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Trucker Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban is what trucker/terrorist-wannabe, Mohammed Yousef Mullawala dreamed he could be. Mullawala is facing deportation on various charges, including suspicious activities surrounding his brief attendance at the Nationwide Tractor Trailer School in Rhode Island. Unlike Mullawala, Shaaban was the real deal – a terrorist spy hiding behind the steering wheel of a big truck. The story of Shaaban is as captivating as it is unsettling. The Palestinian-born Russian-educated Shaaban settled in Greenfield, Indiana, with his family and worked as a truck driver for CLM Freight Lines in nearby Indianapolis. According to reports, his commercial driver’s...

1990: Iraq invades Kuwait More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers backed up by 700 tanks invaded the Gulf state of Kuwait in the early hours of this morning. Iraqi forces have established a provisional government and their leader Saddam Hussein has threatened to turn Kuwait city into a "graveyard" if any other country dares to challenge the "take-over by force".

There are two bans on drilling–one by Congress and one by an White House executive order put in place by President Bush’s father. Why won’t the son revoke that order NOW if he truly believes expanding American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf is an urgent priority. I quoted the Institute for Energy Research last week: “Mr. Bush, Tear Up That Offshore Drilling Ban.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Navy admiral engaged in sexual relations in the White House in 1990 with a federal employee whom he falsely told he was a widower, according to a report released Friday by the Defense Department. In March, when the report was submitted to Pentagon officials, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff. Stufflebeem told investigators he couldn't remember the name of the woman he had an affair with. He also lied when he told investigators he did not engage in sexual relations with the woman, identified as...

When pressed about the harmful effects on the economy, proponents of higher taxes often fall back on what can be called the "Clinton defense." President Clinton pushed a major tax increase through Congress in 1993 and, so the story goes, the economy boomed. How then can tax increases be so bad for the economy? The inference is even stronger--that higher taxes actually strengthened the economy. The Clinton defense is superficially plausible, but it fails under closer scrutiny. Economic growth was solid but hardly spectacular in the years immediately following the 1993 tax increase; the real economic boom occurred in the...

Fewer women choose abortions, and those that do increasingly use morning-after medication to accomplish it, according to a new study from a pro-abortion group. The rate of all abortions continues to drop, and has now reached its lowest level since 1990: A comprehensive study of abortion in America underscores a striking change in the landscape, with ever-fewer pregnant women choosing abortion and those who do increasingly opting to avoid surgical clinics. The number of abortions has plunged to 1.2 million a year, down 25% since peaking in 1990, according to a report released today -- days before the 35th anniversary...

WASHINGTON - A suspected Hezbollah mole who penetrated who penetrated the ranks of the FBI and CIA pleaded guilty Tuesday to falsely getting U.S. citizenship and snooping in FBI terrorism files. Former waitress Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, of Vienna, Va., admitted arranging a sham marriage with an American in Michigan to win U.S. citizenship. She parlayed that into sensitive jobs as an FBI special agent and a CIA operations officer, sources said. Sources told The News that Prouty is believed to be a double-agent planted in the agencies by Hezbollah or its supporters, though government officials downplayed her ties to...

The word "reinvent" is a dumb term, having an overtone of redundancy. After all, when you have invented something, it exists. You can revise it or change it, but you can't "reinvent" it after you have already invented it. I never heard the term when I first entered the workforce. But somewhere in the 1970s or so, corporate executives-began using the word, and using it a lot. Then as now, the nation had its usual economic ups and downs, but suddenly after one downturn, our nation was heavily laden with companies that had reinvented themselves. What happened is that after...

From the Maha - CLINTON: I think handling the aftermath of a natural disaster is different than preventing a terrorist attack. I actually believe that the federal government has been quite good about that, in spite of the breakdowns that led up to 9/11. There were any number of terrorist attacks prevented in the 1990s and there have been a lot of terrorist cells broken up -- CLINTON: Well, I would repeal the tax cuts for upper income people. I myself have gotten four tax cuts while young Americans have gone off to risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,...

The very same day that the Clintons go to Long Island to meet with the TWA Flight 800 families, security guard Richard Jewell is patrolling the grounds of Centennial Park in Atlanta. He's a little Barney Fife-ish, but a good guy and very observant. Right around midnight, Jewell spots a large, olive-green, military-style backpack, known as an Alice pack, under a bench. He immediately shares this information with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. When the GBI cannot find the pack's owner, the GBI officer and Jewell begin to clear an area around the pack. Soon afterward, the pack explodes. Two...

For most Americans, February 14 was Valentine's Day, the most insipid holiday on the calendar. The date deserves to be better known for another reason. On February 14, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader and revolutionary dictator of Iran, pronounced a fatwa (an Islamic legal judgment) against the British novelist Salman Rushdie. It said: It is not outlandish to think of the World Trade Center towers as The Satanic Verses, magnified immeasurably but not beyond all recognition. "In the name of Him, the Highest. There is only one God, to whom we shall all return. I inform all zealous...

No single act or piece of legislation by itself created the pension crisis that threatens to overwhelm the state and many local governments in California. The pension mess stems from a series of bad decisions, of fiscally reckless votes (many of them self-serving) in the Legislature, in city councils and county boards of supervisors. Still, in the state's downward spiral into a deep hole of pension debt, the passage of SB 2465 more than a decade ago stands out. On the last night of the 1990 legislative session, the innocuous contents of SB 2465 were gutted on the Assembly floor...

