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The State Department confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon there was a mortar attack near the United States embassy in Iraq on Thursday.A video captured a series of sixteen explosions which can be seen lighting up the night sky.U.S. officials confirmed a series of explosions near the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad."We are closely ‎following reports of possible explosions outside of the Green Zone in Baghdad," a State Department official said on background.The embassy has not been impacted and U.S. staff are taking appropriate safety precautions and prioritizing the safety of Americans on the ground."‎The security and safety...

Hamas and Israel may be on the verge of a terrorist swap deal, sources said Tuesday - trading convicted murderers for the bodies of fallen soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, hy"d. According to Israel Hayom, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri stated that such a deal is close to being concretized with Israeli officials. Goldin and Shaul were both killed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza; after initially being declared abducted, both were declared dead - and analysts have said their bodies are being held by Hamas as ransom for more terrorist releases. Al-Masri hinted strongly at the deal in a...

Gunwalker: Holder’s resignation is almost inevitable And the only way that doesn’t happen is if he is fool-enough to stay in office, Obama is fool-enough not to fire him, and Congress has no choice but to remove him from office. Consider: On the 4th of July, a national holiday, acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives gave testimony to House and Senate investigators on Operation “Fast and Furious,” aka “Gunwalker.” Without telling his bosses. And bringing his own lawyer, not the Bureau’s and not the Department of Justice’s. To quote Allahpundit — Dude! This morning, House...

Governor Deval Patrick, even as he decried partisanship in Washington, said today that Republican opposition to President Obama’s agenda has become so obstinate that it “is almost at the level of sedition.” The Democratic governor, who is close to the president, made the comments at a forum at Suffolk Law School's Rappaport Center, where he was asked by an audience member about partisan battling in Congress.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has almost fully recovered from intestinal surgery that put his life at risk last year, a senior Cuban official told CNN on Friday. National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon gave no indication of when or if Castro, who has been sidelined from power for the first time since his 1959 revolution, might return to governing Cuba. "I think, in a way, he practically has fully recovered," Alarcon told CNN. He said Castro, 80, who handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul Castro on July 31 after emergency surgery, has put the "worst behind...

Forty years later, Moscow's role in engineering and exacerbating the crisis is revealed. June, 1967. War clouds had been building for months. The Israelis found themselves increasingly surrounded by Soviet-backed forces of the Arab and Islamic world, all of whose leaders were vowing to "throw the Jews into the sea," and the Israelis were considering a first strike. The element of surprise might be their only hope of survival, they figured. But President Lyndon Johnson had warned Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in no uncertain terms that such a move would be a serious mistake. As historian Michael B. Oren...

Paras almost retreated under Taliban assault By Tom Coghlan (Filed: 02/10/2006) British forces in southern Afghanistan came within hours of retreating from a key base because they suffered a critical shortage of helicopters, the task force commander has disclosed. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph Brig Ed Butler said Taliban fire was so heavy and accurate at Musa Qala, a key forward base in northern Helmand, that Army helicopters faced a serious risk of being hit. Brigadier Ed Butler, commander of British Forces in Afghanistan He said the loss of such crucial equipment — together with the political...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- With Congress returning to session after a lengthy summer vacation and boasting an embarrassingly short list of accomplishments for the last two years, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today delivered the following speech on the floor of the United States Senate. The Republican Congress has spent two years setting records for doing nothing, and the American people have had enough. Democrats believe the 109th Congress should put aside the divisive partisan issues that have wasted the last two years in order to change course from failed policies that have left America less safe and...

Fourteen indicted in Appalachia election fraud probeFriday, March 03, 2006 By STEPHEN IGO Times-News WISE - Fourteen individuals, including the mayor/town manager of Appalachia, a town councilman, and two law enforcement officials, were indicted by a Wise County grand jury on multiple counts stemming from an alleged conspiracy to conduct election fraud during the 2004 town elections. The indictments show the investigation hasn't been just about pork rinds, Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee said during a press conference at the Wise County Courthouse. The investigation into allegations of voter fraud evolved from early reports of attempted vote buying before town elections...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, September 8, 2005) – Soldiers of the 13th Corps Support Command from Fort Hood, Texas, are deploying to New Orleans this week in support of Joint Task Force Katrina. The COSCOM will be joining units from the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 4th Infantry Division and the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group. About 41,500 National Guard personnel are on duty in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Almost 17,500 active-duty personnel are on ships or on the ground in the region, DoD officials said. Army Reserve also deploying More than 220 Army Reserve Soldiers have...

A guy with some explaining to do... Mon Aug 8,11:03 AM ET ROME (Reuters) - A Macedonian man left his wife at an Italian service station and only realized he had driven off without her six hours later, news agency Ansa said Monday. The couple, who were traveling with their 4-year-old daughter, pulled over for gas in the coastal city of Pesaro as they were heading back to their home to Germany. After filling the tank, the husband drove away -- without noticing that his 30-year-old wife had got out of the car to go to the toilet. The woman,...

Clinton Library's universal appeal seen in its 365,000 visitors By DAVID HAMMER Associated Press Writer July 15, 2005, 7:07 PM EDT LITTLE ROCK -- The everyman appeal that Bill Clinton peddled in his political campaigns lives on at his presidential library. Among the more than 365,000 visitors who have passed through the library since November, no single demographic stands out. "I just think he is the only president I'll ever see who will really understand me as a person, and that's why I wanted to see more," said Ava Carter, 48, a black Democrat traveling with James D. Stearns, 55,...

Sinatra 'almost got caught carrying $3.5m Mafia cash' By Catherine Elsworth (Filed: 05/05/2005) Frank Sinatra once served as a Mafia courier and narrowly escaped arrest with a briefcase containing $3.5 million in cash, according to a new biography of the legendary singer. The entertainer Jerry Lewis is quoted as saying that Sinatra "volunteered to be a messenger for them... And he almost got caught once... in New York." Frank Sinatra: mob links Extracts of Sinatra: The Life, an unauthorised biography by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, were published yesterday by Vanity Fair magazine. Lewis said that Sinatra was going through...

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!

I was sitting in my study tonight when I heard something at my front door. I already knew that my family was in bed, so I retrieved my pistol before going to investigate. As I got closer to the foyer I could hear the doorknob jingling. The motion lights were on, so I was sure that someone was trying to get into the house. I stopped at the doorway into our dining room where I had a clear view of the front door. I cocked my revolver, aimed at the door, and waited. Suddenly this swings open and this guy...

FALFURRIAS, Texas (AP) -- Casimiro Naranjo III has some new memorabilia for his U.S. Marine scrapbook that chronicles the nine months he spent in Japan in 1957. It's all from the wallet he lost almost 50 years ago. Members of a Japanese construction crew renovating the theater at Camp Foster, once Camp Hague, found the leather wallet in May among some mud and rubble. The wallet apparently was in a ventilation duct at the Okinawa base where Naranjo was stationed as a 19-year-old. "It's so hard to believe that the wallet was there for so many years," Naranjo said in...