Free Republic

As soon as legendary journalist Sy Hersh's controversial story on the Osama bin Laden raid was published Sunday night, critics pounced and skeptics ripped his account because of its reliance on anonymous sourcing and its lack of documentary evidence. Now a respected New York Times foreign correspondent, who was based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, writes about a key detail "in Seymour Hersh's Bin Laden story that rings true." Carlotta Gall writes that she also learned from sources that Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, had kept bin Laden prisoner since 2006 and that the CIA learned about his location from a Pakistani...

Former President Donald Trump defended hosting the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series at his Bedminster, NJ course on Thursday, brushing off criticism from families of 9/11 victims by saying “nobody’s gotten to the bottom” of the 2001 terrorist attacks.…“Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have as to the maniacs that did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to our world,” Trump said. “So nobody’s really been there.” The former president then attempted to put a positive spin on the event, saying, “there are a lot of really great people that are out...

Raoul Wallenberg, famous for rescuing thousands of Jews during WWII - and President Obama's personal hero - will be posthumously presented with a Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday. Integration minister slams migration myths (01 Jul 14) Scores protest neo-Nazi talks in Gotland (28 Jun 14) "It's absolutely fantastic that the congress has chosen to recognize Wallenberg in this way," Lena Posner-Korosi, President of the Council of Sweden's Jewish communities, told The Local on Wednesday. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award bestowed by the US Congress - an honour Posner-Korosi said Raoul Wallenberg certainly deserved. "He had truly...

Ben Rhodes: John Brennan was the point person for the Obama White House on the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He knows a lot more about defending our nation than someone who uses security clearances to punish his political adversaries. Robert J. Oneill: Actually, 23 conservatives went after UBL. No offense, in case you were wondering.

A newly-released email shows that 11 days after the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, the U.S. military's top special operations officer ordered subordinates to destroy any photographs of the al-Qaida founder's corpse or turn them over to the CIA. The email was obtained under a freedom of information request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. The document, released Monday by the group, shows that Adm. William McRaven, who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command, told military officers on May 13, 2011 that photos of bin Laden's remains should have been sent to the CIA or...

LIMA — It was more than just an answer to prayer. A US military mission that cornered and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was nothing short of a miracle, said Peru's President Alan Garcia, who attributed the divine intervention to newly beatified pontiff John Paul II. "His first miracle has been to rid the world of this incarnation of evil, this demon of hatred and criminality," the Peruvian leader said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader. The late John Paul II showed uncanny timing, with his miracle falling on the very same day as a Rome ceremony beatifying him. Pope...

For years, many Republicans and conservatives have charged that President Barack Obama was shielding embarrassing intelligence and policy details about Iran in order to support the nuclear deal reached last year. With Donald Trump's upset victory, the party of Lincoln will have an opportunity to declassify and disclose this information. While no decisions have been made, two early picks to Trump's cabinet suggest this is going to happen. Let's start with retired general Michael Flynn, the next president's choice to be national security adviser. Flynn served for two years as Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to...

"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace noted during a discussion with the president that William McRaven has said Trump's attacks on the media are the "greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime." Trump in response called McRaven a "Hillary Clinton fan" and "Obama-backer." "Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice?" Trump asked. "You know, living — think of this — living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion, I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer. But living in Pakistan right...

If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office. Last week I attended two memorable events that reminded me why we care so very much about this nation and also why our future may be in peril. The first was a change of command ceremony for a storied Army unit in which one general officer passed authority to another. The second event was an annual gala for the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) Society that recognizes past and present members of the intelligence and Special Operations community...

The US has reportedly obtained intelligence that Hamza bin Laden is dead He is the son of deceased former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden Letters seized by SEAL Team 6 indicated Hamza was Osama's designated heir Hamza released audio and video messages calling for attacks against the US Is a designated terrorist with a $1M State Department bounty for his capture The U.S. has reportedly obtained intelligence that the son of Osama bin Laden and potential heir to his terrorist empire, Hamza bin Laden, is dead. It is unclear whether the U.S. played a role in Hamza bin Laden's death...

