Free Republic

It's becoming increasingly difficult to give the government the benefit of the doubt in regards to dragnet domestic surveillance. Even before Glenn Greenwald published a top secret court order compelling Verizon to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems and interviewed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, there were credible reports that the NSA was intercepting U.S. communications. The most significant of those occurred in July, when the court that was established to "hear applications for and grant orders approving electronic surveillance," called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), found that the NSA violated the Fourth Amendment's restriction...

The Department of Defense confirms to NBC 5 Investigates that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty.

Bill Ayers, the 1960's radical who went on to become a college professor and associate of President Obama, said Saturday the bombings he helped the Weather Underground carry out to protest the Vietnam War bear no resemblance to the deadly Boston Marathon attack - and glossed over the fact that his group's bombs killed three fellow terrorists and have been linked to the murder of a San Francisco police officer. “How different is the shooting in Connecticut from shooting at a hunting range?” Ayers told a reporter who asked him to compare the incidents after Ayers spoke at a commemoration...

<p>The FBI has taken into custody a Minnesota man who was believed to be plotting a terrorist attack. Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo, was arrested Friday after authorities searched his home and found guns and explosive devices, according to an FBI news release.</p>

Attorney Alan Dershowitz on Monday struck back at Robert Redford and other liberals for their seeming devotion to violent, homegrown activists. Appearing on NewsmaxTV's Steve Malzberg Show, Dershowitz said, "I don’t understand the way some people on the Left glorify American terrorists" (video follows with transcript and commentary):Dershowitz: 'I Don’t Understand the Way Some People on the Left Glorify American Terrorists' STEVE MALZBERG, HOST: Robert Redford before this bombing was on Good Morning America, and he made a movie about the Weather Underground, and he was specifically asked by George Stephanopoulos, “You were followers of them. You kind of rooted...

The United States Army has blocked the website of the Southern Baptist Convention from government computers, saying the Christian site contains "hostile content." An Army officer assigned to a U.S. base said he tried to access SBC.net from his government computer, but instead, he got a message that said the site was being blocked by "Team CONUS": Team CONUS protects the computer network of the Department of Defense. "So the Southern Baptist Convention is now considered hostile to the U.S. Army...it just corroborates the recent string of events highlighted by AFA," the officer wrote in an email to American Family...

Had this crime been perpetrated by a roving band of evangelicals who object to scientific treatment of autism and schizophrenia, you might have heard a lot about it this week. As it is, that would never happen, and it was animal-rights activists who did the damage. Will the reputation of their cause and mainstream activists have to contend with their actions? Activists occupied an animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, at the weekend, releasing mice and rabbits and mixing up cage labels to confuse experimental protocols. Researchers at the university say that it will take years to recover...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s failure to recognize political Islam as a driver of jihadist terrorism is partly to blame for the FBI not identifying one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2011 as a security risk, according to U.S. officials and private counterterrorism analysts. The FBI revealed last week that it was warned by a foreign government in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Friday, was tied to “radical Islam” but the FBI was unable to confirm the links. “The fact is religion has been expunged from counterterrorism training,” said Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism specialist with the Foundation...

Full title...'My brother made me do it': Boston 'bomber' reveals in scrawled note that older sibling 'wanted to defend Islam from attack' - but that they acted ALONE Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has claimed he and his brother were not linked to any Islamic terrorist groups He has also told interrogators that his older brother, Tamerlan, 26, was the ring leader in last Monday's attacks Suspect is scrawling handwritten responses to questions in his hospital bed Was formally charged Monday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction Judge described Dzhokhar as 'alert, mentally competent and lucid' at hospital court...

It’s too soon to make sense of anything, but too hard to focus on anything else. Please consider the following thoughts about the horror, kindness, hope, and courage we all witnessed, which I posted as events unfolded. A bomb at the Boston Marathon? Awful! It’s presumed an act of terrorism until we learn the bomber shouted “Allahu Akbar!� when it will be deemed a case of workplace violence.Please, friends, learn the difference between “tragedy� and “atrocity.� How we talk about it affects how we feel and respond to it.Horror at what happened. Rage at wanton cruelty. Contempt for leaders whose...

