Free Republic

'Climbing over the rotting garbage, I realized I was the first Jew to enter this holy place in over 50 years' I am writing to you from Nineveh, the city of the prophet Jonah. Its present name is Mosul. I have had the privilege of seeing its ancient walls, of touching its stones, of going to the grave Islamic tradition says is the prophet Jonah's. There is a mosque at the site; but hundreds of years ago, the Iraqis we work with tell me, it was a synagogue. They tell me the reason the site is so sacred is because...

he weathered, nearly identical marble gravestones of the Prentiss brothers stand side by side not far from the chapel of the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Both evidenced a readiness to die so their causes might live. The history behind these headstones is a sobering tale of enmity, forgiveness and patriotism. The saga of the brothers' final resting place came to light thanks to the work of volunteers seeking the lost Civil War veterans of Green-Wood. Of the nearly 600,000 people buried at Green-Wood since 1840, it is believed that at least 4,000 were Civil War soldiers and sailors. Although veterans'...

A British First World War cemetery in Iraq which was restored by United States marines as a sign of gratitude for Britain's participation in the recent conflict has been desecrated by Iraqis.The cemetery in the eastern city of Kut, site of some of the fiercest losses the British military has suffered in the region, was badly vandalised hours after a high-profile rededication ceremony attended by British generals and Anglican bishops.Some gravestones of tens of thousands of British and Indian troops who fell in Kut after being forced to retreat from Baghdad by Turkish forces in 1915 have been toppled. The...

Wednesday, April 30, 2003 BY MARK MUELLER Star-Ledger Staff BAGHDAD, Iraq Hamoud Abdilima dug into the chalky earth of the Al- Karikh Cemetery, first with a shovel, then with his bare hands. Gently, he removed a leg bone, an arm bone, a skull. After 16 years of searching, he had found his brother. A few feet away, Ali Al-Asady collapsed, sobbing, over the bones of his father, Faadl Al-Asady, a man he knew only from pictures and the stories of relatives. Soon he rose and composed himself. After exhuming the remains of 16 family members, he had two more graves...

BU GHRAIB, Iraq, April 24 — First the gravedigger found some teeth. "Please, just barely scrape the sand," Adel Rahaif Hani, whose brother, Satter, was arrested as a political prisoner in 1995, begged the digger. "I'm worried he's just below this layer." Mr. Hani came to a cemetery here today, like dozens of other Iraqis, not with the name of his dead brother but with a number. Satter's number was 535. A cousin, Sagur, arrested at the same time, was 537. These numbers were what was left of people convicted as enemies of Saddam Hussein and then made to disappear....

Relatives Dig Up Missing Iraq Dissidents By NIKO PRICE .c The Associated Press ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (AP) - For years there were only numbers - mound after mound in the parched dust marked by numbered metal stakes. Now this back corner of a public cemetery is filled with the wails of people who have connected those numbers to the names of loved ones who disappeared during Saddam Hussein's rule. ``They used to tell people who asked that this cemetery was for poor people who died nameless in the streets,'' said gravedigger Majid Moussa. ``But we knew it was for political...

Good on the USMC - Semper Fidelis (Ever Faithfull). KUT, Iraq - For a day, U.S. Marines traded their rifles for rakes, to care for the final resting places of British soldiers who fought and died in another campaign, more than 80 years ago. The graves of World War I soldiers at Kut War Cemetery were overgrown with tall weeds. No one has cared for them since before the 1991 Gulf War when Britain closed its embassy in Iraq. After U.S. Marines were told of the cemetery by British journalists, more than enough volunteers stepped forward Monday to help pull...

U.S. Marines Clean Neglected WWI Site By BURT HERMAN .c The Associated Press KUT, Iraq (AP) - For a day, U.S. Marines traded their rifles for rakes, to care for the final resting places of British soldiers who fought and died in another campaign, more than 80 years ago. The graves of World War I soldiers at Kut War Cemetery were overgrown with tall weeds. No one has cared for them since before the 1991 Gulf War when Britain closed its embassy in Iraq. After U.S. Marines were told of the cemetery by British journalists, more than enough volunteers stepped...

I believe we should bring home all of the soldiers buried in the American cemetaries in France. The French are showing NO respect for the sacrifices made by Americans on their behalf. As Colin Powell said the other day about our efforts to liberate France from the hands of tyranny, "All we asked of France was a place to bury our dead." After the contempt and outright roadblocks thrown by France in our quest to secure our future and protect our citizens, they no longer merit the honor of providing a resting place for US Servicemen, who died liberating their...

HIGGINSVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- Supporters of a state memorial site that includes the graves of hundreds of Southern soldiers launched a petition drive Monday urging state officials to once again allow the Confederate battle flag to fly over the cemetery. They also criticized Steve Mahfood, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, who ordered the flags removed at Higginsville and another state historic site on Jan. 14 after Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt of St. Louis said they shouldn't be flown anywhere.Gephardt and Gov. Bob Holden -- Mahfood's boss who once worked for Gephardt -- also were lambasted by...

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - Descendants of one of the nation's most famous pairs of feuding families, the Hatfields and McCoys, will face off in court to settle a dispute over access to a cemetery where three slain boys were buried. ``I really hate that we have to go to the court system to settle this,'' said Bo McCoy of Waycross, Ga., a plaintiff in the lawsuit against a Hatfield descendant who blocked access to the family cemetery. ``We wanted to be gentlemen about it,'' McCoy said. ``We felt like we had no other choice.'' The cemetery, which holds remains of three...

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police said Saturday they had arrested three Egyptian fishermen suspected of plotting to attack a cemetery of American war dead south of Rome. Explosives and maps highlighting the Nettuno American Cemetery and Memorial in the town of Anzio were seized in an apartment in Italy belonging to one of the men, a police official said. "They were preparing a symbolic attack against the American cemetery," the official said, adding police suspected the men were tied to Islamic terrorism. The Egyptians, aged 30 to 45, were arrested Friday but have not been formally charged. Police said they...