Free Republic

Some amateur sleuthing and a chance encounter helped uncover how the former president of The Gambia had laundered his money by buying a luxurious property in the US. Now a court has ruled that the $3m (£2.4m) mansion in the state of Maryland, near Washington DC, should be seized from a trust set up by ex-Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh. Funds raised by the sale of the house should benefit those who were harmed by the former president's "acts of corruption and abuse of office", the US authorities say. An investigation by the department of justice (DOJ) found that the money...

THE ALAVI FOUNDATION REGULARLY SENT FIVE-FIGURE DONATIONS TO THE CLINTON FOUNDATION. An Iranian foundation recently convicted as a front organization for the theocratic regime in Tehran donated five-figure sums to the infamous Clinton Foundation. Last week, a New York grand jury ruled that the government can seize a building majority-owned by the Alavi Foundation, agreeing with prosecutors that it is a front group for the mullahs in Tehran. The foundation used the Manhattan skyscraper to garner hundreds of millions in revenue so it could supply cash for its “charitable” endeavors inside the United States. The Alavi Foundation rarely donated to...

Not everything in the nation’s capital involves social unrest. Ardent fans of President Trump are planning a sizable “National Capital Trumptilla” boat parade on the Potomac River over Labor Day weekend, and their route will glide past some of the most historic sites in the nation - not to mention the White House. “Washington, D.C. isn’t exactly Trump country but there’s enough Trump supporters around to make some noise. Like Ronald Reagan said, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’” LaDonna Hale Curzon, a local volunteer, tells Inside the Beltway. The boaters will begin their journey at the Wilson Bridge, some...

If confirmed, this is the first time since 1981 that the Iranian regime has targeted a defector on U.S. soil. Iranian dissident Mansoor Osanloo, the exiled former head of the bus driver’s union in Tehran, was savagely attacked on Tuesday, May 1, while traveling on a PATH train into New York City, and left for dead. Multiple assailants sprayed him with a corrosive chemical, then clubbed him in the back of the neck with what appears to have been a tire iron. He lay in a coma for several days and required 17 stitches in his neck. I spoke with...

Toll lane plans for parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 are set to move forward next week, including plans for improvements to the American Legion Bridge. Maryland’s Board of Public Works — Gov. Larry Hogan, Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot — is set to formally designate the planned toll lanes as a public-private partnership on May 8 and to support plans for separate phases of construction. Once the public-private partnership designation is approved, the state expects to quickly issue a request for qualifications from private companies so that a short list of the private firms or...

Students at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Md., were caught by staff trading “N-word passes” during their lunch hour on Friday. The papers gave the pass holders “permission” to use the N-word, WJLA reports. Following the discovery of the passes, principal Brandice Heckert released an impassioned email, stating, “I am deeply disappointed and appalled that any student in our school would [choose] to engage in such a racist, hateful act. This behavior is disgraceful and does not reflect the values expected of Winston Churchill students. Not only is this behavior hurtful to our community, but it also undermines all...

Christine Blasey lived in Potomac, Maryland in 1985. Christine was arrested in a traffic stop and ticketd on June 14, 1985 (Friday) in Catawba County North Carlina. She was charged with a traffic misdemeanor – no big deal. It was disposed on Sept 11, 1985. But there’s more. There were two other cases on June 17, 1985 (Monday). They were also in Catawba County on a different day and are under case type – CRIMINAL. This might be the same case, but two different records were given. The interesting thing about these two cases against Christine Blasey Ford is that...

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., joked about how somebody saving a drowning President Trump would be a "catastrophe" at the start of an event in Sunshine, Fla., on Sunday. In a video reported by the Daily Caller, Hastings said he first learned of the joke from Ari Silver, whose father is former Florida state legislator and rabbi Barry Silver. “Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?” Hastings said, retelling the joke. "A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can’t swim,” Hastings said. A "catastrophe," he added, "is anybody saves his ass.'” Cheers...

Kurt Smolek, a Diplomatic Security special agent with the State Department and Dayton Police Academy graduate, was found dead in the Potomac River on Wednesday and the cause is listed as undetermined pending an autopsy. We're hearing tonight that Smolek, 45, is a 1998 academy graduate and one of his assignments as a special agent was as a member of Condoleezza Rice's security team. According to DC Metro police, Smolek was last seen Monday, Aug. 28, in the 600 block of Water Street, Southwest, about 10 p.m. A missing persons bulletin described hims as white with graying brown hair, brown...

