Free Republic

Isn’t it funny what you can find out on Friday evening about what our executive branch does? For instance, Agence France-Presse reported last night that Barack Obama bypassed Congress to send $192 million to the Palestinian Authority, claiming that national security required the US to put money into Mahmoud Abbas’ pocket: President Barack Obama has signed a waiver to remove curbs on funding to the Palestinian Authority, declaring the aid to be “important to the security interests of the United States.” A $192 million aid package was frozen by the US Congress after the Palestinians moved to gain statehood at...

The Obama administration appears to be conducting an organized campaign of public pressure to stop Israel from attacking Iran's well-developed nuclear-weapons program. So intense is this effort, and so determined is President Obama to succeed, that administration officials are now leaking highly sensitive information about Israel's intentions and capabilities into the news media. ------ Indeed, the only conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Obama's actions and rhetoric is that he fears an Israeli military strike more than he fears Iran achieving nuclear-weapons capability.

WASHINGTON — Passover and Easter — intrinsically linked in the Jewish and Christian traditions — are being celebrated this weekend. For observant Jews, Passover commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from slavery under Egypt's Pharaoh. For faithful Christians, Easter is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the grave and the fulfillment of a new covenant between God and man. Biblical passages in Exodus 12, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 describe these historical events and the reasons for festivities among people of faith. But this year, these holidays are a time of extraordinary anxiety for Christians and Jews...

In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department's headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled "Azerbaijan's discreet symbiosis with Israel." The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country's relationship with the Jewish state as an iceberg: "nine-tenths of it is below the surface." Why does it matter? Because Azerbaijan is strategically located on Iran's northern border and, according to several high-level sources I've spoken with inside the U.S. government, Obama administration officials now believe that the "submerged" aspect of the Israeli-Azerbaijani...

Former U.S. diplomat John Bolton alleged Thursday that the Obama administration leaked a story about covert Israeli activity in order to foil potential plans by the country to attack Iran's nuclear program. Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the George W. Bush administration, was responding to an article in Foreign Policy magazine that quoted government sources claiming Israel had been granted access to airfields in Azerbaijan -- along Iran's northern border.

US filmmaker Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam on Tuesday in Iran, where he is making a documentary, he told AFP. "The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with. It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets," he said in a brief telephone call from the central Iranian city of Isfahan, where he underwent the ceremony. Sean Stone's famous father is Jewish, while his mother is Christian. The 27-year-old filmmaker did not say why he converted. According to Iran's Fars news agency, Sean Stone had become a...

(Cairo, Egypt)  --  Egypt is set to try 19 Americans, including the son of former Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood. Egyptian officials announced yesterday that Sam LaHood is among the 43 people to be tried for what prosecutors called using funds from their non-profit organizations to foment unrest in their country.

It is profoundly disconcerting to read media reports of the unseemly competition between the US and Western governments to curry favor with the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of its electoral victory in Egypt. There are chilling parallels between such behavior and the disastrous European policy of appeasing the Nazis which paved the way for World War II. What those attempting to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood fail to comprehend is that this organization represents one of the most fanatical and dangerous of the radical Islamist groups in the region, with a dark record of violence and terrorism imbedded in its...

Former US ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday blasted President Barack Obama's sanctions-driven approach to curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions in an op-ed he wrote for USA Today. “A nuclear armed Iran will be his most lasting legacy,” Bolton – a long-established proponent of a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program – wrote of Obama. "Sanctions have long been touted as the answer, but they are not," Bolton explained. "Sadly, we have been behind the curve for years, and recent Obama administration claims about slowing Tehran down are little more than re-election propaganda." Noting that Iran's alliances with China, Cuba,...

About the only people having a Happy New Year in the Muslim world aren't the Christians who are huddling and waiting out the storm, but the Islamists who use a different calendar but are having the best time of their lives since the last Caliphate. The news that the Obama Administration has brought in genocidal Muslim Brotherhood honcho Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to discuss terms of surrender for the transfer of Afghanistan to the Taliban caps a year in which the Brotherhood and the Salafists are looking up carve up Egypt, the Islamists won Tunisia's elections, Turkey's Islamist AKP Party purged the...

