Free Republic

In their final encounter during the transition following the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s incoming national-security adviser surprised Barack Obama’s outgoing national-security adviser. Susan Rice writes in her memoir that the Michael Flynn she was dealing with had nothing in common with the firebrand she had watched leading a “lock her up” chant against Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention a few months earlier. Flynn, a retired general and the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was respectful and subdued, eager for her advice. When Rice extended her hand and wished him the best of luck, Flynn asked her...

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to become his national security adviser, a source with knowledge of the matter has revealed. The source told NBC Wednesday evening that Trump had settled on Flynn, who was also being considered for the secretary of defense post. The Daily News could not independently confirm the report, and the Trump campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. Earlier in the evening, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the President-elect had met with Flynn and added he would make a "fantastic addition" to the team. "He has been a companion...

French law enforcers have slapped fines on tens of thousands of uncooperative citizens, less than a week after the government introduced restrictions on non-essential travel and business in an effort to combat Covid-19. The Ministry of Interior disclosed on Saturday that police across the country had carried out 867,695 inspections to ensure that people using transport or participating in other restricted activities had good reason to do so. As a result, cops reported some 38,994 instances of non-compliance resulting in fines between Tuesday and Friday. French authorities have also warned that they will become stricter with enforcement going forward.

The U.S. cable networks won't be covering this one tonight (not accurately, anyway), but Trapwire is making the rounds on social media today—it reportedly became a Trending hashtag on Twitter earlier in the day. Trapwire is the name of a program revealed in the latest Wikileaks bonanza—it is the mother of all leaks, by the way. Trapwire would make something like disclosure of UFO contact or imminent failure of a major U.S. bank fairly boring news by comparison. And someone out there seems to be quite disappointed that word is getting out so swiftly; the Wikileaks web site is reportedly...

The American film industry changed beyond recognition after the milestone year of 2001, director Oliver Stone told RT, with producers using financial restraints to censor movies challenging the US military or the CIA. “Maybe in the 1980s, when I did ‘Platoon’, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ and ‘Heaven & Earth’, I could do that, because it was a slightly more relaxed system,” said the award-winning filmmaker, mentioning his famed movies while making his case during former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s show on RT Spanish. When the Iron Curtain fell and the Cold War ended, things didn’t change for the...

According to The New York Times (8 July 2003): "the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said today that its work was being hampered by the failure of executive branch agencies, especially the Pentagon and the Justice Department, to respond quickly to requests for documents and testimony." Several alternative media have joined the bandwagon. George W. Bush is accused of obstructing the investigation...Former Jersey governor Thomas Kean, the commission's chairman is presented as an honest and uncompromising individual, who is courageously confronting the US government: "Without greater cooperation, Kean said, ''we cannot do the job we are supposed...

On Monday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Gus Aragon sentenced RT America’s Boom Bust host, Daniel Brito, to 12 days in the Pima County jail and three years probation for assaulting a Trump supporter, Jonathan Sparks. Brito attacked Sparks for wearing a “MAGA” hat on November 3, 2018. On October 7, 2019, Brito entered a plea of guilty to the crimes of Theft By Control, a Class Six Undesignated Offense, and Aggravated Assault On An Incapacitated Victim. Daniel Brito is the co-host of Boom Bust, a global, daily, live report covering the world of business and finance, produced by RT...

On Tuesday, attorney Sidney Powell struck again, revealing yet another huge development in the Spygate saga between the lines of her latest motion. That motion, filed in the still-pending criminal case against Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, demanded exculpatory evidence from federal prosecutors.But unlike her previously filed motion to compel, here Powell seeks evidence “that has only recently come into its possession.” And the evidence sought? The data and metadata from two Blackberry devices used by Joseph Mifsud.While Powell’s latest motion barely equaled two pages, the implications are multi-pronged and monumental.That the U.S. government has only recently obtained...

Inside an otherwise innocuous court filing (full pdf below), General Mike Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, files a motion to compel (MTC) in an effort to gain discovery of the content from two cell phones belonging to Joseph Mifsud. [Hat Tip Techno Fog] Apparently, according to the information within the filing, the DOJ has somehow gained custody of two cell phones belonging to Mr. Mifsud: The filing notes that “western intelligence” likely tasked Mr. Mifsud against General Flynn as early as 2014 in order to set up “connections with certain Russians” for later use against him. Essentially, an intelligence entrapment scheme....