Woman found two guns in a violin case along Potomac River in Washington D.C.Police found more guns and ammunition stashed in pails and bags nearbyAuthorities were trying to work out why the weapons were left there The D.C. police bomb squad conducted a sweep of the area soon afterA number of weapons, including two guns in a violin case, have been found stashed along the Potomac River in Washington D.C. U.S. Park Police said a woman walking in the woods near the C&O Canal, which runs along the river, found the case on Wednesday. When police arrived they found...

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama chastised his Republican opponents on Monday for focusing criticism on the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and on his signature healthcare law."The debate we're having now is about what, Benghazi? Obamacare? And it becomes this endless loop. It's not serious. It's not speaking to the real concerns that people have," Obama said.He was speaking to more than 60 people at a fundraising dinner for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.The event took place at a physician's home in the Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, as Obama...

In what could be the most bizarre development in the ongoing debate over the Washington Redskins nickname, TMZ reports that a neighbor of team owner Dan Snyder, Aris Mardirossian, has trademarked the name "Washington Bravehearts." The report states that the trademark application filed by Mardirossian says that he plans to use the name for "entertainment in the nature of football games." Mardirossian, who reportedly lives on the same block as Snyder in Potomac, Md., is an affluent patent investor who developed a relationship with Snyder a few years ago when the two men battled the county in an effort to...

Catching a 300-pound killer shark is supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. But nearly three years after commercial fisherman John “Willy” Dean hauled in the first bull shark recorded in the Potomac in 37 years, he repeated the feat Tuesday — twice. The first of the two bull sharks Dean caught Tuesday in the waters off of Point Lookout State Park at the tip of St. Mary’s County was already dead in the water. Sharks need a constant flow of moving water to breathe, Dean’s son Greg said. Constrained in a net that the Deans use to take in fish...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is starting to dig deep in a $2.6 billion underground solution aimed at helping clean up the polluted Potomac River and the ailing Chesapeake Bay, the biggest U.S. estuary. In the U.S. capital's biggest public works project in more than 40 years, work started this fall to cut about 16 miles of tunnels to keep overflow sewage and stormwater from running into the Potomac. The project, designed to be finished in 2025, is seen by environmentalists as part of resolving the next great water pollution challenge facing the United States -- keeping fouled runoff out of...

Your Chicago Way read of the day comes from the Detroit News, where columnist Daniel Howes brings news that a few calls from the White House have led to Ford Motor Company yanking ads that spotlighted its refusal to take government auto bailout money. The ad is no longer on the company’s YouTube page. Nice car company ya got there, fellas. Would be a shame if anything happened to it… (h/t Is This Blog On, Cold Fury): For the only Detroit automaker that “didn’t take the money” of the federal auto bailouts, Ford Motor Co. keeps paying a price for...

A Potomac, Md., Islamic center maintains links to Iran despite its claims that it is independent of a foundation that is being sued by the U.S. government on charges of funneling money to the Islamic republic. Ali Mohammadi, the current manager of the Islamic Education Center (IEC) of Maryland, told The Washington Times that the center's only relationship to the Alavi Foundation is that of tenant to landlord. He quoted a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office as saying that forfeiture proceedings initiated earlier this month against the foundation - which also owns property in New York and other states...

Station Telephone Numbers: Main (202)767-1194 OOD (202)680-0112 Fax (202)767-1193 Mailing Address: Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Station Washington D.C. Building 91 Bolling AFB Washington DC 20032

Here is video of CNN's Jean Meserve explaining how they mistook a Coast Guard Training Exercise on the Potomac River in Washington D.C. today, for a real live-fire incident. Meserve explained they heard audio from the Coast Guard saying "10 rounds have been expended." There were boats on the river that appeared to be trying to evade the Coast Guard as well. Eventually, they got the word from the Coast Guard that it was a training exercise and no rounds had ever been fired. With the exercise coming on September 11, it caused quite a stir for about half an...

The initial reports were frightening, the Coast Guard fires shots at a rogue boat in the middle of the Potomac River, just before the President drives by, and right near the Pentagon building on the Anniversary of 9/11. The follow-up provoked anger---it was just a training mission: