Free Republic

Liberals are no longer seeing "change we can believe in." Just 37 percent of self-described lefties say in the latest Rasmussen poll that they still strongly approve of President Obama's performance. That's way down from 63 percent a year ago, 57 percent earlier this year -- and 52 percent just a week go. And the 19 percent who said they "strongly approved" equaled not only the lowest percentage of the 2-year-old presidency but also less than half of the 39 percent who said they "strongly disapproved." Pollster Scott Rasmussen blamed the stunning drop in support on Obama's liberal base, noting...

President Obama’s advisers give him credit for energizing the Arab revolts and saving the Libyan rebels. For al Qaeda’s leadership, this is all a gift from Allah.

Listen. Do you hear the “Obama lied/People died” chants? Look. Can you see the throngs gathering on the National Mall to protest, “No Blood for Oil”? No? You can’t? Well, neither can I. But lefties will protest a Democratic President’s war as they did a Republican President’s war, right? The Nobel Peace Prize winner-in-chief’s “kinetic military action” in Libya has unmoored liberals from their loudly professed convictions. He has sent conservatives back to—or at least rethinking—theirs. Specifically, the Right has reconsidered George W. Bush-era delusions regarding the universality of Western principles, their easy transplantation through nation-building democracy as an antidote...

Reports that Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted fugitive with a $50 million U.S. bounty on his head, has broken cover to move around Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks has raised concern he may be planning a new major attack on the West.

CAIRO, April 9 (Kyodo) _ Osama bin Laden is alive and well and planning a new terror attack, according to an extremist Islamic group likely linked to the terrorist network al-Qaida, the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat said Tuesday according to ANSA news agency. Al Hayat said it received a letter dated March 26 and making such claims from the group calling itself Qai'dat al-Jihad on Monday. The letter, addressed ''to our Islamic state and to the heroic Palestinian people'' said ''God has given permission to resume activities.'' ''Al-Qaida's leader has gone abroad safely. Bin Laden is safe and well. He...

U.S. expecting more prisoners in Afghanistan WASHINGTON -- American forces in Afghanistan are expecting to receive a growing stream of prisoners in the coming days from among the thousands captured by Afghan fighters. Some could face U.S. military tribunals. President Bush defended his plan to put terrorist suspects before a military tribunal, saying Friday that they will be treated more fairly than Americans were in the deadly attacks of Sept. 11. The number of prisoners jailed at the makeshift detention center at Afghanistan's Kandahar Airport has risen steadily this week, and the Pentagon was expecting the addition of a ...

Panetta: If captured, bin Laden would be held at Guantánamo By Jordy Yager - 02/16/11 03:57 PM ET The head of the CIA told senators on Wednesday that Osama bin Laden would be held at Guantánamo Bay prison if he were captured. CIA Director Leon Panetta was asked by the ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), what would happen to the heads of al Qaeda — Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri — if they were captured. “The process would obviously involve — especially with the two targets that you just described —...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If the U.S. captures top al-Qaida leaders Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, they would likely be sent to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, CIA Director Leon Panetta told senators Wednesday. This suggests that, given the choice, President Barack Obama would not try the men in the U.S. court system, opting instead for the Bush administration's policy that the president has long criticized.

l-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called on France to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for releasing French hostages being held by affiliates of the extremist group, according to a new audio message broadcast on an Arabic news channel Friday. "The exit of your hostages out of the hands of our brothers depends on the exit of your troops from Afghanistan," bin Laden said in the message broadcast by al-Jazeera. Bin Laden reminded the French people of President Nicolas Sarkozy's refusal in November to withdraw the French troops from Afghanistan and to negotiate with al-Qaida over the hostages.

Big earthquake (7.3 R)hits Pakistan minutes ago.

The CIA has come closer to capturing or killing Osama bin Laden’s top deputy than was previously known, during a nine-year hunt at the root of a devastating 2009 suicide bombing at an agency base in Afghanistan, The Associated Press has learned. The CIA missed a chance to nab Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2003 in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, where he met with another senior al-Qaeda leader who was apprehended the next day, several current and former U.S. intelligence officials said. The fugitive Egyptian doctor may also have narrowly survived a bombing by Pakistani military planes in 2004, the...

Osama bin Laden, who has long criticized America in his fiery speeches, is turning his attention to France. In a new audio recording purported to be from the Al Qaeda leader, Mr. Bin Laden threatens French citizens with kidnappings and death, warns France to pull its troops out of Afghanistan, and chastises the nation for banning the full-face Islamic veil for women. "The equation is very clear and simple: as you kill, you will be killed; as you take others hostages, you will be taken hostages; as you waste our security we will... waste your security," Bin Laden said in...

France is leaving Afghanistan. Though President Obama has committed to reducing America’s footprint in Afghanistan beginning July 2011, the withdrawal of another ally is likely to add an additional layer of challenge to maneuver that reduction. And the timing of the announcement has put France’s decision under some scrutiny.

On their way out of Afghanistan Just a day after Osama bin Laden warned France to remove its troops from Afghanistan, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced Thursday, Oct. 28 that the withdrawal of French troops would begin in early 2011. Paris then raised its terror alert level to "red" after confirming the authenticity of the Bin Laden audiotape aired Wednesday.

Osama bin Laden is living in relative comfort in the far north-west of Pakistan, according to a Nato official who has day-to-day responsibility for the war in Afghanistan. The official, who has access to sensitive intelligence information, told CNN that Bin Laden was not holed up in a cave, but has been moving between houses in the Chitral district and the Kurram valley, which neighbours Tora Bora in Afghanistan, from which he fled in 2001. Recent reports had placed him much further south, in North Waziristan, the base for many Taliban insurgents moving back and forth across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border....

Intelligence officials and people familiar with an unfolding terrorist plot to target Europe tell NPR that Osama bin Laden is involved. Several months ago, sources say, bin Laden used couriers to send a message to al-Qaida's affiliates and partners: He told them that he would like to see a Mumbai-style attack on at least three strategic targets — the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Osama bin Laden's directive is meaningful because it suggests that the core leadership of al-Qaida still has influence over its followers and that the group has added a new style of attack to its repertoire. SNIP...

General David Petraeus said Sunday Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is "far buried" in the remote mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan but capturing the "iconic figure" remains a key task. "I don't think anyone knows where Osama bin Laden is," the head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan told NBC television's "Meet the Press" when asked about the Al-Qaeda leader's whereabouts. "The fact that it took him four weeks to get a congratulatory message out or a message of condolence... indicates literally how far buried he is probably in the very, very most remote and mountainous region."

Exclusive: Les Kinsolving makes prediction about Clinton's intentions for Nov. 4, 2012 Dare I make a prediction? Well, of course I'll dare – to predict that on Thursday morning, Nov. 4, after final results are in and the House of Representatives goes back to a Republican majority: Look for further Big News. Hillary Clinton announces her resignation as secretary of state. And – within one week – national news is dominated with reports of the opening of HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT campaign headquarters in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Texas and California – to begin with. How...

He has decided a full-scale military encirclement and invasion – as American troops had done in Iraq's Fallujah – was not an appropriate model to tackle the Taliban in the southern capital.Gen Petraeus is reported to believe that the operation must be a broad-ranging counter-insurgency campaign, involving more troops working with local militias.The plan he inherited was criticised for placing too much emphasis on targeted assassinations of key insurgent leaders and not enough on winning over local residents.Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said yesterday that the US-led strategy in southern Afghanistan was undergoing sweeping changes....

A son of Osama bin Laden said about 20 members of his family stranded in Iran are seeking sanctuary in a third country and that the U.S. may agree to accept them....