Free Republic

From the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze: Gregory: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”[ My mention yesterday of Obama’s former literary agent, Jane Dystel, got me thinking about the fishy circumstances under which Dreams From My Father came to see publication, and Ms. Dystel’s strange silence on the subject — even though she apparently was euchred out of a significant payday by her client. You may recall...

The family of a murdered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is demanding to know if U.S. agencies could have seized the weapons used to kill him before they crossed the border into Mexico. Amador and Mary Zapata also believe their son Jaime, who was only in Mexico for 9 days before his death, was not adequately trained for his assignment, a trip on one of Mexico’s most dangerous roads in a $160,000 armored Suburban. “We want to find out the truth,” Amador Zapata said from the living room of his Brownsville, Texas home. “Who thought of this program? How...

The wife of former U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesus Diaz, who was jailed over his treatment of a drug smuggler, says she's outraged that the government has told her husband he won't be allowed to return home to be with her or associate with any other law enforcement-linked member of his family while on probation. "I have to ask what does the DOJ want me to do? I can't retire, I'm too young. Divorcing him is not an option as he would still have to come around for the children. What is Chito going to do about his brother, not...

The Fast and Furious scandal is causing the Obama administration to try to suppress evidence from public view. Judicial Watch reports: The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

'Notice of intent to offset' sent to home, even though Diaz is in federal custody The federal government has sent a collection notice to the family of a Border Patrol agent who was jailed and fined for pulling on the arms of a handcuffed suspect to get him to comply with orders, according to a charitable organization working on a defense for Jesus E. Diaz Jr. WND reported earlier on a call for Congress to hold hearings to uncover why U.S. law enforcement officers are being charged, prosecuted and sent to prison for apparently doing what their jobs require. That...

A  U.S. State Department law enforcement agent from the mainland was arrested for fatally shooting a man in his 20s early this morning on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki, sources said. Honolulu police identified the alleged shooter as Christopher W. Deedy, 27, and sources who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he is a federal agent who was off-duty at the time of the shooting. A State Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said only, "We are aware of the incident and we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation." She would not confirm whether he was here for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference...

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Brian Newell continues to deny Operation Fast and Furious allowed for guns to be “walked” into Mexico. “Sir, in this investigation, we did not let guns walk,” Newell told House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, at a Tuesday hearing. Newell was the lead agent in ATF’s Phoenix field office throughout Operation Fast and Furious. “You’re entitled to your own opinions, not to your own facts,” Issa responded. “But, there comes a point when I go, ‘Wait a second: 730 weapons bought by a man who had no money....

A bladder cancer survivor says he was left drenched by his own urine after he was manhandled by an arrogant airport screener at the Detroit Metro Airport. Even more galling for 62-year-old Thomas Sawyer is that it's the second time in less than a year that this has happened to him - and he's not settling for another apology from the Transportation Security Administration. (Snip) "He said, 'Yeah, I know,' and he patted me down," Sawyer said. "He was rough and he squeezed the bag a couple of times. The young kid was anything but gentle, and he didn't ask

Holder to oil fraud panel: Report if gas prices don't fall Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday ordered the newly formed government working group investigating oil and gas prices to make sure gasoline prices are dropping after this week's sudden decline in crude oil prices. Holder sent his memo to several federal agencies, including the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the departments of Treasury, Energy and Agriculture. He also sent the directive to state attorneys general.

From 10News in San Diego: --- Hezbollah must be laughing at the idea that our drug habit is funding their operations.

Michael Scheuer, a former counter-terrorism analyst for the CIA, scolded CNN's Christine Romans Thursday for letting her support for the current President show. Toward the end of a lengthy interview on "American Morning" about the situation in Libya, Romans took issue with her guest saying America is "nearly bankrupt" leading Scheuer to respond, "You're just carrying the water for Mr. Obama" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The parents of a teenaged resident of the Mexican city of Juarez today sued the U.S. government for $25 million in connection with the boy's shooting death at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso last year. The Border Patrol says Sergio Hernandez Guereca, 15, was pelting U.S. agents with rocks from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande last June when Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side shot him to death. But attorney Bob Hilliard told 1200 WOAI’s Berit Mason that the boy was the victim of 'brutality' on the part of the federal agents,...

