Free Republic

Ted Cruz on Friday put a bit of distance between himself and arguably his closest ally in the presidential race: Donald Trump. Kicking off a two-day swing through Iowa, the U.S. senator from Texas was asked about Trump's apparent openness Thursday to a national registry of American Muslims in the wake of the recent Paris terrorist attacks. "I'm a big fan of Donald Trump's, but not a fan of government registries of American citizens," Cruz told reporters before a town hall at Briar Cliff University. The "First Amendment protects religious liberty." Asked Thursday by NBC News if he wanted to...

In September, sent letter to department heads requesting information on policies admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S. WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in September sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. In his letter, Sen. Cruz shared grave concerns regarding the Administration’s intent to import tens of thousands of individuals from Syria and elsewhere who have not been properly vetted for ties to ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra and other radical Islamic terrorist groups. “In the current...

Today the Obama White House insisted the Taliban was not a terrorist group. This comes after the Taliban slaughtered 132 children at a school in Pakistan in December. Charles Krauthammer responded to this latest idiocy: It slits throats. It attacks buses. It drives car bombs into markets and it’s not a terrorist group. Look you can’t parody this administration… And also the idea that the war is winding down is preposterous. Tell that to anybody that lives in Afghanistan. This is a fantasy. Obama is pretending that the War on Terror, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq is...

During Wednesday afternoon’s White House press conference, ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl cornered Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz over why the administration does not consider the Taliban to be a “terrorist” organization. In light of a possible Jordanian prisoner swap with ISIS forces, Karl asked Schultz how that government’s actions differ from the United States’ 2014 release of Gitmo prisoners to the Taliban in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. When the spokesman suggested the Taliban is just an “armed insurgency,” and not a “terrorist organization” like ISIS, Karl pounced: “You don’t think the Taliban’s a terrorist group?” In the clip...

Jordan’s King Abdullah believes battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other terrorist groups is “our third world war.” Speaking to “CBS This Morning,” Abdullah stated that ISIS is a Muslim problem that they need to take ownership of. “We need to stand up and say what is right and what is wrong. This is no reflection of our religion. This is evil and all of us have got to make that decision,” Abdullah, who is in Washington to meet with President Barack Obama, said. “We have to stand up and say this is the line that is...

We who follow the Islamist movement fell off our collective chair on Nov. 15 when the news came that the United Arab Emirates' ministerial cabinet had listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as one of 83 proscribed terrorist organizations, up there with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. This came as a surprise because the UAE authorities themselves have a record of promoting Islamism; because CAIR has a history of raising funds in the UAE; and because the UAE embassy in Washington had previously praised CAIR. On reflection, however, the listing makes sense for, in recent years, the Islamist movement...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim American Society were reportedly among those to be listed as terror groups by the United Arab Emirates. WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates has listed two American Muslim organizations on its list of designated terrorist groups, according to an announcement released on state media on Saturday. The UAE has classified the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society as terrorist groups, according to a story on the website of WAM, the official news agency. Also reportedly designated as terror groups were the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Association of Britain,...

Dave Clark, AFPSeptember 19, 2014 A dramatic change of tone in the latest hostage video released by the Islamic State has convinced experts that the jihadist group is isolated and fearful of a US assault. Where three previous clips ended with a masked militant slitting the throat of a kneeling hostage, the new release Thursday -- a teaser trailer for a promised series of documentaries -- takes a different tack. The hostage, British photojournalist John Cantlie, sits behind a desk and in a measured tone makes the case for Western powers to drop the threat of military intervention against his...

The Free Syrian Army is on the wrong side. Here's its bloody track record and disturbing alliances. Video House approves Obama's plan to combat Islamic State in a 273 to 156 vote Demonstrating yet again that we do not have an effective opposition party in the United States right now, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama’s plan to arm and train “vetted” members of the Free Syrian Army. As expected,the Senate went along on Thursday. The Hill noted about the House vote that “vocal opposition” came from “both war-weary liberals and defense hawks who...

