Free Republic

Remember when Barack Obama promised to restore our standing with America’s allies and exercise “smart power� in diplomacy? Good times, good times. In the latest dispute over the Falkland Islands, Obama has failed to support our closest ally on the world stage even after their military and diplomatic support for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in what the Telegraph’s Nile Gardiner called another knife in the back: First, military weakness is provocative. Argentina ramped up its aggressive rhetoric and diplomatic efforts to reclaim the Falklands only after P.M. Cameron announced massive cuts to the Royal Navy and British ground...

The great myth of the last few decades is that people can establish sustainable savings by investing in other people’s debt. That is how relatively astute and candid writers, such as Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph, can claim that “Britain is still a hugely wealthy nation� and actually mean it. In his latest blog post, Warner tries to convince us that aggregate private debt in Britain is not so bad when we factor in “assets� as well.From his piece:Believe it or not, Britain is still a hugely wealthy nationLast week I drew attention to a report by Royal Bank of...

Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic preacher once described as Osama bin Laden’s “right hand man in Europe”, will be back on the streets within days after being granted bail. A senior immigration judge said yesterday that Qatada could be released despite even his own defence team suggesting that he posed a “grave risk” to Britain’s national security. Qatada was granted bail by Mr Justice Mitting after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that he could not be deported to his native Jordan. The bail conditions will be similar to those set in 2008, with the cleric confined...

EXCLUSIVE Fury at wreaths for £1million armed robber Sick 'cashpoint' tribute   Fake ... but Thomas Curtis's gang took real ATMs   SICK graveside tributes have been left by family and pals for an armed robber and ram-raider found hanged in jail. Victims of the £1million crimes carried out by Thomas Curtis, 29, and his gang last night voiced fury at the display in Elm, Cambs, which includes a replica ATM and a Post Office sign. Friends and relatives "honoured" the robber by leaving rose-edged tributes at the grave that recall his trail of violent crime. Dad-of-two Curtis was...

It was a photograph that captured the youth, glamour and femininity of what would come to be called the new Elizabethan age. Britain’s 27-year-old Queen had been crowned in Westminster Abbey earlier that day, June 2, 1953, and now she poses for photographs in Buckingham Palace. She is wearing the Imperial State Crown and the exquisite Coronation gown designed by Sir Norman Hartnell. The 21ft ermine-trimmed velvet Purple Robe of Estate flows from her shoulders. She is flanked by her Maids of Honour: six of the country’s most blueblooded young women, all single, beautiful and, like the Queen, wearing gowns...

The remains of a 300-year-old warship are to be raised from the sea bed, according to reports. The wreck of HMS Victory, a predecessor of Nelson's famous flagship, was found near the Channel Islands in 2008. The British warship, which went down in a storm in 1744 killing more than 1,000 sailors, could contain gold coins worth an estimated £500m. The Sunday Times says the Maritime Heritage Foundation is set to manage the wreck's raising.

British authorities on Friday revoked the licence of Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster's English-language outlet, saying the channel had breached a string of regulations. -excerpt- Press TV had also "indicated it is unwilling and unable" to pay a fine of £100,000 ($156,000, 117,000 euros) imposed in December for showing an interview in 2009 with an imprisoned journalist for a US magazine, Ofcom said.

UK Foreign policy loons: David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Tony Blair.Nick Clegg, the UK's second string dhimmi Prime Minister, belched out the UK's ignorance and foreign policy dhimmitude with the following vitriolic charge of 'vandalism' against Israel:["Once you've placed physical facts on the ground that makes it impossible to deliver something that everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination... it is an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise on which negotiations have taken place for years and years and years," Clegg said, referring to settlement construction. Clegg was speaking alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was also holding talks in London...

SNIPPET: "CHANTING fundamentalist bile, extremist Abu Jibreel was on the front line battling police officers during a mock "funeral" for Osama Bin Laden. With his beard and flowing robes, the follower of hate preacher Anjem Choudary was happy to tell anyone who would listen that he wants to bring down democracy..." SNIPPET: "The Sun can reveal that the 39-year-old Muslim convert was born Paul Steven Mellor in Cheshire." SNIPPET: "He is campaigning for Sharia law and self-governing Muslim "states" to be established in Britain." SNIPPET: "Choudary gloated: "We have a former British Army soldier in our organisation. Next we want...

