Free Republic

<p>The United States has added a Muslim separatist group to a State Department list of terrorist organizations, overriding human-rights concerns about China's repression of Muslim religious and political freedoms in the far west region of the country.</p> <p>The U.S. has criticized China's treatment of the Muslim ethnic Uighur people, but relations with Beijing have improved dramatically because of China's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and Washington has acknowledged that China has suffered several small-scale terrorist attacks at the hands of Uighur militants. The decision to place the East Turkistan Islamic Movement on list of groups subject to financial sanctions came "after careful study," said deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who met with Chinese officials Monday in Beijing.</p>

Saudis to be pressed on kidnapped Americans Rep. Dan Burton leads delegation to kingdom on behalf of parents By Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee will lead a congressional delegation to Saudi Arabia to discuss American citizens who have been kidnapped and taken to the kingdom – some held against their will. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., whose committee held hearings into the issue June 12, will lead the bipartisan delegation, according to committee staffers. The members will "meet with senior Saudi officials, including Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal," said...

Israel Bonds soar in sputtering U.S. economy By Haim Handwerker NEW YORK - Even though he has headed Israel Bonds for half a year, Yehoshua Matza could be considered one of the organization's most successful presidents in history. Since Matza's arrival to New York in February, Israel Bonds has recorded record-breaking sales, raising close to $861 million by the end of July, 32 percent more than the previous year. The treasury has asked Israel Bonds to raise $1.25 billion by the end of the year, and if current sales figures hold, they will probably surpass that goal. Matza may claim...

<p>FORT PICKETT, Va. (AP) In little more than 100 years in the United States, kudzu has marched across farm fields, shoved aside native plants and disrupted ecosystems with its smothering blanket of green leaves.</p> <p>Now, the nearly indestructible vine is taking on the Army.</p>

The Bolshevik Canard An essay by Richard J. Green Holocaust deniers and Nazi-apologists often make some very revealing claims regarding Jews, Bolshevism, and Stalinism. They often claim that Bolshevism was a Jewish movement that resulted in mass murder of Christians on a scale much larger than the Final Solution. The implication is that even though the Holocaust did not happen, the Jews deserved it and/or the fact that Stalinists committed mass murder somehow diminishes the fact that the Nazis and their accomplices committed mass murder. Even if the Holocaust-deniers and Nazi-apologists had their facts straight, one would have to wonder...

Sunday, 11 August, 2002, 20:19 GMT 21:19 UK Difficult times for Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's oil revenues are shrinking By Frank Gardner For Saudi Arabia, these are testing times. King Fahd's health is failing, the economy faces massive problems, al-Qaeda is stirring inside the country, the Americans want a war with Iraq next door. And now, Saudi Arabia has been described by a respected US think thank as "a sponsor of terror at all levels" - could things get any worse? There are no plans to overthrow Saudi Arabia's many princes Unfortunately for the Saudis, they probably will. The country's...

Is Michigan a Terror Stronghold? A police report obtained by Newsweek calls Detroit “a lucrative recruiting area and potential support base for international groups.” By Keith Naughton NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 20 — With one of the largest populations of Arabs outside the Middle East, Detroit and its surrounding suburbs have become fertile ground for terrorism fund-raising and recruiting. “The Detroit/Dearborn area is a major financial support center for many Mideast terrorist groups,” according to a Michigan State Police report obtained by NEWSWEEK. “Southeast Michigan is known as a lucrative recruiting area and potential support base for international terrorist groups....

Brutality and Dictatorship: How Islam Affects Society By Marvin Olasky World Magazine Winning this new war on terrorism starts with an understanding of the enemy and his worldview. CBN.com - WORLD MAGAZINE -- These basic differences in theology have implications not only for individuals but for society as a whole. Let's look at five in particular. Christianity by its very nature is about the one and the many, monotheism with a trinity. Muslims think there is a tension in holding firmly to both, and they are right. That tension has pushed Christians to build a society that emphasizes both unity...

A Palestinian girls' high school near Hebron nearly had its US funding cut, after the State Department learned it had renamed itself after a terrorist, sources said. The Haj Issa school had recently decided to call itself the Dalal Mughrabi school. Mughrabi is a female terrorist who took part in the killing of 36 Israelis and one US citizen in 1978. The school is receiving thousands of dollars in funding for renovation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) via ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), a non-governmental organization. Palestinian Media Watch, a Web site that tracks the Palestinian...

U.S. TRANSFERS PARTS OF JERUSALEM CONSULATE WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States plans to move portions of its consulate out of the Arab-populated sector of Jerusalem amid rising threats of an Islamic attack. The State Department said it would transfer media and other services from the consulate in the eastern and Arab-populated sector of Jerusalem to an undisclosed location. The department has been warning diplomats and staffers of the rising threat of Palestinian suicide attacks in Jerusalem. "The move is solely intended to address significant security concerns, which we've been looking at for some time," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker...

