Free Republic

Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin on Tuesday joined over 150,000 people in a Soviet-style march through Moscow to celebrate labour day and show off public support ahead of his inauguration. Accompanied by kitsch brass music and surrounded by multi-coloured balloons, Putin and outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev led the most extensive May Day march in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Police said around 150,000 people took part in the "Holiday of Labour and Spring" march in Moscow, by coincidence similar to the numbers said by the opposition to have shown up at anti-Putin demonstrations over the last months. The...

President Obama has arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a surprise trip to sign a strategic agreement with Afghanistan. He will address the nation at 7:30 p.m. EDT from Bagram Air Base on Tuesday evening. In going to Afghanistan on the ninth anniversary of the most notorious example of premature presidential gloating, Obama risks turning the high point of his presidency into a political weapon for his enemies. But it will be how the president conducts himself while in the war zone that will determine if this trip is lumped in with George W. Bush's donning of a flight suit and...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Walter in Modesto, California. Hey, Walter, I'm glad you called. Hi. CALLER: Yes, I want to say I agree with the Democrats that not everyone would have pulled the trigger on Bin Laden. How many chances did Bill Clinton have to do it? RUSH: That's true. That's true. Clinton was handed Bin Laden on a silver platter two or three times and rejected it. CALLER: We still have him. RUSH: That's right. See, what Walter's point here is while Obama is out there trying to say Romney wouldn't have pulled the trigger (laughing), it's Bill...

On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards. Buried inside them was a pornographic video called "Kick Ass" -- and a file marked "Sexy Tanja." Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence...

One year ago, the enemy that had haunted America for nearly a decade met his end in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden is no longer a threat to the United States because of President Obama's leadership and strong national security policies. Good intelligence practices and surgical counterterrorism operations enabled us to kill 20 of al Qaeda's top 30 leaders, including bin Laden. This is an accomplishment by any measure. We have diminished al Qaeda's strength, so for the sake of our economic and national security, we should decrease our military presence and bring our troops home from Afghanistan as soon

As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1. But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration. Much of that work has been denigrated by Obama as unproductive and contrary to American principles. He is wrong on both counts. Shortly after bin Laden met his maker last spring, courtesy of U.S. Special Forces and intelligence, the administration proudly announced that when Obama took...

Most Muslims in several key Middle Eastern and Asian countries hold negative views of the terrorist network al Qaeda a year after U.S. forces killed its leader, Osama bin Laden, according to a recent survey. The poll by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, released Monday, found that a high proportion -- between 71% and 98% -- of Muslims questioned in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon viewed al Qaeda in an unfavorable way.

The president signed an executive order on Tuesday granting the Treasury Department authority to tighten sanctions on Iran and Syria. From the Treasury Department statement: "This E.O. targets foreign individuals and entities that have violated, attempted to violate, conspired to violate, or caused a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran or Syria, or that have facilitated deceptive transactions for persons subject to U.S. sanctions concerning Syria or Iran. With this new authority, Treasury now has the capability to publicly identify foreign individuals and entities that have engaged in these evasive and deceptive activities, and generally bar access to the U.S....

Following are excerpts from an address by Hassan Musa, president of the Austrian Islamic Council at a Gaza rally to mark Prisoners' Day, aired on Press TV on April 20, 2012. Reporter : The president of the Austrian Islamic Council, who is on a visit to Gaza, called on the Palestinian factions to capture more Israeli soldiers. Hassan Musa : Hundreds of [Gilad] Shalits must be captured to secure the release of all Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinian factions must use all means of force to regain Palestinian rights, because the enemy only understands force. As a lawyer, I know that...

More than 34 children allegedly have been killed in Syria since a shaky truce between President Bashar al-Assad's security forces and opposition groups began on April 12, a U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. "I urge all parties in Syria to refrain from indiscriminate tactics resulting in the killing and wounding of children," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, special envoy for children and armed conflict.

The children are celebrating and taking credit for the death of Osama bin Laden, but make no mistake about it, this is a win for the adults. This will give Obama a short-term boost in the polls, but I submit after a few days or weeks of liberal celebration, reality will start to sink in for more and more Americans. Now by adults, I mean folks mature enough to understand that the world is a mean place ruled by the aggressive use of power and that the only way to stop evil from ruling is for the good guys to...

