Free Republic

Former North Korean soldiers who defected to South Korea on Monday claimed "underwater suicide squads" may have been responsible for the mysterious sinking of a South Korean naval vessel on Friday. They are similar to the underwater demolition teams operated by the South Korean Navy, the defectors claimed. Recruited from the cream among North Korea's naval commandos, members of the teams are treated well but undergo brutal training. According to one high-ranking North Korean defector, the North formed suicide attack squads in each branch of the military after the country's leader Kim Jong-il said during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq...

Critics of the War -- And Their False Charges By Vin Weber Wall Street Journal | August 13, 2003 Critics of the war are back in business. The Bush administration, they say, decided to go to war regardless of the facts. Having made that decision, it then amassed as much evidence to support its case as it could, to the point of intentionally exaggerating (or worse) the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime. The charge is false -- demonstrably so. The Bush case for going into Iraq was based largely on findings of U.N. and International Atomic Energy Agency weapons...

Cindy Sheehan says President Trump's allegedly insensitive remarks to the widow of a soldier killed in Niger aren't surprising to her, and that former President George W. Bush had a similarly difficult time with her family after her son Casey's 2004 death in Iraq. Bush's treatment of grieving military family members, including Sheehan, who camped outside his Texas ranch to protest the Iraq War, is upheld frequently as an example for Trump to follow. But Sheehan said Bush's attempt to comfort her family and others was rife with awkwardness and upsetting moments, and said she's "not shocked" to read that...

Nigergate: the dangerous relations between Democrat Senators and ex spies Here follows an interesting article from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. I make no comment at all other than ‘read it’. Very soon, under the title “The Rockefeller Connection”, I will post something revealing, something important that until now passed completely under the Radar Screen. Stay tuned .. Nigergate: the dangerous relations between Democrat Senators and ex spies Il GIORNALE 13 November 2005 By Gian Marco Chiocci and Mario Sechi October 9 2002, Rome. Elisabetta Burba, journalist with Panorama magazine, crosses Via Veneto. At the American Embassy someone is waiting...

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Capitol Hill staff is stonewalling a request by military mother Beverly Perlson for a copy of a reported diplomatic letter provided by the California Democrat to the leftwing group Code Pink/Global Exchange in support of the delivery of $600,000 in cash and aid to the “other side” in Fallujah, Iraq in late 2004. Perlson, whose son has served four tours in the war on terror, is founder of the pro-troops group The Band of Mothers.After initially telling Perlson the letter could not be found, Boxer’s staff has given Perlson the run around. Since she first made her...

American troops entering Baghdad, though unnoticed by Baghdad Bob. Multiple news networks.

There is nothing conservative about war. For at least the last century war has been the herald and handmaid of socialism and state control. It is the excuse for censorship, organised lying, regulation and taxation. It is paradise for the busybody and the nark. It damages family life and wounds the Church. It is, in short, the ally of everything summed up by the ugly word ‘progress’. ‘Must be a beach bum.’ So why did the Conservative party support this left-wing war? It has missed a wonderful opportunity to be true to its principles, to be right, and to re-engage...

<p>His friends call him Abu Amin, 'the father of honesty'. At 43, he is one of Iraq's most highly decorated intelligence officers: a special forces veteran who organised killings behind Iranian lines during the first Gulf war, who then went on to a senior post in the unit known as 'M8' - the department for 'special operations', such as sabotage, terrorism and murder. This is the man, Colonel Muhammed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, whom Mohamed Atta flew halfway across the world to meet in Prague last April, five months before piloting his hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre.</p>

President Obama’s July 31 phone call organized by the anti-Israel group J Street and other progressive Jewish groups could be summed up in one sentence: Please help because, those rich people are helping those warmongering Jews to fight this wonderful Iran deal because they don’t like me and they want war just like they did in Iraq. In the 20 minute call Obama said that opponents of the Iran deal come from the same “array of forces that got us into the Iraq war” and that a “bunch of billionaires who happily finance super PACs” are “putting the squeeze on...

Syrian Accountability Act to Combat Terrorism By Jim Hauser Talon News December 18, 2003WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Last week, President Bush signed into law H.R. 1828, the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003. The legislation calls on the president to impose sanctions on Syria to discourage support for international terrorist groups and the occupation of Lebanon.The bill demands that Syria end support for terrorism; halt the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) along with medium- and long-range missiles; and withdraw the roughly 20,000 troops it has deployed in Lebanon.It also calls on Syria to "enter into...

