aurora man with ties to a 2012 foiled bombing attempt in Chicago was ordered held without bail today after being arrested as he was about to travel to the Middle East to join al-Qaida, officials said today. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi of Aurora appeared in U.S. District Court after being arrested Friday at O'Hare International Airport as he was to get on an airplane to Istanbul, Turkey, FBI officials said in a press release. Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, was charged with knowingly attempting to provide material support and resources, namely personnel, to a foreign terrorist organization, a felony. According...

Dear Leader will speak to the nation from the Brady Briefing Room shortly on the capture of the remaining Boston terrorist suspect.No word on if Obama will apologize for his administration failing to stop yet another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

JUST IN: FBI amends earlier assertion to Bob Orr that they had no prior contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the bomb suspect killed in standoffFBI now acknowledges they interviewed Tsarnaev 2 years ago at the request of a foreign country about possible extremist tiesThey maintain that they did not find any derogatory information about him and closed the file. FBI expected to issue a statement shortly

WH photo from @petesouza: Obama meets with natl security team members on #Boston, inc FBI Dir Mueller

Police source: 2 Russian nationals pulled over in Niagara Falls; 4 suspicious backpacks in the car, robot & bomb techs on scene.FBI is aware of the situation in Niagara Falls, they (sic) joint terrorism task force is working with NYSP.

A large explosion rocked the town of West, Texas, 19 miles north of Waco, on Wednesday evening. A source tells News 8 that a large swath of the small town with a population of 2,800 has been leveled. According to initial reports, the blast was at the West Fertilizer plant at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, about a half-mile east of Interstate 35.

WCVB-TV Boston�@WCVB9m #BREAKING: According to @WuWCVB, an arrest in #BostonMarathon bombing is imminent or has already taken place.

Capitol Police just told @KellyO, who's live from Russell Senate Office building, that there's a suspicious package there."Police are announcing in Russell that they're clearing the area around Sen. Richard Shelby's office, @KellyO says live on @msnbc.Racehl Streitfeld, CNN: Police are evacuating part of Hart first floor for a suspicious packageCap Hill police telling people on higher floors of Hart to go into offices.

"I will vote for assault weapons ban because maintaining law and order and saving lives is more important than preventing imagined tyranny."

JFK Presidential Library closed ‘indefinitely’ for investigation into fire after marathon bombings SNIPShortly after the marathon bombings, a fire broke out near a new entrance at the library, which is several miles from the marathon finish. Some employees insist they heard a loud blast as a fire ensued that damaged a conference room and auditorium.SNIP

A person briefed on the Boston Marathon investigation says the explosives were in 6-liter pressure cookers and placed in black duffel bags. The person says the explosives were placed on the ground and contained shards of metal, nails and ball bearings.

A Saudi family who “fled” their Sarasota area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records. One partially declassified document, marked “secret,” lists three of those individuals and ties them to the Venice, Fla., flight school where suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi trained. Accomplice Ziad Jarrah took flying lessons at another school a block away. Atta and al-Shehhi were at the controls of the jetliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. Jarrah was the...

SNIP Counterterrorism officials found what they believe to be five additional, undetonated explosive devices around the Boston area, according to two people briefed on the rapidly moving investigation. The devices—which are in addition to the two that exploded near the finish line of the marathon—were discovered over the course of a frantic inspection of suspicious packages, many of them abandoned as pedestrians, runners, and others scrambled away from crowded public streets. Each had been rendered inoperative or was in the process of being rendered inoperative, the officials said. But the officials also sounded a note of caution, saying they are...

Secretary of State John Kerry flew to China on Saturday and sought to elicit China’s help in dealing with an increasingly recalcitrant nuclear armed North Korea by saying that American missile defenses could be cut back if the North abandoned its nuclear program. Mr. Kerry’s trip to China, his first since taking office, is part of an intensive three-day push to try to calm tensions on the Korean Peninsula that have threatened to spiral out of control and rattled world leaders. In a news conference, Mr. Kerry suggested that the United States could remove some newly enhanced missile defenses in...

