Free Republic

11/13/2009 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- They had never met face to face, but a chance encounter between the two conjured a touching reunion six decades later at the Randolph Air Show Nov. 7. Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, a 1st lieutenant at the time, earned his spot in in history flying C-54s and C-47s during the Berlin Airlift of World War II. He earned the nickname "The Candy Bomber" from dropping candy from his aircraft to children below while flying over the American sector of Berlin. "One day I met some kids in Berlin at the fence...

POLICE are to blockade neighbourhoods with Baghdad-style checkpoints in a bid to catch criminals. A hand-picked team of officers are setting up roadblocks as part of a series of lightning strikes on crime hotspot areas. GMP is thought to be the first force in Britain to trial the new tactic from Wednesday. Civil liberties campaigners say they will monitor how it works. US police in Washington were criticised last year after they set up security checkpoints following a spate of shootings. Critics compared the approach to the security clampdown in Baghdad. Senior officers at GMP say the operation will see...

Defense: The former presidential candidate argues the U.S. should stop and board the North Korean ship if we know it carries banned cargo. Some say it would be an act of war. So is firing missiles at Hawaii.Some say it would be an act of war. So was the naval blockade of Cuba in October 1962 in a confrontation with an infinitely more dangerous foe. Sometimes it's just necessary to exert military pressure to call someone's bluff and nip a growing threat in the bud. The U.S. Navy is tracking a North Korean ship under new U.N. resolution 1874 that...

North Korea has threatened to attack U.S. and South Korean ships in taking part in a American-led programme searching for weapons of mass destruction. The country, which shocked the world with the explosion of a nuclear device the size of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs on Monday, said the South signing up to the proliferation security initiative - a U.S.-led programme to intercept and search Korean ships - was tantamount to a declaration of war. 'Now that the South Korean puppets were so ridiculous as to join in the said racket and dare declare a war against compatriots,' North Korea...

Gaza lawmaker says ship loaded with humanitarian supplies will attempt to break Israeli blockade. A Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza says a boat loaded with humanitarian aid has left Libya and will attempt to reach Gaza despite an Israeli naval blockade. Independent lawmaker Jamal Khoudari says the ship has left the Libyan port of Zawara carrying food, medicines, blankets and powdered milk. He says it will arrive in Gaza early next week. He says Libya's foreign ministry confirmed the ship had departed. Libyan officials declined comment Wednesday. The Libyan ship follows three boats that have sailed to Gaza from Cyprus since...

HAVANA, September 17 —In less than 24 hours more than 1,000 intellectuals from Latin America, the United States, Europe and Africa have signed an appeal circulated by their Cuban colleagues, expressing solidarity and demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The message, which is circulating on the Internet, notes that Cuba was dramatically impacted by two powerful hurricanes recently, and that its people are demanding an immediate halt to the odious blockade that has been maintained against Cuba by successive U.S. administrations for almost 50 years. The appeal to the world from a large group of Cuban artists...

British left-wing activist Lauren Booth remains stuck in Strip after journey to 'break' Israeli naval blockade, equates situation to Holocaust, Darfur Unlike her brother-in-law, Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair, who frequently travels from Israel to the Palestinian territories and back, Lauren Booth has found herself stuck in the Gaza Strip. The British left-wing activist arrived in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave as part of the dozens of 'Free Gaza' activists who set out on two boats from Cyprus last month with the intent of "breaking" the Israeli naval blockade imposed on the Strip. Booth is one of the...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

MOSCOW (AP) — A news agency says the Russian navy has deployed ships to blockade Georgia's Black Sea coast. The Interfax news agency says the Moskva missile cruiser and other Russian Black Sea Fleet ships have been deployed to Georgia's coast to prevent any weapons supplies. A Russian navy spokesman refused to comment on the report Sunday.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation. The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports. Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste,...

On Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed a U.S. naval blockade of Iran. In talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he also suggested that nations not allow the entry of Iranian business people and senior regime leaders. Both measures are intended to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. “The present economic sanctions on Iran have exhausted themselves,” Olmert said, according to today’s Haaretz, the Israeli paper, in its online edition. At about the same time that Haaretz reported the news of Olmert’s proposals, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released a May 13 letter from Iranian Foreign Minister...