A fifth man is in custody in connection with the Dec. 14 fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent Brian Terry near Nogales, the U.S. Marshals office has confirmed.

TSA Agent Takes Child From Parent As I sit and write this post, 24 hours after this event took place, my hands still shake… with rage and with terror. I woke up this morning to my husband’s alarm clock, sat straight up in bed and thought “Where’s Jackson?” with fear paralyzing me. My worst nightmare took place yesterday. Worse than events that have taken place and that I have survived in my short 28 years of living. Worse than my wildest of dreams could conjure. My son was taken from me. Taken. My son was taken from me by the...

Kremlin reportedly dispatches contract killer to US to pursue 'traitor' colonel, claims reputable Moscow newspaperA contract killer has been dispatched to assassinate the Russian double agent who betrayed Anna Chapman and nine other spies in the United States this spring, according to reports in Moscow. "We know who he is and where he is," a high-ranking Kremlin source told the reputable Kommersant newspaper. "You can have no doubt – a Mercader has already been sent after him." Ramón Mercader was the KGB-hired Spanish communist who was sent to kill Leon Trotsky with an icepick in Mexico in 1940.

My previous post looked at Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and his links to senior Communist Party USA member Mike Bayer. I speculated that Bayer may be both a communist spy and agent-of-influence inside Sanders' Vermont Progressive Party. It turns out that Bayer is not the first possible communist agent to back Bernie Sanders. During his unsuccessful 1988 run for U.S. Congress, then Burlington, Vermont mayor Sanders received the endorsement of I. F. Stone, an iconic leftist journalist, alleged communist sympathizer, Soviet spy and possible agent-of- influence. Here is a letter that Stone mailed out on behalf of the Sanders...

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders may have a Communist Party USA agent in his camp. The person in question is Mike Bayer, who is currently serving as Treasurer of Bernie Sanders' Vermont Progressive Party. The Senator from Vermont, is a self proclaimed socialist and proud of it. As a student in Chicago, Sanders was active in the Young Peoples Socialist League and has a decades old relationship with America's largest marxist organization, Democratic Socialists of America. It was in conjunction with D.S.A. that Sanders formed, in 1991, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, now a more than eighty strong alliance of far...

Alleged Israel spy Uri Brodsky will be extradited to Germany as soon as Friday, a spokesman for German state prosecutors told Reuters on Tuesday. "I'm gearing up for him to possibly arrive on Friday," the spokesman from Cologne was quoted by Reuters as saying. After he arrives in Cologne, a German judge will have to determine if Brodsky will be brought up on charges and remain in custody or whether a deal with defense lawyers could be reached.

TAMPA — An off-duty FBI agent shot and killed an Army veteran Wednesday night after a confrontation and chase at MacDill Air Force Base, officials said. It all started at the base's family camp, a recreational vehicle area at the south end of the base, said Col. Larry Martin, 6th Air Mobility Wing commander. The veteran was visiting the base when an altercation broke out. He took off on a motorcycle with security officials in pursuit, according to Martin. "He became more and more aggressive as the pursuit continued," said Dave Couvertier, a special agent with the FBI. When the...

Elena Kagan, the President’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, is an affable and intelligent Trojan horse. Obama’s high court nominee has been groomed for years, standing ready for the judicial mission of advancing the secular-progressive agenda, if confirmed, for decades to come. Conservatives can (and must!) build a coalition to defeat Kagan’s nomination.

Warning: Marinated-in-Marxism Democrats and supporters are hot on the trail of Tea Party patriots. They have launched a Crash the Tea Party (CTTP) website: crashtheteaparty.org on the eve of the April 15 anniversary of the Tea Party. “WHO WE ARE, Crash The Tea Party style, is a lesson in Marxism 101: “A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself “The Tea Party.”

* The Wall Street Journal * OPINION * JANUARY 7, 2010, 11:12 P.M. ET The Meaning of al Qaeda's Double Agent The jihadists are showing impressive counterintelligence ability that the CIA seems to have underestimated. By REUEL MARC GERECHT The recent death in Afghanistan of seven American counterterrorist officers, one Jordanian intelligence operative, and one exploding al Qaeda double agent ought to give us cause to reflect on the real capabilities of the Central Intelligence Agency and al Qaeda. The report card isn't good. America's systemic intelligence problems were partially on display in the bombing at the CIA's Forward Operating...