The United States has obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead, according to three U.S. officials. The officials would not provide details of where or when Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role in his death. It is unclear if the U.S. has confirmed his death. Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether the U.S. had intelligence that Hamza is dead, President Donald Trump said, "I don't want to comment on that."

Bill McRaven, former chancellor of the University of Texas System and a current UT-Austin professor, resigned on Aug. 20 from the Pentagon’s technology advisory board, multiple news outlets reported Thursday. His resignation came four days after The Washington Post published an opinion piece he wrote that criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan. “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,” McRaven wrote. “If you think for a moment that your...

HAMZA IS KNOWN AS THE “CROWN PRINCE OF TERROR,” AND VOWED REVENGE VS. USA. HAMZA IS KNOWN TO BE “THE SPITTING IMAGE OF HIS FATHER, OSAMA BIN LADEN.” “SAUDI STUDENT” WAS TACKLED FLEEING BOSTON MARATHON, THEN HOSPITALIZED WITH “SEVERE HAND BURNS AND SHRAPNEL IN BACKSIDE OF LEG.” Hamza is the son of Khairiah Sabar of Saudi Arabia, one of Bin Laden’s three wives who were living in the Abbottabad compound.[11] Interrogation of the surviving wives of Osama Bin Laden by Pakistani intelligence after the raid on the Abbottabad revealed Hamza was the only person missing. He was not among those...

OSAMA Bin Laden’s son has called for an uprising in Saudi Arabia and urged Muslims throughout the Middle East to rebel against their leaders and sever ties with the West. Hamza bin Laden, Osama's son, has called for an uprising in Saudi Arabia It is incumbent upon our people in the Arabian Peninsula to prepare the equipment and materials, and prepare to protect the Two Holy Mosques. In the latest in a series of videos recorded by Hamza bin Laden, son of the former Al-Qaeda mastermind, he exhorted "our dear people in the Arabian Peninsula" to rise up "against the...

[Associated Press, so I'm not going to excerpt at all, just link]

Since rumors began to spread that a startup called Palantir helped to kill Osama bin Laden, Alex Karp hasn’t had much time to himself. On one sun-baked July morning in Silicon Valley Palantir’s lean 45-year-old chief executive, with a top-heavy mop of frazzled hair, hikes the grassy hills around Stanford University’s massive satellite antennae known as the Dish, a favorite meditative pastime. But his solitude is disturbed somewhat by “Mike,” an ex-Marine–silent, 6 foot 1, 270 pounds of mostly pectoral muscle–who trails him everywhere he goes. Even on the suburban streets of Palo Alto, steps from Palantir’s headquarters, the bodyguard...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration over the disclosure of classified intelligence operations, leaks he said came from the “highest levels” at the White House. “This is the most highly classified information and it’s now been leaked by the administration at the highest levels at the White House and that’s not acceptable,” McCain said on CBS "This Morning." On Tuesday, McCain said the Senate Armed Services Committee would hold hearings about leaks detailing a U.S. cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program and called for a special counsel to investigate the matter. A report last week in The...

The view from (some) on the right in regard to the Bin Laden news is: waterboarding is vindicated. One GOP Congressman tweeted: Wonder what President Obama thinks of water boarding now? The reason is that there's a direct line to be traced from the big news to data collected at GITMO -- data that was almost certainly collected under duress. Here's the key interrogation note regarding a courier going to Abottabad: Rest @ link

Bin Laden Plotted New Attack By SIOBHAN GORMAN Osama bin Laden was working to assemble a team of militants to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, according to communications Navy SEALs seized from his Pakistani hideout when they killed the al Qaeda leader this spring. Bin Laden and his operations chief, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Mr. Rahman suggested, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence taken from the bin Laden compound. The plans were only in the discussion phase, U.S. officials...

It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account. The White House’s story might have been written by Lewis Carroll:...