Free Republic

Homeland Security: A suspect Islamist group is gloating that a cash settlement in the so-called Flying Imams case is a "victory for civil rights." If it's a victory, it's one for future hijackers. Three years ago, six Islamic clerics sued US Airways and Minneapolis airport police for discrimination and false arrest after they were bounced from a Phoenix-bound flight for behaving much like the 9/11 hijackers. Some yelled "Allah, Allah, Allah," and changed their seats while asking for seat belt extensions they never used. Though situated throughout the cabin, the six men appeared to be acting in concert. Witnesses also...

United Airlines passengers removed from flight at Denver airport This is a news story and video interview done by Chris Vanderveen of 9news about United Airlines Flight 227, which was detained at Denver International Airport yesterday. Police officers and FBI were called to the scene. The video at the side gives more info, including passenger interviews. ALSO SEE: Hmmm . . . Yet Another Dry Run?: United 227 Sounds Just Like AirTran 297 ----------- Clearly there is a pattern of such incidents; note similarities to what we are now finding out about Airtran flight 297 Annie Jacobsen's ordeal on Northwest...

June 28, 2006, 7:12 a.m. Bears a Close WatchChina knows our next Treasury secretary well. By Frank Gaffney Jr. As the Senate Finance Committee considers President Bush’s nomination of Henry Paulson to be the next secretary of the Treasury, the question is not whether he will be confirmed. That seems assured, as senators in both parties behave like star-struck groupies in the presence of a Wall Street “master of the universe,� whose net worth, from his time as a senior executive of Goldman Sachs, is estimated to be on the order of $600 million. Rather, the question is: Will any...

As foreclosures climb, so does fraud by schemers preying on desperate homeowners hoping to modify their loans. State investigators have 750 open cases -- up from just 10 a year ago. Maricela Castellanos sat at her desk, the telephone pressed to her ear, a chill running through her body. A representative from her mortgage company was on the line with troubling information about the loan on Castellanos' Hesperia home. No one at the company had previously been in contact with her, Castellanos recalled the man saying. The bank had no record of a new loan agreement with her, he...

Don Young calls measure 'terrorism,' proposes selling forest to Alaska. The U.S. House of Representatives has limited federal spending on logging roads in the Tongass National Forest... part of the 2008 Interior appropriations bill. It now goes to the Senate. If the amendment is approved, it would block spending on roads constructed for use by private companies for logging operations. This is the fourth time that Reps. Steven Chabot, R-Ohio, and Robert Andrews, D-N.J., the measure's co-sponsors, have tried to curb the spending program, which has been described as a federal subsidy for the private logging industry. "To call them...

Radical Islamists, in their terrorist onslaught against the West, may not possess the capacity to wreak financial havoc by operating directly on the stock-exchanges of New York, London and elsewhere - but they do know how to make market speculators do the job for them. "Economic terrorism consists of carefully selecting targets for violent attacks, knowing that these will provoke shock, followed by a wave of speculation on the world markets Oil prices have hit record highs this week, prompting some analysts to suggest that, the phenomenon, is being orchestrated by Jihadists who are seeking to reduce oil supplies to...

Major headline on Drudge claims that hackers altered DJIA on major web sites. My Dad called me after making the same observation on several websites. It appeared that the DJIA was in the 8400 range and had dropped roughly 1200 points. The incorrect value appeared on the CNBC website, Quicken.com, and on MSNBC's site. The value has been corrected. Were hackers responsible for this? Is there some political motive here?

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday. The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

POLE POSITION: Gary Hererra, a "pond jumper" at Pacific Lumber Co.'s mill in Scotia, pushes logs through a water canal in this photo from 1999. A judge has ordered the company to temporarily halt its logging operation. Without a court-ordered stay, Judge John Golden said logging that could hurt timberlands and wildlife would continue. August 31, 2002 — 2:13 a.m. SACRAMENTO (AP) — Environmental groups on Friday hailed a Humboldt County Superior Court judge's unexpected ruling ordering a temporary halt to logging by Pacific Lumber Co. The company, however, believes the order will have no immediate impact, particularly if...

New mapping drops Biscuit fire below half-million-acre mark By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 8/30/02 12:32 PM GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Based on closer mapping, the size of the massive Biscuit Fire dipped below the half-million-acre mark Friday as firefighters built the last bits of containment lines to securely encircle the blaze. Burning since July 13 when lightning raked the Siskiyou National Forest, the Biscuit Fire stood at 499,780 acres, down from 500,068 acres, and remained 90 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Miera Crawford. Full containment was projected for Wednesday. The delay in full containment was caused...

