Free Republic

The president has nominated attorney J. Mark McWatters for the bank board. However, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has said he's "in no hurry" to hold a hearing or a vote on the nomination. Other pending confirmations take precedence, he said.The last of the 2015 lobbying reports are in, and the top corporate spender turns out to have been the Boeing Company, at $21.9 million. Not coincidentally, the aerospace giant also outranks thousands of other firms in profiting from the subsidies doled out by the Export-Import Bank. Last year, Boeing benefitted...

Russia is 'trying to draw Turkey into a fight' in Syria, and it may be working Natasha Bertrand 2h 3,495 7 The Russian Ministry of Defense warned Turkey against launching a military incursion into Syria last week, announcing on Thursday that it had seen "growing signs" that Turkish forces were preparing to intervene to bolster rebel forces battling pro-regime troops in the north. Some experts say, however, that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be trying to bait Turkey into entering the Syrian battlefield in order to retaliate for Ankara's decision to down a Russian warplane in November. "Russia is...

Russian air strikes in Syria 'good thing': Del Ponte AFP 21 hours ago Geneva (AFP) - Former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is currently probing rights abuses in Syria, on Monday backed Russia's air strikes on "terrorist groups" in the war-torn country. "Overall, I think the Russian intervention is a good thing, because finally someone is attacking these terrorist groups," Del Ponte told Swiss public broadcaster RTS, listing the Islamic State group and Al-Nusra among the groups targeted. But Del Ponte, a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, quickly added that the Russians apparently "are...

(TRUNEWS) Pope Francis believes Russian President Vladimir Putin can help Christians around the world. A few days ago, TRUNEWS reported the pope’s and Russian Patriarch Kirill planned a last minute meeting, which is set for Friday. Now it is believed Putin played a role in bringing the two sides together, according to Kommersant, after centuries of silence between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, due to the Great Schism of 1054. They are expected to sign a joint declaration, and discuss the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa. The Guardian has indicated the discussions could lead to...

Erdogan: US should choose between Turkey, Kurdish forces By Associated Press February 7 ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s president lashed out at the United States a week after President Barack Obama’s envoy visited a northern Syrian town that is under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara considers terrorists. In comments published Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington should choose between Turkey and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, as its partner. That came after envoy Brett McGurk’s visit to Kobani, where the PYD’s military wing, aided by U.S.-led airstrikes, drove back Islamic State militants a year...

A recent US intelligence report said that Daesh (also known as ISIL/Islamic State) is degrading. Two coalitions - one led by the US and the other by Russia - have been involved in fighting the terrorists. It is high time to figure out some differences between the two approaches. The Common Goal Russia, the United States, and Syria have one common enemy - the terrorist group Daesh. In September 2014, US President Barack Obama pledged to destroy Daesh with massive airstrikes. "Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy. We...

Syrians Desperate to Escape What U.N. Calls ‘Extermination’ by Government By ANNE BARNARDFEB. 8, 2016 KILIS, Turkey — Tens of thousands of Syrians who were running for their lives piled up near the border crossing with Turkey here on Monday. They were fleeing a crushing wave of Russian airstrikes and government ground forces advancing toward the frontier in a developing rout of insurgent forces north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. The intense and, critics say, indiscriminate Russian air attacks have shattered the latest round of peace talks, forced the regional and global players to reassess their strategies and calculations and...

Syria Rebels Face Collapse as Thousands Flee North Aleppo (Video) Posted on Feb 8, 2016 By Juan Cole On Friday, the Syrian Arab Army and its Hizbullah and Iranian/ Afghan allies made further progress in taking the area just north of Aleppo. They were apparently mainly fighting al-Qaeda, which had a stronghold in the city of Ratyan. The Russians subjected it to intensive bombing and the SAA and allies ultimately took it. Al-Qaeda (the Nusrah Front) said it had killed 25 of its attackers. In New York, as the Syrian peace talks collapsed, the Russian envoy asked out loud why...

If there's anything we've learned over the past twelve months it's that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is prepared to employ all manner of nefarious tactics in order to preserve his grip on power in Ankara.Following unfavorable election results last June, Erdogan plunged the country into civil war be restarting a long simmering battle with the PKK and proceeded to crack down on journalists and anyone else critical of the ruling AKP. Ultimately, new elections were called and AKP put up a stronger showing, effectively paving the way for Erdogan to rewrite Turkey's constitution and install an executive presidency.But...

