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The Arab daily Al-Hayat on Tuesday quoted a senior Hamas official as saying that United States President-elect Barack Obama's advisors met with members of the Palestinian militant group before the U.S. presidential election. Ahmed Yusuf, a political advisor to Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, reportedly told the London-based paper that, "The connection was made via email and after that we met with them in Gaza." Al-Hayat reported that Yusuf also said the relations were maintained after Obama's electoral victory last Tuesday. He said the president-elect's advisors requested that the relations be kept secret so as not to aid his rival,...

On Tuesday, September 23, Lary King, far from his usual challenging demeanor, offered Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ample opportunity to present his case. The final touch was to give him a human face. “Do you have children?” King asked the brutal dictator. “How old are they?” he followed, giving Ahmadinejad an opportunity to present his “human” side.

Biden quoted as saying that Israel will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden was quoted Monday as telling senior Israeli officials behind closed doors that the Jewish state will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. In the unsourced report, Army Radio also quoted Biden as saying that he opposed "opening a additional military and diplomatic front."

THE OBAMA-BIDEN TICKET IS THE FIRST TICKET OF EITHER MAJOR PARTY IN SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS IN WHICH NEITHER THE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT EVER SERVED IN THE MILITARY! At a time of war, the Democrats give us something the nation hasn't seen in more than two generations: a ticket where neither of the the running mates ever wore a uniform of any kind. Shouldn't Republicans make a big deal of this? Consider the history-- 2004 -- GOP -- Bush served in National Guard/ DEMS- Kerry served in the Navy 2000---GOP -- Bush served in National Guard/ Al Gore served in the Army...

Rightwing fodder-- Barack Obama Invesco Field convention tickets picture upside down US flags- an international symbol of distress. The DNC tickets printed for Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field show an upside down US flag on both sides. This is the international symbol of extreme distress. FOX 9 reported: Some viewers contacted 9NEWS Saturday, questioning the design of the credentials to see Sen. Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at INVESCO Field at Mile High. The viewers say with the stars and blue field in the lower left corner, it looks like an upside down American flag....

The Kremlin's decision today to call a halt to its five-day assault on Georgia leaves Russia calling the shots in the energy-rich Black Sea littoral and Caspian basin. (Snip...) Nato and the EU The Russians see the Caucasus test as a zero-sum game and have won. That means lose-lose for the west. A key objective for Putin was to destabilise Georgia to invalidate its aim of joining Nato. He may have succeeded. The Americans suffered a rare defeat in April at a Nato summit when George Bush argued strongly for starting Georgia towards alliance membership and was defeated by Angela...

MANILA, July 17 (Reuters) - The Philippines will hold a plebiscite early next year in more than 700 southern villages to set up an ancestral homeland for Muslims, part of a deal with the country's biggest rebel group, officials said on Thursday. Hermogenes Esperon, the president's peace adviser, told reporters the proposed Muslim homeland would also be empowered to collect about 75 percent of taxes from oil, mines and fisheries in the area. He was speaking in Manila a day after government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiators hammered out a deal in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. "The...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry today made the follow statement in response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision that foreign detainees held at Guantanamo Bay may challenge their detention in U.S. courts: “Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what almost everyone but the Administration and their defenders in Congress always knew. The Constitution and the rule of law bind all of us even in extraordinary times of war. No one is above the Constitution. The historic writ of habeas corpus endures. This is a major rebuke of the Administration’s post-9/11 policies that have divided us at home, alienated and isolated...

-By Warner Todd Huston Congressional Democrats announced early in May that they wanted to make "military propaganda" illegal. To achieve this goal they passed new legislation that strengthened previous legislation that is supposed to ban the Pentagon from indulging in "propaganda" for the military. This bill is supposed to stop the military from sending "any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes or behavior of the people of the United States in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly." In other words, the military is not allowed to talk to...

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra. Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded: Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That...

So, round one of the 2008 foreign policy debate goes to ... Barack Obama? Improbable as it seems, in the first direct rhetorical showdown of the general election campaign - over a question, foreign policy "toughness", that's been a perceived Democratic weakness since Vietnam - it was the guy with the thin foreign policy résumé, suspected by some of his compatriots of being a Muslim, who out-punched the war hero with the extensive résumé. And shall I add that the one with the thin résumé and the strange name has a dodgy position on the question at hand, and yet...

WATERTOWN, S.D. (AP) - Barack Obama has called President Bush's comments on appeasement "exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and alienates us from the rest of the world." Obama criticized Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for "dishonest and divisive" attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists. Obama strongly responded Friday to the comments Bush made in Israel on Thursday and McCain's subsequent words. Obama told a town hall meeting, "That's the kind of hypocrisy that we've been seeing in our foreign policy, the kind of fear-peddling, fear mongering that has...

