Free Republic

News that Air Force Generals were sacked by the President for recent mishaps, incidents and failures in exercises at nuclear missile batteries hidden across the Western United States has been widely questioned by the Airmen and Airwomen based at these facilities. It's time that somebody brought out the truth that the politicians in Washington DC seem desperate to hide' one NCO reported in a blog sent out yesterday NCO's at Minot ND's Air Base are quick to point out that nothing abnormal, or unexpected has occurred over the past year that could possibly have warranted the removal of these Air...

Twitter has been accused of lying after admitting to banning over 70,000 accounts, despite claiming on Friday that fluctuating follower counts was completely normal. Twitter announced on Monday evening that following the protests on Capitol Hill, the social media platform had banned more than 70,000 accounts from its site, which it claimed were “engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service.” In the statement, Twitter said that they will take “strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm,” and that...

The United States has survived the 2020 election and its seemingly never-ending and increasingly bizarre aftermath. Efforts by Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the courts met abject failure at almost every turn even as a number of Republican elected officials and Republican voters embraced them. The most apocalyptic scenarios that some scholars worried about before the election did not come to pass. But nothing that happened after November 3 can be considered normal — not the threats to election officials, not the concerted legal effort to invalidate millions of votes, and certainly not Four Seasons Total Landscaping....

Two disastrous actions taken by Barack Hussein Obama during his presidency have delivered extensive damage to the US military, just as planned. The first was the systematic purging of nearly 200 senior officers over five years and their subsequent replacement by Democrat loyalists, as reported here. His second ignominious action taken was the 2011 Executive Order 13583 directing “government-wide diversity and inclusion training,” which, by 2020, included the implementation of Marxist critical race theory training in all federal agencies including the US military services. The results from these actions are now crystal clear. Retired Obama-era flag and general officers (FOGO),...

The children of victims of Stalin-era repressions have the right to receive state housing in the cities where their parents had been deported from, Russia’s Supreme Court has said in a landmark ruling Tuesday. Amendments to the 1991 law rehabilitating victims of Soviet-era political repressions adopted in 2005 contradict the Russian Constitution because they make it “impossible” for their children to receive housing, the court said. The court instructed federal and regional lawmakers to amend their legislation to ease housing restrictions “without delay.” “This is practically the most we could have expected from the Constitutional Court,” Grigory Vaypan, a lawyer...

As the former chief executive and elected Sheriff in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I always demanded professional conduct from my officers. It is crucial for the public to have trust and confidence in their law enforcement agencies. I stressed excellence—not perfection. It is important to realize that we are dealing with human beings and thus, the imperfection of the human condition. Like in any aspect of life, people are always going to fall short of what we expect. Your kids, even your spouse, will let you down at times. When in a position of trust like policing, a higher standard is warranted—so...

In wooded northern Russia, near the Finnish border, archaeological digs by a patriotic historical group are unearthing controversy. The Russian Military History Society, which was created by the Kremlin, says it is seeking the remains of Soviet soldiers who died when the region was occupied by Nazi-aligned Finns during World War II. But human rights activists allege the organisation is trying to cover up Stalin-era repressions in the Sandarmokh forest, in Karelia. “The search for the remains of soldiers from the Second World War on the site of mass executions by the NKVD...looks like an attempt to manipulate memory," Memorial...

Beginning in 1936, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin set about deliberately murdering 700,000 people in the Great Purge, an act of mass killing that “constituted a form of rule” unto itself, as Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin explained. The armed forces were not spared. The purges swept through the officer corps, including 154 division commanders — of 186 in total — and resulted in the NKVD executions of several of the country’s most innovative and senior military thinkers, including Mikhail Tukhachevsky who was forced into signing a confession under torture before his murder. Thousands of officers were executed.

Some senior figures detained in last Saturday's purge in Saudi Arabia were beaten and tortured so badly during their arrest or subsequent interrogations that they required hospital treatment, Middle East Eye can reveal. People inside the royal court also told MEE that the scale of the crackdown, which has brought new arrests each day, is much bigger than Saudi authorities have admitted, with more than 500 people detained and double that number questioned. Members of the royal family, government ministers and business tycoons were caught up in the sudden wave of arrests orchestrated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known...

