Free Republic

Gunfire and explosions are reportedly heard outside the palace of the Saudi king in Riyadh. King Salman has been reportedly evacuated from the compound to a bunker at a military base in the capital. The number of assailants, their identity or affiliations is still unknown. But some sources say the attack is part of a coup led by princes who are opposed to the Saudi king.

Wildly conflicting social media reports tonight claim bullets were either fired as part of an attempted coup - or to shoot down a toy drone. A police spokesman said forces at a checkpoint in the Khozama district, where the palace is based, identified the drone and "dealt with it according to their orders", local media said. The explanation came after wildly conflicting reports on social media speculating on the cause of the shooting. Senior Saudi officials said King Salman was not in the palace at the time despite repeated Twitter reports he was moved to a military bunker in the...

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Trump administration is showing “disrespect” towards Tehran, AFP reported Saturday. He added that his country is open to prisoner swap negotiations with the U.S., but only if the Trump administration shows a "change of attitude." His comments were made in an interview with CBS, set to air in full on Sunday. Negotiations are a "possibility certainly from a humanitarian perspective, but it requires a change of attitude," Zarif said. Five Americans are held in Tehran, including 81-year-old Baquer Namazi, who is in failing health. Zarif blasted the U.S. administration for showing "disrespect"...

WASHINGTON, April 19. /TASS/. The United States and Russia may sign a new commercial deal stipulating the delivery of US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Executive Director for Piloted Space Programs at Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Sergei Krikalyov told TASS on Thursday.

Nikki Haley is a killer. Not a murderer, but a “killer” in the Donald Trump sense of the word. She is tough and motivated with a “take no prisoners” mindset. Trump has used the term to describe extraordinary women in business since the 1980s. Since she assumed the role as the ambassador to the United Nations, Haley has been putting the world on notice that she means business, going head to head with Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea for starters. She’s dressed down representatives from countries that would never allow a woman to freely criticize men and she’s shrewdly...

Pink Floyd founder, Roger Waters, a vocal advocate for boycotts of Israel, came under heavy criticism for promoting “Russian propaganda” after asserting that the rescue organization, White Helmets, that operates in Syria, were “fake” and encouraged terrorists, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday. In a video posted by a group called Hands Off Syria, Waters spoke of an audience member who wanted to come up on stage and speak about the chemical weapons that had been used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against civilians earlier this month in the Damascus suburb of Douma. “He is one voice, I personally think...

The head of the largest medical relief agency in Syria claims that medics who responded to the suspected gas attack in Douma have been subjected to “extreme intimidation” by Syrian officials who seized biological samples, forced them to abandon patients and demanded their silence. Dr Ghanem Tayara, the director of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM) said doctors responsible for treating patients in the hours after the 7 April attack have been told that their families will be at risk if they offer public testimonies about what took place. A number of doctors who spoke to the...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged President Trump to get congressional approval before the United States launched airstrikes against Syria last week, but was overruled by Mr. Trump, who wanted a rapid and dramatic response, military and administration officials said. Mr. Trump, the officials said, wanted to be seen as backing up a series of bellicose tweets with action, but was warned that an overly aggressive response risked igniting a wider war with Russia. Friday night’s limited strikes on three targets, which lasted under two minutes, were the compromise.

Dr. Assim Rahaibani, a Syrian doctor, has told journalist Robert Fisk, writing for the British publication, The Independent, that last week’s alleged chemical gas attack by the Assad government on civilians in Douma did not happen. The alleged chemical attack was the pretext for a combined bombing raid by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. “I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred meters from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened,” Rahaibani told Fisk. “There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over...

Israeli officials cited in a Ynetnews report characterized the missile strike on Friday by the US, the UK, and France on suspected chemical weapons facilities in Syria as a failure. Multiple Israeli government and military sources suggested the strike was not effective in hurting Syria's ability to conduct chemical attacks. These officials also criticized President Donald Trump's talking about the strike beforehand. The latest strike most likely didn't change anything on the battlefield in Syria, and it's hard to know how much of the chemical weapons stockpile it hit.

