Free Republic

Camp Pendleton general facing ‘administrative actions’ after reportedly treating aide like a servant while deployed to Iraq8 at 6:44 pm | UPDATED: July 20, 2018 at 6:45 pm CAMP PENDLETON — A brigadier general serving at the Marine Corps base will receive “administrative actions” for misusing his aide to perform servant-like tasks while deployed to Iraq. Marine Corps officials confirmed Friday, July 20 that a report by the Department of Defense Inspector General substantiated allegations against Brig. Gen. Rick A. Uribe, who served as deputy commanding general and director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in Baghdad from May 2016...

Colombian patriot and brave national hero Alvaro Uribe has now retired from the presidential office he first took in 2002... when Colombia was nothing short of a failed state. How did he do? Besides the fact that he all but defeated the FARC rebels and numerous drug cartels over his eight years, Uribe's presidential approval rating has hovered between 60-70%... as recently as 2008 hitting an astounding 91%... George W Bush honored his accomplishment, principles, and valor with a Presidential Medal of Freedom... while today's radical Democrats refuse to support Colombia's great strides with even a free-trade pact. But as...

Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), in Bogota on Saturday, called for the Obama administration to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. Mack was one of eight lawmakers in Colombia for the swearing in of the country's new president, Juan Manuel Santos. He met with departing President Alvaro Uribe and held a press conference in Bogota to detail his efforts to have Colombia's neighbor placed on the terror list. "I think the time is now to put him on that list," Mack told The Hill by phone from Colombia, saying that President Hugo Chavez supported the FARC rebels in Colombia...

Colombia's presentation to the OAS about Venezuela's hosting of the FARC terrorist movement prompted speculation about the motives of Álvaro Uribe, Colombia's outgoing president. Why did he want to end his eight years in office in another confrontation with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez? Could he be trying to sabotage his successor, Juan Manuel Santos...? ...a simple explanation: Mr. Uribe, who has devoted his presidency to rescuing Colombia from armed gangs of both the left and the right, is deeply frustrated by Venezuela's continuing support for FARC -- and by the failure of the international community to hold Chávez accountable...Before leaving...

Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who spent six years as a rebel hostage before being rescued, has sued the Andean nation over her kidnapping, sparking outrage from the government that freed her. The suit seeks $6.8 million (4.5 million pounds) in damages from the state for emotional stress and loss of earnings while she was being held in secret jungle camps by Marxist guerrillas.

Chalk up another defeat for Hugo Chávez. Last weekend, Colombian voters delivered a landslide victory to conservative presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos, who clobbered former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus by nearly 42 percentage points. Always eager to meddle in foreign elections, Chávez had strongly criticized Santos during the campaign, calling him a “threat to the region” and warning that “he could cause a war in this part of the world, upon instructions from the Yankees.” On April 25, the Venezuelan dictator said that, while Santos was “trying to dress as Little Red Riding Hood,” he was actually “a wolf...

A bipartisan group of House members is urging President Barack Obama to support approval of the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. In a letter (pdf) to the president this week, the group of 39 representatives said the pact would open a new market for American goods and help the administration accomplish its goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years. The letter pushed for the agreement, which was signed more than three years ago, to be approved before August, when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe leaves office. The lawmakers also cited Colombia's status as an ally in the fight against...

A diplomatic row has erupted between Spain and Venezuela after a Spanish judge accused officials in Caracas of plotting with rebel groups to kill Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and other political officials. Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco charged on Monday that the government of Hugo Chávez had been working as an intermediary between the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The groups were allegedly plotting against prominent political figures living in or traveling through Spain. Venezuelan officials have dismissed these allegations as “biased and unfounded.”

War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

A Spanish judge has charged 13 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian rebel group FARC over an alleged plot to assassinate Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, judicial sources said on Monday. Judge Eloy Velasco said he believes FARC asked ETA's help with a plot to kill a number of Colombian officials in Spain, including Uribe.

The Colombian constitutional court has rejected a referendum which could have led to President Alvaro Uribe running for a third term in office.The court voted 7-2 against a proposal backed by parliament to hold a vote on amending the constitution to allow for three terms. Mr Uribe won an amendment in 2005 that let him run for a second term in 2006. Following the ruling, former Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos confirmed he would run for the presidency. Mr Santos, credited with helping Mr Uribe's government's efforts against left-wing Farc rebels, said: "What we need to do now is work...

