Free Republic

State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources. The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International...

What would Open Society Foundation (OSF) president and fund manager George Soros want with the small, landlocked nation of Macedonia? As it turns out, plenty. The Daddy Warbucks of progressive causes is working overtime to weaken European borders and facilitate the flow of refugees from the Middle East by sending money to disrupt nations holding both democratic elections and cracking down on illegal immigration. But he hasn't done it alone. The U.S. State Department has been working right alongside him. The aid that the U.S. has provided to Macedonia during their long friendship has been channeled through the U.S. Agency...

George Soros' alleged meddling in European politics has caught the attention of Congress. Concerns about Soros' involvement most recently were raised by the Hungarian prime minister, who last week lashed out at the Soros "empire" and accused it of deploying "tons of money and international heavy artillery." But days earlier, Republican lawmakers in Washington started asking questions about whether U.S. tax dollars also were being used to fund Soros projects in the small, conservative-led country of Macedonia.

"Oops! Bill Clinton Says He ACCIDENTALLY Took $500,000 From Algeria During Key Arms Negotiation With State Department" Oops! Bill Clinton is claiming his foundation “accidentally” accepted money from foreign governments who were negotiating with his wife while she was Secretary of State – a definite no-no. The Clinton Foundation received $500,000 from Algeria in 2010 while the country was lobbying the State Department for an increase in weapons export authorization. The International Business Times says that “some of those export authorizations were for weapons classified as “toxicological agents, including chemical agents [and] biological agents.”  “[Critics] said, ‘Oh you got...

Americans for Peace and Tolerance is celebrating that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick rescinded an invitation to the imam of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked mosque to participate in an interfaith prayer service. It is now known that the mosque was attended by the Boston bombers, though it condemns the attack. You can thank Governor Patrick by clicking here.Imam Suhaib Webb of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center said on twitter that Governor Patrick’s office suddenly disinvited him to the service and he did not know why. The Clarion Project has documented the Muslim Brotherhood links of the ISBCC and its parent...

After years in Cuban captivity, Alan Gross is free. But what has he come home to?

We live not in the civilization of media, but of the mediocre. And from there directly we inhabit the miserable. Cubans desperately need witnesses to our tragedy. In the absence of politicians on the Island, we pin our hopes on any alternative voice: bloggers, musicians, graffiti artists, performers, etc. Just recently a supposed North American hostage has been released. Alan Gross completed his role in the democratic-totalitarian theater of legitimization of the Castro dictatorship. He is now free, but he remains stuck in the labyrinth of his lawyers and the six-figure compensation with which they have invited him to recuperate...

Following reports Wednesday morning of possible cuts in American military aid to Israel, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the Obama administration was prepared to give the biggest military aid package in history, calling it “the largest single pledge of military assistance from the United States to any country in our history, cementing an unparalleled security relationship all the way to 2029". Blinken’s comments came during his address at the Herzliya Conference Wednesday afternoon. While the Deputy Secretary indicated the White House was likely to increase aid to Israel, he emphasized the Jewish state’s need to take concrete...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is blaming an exhaustive White House vetting process for the fact that the Obama administration has not yet named a person to run the U.S. Agency for International Development. Six months into the administration's tenure without having appointed someone to the agency's top spot, Clinton told USAID employees on Monday that several people had turned down the job due to overly burdensome financial and personal disclosure requirements that she called a "nightmare," "frustrating beyond words" and "ridiculous."

Gay rights activist, U.S. government employee one of two hacked to death by radical Islamists in Bangladesh THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, April 25, 2016, 6:33 PM NEW DELHI — Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed two men in Bangladesh’s capital Monday night, including a gay rights activist who also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, police said, in the latest in a series of attacks targeting atheists, moderates and foreigners. Police said they suspected radical Islamists in the attack, which occurred two days after a university professor was hacked to death. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

As U.S. officials dealt with the fallout of the government’s once-secret “Cuban Twitter” program, they had one thing on their side: notorious delays in the federal Freedom of Information Act. The government didn’t have copies of the documents, which formed the basis of an Associated Press investigation detailing a program on which taxpayers spent millions. But officials were worried that asking the contractor to hand over copies would risk making the details even more public. […] USAID’s calculus — realizing that the nation’s public-records law can be so slow as to border on unusable — comes amid new data showing...

