Free Republic

An explosion of violence in Iraq risks turning the troubled country into a political liability for President Obama. During last year's reelection campaign, the president managed to both earn credit for withdrawing all U.S. troops and avoid blame for the deteriorating security situation. But a surge in terror attacks this year that has left more than 7,000 people dead has drawn bipartisan concerns about Obama's Middle East policies -- concerns that broke out into the open during Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to the White House this week. “By nearly every indicator, security conditions in Iraq have dramatically worsened over...

After over a year of waiting for the liberal media to finally assign blame and announce who was responsible for the brutal murders of four Americans, [Leslie] Marshall finally stepped to the plate to announce that if we are to blame someone, we should blame the victim.

First official acknowledgment that the Benghazi attacks last year involve at least two suspects who are members of “Al-Qaeda core”, which is based in Pakistan and led by Ayman al-Zawahiri. ... reports of recorded phone conversations that took place between then Egyptian president Mohammed Mursi and al-Qaeda number one, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who sits at the top of “Al-Qaeda core”. These conversations reportedly include discussions about releasing al-Qaeda terrorists into Egypt, to form terrorist camps. These camps were formed in the Sinai and along Egypt’s border with Libya. These developments may constitute the strongest evidence yet that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,...

Yes, really. As you read this morning, I was expecting a some perfunctory contrition and token acceptance of responsibility from President Bystander during his Obamacare remarks in the Rose Garden today. I was wrong. The appearance was more of a pep rally, replete with upbeat promises and applauding supporters. Aides might as well have hung a large "mission accomplished" banner over Obama's head. The fact that the Obamacare websites -- a core element of the law functioning -- are in total shambles and won't be fixed for many weeks or even months were all but shrugged off as an afterthought....

The West thought it was winning the battle against jihadist terrorism. It should think again. A FEW months ago Barack Obama declared that al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat”. Its surviving members, he said, were more concerned for their own safety than with plotting attacks on the West. Yet the inconvenient truth is that, in the past 18 months, despite the relentless pummelling it has received and the defeats it has suffered, al-Qaeda and its jihadist allies have staged an extraordinary comeback. The terrorist network now holds sway over more territory and is recruiting more fighters than at any...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday assured the United Nations that the world is now a much safer place than it was five years ago. The United States government has “begun to review the way that we gather intelligence so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share,” the president said. “As a result of this work and cooperation with allies and partners, the world is more stable than it was five years ago,” Obama added. The president later added that “even a glance at today’s headlines indicates...

While saying he sympathizes with current public distaste for more war, President Obama on Friday made the case that the U.S. must live up to its global responsibilities, and for the first time raised the possibility that additional military action — beyond what’s on the table now — may be necessary if Syrian President Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons again. Mr. Obama made the comments at a press conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia, just hours before he departs the G-20 Summit and returns to Washington without achieving the international consensus on Syria that he’d hoped. In blunt terms, the president...

An American military attack on Syria could begin as early as Thursday and will involve three days of missile strikes, according to "senior U.S. officials" talking to NBC News. The Washington Post has the bombing at "no more than two days," though long-range bombers could "possibly" join the missiles. "Factors weighing into the timing of any action include a desire to get it done before the president leaves for Russia next week," reports CNN, citing a "senior administration official." The New York Times, quoting a Pentagon official, adds that "the initial target list has fewer than 50 sites, including air...

declared that the terrorist organization had been “decimated” and was “on the path to defeat.” He knows damned well that the main force of the Syrian opposition fighters are being augmented by al Qaeda linked groups and that their supporters are waging jihad. The Free Syrian Army are employing the jihadists against pro-Assad forces and Syrian Christians. Obama does NOT have al Qaeda on the run. And his covert arming of the rebels is most likely providing arms to al Qaeda forces. Jihadists According to current intelligence estimates there are around 6,000 foreign terrorists fighting in Syria. Most are Sunni...

