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Ever heard of Nahmdi Auchi? Mr. Auchi was the financier for long-time Barak Obama friend and fund-raiser Tony Rezko. Mr. Auchi is the cousin of Saddam Hussein and his co-conspirator in the 1959 failed assassination attempt of the Iraqi Prime Minister. Although he eventually left Iraq in 1981 and became a British citizen, Auchi prospered mightily under Saddam, becoming a billionaire and pillar of British society (He ranks 279 on the Forbes list of the richest people) He was convicted of committing fraud in France in 2004 (only had to pay a fine) and has been barred from entering the...

"Recently" I traveled up to the Campus of Columbia University to do some research on BHO's "missing years" as a student at Columbia College. This is my report (fwiw). I looked through every page of every issue of The Columbia Spectator published during bho's time on campus (Aug1981-Jun1983). No smoking guns. Nothing of any great immediate value BUT some interesting leads for further pursuit and some strange stuff to report... First, what I didn't find is almost as interesting as what I did find... * BHO is never mentioned in the paper during the period * No photographs of BHO...

The mainstream press steadfastly refuses to delve into Barack Obama’s radicalism, his Leftist revolutionary collaboration with self-identified communists from Frank Marshall Davis to Bill Ayers. The McCain campaign, moreover, has contributed mightily to the whitewash by ineptly seizing on the issue’s least important aspect: Obama’s abject dishonesty about the depth of his relationships with committed Leftists — e.g., the portrayal of Ayers as just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” (Petrified of being smeared as a racist, McCain has never mentioned Davis, whom Obama identifies only as “Frank” in his memoir. And, of course, utterance of Jeremiah Wright’s name...

A bloody robbery attempt brings a roundup of '60s fugitives The armored Brink's truck pulled up to the Nanuet National Bank near suburban Nyack, N. Y., shortly before 4 p.m. and two guards began loading $1.6 million in cash. Suddenly three armed men in ski masks jumped out of a red van and opened fire. One guard was killed instantly and the other critically wounded. The three bandits and an accomplice dashed off with the loot. "They didn't even ask them to hand over the money," declared an incredulous witness. "They just blasted away." The robbers changed conveyances at a...

You might not think that incest and Pakistan have much in common, but I think I may be on to something here. First, calm down and take a deep breath. Unlike SNL, I am not trying to argue that people I have political disagreements with are incestuous. The connection has nothing to do with Islam or the people of Pakistan. With that in mind, let’s walk through the thought process. The recent bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan has again turned our attention to that troubled country. Most Americans have no idea of what it must be like...

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts: 1. Commitment to God 2. Commitment to the Black Community 3. Commitment to the Black Family 4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education 5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence 6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic 7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and...

President Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address West Front of the U.S. Capitol January 20, 1981

The Israelis have bombed a French-built nuclear plant near Iraq's capital, Baghdad, saying they believed it was designed to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant. An undisclosed number of F-15 interceptors and F-16 fighter bombers destroyed the Osirak reactor 18 miles south of Baghdad, on the orders of Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The army command said all the Israeli planes returned safely. The 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no danger of a leak, according to sources in...

Polish court sentences 15 policemen in 1981 massacre at coal mine Reuters Published: May 31, 2007 WARSAW: A Polish court Thursday sentenced 15 Communist-era riot policemen to up to 11 years in prison for killing nine striking miners protesting against the 1981 martial law that crushed the Solidarity union. The sentence came after years of failed attempts to prosecute those responsible for the shootings, the bloodiest incident of martial law. Thousands of Poles were arrested and Solidarity was banned until communism collapsed in 1989. "This is good news for Polish society, good news for the public sense of justice," Kazimierz...

Poland's War Remembering martial law 25 years later By Chai Woodham Last week marked the 25th anniversary of General Wojciech Jaruzelski declaring martial law in Poland. His desperate act on December 13, 1981, came in reaction to the rising tide of pro-democracy sentiment in the country, then a satellite state of the Soviet Union, and left the country in a military lockdown for more than a year. The government closed borders, banned driving, reinforced censorship and reinstated a six-day workweek. Thousands lost their jobs because they failed "verification" tests that questioned their loyalty to the regime. To commemorate those tragic...

Katowice celebrates 25th anniversary of Wujek Tragedy 16.12.2006 Poland continues its commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the martial law. Today in Katowice President Lech Kaczynski, city authorities and local citizens commemorate the anniversary of brutal pacification of the Wujek coalmine, in which nine miners were murdered and fifty wounded. The coalmine went on strike when the martial law was introduced, on the third day of the strike it was attacked by armed police forces and the army. The president has already met widows and orphans of the murdered miners, the official part of the commemoration is scheduled for the...

Anniversary of Communist 'lesser evil' of 1981 12.12.2006 One hour before midnight on December 12th 1981, all telephone connections in Poland had been broken. Radio and television programs had been discontinued at midnight. Army units with tanks and special riot police squads rolled out of their garrisons. First arrests were made among Solidarity leadership and the most active union members. During the night, with the official date of December 13th , the State Council issued a decree proclaiming martial law throughout the country. The erstwhile Communist rulers with general Wojciech Jaruzelski at the helm of the Military Council For National...

Sheik Jamal Said stood before the packed mosque and worked the crowd like an auctioneer. Speaking Arabic, the prayer leader asked for a donation of $10,000. No one responded. He asked for $5,000, and three men raised their hands. < SNIP> The recipient of the worshipers' generosity was Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian activist accused by the U.S. government of aiding terrorists. And the prayer leader's passionate appeal is a reflection of the ascendancy of Muslim hard-liners at the mosque, one of the most outspoken and embattled in the U.S. The mosque did not become this way without a struggle. Relying...

PESHAWAR, Aug 18: A son-in-law of Al Qaeda No 2 Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri is believed to be the mastermind of the plot to blow up transatlantic flights and he met one or some of the plotters at a place close to the Pakistan-Afghan border, credible sources told Dawn. “The mastermind in the planes bombing plot is Zawahiri’s son-in-law,” said the sources who did not want to be named. “He is the guy being looked for,” they added. Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant is known to have several sons-in-law. One of them was reported to have been killed in a...

Saudi ambassador salutes 1981 strike on Iraqi nuclear reactor Saudi ambassador salutes Israeli 1981 strike on Iraqi nuclear reactor www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3236054,00.html Turki al-Faisal, speaking in San Francisco, says Israel's 1981 strike on Iraqi nuclear reactor was 'certainly a positive move' Itamar Eichner YNET 4 April 2006 Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States Turki al-Faisal expressed support for Israel's strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear facility in 1981. Al-Faisal said that the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor by Israel was certainly a positive step, during a speech on foreign relations in San Francisco. The prince said that a region clear...

On Wednesday, January 18, I received an e-mail from someone identifying himself as “Ahmed.” He wrote to me that he was a “Muslim activist” and that he wanted me to come on his radio show to discuss my work, or, in his words, “to give [my] side of the story.” In doing a simple web search on his e-mail address, it turned out that this individual was none other than the Director of Communications for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab. While I didn’t know his motives in contacting me, I had recalled when...

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) --The fugitive founder of a violent Puerto Rican independence group was killed in a gunfight with federal agents at a mountain farmhouse in western Puerto Rico, the FBI said Sunday. Filiberto Ojeda Rios, 72, opened fire on agents who were trying to arrest him at a house in the Hormigueros area of Puerto Rico on Friday, the FBI said. Ojeda Rios was killed, and an FBI agent was shot in the stomach and severely wounded, the agency said. Ojeda Rios was the founder and leader of Puerto Rico's radical Boricua Popular Army, which sought independence for the...

<p>September 17, 2002 -- NEW Jersey voters already concerned about Sen. Robert Torricelli's low ethical threshold now learn that he's been a paid shill for a group the government identifies as a terrorist organization. Called on this by his Republican opponent, Douglas Forrester, in a debate Thursday, Torricelli said the group had been pulled from the State Department's global terror list and given a clean bill of health. Not true.</p>

Jaruzelski to answer for martial law of 1981 07.09.2005 The Silesian Office of The National Remembrance Institute is considering charging former communist ruler general Wojciech Jaruzelski with illegal introduction of martial law in December 1981. However, in the opinion of its spokesperson Ewa Koj, the official indictment might not be filed in October, as suggested by the press. Before that could happen thousands of documents have to be reviewed by the Institute’s prosecutors to confirm the absence of arguments used by the general in the past that he made the decision to avert the imminent and direct threat of Soviet...

Israeli military blow would not annihilate Iran’s nuclear capability. We can talk and fantasize about annihilating Iran’s nuclear capability with one bold IDF thrust, similar to the destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981. The truth is that it is much more complicated, perhaps even impossible. As opposed to the Iraqi nuclear reactor, the Iranian nuclear program is decentralized, departmentalized, underground and clandestine. The U.S. and Israel believe efforts, including the European initiative to link economic incentives with the eradication of Iran’s nuclear program and the U.S.’s threats of sanctions, to prevent Iran from stockpiling nuclear weapons, will prove futile....

Tax evasion charges were filed yesterday before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the makers of the bulletproof "Popemobile" used by Pope John Paul II during World Youth Day celebrations in Manila in January 1995. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) lodged the complaint against the two top officials of Italcar Pilipinas who are also owners of Francisco Motors Corp. (FMC), which assembled the vehicle, and the comptroller of Italcar. BIR Commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. said Italcar Pilipinas, a wholly owned subsidiary of FMC, is engaged in the importation and sale of motor vehicles. Charged were Fernando Francisco, managing director,...

Top Stories - AFP 1981 attack on pope planned by Soviets: report Wed Mar 30, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - AFP ROME (AFP) - New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said. AFP/ANSA/File Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Pope John Paul II The Corriere della Sera said that the documents found by the German government indicated that the KGB ordered Bulgarian colleagues to carry out the killing, leaving the East...

