Free Republic

In a press conference Sunday, Pope Francis appeared to suggest that all religions are equally prone to violence and that Islam and Christianity are the same in this regard. When asked by a journalist about the “barbarous assassination of Fr. Jacques Hamel” in northern France who was clearly “killed in the name of Islam” last Tuesday, the Pope replied that he doesn’t like speaking about Islamic violence because there is plenty of Christian violence as well.

An internal probe by French police has concluded that security measures were appropriate in Nice on the night of the deadly Bastille Day truck attack that left 84 people dead and hundreds wounded. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has faced accusations that his office pressured a local official to cover up the lack of national police on July 14, when a local man smashed a truck through holiday crowds in the southern French city. Cazeneuve has denied wrongdoing and is suing for defamation. …

Republican White House nominee Donald Trump has said that France, Germany and other nations hit by recent terror attacks had only themselves to blame “because they allowed people to come into their territory.” Trump was asked in an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to expand on his proposal to suspend immigration from what he calls countries “compromised by terrorism” until vetting mechanisms are in place. “I’m going to be coming out over the next few weeks with a number of the places,” said Trump according to an excerpt of the interview. “We have problems in Germany, and...

Paris (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande on Friday defended his government from accusations it relaxed its anti-terror defences after the Euro championships, and announced plans to arm the fight against the Islamic State group which claimed the Nice attack. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been the lightning rod for accusations that authorities dropped their guard after the June 10-July 10 football tournament, leaving the Bastille Day celebrations targeted in last week's massacre in Nice exposed. Five suspects have been formally charged over the July 14 truck attack in the French Riveria city that killed 84 people.

The local authorities in Nice have refused a request by French anti-terror police to destroy CCTV images of last week's lorry attack. The Paris prosecutor's office said the request had been made to avoid the "uncontrolled dissemination" of images. But officials in Nice have responded by filing a legal document, arguing the footage could constitute evidence. It is the latest evidence of a growing dispute between the local and national authorities in the wake of the attack. More than 80 people died when a Tunisian man, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, ploughed a lorry into crowds out celebrating Bastille Day on 14 July....

As France searches for ways to deal with the threat from jihadists, lawmakers are suggesting radical ideas with one suggesting a French Guantánamo should be opened on an idyllic island off the west coast. The tranquil island of Ile de Ré, which lies just off the La Rochelle on France’s west coast, is used to welcoming tourists from the UK and France in search of peace and quiet. […] George Fenech, MP for center-right Les Republicains party, believes a Guantánamo à la Française could be set up on the island to house all those jihadists who are expected to return...

The Tunisian man who killed 84 people on the French Riviera by ploughing his truck into Bastille Day crowds had been planning the attack for months with the help of at least five accomplices, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday. “The investigation under way since the night of July 14 has progressed and not only confirmed the murderous premeditated nature of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s act but also established that he benefited from support and complicity,” Francois Molins told a news conference. The prosecutor said he had placed the five people - an Albanian couple, a Tunisian man and two Franco-Tunisian...

This picture of the truck used in the horrific Bastille day attack in Nice, France shows numerous bullet holes in the windshield.  Presumably, the bullet holes are from police, as it is nearly impossible for ordinary people to legally carry defensive firearms in France.  It appears to be a case of good guys with guns were required to stop a bad guy with a truck.  The latest reports show 73 dead, and scores, maybe hundreds, more injured.  The death toll is likely to rise. From reuters.com: The paper published a photograph of a damaged, long-distance delivery truck, which it...

PARIS — Police in Nice have questioned a 73-year-old man described as the Bastille Day killer’s “main lover” as investigators described him as a “sex maniac” and “ultra-violent sadist,” according to French reports. The revelation came amid revelations that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had displayed a “clear, recent interest in the radical jihadist movement,” growing a beard only in the last eight days after a previous life drinking alcohol and eating pork. Francois Molins, the French prosecutor, said the Tunisian, who killed 84 people when he plowed into crowds on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais last Thursday, had searched on the Internet...