Ofcom, Britain's communications watchdog, highlighted seven instances of problematic reporting by the channel. Its handling of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury played a large part. British communications watchdog Ofcom announced the measure on Friday, after an investigation into RT's coverage of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. The fine of £200,000 ($250,000, €220,000) comes eight months after Ofcom launched its investigation into RT. Lack of impartiality Ofcom said RT, formerly known as Russia Today, "failed to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programs...

Lawyers are trained never to ask a question of a witness if they don’t already know the answer. But it is quite different in journalism – at least in principle, if the principle is getting at the truth. But alas, in these days of fake news and fanatical dead-ender opposition to President Trump, those MSM TV networks committed to driving Trump from office might want to consider retraining for their talking heads. Make them more like lawyers and avoid embarrassnents like that suffered by CNN’s Brian Stelter. Courtesy of Grabien, here is a disastrous interview in which the guest, Larry...

A Russian-born academic who was at the center of attention in 2017 for past contact with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn told Fox News in an exclusive interview that she is not a spy for Moscow – and, to the contrary, believes she was “used” to smear Flynn. "I think there's a high chance that it was coordinated, and I believe it needs to be properly investigated,” Svetlana Lokhova told Fox News.

On November 10, 2017, we reported how the Wall Street Journal had received information from anonymous sources who said that General Flynn and his son Michael were involved in a plot to kidnap Muslim cleric and return him to Turkey. The Wall Street Journal reported – Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating former White House national security adviser Mike Flynn’s alleged role in a plan to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the investigation. (Of course in the aftermath of Obama...

The former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper thinks Russians have some sort of biological predilection to be an untrustworthy bunch. I wish I was making that up, but sadly, I’m not. Clapper said it during last Sunday’s episode of Meet The Press on NBC, during a response to a question about Jared Kushner’s ties to Moscow. The Russians are “typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever” — was the exact quote. There’s great irony in that comment by Clapper, with his own record of perjury, implying that an entire ethnicity can’t be trusted. So, of...

Four additional staffers at Radio and TV Martí have been fired over a controversial report broadcast last year that referred to Jewish philanthropist George Soros as “anti-Semitic” — bringing to eight the number of dismissals at the station so far following a months-long internal investigation by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which oversees the Martí stations, as well as the Martínoticias digital site. The report, aired by Isabel Cuervo for the Antena Live program, raises conspiracy theories about Soros, who is identified as a “left-wing billionaire of Hungarian-Jewish origin” and a “nonpracticing Jew of flexible morals.” The broadcast, which...

US State Secretary Mike Pompeo's quest to scare Hungary away from dealing with Russia and China appears to have turned sour, as Budapest said it's fed up with lectures about its foreign policy. Pompeo is on a five-day massive charm offensive in Eastern Europe seeking to "make up" for the time the US "shunned" the nations of the region "in a way that drove them to fill a vacuum with folks who didn't share our values," as he himself put it. He did not focus his attention solely on the Kremlin, though, and promptly warned his Hungarian counterpart about the...

World War 3 fears were sparked this week after Israel hit the Syrian capital of Damascus early on Monday as part of its increasingly open assault on Iran's presence there. In response, Iran issued a chilling message to arch-enemy Israel – warning it is “impatient” and ready to confront and destroy the nation in a statement issued just hours after Israel launched the air raids in Syria. The former Pentagon official Michael Maloof has warned the situation between the two states is getting “quickly out of hand” due to the “intensified Israeli attacks”. Mr Maloof told RT America: “You have...

The Gulag forced-labor camps in the USSR were “a good thing” as prisoners worked there to the benefit of the state, a 23-year-old local MP in Yekaterinburg said, and was slammed online as a “monster” in need of a history lesson. “Gulag is, actually, a good thing. Previously, the people were sent to work under supervision – at least, there was some benefit from them. But now, the inmates – rapists and murderers – just drink builder’s tea and do nothing, while we waste our money on them,” Andrey Pirozhkov, a recently-elected Communist Party MP in the Yekaterinburg’s local parliament,...

NSA veteran and whistleblower Bill Binney says that it is technically impossible for Russia to have hacked the election and that behind-the-scenes forces within the US have fabricated the “Russian hackers” narrative from the very beginning.

New York radio personality Randy Credico said Assange instructed him to communicate to Schiff that he was prepared to interview with the California Democrat. Credico said that Assange was interested in speaking to Schiff to show “there is no collusion," a reference to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Schiff has been vocal about his belief that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Schiff’s office responded... “Our committee would be willing to interview Julian Assange when he is in U.S. custody, not before,” in a statement Friday.