Free Republic

This article was from 1997 - pretty recent history. More recent than what Obama proposes.

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 18, 2002 THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much for that kind welcome. I'm here for a couple of reasons. First, I want to thank you all for your service to the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. (Applause.) I'm here to celebrate National Homeownership Month, because I believe owning a home is an essential part of economic security. And I'm concerned about the security of America. (Applause.) ... One of the things that we've got to do is to address problems straight on and deal with them...

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...

THE US must choose between supporting Georgia's leadership and maintaining a partnership with Russia on international issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says. "The Georgian leadership is a special project for the United States," Mr Lavrov said on TV today. "At some time it will be necessary to choose between the prestige of this relatively virtual project and partnership on questions that require collective action." Washington has actively supported Georgia's pro-West president, Mikheil Saakashvili, since he came to power in a popular uprising known as the Rose Revolution. In return, Georgia sent 2000 troops to join the US-led coalition in...

Russian Mogul's Planes Took al-Qaida, Taliban Gold To Sudan9-3-2 Planes owned by Russian businessman Viktor Bout have been used to fly al-Qaida and Taliban gold to Sudan in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Several shipments of gold were delivered by boat from Karachi, Pakistan, to either Iran or the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said, citing unidentified European intelligence officials. From there, the gold was flown on charted planes to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where al-Qaida has broad business contacts, the paper said. European officials believe the gold was transported by Air Bas, an airline set up...

The Kurdish daily Kurdistani Nwe has published a 2002 letter from the Iraqi presidency that it says proves that there was cooperation between the regime of Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. The letter, which appeared on the paper's front page, was published by the intelligence apparatus of the Iraqi presidency and discussed an intention to meet with Ayman Al-Zawahiri in order to examine a plan drawn up by the Iraqi presidency to carry out a "revenge operation" in Saudi Arabia.

Large amounts of uranium may have gone missing from a nuclear technology company in Sweden. The American Central Intelligence Agency fears a worst-case scenario where the material has already fallen into terrorist hands, newspaper Expressen reports. "The company (Ranstad Mineral) is a security risk and we have taken the matter to top level to get the Swedes to stop them," a CIA spokesman told the Swedish newspaper. The CIA operative claims to know that the little Swedish company has educated Syrian nuclear physicists in the treatment of uranium. He also has information that a Swedish consultancy has sold nuclear equipment...

Here is an english translation from french. http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/12/1/12030/8816#2 Paris - The Direction Générale de la Sécurité extériéure (Dgse) is the French counter-espionage abroad. Alain Chouet was Vice-Director. Today he is enjoying his retirement in the country but - up to the summer 2002 - he was the man who handled the `Nigergate' on behalf of Paris. He says: "I know what happened. When it happened. How it happened. I guided the French intelligence in this affair. I made the decisions. I communicated and exchanged with the Americans all information concerning this case. At the time I was head of the...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize his 2002 meeting with President Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government. Mahathir told reporters he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, but he didn't know who made it. He said he had been persuaded by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation to meet with Bush at the time. "It is true that somebody paid but it was not the (Malaysian) government," Mahathir said. "I understood some people paid a sum of money...

Dear Barack Obama: I grew to like you over the last year. I’ve always thought of you as dangerously naive at best. Eloquent, gifted, genuine, yes. But dangerously naive at best. I couldn’t vote for you — but not because of your funny name or your lunatic pastor. I couldn’t vote for you because you say we should raise taxes (even on the rich, who I’m convinced already pay too much), and because you say we should abandon Iraq (which I’m convinced would be surrendering a war we must win), and because you don’t respect the Second Amendment (which I’m...

Mysterious tear gas canister sickens 43 in city By KIRK SWAUGER and PETE BOSAK, the tribune-democrat November 20, 2002 In violence called domestic terrorism by authorities, a canister of highly potent riot gas was detonated in a busy Johnstown neighborhood yesterday, sending 43 passers-by to hospitals. None of the patients was seriously injured by the gas, which is only available to the military or large police departments. An unnamed victim was admitted to nearby Memorial Medical Center for observation. All others were treated and later released from local hospitals. Symptoms ranged from tightness in the chest and tearing and burning...

