Free Republic

Alvin Ailey performer: Israeli security made me dance Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - Added 17m ago JERUSALEM - A performer with the famed American Alvin Ailey dance troupe on Tuesday said he was twice forced to perform steps for Israeli airport security officers to prove his identity before he was permitted to enter the country. Abdur-Rahim Jackson, an eight-year veteran of the African American dance ensemble, said he was singled out by Israel’s renowned airport security because he has a Muslim name. He called the experience embarrassing and said at one point, one of the officers even suggested he change...

At a closed-door meeting late last month in Turin, Italy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blasted his top officials, accusing them of crippling the world body through a combination of self-interest, petty squabbling and egoism. "We all know the U.N. is a huge bureaucracy," Ban told the assembled senior officials. "Coming here, 20 months ago, that prospect did not bother me. … "Then I arrived in New York. There is bureaucracy, I discovered — and then there is the U.N." ..."We waste incredible amounts of time on largely meaningless matters."

The conflict between Russia and Georgia has been worsened by badly-translated French, France's foreign minister has admitted on the eve of crucial talks in Moscow between the European Union and the Kremlin. ... One reason for the continuation of the conflict now appears to be a passage in the Russian translation of the agreement that speaks of security "for" South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The English version speaks of security "in" the two areas. The difference is crucial, because Russia continues to keep its tanks and armed troops "in" Georgian territory. The international community, in turn, wants security "for" South Ossetia...

LONDON - Most people across the world would prefer Democrat Barack Obama to win the US presidential election over his Republican rival John McCain, a new poll spanning 22 countries showed Tuesday. The BBC World Service survey found the most common view in all nations polled was that Obama -- who staged a euphoric European tour two months ago that included a speech to 200,000 fans in Berlin -- should win in November. An average of 46 percent of all those questioned thought US relations with the rest of the world would improve if Obama took office, compared to just...

My wife just told me that Fox News announced that Kim Jong Il has had a stroke. I don't see it elsewhere. Does anyone here have any more information?

This commercial that was done by a soldier just home from the war. You need to see it. EVERY American should see this,,,pass it on,,,,,,,,,, "This commercial was done by a local kid. You have to watch the whole thing. When he finishes talking and walks away, you get a sense of how this could be the commercial of the campaign season. Bob Cook and I were on the Lake County Republican Central Committee together. His son Joe returned from Iraq last year and I was at the celebration to welcome him home." *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ Hi, My son Joe just did...

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney renewed his call for Russia to respect Georgia's borders on Tuesday, after Moscow formally established diplomatic relations with the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "The international community is united in deploring Russia's military action and condemning its unilateral efforts to alter by force of arms Georgia's internationally recognised boundaries," he said at a news conference in Rome. "The international community supports the independence and territorial integrity of Georgia and calls for the peaceful resolution of this dispute," he said, seated next to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after their meeting. Cheney visited Italy...

Rafi Eitan, who successfully led the secret 1960 plot to seize the Nazi architect of the Holocaust in Argentina and smuggle him to Israel for trial, has suggested such an operation could be ordered against Iran's president so that he could be tried for anti-Israeli rhetoric. Mr Ahmadinejad has made numerous vitriolic attacks on Israel in public speeches including remarks, which some of his supporters dispute he ever made, calling for 'Israel to be wiped off the map'. Mr Eitan suggested the International Criminal Court in the Hague could try Mr Ahmadinejad, although it is not clear which of the...

The media have covered such recent events as the Olympics, the selection of Joe Biden as the Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, and what John McCain is going to do about the selection of the Vice President of the Republican Party. Now the media will focus on the national convention of the Democratic Party. The most important news for the month of August was the fact that President Bush has quietly sent the largest armada into the Persian Gulf since the Iraq war began in 2003, when there were six carrier groups. This is a huge number of...

NICOSIA -- Iran has begun a new, comprehensive three-day exercise meant to counter an Israeli or U.S. attack. Officials said the Iranian military has launched an air defense exercise designed to foil an air strike on nuclear facilities. They said the exercise began on Sept. 8 and would include the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Officials said Iran has conducted a series of air defense exercises in 2008. But they said the latest drill was the largest and most coordinated this year.

