Free Republic

Banner headline events almost always flow from quieter real-life causes, and the worst attack on Israel in fifty years is not an exception. The coordinated raids and massacres on October 7 were possible only because of more subtle interventions over two and a half years in rooms at the State Department and the White House, with indirect help from nonprofits like the Soros-funded International Crisis Group. These interventions were driven by a small network of government and interest group insiders whose actions have gone unreported in establishment media. Though their further consequences aren’t yet clear, they’ll almost certainly involve a...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia is signaling it isn’t willing to pump more oil and won’t push for changes to an agreement with Russia and other producers that has kept a lid on oil production levels. This has Washington concerned as gasoline prices rise and tensions with Russia over Ukraine fuel market uncertainty. The Biden administration dispatched Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s Middle East coordinator, and the State Department’s energy envoy, Amos Hochstein, to Riyadh on Wednesday to talk about a range of issues — chief among them the ongoing war in Yemen and global energy...

A report from the Pentagon inspector general found that President Donald Trump’s decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State’s regrouping in Syria and Iraq. The Department of Defense’s quarterly report to Congress on the effectiveness of the US Operation Inherent Resolve mission said that “ISIS continued its transition from a territory-holding force to an insurgency in Syria, and it intensified its insurgency in Iraq” — even though Trump said ISIS was defeated and the caliphate quashed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many officials and experts have...

A leading hostage rights group [The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation] caved in to pressure from the anti-Trump media and withdrew its prestigious “Freedom Award” from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, disinviting him from their awards banquet this week. According to a report in the Washington Examiner Wednesday, the group's "media partners" threatened to boycott the event if Pompeo got the award after keynote speaker, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, expressed her "concern." ... Pompeo told Hugh Hewitt (Wed. 04/03/19) that President Trump asks him about the prisoners every week, and credited his attention to the issue for the success the administration...

**SNIP** Kerry, in a tweet, also said it was "pathetic" and "demoralizing to public servants everywhere," that Trump would, "defame a public servant who joined the Bush Administration and stayed on the last two years to help Iraq & defeat ISIL." Kerry worked with McGurk during his time as secretary of state for the Obama administration. As mentioned by Kerry, McGurk served in the George W. Bush White House and was appointed to his most recent anti-ISIS role in 2015 under Obama. McGurk resigned amid the fallout in Washington from Trump’s recent, abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria...

... The more lasting damage will derive from the shoddy, humiliating way Mr. Trump treated the secretary and his generals on such a core military issue as deployments in Syria. Jim Mattis is not some neoconservative bent on staying in Syria for years. He is less hawkish on Syria and Iran than national security adviser John Bolton or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Yet in deciding to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Mr. Trump acted on his own impulses with little more than cursory consultation with his military advisers. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,...

The U.S. military must figure out how to keep Iraq from breaking apart while also preventing neighboring Iran from turning Iraq into a proxy state.. It makes no sense for a nation to treat its enemies kindly and its allies harshly. Any nation that tries this foolish approach will see its enemies grow stronger and more dangerous, and will lose its allies when it abandons them. ... The man most responsible for the failure of the U.S. to give adequate support to the Kurds is Brett McGurk, President Trump’s special envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS. He held...

US-led coalition envoy Brett McGurk said on Wednesday he is in regular contact with the Iraqi military as well as personnel on the ground in Syria after the Turkish raids on Tuesday morning.“In regular contact with counterparts in Iraq and our military personnel in Syria following the reports of [Turkish] airstrikes Monday night,” McGurk said in a Twitter message.On Tuesday, Turkish jets struck positions in northern Syria and Iraq of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson told Sputnik on Wednesday that the coalition was “deeply concerned” about the Turkish actions. The spokesperson underscored that Ankara cannot pursue...

"Thank God for blogs," said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow this afternoon, commenting on the Bush administration's communications efforts. The comment came in the course of conference call for bloggers in which I participated, conducted by Snow and Brett McGurk [pictured here], the National Security Council's Director for Iraq, giving a preview of President Bush's speech of tonight on Iraq. Snow described the problem with the traditional media - generously I would say - not in terms of bias but as a function of the "if it bleeds it leads" tendency. In any case, it's clear that the...

The Obama administration official most likely in line to become the next U.S. envoy to the Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) has falsely presented himself as an official U.S. ambassador by the administration for the last five months, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Brett McGurk, a deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition who serves under General John Allen, was temporarily appointed by the administration as an ambassador on Oct. 18, 2014. He was conferred this rank through a little-known legal loophole that allows the administration to...

John Kerry has assembled a three-person team to lead the State Department’s efforts against ISIS. Two of the members — Gen. John Allen and Brett McGurk — seem unobjectionable. The third, Anne Patterson, is another matter. In announcing her central role, Kerry praised Patterson as “one of our nation’s top diplomats deeply respected in the region.” But Patterson is not respected in Egypt, where she served as ambassador during the period when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power. Bridget Johnson at PJ Media reminds us that Patterson stood firmly behind the Brotherhood as it persecuted opponents and attempted to consolidate...

U.S. Signed Secret Document to Lift U.N. Sanctions on Iranian Banks Administration backed measures on the same day Tehran released four American citizens from prison By Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee Sept. 29, 2016 8:02 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS WASHINGTON—The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations. The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted...

State Dept IG leaked an internal memo citing derailed probes under then-Secy of State Hillary Clinton. Records show staffers who were known sex abusers were given cushy govt jobs or allowed to retire... The bombshell memo accuses ex-Belgium Amb Howard Gutman and members of Clinton’s security detail of hiring prostitutes....Gutman had apparently also solicited sexual favors from "minor children.” Gutman was allowed to retire in July. •Chuck Lisenbee, a former Beirut security officer who was being probed for allegedly sexually assaulting local guards, is now a special agent in Washington for the Office of Diplomatic Vehicles, Enforcement and Outreach, according...

President Obama announced Friday that he was replacing retired Marine Gen. John Allen with lawyer and diplomat Brett McGurk as his special envoy for Iraq and Syria with a wide-ranging portfolio that includes holding together a coalition against ISIS. Allen, who reportedly had clashed with the military over the now-defunct $500 million effort to create an army of Syrian volunteers, was departing after 13 months as special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, another name for the terrorist group.

A former senior investigator with the State Department´s criminal investigative unit has turned whistleblower and alleged to both the media and Congress that senior staff within State Department covered up investigations into appalling behavior committed by members of Hillary Clinton´s security staff and our ambassador to Belgium. One of those alleged to have interfered was Cheryl Mills, Hillary´s chief of staff. The case in which Clinton enforcer Mills allegedly intervened centered upon Brett McGurk, Obama’s nominee to be US ambassador to Iraq. McGurk’s expected nomination fell apart after a computer hack exposed

President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife. Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart." "I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another...

A Scottish-born man who was shot dead in front of his son in Sydney was in possession of a tape capable of bringing down the New South Wales state Labour government, it has been claimed. Michael McGurk, a well-known loan shark, was arriving at his multi-million-dollar home with his 10-year-old son on Thursday evening when he was shot once in the head by a lone gunman. Michael McGurk Mr McGurk, 46, had been due to appear in court the following day in relation to a complex property dispute. Since his death, it has emerged that he met with journalists from...

For those of you living in Florida's US Congressional District #2, we have an important race going on. Allen Boyd is a longtime incumbent and we have a serious challenger, Tom McGurk. He is 27 year veteran of the US Air Force and Vietnam veteran. He won the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart. In this time of close margins in the congress, we need every seat we can get. McGurk is an underdog. But there are more Conservative voters in District 2 than there have been in times past. We need to make every...