1981 March 30 President Reagan Shot John Hinkley shoots President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. just after the President had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinkley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting. Fortunately, he was a poor shot and most of the bullets did not explode as they were supposed to. Hinkley's first shot hit press secretary James Brady and other shots wounded a police officer and a Secret Service agent. The final shot hit Reagan's...

New documents found in the files of the former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian agents, an Italian daily said on Wednesday. The Corriere della Sera said that the documents found by the German government indicated that the KGB ordered Bulgarian colleagues to carry out the killing, leaving the East German service known as the Stasi to coordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. Bulgaria then handed the execution of the plot to Turkish extremists, including Mehmet Ali Agca, who...

1981: President Reagan is shot President Ronald Reagan has been shot and wounded after a lone gunman opened fire in Washington. He is currently undergoing emergency surgery at George Washington University Hospital but there are unconfirmed reports he walked in unaided. Initial reports claim he may have a punctured lung. Five to six shots were fired as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel where he had been addressing a union convention, about one mile from the White House. A man, firing at close range, also wounded White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. A Secret Service official and...

War brutalizes man, every afghan bears living testimony to this. If the landscape of Afghanistan bears the craters of the endless war, the political and military leadership in Afghanistan also carries war's indelible scars. It is important never to lose sight of this. Ahmed Shah Mas'ud was born to an army family in 1953 in the Panjshir Valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul. His father was a colonel in the Afghan Army and enrolled his son at Kabul's Lycee Istiqlal High School. Upon graduation Mas'ud joined Kabul's Polytechnic Institute. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was deposed and exiled by...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

In their (iraqis') frustration for a successful offensive against Iran on the northern front between 12th and 22nd March of 1981, Iraq fired two Frog-7 surface-to-surface Rockets against cities of Dezful and Ahwaz. Within days after this attack, commanders of the 31st and 32nd Tactical Fighter Wing in Shahrokhi Tactical Air Base (TAB 3, near Hamadan) planned a counter attack. According to Iranian intelligence, the Iraqi Air Force removed most of her valuable assets to its Al-Wallid air base on the Baghdad-Amman highway close to Jordanian border, part of H-3 complex. There at least two squadrons equipped with ten Tu-22B...

Father Hesburgh, I thank you very much and for so many things. The distinguished honor that you've conferred upon me here today, I must say, however, compounds a sense of guilt that I have nursed for almost 50 years. I thought the first degree I was given was honorary. [Laughter] But it's wonderful to be here today with Governor Orr, Governor Bowen, Senators Lugar and Quayle, and Representative Hiler, these distinguished honorees, the trustees, administration, faculty, students, and friends of Notre Dame and, most important, the graduating class of 1981. I'm the fifth President of the United States to address...

The first American victory in the war on terror was won by Ronald Reagan, and it happened on Jan. 20, 1981, the first day of his presidency.That was when the jihadists running the Islamic Republic of Iran released 52 American hostages precisely as Reagan took the oath of office. After 444 days of humbling Jimmy Carter, the rulers in Tehran decided to conclude their drama at the U.S. embassy before they had to face the new president. This marked the first of Reagan’s foreign policy successes.To begin, some background: When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the shah of Iran in February...

The first American victory in the war on terror was won by Ronald Reagan, and it happened on Jan. 20, 1981, the first day of his presidency. That was when the jihadists running the Islamic Republic of Iran released 52 American hostages precisely as Reagan took the oath of office. After 444 days of humbling Jimmy Carter, the rulers in Tehran decided to conclude their drama at the U.S. embassy before they had to face the new president. This marked the first of Reagan's foreign policy successes. To begin, some background: When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the shah of Iran...

1981: Tehran frees US hostages after 444 days The 52 American hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran for more than 14 months have arrived in West Germany on their way home to the United States. The former diplomats and embassy staff stepped from the plane onto the tarmac at Wiesbaden airport looking tired but elated after their 4,000-mile (6,437km) flight from Iran. Some waved to the crowd of well-wishers who had gathered, others gave the V-for-victory sign. Iran finally agreed to release the hostages after the US said it would release assets frozen in American and other...

<p>The author of a new book detailing a plan to use a Trojan horse embedded in stolen software to wage economic war against the Soviet Union fired back Thursday at charges the book's revelations are "rubbish."</p> <p>Thomas C. Reed, a former secretary of the Air Force and special assistant to President Reagan, detailed the stunning story in At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War.</p>

<p>Granted, there is upheaval in the world and there are battles where a great deal is at stake -- life itself. All the more precious, then, the minor skirmishes on the home front that mean a great deal in a small way and remind us of how lucky we are to feel innocent hatreds, from summer to summer, at the ballpark.</p>

FEDS TAKE PROPERTY FOR A TRAIL; TAKE TAXPAYERS FOR A RIDE William Perry Pendley President and Chief Legal Officer   On May 22, 2002, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ordered the United States to pay J. Paul and Patricia Preseault of Burlington, Vermont, for the unconstitutional taking of their property, that is, without paying for it. The United States was ordered to pay: $234,000, plus interest from the February 5, 1986, date of the taking, for a total of $551,931.30; and $894,855.60 in attorneys' fees. The United States will be writing a check for $1,446,786.90! The United States...