POLSON, Mont. -- A U.S. Forest Service official told loggers Wednesday that some out-of-state environmental activists operating in Montana are terrorists trained in arson, vandalism and bomb-making. "Here in Montana, we are starting to see people from out of state and people who have direct ties to the Earth Liberation Front, and that concerns us," said Bill Fox, of the agency's Northern Region office in Missoula. Fox spoke Wednesday to members of the Montana Wood Products Association, gathered in Polson for their annual meeting. Earlier this summer, ELF told officials at the Bitterroot National Forest that all salvage logging in...

There's a Joseph Conrad kind of symbolism in the location of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on Sustainable Development. A collection of central planners has convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, to further centralize control over private property and streamline the distribution of wealth from freer, more prosperous nations to despotic, underdeveloped ones. The intellectual and ethical impetus for this renewed assault on freedom and prosperity is the repugnant Marxist theory of environmentalism. Conservation is the central planners' Trojan Horse for a globally coordinated assault on individual rights. These "watermelons" – green on the outside, red on the inside – adroitly...

Florida growth regulators notified Collier County on Monday that they had signed off on landmark changes to the county's rural growth plan, but opponents are vowing a legal challenge. County commissioners approved new growth rules this summer in response to a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that required the county to work with its citizens to come up with better environmental protections for its rural land. The rules apply to some 93,000 acres on the edge of Golden Gate Estates known as the rural fringe. Other changes, still under state review, would apply to almost 200,000...

Oregon's largest wildfire in more than a century threatened power lines feeding several Northern California towns yesterday as crews tried to stop a slow creep along its southeastern flank. Hand crews had created three or four fire lines in front of the advancing flames west of O'Brien, but said they would have to ask Pacific Power to shut down the power lines if the wildfire got too close. When carbon-rich smoke thickens around the cables, it can cause the electricity from the lines to arc, endangering firefighters. Turning off the power would put the California towns of Gasquet, Hiouchi and...

Monday, August 5, 2002 Drought Leaves Ranchers Watching Lifestyle Fade By Brendan Smith Journal Northern Bureau     In 1878, Isidore Ferran built a homestead in northern New Mexico and started a family ranching tradition that has lasted more than a century — but perhaps for not much longer.     Elsie Hays, Ferran's granddaughter, still raises 20 head of cattle on her property in Llaves in Rio Arriba County and on a grazing allotment in the Santa Fe National Forest. But her five brothers and sisters no longer ranch, and her two grown daughters have no interest in raising cattle.    ...

Eco - LogicOn - Line 7/15/2002 The smoking gun... How Environmentalists Intend to Rule the World By Ron Arnold Critics have long believed environmentalists were planning global domination. The problem with making a credible case against such an ambitious plan was simple: no environmental leader had published one. Yet conflicts over global warming, world trade, multinational corporations, population control, sustainable futures, and transnational government left little doubt that environmentalists in fact shared the unspoken aim of wielding supreme power over a green future. But there was no proof. For years, critics, lacking hard evidence, were reduced to piecing together a...

Friday, July 12, 2002 Train Operator Reaches End of Line By Brendan Smith Journal Staff Writer     Hammered by losses from the U.S. Forest Service's shutdown of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the operator announced Thursday it will not run the 1880s-era railroad next year under its existing five-year contract.     The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission, which oversees operations, stated Thursday it will seek a new company to operate the railroad next year to replace the struggling nonprofit Rio Grande Railway Preservation Corp.     The commission's decision not to renegotiate Rio Grande's contract means the corporation will...

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Salvadoran legislators are criticizing President Francisco Flores' government for recognizing a coup attempt in Venezuela that briefly deposed President Hugo Chavez. Lawmakers also warned that El Salvador could suffer reprisals from Venezuela regarding oil sales to the country as a result of its support for the interim Venezuelan government led by businessman Pedro Carmona and backed by key military officials. Shortly after a group of military officers removed Chavez from the presidential palace last Friday, Flores declared in a statement that the provisional government had El Salvador's "vote of confidence." Two days later, the coup...

LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices soared on Monday when Iraq announced an immediate suspension of oil exports in protest at Israel's incursion into Palestinian controlled areas of the West Bank. The news prompted a frenzy of buying by traders who already feared a halt in shipments from the world's No. 4 crude exporter Venezuela. International benchmark Brent crude oil jumped $1.01 to $27.00 per barrel by midday in London, resuming an assault on a six-month high of $28.15 seen last week. U.S. crude futures rose 73 cents to $26.94. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said all oil exports were suspended...