Free Republic

US charges Hezbollah TV provider Al-Manar's Beirut offices were bombed by Israel during the conflict A US businessman has been charged with offering broadcasts of Hezbollah's al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the New York-area. Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, is accused by prosecutors of doing business with a terrorist entity. The Hezbollah Shia militia has been involved in a month-long conflict with Israeli forces in Lebanon and is seen as a terrorist group by the US. Mr Iqbal's lawyers say his arrest violates his right to free speech. "It's like the government of Iran saying we are going...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (Army News Service, July 10, 2006) – Charges were preferred July 6 against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, for his refusal June 22 to accompany his unit to Iraq and for actions related to that refusal. The charges arose from an initial investigation conducted in the two weeks since the incident. According to Fort Lewis officials, Watada faces charges for three separate violations: missing movement, contempt toward officials and conduct unbecoming an officer. If found guilty on all charges, Watada faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, forfeiture of all...

Woman Faces Charges After Road Rageby The Associated Press Published Jul 01, 2006 Police charged an Orleans County woman after a road rage crash killed a passenger in her car. Karen Greene, 20, of Medina, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless driving for allegedly causing the death of Robert Crump, 19. The crash happened in February on Mount Read Blvd. in Greece. Authorities said before the crash happened, Greene pulled in front of a pickup truck that had stopped in front her and then slammed on her brakes. The truck's driver said he tried to avoid the car,...

Mixed picture emerges of global gay rightsBy DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer Sat Jul 1, 2:24 PM ET A security officer in tights leads the annual Gay pride Rainbow Parade in downtown Vienna, on Saturday, July 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Lilli Strauss) NEW YORK - While cities around the world hosted upbeat gay pride parades in recent weeks, human-rights activists kept watch on a contrasting set of developments: gays beaten by demonstrators in Moscow, convicted on sodomy charges in Cameroon, targeted by sweeping anti-gay legislation in Nigeria. "It shows there are still dangers in just being gay — and dangers in...

CAMP PENDLETON -- Attorneys for the so-called "Pendleton Eight" are getting their first look at the government's evidence against their clients. A 250-page Pentagon report shows maps, diagrams, photos, and statements about an alleged incident in Hamdania, Iraq, in which military investigators say seven Marines and a sailor took an Iraqi civilian from his home, shot him and then tried to cover it up. Tuesday, the attorneys questioned the credibility of the Iraqi accusers, asking why it took the victim's family four days to report the death. Attorneys also said confessions were coerced, and that military members were not given...

San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales faced a judge and a packed courtroom for the first time Monday, but he saved his first public defense against felony bribery and fraud charges in a garbage contract scandal for a friendlier environment: a press conference surrounded by supporters at City Hall. The embattled mayor postponed entering a plea in a brief arraignment before Santa Clara County Judge Rene Navarro, and made a hasty exit into the glare of dozens of cameras, holding hands with his wife. About an hour later, he was back at City Hall, vowing to remain in office and declaring...

The embattled but defiant mayor of San Jose was arraigned Monday on public corruption charges stemming from a secretly negotiated garbage contract deal. Mayor Ron Gonzales, 55, did not enter a plea to six felony counts in the indictment unsealed last week, including conspiracy, bribery, misappropriating public funds and falsifying records. If convicted, he could face up to eight years in prison. Gonzales, who is in his final year as mayor of the nation's 10th largest city, made an initial appearance in Santa Clara County Superior Court before Judge Rene Navarro. He did not speak, standing next to his attorneys...

No Criminal Charges Against Policeman who Beat Amona Protestor 22:14 Jun 15, '06 / 19 Sivan 5766 (IsraelNN.com) A Border policeman who was filmed beating an Amona protestor with a rod faces only a disciplinary trial without criminal charges, it was revealed Thursday. The human rights group in Judea and Samaria plans to appeal the decision and demand that Ali Sa'id be charged with criminal violations in the filmed beating of a 17-year-old youth at Amona earlier this year. The injured boy said he was not involved in any violence prior to the beating by the policeman. His lawyer added...

Miller mulls resignation in wake of fraud chargesCharges of altering checks to the federal government face the state House member Nikole Hannah-Jones, Staff Writer Miller State Rep. Paul Miller said Thursday that he has not decided whether he will resign his seat in the General Assembly after his arrest on felony charges of attempting to defraud the U.S. Department of Education. Miller said during a brief phone interview that he is in consultation with his attorney but that on the advice of counsel, he could not comment. In a short written statement, Miller reiterated that he would not speak about...

For the second time this week, a border inspector was arrested and charged with waiving smugglers into the country in exchange for bribes. Customs and Border Protection Inspector Richard Elizalda of Chula Vista was indicted Friday, along with seven other people, on conspiracy and other charges. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Authorities said smugglers bribed Elizalda with cash and a Lexus automobile to allow them to use his lane at the San Ysidro border crossing to bring illegal immigrants and marijuana into the United States. Another inspector was brought into San Diego federal court Wednesday on similar charges. Authorities said...