Tue Feb 9, 2016 12:27am IST Turkey's Erdogan threatened to flood Europe with migrants - Greek website BRUSSELS Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened in November to flood Europe with migrants if European Union leaders did not offer him a better deal to help manage the Middle East refugee crisis, a Greek news website said on Monday. Publishing what it said were minutes of a tense meeting last November, the euro2day.gr financial news website revealed deep mutual irritation and distrust in talks between Erdogan and the EU's two top officials, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk. The EU officials were trying to...

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that military units were put on combat alert early Monday, marking the launch of the exercise that involves troops of the Southern Military District. The district includes troops stationed in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as forces in the North Caucasus and southwestern regions near the border with Ukraine. ... According to Shoigu, who spoke at a meeting with the top military brass, the war games would include redeployment of air force units to advance air bases and bombing runs at shooting ranges. The maneuvers will...

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- A former Russian Interior Ministry officer who was sent to prison after claiming that soldiers were fed dog food has been released. He had served more than four years. Major Igor Matveyev made headlines in May 2011 after he claimed that soldiers in Russia's Far East were given to eat dog food to save money.

This has been the most dramatic week in US/Iranian relations since 1979. Last weekend ten US Navy personnel were caught in Iranian waters, as the Pentagon kept changing its story on how they got there. It could have been a disaster for President Obama's big gamble on diplomacy over conflict with Iran. But after several rounds of telephone diplomacy between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, the Iranian leadership - which we are told by the neocons is too irrational to even talk to - did a most rational thing: weighing the costs and...

The Syria War Will Not Be a Quagmire -- Because Putin and Assad Are Winning 02/08/2016 12:13 pm ET | Updated 15 minutes ago Alastair Crooke: Fmr. MI-6 agent; Author, 'Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution' BEIRUT -- Late in the night on Feb. 2, the news hit: "all communication and supply line[s]" between Turkey and Aleppo had been severed, according to a Elijah Magnier, a renowned Arab war correspondent with Alrai Media Group. It seems to be so: the Syrian army and allied militias, backed by Hezbollah and Russian air power, took control of a tendril of territory that...

An Iranian official on Monday rejected reports that Tehran has ceased funding the Palestinian terror group Hamas, claiming that supporting the fight against Israel remains a "principled policy," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said. Speaking at his weekly press conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari rejected media reports that funding for the Gaza-based group ceased in 2009. Ansari said that supporting "Palestinian resistance movements" is part of Iran's foreign policy, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. He called the Palestinian issue "pivotal and basic" for Muslims, according to the agency. ...

Russia's FSB security service said on Monday it had arrested seven Islamic State militants in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg who it said had been planning bomb attacks in Moscow, St Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region. The group included Russian nationals and citizens of Central Asian states, the FSB said in a statement, saying it had charged the group with terrorism, and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives. It said it had uncovered a bomb-making laboratory during searches of the suspects homes and had found detonators, guns, grenades and extremist literature.

Since Russia began its air campaign, most of its strikes have been on cities and towns held by the rebels in western Syria. These are not areas where ISIS has much of a presence; al Nusra, Ahrar al Sham and elements of the Free Syrian Army are the main groups. In the process, senior rebel commanders have been killed in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces. "Their ultimate objective is to force the world to make an unconscionable choice between Assad and ISIS," says Hokayem. For now, ISIS is waiting out the battle for Aleppo and watching its rivals get pummeled....

The Syrian army advanced toward the Turkish border on Monday in a major offensive backed by Russia and Iran that rebels say now threatens the future of their nearly five-year-old insurrection against President Bashar al-Assad. "Our whole existence is now threatened, not just losing more ground," said Abdul Rahim al-Najdawi from Liwa al-Tawheed, an insurgent group. "They are advancing and we are pulling back because in the face of such heavy aerial bombing we must minimize our losses." The Syrian military and its allies were almost five km (3 miles) from the rebel-held town of Tal Rafaat, which has brought...

In a January 22 Al-Majd TV interview, Palestinian scholar Samir Said talked about what he called the "criminal and Satanic nature" of the Jews and said that they were "the enemies of Mankind," who had "killed 70 prophets in a single day." Said is a member of the Jerusalem Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Following are excerpts: Interviewer: Let's talk about the well-known history of Jewish crimes, since the days of the Israelites, and their crimes against the most noble people of those times – the prophets and messengers, against whom they committed grave crimes, including...

Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil. "In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil...