Free Republic

Last night Donald Trump ordered an attack on Syria. In less than 100 days, Trump has taken more action against Assad than obama did in eight years. The attack was appropriate, measured and proportional. It sent a message. To Assad and to North Korea. Trump did not have to set a red line and then walk away from it. President Obama’s decision to hold off on military action against the Assad regime after signaling that it was on the cards in response to last summer’s chemical weapons attack made the U.S. “appear weak,” former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said...

Federal auditors are questioning more than $500,000 in Hurricane Sandy debris removal costs in Belmar, saying the town awarded two contracts that did not comply with federal rules and lacked paperwork to support other expenses. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General today released its findings about the hard-hit Monmouth County borough, marking the third time a federal audit of a Jersey Shore town’s debris removal work following the storm has been made public. The way two contractors charged for cleanup work accounted for more than half of the expenses flagged in Belmar’s audit. Federal auditors said Belmar...

A statement issued Tuesday says the department has ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen "due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks." The travel warning says U.S. citizens currently in Yemen should depart and calls the security threat level in Yemen "extremely high." A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat told The Associated Press that the current shutdown was instigated by an intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack. Britain's Foreign Office says it has evacuated all staff from its embassy in...

Intelligence regarding al Qaeda plans to attack U.S. embassies, officials, and interests last Sunday was known for months by U.S. intelligence agencies but was used only recently to trigger the closure of embassies and issuance of public warnings of impending attacks. Al Qaeda “chatter” about coming terrorist operations, mainly against 22 U.S. embassies and consulates, and threats to attack or bomb officials in the Middle East and elsewhere was widely reported in classified intelligence reports over several months. The report said an attack was planned for Sunday, although no attack was carried out. The intelligence was based on electronic surveillance...

The Real Crime of Pearl Harbor by Lawrence Reed [May 26, 2001]In casting for the almost three-hour epic, "Pearl Harbor," Hollywood forgot seventeen-year-old Lawrence McCutcheon, a U.S. Navy seaman from Gridley, California.  No character in the movie portrays McCutcheon, the first of 2,476 Americans killed on that fateful day, December 7, 1941.  The young patriot was serving his country high up in the foremast of the battleship Maryland when the first of hundreds of Japanese planes began machine gunning the men on the decks of American vessels lined up like sitting ducks.Leaving heroes like McCutcheon to the footnotes of the history books,...