FBI Was Warned 2 Years Ago of Alleged Bomber’s Radical Shift By Mark Arsenault, Bryan Bender, Milton J. Valencia and Maria Cramer Russian authorities warned the FBI in early 2011 that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been a follower of “radical Islam,” a revelation that raised new questions in Congress on Saturday about whether the Boston Marathon attacks that killed three and wounded more than 170 could have been prevented. A senior congressional aide privy to the Boston Marathon terror investigation confirmed Saturday that the FBI received the warning after Tsarnaev’s apparently suspicious activities caught the attention of Russian...

Two men told police they were experimenting with making explosives after watching a how-to on YouTube when their attempt exploded on a Bayonne fire escape yesterday afternoon, WPIX reported last night. Christopher Ziobro, 21, and Ghaias Mirza, 18, were being questioned in the 33rd Street incident in which no one was injured, the television report said. A man who lives in the apartment directly below told the station there were two loud blasts and milk containers were involved. WPIX Video at link

Bombing Suspect Was 'Very American,' Neighbor Says By SHUSHANNAH WALSHE April 21, 2013 The narrow street here that is home to the Tsarnaev family looks like many others in this city just across the river from Boston, but neighbors were still reeling from the news that members of the family who lived next door could be suspected of being behind the Boston marathon bombings. As soon as it became clear early Friday morning that the suspects were Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, police swarmed the street. They focused on a brown house here where the Tsarnaevs lived...

The CNBC anchor just asked if this could be considered "domestic" terrorism rather than foreign terrorism because the suspects had lived in this country for several years.

Steve Emerson just broke the shocking news that the Saudi National, Abdul al-Harbi, first questioned in the Boston bombing, is going to be deported on "national security grounds." He is from a very powerful Saudi family with many terrorist ties. Abdul al-Harbi is a devout Muslim from Medina. I said it takes longer than 15 hours to investigate all of Abdul al-Harbi's relatives, friends, acquaintances, and business and school friends. Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped...

The Saudi Arabian man who is reportedly in police custody following the Boston Marathon bombing was chased and tackled by bystanders shortly after the blast, according to CBS. Senior correspondent John Miller, a former assistant director of the FBI, reported this: There is an individual in custody … he is not free to go. He is a Saudi national who was near the scene of the blast. When the blast happened he began to run. Now, in context, a lot of people began to run. A civilian who thought he was acting suspiciously chased him down and tackled him and...

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Monday evening pledged the full weight of the federal government to help protect Bostonians -- and Americans -- and to figure out who is responsible for the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In a 3-minute address from the White House, Obama urged caution, saying “people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.” Significantly, reflecting caution about the unknown motive for the attack, the president did not call the incident a terrorist attack.“But, make no mistake,” he said. “We will get to the bottom of this. And we will...

Authorities have confirmed to The Post that they have identified a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. The suspect — a Saudi national who suffered shrapnel wounds in today's blast — is currently being guarded in a Boston hospital. A law enforcement source confirmed to The Post that 12 people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in today's blast.

Investigators have a suspect — a Saudi Arabian national — in the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, The Post has learned. Law enforcement sources said the 20-year-old suspect was under guard at an undisclosed Boston hospital. It was not immediately clear why the man was hospitalized and whether he was injured in the attack or in his apprehension. The man was caught less than two hours after the 2:50 p.m. bombing on the finish line of the race, in the heart of Boston. 12 DEAD, 50 INJURED AFTER 2 EXPLOSIONS ROCK BOSTON MARATHON NY AUTHORITIES RAMP UP SECURITY AFTER BOSTON EXPLOSIONS...

(KCEN) -- Accused Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan will be back in a military court tomorrow. Judge Tara Osborn is expected to hear pre-trial motions on whether some evidence should be permitted and also on the production of witnesses. Jury selection is still set for May 29 and the trial is scheduled to begin on July 1.

