Free Republic

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A witness testified Wednesday at Saddam Hussein's trial that the deposed leader's regime killed and tortured people by administering electric shocks and ripping off their skin after pouring molten plastic on it. Later, during an extended outburst, Saddam claimed he had been beaten while in detention. Before that, Saddam had sat quietly in his defendant's chair, two weeks after he called the court "unjust" and boycotted a session. When the judge refused to let him take a break to pray, the former leader closed his eyes and appeared to pray from his seat.Saddam and seven co-defendants are...

Today, Senator Daniel Inouye, the Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II, released the following statement: "As a Veteran of World War II, I know what it’s like to fight a war and put your life on the line every day. I also know what it takes to win a war, and I know that politics and an attack machine like the President’s plays no part in it. "The Republican Party’s latest ad is a shameful and disgusting attempt to distract the American people from...

The federal government wrapped levees around greater New Orleans so that the rest of the country could share in our bounty. Americans wanted the oil and gas that flow freely off our shores .... the oysters and shrimp and flaky Gulf fish that live in abundance in our waters ...[the use of our ports ...coffee and steel. They wanted more than that, though. They wanted to share in our spirit. They wanted to sample the joyous beauty of our jazz and our food. And we were happy to oblige them. ... Great cities are made by their place and their...

Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005 10:54 a.m. EST Nancy Pelosi: Pro-Troop Vote 'a Disgrace' Anti-war House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is blasting last night's 403 to 3 House vote in support of U.S. troops and their mission in Iraq, calling it "a disgrace." Complaining that House Republicans had engaged in a "deception" by calling for a last minute vote on the Iraq war, the San Francisco Democrat said the pro-troop resolution was "a disservice to our country." Pelosi said that the "Republican majority has stooped to a new low" by forcing Democrats to go on the record against an immediate pullout....

PHILADELPHIA Nov 8, 2005 — Terrell Owens has apologized to Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, quarterback Donovan McNabb, the team's owner, the team's president and fans. He read the statement outside his house in Moorestown, N.J., a day after the team said he would not return this season. "I fight for what I think is right. In doing so, I alientated a lot of my fans and my teammates," he said. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said Owens was making a public apology in hopes of returning to the Eagles this year. Owens' brief but tumultuous time in Philadelphia ended Monday...

El Baradei subjected to an excavation with body in an American airport VIENNA - the American authorities subjected the Nobel Prize of peace 2005 and chief of the IAEA, the Mohamed El Baradei Egyptian, with an excavation with body whereas it was on the point of taking off of an airport of Boston (is of the United States), learned AFP Monday from diplomatic sources. The general manager of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and his wife were subjected Sunday to the Logan airport of Boston to a deepened control, apparently caused by their patronym, according to these sources. This...

This word does not appear in the Hebrew dictionary, but an old-new weapon from the sophisticated arsenal directed against the Palestinian people has again suddenly emerged. While not deadly, it is fiendish: the sonic boom. The world's best air force is amusing itself by creating fear in a helpless and terrified civilian population. Twenty-nine such booms were sounded during a period of four days in September, and this practice was repeated again recently, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which jointly submitted a High Court petition on this matter. If there is such...

NEW DELHI - Will the goodwill that has been built between India and China in the recent past end up being sacrificed at the altar of improved India-US relations? In another indication that there may be trouble brewing between Beijing and New Delhi, the official Chinese media have made a frontal assault on the landmark India-US nuclear pact and cautioned of its "negative impact" on the global nuclear order. This is the first instance of a direct and open criticism of a crucial aspect of India-US relations that has been picked up by the official Chinese machinery/organs, which previously chose...

The left has gone to DefCon 4 on the news of Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Here's a sampling of what's burning up the fax machines at major media organizations. MoveOn.org press release: Alito Fails Basic Test: Sides with Powerful Special Interests against Ordinary Americans; President Opts to Divide Nation in Time of Crisis for Administration; History of Decisions against Workers, Women, Minorities, People with DisabilitiesNARAL Pro-Choice America press release:"Instead of unifying the country, President Bush has chosen the path of confrontation," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro- Choice America. "Sandra Day O'Connor has been the Court's...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The pink visitors' locker room at the University of Iowa's stadium is making some people see red. The locker room for visiting football teams at Iowa is pretty in pink. Several professors and students joined the call Tuesday for the athletic department to do away with the pink showers, carpeting and lockers, a decades-long Hawkeye football tradition. Critics say the use of pink demeans women, perpetuates offensive stereotypes about women and homosexuality, and puts the university in the uncomfortable position of tacitly supporting those messages. ''I want the locker room gone,'' law school professor Jill Gaulding...

