Free Republic

The ISIS terror group believes that if it is Allah's will, the organization will take over much of the world. But at the moment, Allah doesn't seem to be on their side. -Analysis-BERLIN — According to the ISIS terror group's five-year plan, the entire northern half of Africa, and large parts of Europe and Asia, should be conquered by 2019. Then comes the rest of the world. It's a ludicrous plan, but it nevertheless remains a firm foundation of ISIS ideology. "Conquer, stay, expand" is the slogan of the Stone Age Islamists. It's time to restore Muslim honor, says ISIS...

The Economist removed a cartoon from an article on its internet edition that has been characterized as anti-Semitic. The cartoon was removed Tuesday from the weekly publication, where it ran alongside an article published on Jan. 18. The cartoon appears in the print edition of the magazine. An editor’s note appended at the end of the article titled “Negotiating with Iran: A Big Gap to Close,” about the difficulties between the United States and Iran over negotiating changes to Iran’s nuclear program, read: “The print edition of this story had a cartoon which inadvertently caused offense to some readers, so...

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is one of over 100 non-polio enteroviruses, according to the CDC. For most people infected, it causes flu-like symptoms, mild to severe. It spreads just like the common cold virus, through coughing, sneezing, handshakes, or touching a surface touched by someone with the infection. Over this past summer and fall, the United States, “has experienced a nationwide outbreak of enterovirus D68,” according to the CDC. For most infected persons, it’s just another cold. But “more severe infections can lead to hypoxia, meningitis, eye problems, heart involvement, and rarely paralysis.” This sudden surge in EV-D68 cases is perplexing...

The CDC reported nearly 1000 cases of Enterovirus D 68 have now shown up in 46 states ... Meanwhile the global spread of TB is getting worse. The World Health Organization reported nine million cases of the infectious disease last year—mainly in underdeveloped countries. 1.5 million people died from it. The WHO says TB is now the second fastest growing infectious disease killer after AIDS, and that it’ll take a lot more money to get TB under control. Doctors in Poland took to the internet this week looking for volunteers: specifically, patients with spinal cord injuries caused by a knife...

The U.S. death toll from the mysterious Enterovirus D-68, which primarily strikes young children, has reached twelve. But as the number of livest lost increases, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that most states over the last five weeks have indicated “reduced EV-D68-like illness activity.” The latest CDC update on the current outbreak of the polio-like Enterovirus D-68 states that it has now been detected “in specimens from twelve patients who died and had samples submitted for testing.” That’s one more death than was disclosed in last week’s update. The CDC account does not provide information as to where...

US Secretary of State Adivses Russian Counterpart Not To Take US President's Words At Face Value Though it went entirely unnoticed in the Western press, all major Russian news outlets – RIA Novosti, Sputnik, RT, and others – were only too happy to report on what US Secretary of State John Kerry said last week to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in private: “Just ignore Obama’s statements.” According to Mr. Lavrov, John Kerry advised him not to pay too much attention to the US President’s harsh rhetoric directed toward his state. As recently as September, during his speech to...

VIENNA—Top Iranian leaders have been celebrating a recently inked extension in nuclear negotiations with the West, with leading military figures and politicians saying that the deal is a sign that the “Americans have very clearly surrendered to Iran’s might,” according to regional reports. As negotiations in Vienna break up so that leaders from all sides can return to their countries for further deliberations, the Iranians have already begun mocking the West and insisting that the country’s nuclear rights will soon be recognized. With a seven-month extension in talks—originally scheduled to expire on Monday—set to start in early December, nuclear experts...

<p>Officials at Fort Sam Houston say they’ve taken into custody the driver of a vehicle that military officials say contained explosive materials, and which sparked a lockdown at the San Antonio Army base.</p> <p>The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter that the lockdown was being handled by military police, and the sheriff’s department had no units assigned to the case.</p>

The Constitutional law professor in the White House missed a few key details in his pitch to halt the deportation of several million illegal aliens, according to another law professor. “I thought it was a pretty good speech, except for the facts,” Jay Ting, a law professor at Temple said last Friday in remarks at the Heritage Foundation. For one thing, “Qualified legal immigrants have waited 20 years” to become citizens, Ting observed. Ting served as an attorney in the U. S. Justice Department during the administration of George H. W. Bush. Moreover, “There are those on the other side...