Authorities have confirmed that an apparent bomb addressed to Maricopa, Ariz., County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was uncovered and diverted, and now investigators are beginning to look into a list of his enemies for any links or connections. Those who have had conflicts with him, those who might be coming under investigation, those who have been unsuccessful in fights with him. That should be a job. Arpaio, who has described himself as the “toughest sheriff in America,” has had conflicts over the past few years with advocates for illegal immigration, those who don’t like his enforcement of state laws in Arizona,...

A suspicious package addressed to controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio contained a bomb that was powerful enough to maim or even kill him, his office said today. "Had someone opened that package, it would have caused a major explosion and caused serious physical injuries, burns and maybe death," Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jerry Sheridan said at a press conference. "That was a very serious threat, it was labeled to come here to this building and be opened by Sheriff Arpaio."

(CNN) -- On the evening of March 19, Tom Clements, the director of Colorado's prison system, was shot and killed when he answered the door of his home near Colorado Springs. The slaying sparked a police chase that ended a few days later in Texas, with authorities finally killing the suspect, 28-year-old Evan Ebel, in a shootout. It was soon discovered that Ebel had been part of a violent white supremacist gang during the eight years he spent in Colorado prisons. Clements was the latest victim of increasingly active violent right-wing extremists. While American politicians and the U.S. public continue...

Last week, I reminded you about the bloody history of convicted Weather Underground terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, whom left-wing bleeding heart director Robert Redford pays homage to in his new fictional movie “The Company You Keep.” Boudin’s son, Chesa, was raised by America-bashing and flag-trashing Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. As I told you, he won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, graduated from Yale, and is now a Yale Law School fellow. Mama Boudin was paroled in 2003, and now the NYPost reports that she is teaching at Columbia (h/t JWF):

In an effort to clear up “misconceptions” that the Fusion Centers of the Department of Homeland Security spy on Americans, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis denied that they do this, instead saying that they’re only spying on “anti-government” Americans ... As has been reported, the DHS has released documents listing Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who support gun rights, who oppose the Federal Reserve, oppose illegal immigration and oppose abortion as “domestic extremists” and terrorists. Over the last year, the DHS has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of mostly hollow point ammunition, more than 2,700 MRAP vehicles designed...

War On Terrorism: We have a medal for those who remotely operate drones, but the Pentagon claims awarding the victims of the 2009 shooting with Purple Hearts would jeopardize the shooter's chance at a fair trial. We recently noted that the Obama administration's shameful designation of the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at the Army base in Killeen, Texas, by Major Nidal Hasan as "workplace violence" had denied survivors benefits they would have been entitled to had the attack been properly labeled an act of terror. For example, Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning was shot six times but was denied benefits that...

An Army judge in Texas just made a somewhat unconventional ruling in the trial of Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan: She refused to let him plead guilty. Why? It would enable him to avoid execution. Apparently, the Army would not be satisfied to see this alleged mass murderer simply go to jail for a few decades. It appears the prosecution is out for blood. The situation is a little bit dicey, when you think about it. After Hasan's lawyers made it very clear that Hasan would plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty, Col. Tara Osborn made...

James Holmes, the gunman behind the Dark Knight massacre in Colorado last July, has reportedly turned Muslim and prays five times a day. The killer showed off a lengthy, thick beard during a court appearance earlier this month, and a prison source has claimed it is a symbol of his new-found faith. The source said Holmes has turned to Islam as a way of justifying his horrific murder spree in an Aurora, Colorado cinema on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded. 'He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and...

Republican Rand Paul took to the floor of the U.S. Senate this week to filibuster John Brennan's nomination to become head of the CIA. "I will speak as long as it takes," the junior senator from Kentucky said, "until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court." I imagine many Americans following news of the filibuster, which...

Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Sen. Rand Paul,R-Ky., to confirm that President Obama does not have the authority to kill an American on U.S. soil in a non-combat situation, Obama’s spokesman announced today. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney quoted from the letter that Holder sent to Paul today. “Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on an American soil?” Holder wrote, per Carney. “The answer is no.” Carney added that, “if the United States were under attack, there were an imminent threat,” the president has the authority...