The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference Participants include: William (Bill) Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama For a brief history lesson as to who these other two scum are, pls refer to my comment below...(beneath the 2002 UIC event announcement)

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion. An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil. The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and...

If we can't accuse them of being unpatriotic, can we at least accuse some Democrats of being monumentally dense? Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution. Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at...

The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference Participants include: William (Bill) Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama For a brief history lesson as to who these other two scum are, pls refer to my 'comment' below...

Wellington E. Webb, MayorCity and County of Denver1437 Bannock Street, Suite 350Denver, Colorado 80202By facsimile to 720-865-8791 and United States MailDear Mayor Webb:The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado (ACLU) has obtained documents that demonstrate that the Denver Police Department is monitoring and recording the peaceful protest activities of Denver-area residents and keeping files on the expressive activities of law-abiding advocacy organizations.These documents also demonstrate that the Denver Police Department has inappropriately smeared the reputations of peaceful advocates of nonviolent social change by falsely labeling their organizations as "criminal extremist."Although the ACLU has obtained only a small sample of...

(Updated 8:30 a.m.) A body believed to be that of Indonesian terrorist leader Dulmatin, wanted for the October 2002 Bali bombings, was recovered Monday afternoon by a joint military team in Tawi-Tawi province. Intelligence reports said the body was found 1:30 p.m. at the vicinity of Sitio Salisit in Balimbing village, Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi. "(The) said corpse was jointly identified by informants with notable wounds in the head, chest and right foot to include clothing in physical characteristics matched with previous revelations," the report said. The body was exhumed for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing for confirmation. Reached for...

Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to apologize yesterday for his use of a racial slur to condemn the North Vietnamese prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the war. "I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live." McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur. Since then, reports of...

A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador. One man was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer and seven received 10 year prison terms. Six of the defendants plus the one man tried in absentia, who received the longest prison terms, 10 years, were found guilty of participating in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker, which killed one Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden. The conviction of one of...

<p>Haiti's government, while controlled by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his party, spent $7.3 million between 1997 and 2002 lobbying the U.S. government as more than 80 percent of the country was impoverished.</p> <p>During this time, U.S. funding to Haiti — a typical measure of lobbying success — declined, and its economy foundered, fueling his opposition's successful effort to depose Mr. Aristide last week for the second time in 15 years.</p>

The secret war On the North-West Frontier, soldiers are trying to tighten the noose around bin Laden's forces. But in Europe and America, there is no clear enemy to fight - yet every expert knows that a terrorist atrocity is coming Mark Townsend in Tangier, John Hooper in Madrid, Greg Bearup in Peshawar, Paul Harris in Washington, Peter Beaumont in Baghdad, Antony Barnett, Martin Bright, Jason Burke and Nick Pelham in London Sunday March 21, 2004 The Observer There were shadows in the rocks. As the 12 US Special Forces soldiers arrived at a remote mountain region in eastern Afghanistan...

Maybe it was the pressure of the moment. Being under the Tim Russert spotlight can get to anyone. Under Russert's grilling about guns on this morning's "Meet the Press," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney claimed an endorsement he'd never won. ....snip..... "I just talked about, about guns. I told you what my position was, and what I, what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA." The problem? He was never endorsed by the NRA, and didn't have their official support during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign. The NRA declined to endorse in that race,...

WASHINGTON — Four top members of Congress, including now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, got a close look at CIA overseas detention sites and interrogation techniques in September 2002 and offered no challenge to their legitimacy, according to a news article out Sunday. On the contrary, at least two lawmakers involved in the briefing that day questioned whether the CIA was pushing hard enough, even after hearing the details of the now widely criticized technique known as waterboarding, two U.S. officials told The Washington Post. "The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," one official is quoted saying. A...