Bush's comments about appeasement reverberated across the U.S. campaign trail, offering a new platform for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to sharpen their lines of attack. In the speech, Bush warned that the United States must not negotiate with Iran or radical groups such as Hamas. "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush told the Israeli lawmakers. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared:...

WAHSINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry made the following statement today, in response to President Bush’s partisan attacks from Israel’s Knesset. “President Bush is still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. “George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset. If George Bush believes engagement with Iran is appeasement, the first thing he should do when he comes home is demand the resignation of his own Cabinet. Secretary Gates and Secretary Rice have both favored negotiations with Iran. “The...

More than 300 people marched from downtown Point Richmond to the Chevron refinery today to protest the company they say is processing crude oil imported from Iraq. Vowing to blockade the facility, about 50 people formed human chains at the entrance to the refinery on Richmond Avenue as others held banners, sang and danced.The protesters were marching against the war in Iraq as well as a proposal to upgrade the refinery's processing capability. They accused Chevron of profiteering from the oil obtained by the Iraqi invasion that has cost many thousands of lives and billions of dollars.Kayla Starr, 66, from...

WASHINGTON -- Democrats, facing rejection today of a proposal co-sponsored by Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold to cut off money for the Iraq war, are planning to shift their emphasis to the war's toll on the American economy to rebuild anti-war momentum.In recent months, violence in Iraq has declined, and the Baghdad government has made small steps toward political reconciliation, including plans to hold provincial elections on Oct. 1. While Democratic voters remain largely against the war, the security improvement has helped to cool anxiety among Republicans and stave off legislation demanding that troops start coming home. The Senate was expected...

Calling God "Allah" by Brigitte Gabriel All the Christians in the Middle East call God "Allah". This is how the Muslims control any population they dominate. This bishop is out of his mind. As the Muslims spread out of Arabia into the Middle East and conquered the local populations they forced them to not only to change their customs to adopt Islamic customs but also to change their language. I prayed to Allah as a Christian all my life until three years go (yes this is Brigitte Gabriel writing) when I started really looking into Islam and examining its dominance...

The Peace Racket Bruce Bawer An anti-Western movement touts dictators, advocates appeasement—and gains momentum. If you want peace, prepare for war.” Thus counseled Roman general Flavius Vegetius Renatus over 1,600 years ago. Nine centuries before that, Sun Tzu offered essentially the same advice, and it’s to him that Vegetius’s line is attributed at the beginning of a film that I saw recently at Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center. Yet the film cites this ancient wisdom only to reject it. After serving up a perverse potted history of the cold war, the thrust of which is that the peace movement brought down...

"It is absolutely outrageous and reprehensible for anyone to suggest attacks on holy sites, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or those of any other religion ... Any suggestion that the defense of the American homeland or the defense of American interests would ever justify attacking holy sites or religious sites is just simply an idea that goes against the length or breadth of US history"State Department spokesman Tom Casey Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies in contemporary United States history has been the gross usurpation of our nation's State Department by those ignorant of history who would relentlessly promote...

The intense misinformation campaign launched by business interests against Americans who don't want to invest their money in companies that do business with terror-supporting governments serves to illustrate an unfortunate truism: that anyone who advocates standing up to rogue states or jihadists, whether through use of military force, covert action, or economic sanctions, must expect to encounter opposition from powerful forces with a vested interest in appeasement. Some of these forces, particularly in the Democrat Party, are modern-era McGovernites, late-1960s and early 1970s-style leftists with a reflexive hostility toward any effort to project American strength in the world. In many...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government has lost control of vast areas to powerful local factions and the country is on the verge of collapse and fragmentation, a leading British think-tank said on Thursday. Chatham House also said there was not one civil war in Iraq, but "several civil wars" between rival communities, and accused Iraq's main neighbors -- Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- of having reasons "for seeing the instability there continue." "It can be argued that Iraq is on the verge of being a failed state which faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation," it said in...

Chaos erupted Wednesday outside a House briefing with Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander on the ground in Iraq. Protestors thronged the halls of the Rayburn House Office Building outside the committee room where Petraeus is briefing members of Congress. The assembled protestors, which included members of Code Pink, shouted for members to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq as the lawmakers entered the room. Then, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to resign after suggesting the war in Iraq “is lost.”...

Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the United States-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein. In unusually harsh comments to Danish newspaper Politiken, the diplomatic Swede said the US government had ended up in a situation in which neither staying nor leaving Iraq were good options. "Iraq is a pure failure," Blix was quoted as saying. "If the Americans pull out, there is a risk that they will leave a country in civil war. At the same time, it doesn't...