"I asked them how they felt about the "moderate rebels" that they were living under and they said 'there's no such thing as moderate rebels'. They said that the people they were living under were starving them to death...they hoarded the medicine and took everything for themselves....if anyone complained you were risking your life, they'd kill you, they'd kill you and your family for complaining or raising any problems....." "One America News Network" reporter Pearson Sharp reports on his visit to Douma, Syria after it was taken back by the Syrian government from "The Army of Islam" rebels who held...

Behind the Headlines by Justin RaimondoAntiwar.com April 8, 2002 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA POSTREL?Post-9/11: Who speaks for libertarianism – the Old Right or the Neocon Clones? A note from the author: I apologize, in advance, for the sheer length of this column, but since it addresses the sell-out of basic libertarian principles by people and institutions who purport to speak in its name, I thought it important to address these questions thoroughly, with extensive quotations from those I name. Too bad, in attacking Antiwar.com, these pathetic losers didn't do the same – but then what can one expect from craven...

A British journalist who interviewed a doctor in the Syrian town of Douma claims he told him there was no evidence of a chemical attack. Dr Assim Rahaibani, 58, said the video showing children gasping for breath - which triggered the weekend bombing campaign by the UK, US and France - is genuine. But he explained to Robert Fisk, writing for the Independent, that patients were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm. Donald Trump...

President Donald Trump has defended his use of the term "mission accomplished" amid criticism following US, UK and French air strikes on targets in Syria. He accused the "fake news media" of seizing on the term to demean the strikes, carried out in response to an alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack. President George W Bush was ridiculed for appearing in front of a banner carrying the term during the Iraq war.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the latest U.S. missile strikes, President Donald Trump appears to have reset America’s red line for military intervention in Syria over the use of chemical weapons. What’s unclear is where that red line now stands. The United States said its strikes were a response to President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons attack on April 7 that administration officials say employed chlorine and perhaps even sarin, a more deadly nerve agent. “A large body of information indicates that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on...

US President Donald Trump briefly joined Saudi King Salman in a traditional male-only sword dance.....

Russia has indisputable data that the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma was staged by special services of a foreign country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. "The mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has set off to Syria not so quickly and without abundant enthusiasm but under our and Syrian pressure. It is due to arrive in Damascus in the morning of April 14th," the Russian foreign minister said. "We expect the mission to go without any delay to Douma where Russian specialists who examined this place have not found...

Follow the money and since 1945 the United States has followed the money to Saudi Arabia. After he handed the keys to Eastern Europe to Joseph Stalin and Communism at Yalta, President Franklin Roosevelt met the Saudi king on a warship anchored in a Saudi port and the longterm relationship between the USA and the House of Saud was sealed. When Saddam Hussein threatened in 1990, the US military and the military of other nations arrived paid by Kuwait, the Saudis and other Gulf Arab states for their military mission. America fought its first war for Saudi Arabia. Again in...

The international chemical weapons watchdog has backed Britain’s findings on the identity of the chemical used in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said an analysis of samples taken from the Russian former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and Det Sgt Nick Bailey confirmed the assessment of the UK, which has said that the three were affected by novichok, a military grade nerve agent developed by Russia. The executive summary released by the OPCW does not mention novichok by name, but states: “The results of the analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories...

US President Donald Trump has promised a "forceful" response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria, as Western leaders consider what action to take. "We have a lot of options militarily," he told reporters. He added that a response would be decided "shortly". Mr Trump said the US was getting some "good clarity" on who was responsible for the incident in Douma on Saturday. Medical sources say dozens were killed in the alleged attack but exact numbers are impossible to verify. Mr Trump also discussed the incident with French President Emmanuel Macron late on Monday, and both leaders expressed a...