Free Republic

Gunnery Sgt. Diego D. Pongo died Sunday along with Capt. Moises A. Navas from Maryland, also 34, died in a joint Iraqi-U.S. helicopter assault on a suspected ISIS-occupied cave complex in the Makhmur Mountains of northern Iraq. They were assigned to the Second Marine Raider Battalion. The mission began with several dozen Iraqi counterterrorism forces, along with approximately a dozen special forces Marines, traveling by helicopter to the area where intelligence showed 15 to 20 ISIS fighters had hidden. As they got close to the target, they encountered stiff resistance from ISIS fighters largely equipped with small arms. The firefight...

Gunnery Sergeant Diego Pongo and Captain Moises Navas are the first US service members killed in Iraq since August The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday, March 10 identified two Marines killed near Makhmour, Iraq during an mission against Islamic State. Gunnery Sergeant Diego D. Pongo, 34, and Captain Moises A. Navas, 34, both of 2nd Marine Raiders Battalion, Marine Special Operations Command, were killed on Sunday. The two Marines were accompanying Iraqi security forces “during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq,” a Defense Department statement read. It took six hours...

A Columbia, Missouri, man was sentenced to 236 months in prison in federal court today for his role in making preparations to launch a terrorist attack with persons he believed were members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), but who were actually undercover law enforcement employees, announced Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers and U.S. Attorney Timothy A. Garrison for the Western District of Missouri.   Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr., 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 236 months in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Hester to a...

The current feud between Egypt/Turkey has caused many to draw comparisons between how the two states conduct their policies in the ever-turbulent region of the MEIn its response to Turkey’s provocative practices, Egypt has maintained a policy of resilience and followed the guidelines of international law while at the same time showing a firm stance towards the acts of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has deliberately and repeatedly insulted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi at forums and in speeches using ad hominem tactics. From the way Erdogan has described him, it might have been thought that Al-Sisi was standing for election...

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Some Arab countries are trying to get the Jews they forced out to return FEBRUARY 7, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM More than 850,000 Jews lived in Arab countries in the 20th century. With the creation of Israel in 1948, all but a few thousand Jews were forced to leave the Arab countries where they had lived for generations and centuries. But today, there is a palpable longing in most Arab states for the Jews to return. Many believe that only with a Jewish presence will their countries blossom and develop as they did in the past. World Israel News...

“Not only is the terror threat diverse, it’s unrelenting," said FBI chief Chris Wray In a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined several concrete steps the agency had taken to combat violent far-right extremists, explaining that the “national threat priority” designation puts those groups or individuals on the same footing as ISIS” in terms of the resources the FBI will devote to it. “We’re particularly focused on domestic terrorism, especially racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” said Wray. “Not only is the terror threat diverse, it’s unrelenting... He also said that he’d created...

President Trump has just laid out a visionary plan for achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Rather than trying to reconcile the fundamentally conflicting priorities of the two sides, he came up with a practical solution that reflects realities on the ground in the fairest way possible. Every American president since Lyndon Johnson has tried — and failed — to resolve the conflict, usually by sitting down with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to negotiate toothless agreements that have done nothing to ease tensions or prevent bloodshed. These well-intentioned efforts all made the same fatal mistake: they treated the Israeli...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday that he has decided to severe all relations with Israel and the US in protest against President Donald Trump’s recently unveiled plan for Mideast peace. “We have informed the Israelis and Americans of this decision through two letters,” Abbas said in a speech at an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.

LONDON — The mayor of London accused the government on Monday of failing to give judges the tools they need to keep people who pose terrorist threats in prison, a day after a man who had recently been released went on a stabbing rampage in South London. The attacker, who wounded three people on Sunday before being shot and killed by the police, was identified by the police as Sudesh Amman, a 20-year-old from London who was jailed in 2018 for terrorism-related offenses. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison, but his early release came automatically, in...

Former Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once said the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Within minutes of President Trump proposing his Middle East Peace Plan, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had rejected the plan with “a thousand no’s” coupled with a string of epithets rarely seen in international diplomacy.This abject lack of vision and leadership by Palestinian President Abbas is tragic, for the children and grandchildren of Palestinians and Israelis alike.The state of Israel comprises a minuscule portion of land in the Middle East, yet it has become a global center of democracy, culture, commerce, and innovation....