The cost of war — on veterans’ health and taxpayer wallets — will loom a little larger in the new year. The Department of Veterans Affairs will issue a final rule to claim adjudicators to presume three more diseases of Vietnam veterans, including heart disease, were caused by exposure to Agent Orange. The rule, expected to be published soon, will make almost any veteran who set foot in Vietnam, and is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemia or ischemic heart disease (known also as coronary artery disease) eligible for disability compensation and VA medical care. The exception would be...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2009 – Based on an independent study by the Institute of Medicine last month, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki has directed broader health coverage from his department for Vietnam War veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange. Research found that three illnesses – B cell leukemias, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease -- possibly are associated with Agent Orange exposure. Those conditions join a list of related diseases for which Vietnam War veterans already receive compensation, such as prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, soft-tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma. "Since my confirmation as secretary,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2009 – A new Department of Veterans Affairs ruling will soon relieve Vietnam veterans suffering from three specific illnesses from the burden of proving their ailments are linked to Agent Orange exposure to receive VA health care and disability payments. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki's decision, announced today, establishes a service connection for Vietnam vets stricken with hairy-cell leukemia and other B-cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease, VA chief of staff John Gingrich told American Forces Press Service. Shinseki made the decision based on a recent report by the National Academy of Science's Institute...

The frontrunner to become Israel’s next prime minister, Tzipi Livni, was a Paris agent for Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, in the early 1980s when it ran a series of missions to kill Palestinian terrorists in European capitals, according to former colleagues. They say Livni, now foreign minister, was on active service when Mamoun Meraish, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was shot dead by a Mossad hit squad in Athens on August 21, 1983. She was not directly involved in the killing, in which two young men on a motorcycle drew alongside Meraish’s car and opened fire,...

New Study Strengthens Association Of Prostate Cancer With Exposure To Agent Orange ScienceDaily (May 16, 2008) — As men age, their risk of developing prostate cancer increases. Aging Vietnam veterans are giving researchers new opportunities to solidify the connection between in-country exposure to Agent Orange and subsequent prostate cancer development. In a study presented during the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Orlando, researchers presented data from a large study of veterans enrolled in the Northern California VA System, examining prostate cancer incidence and disease characteristics in those exposed to Agent Orange compared to those who...

AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and...

The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran appears to rely heavily on notes from a discussion between Iranian military officials involved in that country's nuclear weapons development program. What if, instead of such easily manipulated documentary evidence, the CIA's National Clandestine Service had been able to recruit a spy at the highest reaches of the Iranian government, someone who could just tell us what the country's nuclear capabilities and plans were? It wouldn't have made any difference. Ever since the inception of the CIA, the operational side of the agency has both believed in and spread the fantasy that foreign...

November 13, 2007 - Destin, Florida It seems as if an upcoming movie produced by a physician and former Air Force flyer is creating quite a stir. The movie “the PARALYZING AGENT” changed its title from “the Emerald coasT project…” after the director was questioned by certain officials about usage of the title and what he was disclosing in his movie. The screenwriter & director, Gene Greenlees, M.D., is a practicing anesthesiologist in Florida and is originally from Austin, Texas. At this time he would not comment about the title change, but said, “Sometimes things happen for reasons beyond your...

EL PASO, Texas - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent convicted of taking a $20,000 bribe was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison. Santiago Efrain Valle, 44, was convicted in April of one count each of bribery and extortion under the color of law. Valle denied that he offered to have an immigration charge dropped and the risk classification changed for a Mexican national jailed at the ICE detention center in El Paso in exchange for the bribe. He plans to appeal. Valle, who could have received an 18-year sentence, received three years and eight months...

A former Border Patrol agent was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants, sometimes in his own government vehicle. Eric Balderas, 28, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens. His plea agreement indicated that he admitted smuggling at least 100 people, said prosecutor Alana Wong. Authorities allege that the crimes occurred in the spring of 2005. Balderas worked with fellow agent Oscar Antonio Ortiz, who was sentenced last year to five years in prison. Ortiz, himself an illegal immigrant from Mexico, admitted that he and Balderas took money to transport illegal...

