Free Republic

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel are never far from each other’s side, according to detailed daily schedules obtained by The Wall Street Journal Thursday through a Freedom of Information Act request. From January to July, Geithner and Emanuel met in person, spoke on the phone, or left messages for each other at least 108 times—interactions that don’t include broader meetings with White House officials or informal contacts such as hallway chats. Contact between the two senior administration officials picked up after Feb. 10, the day Geithner delivered a widely panned speech outlining his...

CAMP ECHO, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2009 – When servicemembers are deployed and conducting patrols, they rely on their “battle buddies” for safety and companionship. Army Staff Sgt. Ruby, an explosive detection and attack dog, latches onto trainer Marine Staff Sgt. Chris Willingham, military working dog handler, during an attack demonstration at Camp Echo, Iraq, Jan. 7, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Rodney Foliente  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Military dogs have served in the U.S. armed forces and deployed to combat theaters since World War I, and continue to protect servicemembers and civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez apparently doesn't appreciate Barack Obama's classifying him as a supporter of Colombian terror group, FARC, likening the president-elect's odor to that of Chavez nemesis President Bush. In an interview airing on Venezuelan television and reported by The Washington Post Monday, Chavez said Obama has "the same stench" as Bush. The comment harkens back to September 2006, when Chavez followed Bush at an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly opening and said he could still smell the "sulfur" left behind by the U.S. president's presence at the podium. In an interview that aired on Univision last...

Man Claims Panic Led Him to Chop Up Dead Pal's Body, Stuff It In Barrel Wednesday, July 25, 2007 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man charged with improperly disposing of a corpse claims he chopped up his friend's body, stuffed the parts in a metal drum and rolled it into a river in a panic after the friend died of a drug overdose, police said. The drum, with the body parts inside, was found floating in the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport last week. Felix Rivera, 23, was charged Tuesday with improper disposal of a dead body after he told police his...

Two senators leading separate efforts to put Congress on record against President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq joined forces Wednesday, agreeing on a nonbinding resolution that would criticize the plan. Sens. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., and Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., had been sponsoring competing measures opposing Bush's strategy of sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to the war zone, with Warner's less harshly worded version attracting more Republican interest. The new resolution would vow to protect funding for troops while keeping Warner's original language expressing the Senate's opposition to the troop buildup. The resolution could...

AUSTRALIA has reaffirmed its commitment to the US-led war in Iraq, with Defence Minister Brendan Nelson saying a decision to cut and run would impact generations to come. Dr Nelson is in the US for high level talks with White House officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "If we do not participate in fighting terrorism in places like Iraq, the next generation of Australians will pay a very high price, and it won't just be money," Dr Nelson said on ABC radio. He refused to outline an exit strategy for Australian troops in Iraq despite...

New evidence of Egyptian nuke program Inspectors confirm suspicions of secret trade between Cairo, Tripoli Posted: March 30, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Libya has exchanged nuclear and missile expertise with Egypt, according to evidence found by a British-U.S. team of inspectors. The evidence confirms U.S. suspicions of secret trade between Cairo and Tripoli in strategic weapons obtained from North Korea, reports Middle East Newsline. The inspections of Libyan facilities took place in late 2003 and early 2004. Egypt also might have received nuclear weapons designs from Pakistan, the International Atomic Energy Agency believes, according to Newsline. The...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- For U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Memorial Day won't mean backyards, picnic tables and grilled hot dogs. It will be another 24 hours spent on foot patrol, guard duty or reconstruction projects. But the memorial part will be there. American troops -- many of them young, many new to such seriousness -- say memories of fallen comrades will linger, and a holiday that once meant the beginning of summer has taken on new significance. "In the past, I never thought about why Memorial Day was celebrated. And now, when I know someone who died and what it means,...

Advisors in the White House are now writing a speech in which the President Bush will announce the beginning for war with Iraq..

<p>Someone from the 3rd Infantry Division got in touch and said he thought I'd want to know. He said it was about Bill Mauldin. What followed was not so good.</p> <p>I'll get to that in a moment. For those of you too young to recognize the name: Bill Mauldin, who is now 80 years old, was the finest and most beloved editorial cartoonist of World War II. An enlisted man who drew for Stars and Stripes, he was the one who gave the soldiers hope and sardonic smiles on the battlefields; Mauldin knew their hearts because he was one of them. Using his dirty, unshaven, bone-weary infantrymen characters Willie and Joe as his vehicle, Mauldin let all those troops know there was someone who understood. A Mauldin classic from World War II: an exhausted infantryman standing in front of a table where medals were being given out, saying: "Just gimme th' aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart."</p>