In the wake of an ABC News story detailing claims by victims of the Fort Hood shooting that they have been neglected by the military and 'betrayed' by President Obama, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee has sent a letter to his fellow members of Congress demanding that the Obama administration classify the attack as a terrorist act and provide full benefits to the victims and their families. "It is time for the administration to recognize the Fort Hood shooting for what it is—an act of terrorism," wrote Rep. Michael McCaul, R.-Texas, in a letter cosigned by Rep....

MCLEAN, Va. — A top official with the Federal Aviation Administration reassured the public on Wednesday that, despite the fear and paranoia of some, no armed drones will be permitted to fly in U.S. airspace. “We currently have rules in the books that deal with releasing anything from an aircraft, period. Those rules are in place and that would prohibit weapons from being installed on a civil aircraft,” said Jim Williams, head of the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office, in an address to the drone industry’s leading trade group meeting this week in Northern Virginia.

FBI: Man Attempted To Bomb Bank, Trying To Set Off US Civil War By Pete Williams, NBC NewsFebruary 8, 2013 The FBI, ending a sting, says it has arrested a California man after he tried to set off what he thought was a car bomb at a bank in Oakland. Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, of San Jose, was arrested Friday morning, capping a months-long undercover investigation, the Justice Department said. Agents say he met last November with someone he thought was connected with the Taliban but who was actually an FBI agent. Prosecutors say Llaneza proposed car-bombing a bank in...

The Family Research Council shooter, who pleaded guilty today to a terrorism charge, picked his target off a "hate map" on the website of the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center which is upset with the conservative group's opposition to gay rights. Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism related to the August 15, 2012 injuring of FRC's guard. He told the FBI that he wanted to kill anti-gay targets and went to the law center's website for ideas. At a court hearing where his comments to the FBI were...

Floyd Lee Corkins II, who planned an attack to kill as many people as possible at the Family Research Council in August last year, because of that group's opposition to gay marriage, has pleaded to guilty to "interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, assault with intent to kill while armed and act of terrorism while armed, a charge based on the shooting being intended to intimidate anyone who is associated with or supports the Family Research Council and other organizations that oppose gay marriage," CBS News reports. In addition, he: acknowledged in a plea agreement that he intended to...

Post contains the following article from 2008, a cool and humorous picture and video to make a point about Christian Terrorism (AKA abortion clinic bombings)- that being that they hardly ever happen and it is ridiculous to claim Christianity poses anywhere near the threat level of Islam. Even what is termed Christian Dominionism is way overblown by Liberals to point at Christianity when talking about Islam (there is a link in the article to material refuting those claims). So if you have a freind that says something along the lines of Christians are more of a concern that Islam,, send...

An animal rights group and six members were convicted Thursday of inciting violence against a company that tests drugs and household products on animals. The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. The government charged that SHAC waged a five-year campaign of threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences and posted information on the SHAC Web site about the lab's employees and those who do business with Huntingdon. Many of those targeted saw their homes vandalized, and they and their families received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone...

The Tea party is a Home Grown Terrorist Group, They are bringing our Government to it’s knees, They stock pile guns, The Republican Party should be considered a faction of the Tea Party, For they have killed Abortion Doctors, burned Abortion Clinics, They been on the wrong side of every major issue in this Country, But The Tea Party carries guns to political Rallies, To Influence anyone that questions them, They Talk about succession, They Talk about a civil war, They Talk about Taking back this Country, Well I for one never want them to over throw our Government, and...

The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment. Morgan Gliedman — who is nine-months pregnant — and her baby daddy, Aaron Greene, 31, also had instructions on making bombs, including a stack of papers with a cover sheet titled, “The Terrorist Encyclopedia,’’ sources told The Post yesterday. People who know Greene say his political views are “extreme,” the sources said.