Here's proof! The kitties are are loser souses just like your hero President. BTW, your boy really stunk in his speech last night. It was like, "oooooo I'm the modern FDR, JFK, and LBJ all rolled into one. I'll give you whatever you want if you'll forget how my incompetence let people die of thirst on a freeway overpass." What a loser

WASHINGTON -- When Sen. Trent Lott decides which GOP presidential candidate to support in 2008, it apparently will not be Sen. Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican who Lott says betrayed him at a low moment in his political career. Asked Sunday whether Frist, who succeeded Lott as Senate majority leader in 2002, has the character to be president, Lott paused before answering. ''I think I'd have to think about that,'' said Lott (R-Miss.). Lott said ''a lot of good people out there'' are thinking about whether to run and that ''I probably would lean toward some of the others, let...

WASHINGTON - Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott blames his fall from power in 2002 on a "personal betrayal" by an ambitious Sen. Bill Frist (news, bio, voting record), his successor, adding in a new book that President Bush, Colin Powell and other GOP associates played a role. ADVERTISEMENT Frist, R-Tenn., "didn't even have the courtesy to call and tell me personally that he was going to run," the Mississippi Republican wrote of a tumultuous period in which he lost his position as Senate leader after making racially tinged remarks.

NEW YORK -- Business in his modest grocery store in Brooklyn's Little Pakistan has gone down so much that Shafiq Ul Hassan has started stocking what he calls ''American foods" in a desperate attempt to attract different customers. Across from the baby goat meat and the pungent ingredients for curry powder, the immigrant shopkeeper has placed candy bars and loaves of white bread. ''You see how empty the store is. This would normally be packed with Pakistani people," Hassan said, sighing. ''A lot of people have left. Most have gone back home or another state. You just don't see people...

Report: Owens leaves Eagles campThere are reports this afternoon that wide receiver Terrell Owens exchanged words with Head Coach Andy Reid at a team meeting and was asked to leave.Owens then got his belongings and cleared out of Eagles training camp at Lehigh University, according to one television report.The Inquirer will update and confirm this information as soon as possible.

Danielle Crittenden: Conditions at Camp Crawford “Shocking and Inhumane” Inmates Complain Danielle Crittenden Thu Aug 4,11:17 AM ET WACO, TX (AP)—Prisoners of Camp Crawford complain of small cells, poor meals, constant surveillance, and disrespectful—even disdainful—treatment from Presidential staff. “Thirty-three days in this hell-hole feels like thirty-three years,” said a bitter long-time White House correspondent. “You’re away from your family. We’re all billeted into these crappy Waco motels—you know, the kind they hose down with antiseptic every day and you’ve got one lousy blanket which is made of recycled Coke bottles or something. There are huge fights for the cells with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives' top Democrat accused Republicans on Thursday of possibly illegal action to encourage some Democrats to vote for a free-trade pact with Central America. [snip] Some Democrats were made offers that they said they didn't think "passed legal muster," Pelosi told reporters. She refused to provide any details of who was involved and what was offered that might have been illegal. She also said the deals were hard to prove because they weren't consummated. [snip] "Nancy Pelosi's wheels have come off the track. The sheer lunacy of her comments is an indication of just...

Relatives, Friends Mount Protest Over Killing of Brazilian in BritainBy Alan Clendenning Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 25, 2005 GONZAGA, Brazil (AP) - Weeping relatives and friends of a Brazilian shot and killed in London after being mistaken for a terrorist protested Monday in this small farming town, saying an apology by British Prime Minister Tony Blair didn't go far enough. Hundreds marched slowly along cobblestone streets, holding up banners denouncing British police as the real terrorists and demanding the arrest of the officers who fired the shots. Other placards were adorned with snapshots of Jean Charles de Menezes, urging...

What can we do about the hostile takeover of the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio by the right wing? That they have taken over is beyond dispute. Ken Tomlinson is chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and he has succeeded in placing former Republican National Committee co-chairwoman and fellow neocon Patricia Harrison into the position of president and CEO of CPB. While we were focused on draconian budget cuts proposed by a House committee, Tomlinson and Harrison were doing their inside magic. Literally millions of Americans sent e-mails to Congress demanding that the 25 percent cut in...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran accused the U.S. and Israel on Sunday of a smear campaign against its president-elect and warned Europe, which is in tricky nuclear negotiations with Tehran, not to join in the mudslinging. The ultraconservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won a landslide presidential election victory, has been accused of taking American hostages in 1979 when radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Iranian exiles and an Austrian politician are alleging he was involved in the 1989 slaying of a Kurdish leader and two associates in Vienna. Iranian officials have denied both allegations. "The charges are so evidently false...