Free Republic

Under a 2009 agreement, Libya also agreed to allow Italian coastguard to stop boatloads of African migrants on the seas and forcibly return them to Libya. ... Europe's reliance on Libyan complicity in holding back asylum seekers became particularly clear in the final days of Gaddafi's regime when the threatened dictator warned that if he was deposed, "thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe and there will be no one to stop them." In fact, Gaddafi made good on his promise when, in May 2011, Libyan authorities reportedly began putting non-Libyan citizens on boats and sending them north to...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino construction worker kidnapped by militia men in Libya has been beheaded by his captors, becoming the first Filipino casualty in the renewed violence in the North African state, the Philippine government said. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the Filipino worker was kidnapped on July 15. He was subsequently beheaded and his decomposed body was found Sunday in a hospital in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. "The vehicle he was riding in was stopped in a checkpoint. There were three of them - a Libyan a Pakistani and a Filipino and he was...

Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's military said militants firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a border guards checkpoint Saturday, killing 21 soldiers in one of the biggest assaults since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster. The attack in a desert area 630 kilometres (390 miles) west of Cairo left four soldiers wounded, the military said in a statement, blaming "terrorists". It said a rocket propelled grenade fired by the militants set off an explosion in an ammunition depot at the El-Farafrah post, killing the soldiers. Militants have stepped up attacks on the security forces since Morsi was toppled in July 2013...

On October, 2011, amid a lethargic economic recovery, President Barack Obama – a man who prided himself on ending wars, not starting them – touted his foreign policy successes. Beyond the successful raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, Obama noted that he had successfully solved two thorny international puzzles; ending the war in Iraq and successfully prosecuting a brief campaign to stem the violence in Libya. In a speech in the White House, the president made the case for his own competency within an announcement regarding the beginning of the full withdrawal of American troops...

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. expressed “extreme, extreme concern” on Sunday over reports that bomb makers from Yemen responsible for the 2009 underwear-bomb plot are now in Syria cooperating with foreign militants there, possibly to develop new, nearly undetectable explosive devices. Asked on Sunday whether that threat was a “clear and present danger,” Mr. Holder responded: “I think it is. In some ways, it’s more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general.”

The United Nations has evacuated dozens of foreign staff from its mission in Libya due to a deteriorating security situation in the North African country, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday. “They will return if the security situation improves,” said Samir Ghattas, spokesman for the U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), without saying how many had left the country. Libya has been in a state of near constant turmoil for three years, with successive governments struggling for legitimacy and unable to tame various armed groups that helped overthrow veteran ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but are now defying state authority....

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

"I called it…John Brennan’s “iron claw”: he came down on Director Petraeus with an “iron claw” to prevent him from investigating what appears to have been John Brennan’s own arms trafficking. Look, when the president’s top advisor for counterterrorism engages in operational activity overseas — because that’s what this appears to be — that is a violation of the National Security Act of 1947. That’s exactly what they tried to convict Oliver North of doing during the Iran-Contra affair. The biggest difference of course between Iran-Contra and Benghazi is that nobody died during the Iran-Contra affair, and here there are...

Classified info at compound required U.S. Marine protection Did the State Department under Hillary Clinton deliberately refuse to classify what has been described as sensitive information housed at the U.S. special mission in Benghazi? The storage of any officially classified information in the compound would have required the deployment of the U.S. Marine Corps Embassy Security Group for protection. Instead, external security at the facility was provided by unarmed local Libyan guards. Armed members of the Martyrs of the February 17th Brigades served as the official quick-reaction force that worked within the compound. The Brigade is an offshoot of the...

Obama gave this bloodthirsty Libyan jihad murderer the full protection of a US citizen. Ahmed Abu Khatallah was mirandized and has since clamped down and shut up, which was Obama’s objective all along. In the continuing cover-up of the Benghazi jihad murderers and Obama’s feckless and reckless abandonment of our people, Obama’s main objective is to cover up what really happened that night on his watch. This Libyan devout jihadi was read his Miranda rights — which give him the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination, a U.S. official told CNN. “I have serious concerns that conducting a rushed...