"A flag bearing a crescent and star flies from a flagpole in front of the World Trade Center, next to a Christmas tree and a menorah." New York Times, 1997 In 1997, Mohammed T. Mehdi, the head of the Arab-American Committee and the National Council on Islamic Affairs, lobbied to have a crescent and star go up at the World Trade Center during the holiday season. His wish was granted, despite the fact that Mehdi had been an adviser to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. In the name of diversity and political correctness, an adviser to the religious leader behind the...

President Barack Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to be the next secretary of state, a source has told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed. His replacement as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Sneed source said.

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Already facing intense scrutiny for its shifting narrative about the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, the Pentagon now says it will not reclassify the Fort Hood shootings as a terrorist attack over concern about biasing the case against the gunman — an argument that is getting a mixed review from legal experts. Late Friday, after 160 victims of the Fort Hood shooting called on the Pentagon to label the attack terrorism instead of workplace violence as it has for the past three years, the Department of Defense said it would not reclassify the attack. In rejecting the victims...

(Updated at 2:55 p.m.) Arlington County (Va.) Police and federal agents are searching for a man who threw a Molotov cocktail-like incendiary device inside the Ballston Common Mall. The man threw what was described as a “flaming bottle” from an upper level of the mall down to the food court. The device, said to be 40 ounce beer bottle, possibly containing gasoline or a similar substance, shattered on impact but did not explode, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. No one was injured. Two to three additional bottles, which “smelled like gasoline,” were found in a bag by...

Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich has built a 9 percentage point lead in New Mexico’s U.S. Senate race over former Republican Rep. Heather Wilson, a Journal Poll found. Heinrich, now in his second term as the 1st Congressional District representative in the U.S. House, drew support from 48 percent of voters in the statewide poll on the Senate race, conducted Oct. 9 -11. Thirty-nine percent of voters said they preferred Wilson, who preceded Heinrich in the 1st Congressional District seat, serving from 1998 to 2009. Nine percent of voters remain undecided in the Senate race. The remaining 4 percent backed Independent...

If Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan's assassination of Bobby Kennedy(D) in 1968 wasn't one of the first, of many, domestic acts of Pali-Arab terrorism, then please explain to me why, when Cleo Allen Noel Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan, and his charge', George Curtis Moore, were abducted and executed by the PLO in March 1973, the Palestinian terrorists demanded that Sirhan Sirhan be freed?  Who remembersMir Aimal KasiJanuary 25, 1993 Langley, VA  ...near the entrance of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters in Langley, Virginia where two CIA employees were murdered and three others wounded. The perpetrator, Mir Aimal Kasi, shot CIA...

>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Jeff in Minneapolis. It's great to have you on the program, sir. Hello. CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Stay-at-home-of-seven dittos to you. Question for you: Which is the greater threat do you think, liberalism or terrorism? RUSH: Well, that's an interesting question. CALLER: Thank you. RUSH: "What is the greater threat, liberalism or terrorism?" CALLER: Yep. RUSH: See, both of them -- both liberals and terrorists -- have a lot in common. The one thing that they hate the most is freedom. The one thing that orients them toward their ideology is their opposition to freedom. You...

On November 5, 2009, Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning was shot six times by Maj. Nidal Hasan while he was serving on-duty at Ft. Hood in Temple, Texas, in what became known as the Ft. Hood Massacre. Today, Sgt. Manning's wife is fighting for official military recognition for the victims of the attack, saying President Obama has ignored them and refused to acknowledge their sacrifice.

As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned. Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed — and if so, with what sort of weapon. Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed...

During the Republican primaries, Muslims were accused of harboring plans for “stealth Shariah.” A group of five Republican House members, led by Michele Bachmann, groundlessly accused two prominent Muslim federal officials of loyalty to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Another Republican representative, Joe Walsh of Illinois, used a campaign rally to suggest that Muslims in the Chicago suburbs were plotting to commit terrorist attacks. In New York City, the police spied on thousands of Muslims for six years without producing any evidence that could lead to an investigation.... ....From the 19th century on, distrust, violence and, eventually, immigration restrictions were aimed at...