A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative. Mother Jones Magazine released the tape this week. The meeting itself took place on Feb. 2. Jacob Conway, who is on the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, says that day, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded and volunteered for Progress Kentucky, respectively, bragged to him about how they recorded the meeting. Conway says neither the local nor the state Democratic party had any part...

SNIP Read: A letter of gratitute from Gladys Zimmerman In Re: 1 Year Anniversary of George Zimmerman's arrest April 11, 2013 – Lake Mary, FL From the Desk of Robert Zimmerman Jr. "Dear Friends: Our Mother, Gladys Zimmerman, has written a letter on the occasion of the 1 year anniversary of her son George's arrest. She has asked me to publish the following letter:" "Today, April 11, 2013 is the anniversary of the most unfortunate arrest of our son George. I am writing from my heart and with incalculable gratitude to our family members, dearest friends, and those we have...

On Saturday, April 27, 2013, the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com will hold our 15th annual freep of the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.As always, we are inviting FReepers and lurkers in good standing to join us as we greet FRiends and foes alike from the media-political-entertainment complex as they make their way to the dinner.Last year's theme was "Breitbart Is Here" in tribute to the recently departed Andrew Breitbart.The Hollywood Reporter wrote abour our freep that same evening.(Free Republic thread here.)Photo by Paul Bond, The Hollywood ReporterThis year, we'll be dedicating the freep to Doctor Raoul, who passed away last...

The FBI has been asked to investigate how Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, obtained a recording of political aides meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discussing opposition research on Ashley Judd, a source close the McConnell re-election campaign tells CNN.

At 18, Sergio Santamaría was in a place most American high school seniors dream of. Thanks to a financial need-based scholarship, he'd gotten an excellent education from an elite prep school, The Bishop's School in La Jolla, Calif. He'd been on the honor roll, served as a student ambassador tour guide, and had also been accepted to two well-ranked colleges: The George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., and Fordham University, in New York City. But Mr. Santamaría had been brought into the United States from Mexico as a baby. He'd been undocumented his entire life, and the vulnerability of an...

On Friday, Sean Hannity brought Pat Smith, mother of the late Sean Smith, on his radio program. The 34-year-old information management officer was one of four Americans murdered in the Benghazi embassy attack on September 11, 2012. In the chilling interview, a distraught Ms. Smith, in tears, pleaded for answers and spoke of the efforts to silence her. Ms. Smith first relayed how her son, prior to the attack, requested additional security in advance and warned the State Department: He did tell them, ahead of time, he typed it into his little typewriter over there, that they were going to...

Tribute to a Conservative Activist Pioneer, Doctor Raoul A legend passed away last weekend. A legend from a long ago era—at least as time is measured in the Internet Age. As such, most of you reading this have never known of him, but you should. Doctor Raoul’s message for the wounded warriors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center His admirers included the likes of conservative luminaries Andrew Breitbart, Ann Coulter, John Fund, David Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin. His work was appreciated by numerous wounded warriors at Walter Reed. He bedeviled Bill and Hillary Clinton and was sworn at by liberal...

We lost AGreatPer last year. He passed away in August. He was 73.His passing was missed as his wife, who would have notified FR, had preceded him in death.He last posted in July, 2012. AGreatPer was a D.C. Chapter stalwart who traveled from Pennsylvania numerous times to stand with us outside the Clinton White House, Cheney's House, troop support rallies, counter-demonstrations of anti-American leftists and our six-year-long Walter Reed vigil.AGreatPer had a great personality, he was a pleasure to be around at a freep and at our after-freep lunches and dinners.Trueblackman, BufordP and AGReatPer at Walter Reed, October 8, 2010.

CBS opened Sunday night's episode of "The Amazing Race" with an apology to veterans offended by the previous week's installment, which took place in Vietnam. "Parts of last Sunday's episode, filmed in Vietnam, were insensitive to a group that is very important to us -- our nation's veterans," host Phil Keoghan read in a statement from producers and the network. "We want to apologize to veterans -- particularly those who served in Vietnam -- as well as to their families and any viewers who were offended by the broadcast. All of us here have the most profound respect for the...