CAIRO - Egypt called on Tuesday on Palestinians and Israelis to carefully consider a peace plan announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, with a view to resuming negotiations. “Egypt calls on the two relevant parties to undertake a careful and thorough consideration of the U.S. vision to achieve peace and open channels of dialogue, under U.S. auspices, for the resumption of negotiations,” a statement said.

France delivered a stern warning on Monday against possible U.S. troop cuts in West Africa, where groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State are expanding their foothold.

THE vicious jihadist terrorist organisation, Islamic State’s West Africa Province, ISWAP, also known as Boko Haram sect has beheaded abducted Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Rev. Lawan Andimi.

While it didn’t draw too many headlines internationally, Norway’s ruling coalition government lost its majority yesterday when the populist Progress Party pulled out of the coalition. And it all happened because of one woman and her two children.The woman has not been named, but she was one of the “ISIS brides.” She fled Norway in 2013, moving to Syria where she married a Norwegian man who had similarly joined the terrorist group. They had two children, but he was later killed in the fighting. She’s been living in a refugee camp in Syria since the collapse of the caliphate...

The new leader of the Islamic State terror movement has been confirmed as Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al-Mawli Al-Salbi, according to officials from two intelligence services who were cited on Monday by Britain's Guardian newspaper. Al-Salbi is one of the terror group’s founding members and has led the enslavement of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, among other ISIS operations around the globe. The Guardian has learned that Al-Salbi was named leader, hours after the death of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in October....

He put the fat in fatwa. A morbidly obese ISIS fanatic dubbed “Jabba the Jihadi” has been captured by Iraqi forces — who loaded him onto a flatbed truck because he couldn’t fit in a police car. The 560-pound mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was nabbed Thursday by an elite SWAT team of the Nineveh regiment in the city of Mosul, according to Stars and Stripes. The jumbo jihadist was known for “provocative speeches against the security forces” and is considered one of the top leaders of “ISIS gangs,” Iraqi security officials said in a statement....

A year and a half into Donald Trump’s presidency, Henry Kissinger set out a theory. “I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences,” he told the Financial Times. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that he knows this, or that he is considering any great alternative. It could just be an accident.” A term has been coined to describe this notion: Ryan Evans of War on the Rocks calls them “Trumportunities.” It is the idea that,...

He put the fat in fatwa. A morbidly obese ISIS fanatic dubbed “Jabba the Jihadi” has been captured by Iraqi forces — who loaded him onto a flatbed truck because he couldn’t fit in a police car. The 560-pound mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was nabbed Thursday by an elite SWAT team of the Nineveh regiment in the city of Mosul, according to Stars and Stripes.

Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. for Records Tied to Alleged Monitoring of Trump Family and Journalists by Amb. Marie Yovanovitch Federal Court Orders Snap Hearing on Awan Brothers, Congressional Democrat IT Scandal after DOJ Files Document under Seal Records Show ‘Diversity Workshop’ Instituted by South Bend Police Department Mexican Police Chief Unfazed by U.S. Alert; Arrival of Middle Easterners Going North is ‘Normal’ Judicial Watch Sues State Dept. for Records Tied to Alleged Monitoring of Trump Family and Journalists by Amb. Marie Yovanovitch Judicial Watch is going to court to uncover details of the alleged monitoring of President Trump’s...

Not to brag or anything but this arrest was HUGE. Not much of a flight risk, this one. Even if he CAN make it up to his feet, how fast could his mobility scooter possibly go? ___________________________________________________________________ Ali Y. Al-Baroodi @AliBaroodi Latest photos for #ISIS Mufti. He was the strongest supporter of demolishing Mosul heritage. He used to give the Friday Sermon in my neighborhood. He cheered up in the very Friday after the blowing of Prophet Jonah Mosque in the early days of their invasion. 📷 Social media https://twitter.com/AliBaroodi/status/1217752217639362561 … View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Ali...