A judge is considering a challenge to an Arizona law creating the state crime of immigrant smuggling, an offense that has drawn about 100 prosecutions and is criticized because it has been used mostly on the customers of smugglers. Lawyers for nearly all of the first 48 immigrants charged under the 9-month-old law argued the Legislature never intended it to be used on their clients for paying someone to bring them into Arizona, the nation's busiest illegal entry point. They also called the law an unconstitutional attempt by the state to regulate immigration, a legal area they contend is under...

HOUSTON - Yet another clash of Enron trial titans is on the horizon, but it may be less explosive than the first. While jurors deliberate the outcome of the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, Lay is on trial again without a jury on charges stemming from his personal banking. The 64-year-old former chairman spent six days on the witness stand during the conspiracy trial, often combative and contentious with federal prosecutor John Hueston, who secured the indictment against Lay nearly two years ago. Lay is expected to square off...

US prosecutors seek harsher charges in Chinese military 'plot' Agence France-Presse. LOS ANGELES, May 8 (AFP) May 09, 2006 US prosecutors warned Monday they plan to seek harsher charges against an engineer and two kin accused of plotting to steal sensitive US Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle it to China. The plans to beef up charges against Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak, 65, his wife, Rebecca Chiu Lai-wah, 62; and Mak's brother, former television director Mak Tai-wing, 56, came at a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles. Assistant US Attorney Greg Staples confirmed to US District Judge Cormac Carney that...

NEW YORK - Two Goldman Sachs employees made more than $6.7 million through insider trading by enlisting an analyst who provided information on Wall Street deals and a forklift driver who leaked copies of a market-moving magazine, authorities said Tuesday. Prosecutors called it one of the most extensive insider trading cases in decades, and it has no shortage of salacious details. The case includes allegations that the men tried to get strippers to coax stock tips from investment bankers who had inside knowledge of pending mergers and acquisitions. "We've never seen before a case involving so many different attempts to...

ONTARIO - Police investigating the suicide of a middle-schooler say the boy's stepfather could face criminal charges for allegedly not securing the rifle the boy used to kill himself. Anthony Soltero, 14, shot himself March 30. According to the family's attorney, the De Anza Middle School student was distraught after a vice principal threatened him with jail time and school discipline for protesting immigration-reform bill HR 4437. Police withheld the name of Soltero's stepfather, since he has not been arrested or charged. Ontario police Lt. John Evans said the man kept the rifle in the family's garage. The weapon was...

CAMDEN, N.J. - Four teenagers accused of plotting to kill about 25 people in a lunch-period massacre at a high school were charged Thursday under a terrorism law created after the Sept. 11 attacks. The boys, ages 14 to 16, were arrested Wednesday after police heard about the alleged plot from administrators at the school, where three of the teens are students. Their names were not released because of their ages. Authorities said the teens planned to attack students, teachers and others at Winslow Township High. The four boys appeared in family court, and a judge ordered them held for...

Judge Won't Drop Charges in Mosque Sting Saturday March 11, 2006 11:46 PM By MICHAEL VIRTANEN Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A federal judge refused to dismiss charges against two Muslims arrested in an FBI anti-terrorism sting, rejecting claims that evidence was tainted by use of illegal warrantless wiretaps. U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy's ``classified'' order leaves secret his reasons for also turning down defense requests to suppress any evidence acquired from warrantless wiretaps or force authorities to disclose whether they were used in the Albany case. His three-sentence public order was issued late Friday. Yassin Aref, 35,...

ITALIAN prosecutors are set to lay corruption charges against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the lawyer husband of a British Cabinet minister, the Italian press reported today. Several newspapers said the Milan prosecutor's office had yesterday rejected requests by lawyers for the two men for more information on the probe. If accepted, the requests would have delayed any charges. They relate to an alleged bribe to David Mills, the British lawyer, in return for him providing favourable testimony at corruption trials involving Berlusconi. "They didn't accept anything, which means they want to bring it to court at all costs," the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Army News Service, Feb. 27, 2006) – Seven members of the 82nd Airborne Division have been charged with violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for knowingly engaging in sex for money on a public Web site. The investigation into alleged improper activities has been completed and is isolated within two companies in one battalion, officials said. Courts-martial charges have been preferred against three Soldiers. They are Spc. Richard T. Ashley; Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen, all from 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The three were charged under UCMJ with pandering,...

NEW YORK - The acting boss of the city's most powerful crime family and 31 others are charged in a new indictment with racketeering crimes, including murder, extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering, authorities announced Thursday. The indictment "delivers an absolute body blow" to the Genovese family's structure, said FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon. He said 30 people had been arrested. The 42-count indictment unsealed Thursday accuses the defendants of engaging in criminal activity for more than a decade. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia also released details about a corrupt lawyer whom he said had enabled the family's acting...