Boost for Israeli food exports to the US By AMY MICHAELS New York – With the current political situation having taken a bite out of food industry revenues, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is launching a campaign later this month to boost food exports to the United States. “The Israeli market in general is weaker because of the slowdown in the economy so we are trying to give it a push,” said Zohar Peri, Israel’s Economic Minister Representative to North America. “We are starting with the food industry because it has lost a lot of revenue and if things...

Israel Has A Moral Right To Its Life Why reason and justice are on Israel's side By Yaron Brook and Peter Schwartz As yet another appalling suicide bombing takes place in Israel, killing 19 people and wounding dozens more on a bus packed with schoolchildren in Jerusalem--as Hamas claims credit for the massacre--America's policymakers still insist on seeking an "even-handed," diplomatic solution. In the past 18 months, Israel's six million citizens have suffered 12,480 terrorist attacks. They have buried more than 400 victims—a per-capita death toll six times that of America on September 11. Yet, in an abhorrent act of...

US talk-show host Alan Keyes: Killing Shehadeh was justified By ELLI WOHLGELERNTER The IDF's bombing of Hamas commander Salah Shehedeh in Gaza City last week, which resulted in civilian casualties, was fully justified in the fight against terrorism, and no different than America's bombing in Afghanistan which also killed civilians, according to US talk-show host and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. "To ask whether or not terrible as it may seem I'm going after this critical element of this enemy's war-making capacity, and in order to achieve that, I will take the risk of these civilian casualties, I don't believe...

Yesha Leaders Find Receptive Ear On Capitol Hill Posted 7/24/2002 By Avraham Shmuel Lewin, Israel Correspondent TEL AVIV — During a visit to Washington last week, leaders of Jewish settlement communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) heard from leading members of Congress that in their view the Oslo agreement is “dead.” The lawmakers also expressed their belief that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has backtracked from his support of a Palestinian state. Ezra Rosenfeld, head of the Yesha Council Foreign Desk, told The Jewish Press that one of the main purposes of the visit was to communicate to the American political...

Rumsfeld may quit Pentagon to take on top Homeland role White House insiders say President Bush may ask Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to assume command of the new Department of Homeland Security when Congress completes work on the massive government reorganization plan in the months to come. Under this scenario, Rumsfeld’s Pentagon post would go to his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, a veteran administrator who has also held several key diplomatic posts. Speculation over the new Cabinet post has focused on former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who has coordinated homeland duties for the White House since shortly after the Sept....

Ettinger: U.S. Knows Why It Issued Only A Weak Condemnation In response to American and international criticism of the Israeli assassination of arch-terrorist Salah Shehada that led to the deaths of nine Arab children, analyst Yoram Ettinger, Israel's former liaison to the U.S. Congress, has prepared a list of United States attacks in which civilian lives were not taken into consideration. "The list actually goes beyond Afghanistan," Ettinger told Arutz-7 today. "For instance, in 1989, the US invaded Panama City in order to free [the ruling strongman] Noriega, using jets and helicopters. Six hundred civilians were killed in that raid,...

<p>NEW YORK — A Christian group is going to federal court to force the University of North Carolina from requiring its incoming freshmen to read a book about the Quran.</p> <p>The university requirement is "putting a positive face on what many people believe to be an evil religion, a very evil religion," said Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network.</p>

Allies complain Saudis funding 7,000 Islamic seminaries SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Friday, July 19, 2002 WASHINGTON — U.S. allies have complained that Gulf states' funding for 7,000 Islamic seminaries around the world is helping train a new generation of militants, members of Congress said yesterday. In a hearing of the House International Relations Committee which focused on U.S. anti-terrorism efforts in South Asia, they said the funding comes largely from Saudi Arabia and is sent to seminaries in such countries as Bosnia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Rep. Edward Royce, a California Republican, said U.S. allies in Central Asia have been urging...

-SNIP- Federal investigations into the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and a related plot to blow up New York landmarks discovered the names of black Americans associated with the "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, now serving a life term for his part in the bombing conspiracy. Among those convicted in the same plot was U.S.-born Rodney Hampton-el, a former New York clinic worker and ex-moujahedeen volunteer in Afghanistan. -SNIP- The Seattle investigation turns on the notion that foreign terrorists may have recruited on U.S. soil among African American Muslims, and may even have sponsored a "jihad training camp" in...

Powell Seeks Top Consular Official's Resignation By Susan Schmidt and Glenn Kessler Secretary of State Colin L. Powell asked for the resignation of the department's top consular official amid growing criticism about lax standards for U.S. visas, including new details about a visa fraud scheme at the U.S. Embassy in Qatar. Assistant Secretary of State Mary Ryan, the longest-serving diplomat in the State Department, was asked to resign from the U.S. Foreign Service after nine years as head of consular affairs. As a "career ambassador," Ryan was the Foreign Service equivalent of a four-star general. LINK