PARIS – France suspended the planned delivery of a warship to Russia on Tuesday, after months of growing speculation about what would be the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin. ·

Obama’s illegal alien amnesty is just going to be an open door. It’s his DREAMER amnesty on a much bigger scale.The infrastructure isn’t there to process and check all these applications. Congress won’t be allocating money for an illegal unilateral amnesty (which sets them up to be blamed for the consequences of Obama’s illegal actions) so the whole thing will be an open door for just about anyone trying to get through. The political debate over Obama’s unilateral immigration actions is obscuring the more basic question of whether the federal government is actually up to the task of handling...

If you’re wondering why we’re having so much trouble winning the War on Terror, here’s how much bureaucracy taking out a Taliban terrorist involves. I explained that for the more complex missions, such as a mission to search for a weapons cache or to kill or capture a Haqqani commander, my Special Forces teams had to assemble a forty-slide conop for briefing and approval by a dozen higher headquarters if the team wanted to use helicopters.“A dozen command approvals?” Vickers asked me incredulously. “Name them.” The lieutenant colonel who was accompanying him glared at me over Vickers’ shoulder.“Absolutely. Now,...

Years ago, Elvis made a movie called "Fun in Acapulco". It captured the magic of a great coastal town, from a wonderful beach to pretty girls to very friendly people. Believe it or not, that was the Acapulco that most Mexicans and foreigners remember.  It's not fun anymore down in Acapulco as we check recent events from our southern neighbor. In fact, it must be very bad in Acapulco.   We just read this from the US Embassy in Mexico City: "The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a security message Friday warning U.S. citizens to avoid the Pacific resort of...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is backing a bill to be submitted by outgoing Communications Minister Gilad Erdan to cancel social security and other benefits for terrorists and “those who identify” with terrorism. The Prime Minister already is getting flak from the United States for the “Jewish State bill,” which the U.S. State Dept. did not directly oppose but about which he noted to reporters on Monday, “We expect Israel to stick to its democratic principles.” Indirectly reacting to the remark, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Tuesday there is no contradiction between defining Israel as a Jewish state and a democratic...

Jim Miklaszewski kept it relatively diplomatic, declaring "there's something amiss here." But Joe Scarborough was blunt: "boy, that's damning," said the Morning Joe host. They were characterizing Miklaszewski's description of the Obama administration's "micromanagement" of the Department of Defense in which communication flows only in one direction: from the White House to the Pentagon. On today's Morning Joe, NBC's Pentagon correspondent reported that former SecDefs Robert Gates and Leon Panetta had recently "lambaste[d]" that micromanagement. View the video here.

President Obama’s push to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay is likely to become a flashpoint as he seeks to confirm a replacement for outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Obama is seeking to close the detention center before leaving office, which would fulfil a promise he made during his first White House run in 2008. But with Republicans and some Democrats opposed to releasing the detainees or bringing them to U.S. prisons, the administration has considered closing the facility through executive action, according to The Wall Street Journal. The White House questioned the Journal report, but did not explicitly deny...

NEW DELHI: Ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit here early next month, India has told Russia to come back with a plan to substantially reduce the delivery timeframe for the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) if it wants to seal the futuristic project by next year. The plan till now was that India would begin inducting the stealth fighters only 94 months — at the earliest — after the two countries inked the final design and R&D contract, which itself has already been delayed by over two years by now. "Russia has now been told that India cannot wait for...

AN air base being built on a disputed island chain is raising eyebrows as its puts Chinese strategic bombers in range of Australia for the first time. Defence Publication IHS Janes says analysis of satellite photographs shows China is turning Fiery Cross Reef in the contentious Spratly Islands into a land mass big enough to hold a military air base. The construction work shows China is enforcing its claim on the mineral and oil-rich chain of islands which are also claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Beijing claims nearly all of the resource-rich South China Sea. The...

Though it went entirely unnoticed in the Western press, all major Russian news outlets – RIA Novosti, Sputnik, RT, and others – were only too happy to report on what US Secretary of State John Kerry said last week to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in private: “Just ignore Obama’s statements.” According to Mr. Lavrov, John Kerry advised him not to pay too much attention to the US President’s harsh rhetoric directed toward his state. As recently as September, during his speech to the 69th UN General Assembly in New York, Mr. Obama puzzled and shocked Mr. Lavrov by...

On September 11, 2012, Islamist militants attacked U.S. complexes in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed, the first U.S. Ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979. Three other men were killed and 10 were injured. The media immediately turned it into a political story, focusing more anger on Mitt Romney’s comments about the administration’s blaming of a YouTube video critical of Islam than determining the facts of the attack itself. Many in the media thought it fine that President Obama jetted off to a high-dollar fundraiser before the bodies cooled. When various high-level government officials blamed either...