The CIA briefed four Congressional leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, on the controversial practice of waterboarding over five years ago. Not only did no one object to the practice during the September 2002 briefing, but one attendee asked the briefer whether the technique was tough enough: In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's...

THE three Bali bombers on death row say they are ready to die and will not be asking for a pardon. They have also expressed delight at the controversy surrounding their impending executions, saying the more pain they cause, the greater their reward in heaven. "I'm very happy, especially after hearing that John Howard is very angry with us," Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, the so-called smiling assassin, said yesterday at the island prison where he is held. "The more he is angry, the more I will get rewards from God, right? "The more I make infidels angry, the more I will...

The Supreme Court has rejected appeals to have their death sentences commuted by all three men convicted over the 2002 Bali bombing. The court announced Monday it had decided not to overturn the capital punishment handed down by a lower court to Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron, also known as Muklas. Amrozi, who is also on death row, had his plea for a case review refused on Sept. 10. "They all have exhausted all the legal avenues for a reprieve," said Supreme Court spokesman Nurhadi, as quoted by detik.com. The three men have been on death row since being captured...

And perhaps my decision is influenced by my eight years of experience on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House watching my husband deal with serious challenges to our nation. I want this President, or any future President, to be in the strongest possible position to lead our country in the United Nations or in war. Secondly, I want to insure that Saddam Hussein makes no mistake about our national unity and for our support for the President's efforts to wage America's war against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. And thirdly, I want the men and...

 A website paid for and authorized by the Massachusetts Democratic Party has posted a picture of a flier reportedly passed out at a 2002 'gay pride' event by then-gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney expressing support for homosexual rights. The flier, on red paper, claims to have been paid for by "the Romney for Governor Committee and the Kerry Murphy Healey Committee" and reads, "Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride Weekend. All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of sexual preference." The flier was posted as a "viewer submission" to RomneyFacts.com," a website run by the Massachusetts Democrat Party: "Viewer submission...

A search for answers in the case against the Lackawanna SixBy Mark Sommer NEWS BOOK REVIEWER Updated: 09/09/07 6:29 AM The arraignment of the Lackawanna Six attracted national attention. Derek Gee/Buffalo News It was five years ago today that police apprehended the first member of what was quickly dubbed the Lackawanna Six. Headlines blared far beyond Western New York, as news stories raised the specter of homegrown terrorists training with al-Qaida in southern Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, it would later be revealed, was present, too. President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller quickly proclaimed the Lackawanna...

Saddam's Shadow Africa Energy & Mining June 18, 1997 Copyright 1997 Indigo Publications Africa Energy & Mining June 18, 1997 SECTION: MINING; DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO; N. 207 LENGTH: 787 words HEADLINE: Saddam's Shadow BODY: It's not only diamonds and base metals that interest big mining companies and the latter are not alone in being interested in Katanga. In the delegation that the United States sent to Kinshasa on June 2 under its ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, the state department's African affairs department was represented by Marc Baas, director for Central Africa. (Susan Rice, director for African...

Glasgow, Scotland Amid tight security, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of murdering 270 innocent people on an airliner that was downed by explosive device over Scotland in 1988, was rushed to hospital in Glasgow on Friday from Barlinnie Prison for unknown ailments. Ushered in through a rarely used “Decontamination Entrance Room” at the hospital, the terrorist was whisked down the hospital’s corridors with a SWAT team-like escort. The Decontamination Room in the hospital is specially designed with state of the art equipment to decontaminate victims of NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) attack. The entrance was used for security...

It occurred to me as my fellow Freepers are likely as gut-wrenched as I am over the next poll release, to look at comprehensive averages of all non-partisan public polls in the last two election cycles (the two in which Karl Rove's GOTV apparatus has been in place). We're counting on this wonderful, well-oiled machine to pull us accross the line in the close ones. Did we really defy the polls to an extent that this is likely this year? There are a couple of ways to measure this. We can examine how the poll averages compare in terms of...

