Free Republic

May 12, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Leader of Liberty City Six Convicted on All Counts, Four Others Convicted on Multiple Counts, and One Defendant Acquitted on Charges of Conspiring to Support Al Qaeda, Attack Targets in the United States After a three-month trial, a Miami jury convicted five men of multiple charges that include conspiring to provide material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. by discussing and planning attacks on targets in the U.S., including the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building and other federal...

December 09, 2007 Anti-War General Flip Flops on the Surge Rick Moran One of the Iraq War's harshest military critics, retired General John Batiste, has changed his mind and come out in support of the new counterinsurgency strategy. In a joint Op-Ed in the Washington Post with Pete Hegseth, executive director of Vets for Freedom, Batiste, who was a board member of the anti-war group Votevets.org, gives some of his reasons for the change of heart: First, the United States must be successful in the fight against worldwide Islamic extremism. We have seen this ruthless enemy firsthand, and its global...

The CBSNews.com blog "Public Eye" reported today that a retired general who has appeared in anti-Bush TV ads has been dismissed as a CBS News military analyst due to his political activism. Yet the CBS executive who defended the move seemed to almost blame CBS's at-home audience for the personnel decision. Maj. Gen. John Batiste (US Army, Retired) may still be quoted on CBS's newscasts, he just won't get paid for it. "We might still go to the general to ask about things, but not as a consultant to CBS News," CBS News Senior Vice President for Standards Linda Mason...

Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste has been asked to leave his post as a CBS News consultant after he participated in an ad criticizing President Bush. In the television ad – sponsored by the VoteVets Action Fund – Batiste declares: "Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.” CBS News’ Vice President for Standards and Special Projects, Linda Mason, told CBSNews.com’s Public Eye: "When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers. By putting...

Standing in an empty Miani warehouse on May 24 with a man he believed had ties to Osama bin Laden, a dejected Narseal Batiste talked of the setbacks to their terrorist plot then uttered the words that would put him in a federal prison cell. "I want to fight some jihad," he allegedly said. "It's all I live for." What Batiste did not know was the bin Laden representative was really an FBI informant...

When the terrorist attacks flashed across the Rev. Narcisse Batiste’s television set five years ago, he quickly shut it off. The images of innocent people suffering and dying were too much for the Bunkie Baptist pastor to bear. “I hope to God anybody who ever attempts to do this thing,” he remembers thinking at the time, “gets caught.” On Friday, the gentle-spoken 72-year-old Batiste again turned on the television only to discover his own son — who mysteriously left the family farm shortly after 9-11 — may have hatched a similar plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago...

"I couldn't believe it but its true - that's him I saw on TV," says Narcisse Batiste. Family members woke him up Thursday night when they saw his son - Narseal - was one of 7 suspects arrested for plotting Al-Queda like attacks. Narseal Batiste and his five brothers and sisters grew up in both Marksville and Chicago. His father is a baptist preacher at a church in Bunkie. "They were brought up under strict supervision - church - school - they were taught to love everybody," says Narcisse Batiste. "I don't believe it - I don't believe my son's...

Commanding the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq may have been the first endeavor that Major General John Batiste (U.S. Army, Retired) ever undertook in which he was not, in his mind, wildly successful. It seems that he does not know how to cope with this. Rather than looking in the mirror in search of someone to blame, General Batiste continues to make headlines by publicly calling for the resignation of Secretary Rumsfeld. Most recently his face graced the front page of The Wall Street Journal in an article titled The Two-Star Rebel. The article recounts the moral soul searching that...

Washington: A senior American general who served as a combat commander in Iraq has accused the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, of squandering the lives of United States soldiers by ignoring military advice on how to conduct the campaign. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Major General John Batiste, who resigned last year after 12 months stationed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, said the Pentagon chief had caused "unnecessary deaths" by committing "strategic blunders of enormous magnitude".

“Men of strenuous minds and high ideals come forward.... The attacks they sustain are more cruel than the collision of arms.... Friends desert and despise them.... They stand alone....” --Woodrow Wilson Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a strong personality, tasked (among other things greater and lesser) with managing a puzzle palace full of strong personalities and huge egos. ‘No plan survives first contact.’ And hindsight is always 20/20. Currently an excrement storm is swirling around the SecDef as a few retired General officers are grousing that their former boss should be pink slipped. President Bush is standing fast with...

by Mark Finkelstein April 14, 2006 Who says NBC won't highlight the accomplishments of the US military? Why just this morning the Today show had on as its very first guest a recently retired general, John Batiste. Oh, wait. The purpose of inviting him was to provide a platform for his call for the ouster of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Again we see the pattern illustrated yesterday with Newt Gingrich's appearance. See Iraq Knock Nets Newt Net Nod. Republicans, military folks, etc. are welcome on Today - so long as they're prepared to take shots at the Bush administration and its...

WASHINGTON – Crusty and unapologetic, Donald H. Rumsfeld is the public face of an unpopular war and a target of unrelenting criticism. A growing number of commanders who served under him say he has botched the Iraq operation, ignored the advice of his generals and should be replaced. The White House insists the defense secretary retains President Bush's confidence. Few close to the administration expect him to be shown the door. “The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history,” Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday as the administration circled...