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Text from Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi Letter 1. The foreign Mujahidin: Their numbers continue to be small, compared to the large nature of the expected battle. We know that there are enough good groups and jihad is continuing, despite the negative rumors. What is preventing us from making a general call to arms is the fact that the country of Iraq has no mountains in which to seek refuge, or forest in which to hide. Our presence is apparent and our movement is out in the open. Eyes are everywhere. The enemy is before us and the sea is behind us....

Reasons To Be Cheerful Theodore Dalrymple on the joy of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary — in gooseberries, for example, even in human beingsIn my line of work, it is rather hard to think of reasons to be cheerful. On the contrary, it requires quite a lot of concentrated intellectual effort: one has the sensation of scraping the bottom of one’s skull for thoughts that just aren’t there. Of course, since lamentation about the state of the world is one of life’s unfailing pleasures, the world is a greater source of satisfaction than ever. Another consolation is that most...

The other side of radical IslamBy Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI - In the wake of last month's two terror attacks in Istanbul, and Western intelligence reports that European cities could be the next targets, a new round of crackdowns to weed out Islamic radicals has begun in a number of countries, in particular Britain, France, Italy and Germany. At the same time, the agenda of these radicals has once again come into focus: it is widely seen in the West as a threat to the Western secular system and civil society. Intelligence agencies in the respective countries trying to combat these...

Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years by Rich Lowry • —from the publisher's websiteBill and Hillary Clinton don't want you to read this book. Bill has spent his days since the presidency aggressively defending his legacy, and Hillary plans to run for president on it, and now, unfortunately for them, Rich Lowry uses sound fact and shocking detail to dispel the myth of the Clinton legacy once and for all. Showing how a politician with grandiose ambitions became a cautious, poll-driven placeholder and how a president who yearned to confront a great international crisis cringed and still...

The Governor has just sent this email to those who contacted him about Terry:Thank you for writing to Governor Bush and expressing interest in the well-being of Terri Schindler-Schiavo. Attached please find a statement by Governor Bush relating to actions taken today by the Florida Legislature and the Governor. Again, thank you for writing to Governor Bush. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: ALIA FARAJTUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003(850) 488-5394 Statement By: GOVERNOR JEB BUSH Regarding Theresa Schiavo TALLAHASSEE- "Like the tens of thousands of Floridians who have raised their voices in support of Terri Schiavo's right to live, I have been deeply moved...

Earth Science Missions Anomaly Report: GOES/POES Program/POES Project: 6 Sep 2003EARTH SCIENCE MISSIONS ANOMALY REPORT TO: GSFC: 100/A. Diaz, 100/W. Townsend, 100/ 400/D Perkins, NASA HQ: Y/G. Asrar, Y/M. Luther, Q/B O’Connor FROM: GSFC/POES Project/480/K. Halterman DATE: September 6, 2003 PROGRAM/PROJECT: GOES/POES Program/POES Project DATE OF ANOMALY: September 6, 2003 LOCATION OF ANOMALY: Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale CA DESCRIPTION OF EVENT: As the NOAA-N Prime spacecraft was being repositioned from vertical to horizontal on the "turn over cart" at approximately 7:15 PDT today, it slipped off the fixture, causing severe damage. (See attached photo). The 18' long spacecraft was about 3'...

Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is Wednesday's luncheon speaker at the National Press Club, after which he takes journalists' questions. The National Press Club is a very good forum to hear a speech. C-SPAN3 will carry Rumsfeld's remarks at 1 PM, Sept 10, 2003.

Father of tennis stars 'poisoned son's rival' French club in shock after player's death Amelia Gentleman in ParisWednesday August 6, 2003The Guardian One tennis player is dead and several more have been poisoned; a passionately competitive father is in prison; and the careers of two teenage tennis stars are at stake. An extraordinary story of unbridled paternal ambition appears to be unfolding at a small tennis club in the south of France. Christophe Fauviau, the father of two gifted players, was in prison yesterday on suspicion of having poisoned his son's opponent by slipping an anti-depressant drug into his water...

Author's Note: In June of last year, when I was writing my essay "Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology," the question on everyone's mind was, 'Was the U.S. prepared to handle another Al Qaeda strike?' Needless to say, this question was on my mind, too. But, in the course of working through my essay, I found myself asking a startling question. What if Al Qaeda did not strike us again -- or at least, if it failed to strike for a year, a year and a half, or two years, or even more? How would the U.S. handle this? At first glance...

At Baylor, Questions and More QuestionsBy SELENA ROBERTS THIS does not dilute a devastating loss, but there is an expectation of a conclusion once a missing person's body is discovered, if only as the end to an agonizing unknown.Not all expectations unfold neatly, though. Sometimes a death is the beginning of a discovery into a secret double life, providing an unexpected peek into a hidden dark side.The exposed, however, is not the Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy. Certainly, there are questions about how he could have met such an unimaginable death, how a friend and a teammate like Carlton Dotson...

