Free Republic

Two centuries after Napoleonic forces snuffed out the 1,000-year Venetian Republic, Venetians are once again aspiring to become an independent state. Inspired by the nationalist aspirations of Scotland and Catalonia, pro-independence campaigners will hold a mass rally in the heart of the lagoon city on Saturday, calling for an urgent referendum to be held on the issue. Indipendenza Veneta, a newly-founded pro-independence movement, says it expects several thousand people to turn up for the rally. …

Three elderly Kenyans were granted the right on friday to sue the British government for compensation over allegations of torture during the Mau Mau uprising that started 60 years ago. The judgment at the High Court in London, described as "historic" by the Kenyans' lawyer, potentially opens the door to other claims of mistreatment by colonial officers across the British Empire stretching back decades. The Foreign Office said it did not dispute that Kenya's colonial administration tortured the three Kenyans, all in their 70s and 80s, but added that it would still appeal against the ruling. It claims that most...

The Wall Street Journal has shed light on the obscure operations of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan; operations generally condemned by Pakistani leaders but thought to be conducted with tacit assistance from the Pakistani military. According to the report, “About once a month, the [CIA] sends a fax to a general at Pakistan’s intelligence service outlining broad areas where the U.S. intends to conduct strikes...The Pakistanis, who in public oppose the program, don’t respond. On this basis, plus the fact that Pakistan continues to clear airspace in the targeted areas, the U.S. government concludes it has tacit consent to...

In its strongest ever warning, Ofgem said there may have to be “controlled disconnections” of homes and businesses in the middle of this decade because Britain has not done enough to make sure it has enough electricity. The regulator's new analysis reveals the risk of power-cuts is almost 50 per cent in 2015 if a very cold winter causes high demand for electricity. It predicts Britain will face power shortages because old coal and oil plants are being forced to shut down under the European Union’s environmental regulations. This will partly be replaced by wind farms, but they are less...

enezuelans packed supermarkets on Friday to stock up on food and other essentials in case of trouble around Sunday's presidential vote, which was shaping up as the biggest electoral challenge of Hugo Chavez's 14-year rule. Energetic young state governor Henrique Capriles has gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign and he seemed to have the opposition's best chance of unseating Chavez since the socialist president came to power in 1999. Many among the South American oil exporting nation's 29 million people are fretting that tight results could bring accusations of fraud and protests in an already highly polarized...

Will Egypt seize Libya for its oil? Given Egypt’s political ideology, its history with its neighbors, and its material needs, this must be a live issue. … The Muslim Brotherhood government desperately needs a $4.8-billion IMF bailout to stop the bleeding but it refuses to curtail its subsidies, as the IMF demands, for fear of triggering a popular revolt. It is instead hoping for aid from oil states and the U.S. government, but even if this materializes, it will be at best a stopgap. With tourists, the country’s chief source of foreign exchange, steering clear of Egypt because of its...

American Women Marching into Tribal Pakistan: Obama 'Worse Than Bush' Anti-war activists head to Waziristan to protest drone strikes By STEVEN NELSON October 5, 2012 Thirty-two Americans associated with the feminist anti-war activist group Code Pink are in Pakistan for a march from Islamabad to that country's tumultuous tribal belt to protest American drone strikes that reportedly kill civilians along with their terrorist targets. ...snip... Alli McCracken, who said she was one of the 24 American women in the contingent, said via an E-mail that Obama is "worse than Bush in some respects; he uses drones significantly more than Bush...

Some of the most popular modern collectible coins are the one ounce silver coins struck by various countries around the world. Generally struck in either circulation strike format or in a special format (such as proof or specimen strikings) more targeted towards collectors, these coins often feature distinctive and unique designs containing elements of the country from the country of issue. There are a number of countries which have produced these one ounce silver bullion coins since the early 1980s, while other countries have only recently added these types of coins to their numismatic releases, generally selling them for a...