From newyorker77 1-25-06 post: 2002 POLLS SAID: Arkansas - Dem Lead/Toss Up Colorado - Dem Lead/Toss Up Georgia - Dem Lead/Toss Up Iowa - Dem Win Louisiana - Dem Lead/Toss Up Minnesota - Dem Lead/Toss Up Missouri - GOP Lead/Toss Up New Hampshire - GOP Lead/Toss Up New Jersey - Dem Lead/Toss Up North Carolina - GOP Lead/Toss Up South Carolina - GOP Win South Dakota - GOP Lead/Toss Up Tennessee - GOP Win Texas - GOP Lead/Toss Up REALITY: Arkansas - Dem Win Colorado - GOP Win Georgia - GOP Win Iowa - Dem Win Louisiana - Dem Win...

.... Predicting 2002's Outcome If we apply these predictors, unscientific as they are, to this year, four senators -- two of each party -- would lose re-election. They are Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., Wayne Allard, R-Colo., Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D. September polling showed Hutchinson behind his Democratic challenger, Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor, by 43.3 percent to 46.3 percent (three polls averaged); Allard ahead of Democratic lawyer Tom Strickland, 40 percent to 39 percent (two polls averaged), in a rematch of their 1996 contest; Wellstone behind his GOP challenger, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, 43.3 percent to...

Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir claims America's top spy agency was involved in the devastating 2002 Bali bombings. Bashir, who was convicted and imprisoned for having prior knowledge of the attacks which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, is also appealing for the lives of three convicted bombers to be spared. Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was released from prison in June after serving nearly two years. Amrozi, Ali Ghufron - also known as Mukhlas - and Imam Samudra are awaiting execution for their part in the plot. In an interview tonight on ABC television's Foreign...

US intelligence analysts misunderstood intercepted Iraqi communications, believing the orders were meant to deceive UN weapons inspectors searching for chemical or biological agents, a new report says. Instead, the conversation between two Iraqi Republican Guard Corps commanders that included the order to remove reference to "nerve agents" from "wireless" communications was intended to ensure the regime was in compliance with international demands to disarm, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported in its online edition this week. That conversation was intercepted by the United States in 2002. The article was based on a recently declassified US Joint Forces Command report assessing Iraqi...

The US Senate is looking into allegations that a former US senator urged Baghdad to give a US company lucrative contracts under the much-criticised United Nations oil-for-food programme. This is the first time that a leading US lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN programme, whose shortcomings have been an important element of the Bush administration's critique of the UN. The investigation involves one of the most vivid figures in US east coast politics, former senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate...

The sordid tale now making the rounds in the "mainstream" press of a rogue Pentagon intelligence operation has all the elements of an urban legend: heavy breathing, a secret basement office "down by the ramp" and government officials who form a hidden alliance based on long-ago ties to an obscure but influential university guru. Only the work of a few good men with the courage to face up to this "cabal" - and a few crusader-journalists to help them - can make the demons scatter and scare the dark ones into the light. Or so the story goes on those...

Very interesting stuff going on in the Mary McCarthy files. It appears many of us missed a few important connections: One aspect of her background so far comparatively unexamined is her West African uranium connection. She served in a key government position concerned with West African nations producing yellowcake uranium at the same time that Joseph Wilson was working in the area. The two may be considered members of the “yellowcake community” within the Clinton national security apparatus of the 1990s.There are more questions than answers for the moment, but yellowcake uramium is not only of strategic importance for WMD...

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show. The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down. The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin,...