The New Sex Scorecard By Hara Marano -- Publication Date: Jul/Aug 2003 Summary: Talking openly about sex differences is no longer an exercise in political incorrectness; it is a necessity in fighting disease and forging successful relationships. AT 109 and counting, PT examines the tally. Get out the spittoon. Men produce twice as much saliva as women. Women, for their part, learn to speak earlier, know more words, recall them better, pause less and glide through tongue twisters. Put aside Simone de Beauvoir's famous dictum, "One is not born a woman but rather becomes one." Science suggests otherwise, and...

From the evil empire to the empire for liberty by Paul Johnson Is the United States imperialist? Has it created, or is it creating, an empire? If so, should we regard this process as desirable, even inevitable? These questions are raised by the American conquest of Iraq which, together with the prolegomenon of September 11, constitutes the first key event of the twenty-first century, foreshadowing a new world order. First, it is important to understand what we mean by the word “empire.” Its core meaning is “rule,” with the implication “unqualified rule.” A country designated as an empire is one...

Commentary: Hoping Americans stay foreverBy Ken JosephFrom the International DeskPublished 6/2/2003 6:06 PM BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 2 (UPI) -- It is dusk in Baghdad and I am talking to the regular group of men who gather near the house I am staying in to talk about the day's events."What do you think about the Americans? How long do you think they should stay? Are they doing a good job?" I ask.The answer is very complicated while at the same time very, very simple. It is the "politically correct" thing to do to complain about the Americans, say they are not...

Noam Chomsky is appearing on CSPAN's BookTV In-Depth this Sunday, June 2, 2003, at 12 Noon. In-Depth is a 3 hour interview that can often give insights into the subject's character and thinking that are not readily discoverable in other venues. It is well known at Free Republic that Chomsky is a pathological and compulsive prevaricator whose list of lies and errors are nearly endless, beginning in the 70s with his diehard defense of Pol Pot and his denial of the existence of the killing fields of Cambodia, and continuing to the present day with his speaking tour of the...

The Fall of Baghdad By Tim Judah 1. On the morning of April 10, the day after resistance collapsed in most of Baghdad, I talked to a small group of looters at a warehouse belonging to the Ministry of Finance who were carting off brand-new water coolers and air-conditioning units. Except when they scuffled with one another, they were friendly and unapologetic. A young man named Habib, who had two water coolers strapped to the top of a taxi, said, "Now we have freedom, this is our right. We've earned these things and we're poor." Sitting on top of an...

April 14, 2003 7:15 a.m.Our Western MobFrom the graveyard of Kabul to the quagmire of Iraq to the looting of Baghdad. The jubilation of liberating millions from fascism and removing the world’s most odious dictator apparently lasted about 12 hours. I was listening to a frustrated Mr. Rumsfeld last Friday in a news briefing as he tried to deal with a host of furious and crazy questions — a journalistic circus that was nevertheless predictable even before the war started.I thought immediately of the macabre aftermath to the battle of Arginusae in 406 B.C. After destroying a great part...

They were wrong14apr03 WHEN protesters marched to stop this war of liberation, Saddam Hussein was filmed gloating to his generals. "They support you," he crowed. So where are you today, you whom Saddam reckoned among his friends? Where are you who waved anti-war banners that pouted: "Not In Our Name"? Did you see the Iraqi people kiss and hug the allied soldiers -- our soldiers -- who gave them their freedom after decades of terror? Now say it again, if you dare: Not In Our Name. Did you see our soldiers break open Saddam's torture centres and his jails for...

Middle East - AP DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Peter Arnett, fired by NBC earlier this week for giving an interview to state-run Iraqi television, is reporting for pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, the station said Saturday. "He (Arnett) is an able reporter who has covered wars before and who knows Iraq well," the Dubai-based station's editor-in-chief Salah Nejm told The Associated Press. "I think he is unbiased and has a lot of experience," Nejm said. Arnett started reporting for Al-Arabiya on Friday, becoming its third correspondent in Baghdad. His reports are voiced over in Arabic. NBC fired him for giving...

Bush Says Vice [sic] Closing on Saddam's Regime By SCOTT LINDLAWThe Associated PressThursday, April 3, 2003; 11:35 AM President Bush, comforting grief-stricken family and friends of fallen Marines, praised U.S. troops Thursday for their two-week advance on Baghdad and said "a vice [sic][bold mine] is closing" on Saddam Hussein's regime."What we have begun, we will finish," Bush told hundreds of cheering Marines and their families. "We will not stop until Iraq is free."

The Cosmopolitan IllusionBy Lee HarrisIs it wrong to teach our children to be patriotic? Or may we teach them to be a little patriotic, provided that we also teach them to value and respect the cultures of others? Should they be encouraged to be loyal to their own nation, or should they be taught that they are citizens of the world before all else? These are the questions that were addressed in the justly celebrated essay “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” by Martha Nussbaum, and her answer was that education should actively encourage “the very old ideal of the cosmopolitan, the person...