The decision made by the Obama administration to cancel all White House tours clearly demonstrates an agenda of choosing to punish the American people through politically self-serving maneuvers. It is not only disappointing, it is discouraging that the Obama administration would willingly choose to shut the doors to the White House, and essentially to this nation’s schoolchildren and families, under the guise of sequestration. By filing my amendment to the continuing resolution that called on Congress to defund transportation for the president’s golf outings until White House tours resumed, I was not trying to “take away the president’s golf balls.”...

A reminder to severe conservatives still trying to roll back progress...

CBS News has learned the Obama admin has turned Benghazi docs to senate intel commOne source who viewed the docs says someone in a federal agency "press shop" was involved in changing the talking points to remove al QaedaAn official familiar with the docs says there were warnings from Libya sent to Washington in the days leading up to the attack--(cont)--that specifically warned of an imminent attack on the US compound in BenghaziA source familiar with the docs says most every communication between Libya and DC from the start of the attacks referenced ----al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates as...

Watching Woodward last 2 days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again. Perfection gained once is rarely repeated. @DavidPlouffe Strategist. 2008 Obama Campaign Manager. White House Senior Adviser. Author of The Audacity To Win.

The White House official whom Bob Woodward charged had crosssed a line by saying he would "regret" printing his version of a set of Washington negotiations was Gene Sperling, the director of the White House Economic Council, a source familiar with the exchange told BuzzFeed Wednesday. The email from Sperling to Woodward, which Woodward read to Politico Wednesday, has transfixed Washington, with Republicans and some in the press charging that it embodies a White House lording it over a cowed press corps. Woodward, Politico reported, called the top official — identified to BuzzFeed as Sperling — to tell him that...

"Very senior person" at White House emailed Bob Woodward "you're going to regret doing this," says Woodward live now on @CNN.

There was a large number of layoffs at Human Events, as announced at an internal staff meeting this morning, FishbowlDC has learned. But it’s actually much bigger than that. The conservative publication is shutting down entirely. Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events, released the following statement: “Washington, DC (February 27, 2013) – Eagle Publishing, Inc. announced today it has made the difficult decision to cease publishing Human Events, the conservative weekly newspaper. The issue dated February 18 is the final issue. “This was a difficult decision, and one we did not make lightly,” said publisher Joe Guerriero. “As everyone knows,...

Iran’s Fars news agency has Photoshopped a picture of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama from the February 24 broadcast of the Academy Awards, electronically adding material to her dress to make it less revealing. The dress, a shimmering silver, sleeveless gown by Indian-born American designer Naeem Khan, was widely praised in the U.S fashion press. The official White House photo is above. In its rendering of the photo, the Iranian news agency raised the neckline and added short sleeves.​​ Fars, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), noted that it was unusual that Michelle Obama had announced...

Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johnanns has informed Republicans in his home state that he will retire at the end of his current Senate term, GOP sources tell NBC News. The first-term senator has informed Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman that he won't run for reelection in 2014, a Republican official said.

More than a few Republicans in the United States Senate seem to have contracted a severe case of what Harry Truman called “Potomac Fever” (wanting to go along to get along in Washington). Apparently still trembling from the recent election debacle, they have cobbled together a deceptive and destructive “bipartisan” compromise on illegal alien amnesty. Now, of course, the Senate Republicans aren’t calling their legislative legerdemain “instant legalization” as conservative journalist Charles Krauthammer properly characterized it. They know (as Judicial Watch demonstrated in its Election Day poll) that most Americans, including a good number of Hispanics, want the immigration laws...

President Obama is golfing in Florida Sunday with Tiger Woods, according to a press report. The news was first reported by Tim Rosaforte, a writer for Golf World. "The President is arriving at The Floridian range. Awaiting is Tiger Woods and club owner Jim Crane. Historic day in golf. Their first round," Rosaforte said on Twitter. Read