It’s always fascinating to read the work of genuine Arab moderates (or that of non-Arab Muslims) to see how much it differs from the Western-celebrated false moderates and radicals so often prominently featured in the mass media and academia. Indeed, people like the following writer can never be found as heroes of the official West because they tell the inconvenient truths about the Middle East. Consider a young Saudi named Mshari al-Zaydi. He is the opinion page editor of Al-Sharq al-Awsat, the best Arabic newspaper, where this article first appeared. It was then reprinted on the website of al-Arabiyya, the...

Weiner accused his Muslim parents-in-law of being 'backwards thinking' and never accepting him because of his Jewish background, it was revealed today. Newly released messages from the disgraced former congressman's text conversations, obtained exclusively by MailOnline, show how Weiner had explicit exchanges with women comparing them to his wife. Heartbreaking: In the messages Anthony Weiner claimed that the parents of his wife Huma Abedin had not accepted him because of his religion The messages are to be published in a book by Traci Nobles, who exchanged messages with the shamed politician for nine months. The messages are contained in a...

New details and names have emerged regarding appointees that Obama brought into our White House who allegedly have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. This article lays out what we have learned and calls for an immediate Congressional investigation. It is no secret that Obama has embraced an enemy that openly states their desire to destroy Western Civilization and declares “Death to America.” Obama’s perplexing actions over the course of his Presidency appear to be more aligned with the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and United Nations than with America’s agenda. From Obama’s illegal war in Libya with U.S. military support...

With the imminent departure of Muammar Gaddafi from absolute power as the rebels are closing on Tripoli two CIA-backed Libyan groups and an al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a declared foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the US State Department since 2004, could emerge as real power in Libya when it is clear that the rebel military forces are a patchwork of armed groups, former soldiers and freelance militias including self-appointed neighborhood gangs. The main rebel group, based in Benghazi in the country's east, consists of former government ministers who have defected, and longstanding opposition figures, representing a range...

WASHINGTON: Stepping up pressure against the Assad regime in Syria, the US has asked India and China, with major investment in Syria's energy sector, to join Washington in curbing the crackdown on protests there. "We've issued more sanctions, tougher sanctions. We're working with our European and other friends," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with CBS. "But what we really need to do to put the pressure on (President Bashar al-) Assad is to sanction the oil and gas industry, and we want to see Europe take more steps in that direction." "We want to see China...

"I am leaving because of a variety of important reasons. The first reason is that, during the Revolution of January 25th, the Egyptian Army protected our heritage sites and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, in the last 10 days the army has left these posts because it has other tasks to do. The group now in charge of the protection of these sites is the Tourist Police, but there are no Tourist Police to do this either. Therefore, what happens? Egyptian criminals, thieves (you know, in every revolution bad people always appear…), have begun to destroy tombs. They damaged...

The U.S. Air Force has deployed its bombers like never before in the Libya campaign. Wired picked up a story released by Air Force Magazine detailing a flight made this spring by two B1 bombers from South Dakota to Libya carrying ninety-eight, 500 pound bombs. During 24 hours of combat time over four days, the bombers destroyed nearly 100 targets. The B1s were chosen on top of NATO's combined air fleet because each one carries around 24,000 pounds of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Laser guided JDAMs. To achieve equal destruction would have required dozens of NATO jets.

In a front page story about a major FBI terrorism investigation, The Washington Post has reported that the targets include “Chicagoans who crossed paths with Obama when he was a young state senator and some who have been active in labor unions that supported his political rise.” The implication is that the trail could lead to the White House. This is an unusual investigation that does not primarily involve Islamists. Instead, it is focused on elements of the old international communist networks that many people mistakenly thought had faded away with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Those under investigation...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. Frontpage: Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview. I would like to talk to you today about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to his Muslim Brotherhood wife, Huma Abedin. How is it exactly that a Muslim woman connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is married to a Jewish man? Something is not fitting here, right? Spencer: Jamie, Islamic law prohibits a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. A...

WebToday Exclusive: Former Muslim and PLO member Walid Shoebat has uncovered EXPLOSIVE information about the family of Huma Abedin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff. Abedin is also the wife of Congressman Anthony Weiner. Abedin's mother Saleha is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and her brother is the Head of Development for an organization filled with Brotherhood members! Was Mrs. Weiner (Huma Abedin), the Deputy Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton unaware that her mother was reported as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Did western media miss what has been REVEALED in several Arab newspapers,...