In the fall of 2002 Iraq crossed an unacceptable threshold, supplying operational weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to bin Laden's terrorists. These developments were confirmed to the Western intelligence services after several terrorists -- graduates of WMD training programs -- were captured in Israel, Chechnya, Turkey, and France, along with documents related to their activities. On the basis of pure threat analysis, the United States should have gone to war against Iraq, as well as its partners Syria and Iran, in fall 2002. By then there was already unambiguous evidence indicating the urgency of defusing the imminent danger posed by...

WASHINGTON - Taxpayers who have fallen behind on their paperwork — way, way behind — have a $2 billion incentive to get caught up. The IRS owes more than $2 billion to more than 1.7 million people who never filed tax returns for 2002. Half could get checks worth more than $570. To collect the refunds, taxpayers must file a 2002 tax return before this year's April 17 filing deadline. The IRS urges taxpayers to check their records and seize the opportunity to claim their money. "We want people to get the refunds they're entitled to," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson...

The local San Diego FOX-6 Channel has just broken the story tonight that the San Diego Chapter of "Kind Hearts" Charity has also had it's finances frozen for having links to terrorist organizations. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were living and taking flying lessons here in San Diego.

<p>BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed ``Chemical Ali'' by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said Monday.</p> <p>Maj. Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment told The Associated Press that his superiors had confirmed the death of the man who is also President Saddam Hussein's first cousin.</p> <p>Jackson said the body was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.</p>

POLLS SAID: Arkansas - Dem Lead/Toss Up Colorado - Dem Lead/Toss Up Georgia - Dem Lead/Toss Up Iowa - Dem Win Louisiana - Dem Lead/Toss Up Minnesota - Dem Lead/Toss Up Missouri - GOP Lead/Toss Up New Hampshire - GOP Lead/Toss Up New Jersey - Dem Lead/Toss Up North Carolina - GOP Lead/Toss Up South Carolina - GOP Win South Dakota - GOP Lead/Toss Up Tennessee - GOP Win Texas - GOP Lead/Toss Up REALITY: Arkansas - Dem Win Colorado - GOP Win Georgia - GOP Win Iowa - Dem Win Louisiana - Dem Win Minnesota - GOP Win Missouri...

Newsweek got their hands on secret Pentagon documents from 2002 about the connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

Abdullah Khadr at large: Brothers were caught in Afghanistan, father is wanted for aiding Osama bin Laden The federal government released secret intelligence documents yesterday revealing that an al-Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan was under the command of a Scarborough man whose two brothers are captives in the war on terrorism. Abdullah Khadr, 22, is described in a Privy Council Office intelligence report as a suspected al-Qaeda member who is thought to have "commanded an extremist training camp in Lowgar Province in Afghanistan." He is the fourth member of the Khadr family to come to the attention of Canadian...

2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won't say whether she read a key intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before she voted in Oct. 2002 to authorize the Iraq war. Asked directly by the Boston Herald whether she did her homework by reading the report on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's WMDs, the paper reports that the Democratic frontrunner "declined to say." Though billed in the press as a supporter of the war, the former first lady has been highly critical of the Bush administration's so-called rush to judgment of Iraq's pre-war threat. But in Oct. 2002, while...

Nuclear. More than ten years of sanctions and the loss of much of Iraq's physical nuclear infrastructure under IAEA oversight have not diminished Saddam's interest in acquiring or developing nuclear weapons. Iraq's efforts to procure tens of thousands of proscribed high-strength aluminum tubes were of significant concern. All intelligence experts agreed that Iraq remained intent on acquiring nuclear weapons and that these tubes, if modified, could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program. Most intelligence specialists assessed this to be the intended use, but some believed that these tubes were probably intended for use as casings for tactical rockets.

MR. ROCKEFELLER: Mr. President, we are here today to debate one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make in my 18 years in the Senate. There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein is a despicable dictator, a war criminal, a regional menace, and a real and growing threat to the United States. The difficulty of this decision is that while Saddam Hussein represents a threat, each of the options for dealing with him poses serious risks, to America’s servicemembers, to our citizens, and to our role in the world. It is clear that none...