Public Records Inquiry Indicates Professor Lied to University About Middle East Trip 8 Groups Demand Investigation... San Francisco State University (SFSU) Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 from SFSU to fly to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel to meet with members of known terrorist organizations. Abdulhadi was the faculty advisor to the SFSU knife-wielding student investigated by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force. She was also caught on tape glorifying terrorism to SFSU students. “On at least four official University documents signed by several SFSU and CSU administrators, including SFSU President Wong and CSU Chancellor White, Abdulhadi...

San Francisco State University (SFSU) spent more than $7,000 to send two of its professors to the Middle East for a series of meetings with two convicted terrorists, according to funding documents obtained from a California Public Records Act. SFSU professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker were awarded the money by the university for a trip to Jordan and the West Bank where they met with two notorious terrorists tied to Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both of which are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department. Abdulhadi, an ethnic studies professors,...

It’s hard not to admire Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s brazenness. Two weeks ago, Abbas signed on to 15 international agreements that among other things require the PA to respect human rights and punish war criminals. And this week, he signed a unity deal with two genocidal terror groups all of whose leaders are war criminals. Every leader of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two parties that signed the deal with the PLO, are war criminals. Under the Geneva Conventions, which Abbas signed onto just a couple of weeks ago, he is required to put them on trial, for their...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2011 – As U.S. and allied forces dismantle the core of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan, intelligence officials are studying the degree to which terrorist splinter groups are working together, Defense Department officials said today. “They’ll remain a concern,” one of three Defense Department officials told Pentagon reporters during an afternoon background briefing to explain the nature of regionalized, radical Islamist groups that have proliferated in the Middle East and North Africa. “There is an element of defeating the organization … that is separate from the ideological component. You can get them to be operationally incapable, but...

The Gangs of Iraq are killing each other off. What it has come down to is the gangs, militias and organizations that have been making a living planting roadside bombs and carrying out contract hits on American and Iraqi troops for the last three years, are being defeated by tribal and community groups fed up with the constant violence. ... Religious leaders, who often took fees for allowing their mosques to be used as armories and safe houses, also preached against the heretical Shia, who now ruled the country. Now the pro-peace Sunni Arab clergy have displaced the pro-violence imams,...

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent 41 minutes ago A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday. The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks. "This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group....

A federal judge has ruled that a portion of a post-Sept. 11 executive order allowing President Bush to create a list of specially designated global terrorist groups is unconstitutionally vague. U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, in a Nov. 21 ruling released Tuesday, struck down the provision and enjoined the government from blocking the assets of two foreign groups which were placed on the list. The ruling was praised by David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights. "This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," he said. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."...

One of the first things Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper did after the weekend arrests of 17 suspected Islamic terrorists in Ontario was to pick up the phone and thank President George W. Bush for American assistance in tying the alleged plot together. That was most assuredly unlike the attitude of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who tried to sooth and smooth Canadians fears after 9/11 by telling them since Canada was a “multicultural society” they were safe from the threats of a terrorist attack. Or from the stance of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin — Chretien’s succesor and...

CNS News is a nice little right-of-center web-based wire service operating in Alexandria, Virginia. They seem like pretty solid reporters, and not likely to bite on, say, memos that are supposed to be from an Air National Guard office from 1972 that were created on Microsoft Word. So it's kind of surprising to see this report: Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and...

/begin my translation Kidnapping and Beheading Were Done By Different Groups A new claim surfaced, that the group which kidnapped (beheading victim) Kim Sun-il, the employee of Gana Trading Co., is different from the group which beheaded him. A high level official in (S. Korean) government said on June 25th, "Based on our investigation so far, we suspect that an armed group kidnapped Mr. Kim for ransom. However, their negotiation broke down over the amount of ransom (to be paid), and they turned Mr. Kim over to Tawhid wa al-Jihad(Zarqawi's group.) Paris Jamar, station chief of Al-Jazeera in Jordan, also...

U.S. and coalition actions in Afghanistan have forced terrorist groups operating there to change their strategies. So coalition forces continue to adapt their tactical approach in response, the top U.S. general in that country said today. Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, explained that Taliban forces used to attack coalition elements in large numbers, until they realized that would get them killed in large numbers. Today terrorists go after soft targets in smaller numbers, Barno said from Afghanistan in a video teleconference with Pentagon reporters. He said he sees enemy forces "adapting and changing (their)...