Free Republic

Susan Rice will replace Tom Donilon as national security adviser, the White House is expected to announce Wednesday. Rice, currently the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, will be formally introduced in her new role by President Barack Obama at 2 p.m. ET. A White House official says Samantha Power, a former special assistant to the president on the National Security Council, will be nominated to replace Susan Rice as the U.N. ambassador.

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebel fighters in recent days, Obama administration officials said on Wednesday. The move represents a significant escalation in the fighting, which has already killed more than 40,000 civilians in a nearly two-year-old conflict that has threatened to destabilize the Middle East. One American official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing classified information, said that missiles had been fired from the Damascus area at targets in northern Syria. “The total is number is probably north of six now,” said another American official, and that the...

How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria Michael Kelley | 46 minutes ago US Weapons Are Going To Hard-Line Jihadists Fighting To Topple The Syrian Regime The details of the September 11 attack that killed four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi are still murky and there's certainly more to be known. Former CIA officer Clare Lopez argues that the key issue is "the relationship of the U.S. government, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya with Al Qaeda." That relationship, Lopez argues, could be connected to the rise...