Peruvian natural resource managers have questions about how to protect their country’s forests, and they came to Summit County for answers. A U.S. Forest Service division called International Programs, which promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in foreign countries, brought top-level Peruvian officials for an educational tour that started Monday in Washington D.C. and ends Friday in Denver. ... In 2009, a U.S-Peru free trade agreement stipulated that Peru must curtail illegal logging, which undercuts the U.S. timber sector, and sustainably manage natural resources, said Erin Carey, who worked with the Forest Service International Programs for the last five...

Getting lucrative government contracts is easy – if you know the right people.  And in the case of former ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, it was Hillary Clinton who greased the skids so that government contracts could go to business associates and friends. Is this really in the job description of the secretary of state? Daily Caller: Wilson’s requests for help — on behalf of an American engineering contractor he consulted for called Symbion Power — is a recurring theme in each monthly Clinton email dump. The latest two batches of records are no different....

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), a taxpayer-funded aid organization, is giving a $100,000 federal grant to an Islamic charity banned in Israel for giving aid to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Grant information on the USAID endowment reveals the massive allotment to Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) will be given in 2016 for various foreign projects. IRW was banned in Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014, after investigations revealed it was a fundraising front for Hamas, channeling its donations to funding attacks and paying terrorists. It also was found to be tied to the Muslim Brotherhood,...

First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at the Hamad Airport in Doha, Qatar, Nov. 2, 2015. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrived in Qatar on Monday as part of a two-country Mideast tour, with plans to visit a crucial air base in America's war against the Islamic State group and give a speech on the importance of girl's education. Obama touched down in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Monday night, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported, without elaborating. While in Doha, she'll visit the al-Udeid air base with comedian and late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien. The base hosts the forward...

Washington: US secretary of state John Kerry shakes hands with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before their meeting at the State Department in Washington. (Reuters Photo) The US has decided to discontinue monetary support to Pakistan under a military plan for not doing enough to counter terrorism, according to media reports in Pakistan. But there was no announcement or confirmation of it in the US defense secretary Ash Carter told reporters on Thursday: "That hasn't come to me yet, quite honestly." Also, the White House has once again said it has no announcements about President Barack Obama meeting Prime Minister...

Newly released financial disclosures reveal Bill Clinton received $16.46 million in payments from a George Soros-backed for-profit education company, as Hillary Clinton’s State Department funneled tens of millions of dollars to a group run by the company’s chairman. With $4 billion in annual revenue, Laureate Education is America’s largest for-profit college company. From 2010 until just days before the 2015 release of Clinton Cash, Bill Clinton served as Laureate’s “honorary chancellor.” When the Clinton campaign team obtained a copy of the book and its Clinton-Laureate connection revelation, Bill Clinton abruptly resigned. Laureate’s chairman and longtime Clinton crony, Douglas Becker, is...

Planned Parenthood lobbied the Department of State many times during Hillary Clinton’s tenure there and received tens of millions of dollars from foreign policy agencies over the past few years, according to a new report. As secretary of state, Clinton attacked the Mexico City Policy, which bans federal funding of abortion overseas. Her husband revoked the policy during his administration and President Obama lifted the ban upon taking office in 2009. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is tied to the State Department, steered more than $100 million in funding to Planned Parenthood, its international affiliates, and...

WASHINGTON DC, May 28, 2015 (C-Fam.org) -- A source within the federal government has informed the Friday Fax that the White House is quietly moving forward with a policy change that will require charitable humanitarian groups to accept LGBT applicants in order to qualify for government funding, even those religious groups that might have religious objections.The policy change is linked to an executive order President Obama issued last July that prohibits federal contractors from discriminatory hiring practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Faith-based groups were already wrestling with that order.Things are about to get exponentially worse for faith-based groups who...

Warren Weinstein, pictured above, is a 70-year-old Jewish American and former USAID worker who was kidnapped from his bed late August in Pakistan. Now, a newly released audio message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for Weinstein’s disappearance and says the militant Islamist group is holding the man hostage. This supports a U.S. official’s claim that ”it’s entirely possible that al Qaeda or one of its militant allies may be holding Mr. Weinstein.” In the 30-minute long statement, which is reportedly circulating on jihadi-websites, al-Zawahiri states: “I tell the captive soldiers of al Qaeda and the Taliban and...