Mideast envoy says Israeli siege has failed, calls for reopening of Gaza crossings A United Nations envoy warned Wednesday against a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Gaza. In a joint press conference with the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), Robert Serry said that Israel should stop punishing the population, while Hamas must stop targeting Gaza border crossings. He called on Israel to restore fuel supplies to Gaza, and to allow the passage of humanitarian assistance and commercial supplies, sufficient to allow the functioning of all basic services and for Palestinians to live their daily...

China tightens monastery blockade, monk dies of starvation - Update Posted : Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:10:05 GMT Author : DPA Category : Asia (World) Asia World News | Home Beijing - A 12-day blockade of food and water to major monasteries in Lhasa by Chinese forces has killed a Buddhist monk of starvation, reported Tibetans in exile Wednesday. Monk Thokmey died on Monday in the Ramoche monastery in Lhasa, according to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). The Chinese military have not been allowing food and water into the monastery since March 14 and fires teargas...

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's ethical council is considering whether to recommend the fund sell its 107 million kroner ($20 million) of bonds in Israel Electric Corp. because of an alleged participation in a blockade of the Gaza Strip. "Information that the Israeli government is using this company to cut electricity supplies to Gaza, and thereby worsening the situation for civilians there, has made Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen ask the ethics council to investigate the company," ministry spokeswoman Kaja Haldorsen said by e-mail Thursday. Israel Electric wasn't immediately available for comment. The government has banned the 2.08 trillion-krone fund from...

/begin my translation China Refused Kitty Hawk's Stay in Hong Kong due to Naval Exercise Aimed at Taiwan (Hong Kong = Yonhap News) Chung Ju-ho = Ming Bao of Hong Kong reported on Nov. 24 that large-scale Naval Exercise by PLAN is a reason why China refused U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk's scheduled stay in Hong Kong for a while. According to sources, PLAN's Eastern and Southern Fleet conducted large-scale joint military exercise recently in the area of Pacific east of Taiwan, and north of Philippines, practicing hypothetical blockade of Taiwan. Russian-made missile frigates and submarines, 022 stealth missiles, and...

Havana, Sept 19 (acn) "Washington's economic, trade and financial blockade has cost more than 89 billion dollars to Cuba", informed Tuesday in Havana Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. In a press conference at the headquarters of the Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) in Havana, Perez Roque announced the report by Cuba on Resolution 61/11 of the United Nations General Assembly, to be presented in Geneva on October 30 under the title "Necessity to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba." Perez Roque declared that this economic war, under discreet figures, has...

Fred Thompson, the actor and former Senator widely seen as the Republicans' best hope for keeping the White House, called for a "blockade" of Iran yesterday. The screen veteran, whose announcement as the eleventh contender for the Republican nomination is expected within days, also warned that "jihadists" were trying to bring the West to its knees. Mr Thompson starred in Die Hard 2 and The Hunt for Red October before serving as Republican Senator for Tennessee. During a visit to London, he delivered a hawkish lecture on foreign policy, singling out Iran's nuclear ambitions as a key threat to the...

An Island Held Prisoner 'Castro's enduring popularity among Western leftists Shows That Many People Will Ally Themselves With Any Regime, however vile, provided it is sufficiently anti-American' Daniel Hannan NATIONAL POST Thursday, February 01, 2007 Sola mors tyrannicida est, wrote Thomas More: Death is the only way to get rid of tyrants. And so it has proved for Fidel Castro. Sixteen years ago, he looked finished. The U.S.S.R. had collapsed, and the Soviet subsidies that had propped up the Cuban economy for 30 years had been abruptly terminated. Around the world, statues of Lenin were being melted down or...

ETAJIMA ? The only special squad of the Maritime Self-Defense Force has engaged in secret drills to prepare for Japan's possible inspections of North Korea-related ships under a U.N. Security Council resolution following Pyongyang's nuclear test last month, Kyodo News learned Thursday. The MSDF is carrying out the drills every day at its base in Etajima, a Seto Inland Sea island in Hiroshima Prefecture even though the Japanese government has yet to decide its position on the issue due to legal sensitivities. The government has left various questions unanswered, such as whether it can apply the law on Japan's...