•EGYPT VICE PRESIDENT ELBARADEI ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION: AFP •MURSI BACKERS SHOOT, KILL 4 POLICEMEN IN CAIRO STATION: REUTERS More on the resignation of the long-suffering ElBardei: Egypt's interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, resigned on Wednesday after the security forces violently broke up protest camps set up by supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Mursi.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico (and surely from other Latin American countries) are flooding into the U.S. in anticipation of amnesty. We (my wife and I) know personally of several Hispanic families urgently getting friends and relatives across the border in order to take advantage of the passage of the immigration bill.

At least 26 people were killed and 80 wounded when a militia in the Libyan city of Benghazi opened fire on protesters gathered outside its base on Saturday. The demonstrators had gathered outside the headquarters of the Libya Shield brigade to demand it to submit to the authority of Libya's security forces. Television pictures showed people and cars fleeing in panic from the scene amid the crackle of gunfire. Benghazi's Jala hospital was overwhelmed with casualties being brought in by ambulance and private vehicles, with doctors saying they were struggling to cope. The Libyan prime minister, Ali Zidan, made a...

The U.S. has bought $70,000 worth of air time on seven Pakistani television channels to air an ad showing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the anti-Islamic video that has sparked violent protests in the Middle East and North Africa. In the 30-second ad that began running Thursday, Obama says, "Since our founding the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate religious beliefs of others."

The question which nobody is asking: Did Bork Obunga and his puppet-master George Soros generate an immense reservoir of hatred against Americans in Libya in 2011 by taking down what amounted to the best government in the Islammic world for motives amounting to little if anything other than pure greed, and THEN set the stage for a US ambassador to be tortured, raped, and then killed by sheer fecklessness with no meaningful response in the picture even eight months later? http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD14Ak02.html Ellen Brown noted (2011) that: Another anomaly involves the official justification for taking up arms against Libya. Supposedly it's...

At least nine people have been killed in a car bomb explosion near a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi, an official has told the BBC. "I saw people running and some of them were collecting parts of bodies," a witness said. This follows a string of bombings in the eastern city in recent days. Security remains precarious in Libya since the uprising against long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi, with protests by militias and attacks by Islamists. At the end of April, a car bomb exploded outside the French embassy in the capital, Tripoli, wounding two French guards and several...

BROKAW: I don't think any of us are any more insulated from this kind of violence because it's on television 24/7. My wife and I were getting ready for dinner Friday night when they finally began to find him and capture him, and I said to her, this is a reality show we're going to be living with for a long time. We went through recently under different circumstances in Newtown with the mass shooting of the youngsters there. I remember so vividly Oklahoma City and how that bound us together. There are a couple of things to remember, David,...

(CNSNews.com) - On Sept. 11, 2012, as he was campaigning for reelection, President Barack Obama went to the Pentagon to give a speech commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and tell Americans that he was successfully bringing the post-9/11 wars to a conclusion. “Our country is safer,” Obama said. Later that day, terrorists would attack the U.S. State Department mission and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, would be granted U.S. citizenship in Massachusetts.

Today, the National Journal reported that a senior State Department official has announced, “The war on terror is over.” “Now that we have killed most of al Qaida,” the source said, “now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism.” (snip) In truth, Obama isn’t declaring an end to the war on terror – terrorism continues unabated each day in Egypt and the Palestinian territories and Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and Yemen and Syria and Lebanon and a dozen other hotspots...

At a press conference today in Ramallah, President Barack Obama addressed the assembled journalists while standing under a Yasser Arafat banner:"Hope everyone saw presser. If not there, it was notable that Obama and Abbas spoke from under a banner bearing pictures of Arafat and Abbas. Also another big banner was hanging on wall nearby with Abbas kind of superimposed on Arafat," the White House pool reporter notes.

March 3, 2013 Report: FBI Benghazi Survivor Interviews Delivered to Senate Intel Committee Kerry Picket (Excerpt) A source told CBS News that FBI transcripts of interviews with Benghazi survivors were turned over to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday........ The documents that came from the White House is the second set to be sent to Congress. The initial set of documents related to the attack were considered “insufficient” due to massive redactions.... The documents that were sent on Thursday had fewer redactions. They show that e-mail correspondence reveal “talking points” that were sent around the White House, the FBI, and...