EXCLUSIVE  Sex swap teenager to enter Miss England contest   BY JENNA SLOAN Published: 14 Jan 2012   A TEENAGE transsexual has become the first sex swap patient to enter the Miss England beauty pageant. Jackie Green became the UK's youngest transsexual after an op in Thailand on her 16th birthday. The 18-year-old — who was born Jack but lived as a girl since age ten — was asked to enter by modelling scouts who had no idea of her history. The aspiring model, from Leeds, hopes to use the opportunity to speak out about bullying and transgender issues....

Paul Weston’s latest essay concerns the apparent indifference of the British media and political establishment to racially motivated crime — unless, of course, that crime is committed by white people against non-whites... The mainstream media (MSM) have devoted a great deal of space to the Stephen Lawrence case of late. Many journalists have commented that whilst Britain was a racist country in the recent past, the Britain of today is a much more tolerant place. This may well be the case with regard to white-on-non-white racial crime, but what about the violent crime committed by non-whites on whites, and what...

SNIPPET - quote: Dissemination *_is_* collection I always get a kick out of people who tell me I give away intelligence for free. What I do is watch how information moves. Keep in mind that the subject covered on this site are pretty darn esoteric by most standards. What kind of people, for example, even know who Oussama Salhab is? Answers include: Oussama Salhab, his family, friends, associates in and out of Hizballah, people he does business with, spies of various nations, etc. Yep. The barn is free, and so is the food.

The Palace of Westminster has rejected demands to serve halal meat in its restaurants. Muslim MPs and peers have been told they cannot have meat slaughtered in line with Islamic tradition because the method – slitting an animal’s throat without first stunning it – is offensive to many of their non-Muslim colleagues. The stance has infuriated some parliamentarians who have eaten meat in the Palace’s 23 restaurants and cafes, having been assured that it was halal. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham said: ‘I did feel misled. I think a halal option should be made available.’ In 2010, the Mail on Sunday...

It's going to be a quiet Christmas for Britain's biggest dog who will be spending the festive season on the sofa after breaking his toe. Measuring a whopping seven-feet four inches in length, giant Samson damaged his front right paw after knocking it on the pavement few weeks ago. And with Christmas just around the corner, the gargantuan dog - who weighs 20 stone - is out of festive cheer as he recovers at his home in Boston, Lincolnshire. Samson's doting owners, Ray Woods, a retired 69-year-old taxi-driver, and his wife Julie, 59, have been caring for the Newfoundland and...

Maggie to a T, except the walk Edwina Currie (junior health minister under Thatcher) Towering above everything else in this wonderful movie is the magnificent performance of Meryl Streep, whose majestic portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady confirms that she is the greatest screen actress of modern times. What is so outstanding is how she captures the essence of Margaret’s personality, right down to the curl of her lip. This is no mere imitation. It shows what Margaret was really like. Streep’s screen character embodies Margaret’s steely determination, overlaying a considerable sense of insecurity. As the film so...

In 2008, while arguing for the need to formally introduce Sharia law into the law of the United Kingdom, the Archbishop of Canterbury claimed Sharia law was “inevitable” in the UK . He denied it was an “alien” system and called for “constructive accommodation” of Muslim law. He did this in a calculated and provocative manner, while denying a place for its more “extreme punishments.” It is unlikely that many members of the Muslim community would be satisfied with an Anglican primate determining the limitations of the Quran and Sharia law. This argument was rapidly followed by the Lord Chief...

German police are investigating a suspicious envelope that was sent to the chief executive of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann on Wednesday. A police spokesman in Frankfurt declined to say what was in the envelope but said a bomb disposal expert had been sent to the headquarters of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank. In New York, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said it contained explosives. Frankfurt police spokesman Alexander Kiessling said: "There was a piece of mail that arrived at Deutsche Bank that was noticed. It was noticed because it seemed unusual." Ackermann is the face of capitalism in Germany...

Six boats hollowed out of oak tree trunks are among hundreds of intact artefacts from 3,000 years ago that have been discovered in the Cambridgeshire fens, the Observer can reveal. The scale, quality and condition of the objects, the largest bronze age collection ever found in one place in Britain, have astonished archaeologists – and barely a fraction of the site has been excavated. Unique textile fragments, wicker baskets and wooden sword handles have survived. There are even containers of food, including a bowl with a wooden spoon still wedged into the contents, now analysed as nettle stew, which may...