A victory beyond the wildest dreams of Osama bin Laden is within reach of fighters from ISIL, a group of which he would likely approve regardless of what current Al Qaeda leadership says about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. And it's all Obama's fault. “Iraqi troops battled to dislodge an al Qaeda splinter group from the city of Tikrit on Monday,” reports the Hindustan Times, “after its leader was declared caliph of a new Islamic state in lands seized this month across a swathe of Iraq and Syria.” The caliphate claims worldwide authority over all Muslims, and...

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the Libyan militant charged in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, will face a federal judge Saturday afternoon for an initial court appearance, authorities confirmed to Fox News. At that time, the government is expected to outline the charges against him. Khatallah is being held at a federal courthouse in D.C. amid tight security, Department of Justice spokesman William Miller said. He was flown to Washington by helicopter shortly after sunrise from a navy warship, where he had been held since his capture nearly two weeks ago. Khatallah is accused of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack...

Where is the USS New York? At 684 feet long and displacing over 24,900 tons, the Mayport, Fla.-based San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock is no smart car of the seas. Yet the vessel has gone “dark” for more than a week now. The low profile might have something to do with the fact that the New York is currently home to the recently captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the accused ringleaders of the Sept. 11-12, 2012, Benghazi terrorist attacks that left four Americans dead. While any ship’s location is supposed to be a well-guarded secret when deployed, the New...

CHAPPAQUA - Chappaqua police say a vandal defaced a sign promoting Hillary Clinton's book tour in her own hometown. The vandalism was discovered Sunday morning at the Chappaqua Library on South Greeley Avenue. Police say someone spray-painted the word "Benghazi" in red over a sign that hangs outside the library.

#Reuters wire:' #KERRY SAYS US NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED IN LIBYA,NOR IS IT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING IN IRAQ'Nicole Gaouette ‏@nicolegaouette 16m The U.S. "was not responsible for what happened in Libya and nor is it responsible for what's happening in Iraq today," Kerry says in Cairo

Democrats hoping the capture of Ahmed Abu Khatallah will bring some kind of closure to the Benghazi issue are sorely mistaken. In fact, in terms of policy, events surrounding his arrest only highlight the awful legacy of the Libyan venture -- when NATO assisted the rebels and helped remove the dictator from power in 2011. Democracy did not spring up after strongman Moammar Gadhafi was deposed, captured and killed in 2011, but instead a tyranny was replaced with an anarchy. There were an estimated 1,700 armed groups left fighting for control of the country and it became, in the words...

President Obama said the capture of a suspect connected with the Sept. 11, 2012, consulate attack in Benghazi proves “the United States has an unwavering commitment to bring to justice those responsible for harming Americans.” “Since the deadly attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, I have made it a priority to find and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four brave Americans,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “I recently authorized an operation in Libya to detain an individual charged for his role in these attacks, Ahmed Abu Khatallah. The fact that he...

Mouaz Moustafa is a Palestinian Arab and the Executive Director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force which arranged for McCain’s visit. Senator McCain called Moustafa a “patriot”, but it’s not clear which country he’s a patriot of, since it’s not Mouaz Moustafa’s first time around on the regime change bus tour. Before the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Moustafa was the Executive Director of the Libyan Council of North America, which like the SETF existed to help push regime change. Before that, he mentions working with “rebels” in Egypt. On his Twitter feed, he denounces the overthrow of Morsi making it...

When The Washington Post reported the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, suspected in the Benghazi terrorist attacks that killed four Americans in 2012, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were clear in asserting what they deem the proper course of action should be: send him to Guantanamo Bay. Reporters waiting outside the chamber received the news on their smartphones before senators began trickling out of the Senate Chamber. Many of them refused to comment, awaiting more details from their staff. But McCain and Graham spoke up. "I’m glad that they got him,” McCain stated, before suggesting that...

The suspected ringleader of the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks, who was captured by U.S. forces over the weekend, was actually interviewed by multiple media outlets last year — a stunning revelation that could raise questions over why it took the U.S. so long to arrest the man.