I am a big believer that behind that enormous pineapple-shaped head of Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez, there lives a coward. It is one thing to lead coups, nationalize industries, shut down opposition newspapers and arrest political allies that are no longer convenient. It is quite another to stand mano-a-mano with the likes of Columbian hero and President Alvaro Uribe. More Pro-American than President Obama, more involved in stopping drugs than our DEA, Uribe is also a courageous advocate for a conservative and free-market transformation of Latin America. Unlike the foolish leaders of Uruguay, Nicaragua and Brazil, Uribe understands that fashionable...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's top electoral body ruled late Thursday that millions of signatures endorsing a referendum on President Álvaro Uribe's second re-election bid are invalid, dealing a major setback to the president's contentious bid for a third term. Colombia's National Electoral Council said the organization of Uribe supporters that obtained the signatures had spent about six times the legal limit in their campaign to change the constitution. Voters must approve the change before Mr. Uribe can run in elections scheduled for May. A spokesman for Mr. Uribe declined to comment. Luis Guillermo Giraldo, who headed the vote-gathering effort, said...

Leadership: Gen. Ulysses Grant won our Civil War by doggedly pursuing the enemy even after winning battles. That's occurring in Colombia, where President Uribe is stepping up an already impressive war effort.As we went to press, Colombia was set to sign a pact over the weekend with the U.S. for access to seven military bases on its territory. It's an unprecedented vote of confidence in U.S. troops and will substantially expand both countries' capacity to fight drugs and terror. But more than that, it's a strong sign President Alvaro Uribe intends to crush FARC's Marxist narcoterrorists, the group that's been...

Professor Paul Rahe follows up on his post "Obama's gestures": Just under three weeks ago, I wrote a Power Line post drawing attention to a photograph released by the White House, showing President Obama nonchalantly leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk, the soles of his shoes clearly visible while speaking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In that post, I noted that some in the Israeli press interpreted the release of the photograph as an expression of contempt intended for Arab consumption, inspired by the hurling of a shoe at President Bush...

As the summer begins, White House watchers have spotted a new look by President Obama: The Evil Eye! Staffers have joked about the menacing glance, which comes when the president meets with world leaders who are not aligned with his progressive view. White House photographers have captured the "evil eye" in recent weeks, during sessions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Colombia's Alvaro Uribev. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi got hit with the commander's malocchio last week in the Oval office. And at least one White House reporter has been on the receiving end of the daggers during a press...

BEWARE THE OBAMA 'EVIL EYE' Tue Jun 30 2009 07:43:56 ET As the summer begins, White House watchers have spotted a new look by President Obama: The Evil Eye! Staffers have joked about the menacing glance, which comes when the president meets with world leaders who are not aligned with his progressive view. White House photographers have captured the "evil eye" in recent weeks, during sessions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Colombia's Alvaro Uribev. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi got hit with the commander's malocchio last week in the Oval office. And at least one White House reporter...

President Obama meets with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe this afternoon as his administration monitors the repercussions of the military coup in Honduras and the impact on its Latin American neighbors. Aides had said last week that the Oval Office meeting would focus on efforts to shut down the drug trade and the stalled Colombian-U.S. free trade agreemeent. But the world's attention shifted over the weekend to Honduras, where the region's first military coup in more than a decade ended with the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya during a dawn raid of the presidential palace in the capital of Tegucigalpa. In...

Trade: President Obama's encouraging words to Colombia's president Monday signaled an improving outlook for the two nations' long-delayed free trade treaty. It's good news, but he must take that message to Congress.Contrary to what you might think from the administration's responses to Iran and Honduras, not all of our friends are being snubbed or our enemies embraced. Obama showed considerable respect for our friend and ally Colombia at a working meeting with President Alvaro Uribe at the White House Monday, declaring at a joint press conference that "we are grateful for his friendship." It was a commendable show of leadership,...

Trade: Hugo Chavez may have gotten a grinning handshake from President Obama in Trinidad. But it was our authentic friend and ally, Colombia, that got substance. The president got one right.There was quite a media din over the president's greeting of Venezuela's strongman at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain over the weekend. Sure, it was a first. But along with bones he threw to Cuba, it crowded out weightier news. Obama may have shaken hands, accepted an idiotic book and politely listened to diatribes from regional troublemakers. But for our ally Colombia, he wasn't just gesturing....