Most of my Chinese friends and students act as if I am claiming that men live on Mars when I tell them about the atrocities that are taking place in North Korea. For them, North Korea is their friendly Communist neighbor and the mere suggestion that people there are dying of starvation or that the regime is murdering entire generations seems to offend people here. Most Chinese people are in complete denial about what is happening in North Korea as is the Chinese government which continues to support, defend, and even praise North Korea at every turn. On Monday, Beijing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYEiwR2KklM Devastating.

Presidential campaigns are so much about posturing that it's easy to miss what's really going on. Take national security policy. John McCain and Barack Obama want you to think they represent diametrically opposed approaches to national security, when in fact they have quite similar views. And one of the things they have in common is that neither of them wants you to realize they see future security challenges pretty much the same way Donald Rumsfeld did. To prove that point, let's take a little stroll down memory lane. Nine years ago this month, presidential candidate George W. Bush gave the...

SEOUL, South Korea - A U.S. intelligence official said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, 66, may have suffered a stroke, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. A U.S. intelligence official said there is reason to believe Kim Jong Il is sick after he failed to show up at a North Korean national celebration on Tuesday. That official and another U.S. source spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence gathering. Earlier, South Korea's largest daily, the Chosun Ilbo, said Kim collapsed last month, citing a South Korean diplomatic source in Beijing.

 Saudi Columnist to Religious Police: Revoke Ban on Selling Cats and Dogs The Saudi religious police recently demanded that the Jeddah municipality ban pet shops from selling dogs and cats, on the grounds that Islam forbids it because of the concern that displaying the animals in shop windows could be exploited by young people for courtship purposes. [1] The ban dumbfounded Arab columnists, provoking several articles on the subject. In an August 5, 2008 column in the Kuwaiti daily Awan, Saudi columnist Samar Al-Muqrin wrote that there should be a distinction between stray cats and house cats, and called...

/begin my translation U.S. Intelligence Sources: Grounds to Believe Kim Jong-il's Health in Serious Trouble Yonhap News In light of Kim Jong-il's absence at 60th anniversary celebration of N. Korean state's founding, U.S. intelligence sources revealed on Sept. 9 that there are grounds to believe that Kim health is in serious trouble. /end my translation

Almost three decades after the Islamic Republic's founding, former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders are infiltrating the political, economic, and cultural life of Iran. Half the members of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cabinet are former IRGC officers,[1] and he has appointed several IRGC officers to provincial governorships. The IRGC's rise has been deliberate. Facing both external opposition to Tehran's pursuit of an indigenous nuclear enrichment capability and internal pressures for political and economic reforms, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei considers the IRGC officer corps more apt at crisis management than the bureaucratic teams of either former president Ali Akbar Hashemi...

Opposition members convened a special Knesset session on Tuesday focusing on what they called the "illegitimate conduct of the government regarding political affairs" and on the police's recommendation to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on corruption-related charges. MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) spoke of the investigations against Olmert in relation to his political conduct during the government's term. "How do we know what is behind this man's decisions? Maybe tomorrow, Olmert will want to give away land to the Arab enemy. How should I know that the man was not bribed? Maybe someone paid him to change his mind and give...

The US is considering selling an anti-missile system to the United Arab Emirates, which could be used to defend the UAE against any future aggression from Iran. THAAD is designed to defend against short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, and complements the Patriot missile-defense system, which aims lower. The Pentagon is set to notify US Congress of the sale and Congress will then have 30 days to review the matter, sources close to the issue told news outlets on Monday. If approved, it would be the first sale of the THAAD system to a foreign country. The pursuit of advanced defense...

The head of a Muslim college in Warwickshire which houses the UK's first official sharia law court has spoke of the advantages of using the ancient system. Faisal Aqtab Siddiqi said despite misconceptions, the system would work with British law to solve disputes and could "enrich" the current legal system. Mr Siddiqi is head of the Hijaz College Islamic University in Nuneaton- home of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT). The tribunal, formed last year, offers ways for the Muslim community to resolve disputes in accordance with the sacred laws. Mr Siddiqi said it was not the same as unofficial sharia...