Free Republic

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks. In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan. When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home, and seek to end this war. We are making substantial progress on that promise. Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of...

The United States and the Taliban are on the verge of signing what would be a historic agreement aimed at winding down America's longest war, potentially fulfilling one of President Trump's key promises. But first comes a weeklong test. A seven-day "reduction in violence" period started Friday afternoon Washington time, midnight Saturday Afghanistan time. The initial agreement to reduce violence is aimed at building confidence ahead of signing a broader peace agreement. If the reduction in violence holds, U.S. and Taliban negotiators will sign the broader agreement Feb. 29, starting a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops in exchange for Taliban...

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone Friday with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the situation in Syria. The Kremlin issued a news release noting that Putin expressed concern about "ongoing aggressive actions of extremist groups"..... Russia's defense ministry says that large numbers of Turkish armored vehicles and huge caches of ammunition entering northwestern Syria point to apparent preparation for a large scale military operation that Turkey has been threatening...... The Pentagon revising upwards for the fifth time the number of traumatic brain injuries resulting from the January 8th missile attack by Iran on the Al-Asad Air Base..... US...

Imagine, in the waning days of World War II, any American publication — let alone the New York Times — publishing an opinion piece by one of Hitler’s deputies, running this identifier (with an honorific, always an honorific): “Mr. Himmler devised the very first concentration camp for Nazi Germany.” Sounds like something out of The Onion, right? But this, in effect, is what the Times did on Thursday, publishing an op-ed by Sirajuddin Haqqani, describing him as “the deputy leader of the Taliban,” rather than what he is: an unrepentant terrorist. In a column politely titled “What We, the Taliban,...

September 27 - October 3, 2002 Separate and Unequal On the Mideast controversy, Georgia Democrat Cynthia McKinney and our own Dana Rohrabacher are virtually identical. So why’d the media roast McKinney and let Dana walk? by R. Scott Moxley At a casual glance, Congress members Cynthia McKinney and Dana Rohrabacher have nothing in common. McKinney is a 47-year-old liberal, black Democrat from rural Georgia. She wears her hair in cornrows, enjoys hip-hop and talks about the federal government’s neglect of the underclass. Rohrabacher, 55, is a conservative, pale-skinned Republican from coastal Huntington Beach. He barely has hair, sings folk...

Jury deliberations in the rape and sexual assault trial of movie mogul and Democratic Party donor Harvey Weinstein set to begin Tuesday.... Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was a vocal critic of President Trump and lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the President, found guilty of attempted extortion... The Russian and Turkish military leader talking about the situation in Syria's Idlib province.... In Syria today two Syrian soldiers killed when their helicopter was downed with Turkish weaponry..... Another pro-Israel delegation making a trip to Saudi Arabia.... The Acting US Attorney in Washington opting to drop a criminal...

MUNICH (AP) — A senior U.S. official said Friday the United States and the Taliban have reached a truce agreement that will take effect “very soon” and could lead to withdrawals of American troops from Afghanistan. The official said the agreement for a seven-day “reduction in violence” to be followed by the start of all-Afghan peace talks within 10 days is “very specific” and covers the entire country, including Afghan government forces. There were indications a formal announcement could come as early as the weekend. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the...

More than 18 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan, President Trump has conditionally approved a peace deal with the Taliban that would withdraw the last American troops from the country, potentially beginning the end of America’s longest war, according to Afghan and American officials. But the deal will only be signed if the Taliban prove their commitment to a durable reduction of violence over a test period of about seven days later this month. If the Taliban do end hostilities and a deal is signed, the United States would then begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops, and direct...

The surprise announcement from the Taliban that we’re about to sign a peace deal with them is being slightly overshadowed this week. While I’m sure plenty of people have been waiting for us to pull out of that quagmire, the release of a stack of Pentagon documents regarding the war will provide even more reason for concern. Assuming this is all true (and it certainly looks legitimate), the Pentagon and the rest of the government have been lying to us for years about how much of a “success” the war has been. And honestly… are we really all that...

South African telecoms firm MTN on Monday said it was reviewing allegations raised in a U.S. complaint which accuses several firms of paying protection money to militant Islamist groups in Afghanistan. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court in the District of Columbia on Friday. It alleges the firms violated the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money to al Qaeda and the Taliban, thereby providing material support to known terrorist organizations. It seeks damages on behalf of U.S. military members and civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.

The Taliban's ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. They didn't say when it would begin. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America's longest... ...The Taliban chief must approve the cease-fire decision but that was expected. The duration of the cease-fire was not specified but it was...