Navy 'too weak' for big role in Korea blockade By Thomas Harding, Damien McElroy in Washington and Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 16/10/2006) Plans to impose a blockade of North Korea to prevent the regime acquiring nuclear weapons were thrown in disarray last night. China said it would oppose attempts to inspect suspect vessels and Royal Navy commanders said Britain was unable to make a significant military commitment to the proposed United Nations naval task force. The United States is leading attempts to put together a force that would prevent suspect cargoes from entering the Marxist dictatorship and stop North...

Russia Begins the Blockade of Georgia // The enormous country arises The Russian officers accused by Georgian authorities of espionage were returned to Russia yesterday. At the same time, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili announced that he is ready to begin a dialog with Moscow. The Kremlin has imposed a number of sanctions against Georgia and concessions by that country will not stop the process. The Country Got What It Was Waiting For Georgian Foreign Minister Vano Merabshvili and Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili were met at the palace of the prosecutor general in Tbilisi by a huge crowd of reporters. All...

Israel lifted its two-month-old aerial siege of Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, but kept its naval blockade in place because the international force was not yet in a position to enforce the arms embargo to Hizbullah. Senior government officials said that Israel agreed on Wednesday to lift the blockade because United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the international force would be ready to enforce the arms embargo. "We were ready, the UN wasn't," the officials said. The officials said that it would likely be another 48-hours before a naval force made up of French, Italian, Greek and British troops off the...

Olmert firm on Lebanon blockade Ehud Olmert and Kofi Annan Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rebuffed calls for a swift end to Israel's seven-week blockade of Lebanon. Speaking after talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, he said the siege would only be lifted once ceasefire terms were fully implemented. Mr Olmert said that one of the key conditions was the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah.A Hezbollah cabinet minister has said that there will be no unconditional release of the Israeli soldiers. Lebanese Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish said on Wednesday that such a release was "not possible",...

BHP shuts world’s biggest copper mine after blockade Posted online: Saturday, August 19, 2006 at 0000 hours IST AUG 18: BHP Billiton shut the world’s biggest copper mine after striking workers in Chile blocked all roads to the site, cutting off metal supplies at a time of surging demand. Copper prices jumped 2.7% after BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, said it called off talks with the union following the blockade. A 12-day-old strike by 2,052 miners seeking higher pay at the Escondida mine had already cut production to as little as 40% of capacity. Prices of copper, used...

GENEVA (AP)--The U.N.'s top humanitarian official criticized Israel Friday for sealing off borders and blockading harbors, saying such actions violated international law and had grave consequences for civilians. Jan Egeland was equally critical of armed Arab extremist groups in southern Lebanon and Gaza for abducting Israeli soldiers and provoking violence in the Middle East, but said Israel's military reaction has been excessive. "It is wrong. It is in violation of international law, and it is also in violation of common sense," he told reporters at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva. "You are supposed to do something to the armed...

Israeli Navy ships besiege Tripoli harbor in northern Lebanon Israeli navy ships have been besieged the Tripoli harbor in northern Lebanon, the al-Manar television network reported. The Lebanese TV networks have been reporting of massive Israeli air strikes all across Lebanon since the early morning hours. (Roee Nahmias) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275493,00.html Anyone want to guess how far Tripoli is from the Syrian border (hint - not very), and this after an IAF attack in the Bekka Valley earlier today less than 2 miles from the border. I hope Assad is getting the message

Israel says its naval ships are in Lebanon's territorial waters to enforce a blockade after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers yesterday in a border clash. "Since this morning, Israeli naval vessels have enforced a full naval closure on Lebanon because Lebanon's ports are used to transfer both terrorists and weapons to the terror organisations operating in Lebanon," a military spokesman said. Israeli planes earlier attacked Beirut's international airport and other sites in southern Lebanon, killing at least 27 people. An Israeli Defence Forces spokesman, Captain Jacob deLal, says the airport was used to transfer weapons and supplies to Hezbollah. "We're...