To me, the relentless mud slide of insurgency and civil war in Iraq is leading to unacceptable strategic disaster for the U.S. There appear to be no viable paths to follow in order to avoid it. Neither "staying the course"--whatever that Bush strategy now means--nor the Democrats' idea of exiting by timetables offers a semblance of success. Both approaches produce only nightmares: general chaos; Iraq's center taken over by terrorists emboldened by victory over America, their pockets bulging with Iraqi oil money; southern Iraq controlled by pro-Iranians or Iran itself; and Iraq's neighbors picking at the nation's carcass until regional...

Unless something changes soon, by the end of President Bush’s second term North Korea will have produced enough plutonium for 10 or more nuclear weapons while Iran’s scientists will be close to mastering the skills needed to build their own. That’s quite a legacy for a president sworn to keep the world’s most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world’s most dangerous regimes. Even if the United States were not tied down in Iraq, military action would be a disaster. Besides, American analysts don’t know where North Korea has stashed its plutonium nor what technology Iran might have...

Like Rachel Corrie, Angelo Frammartino was an idealistic young foreign political activist who came to Israel to work on behalf of the Palestinians. And, like her, he met a violent end here. In contrast to Corrie, though, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza three years ago, it is unlikely that there will be any songs written, plays performed or documentary movies made about the 24-year-old Frammartino. But maybe there should be - because his murder in Jerusalem this week also has significance beyond the immediate circumstances of his death. Frammartino arrived here in early August as part...

>h3>Commentators, Muslims and even our leaders are all refusing to face up to the truth WHEN YOU turned on the radio last Thursday morning was your first thought: “Phew! Great work by the security services”, or: “Here we go! Another stunt by the Government”? In other words, do you believe that the politicians were doing what most of us would put top of their list of duties: protecting the public? Or do you immediately suspect them of behaving like the fat boy in Pickwick Papers, whose catchphrase was: “I wants to make your flesh creep”? Journalists such as Sir Simon...

Peace activist murdered by PalestinianAngelo Frammartino, a 24 year-old student from Italy who arrived in Israel as a human rights organization activist, was stabbed to death Thursday by an Arab knifeman. "He believed in what he did and was always ready to help others," a friend described him. The website of Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported that Frammartino was working for the setting up of a children's supper camp for Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City, and was supposed to return to Italy on Friday. The youth was stabbed in the back while walking with four friends in the Sultan...

Friends of U.S. peace activist Tom Fox, who was kidnapped and killed in Iraq, cited his stance against retribution on Saturday and called for the remembrance of all victims of violence around the world. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia....

While news cameras were filming the event, Marine Jeff Key physically grabbed a cameraman from San Francisco local affiliate KGO. Key objected to the cameraman’s shooting position, which was on the same site where the protesters have erected crosses listing the names of fallen soldiers in Iraq. Here's a photo from right before the altercation took place: I asked Mark Matthews of KGO about the alleged assault, “I’m not happy about it. We’re happy to abide by the rules when we know what the rules are. But there was no message communicated to us to stay out of the crosses....

Saying that the Joint Chiefs and combatant commanders “strongly support” ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has stated that the measure “ensures the ability of the US Armed Forces to operate freely across the vast expanse of the world’s oceans under the authority of widely recognized and accepted international law.” [1] But would our military leaders support the treaty if they knew that the activists behind it were also instrumental in promoting the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could prosecute and imprison American troops and military...

Bumper Stickers for a Red-State Nation Bush: Selected and Elected! I'm a Republican. I feel your pain! Kerry and Edwards: Hair today. Gone tomorrow. What happened? He had a PLAN. De Plan, Boss! De Plan! America won, you lost! Visualize: 60 million Bush fans. "There is NO Bush in the White House." -Iraqi Information Minister Liberals lost--but at least they'll be SAFER. If you're seeing RED, you must be feeling BLUE. John Kerry is STILL in Vietnam! Lurch lost. You can move on now. Howard Dean: He could have been a contender! Blue state. Blue dress stain. Blue all over....

There's an article in conspiracy planet blames freepers for Nick Berg being detained and thereafter executed.

The family firm of beheaded American Nick Berg, was named by a conservative website in a list of 'enemies' of the Iraq occupation. That could explain his arrest by Iraqi police --a detention which fatally delayed his planned return from Iraq and may have led directly to his death. Nick Berg, 26 disappeared into incommunicado detention after his arrest by Iraqi police in March, 2004. He vanished again after his release 13 days later. His body was found last Saturday in Baghdad, and a video of his beheading --supposedly by a radical Islamic group-- was posted on the Internet on...