The families of nearly 150 U.S. soldiers and contractors who were killed or wounded in Afghanistan sued American and international contractors for allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban and indirectly supporting the terrorist group. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday, the plaintiffs alleged that the contractors working on various reconstruction projects across the war-torn country often greased the palms of the Taliban through local sub-contractors, reported the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit alleges that the subcontractors hired and paid Taliban guards directly in order to save on security costs and that the Taliban used that money...

A 33-year-old U.S. Army Green Beret has become the 20th American service member to be killed by hostile fire this year in Afghanistan. His death on Monday makes it the deadliest year for U.S. forces since the official end of combat operations was declared in 2014. Sgt. 1st Class Michael James Goble died due to injuries resulting from an explosion on Dec. 22 in the Taliban-contested northern Afghan province of Kunduz. Two Pentagon officials tell NPR Goble's unit was seizing a Taliban weapons cache when he was fatally wounded. It was Goble's third tour of duty in Afghanistan, and he...

Al Villanueva was 12 when the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center prompted the U.S. to invade Afghanistan in 2001. Eighteen years, three tours of duty and five NFL seasons later, the war continues. Mr. Villanueva, the Steelers’ left tackle and locally perhaps the most well-known veteran of the war in Afghanistan, belongs to a large Pittsburgh community of post-9/11 veterans, a portion of the nearly 800,000 who have deployed to Afghanistan with the initial mission of hunting down Osama bin Laden and the Taliban who protected him. Bin Laden is dead, but the Taliban, once nearly vanquished,...

the story of the "fastest-growing church" in the world, an underground, persecuted Christian movement in a country known for exporting radical Islamic terrorism — Iran. People in Iran.. are fleeing Islam in droves as believers bow their knee to Jesus .. Sheep Among Wolves ... God is moving powerfully inside of Iran ... the best evangelist for Jesus was the Ayatollah Khomeini.. The ayatollahs brought the true face of Islam to light and people discovered it was a lie...After 40 years under Islamic law — a utopia according to them — they’ve had the worst devastation in the 5,000-year history...

President Donald Trump mocked Newsweek after they reported Thursday he spent Thanksgiving golfing and tweeting. In fact, the president was secretly traveling to Afghanistan to visit deployed American troops. “I thought Newsweek was out of business?” Trump wrote on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of the article and photos of him with the troops in Afghanistan posted by his son Donald Trump Jr. I thought Newsweek was out of business? https://t.co/3ro4eSJloo — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2019 “Fake news gonna fake!” Trump Jr. wrote. The Newsweek story, first published at 10:16 a.m., was later updated to reflect the president’s...

Ok, so, what else would we expect from the New York Times, right? Right. Still, the headline that ran with an op/ed piece by the corrupt newspaperÂ’s inept economist, Paul Krugman, betrayed a desperate effort to plumb new depths of journalistic malfeasance by the newspaper of fake record: Image I couldnÂ’t tell you what Krugman says in his latest bit of lame-brainery because itÂ’s behind the TimesÂ’s firewall, and we here at TodayÂ’s Campaign Update are not in the habit of lending monetary support to the faking of AmericaÂ’s news. But letÂ’s be honest: Nothing Krugman has to say is...

President Trump made a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day. The president departed Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday evening to make the 13-hour secret flight to Bagram Air Force Base, arriving shortly after 11 a.m. EST. According to reports, many measures were taken to conceal the president's unscheduled trip. The president took off from an undisclosed airport in Florida on Wednesday night around 7 p.m. EST. to travel to Joint Base Andrews. He then boarded Air Force One, which had been removed from its usual tarmac location and housed inside a hangar. Staff accompanying the president...

Kwong: "How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing, and more. Mark Dice @MarkDice "Newsweek deleted this tweet after getting demolished for their arrogance and hatred when it was revealed that President Trump made a surprise appearance in Afghanistan to serve the troops Thanksgiving dinner."

"The Horowitz report is just the beginning of the unraveling of the plot to destroy Donald Trump" That's the view of former CIA employee Larry Johnson in response to recent mainstream media reporting.... The House Judiciary Committee chairman Democrat Congressman Jerry Nadler sending a letter to President Trump today..... A stabbing attack at London Bridge with two killed and the attacker shot dead..... Later Friday in the evening a stabbing attack reported in the Netherlands in The Hague.... The late word from Iraq is that Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi will be resigning..... Russian airstrikes reported in northwestern Syria Friday.......