Free Republic

Non-profit humanitarian agency World Vision United States improperly transacted with the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2014 with approval from the Obama administration, sending government funds to an organization that had been sanctioned over its ties to terrorism, according to a new report.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) recently released a report detailing the findings of an investigation his staff began in February 2019 into the relationship between World Vision and ISRA.The probe found that World Vision was not aware that ISRA had been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2004 after funneling roughly $5 million to Maktab al-Khidamat,...

PHILADELPHIA – July 8, 2018 – Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned English counter-Islamist activist, journalist, and book author, justifiably titled his autobiography Enemy of the State, for he has long been a target of the U.K. authorities impatient with his criticism of Islamism. The Middle East Forum (MEF) is helping Robinson in his moment of danger. It does so in the context of its Legal Project which since 2007 has defended activists, journalists, politicians, et al. who face harassment, fines, or imprisonment because of their views concerning Islamism and related topics. MEF is sponsoring and organizing the second “Free Tommy Robinson”...

Turkey's descent into Islamist despotism distorts the NATO alliance: how can Turkey combat a external threat from without, Daniel Pipes asked, when a member state poses the same threat from within? No one tells us what we can say. We are a free people, and we will act in complete freedom. – Daniel Pipes, President, Middle East Forum (MEF) The purging of 120,000 government employees following last year's failed coup means that "more police counter-terrorism experts are in prison than ISIS members." A democratic Turkey is a must for NATO, both for the alliance's success and for Turkey itself. –...

Henry Kissinger to Iraq in 1975: "We Can Reduce Israel's Size" Middle East QuarterlyFall 2006, pp. 71-78 Print Send RSS Preface by Kenneth W. SteinThe December 1975 memorandum of conversation between U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Iraqi foreign minister Sa'dun Hammadi reflects deep U.S.-Iraqi tensions at a time when Baghdad was widely considered the most radical Arab capital. It also reveals Kissinger's effort to soften Baghdad's hard-line views toward Washington.Bilateral tension was entrenched. Before 1958, Iraq had been part of the U.S.-sponsored Baghdad pact, an anti-Soviet alliance, but Iraq's 1958 Republican Revolution deeply changed the Iraqi policy. General...

World dispatch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy Brian Whitaker reports on the network of research institutes whose views and TV appearances are supplanting all other experts on Middle Eastern issues Monday August 19, 2002 A little-known fact about Richard Perle, the leading advocate of hardline policies at the Pentagon, is that he once wrote a political thriller. The book, appropriately called Hard Line, is set in the days of the cold war with the Soviet Union. Its hero is a male senior official at the Pentagon, working late into the night and battling almost single-handedly to rescue...

II MEF CG, wife participate in Read Across AmericaSubmitted by: II Marine Expeditionary ForceStory Identification #: 200632151833Story by Sgt. Tracee L. Jackson MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.-- (March 2, 2006) -- The commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. James F. Amos, and his wife, Bonnie, participated in the Read Across America program at Jefferson Primary School here March 2. According to Jeanette Martinez, a coordinator for the event, the program is designed to show the importance of reading to school-aged children. Guest readers, including senators, commanders, doctors, and other high-profile professionals have visited all...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Oct. 3, 2005) -- The Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, visited more than 4,500 Marines here Oct. 3, welcoming them home from recent deployment. Cheney’s visit was less about his own appearance at the base and more about boosting morale and extending gratitude from the nation to Marines, some who arrived home as recent as last weekend from Iraq and other operations, including hurricane relief efforts on our own Gulf Coast. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment (3/25), a reserve unit based out of Ohio, many of whom returned...

Amidst the vacuum of Judy Miller saying nothing and the misshapen vessel of Bob Novak's obfuscations, informed speculation swirls, on this site among many. At bottom, we wonder if Miller -- perhaps the private citizen singly most responsible for the current quagmire -- is admirably upholding a principle underlying one of the few brakes on an unbridled administration. Or has she realized, potential book deal and all, the salutary power of a four-month stint in reputation rehab? Or just maybe, as has been recently and deliciously floated, is she protecting her own Tinkers to Evans to Chance role as a...