People in Nice, France are dumping garbage at the spot where the terrorist who killed dozens of people last week died in a police shootout. According to The Local, the pile of trash, rocks, and messages lies at the site where Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was shot dead by police after he killed 84 people using a 25-ton truck as his weapon. More than 300 people were injured in the attack.

The French Prime Minister is booed and jeered before and after a minute's silence to remember victims of Thursday's truck attack. Crowds jeered the French Prime Minister as he arrived for a minute's silence to remember victims of the attack in Nice. Boos rang out as it emerged that confidence in the government to combat terrorism had plummeted to an all-time low. Prime Minister Manuel Valls joined thousands packing the seafront, close to the scene of the Bastille Day carnage. With flowers in their hands, crowds stood on the rocky beach for a minute of silence in homage to the victims....

The Nice terror attack spurred finger pointing among France’s political elite about insufficient security during Bastille Day celebrations, as well as a sober acknowledgment that the threat of radical Islamist terrorism has become a day-to-day reality for life in France. The terror attack that killed 84 along the French Riviera on France’s independence day, July 14, has challenged the political discourse in France on how to combat terrorism. Focus has partially shifted away from eliminating terrorism’s root causes toward finding ways to effectively mitigate the terrorist threat through better security.

France’s premier Manuel Valls was booed by crowds that had gathered for a minute of silence in the city of Nice to honor the memory of the 84 killed in the deadly attack on Bastille Day. “Resignation!” “Murderers” was shouted by the crowds before and after the ceremony.

The Islamist terror attack in Nice France, carried out by a jihadist in a heavy truck, should be yet another blow to the Democrat gun control movement in the U.S., and an indictment of the Euro-socialist model of government that the left adores. First and most obviously, the attacker used a commonly available, useful, but potentially dangerous tool to slaughter many more people than his fellow jihadist in Orlando managed with firearms. Are we to ban heavy trucks now? It is probable that some Islamist nutcase in America will try to imitate his French co-religionist. When that occurs will President...

Dramatic moments when terrorist drives through the promenade, swerving left and right .... Truck heading straight towards cameraman .... Rest in Peace. Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b81_1468627473#5GYfYCsAZCVPI5TC.99

Globalist elite cooperation can defeat the “chronic violence” that is caused by real jihadism in France and supposed racism in police forces, President Barack Obama told a roomful of foreign ambassadors July 15. “Overnight in Nice [France], we witnessed another tragic and appalling attack on the freedom and the peace that we cherish … [and] it’s been a difficult several weeks in the United States,” Obama told the ambassadors gathered in the White House. After mentioning the Nice attack and hinting at the police engagements, Obama sketched out his demand for globalist fix for the “chronic violence” that he says...

Claims that the Nice truck attacker was a radicalized Islamist just don't add up to at least one person who knew Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. "He was not Muslim," a close friend of Bouhlel's ex-wife told NBC News. "He ate pork, he drank alcohol, he hit his wife. That is not Muslim."

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the terrorist responsible for last Thursday’s massive terror attack in Nice, France, was “one of the soldiers of ISIS”, Islamic State sources claimed on Saturday. The attack, carried out during Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city, left 84 dead – excluding the terrorist, who was shot dead by police – and more than 200 wounded. A Tunisian-born French citizen, Bouhlel had a history of serious mental and emotional problems and was well-known to local police. Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s Interior Minister, said Bouhlel “appears to have become radicalized very quickly”, noting that he began attending the...

While Western elites are flapping their tongues praising Islam and warning us to do the same, jihadis are setting the world on fire. The blood is still in the streets of Nice and Muslim soldiers are setting off bombs. “France: Another truck bomb parked near Nice defused, Muslim suspect arrested,” ... All-out war. All-out jihad. But France, says its Prime Minister, is just going to have to get used to it. ... The French Special Forces defused an explosive-laden truck parked on a highway near Nice, local media reports. A bomb disposal operation was conducted on a highway near Nice...

The attacker who killed at least 84 people, including 10 children and teens, by driving a truck into a crowd of spectators that had gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, France, told police he was delivering ice cream to the crowded embankment.