Free Republic

...Millions of measurements, global coverage, consistently rising temperatures, case closed: The Earth is warming. Except for one problem. CRU’s average temperature data doesn’t jive with that of Vincent Courtillot, a French geo-magneticist, director of the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, and a former scientific advisor to the French Cabinet. Last year he and three colleagues plotted an average temperature chart for Europe that shows a surprisingly different trend. Aside from a very cold spell in 1940, temperatures were flat for most of the 20th century, showing no warming while fossil fuel use grew. Then in 1987 they shot up...

From across the banks of the Sheboygan River, after night fell in tiny Kiel, there was a final beauty in the flickering lights spread across Veteran’s Memorial Park.Hundreds of mourners, friends and family of Amy Krueger, strangers too who came to learn who she was – and wonder why she died – burned candles in her memory and slowly lifted them aloft. Held them there.This is a place, a small town far from Fort Hood, where the 29-year-old soldier’s memory will be held forever – where the monument near the dais where they cried and sang is for all those...

Scott Andrews / AP Message to you out-of-towners heading to Washington, D.C. for your first presidential inauguration: You will be miserable.January 20 is shaping up to be the inauguration celebration of our lifetimes. Which is fitting, because there’s a dirty little secret about Washington, D.C., and the inaugural balls: if you’ve ever been to one, you’ll never go back. Inaugurals are a miserable experience. This will come as sad news to the Obamaphiles who forked over checks for $50,000 to be granted the title of “finance chair” for the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). It will probably be even sadder...

A man managed to crash a sport utility vehicle through two sliding-glass doors and into a ticket counter at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday, stunning travelers and raising concerns about airport security on a holiday when much of the nation was on heightened alert. There were no serious injuries and officials were quick to say the crash was not a terrorist act, but that was little consolation to people sent scrambling for cover as shards of glass flew in all directions. While airport security has been tight this Fourth of July weekend, there was nothing in place that could...

OUTRAGEOUS CHENEY QUOTE [Ramesh Ponnuru] My eyes just about popped out of my head when I read this passage from a front-page story in the Washington Post today: "Cheney was less forthcoming when asked about Saudi Arabia's ties to al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. 'I don't want to speculate,' he said, adding that Sept. 11 is 'over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us.'" I was going to write an attack on Cheney for Corner readers, but I figured I should check the transcript of Cheney's remarks to make sure he...

<p>The battle of Iraq may be over but the warriors for peace struggle on. Theirs is not an easy road, particularly, we hear, in the entertainment industry, which is packed with notables fresh from their vocal campaign against the war, the president, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney--objects of scorn in all the best circles, from Paris to California.</p>

An Ottawa telecommunications engineer who was deported to Syria by the United States last fall is about to be charged by Syrian officials with terrorist-related activity, leaving virtually no hope for his return to Canada.The pending charges are the latest development in the mysterious case of Maher Arar, who was arrested by U.S. immigration officials during a stopover at a New York airport last September while returning to Canada from a family visit overseas."This is very discouraging," said Ottawa-area MP Marlene Catterall, who saw Mr. Arar last week in Damascus. "The whole thing leaves me somewhat astonished."Ms. Catterall said...

PORTLAND — Federal prosecutors on Monday (April 28) charged a former Intel Corp. engineer with allegedly conspiring to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a move to “levy war” against the United States, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday (April 29). The ex-Intel engineer, Maher “Mike” Hawash, was arrested in March and has been held by the U.S. government without charge as part of what the report called a “secret investigation.” Hawash, 38, a U.S. citizen of Arab descent, worked for Intel from 1992 to 2001, when he was laid off....

<p>Washington, April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Immigrants who have finished serving criminal sentences can be held in custody while the government tries to deport them, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.</p> <p>Such people aren't entitled to a chance to gain release by showing they are not a flight risk or a danger to the community, the 5-4 decision said. The court ruled for the Bush administration's appeal in the case of a South Korean man who faces possible deportation after being convicted of burglary and petty theft.</p>

AGHDAD, Iraq, April 25 — A religious edict issued in Iran and distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq calls on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities."The edict, or fatwa, issued on April 8 by Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, an Iraqi-born cleric based in the Iranian holy city of Qum, suggests that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran as they try to assert the power of Iraq's long-oppressed religious majority. It is not yet clear how much popular support Mr. Haeri and other clerics emerging...