Why is the US considering F-16 sales to Taiwan? Political shifts in China, Taiwan, and the US have revived the prospect of a US F-16 deal with Taiwan. Taipei, Taiwan In September, the United States politely told Taiwan it would not sell its late-model F-16 fighter jets to help Taiwan keep up with the military might of China. Taiwan was disappointed. China's response was low key. his month, however, the White House said the sale deserved “serious consideration.” This announcement comes despite the fact that China sees any sale of the F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan as a red line...

Life on Royal Navy's Falklands-bound HMS Dauntless It is one of the Royal Navy's most advanced and powerful warships, now on its way to the other side of the world; destination - the Falkland Islands. HMS Dauntless is the largest destroyer ever built for the Royal Navy, made from nearly 3,000 tonnes of steel. Its wide hull helps to support its two massive radar. This Type 45 destroyer is radically different in design from earlier warships. The sleek, angled lines means it appears no larger than a fishing boat on another ship's radar. It is the navy's first stealth warship....

Most european leftists just can't help themselves when it comes to Jew hate. Therefore, it's not surprising that Norwegian socialist Johan Galtung tried to link the tragic massacre of children last summer with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.He also recommended reading the debunked book "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."Haaretz: Professor Galtung, 82-years-old, is one of the founders of the discipline called "Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution," as well as a founder of the international Peace Research Institute in Oslo. He is considered well-respected sociological researcher, has been awarded many prizes, and is the author of over a thousand articles...

Rupert Murdoch is "not a fit person" to exercise stewardship of a major international company, a committee of MPs has concluded, in a report highly critical of the mogul and his son James's role in the News of the World phone-hacking affair. The Commons culture, media and sport select committee also concluded that James Murdoch showed "wilful ignorance" of the extent of phone hacking during 2009 and 2010 – in a highly charged document that saw MPs split on party lines as regards the two Murdochs. Labour MPs and the sole Liberal Democrat on the committee, Adrian Sanders, voted together...

Bill Keller: End may be near for monstrous North Korean regime By BILL KELLER The New York Times Published: April 30th, 2012 04:49 PM Last Modified: April 30th, 2012 04:49 PM The one thing everyone knows about North Korea is that we know very little about North Korea, except that it is miserable, totalitarian, nuclear and erratic. It is the hermit kingdom, the dark side of the moon. But thanks to many thousands of refugees who have reached freedom by way of a long underground railroad through China, we know a lot more now about the grim reality. We understand...

What would you think of a secretary of the Treasury who failed to do serious cost-benefit analysis about regulations that could cost millions of Americans their jobs and cause innocent people to be subject to political abuse or worse and yet have almost no benefit to the United States? Over the past several years, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was warned by many private economists and members of Congress of the adverse consequences of a proposed rule that would force U.S. banks to be uncompensated tax collectors for foreign governments. On April 17, Mr. Geithner issued the rule anyway. Rep....

OPINION Updated April 30, 2012, 7:43 p.m. ET Michael Mukasey: Obama and the bin Laden Bragging Rights It's hard to imagine Lincoln or Eisenhower claiming such credit for the heroic actions of others. By MICHAEL B. MUKASEY The first anniversary of the SEAL Team 6 operation that killed Osama bin Laden brings the news that President Obama plans during the coming campaign to exploit the bragging rights to the achievement. That plan invites scrutiny that is unlikely to benefit him. Consider the events surrounding the operation. A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president's celebrated...

30 years ago today, one of the RAF’s greatest missions of all time: a long range surprise attack to the Falklands April 30, 2012 At 22.30, on Apr. 30, 1982, the first engine of some 13 Hadley Page Victor K2 Tanker aircraft spooled into life and announced the start of one of the RAF’s greatest missions of all time. It all started a few weeks previously, when some Argentinean scrap metal merchants had claimed some remote British Islands called South Georgia in the name of Argentina. It culminated in General Leopold Galtiere invading the British dependency of the Falkland Islands...

If Transportation Security pat downs at public venues, thousands of drones over the skies of America, and the National Security Agency's new Echelon-like listening center in Utah weren't enough to convince you that we're living in a police state, then perhaps the latest news out of Chicago will change your mind. As world leaders prepare to meet in the windy city for their annual NATO summit, U.S. federal officials are working feverishly to implement a security net so broad that it encompasses the entirety of Cook County, Illinois. While international summits are traditionally met with a larger police presence and...