Free Republic

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has a new project. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand. The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million...

Despite his swift conviction by both political parties and the media for thought crimes against humanity because he wants the U.S. to ban Muslim immigration, Donald Trump is not backing down.But Friday, Saba Ahmed, who heads something called the Republican Muslim Coalition, invited Trump to visit a mosque so she can disabuse the real estate magnate of his so-called Islamophobia.“I have found that some of your comments reflect a lack of familiarity with the Islamic faith,” Ahmed wrote today in her letter. “I would like to correct that, if you will permit me.”Ironically, Ahmed’s background and views — which Politico did not trouble...

PORTLAND, Ore. – For more than two years, the only image the public has had of the man accused of plotting to detonate an 1,800-pound bomb at a Portland Christmas tree-lighting ceremony is this: A sullen-faced, sunken-eyed terrorism suspect in a mug shot taken just hours after his arrest.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud: Misunderstander of Islam He yelled "Allahu akbar" and tried to kick agents as they swooped in to arrest him. DoJ press release here. "Feds Arrest Somali-Born Teen in Car Bomb Plot," from the Associated Press, November 27 (thanks to Markus): PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said. Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just...

. . .The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information. It puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems. . . . . .So let’s be clear: this disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community – the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations, that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity. . . . . . I can say that the United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information...

For more than a year, PJ Media has been reporting on the corrupt press shop inside the Department of Justice. The unit is headed byPress Harpy Tracy Schmaler. We broke a story in July about this relationship after a PJ Media public records request revealed communications between Media Matters’ Matt Gertz and Schmaler about Fast and Furious. (More on the corrupt DOJ press shop: “ Tracy Schmaler’s (and Eric Holder’s) Trip to the Tropics ,” “ DOJ Leaks to TPM Muckraker Florida Will Be Sued Over Voter Rolls ,” “Tracy Schmaler – DOJ Shrieker in Chief.“) Tracy Schmaler Today,...

Recent court filings reveal new details of a federal investigation into a suspected international plot, in which authorities allege a man was trained in Central Florida to commit acts of radical Islamic terrorism abroad. One of two men facing federal charges in the case, Jonathan Paul Jimenez, is set for a plea hearing on Tuesday, records show. He is charged with lying to federal investigators and falsifying income tax documents. However, according to documents filed by prosecutors this week, Jimenez and co-defendant Marcus Dwayne Robertson are suspected of participating in "a travel facilitation network that sends individuals overseas to commit...

President Barack Obama has appointed a far left labor unionist to a security sensitive U.S. trade post. Bob King On February 16, 2011,  Obama  announced the appointment of United Auto Workers president Bob King to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. As U.S. trade positions and data are always  key targets of foreign intelligence services, one would think that appointments to such a body would be subject to thorough scrutiny. Either this was not done in King's case, or affiliation with far left organizations, is no longer considered any sort of danger to national security in today's Washington....

WASHINGTON - One of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer's top recent fund-raisers is a key figure in the Goldman Sachs fraud case, a review of federal campaign records reveals. John Paulson, leader of the $33 billion hedge-fund firm Paulson & Co., helped Democrat Schumer collect nearly $100,000 in the first three months of this year. Schumer is running for a third term in November. The Securities and Exchange Commission says Paulson's company helped assemble a bunch of bad mortgage securities for Goldman Sachs and bet they would tank, while Goldman found buyers who got soaked for $1 billion. The SEC...

I'm an official card-carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Every morning, I sit in on the hyper-secret nationwide conference call, during which we receive our marching orders from the Forces of Evil. But unless I've missed something--and granted, maybe the extra-bold coffee doesn't always kick in--not once have I heard mention of a plan to impeach Pres. Obama. So what does Ed Schultz know that I don't? He splattered his MSNBC show this evening with incessant dark speculations to the effect that the new Republican majority is plotting to impeach Pres. Obama. View video here.

VIENNA — Egypt fears being grouped with the likes of Iran and Syria if a UN investigation into traces of highly enriched uranium found in the country isn't brought to a swift end, according to what officials describe as a confidential report from the country's nuclear agency. The particles — enriched close to the levels required to arm nuclear missiles — have been under investigation since being detected by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2007 and 2008. Egypt, a US ally in the Middle East, has said the particles originated from abroad and were inadvertently imported, but the agency...

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Video Members of a bipartisan group of lawmakers called the Congressional Prayer Caucus want to make sure President Obama knows the country's national motto. Forty-one Republicans and one of the five Democrats from the caucus sent a letter to the president asking him to correct a mistake he made during a speech last month in Jakarta, Indonesia when he said -- quote -- "In the United States, our motto is E Pluribus Unum -- out of many, one." The lawmakers point out the official national motto -- approved by Congress in 1956...