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2007 – Afghan and U.S. forces killed a suspected al Qaeda agent and captured three other suspected insurgents during separate actions in Afghanistan’s Zabul and Nangarhar provinces today, military officials said. The suspected al Qaeda operative had fired on Afghan and U.S. troops as they approached a reputed militant safe house located in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province. The house was allegedly used by al Qaeda to funnel weapons and explosives for terrorist operations. Coalition forces returned fire, killing the militant. A search of the house yielded numerous weapons, including timers and grenades used to make...

ESCONDIDO: Investigators have learned that a Riverside County man shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent last week was a legal resident, the Sheriff's Department said yesterday. AdvertisementBenito A. Gonzalez, 40, of Sun City, gave the agent a false name when contacted in a parking lot on Mountain Meadow Road off Interstate 15 last week, said sheriff's homicide Sgt. Roy Frank. The agent was not able to confirm the man's identity at the time and tried to arrest him on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant. A struggle ensued, and the agent shot and killed Gonzalez in a nearby...

Fellow Freepers, I've recently written a 139,000 word fantasy novel (swords & sorcery type stuff). After an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from dozens of test readers, I've decided to seek an agent to help get the book published. I'm taking a stab in the dark here in case... 1) Anyone knows an actual agent who deals in the fantasy genre. 2) Anyone knows a published fantasy author who may be willing to "blurb" my manuscript, if it is worthy. (That means reading all or part of the book and, if they enjoy it, to offer a quote that I can include...

PHOENIX - A Border Patrol agent was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting of an illegal immigrant at the border in January. An investigation found that Agent Nicholas Corbett's killing of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, was not legally justified, said Cochise County prosecutor Ed Rheinheimer. Corbett is also charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. Corbett's attorney, Daniel Santander, didn't immediately return a message left Monday afternoon by The Associated Press. The shooting, which drew condemnation from the Mexican government, occurred while Corbett was trying to apprehend Dominguez-Rivera and three others who were trying to enter...

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man who threatened him with a softball-sized rock at the border, the agency said Tuesday. The agent fired an M-4 assault rifle at the man, who had escaped from a scuffle with another agent as he tried to run back into Mexico, said Border Patrol spokesman David Kim. The victim, whose name, nationality and immigration status were not released by U.S. authorities, was pronounced dead from one bullet wound at El Centro Regional Medical Center after the incident Monday. Kim said he did not know where the man was struck. Pablo Arnaud...

Shortly after a segment on the popular show "America's Most Wanted" Saturday featured the story of two Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican suspected drug dealer, one of the agents was badly assaulted by fellow inmates in his Mississippi prison. Ignacio Ramos had been preparing to go to bed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., when four inmates attacked him, kicked him in the head, the side and the shoulders with steel-toed boots, Ramos' attorney David Botsford told Cybercast News Service. The incident has fueled calls from members of Congress for President Bush to pardon...

advertisementOfficials still aren't saying if a suspected illegal entrant shot and killed Friday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent had a weapon. The details surrounding a fight between the man who was killed, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, and the Border Patrol agent remained hazy Saturday as officials were tight-lipped about the investigation. "The agent thought his life was in danger," said Jesús Rodriguez, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The incident occurred just after 3 p.m. Friday 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas, southeast of the Paul Spur Lime plant and Arizona 80,...

An off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent was held for more than a day by Mexican authorities after crossing the border at San Luis with ammunition in his car before his release late Friday, authorities said. The unidentified agent was arrested Thursday as he entered Mexico at the San Luis Port of Entry in southwest Arizona, said Raul Berumen, a spokesman for municipal authorities in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Mexican Customs inspectors found a bag containing 650 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition in the agent's 2006 Nissan Altima, Berumen said. Possessing firearms or ammunition in Mexico is illegal and large warning...

A baseball players agent illegally smuggled Cuban players into the United States, eventually shipping them to California in hopes that they would be signed by major league teams, federal immigration officials said Tuesday. The agent, Gustavo ``Gus'' Dominguez, is charged with paying four aides to transport the athletes and other Cubans to the U.S. in two trips from the island nation. Dominguez, of California-based Total Sports International, has represented several Cuban baseball defectors, including Andy Morales, who was signed into the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox minor league systems after fleeing Cuba six years ago. Excerpt. Get the...

