Free Republic

Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard points out that contrary to media reports Obama was not contrite in his Meet the Press remarks about going golfing immediately after making a statement while on vacation last month about the videotaped beheading of American journalist James Foley by the Islamist terrorist group ISIS. Obama seemed to blame press coverage—saying he’s looking forward to a vacation from the press–rather than his conduct for the optics of being seen laughing it up on the golf course mere minutes after making a somber statement on what many consider to be an act of war on...

Within minutes of addressing the nation following the Islamic State’s brutal beheading of American journalist James Foley, President Barack Obama had resumed his August vacation on the golf course. More than a few observers, even the president’s supporters, said that the decision to continue golfing immediately after announcing to the country that ISIS had executed what administration would later call a “terrorist attack” on the United States was unwise. On Sunday, Obama acknowledged that he had erred, not only in seeming detached but also in failing to consider the “optics” associated with appearing callous and disinterested in the wake of...

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama now admits that his decision to play a vacation round of golf immediately after addressing the murder of US journalist James Foley by Islamic State, was a mistake. "I should have anticipated the optics," Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. The president said that he had been forced to hold back tears when he spoke privately to the family of Foley, who was beheaded, but added that there was always the prospect of a "jarring" contrast between world events, and his own efforts to carve out a...

War On Terror: Reports that Barack Obama received detailed information on the virulent Islamic State terror group in his daily briefings for over a year and did nothing makes him officially our "being there" president. Leading from behind once again, as he flew to Estonia to draw a red line that Russia shouldn't cross after it finishes gobbling up Ukraine, President Obama told reporters, "We will not be intimidated" by the second beheading of an American journalist and warned that we would "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State. Degrade? Degrading has been the foreign policy of a president who recently...

On Tuesday night, the three major broadcast networks omitted from their coverage on the Islamic group ISIS a report that President Barack Obama has received briefings on the terrorist organization “for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer.” ABC, CBS, and NBC all led their evening newscasts with multiple segments on the gruesome murder of American journalist Stephen Sotloff at the hands of ISIS in a propaganda video released on Tuesday afternoon. Over on the Fox News Channel (FNC), Special Report with Bret Baier aired three segments on the story, including a...

BEFORE he was named as a key suspect in the brutal beheading of two western journalists, the man who has become known as Jihad John was an aspiring rapper with a dark message. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who released music videos under the name L Jinny and even had a few songs played on BBC radio, has gained notoriety for darker reasons other than his music. The British man has gained worldwide attention after he was named as the chief suspect in the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley. Police and intelligence officials told Britain’s Sunday Times that “MI5 and...

One couple knows all too well the pain suffered by the parents of James Foley, the American photojournalist executed on camera last month by the Islamic State. Billy and Karen Vaughn also lost their son Aaron Carson Vaughn in 2011, when the SEAL Team Six soldier's Chinook helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. Now the couple are calling on President Barack Obama to step down, citing his reaction to the Foley video and 'lack of leadership' in confronting ISIS.

How many times have we heard: “Never again”? (Or taken selfies at a concentration camp or Holocaust museum with those words?) How often have we quoted: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”? And yet: Do we do nothing? What do we actually say in the face of evil? “I don’t want to have on my conscience that I was complicit in something as horrendous as this simply by being quiet,” is how Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., reflected on the persecution being conducted against Christians and other...

Paul SzoldraAugust 30, 2014The White House is pushing back on a report in the Sunday Times earlier this week that said Obama "took too long" to authorize the mission to rescue James Foley and other American hostages held by ISIS militants, a decision that journalist Toby Harnden reported made the mission impossible. The report, which offers a broad overview of the failed July 4 mission to rescue Foley, had two paragraphs which were very interesting: Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured...

The White House is pushing back on a report that the military operation to rescue captured American journalist James Foley was delayed by President Obama's "hesitation." U.S. forces conducted the rescue operation "as soon as the president" and his national security team "were confident it could be carried out successfully," according to a tweet sent Friday from the National Security Council's account. The comment was in response to a senior Pentagon official who reportedly confirmed to The Sunday Times of London that "hesitation" on the part of Obama delayed the July 4 operation to rescue Foley. Foley, who went missing...