In an interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr as a "legitimate voice" in Iraq, despite that fact that he's led an uprising that has killed nearly 20 American GIs in the last two days. Speaking of al-Sadr's newspaper, which was shut down by coalition forces last week after it urged violence against U.S. troops, Kerry complained to National Public Radio, "They shut [down] a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq." In the next breath, however, the White House hopeful caught himself and quickly changed direction, adding, "Well, let...

Mon Mar 22, 8:47 AM ET French Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. World leaders condemned as unlawful the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and warned Israel may have buried the peace process along with any hope of resolving the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict.(AFP/Thierry Monasse)      EU Nations Condemn Israel for Attack 31 minutes ago By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press WriterBRUSSELS, Belgium - European governments condemned Israel's killing Monday of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, with several branding the airstrike a violation of international law and a blow to the stalled peace process. The foreign ministers of the...

Here you are, FReepers. Here is the enemy. Working in conjunction with A.N.S.W.E.R., they have given us their names. How about this one --- Jameel Rashid, U.S. Coast Guard, Portsmouth, VA Well, sailor. I guess it is time for me to call your commanding officer and see what he thinks about this. =============================================== MARCH 20, 2004 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION on the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the U.S. BOMBING and INVASION of IRAQ Bring the troops home now! End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine and everywhere! Money for jobs, education, healthcare and housing - Not war! Stop the attacks on...

The British Fifth-Column Appeaseniks demand that "Bush Go Home Now"... And America's Finest offer a counter-proposal!

Appeasenik protests time travel field trip Between the punchdown.org March and April protests exhibit and the Wrong ANSWER rally in DC, there was too much stupidity going on in the world to fit in one Caption-A-Rama! I’m afraid I’ll break one of JimRob’s servers or something. This week we’ll advance the field trip up to Portugal (Romania through Yemen next week, I promise), and also I’ve got a bunch of ANSWER stuff, but there’ll be more of that next week, too. Now, get your gas mask firmly in place, and let’s go see some appeaseniks! LebanonNote the sign on the...

Yesterday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.) was successful in leading the charge to force Americans to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Boxer offered an amendment to S. 925, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, to repeal the "Mexico City" policy, which was reinstated by President Bush in 2001. Nine Republicans (including Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter who is up for re-election in 2004 and will have tough primary against Rep. Pat Toomey) joined the Democrats in allowing taxpayer monies to fund abortions overseas – under the guise of family planning – "performed or promoted by international-based nongovernmental organizations."

AFTER ACTION REPORT (2 May 2003) – Bush visits Santa Clara CA ~ Countering the appeaseniks Freeper honor roll Clamper1797 CounterCounterCulture deeel-me-in mvpel and many other great patriots check in if you were there too President Bush visited United Defense Industries in Santa Clara, California after a stirring visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Some of the goals were to talk about our national defense as well as our economy, especially here in California, where Bush would like us to keep more of our take-home pay to help boost the economy. Condi Rice and Andy Card was with...

It doesn't get much worse than this. George Galloway is Britain's most active and visible peace campaigner. The Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin did not just oppose the recent campaign against Saddam Hussein; he lobbied equally aggressively against the first Gulf war, and – during the years in between – for an end to sanctions. Yesterday, The Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Baghdad, David Blair, unearthed papers detailing alleged payments from Saddam's intelligence service to Mr Galloway through a Jordanian intermediary. There is a word for taking money from enemy regimes: treason. What makes this allegation especially worrying, however, is that...

<p>About 60 members of a Santa Cruz County ``weapons inspection team'' showed up at the Bonny Doon facility of defense contractor Lockheed Martin on Friday to inspect it for weapons of mass destruction.</p> <p>Company officials politely refused to let them through the Empire Grade Road gate.</p>

Truncheon-wielding police on Friday broke up an anti-war protest in western Turkey, detaining 18 people who had sought refuge in the local offices of the country's ruling party, NTV news channel reported. Police justified their intervention by saying that the local anti-war group had not obtained prior permission for the demonstration. Footage broadcast on NTV showed police kicking fleeing protestors and hitting them with batons and shields. Eighteen demonstrators ran into the local offices of the governing Justice and Development Party and locked themselves in a room, NTV said. They agreed to come out after an hour following negotiations with...

``I support our troops, I just don't support the war.'' You're hearing that more and more from many people who oppose the war. It's a rhetorical blanket, worn for protection lest people question their patriotism. But it doesn't always sound sincere and it occasionally sounds absurd. For instance, during last Tuesday's Pearl Jam concert in Denver, lead singer Eddie Vedder rapped the war in Iraq while assuring the crowd ``I support the troops.'' But near the show's end he took a mask of President Bush -- the Commander in Chief of the armed forces -- impaled it on a microphone,...