Lebanon furious at Syrian blockade By Ramsay Short in Jdeidet Yabuss (Filed: 28/07/2005) Severe restrictions by Syrian customs have left hundreds of lorries stranded on the border with Lebanon for more than three weeks in an apparent attempt to strangle the Lebanese economy. On a six-mile stretch of no man's land at the border crossing of Jdeidet Yabuss in east Lebanon yesterday, more than 300 vehicles carrying perishable Lebanese fruit and vegetables bound for the Gulf were parked waiting for their turn to go through. Painstaking inspection by Syrian customs allow only a few trucks across the border each day...

/begin my translation [Exclusive]  AEI, Influential to Bush Admin., Proposes 'Ending Alliance with S. Korea'  American Enterprise Institute... If N. Korea refuses to return to 6-party talk, it recommends a preemptive strike.It is confirmed that S. Korean government is anti-American...argues for the withdrawal of American troops The cover of July-August Issue of 'The American Enterprise.' With the picture of horrific nuclear explosion, it features as the Current Issue Highlights, 'Nip It Now: Avoiding a nightmare in N. Korea.' American Enterprise Institute(AEI), instrumental for creating the Bush administration, which maintains enormous influence over administration policies, urged the new policy as an alternative to 6-party talk, to resolve N....

MIDI - SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE She is unbelievable...Sgrena is contemptible She is so full of bull...for leftists that is typical She is a real whackjob, you know that it's true This communist *itch is lying to you She hates our country, we all are aware She is reprehensible...simply reprehensible Her fiction is so laughable...that cannot be deniable She is despicable...her actions inexcusable She is a real whackjob, you know that it's true This communist *itch is lying to you She hates our country, we all are aware She is reprehensible...simply reprehensible She is reprehensible...simply reprehensible She said go get a...

Kathmandu, Feb 20 (IANS) Nearly 20 days after King Gyanendra took control of Nepal and clamped emergency, media reports Sunday said Maoists had set ablaze at least 13 trucks carrying supplies, including two that were carrying buffaloes. The incident occurred in Dhading district, northwest of Kathmandu, on Thursday, the Kathmandu Post daily reported Sunday. Two of the trucks were carrying 58 buffaloes that were burnt alive, the Post said. The owner of the livestock, Mansoor Alam Ansari, said the trucks were going to Kathmandu from Bara in southern Nepal near the Indian border when the rebels stopped them on the...

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Calculating Chinese Capabilities January 27, 2005: Department of Defense intelligence analysts are having a hard time figuring out when China thinks it will be ready to make a grab for Taiwan. The recent surge in the construction of short range amphibious ships, and constant movement of more ballistic missiles to within range of Taiwan, indicate something may happen sooner rather than later. Taiwan is only 300 kilometers from China. There are about 600 DF-15 missiles (with a range of 600 kilometers) aimed at Taiwan now, and by next year, there may be 800. Moreover, it is suspected that...

The Senate Leftists are continuing to ignore their constitutionally spelled-out job to vote on judicial nominees. Instead, they are leading a "filibuster" against good conservatives. The GOP should force a real filibuster.The Democrats' continued attempts to avoid their constitutional duty of advice and consent took another step Wednesday as they voted, for the seventh time this year, to block the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote came as no surprise as they seem to be in the habit of bad-mouthing and voting against Mr. Estrada and they had voted Tuesday against ending their...

<p>In a commentary carried on KCNA -- the official government news service -- Pyongyang said the United States was trying to force North Korea to disarm ahead of a military attack.</p> <p>"The Iraqi war proved that disarmament leads to a war. Therefore, it is quite clear that the DPRK (North Korea) can never accept the U.S. demand that it scrap its nuclear weapons program first," the signed government statement said.</p>

Cracking Down on the Terror-Arms Trade By DAVID E. SANGER KENNEBUNKPORT, Me. ?First came pre-emption, President Bush's declaration that the age of containment was over and that the United States would no longer wait before wiping out potential threats. Now, after he turned doctrine into practice in Iraq, comes the next phase of the strategy: a bid to pre-empt conflict itself by hobbling the traffic in the most horrific armaments. Call it pre-emptive pre-emption. The aim is to keep countries like North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria from trading in arms that could be slipped to terrorists or used to...