A bomb exploded just 50 yards from the British Embassy in Bahrain yesterday as fears grew that Iranian-backed aggression against the West was spreading through the Middle East.

Ilir Kumbaro is wanted for torture and kidnapping in Albania. An arrest warrant has been issued for him after he failed to appear in a London court today A former Albanian spy chief wanted for torture and kidnapping was on the run yesterday after failing to appear at an extradition hearing in London. Ports and airports were put on alert after 58-year-old Ilir Kumbaro did not turn up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he faced being sent back to Eastern Europe. The Daily Mail has learned that despite Kumbaro being regarded as ‘clever and resourceful’, his bail conditions did not...

Iranian protesters broke into the British embassy compound in Tehran, tearing down the flag and looting a portrait of The Queen. British officials said they were urgently trying to establish whereabouts of staff and the scope of the threat unleashed by the breach. Iranian hardliners had called for a demonstration against the embassy yesterday after the country adopted a law requiring the regime to throw out the British ambassador. Reports from the scene said that security forces had failed to secure the site as dozens of students stormed the British Embassy, bringing down the union flag and throwing documents from...

* * * In a press conference this evening, the president referred in stumbling fashion to the “English Embassy” in Iran instead of the British Embassy. One can only imagine the kind of howls of derision that would greet any presidential contender if that kind of basic error were made before, say, the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can watch the video [at the link.] In case the president is unaware, England forms part of Great Britain, which also includes Scotland and Wales, though not Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. There is no...

LONDON – Britain's foreign secretary William Hague said Wednesday that the UK was ordering the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London, and Britain was shutting down its embassy in Tehran. "We require the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and that all Iranian diplomatic staff must leave the United Kingdom within the next 48 hours," Hague told British lawmakers in a statement to parliament. "If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here." -excerpt- Hague confirmed that the British Embassy in Tehran was...

LONDON (AP) — Britain's foreign secretary on Wednesday ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the U.K within 48 hours following attacks on the British embassy and a residential compound in Tehran.

The UK is to expel all Iranian diplomats following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced. He said he had ordered the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London. Tuesday's attack by hundreds of protesters followed Britain's decision to impose further sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. Iran's parliament had previously voted to reduce diplomatic ties with the UK. Mr Hague said there had been "some degree of regime consent" in the attacks. He said all UK diplomatic staff in Tehran had been evacuated and the embassy closed.

Dozens of Iranian students have stormed the UK embassy in Tehran, chanting “death to England.” Before police intervened, protesters pelted the embassy with stones and petrol bombs, brought down the flag, and destroyed a pile of classified documents. Reports by the Mehr news agency that six UK staff had been taken hostage when students raided a north Tehran diplomatic compound were withdrawn shortly after they were posted. No explanation was given for the report, nor its removal.

Hardline Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran this morning, smashing windows and burning the British flag. The students, protesting the latest British sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic as a result of its nuclear defiance, demanded Tehran break relations with London. Rather than protect the embassy, Iranian security forces charged with its protecting simply stood aside suggesting official endorsement of the act. The attack on the embassy follows the Iranian parliament’s decision on Sunday to downgrade relations with Great Britain and expel the British ambassador. That vote was 179 in favor of downgrading relations, and four against with...

MF Global Money Found in Britain?By: Ben Protess and Azam Ahmed The New York Times Published: Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 | 7:01 AM ET About $200 million in customer money that vanished from MF Global is believed to have surfaced at JPMorgan Chase in Britain, according to people briefed on the matter. The discovery could be the most significant breakthrough in a monthlong hunt for the missing funds. During MF Global's [MFGLQ 0.00 --- UNCH (0) ] last chaotic days, the brokerage firm overdrew an account at JPMorgan [JPM 29.16 0.68 (+2.39%) ], according to another person who is close...

Steve Hilton, the Prime Minister’s director of strategy and ‘green guru’, is the latest person to admit to doubts about climate change. ‘I’m not sure I believe in it,’ he announced at a meeting of the Energy Department, prompting one aide to blurt out: ‘Did I just hear that correctly?’ According to one witness, Hilton, 41, the man who coined the slogan ‘Vote Blue and Go Green’ and changed the Tory symbol from a Stalinist style torch to an eco friendly tree, said: ‘Climate change arguments are highly complex. ‘My focus has always been more on using green issues to...