DAMASCUS, Syria — A former top deputy to Saddam Hussein has urged followers in a letter to turn down proposals for reconciliation talks with the United States or the Iraqi government, according to former Baath party members outside Iraq familiar with the letter. It is unclear if the message from Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam's former vice president and now a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head, is being followed. But it appears aimed at blunting a flurry of diplomacy to stabilize Iraq, including efforts by several Arab governments to persuade Iraqi Sunni insurgents to lay down arms and...

His name is David Aguina and he’s an Army reservist. His UCMJ claims against Soltz seem thin to me — Article 88 prohibits “contemptuous words” directed at the president, not criticism, and Article 91 seems to apply only to lower-ranking soldiers and only when on duty — but it’s hard not to be moved by his story about his experience with Iraqis. Meanwhile, via LGF, one of the yKos panelists parries right-wing criticism of the incident with some clever stammering about chickenhawks. Unmentioned in his post: Glenn Greenwald, Atrios, Max Blumenthal, Ken Layne, and the countless millions of other...

The Algerian Connection Why did Saddam financially support an al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria? by Thomas Joscelyn 08/03/2005 12:00:00 AM LATE LAST MONTH an Algerian-born terrorist named Ahmed Ressam received a commuted sentence of 22 years (prosecutors had recommended 35 years) in prison for his role in planning to blow up the Los Angeles airport. His sentence infuriated many since his involvement in the plot against LAX was immediately transparent. After all, he was captured in December 1999 after driving off a ferry from British Columbia in a vehicle laden with bomb-making explosives. Ressam received a commuted sentence after providing...

Iranian-supplied rockets killed as many as 15 U.S. troops per month in Iraq in the summer of 2011, and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis had a plan to retaliate. The Obama administration denied his request. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single such attack in early June of 2011, with another three killed just weeks later. Mattis, then the commander of U.S. Central Command, had had enough and decided the U.S. must strike back before the Iranian rockets caused further bloodshed. In conjunction with then Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey, Mattis proposed a strike inside Iranian territory, according to...

ISG moves from consensus to conflictBy DANIEL LIBIT 4/22/08 4:32 AM EST In December 2006, in an effort to build a national consensus on a “new way forward in Iraq,” the Iraq Study Group painted itself as a portrait of bipartisan chumminess, with all political hackery checked at the door. Sixteen months later, seven of the 10 ISG members are backing presidential candidates with radically different views about how to proceed in Iraq. Republicans James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Ed Meese are supporting Sen. John McCain, who argues that the United States should be sending more troops to Iraq. Democrats...

A top White House national security adviser and key proponent of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran is the focus of a congressional inquiry following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration’s efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House. Since that...

Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors used perjured testimony to secure guilty verdicts for four decorated veterans accused of indiscriminately shooting into a crowd of Iraqi civilians in September 2007 while working as private contractors for Blackwater, argue some of the defendants’ family members. Nicholas Slatten of Sparta, TN, one of the former Blackwater guards, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in April. The other three — Paul Slough of Keller, TX, Evan Liberty of Rochester, NH, and Dustin Heard of Maryville, TN — were convicted of numerous counts of voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter,...

Larry Elder responds to a caller twice in regards to the "United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441" and the Iraq War. Firstly, the caller thinks we have to get permission from the U.N. to begin with. This is false (see: http://tinyurl.com/zjw7v7l). Secondly, Bush did more than his predecessor or Obama did in regards to his activity in the Middle-East with both Congress and the United Nations.

As U.S.-backed Iraqi forces close in on the Islamic State's hub of Mosul, the leader of the terror network has become so insecure about his own safety that he refuses to emerge from his underground hideouts and never sleeps without his suicide vest on, Reuters reported. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "has become intemperate," losing self-control and showing more signs of paranoia, according to messages sent from inside Mosul to the Iraqi military. Reuters reported Wednesday it had viewed the messages. Iraqi troops pushed deeper into eastern Mosul Saturday, backed by aerial support from the U.S.-led international coalition -- but faced stiff...

NORTHERN IRAQ – On the Western side of Mosul, lies a forgotten front crucial to choking off ISIS' lifeline to Syria. Fox News recently made the eight hour trip west from Mosul to the front outside the devastated city of Sinjar and found a small outpost where a handful of men hold off near-daily attacks from ISIS fighters. One soldier manning the post was David Shumock, a 62-year-old Floridian and former U.S. Air Forces pararescueman. The American fights side-by-side with the Kurdish Peshmerga, and serves as medic and trainer to his comrades, as well. Shumock has called the dusty, makeshift,...