A former brigadier general revealed on Fox News Monday some new information about the White House's role in U.S. Central Command's skewing of intelligence to downplay the threats of ISIS and Al Qaeda. Last week, a House Republican task force concluded in a 15-page report that U.S. military leaders altered intelligence reports "to paint a rosier picture" of the U.S.-led fight against ISIS than intelligence analysts believed was warranted. The report blamed “structural and management changes” at the intelligence directorate for the distortions, but stopped short of explaining WHY the changes were made. According to Defense News, "the problems followed...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's retribution picked up pace on Monday as the number of people arrested with alleged links to the plot reached 7,543. They included more than 6,000 soldiers, 100 police officers, 755 judges and prosecutors and 650 civilians. Earlier Monday, a senior security official told the Reuters news agency that 8,000 police officers, including those based in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to last weekend's abortive government takeover. About 1,500 finance ministry officials were suspended, a ministry official said, and CNN Turk said 30...

After his Istanbul speech, many commentators suggest that Turkish coup attempt was “staged,” as the President called it a “gift from Allah.”Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lands at Ataturk airport of Istanbul aster coup attempt: “Those who staged a coup attempt will pay the highest price, will answer for this treason.” Erdogan adds that this insurgency “is a blessing from Allah, because it will allow us to purge the military” from mutineers. “I was in Marmaris and they bombed there. They thought I was still there,” says Erdogan, that had vanished from the media the last days as he reportedly...

Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the commander (Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk) and chief of staff (Rear Admiral Sergei Popov) of the Baltic Fleet were both fired for cause, as were several other unnamed senior officials at the fleet. This was the largest mass replacement of senior naval officials in the Russian Navy since the Soviet period.

Gratuitous Hatred Is Destroying Republicans — Just as It Did the Ancient Israelites By Dennis Prager — March 1, 2016 I have been a radio talk-show host for 33 years, nationally syndicated for 18. I have never experienced anything similar to what I am experiencing now. Until recently, the only hate mail I ever received was from a small number of people on the left. The major reason for this, I am convinced, is that I don’t yell at callers and I treat callers who disagree with respect. Reading my e-mails these days is a brand-new experience. I receive hate...

Internal Military Emails Reveal Details On bin Laden's Burial November 21, 2012 WASHINGTON – Internal emails among senior U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watched Usama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony. The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the Al Qaeda leader's death. The emails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department. Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011, by a Navy SEAL team...

A reader, relying on publicly available information, has reconstructed what we know and can infer about what happened in Benghazi. I haven’t tried to verify all of his facts nor do I necessarily vouch for his inferences, although in general they seem reasonable. But his analysis is, I think, a valuable contribution to our understanding, and I reproduce it here in slightly edited form:

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has fired his top military aide for allegations of “misconduct,” a highly unusual move prior to a formal investigation into possible misbehavior by the Army general. In a statement, Carter said that he had removed Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis from his position as senior military assistant. As his top military aide, Lewis was a right-hand advisor to Carter, providing him analysis on military issues, joining him at high-level meetings, and traveling with him on overseas missions. Carter said the Pentagon’s Inspector General would investigate the allegations against Lewis and, if necessary, the Army would take...

Zhou Chengjian is a rags to riches story as he used his skills as a tailor to launch the clothing line, Metersbonwe, which was one of China's first nationwide brands. His net worth of $2.4 billion today makes him one of the richest people in China. The Spread It reports that Zhou has been missing since Wednesday. In the wake of China's stock market crash, 36 companies have reported their executives as missing back in 2015 from January to September. The CEO of the telecom giant China Telecom resigned at the end of 2015 and now he is among the...

Dani Rodrik has just returned from Turkey, shunned while defending his father-in-law, the main defendant in the military coup plot case. The Harvard professor explains his take. IN DECEMBER I traveled to Turkey with my wife and young son, as we do every year during winter break. This time, though, we had more than visiting family and friends in mind. We were on a mission to demonstrate that what many have called the trial of the century in Turkey is in fact a sham built on fabricated evidence. Nearly two hundred Turkish military officers stand accused of having plotted a...

Retired Army Sgt. 1st Class William Kotel said this was done in an attempt to paint a rosy picture of the coalition's efforts in the Middle East. "They left key information out of intelligence, such as attacks," Kotel said. "The idea was that Al Qaeda was decimated, so therefore it wasn’t part of the threat analysis that should be submitted higher." Kotel said that is very critical information that is important to the nation's safety and security. "The chain of command and higher don't see a clear picture if we leave intelligence out, especially about attacks and any kind of...