As every major developed economy hits Bass's Keynesian Endgame, the status quo is set to change dramatically. Nowhere is this climax playing out louder than in Europe and the implicit solution of Germany-uber-alles (while seemingly inevitable though nevertheless lengthy in execution) is likely to not sit well with many of the EMU nations. To wit, The Telegraph today reports that Britain's Foreign Office is advising its overseas embassies to draw up plans to help expats should the collapse of the Euro turn explosive. Almost incredibly, a senior minister has revealed that Britain is now planning on the basis that a...

An elderly widow has died after muggers stole her handbag containing her husband's ashes - which she had carried for 17 years. Nellie Geraghty, 79, suffered fatal head injuries as she desperately tried to cling onto the bag during the robbery in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Police have launched a murder inquiry after she died in Royal Oldham Hospital at around midnight on Friday. Two youths, aged 14 and 17, have been arrested on suspicion of robbery. Mrs Geraghty was found collapsed in an alleyway near her home in Shaw just before noon on Thursday. Inside her handbag was a blue...

EXCLUSIVE    Perv lags getting paid to do rehab Fury at paedo jail ‘bribes’   Courses ... inmates can even pick up the cash by not attending the sessions   JAILED paedophiles are being PAID to take courses inside to stop them offending. Under prison rules, sick inmates who attend "offender behaviour programmes" get wages the same as if they have a job in jail. They can even pick up the cash by NOT attending the sessions — if they show they were willing to go but there were no spaces available. Last night Lyn Costello, of campaigning group Mothers Against...

EXCLUSIVE Courts free 76% of teen muggers   SOFT courts are letting 76 per cent of teenage muggers go free, The Sun can reveal. Shock figures also show that fewer than 20 per cent of young burglars are locked up for raiding people's homes. Just one in ten young arsonists ends up behind bars, and a shocking 96 per cent of juvenile sex offenders go free. The bombshell statistics — obtained through The Sun's Freedom of Information requests — reveal just how lenient Britain's youth courts have become. Of the 72,841 crimes prosecuted in youth courts over the past...

For centuries, people of all walks of life have carried around with them echoes of the King James Version. So to throw it out as the church hierarchy has done amounts to a savage act of deprivation and, as this deprivation is of the Word of God in English, it is vicious iconoclasm. Sidelining the King James Version especially deprives our children and is therefore a notable case of child abuse. There is no such thing as noble truth expressed in ignoble words. The choice of words determines what is being said. Therefore, we should choose the best. “Strips of...

Multinational UBS was under new management yesterday - at least in Hackney. Anti-cuts activists Occupy London made the surprise announcement that they had seized a four-story office block in Sun Street owned by the Swiss-based "global financial services" giant. Protesters lounged on windowsills and hung banners out of the windows on a brisk Friday afternoon as police looked on. It is understood armed officers were briefly called out following reports of a "disturbance" at another UBS office across the road. However as the site is a private commercial property the activists' trespass is a civil rather than criminal offence, meaning...

Germany is facing a moment of strategic truth. The sacred union with France that has held together through thick and thin for half a century is in growing danger as contagion spreads North, engulfing the French bond market. For EU veterans, the drama has has echoes of 1993 when the Bundesbank ditched orthodoxy to rescue France, after first cutting Britain and Italy adrift in the Exchange Rate Mechanism. But this time the stakes are much higher. On that occasion, Chancellor Helmut Kohl pulled rank, more of less ordering his bankers to obey. "We must always bow three times before the...

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what’s going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from a Jew living in France. Will the world say nothing – again – as it did in Hitler’s time? “I am a Jew — therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing. Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously...

Police investigating the cause of a 34-car pile-up on a major British highway that killed seven people and injured 51 said Sunday they are focusing on a fireworks display near the accident site.

It’s one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in history: who was Jack the Ripper, the Victorian serial killer who surgically disemboweled five prostitutes in the fall of 1888? According to claims that are currently getting a great deal of media attention in Britain, he may be none other than prominent surgeon Sir John Williams – who, in addition to serving as Queen Victoria’s surgeon in London, was also a well-known abortionist. In a new book, Sir John’s great-great-great-great nephew, Tony Williams, presents evidence for Sir John’s guilt, including his discovery of a six-inch surgical knife among his ancestor’s possessions...