Plan for N. Korea Will Mix Diplomacy and Pressure By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 7, 2003; Page A01 The Bush administration plans to adjust its policy toward North Korea by adopting a two-track approach that would combine new talks with pressure on the communist state by targeting its illegal drug and counterfeiting trade and possibly its missile sales, U.S. and Asian officials said yesterday. The emerging consensus, which will be refined today at a meeting of President Bush's top foreign policy advisers, would bridge a gap that has emerged within the administration since North Korea declared...

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030506/afp/030506014231top.html Tuesday May 6, 09:42 AM US denies shift in North Korea policy WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said it had not shifted its North Korea policy, discounting a report it was now more concerned with stopping Pyongyang exporting nuclear material than on halting its weapons programs. The New York Times reported that President George W. Bush discussed such an approach with Australian Prime Minister John Howard at weekend talks at his Crawford, Texas ranch. "The President said the central worry is not what they've got, but where it goes," an unnamed administration official was quoted as saying. "He's...

May 5, 2003 Bush Shifts Focus to Nuclear Sales by North Korea By DAVID E. SANGER CRAWFORD, Tex., May 4 — Tacitly acknowledging that North Korea may not be deterred from producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, President Bush is now trying to marshal international support for preventing the country from exporting nuclear material, American and foreign officials say. Mr. Bush discussed the new approach on Saturday morning with Australia's prime minister, John Howard, after the two men were given a lengthy briefing at Mr. Bush's ranch by the chief American negotiator with North Korea, James A. Kelly, officials said. For...

U.S. may impose naval blockade on N. Korea, eyes Japan help WASHINGTON, April 30 Kyodo - The United States is considering imposing a naval blockade on North Korea or boarding its ships for inspection in the event Pyongyang upgrades its nuclear weapons development, and Washington expects Tokyo to cooperate in such a move, a U.S. Defense Department official said Wednesday. The official said it may be necessary for Japan to cooperate with the U.S. in such a case as Japan has had problems with the North regarding North Korean spy ships in Japanese waters. However, the official did not indicate...

North Korea faces naval blockade over nuclear arms The United States is said to be considering a selective shipping blockade against North Korea to prevent the communist state following through on its threat to proliferate nuclear weapons. The Pentagon strategy has been dubbed Cuba Lite, a lesser version of the US blockade during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The plan is in response to last week's claim by North Korea to the US that it already had nuclear weapons, and was prepared to make a "physical demonstration" of them or "transfer" them to other countries. North Korea also said it...

  US plans 'Cuba lite' blockade on North Korea By Julian Coman in Washington (Filed: 27/04/2003) The Pentagon is planning a permanent selective blockade of North Korean shipping, to prevent the country's threatened export of nuclear materials to other rogue states and terrorist organisations. The move, nicknamed "Cuba Lite" for its echoes of the tactics used during the 1963 Cuban missile crisis, is America's first reaction to last week's warning by a North Korean envoy that Pyongyang intends to "transfer" nuclear devices or other material overseas. It is aimed at increasing pressure on the North Korean regime, and would use...

The environmental organisation Greenpeace is trying to stop a ship carrying US military equipment from sailing from the port of Rotterdam. The organisation has deployed its ship Rainbow Warrior-2 and four smaller vessels. Activists are trying to tie themselves to the ship's hawsers. Police have arrested at least six people. The equipment on board the ship is destined for the Gulf region. The blockade is intended to reflect to Greenpeace's roots in the peace movement. In a statement, the organisation says that a war would have devastating consequences for both people and the environment.

British tourists and hauliers last night faced being stranded in France as French lorry drivers began blockading the Channel ports as part of a nationwide campaign for better pay and conditions. Hundreds of people on pre-Christmas "booze cruises" were expected to be caught up in the dispute, which could last for weeks. Distribution centres and fuel depots were also targets. The action will be aggravated tonight by the start of a 32-hour strike by French air traffic controllers, which has already forced British operators to cancel flights. Tomorrow the main French rail unions are threatening to strike. The first blockade...

$1.6 Billion Deal Would Aid a Blockade of Taiwan, Challenge U.S. Power in Region BEIJING, June 24 -- China has begun negotiations with Russia to buy eight more submarines in a $1.6 billion deal that will significantly boost its ability to blockade Taiwan and challenge U.S. naval supremacy in nearby seas, Western and Russian sources said. Rest of article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38496-2002Jun24.html