Free Republic

Polar bear population counts are estimates only, derived from the most “rudimentary” of scientific knowledge and made up largely to meet the expectations of the public, researchers said in an email to a science blogger. Dag Vongraven, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Polar Bear Specialist Group, sent an email to Polar Bear Science blogger Susan Crockford to clarify that a report that’s about to go public to give updates on the animal’s worldwide population level contains estimates, not hard facts. “As part of past status reports, the PBSG has traditionally estimated a range for the total...

Few universities are less well-suited to adjudicate sexual assault cases than Duke. The university’s president and judicial affairs staff remains the same as 2006-2007, when their egregious mishandling of events in the lacrosse case resulted in an approximately $6.7 million legal settlement with each of the three falsely accused players. The hostility to due process in the campus environment was best seen in the activities of the Group of 88, who proudly affirmed that something “happened” to false accuser Crystal Mangum based solely on the word of Mangum and rogue prosecutor Mike Nifong. Nor has Duke’s internal campus process inspired...

Pressure was growing on Monday night for Western military drones to be used in the hunt for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria, as the terrorist thought to be holding them threatened to “marry off” girls aged as young as nine. Experts said that unmanned spy planes of the kind used in Afghanistan could be deployed along with satellite-operated cameras to search the vast areas of desert and woodland where the girls are thought to be hidden. Over the weekend, the Nigerian military massed for a search operation in the Sambisa Forest region, although on Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan...

Relatives of 9/11 victims are eagerly watching the legal struggle over information held by the FBI concerning a Saudi Arabian family in Sarasota with possible ties to terrorists, even as calls in Congress ramp up for more disclosure about how the attackers were funded. On Friday, a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale was expected to receive FBI documents pertaining to the agency’s investigation of the Saudi family that abruptly left Sarasota just before the September 2001 attacks. “It all ties together about financing power, leading back to the Saudis,” said Bill Doyle, a retired stockbroker who lives in the Central...

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new thriller that may be of interest to the broader FR community (some members have already read it). It's called TROPHY TARGET and involves some conservative friendly themes, such as the consequences of not taking the threat of Islamic terrorism seriously. Below is a summary and link to more information. TROPHY TARGETtro·phy ['trō-fē] tar·get [ˈtär-gət] - A uniquely high value individual captured and used by an enemy as leverage for political, military or other strategic purposes Deep in the jungle of French Guiana, a once anonymous soldier of the French Foreign Legion...

Book Review: The Infidel by Bosch FawstinSummary: A refreshing, creative and entertaining critique of Islam and jihad. Think Frank Miller channeling Robert Spencer.IllustWriter Bosch Fawstin is a pioneer of sorts in the field of digital counter-culture literature. He's published anti-establishment artwork on the internet for years, well before the proliferation of ebooks. Much of his work uses sophisticated cartoons to express skepticism of or mock government, politicians and current events. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Islam was increasingly a target of Bosch's creative talents. In February 2011, Bosch released Chapter 1 of his much anticipated graphic novel...

HE WAS a giant, physically and politically. He was an extraordinary leader who took the bedouin ethos and wrapped it in the puritanical sect of Wahhabi Islam. He was the legendary Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, who in the first quarter of the twentieth century linked together the disparate tribes of the Arabian Peninsula to create the country of Saudi Arabia. Michael Darlow and Barbara Bray have collected the facts, assembled the myths and illuminated the mysteries of this man, pulling it all into a compelling biography titled Ibn Saud: The Desert Warrior Who Created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The...

The great majority of Kosovar Albanians take pride in their reputation as the most pro-American Muslims in the world. Their Sunni Islam is conventional and moderate, and spiritual Sufism is a powerful force among the believers. Since 2009, however, a serious effort has been visible in the Balkan republic to turn Kosovar Islam in the direction of Wahhabism, the ultrafundamentalist sect that inspires al Qaeda. The meddling is coming mainly from neighboring Macedonia, where Albanians and Muslims are recognized officially as minorities, and the Islamic clerical apparatus has come under Arab control. Kosovo defines itself constitutionally as a secular state,...

The number of mosques in the United States has increased 74 percent in ten years according to a study released by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research. In 2000, theU.S.reported 1209 places of worship for Muslims. In 2010, that number has risen to 2106. In 1990, the number stood at approximately 700. This, in a period of time when the radical Jihad side of Islam has established unwavering goals, in writing, that the United States is in their crosshairs for being conquered …from within. This 74 percent growth has occurred in the years following the deadliest warring attack on American...

A women’s conference organized by the dominant Islamist bloc in the Egyptian parliament has called for a council for families to replace the existing National Council for Women, a state-owned daily reported on Friday. The conference, held Thursday on International Women’s Day, also condemned the 1978 U.N. convention against gender discrimination saying it was “incompatible with the values of Islamic sharia” law, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported.The Freedom and Justice Party conference called for the formation of a national council for the family to “truly express the complementary roles of men and women,” the newspaper said. The Freedom and Justice Party,...

Washington, D.C. (February 13, 2012) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that eight Coptic Christian families were evicted from their homes in northern Egypt following two attacks by radical Islamists on Christian homes and businesses in late-January. The attacks were in response to an alleged affair between a Christian man and a Muslim woman. On January 27th, hundreds of Muslims, led by Salafists who adhere to the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, looted and torched Christian homes and shops in Kobry el-Sharbat near Alexandria following rumors that a Christian man, Mourad Samy Guirguis, had an affair with a Muslim...

A young Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate." On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you." "I will not pray for you," he added. The controversial tweet sparked a frenzy of responses -- some 30,000, according to an online service that tracks tweets in the Arab world....

A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: the shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. Fort Bragg’s Special Warfare Center shows how the U.S. has turned hunting terror networks into half-science, half-art-form since the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Forging lessons painfully learned in the decade since into a formal curriculum, the training is...

James Woolsey is one of the green movement's more intriguing leaders. Since leaving public service - his career includes being head of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993-1995 - he has become an energy expert and Clean Tech Investor for VantagePoint Venture Partners and Lux Capital. Behind his clean technology focus lies a desire to reduce the United States' dependence on fossil fuels imported from the Middle East. He is one of the driving forces behind the Open Fuel Standard Act. The Open Fuel Standard Act, if enacted as law, would require auto manufacturers to ensure that an increasing percentage...