Almost half of Britons think children are violent and starting to behave like animals, a Barnardo's survey suggests. The children's charity says the research suggests society holds a negative view towards children despite the majority being well behaved. Of the more than 2,000 people questioned by ICM Research, 44% said young people were becoming feral. Barnado's chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said it was "depressing" so many were ready to give up on children. The survey revealed that: 49% agreed children are beginning to behave like animals Almost 47% thought youngsters were angry, violent and abusive One in four said...

'The Guardian' reports UK defense establishment believes US may accelerate plans for targeted strikes against Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities; UK military chief visited Israel 'secretly' this week. The British military is accelerating planning for its part in a potential US attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the UK Ministry of Defense believes the US may speed up plans for targeted missile strikes of certain Iranian nuclear targets. The Guardian quoted British officials as saying the UK would assist the US militarily if such a mission were to take place. British military officials...

Liam Fox's unofficial adviser Adam Werritty was warned by MI6 that his interventions in Iranian politics risked jeopardising British diplomacy in the Middle East. Senior Whitehall officials told Mr Werritty to rein in his political activities which included visits to the Iranian capital Tehran and regular contact with dissident groups who wanted regime change. Dr Fox, who resigned as Defence Secretary ten days ago over his contacts with Mr Werritty, has been accused of using his best man and former flatmate to run a separate foreign policy. But it is understood that Mr Werritty's attempts to draw MI6 into his...

One day, or perhaps one night, in the late seventh century an unknown party traveled along an old Roman road that cut across an uninhabited heath fringed by forest in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. Possibly they were soldiers, or then again maybe thieves—the remote area would remain notorious for highwaymen for centuries—but at any rate they were not casual travelers. Stepping off the road near the rise of a small ridge, they dug a pit and buried a stash of treasure in the ground. For 1,300 years the treasure lay undisturbed, and eventually the landscape evolved from forest clearing...

The Prime Minster gave a speech to Parliament on Monday on reforming British immigration laws. He is immediately directing immigration officials in his administration to crack-down on immigrants from mostly Muslim countries who have no loyalties to Britain, British values or British culture.  •Forced Marriages to be a criminal offense •End to Anchor babies - Families will need to post a bond of thousands of pounds to bring in other family members from overseas •A call on all loyal Citizens of Great Britain to turn in illegal immigrants, particularly those who overstay their Visas •Lengthening and strengthening the Test...

Eccentric 85-year-old billionaire the Duchess of Alba — the world's most titled woman — married her toyboy yesterday in Spain's "wedding of the century". Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, famous for her frizzy blonde hair, wed civil servant Alfonso Diez, 60, in front of 38 guests at her £3billion palace.

Kenya’s sharp turn to the East for business and development financing under the Kibaki government has toppled European countries from their long-held position as the country’s leading sources of foreign investment. (Read: Ten firms bid for Sh5bn road project ) The latest economic data shows that China, South Africa, India and South Korea have risen to stand among the top five sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) for Kenya, knocking off the UK, Germany and the Netherlands who have occupied the space since independence. The Kenya Investment Authority said the change in FDI pecking order deepened in the past couple...

MP's wife guilty of stealing love rival's cat   Christine Hemming, the wife of MP John Hemming, has been found guilty of stealing a kitten from the home of her husband's lover after she was caught on CCTV. Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court took just over five hours to convict Mrs Hemming, 53, who snatched the cat three days after separating from Liberal Democrat John Hemming. CCTV footage of the offence, on September 29, shows Mrs Hemming crawling on her hands and knees underneath a window before sneaking into the home of Emily Cox. Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming,...

“Another three terrorists to dodge deportation by using Human Rights Act to stay in Britain Fanatics will claim they could face ill-treatment in their homelands Trio are among dozens of dangerous fundamentalists due to be released” SNIPPET: “Those likely to fight deportation on their release include internet expert Younes Tsouli, 28, who ran websites with instructions on how to make suicide vests. The Al Qaeda supporter faces being sent back to Morocco but instability in the country means he could use the Human Rights Act to argue he would be in danger. ‘Not only is a convicted terrorist permitted to...

<p>For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause.</p>