Jihad In America: Terroristic tweets underscore the Islamic State's global reach. It has an army of Western passport holders, and an open southern border to cross. It's not only coming to the U.S.; it's already here. Slain journalist James Foley studied his craft in the Chicago area, earning a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. For a time he was a teacher in the Cook County Jail boot camp program. He was familiar with the streets of Chicago. So, apparently, is the Islamic State that beheaded him. An anonymous tweet has an attached photo showing...

THE VIDEO of a British jihadist beheading an American hostage was probably staged, with the actual murder taking place off-camera, according to forensic analysis. Footage of James Foley’s death at the hands of a man with a London accent provided a powerful propaganda tool for Islamic State when it was uploaded on to the internet and broadcast around the world last week. Now it has emerged that the Briton might be a frontman and not the killer. His identity has almost certainly been established by the security services, but they have yet to act for fear of endangering the lives...

American and British intelligence officials are eyeing a British-born rapper as the militant who beheaded journalist James Foley. A senior Western intelligence official told Fox News that 23-year-old London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary is the suspect believed to be Foley's executioner. U.S. intelligence officials are not commenting publicly on the reports, but a well-placed source told Fox News that Bary's Egyptian-born father was extradited from London to the United States in 2012 for his alleged connection to Usama bin Laden and the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa. Bary traveled to Syria last year to fight with ISIS, the...

THE beheading of American journalist, James Foley, at the hands of ISIS militants shocked the world but forensic experts have revealed the video was probably staged, with the murder happening off camera. The UK Times reported that an international forensic science company, which has worked for police forces across Britain, said there is no question Foley was beheaded but that camera trickery and post-production techniques look to have been used.

SCARCELY HAD ISIS posted its video showing the grisly beheading of American journalist James Foley than the rush to stifle it began. "Don't watch the video. Don't share it. That's not how life should be," entreated Foley's sister Kelly in a message on Twitter that was heavily retweeted. Thousands of social media users, some of them journalists, called for an #ISISMediaBlackout — the hashtag quickly went viral — and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced that the company was "actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery." YouTube removed versions of the video posted on its site,...

Just a warning. Before you watch this video, make sure you don’t have anything in your mouth. I’m thinking that when Obama referred to the “JV team” back in January he was talking about his own collection of knuckleheads. I’m amazed you don’t hear more laughing from the press corps when his spokespeople get in front of the cameras. Where did he find this group of cub scouts? And now the latest from Marie Harf — who infamously claimed that Bergdahl’s platoon mates were lying and had no idea what they were talking about. Take a gander her at comments...

DRUDGE REPORT: PAPER: Foley video with Briton was staged, experts say... London hip-hop artist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary key suspect in hunt for killer of American journalist James Foley News.com.au August 25, 2014 http://www.news.com.au/world/london-hiphop-artist-abdelmajed-abdel-bary-key-suspect-in-hunt-for-killer-of-american-journalist-james-foley/story-fndir2ev-1227034541900 THE beheading of American journalist, James Foley, at the hands of ISIS militants shocked the world but forensic experts have revealed the video was probably staged, with the murder happening off camera. The UK Times reported that an international forensic science company, which has worked for police forces across Britain, said there is no question Foley was beheaded but that camera trickery and post-production techniques look to...

According to a new Sunday Times report by Toby Harden, "Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission." It's claimed that Obama was concerned about his administration being Carterized had the mission failed.

It is hard to fathom what Obama is doing or thinking. No explanation comes close to being satisfactory. With fellow Democrats faulting him, and with threats to America multiplying, it is impossible to excuse his conduct on the grounds of ignorance. If he only knows what the public sees, that would be more than enough to develop a strategy. Indeed, it’s possible his military advisers are going public with terrifying claims about the terrorist group because they, too, are alarmed by his passivity. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, normally low-key, said of the Islamic State: “This is beyond anything that...

Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a British rapper, is suspected by UK's SAS to be John, the man with an English accent who beheaded American journalist James Foley last week, the New York Post reports. In early August, Bary tweeted a photo of himself wearing a camouflage and black hood, while holding on his left hand a decapitated head. The 24-year-old rapper is the son of an Egypt-born militant now waiting for trial in Manhattan on terror charges for the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He is one of the jihadists named by former hostages as member...