Congressmen who visit the U.S.-Mexico border unannounced are being monitored by the Department of Homeland Security, and at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent has been suspended for speaking to a congressman without first getting supervisory clearance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Congressional representatives interviewed by the Daily Bulletin said they were unaware until recently that Border Patrol agents were required to file Significant Incident Reports -- normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents -- when congressional representatives made unannounced visits this summer along the U.S.-Mexico border. A second document obtained by the...

A former border inspector pleaded guilty Thursday to accepting cash bribes and luxury cars in exchange for allowing smugglers to sneak hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. through a busy San Diego crossing. Richard Elizalda, 55, a 10-year veteran border inspector for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, admitted to one count of accepting bribes as a public official and two counts of bringing illegal aliens into the country for financial gain stemming from a 15-count indictment in January. He faces up to 35 years in prison and $820,000 in fines. Elizalda sent text messages directing drivers to...

YUMA, Ariz. -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at officers from the Mexican side of the border late Saturday, officials said. The incident began after agents spotted a suspicious vehicle near the Andrade Port of Entry west of the California-Arizona border, just north of the international border and alongside the Colorado River. The driver fled and then tried to swim across a pond along the river in an effort to return to Mexico, the agency said in a press release. But the man began to struggle to stay afloat and agents threw...

Ex-NHL agent arrested on sex charges David Frost used position of trust to prey on boys, girls, police say Gary Dimmock and Andrew Seymour CanWest News Service Wednesday, August 23, 2006 OTTAWA -- David Frost, the former NHL agent who was once the target of a foiled U.S. murder-for-hire plot hatched by one of his star players, woke up this morning in jail on charges that he sexually exploited four boys and three girls, aged 14 to 16, across a six-year period ending in 2001. The disgraced coach and mentor-turned-NHL-agent for onetime big leaguers like Mike Danton and Sheldon...

US Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos attorney is Mary Stillinger (article at the end of this email) http://www.marystillingerlaw.com/index.jsp (915) 544-0415 I just spoke with Attorney Mary Stillinger's legal assistant, Ruth. She said that the U.S. Border Patrol Agents are scheduled for their sentencing on August 22nd. Ruth said IF WE SEND LETTERS stating the border patrol agents have been wrongly accused THAT ATTORNEY MARY STILLINGER CAN USE OUR LETTERS WHEN SHE GOES BEFORE THE JUDGE on August 22nd. Letters could be helpful for both the sentencing and the appeal in this case, she said. I have been researching this issue...

EL PASO, Texas - Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos could hear his heart racing. He could feel the dry, hot dust burning against his skin as he chased a drug trafficker trying to flee back into Mexico. Ramos' fellow agent, Jose Alonso Compean, was lying on the ground behind him, banged up and bloody from a scuffle with the much-bigger smuggler moments earlier. Suddenly the smuggler turned toward the pursuing Ramos, gun in hand. Ramos, his own weapon already drawn, shot at him, though the man was able to flee into the brush and escape the agents. Now, nearly 18...

SAN DIEGO - A Border Patrol agent who admitted smuggling more than 100 illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico, some of them in his government truck, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for about three years, but U.S. District Judge John A. Houston decided a stiffer punishment was required for 29-year-old Oscar Antonio Ortiz. "You violated the sacred trust of your comrades," the judge said. "As a link in the chain, they depended on you." The corruption case is one in a spate involving Border Patrol agents at a time when the agency is...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2006 — The morning of Feb. 20 was like any other for Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Adele Loar, who was assigned to the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate in Baghdad, Iraq. Her mission, along with the joint team assembled there, was to gather information from Iraqi civilian sources to ascertain current threats to coalition forces. Performing a mission for which she is trained and one that she loves, Loar said it did not matter when or where she worked or the dangers she might face. She especially reveled in the opportunity to be working on...

Agent who led Bin Laden hunt criticises CIA Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday July 8, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The man who led America's hunt for Osama bin Laden has said the CIA was wrong to disband the only unit devoted entirely to the terrorist leader's pursuit - just at a time when al-Qaida is reasserting its influence over global jihad. Shutting down the Bin Laden unit squandered 10 years of expertise in the war on terror, said Michael Scheuer, who founded the unit in 1995 and arguably knows more about Bin Laden than any other western intelligence official. He...