The Arab world is all one big happy family again. OK, dysfunctional, but happy. No, well, unhappy and as twisted as usual. While visiting Kuwait today, Palestinian presidential front-runner, Mahmoud Abbas, apologized for his people’s support of Saddam’s invasion of the Gulf emirate in 1990. Isn’t that special? (remember Dana Carvey as the “Church Lady” on SNL?). This happened just after Kuwait’s sultans (or whatever they’re called) forgave the Palestinian people for supporting Saddam’s invasion. Kuwait’s leadership went so far as to say they didn’t even expect a public apology for Palestinian support of the 1990 war. Now, isn’t that...

SEN. PELL: My time has expired. I turn to the ranking Minority member. We're both just back from a trip -- as many of us on the committee are -- from a trip to the Gulf area. Thank you. Senator Helms. SEN. JESSE HELMS (R-NC): Mr. Secretary, you remember things in life, and I think I shall never forget going to the farthest advanced unit of the Marine expeditionary force, right behind the Saudis. I was expecting to hear a lot of guys complaining and -- cause it was 125 degrees there in that hot sand. SEN. KERRY: 128 [degrees]....

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I support this resolution which I believe sends an unequivocal signal to Saddam Hussein that the Senator is in total agreement with the President and the international community in actions taken thus far to force the Iraqi, withdrawal from Kuwait. In so doing, it should be pointed out that this resolution is not a Gulf of Tonkin resolution on the Persian Gulf. Quite the contrary, this resolution reflects the near unanimity of the global community in condemning this aggressive act by a brutal dictator. Unlike our experience in Vietnam, the United States is not acting unilaterally...

The Candidate With No Name By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 29, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms ”Defeat Bush – VOTE In 2004!” I’ve seen more bumper-stickers with this platitude than I’ve seen ones that simply state, “Kerry/Edwards 2004.” While my liberal friends rarely mention Kerry and Edwards, they constantly remind me of how much they hate President Bush. This year, the politics of hate rule. The Left doesn’t even have a candidate. They are galvanized mainly by visceral hatred -- a hatred which stands on shaky assumptions, like the lies that Michael Moore sells as truths. In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore insinuates that...

Laurie Mylroie writes: An "Iraq News" subscriber, Pierre Legrand, has posted the following on his website. "Iraq News" has verified it is an accurate reproduction of the NYT report. On July 25, 1990, on the eve of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein warned US Ambasssador April Glaspie: "We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you." THE NEW YORK TIMES...

Larry King is going to rerun on Sunday, June 13, his 1990 interview with Ronald Reagan. Tonight he had his February 6, 2001 interview with Nancy on, plus the tour of the library. I am still crying and sniffling. They showed her singing to him at the White House -- a Gershwin tune. Just amazing. His show is repeated here in PDT at 9 p.m.

December 3, 2002 C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet SmallpoxBy JUDITH MILLER he C.I.A. is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times, senior American officials and foreign scientists say. The officials said several American scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja N. Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago. The information came to...

April in July On July 25, 1990, eight days before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a quiet, largely unreported meeting took place between Saddam Hussein and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, which has since been destroyed by the war. The transcript of this meeting is as follows: U.S. Ambassador Glaspie: "I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait. (pause) As you know, I have lived here for years...

I've been reading some of Kerry's Senate speeches concerning Iraq and Saddam, there are some doosies. I hope to use this thread as a place to post them and let other freepers read and add to them. Please feel free to add any other statements by Kerry. This should be fun.

A few weeks ago, Sen. John Kerry, who proudly refuses all political action committee money, flew to a Houston reception held by an oil and gas company and picked up $ 10,000 in campaign contributions from people associated with the firm. Shortly thereafter, Kerry called for public financing of elections, saying the public thinks that "the system is rigged, that special interests get special favors because they contribute money to politicians." Asked about the Houston donations, Kerry said in an interview that it was not special-interest money because it came from individuals associated with the company rather than a political...

Below you will find a vote and statement of John Kerry in the 101st Congress relating to the first Gulf War. Congressional Record -- Senate Thursday, August 2, 1990; (Legislative day of Tuesday, July 10, 1990) 101st Cong. 2nd Sess. 136 Cong Rec S 11896 S. RES. 318 – Vote (John Kerry Votes YEA) Whereas Iraq during the 1980's, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, has demonstrated a blatant disregard for international law and all standards of human decency, building a heinous record of atrocity and carnage; Whereas in 1980 Iraq's invasion of Iran began the Iran-Iraq war, which became one of...

Federal Workforce Is Largest Since 1990 By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, September 5, 2003; Page A19 The government has grown so much under the Bush administration that the federal workforce is the largest it has been since the end of the Cold War, a new study says. In a reversal of years of downsizing, about 12.1 million people worked for the federal government in 2002, according to the study by the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service. That is more than at any other time since 1990, when the figure was 12.6 million. The vast majority of...

<p>As U.S. troops push closer to Baghdad, global debt collectors aren't far behind.</p> <p>A vast array of corporate, sovereign and individual claimants, including South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. and the Russian government, are already preparing to seek compensation for at least $100 billion owed by Saddam Hussein's regime.</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...