One day after the White House cancelled a trip by President George Bush to Canada due to what it said was lack of time, it announced the president would host the Prime Minister of Australia at his ranch in Texas.The decision illustrates two trends in Washington. First, countries that opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq will be punished. Canada refused to support the war and, although it is the US's biggest trading partner and a neighbour, it is out of favour.Second, countries that demonstrated loyal support will be rewarded. John Howard is not just invited to visit the president but...

ast week, in a resounding victory for the Department of Justice, U.S. Magistrate Mark Pizzo declared Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian ineligible for bail. Al-Arian will now likely spend the next two years in federal custody awaiting trial.With masterful detail and simplicity, the prosecutors from the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys’ Office exposed the depths of al-Arian’s unconscionable immorality. Reflecting on the government’s proffered evidence in the hearing, Pizzo affirmed that the “government’s case against Al-Arian is both substantial and convincing.” In a 29-page decision magnifying the profound significance of this case, Pizzo poignantly explained how Al-Arian’s...

KUWAIT CITY, April 1 (UPI) -- The war entered its decisive phase Tuesday as midday temperatures in central Iraq soared toward 100 degrees and U.S. forces advanced into Iraq's so-called Red Zone around Baghdad, where local commanders may have authority to use chemical weapons, coalition leaders say.The best of Iraq's conventional forces, five Republican Guard divisions, have now been identified gathering south of Baghdad for what looks to be the decisive battle of the war. Coalition military intelligence sources add that a sixth RG Division, the al-Adnan, is also reported moving south from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to join...

In an intensified effort to divide Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from his inner circle, U.S. military and intelligence officers in recent days have communicated with some Iraqi commanders and have secretly designated buildings in the capital for defectors to occupy, promising they will not be targeted by U.S. airstrikes, senior U.S. officials said yesterday. U.S. military and intelligence officers have also gained promises from some Iraqi commanders that they will not fire chemical weapons at American ground forces, the officials said. However, U.S. officials said they are monitoring one Republican Guard unit outside Baghdad that they believe has been issued...

WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia's latest public relations gambit is a halfmillion dollar donation funneled through an American charity and aimed at stocking America's public libraries with Saudi-approved books and tapes about Islam. The $500,000 donation from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud is to the Council on American Islamic Relations. CAIR was founded in 1994 by Nihad Awad, a man who has openly expressed support for Hamas, a group the American government says is a terrorist organization. CAIR's New York chapter has floated bizarre conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks. Fifteen of the September 11 hijackers...

Jerry Falwell is a bigot and idiot for calling the prophet Mohammed a "terrorist." Such comments should be denounced from every quarter. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, "When it comes to hate, silence equals consent." Hooper's statement is beautiful and absolutely right. Yet CAIR and other Muslim-American organizations are strangely mute when it comes to the diarrhea of hate spewing from mosques and madrassahs all over the Middle East. Every Friday, imams and grand muftis at mosques in Yemen, Qatar, Iraq, and even the holy mosque in Mecca, pray: "O God, destroy the Jews, destroy...

I am probably going to catch high holy hell for writing this article. But I have to. I have to because nobody is saying this publicly, although a lot of people are thinking it. First of all, every media outlet in the world has been falling all over themselves praising Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. Theoretically, this sniper pair was caught only after vociferous digging, and many man hours of diligent police work, with the help of honest citizens willing to tell the police about any suspicion about anything they may have had. Bull puckey. Law enforcement really...

LYNNWOOD -- City police are looking into the possibility that Washington, D.C.-area sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad was responsible for shooting up the Lynnwood Police Department in 2000. Lynnwood officials already have confirmed that Muhammad performed maintenance on city vehicles -- including its police cruiser fleet -- under a contract that was terminated in October 1999. The contract ended after a dispute between Muhammad and city officials, who claimed Muhammad provided poor service.

<p>Suddenly, Washington is awash in nostalgia for the safety and security of the Cold War. Mutual assured destruction, MAD as it was and for all of the terror it inspired in the imagination, was based on reason and logic.</p> <p>When Jack Kennedy told Nikita Khrushchev he would not allow Russian missiles in Cuba, and made him believe it, the Russians turned their ships around. The gamble paid off because both sides knew the rules of the game. When Ronald Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev at the Reykjavik summit that he would never give up the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Soviet leader, with a hard-headed understanding of the economics of an arms race he couldn't win, threw in his cards. We didn't know it at the time but it was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.</p>

(Richmond-AP) -- A spokesman says Governor Mark Warner has not received any requests from local governments in Virginia to limit the hunting season because of the sniper attacks. Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Warner, says the governor would consider limiting the recreational use of firearms if local officials were to ask. Maryland Governor Parris Glendenning has imposed a ban on discharging firearms recreationally in four counties there. Law-enforcement officials in Maryland said the restrictions would help limit public reports of gunshots, which could distract police as they hunt for the sniper. An official with the Virginia Department of Game and...