Free Republic

“Iran spends $700 million a year on Lebanese Hezbollah. It gives another $100 million to various Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas. Combined with the money that Tehran provides to other terrorists, the total bill comes close to $1 billion a year,” Ambassador Sales said...Evanoff warned that Iran-backed terror groups are spreading their influence across the Middle East, as in the case of Hezbollah’s branch in Iraq, which is openly in command of “Popular Mobilization Force” militia units sanctioned by the government in Baghdad...Sales refused to comment on media speculation that the Trump administration might designate the Houthi insurgency in Yemen...

When U.S. forces and their Afghan allies rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But after 17 years of war, the Taliban have retaken half the country, security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame squarely on the Americans. The United States has lost more than 2,400 soldiers in its longest war, and has spent more than $900 billion on everything from military operations to the construction of roads, bridges and power plants. Three U.S. presidents have pledged to bring peace to Afghanistan, either by adding or withdrawing troops, by engaging...

The standard view of World War I is that it is a testament to the futility of war. Yet maybe the better way to think of the war, which lasted from 1914 to 1918—including American participation in 1917-1918—is that if war comes, it’s better to win than to lose. [...] Most of the chronicling of that war is heavy on mournfulness, along with the implication that war solves nothing. Hence we see headlines such as “The Tragic Futility of World War I” and “The Most Unnecessary War in History.” Still, we are left to wonder: If the war was “futile”...

Amiremad Nayebyazdi, 32, was being held Tuesday in Oklahoma County jail without bail, according to records. A court affidavit said police received a tip Thursday from a longtime friend of Nayebyazdi living in California that the suspect had left a phone message for his sister in Iran saying “hundreds are going to die in Oklahoma City.” In the message, Nayebyazdi said, “Don’t tell mom and dad until after it is seen on the news,” the affidavit said. Nayebyazdi, who has a degree in petroleum engineering and worked for an oil company in Oklahoma City, was spotted at the Oklahoma City...

Sinead O'Connor has sparked outrage on Twitter by claiming she no longer wants to spend time with 'disgusting white people' after converting to Islam. The Irish singer, who now refers to herself as Shuhada' Davitt, apologised for her 'racist' tweet, but said said 'I never wanna spend time with white people again'. She branded 'white people' or 'non-Muslims' disgusting, before adding: 'interesting to see if Twitter bans this'. Later tweets posted by the former Catholic priest included the hashtag #TrustMeIAmaSoldier, #NotAsF*****CrazyAsSheLooks' and #ReignOfWhiteMANover. The 51-year-old, who has battled with her mental health over the years was met with a furious...

TEL AVIV – Ben & Jerry’s controversial decision to release a new anti-Trump flavor in collaboration with, among others, Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, has prompted the company’s Israel franchise, which is owned independently, to distance itself from the ice cream giant. The limited edition flavor, entitled Pecan Resist, “supports groups creating a more just and equitable nation for us all, and who are fighting President Trump’s regressive agenda,” the American company said in a statement Tuesday. Proceeds from the new flavor will go to four groups, including Women’s March, whose leaders are rabidly anti-Israel. Linda Sarsour, who was pictured...

The Anderson County Sheriff's Office said a traffic stop on I-85 has led to an investigation by a federal agency. Monday night, deputies said they initiated a traffic stop on I-85 near mile marker 11 in Anderson County. After making contact with the occupants of the vehicle, deputies said they called in a federal agency. The Department of Homeland security is currently investigating. Details are limited at this time.

Turkey announced the street leading to the new U.S. embassy being built will now be renamed to “Malcolm X Road” after the slain black Muslim civil right leader. According to Bloomberg News, news of the street rename came by way of a tweet made by Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour on Friday launched a racial attack against Sen. Susan Collins, saying the Maine Republican was guilty of espousing “white supremacy” with her decision to support the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Ms. Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, blasted Ms. Collins on Twitter as a “white woman” and the “mother & grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will hold a hearing Friday to examine a report that allowed two Bush administration officials to escape any formal punishment regarding their role in drafting the legal justification for the harsh interrogations of detainees. Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two former high-level Bush administration officials who drafted the legal basis for the Bush administration’s treatment of overseas terror suspects, escaped any formal punishment in a long-awaited Justice Department report released Friday evening. Leahy also called on federal appeals court judge Bybee to step down from the lifetime appointment over his role in the...

My trips to Israel have given me the impression that Golda Meir is a bigger hero in the United States than in Israel. In America, we see her as a great leader and an example of tolerance toward women. Some in Israel believe her to be a weak leader whose indecisiveness during the Yom Kippur War brought Israel within a whisker of being driven into the sea. My friend Avi who was a tank commander in the Sinai puts the blame for Israel’s near-defeat during the first few days of the Yom Kippur war squarely on the shoulders of Ms....

Communist agitators took to Twitter this week to brainstorm strategies for a violent armed insurrection against their perceived enemies. “Dr. Bones," the co-host of the far-left podcast The Guillotine, started the conversation going with his 5,000-plus Twitter followers. Bones (@Ole_Bonsey on Twitter) asked: “Hey quick little question for military minded lefties: should leftists train/organize in a 'insurgent' focus where they blend into a civilian population for potential attacks or a more 'militia' structure focused on holding/maintaining turf?” Bones went on to suggest that fellow travelers organize "hidden cells" and focus on ambushes and assassinations to bleed "right-leaning forces" dry. He...

Police near Los Angeles arrested a man following a traffic stop last week after they discovered two active IEDs in his vehicle. Saleh Ali, 47, is being charged with transportation and possession of destructive devices according to a press release by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Amnesty International is calling on senators to to halt the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over his "possible involvement" in human rights violations after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The human rights organization wrote in a Monday letter that Kavanaugh might have been involved "in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11." "More information must be made public to determine Kavanaugh’s role in relation to such practices," the organization wrote.

President Donald Trump said former President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in the Middle East was the biggest mistake in American history, in an interview published on Wednesday. “The worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country — going into the Middle East by President Bush,” Trump said in an interview with The Hill.TV. “Obama may have gotten ‘em out wrong, but going in is to me the biggest single mistake made in the history of our country.” Trump said that the American Civil War was “different” and that he could understand the motivations...

A British aid worker was killed Friday in a U.N. compound in the West Bank during a gunbattle between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen — the first senior U.N. official to die in over two years of fighting. The United Nations accused Israeli soldiers of preventing an ambulance from immediately reaching Iain Hook, a senior manager for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees. The Israeli army said he was evacuated from the U.N. compound in the Jenin refugee camp as soon as possible. The death occurred hours after Israel reoccupied the West Bank town of Bethlehem for the...

The State could face infringement proceedings by the EU or a third party if a Bill that would ban imports from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories is passed, the European Commission has warned. A Government official privately sought the advice of the Commission’s trade directorate last week on the proposed legislation, which is sponsored by Independent Senator Frances Black and passed its first vote in the Seanad in July with the support of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour and some independents. Fine Gael opposes the passage of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 on the basis...

The United States lost its bearings in Afghanistan long ago. Some of the Taliban’s most senior leaders escaped in late 2001, as did Osama bin Laden. They eventually regrouped and launched an insurgency that continues to engulf Afghanistan in violence. The Bush administration entered the war with a light footprint that was supposed to demonstrate the overwhelming technological superiority of American forces. The Taliban openly ridicules this view in its statements. The Bush administration added more soldiers to the fight over time, but the war effort was always secondary to other concerns. President Obama and his advisers made a conscious...

into accepting liberal values, into accepting feminism” Consider carefully what Dr. Abdur-Rafay says here: “Moreover, we’re being coerced, we’re being coerced into accepting liberal values, into accepting feminism, and undermining Islamic injunctions on homosexuality and marriage itself. In the post-9/11 era, the battle for Muslim hearts and minds seeks to produce a good Muslim- a good Muslim who believes in a secular Islam and an American Islam.” Yet the political and media elites want us to take for granted that all Muslims in the U.S. believe in a secular Islam, an American Islam, that accepts feminism and gay rights and...

The protection of Palestinian civilians could be improved by the deployment of U.N.-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers, a beefed-up U.N. civilian presence or expanded U.N. assistance, Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a report on Friday. The United Nations General Assembly requested the report in a resolution adopted in June that condemned Israel for excessive force against Palestinian civilians and denounced the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas, but did not mention Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. The resolution asked for proposals to ensure “the safety, protection and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under...