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has denied she tried to mislead Congress when she initially called the Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya a spontaneous protest. Susan Rice, in a letter released Friday, wrote three Republican senators that her comments on television news shows after the attack were based on the best information available at the time from intelligence officials. *** Rice wrote Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that she "consistently qualified, in some instances twice, the information I provided as preliminary." *** The...

News flash: Compared to free enterprise, central planning is a reliably inefficient, costly, and ill-fated way to allocate resources.Just kidding, totally not a news flash. It's just good ol' fashioned common sense --- leastaways, you'd think it would be common sense, given that historical examples abound, except that President Obama doesn’t quite seem to get it. Whenever he goes into touting-his-green-energy-"investments" mode, he is constantly suggesting that not only is China gaining an advantage over us in the clean-energy market of the future (how he presumes to know that "wind and solar are the future" is still a mystery to...

I don’t get it. Why would the Foreign Policy President, who supported the revolutions in Libya and Egypt, not want to talk about that? I thought he likes talking about foreign policy. Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably...

Speaking after the US-bound flights had taken off from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, Mrs May said: "I can confirm that tonight two planes have left RAF Mildenhall to transport Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdul Bary, Syed Ahsan and Khalid al-Fawwaz to the US to face trial. "I am pleased the decision of the court today meant that these men, who used every available opportunity to frustrate and delay the extradition process over many years, could finally be removed. "This government has co-operated fully with the courts and pressed at every stage to ensure this happened. "We have worked tirelessly,...

This week's fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the wounding of another in Arizona was likely the result of friendly fire, the FBI said late Friday. "While it is important to emphasize that the FBI's investigation is actively continuing, there are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie, 30, and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents," James Turgal, special agent in charge of the FBI's Phoenix division, said in a statement. "At the appropriate time further information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities are investigating whether a Border Patrol agent shot dead in Arizona near the Mexican border may have been killed by friendly fire, two U.S. government sources said on Friday. The sources, government officials familiar with the matter, declined to elaborate. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment.

The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble written by Khosrow B. Semnani, and published by the Hinckley Institute of Politics, University of Utah has concluded a strike would include four sites and irradiate up to 100,000 Iranian citizens and soldiers. The four locations include: Isfahan: The Nuclear Technology/Research Center in Esfahan (ENTC) is supposed to be the main location of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Semnani predicts 1,000 workers here will be killed, and up to 70,000 casualties in the surrounding areas from toxic plumes: 71,000 Natanz: One-hundred miles north of Isfhahan, this location has been in use for about 12 years and...

ABC News has obtained an internal State Department email from May 3, 2012, indicating that the State Department denied a request from the security team at the Embassy of Libya to retain a DC-3 airplane in the country to better conduct their duties. Copied on the email was U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012, along with three other Americans. That attack has prompted questions about whether the diplomatic personnel in that country were provided with adequate security support. But the question – both for the...

FBI came to Benghazi and left in past 24 hours By EILEEN SULLIVAN and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON A team of FBI agents arrived in Benghazi, Libya, to investigate the assault against the U.S. Consulate and left after about 12 hours on the ground as the hunt for those possibly connected to the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans narrowed to one or two people in an extremist group, U.S. officials said Thursday. Agents arrived in Benghazi before dawn on Thursday and departed after sunset, after weeks of waiting for access to the crime...

Investigators are looking into whether friendly fire caused the death of Border Patrol agent Nick Ivie or the wounding of his colleague early Tuesday morning. Acting Cochise County Sheriff Rod Rothrock said it remains possible that either one was shot by another agent, though the investigation is still in its early stages. "Gunfight situations are highly fluid and dramatic, and this was out there in the middle of the night," Rothrock said. "People are moving and running, and I can't say it didn't happen." If it was friendly fire, that conclusion will be reached later in the investigation, he said....

The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Mitt Romney for president late Thursday. NRA Executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and NRA Political Victory Fund chairman Chris Cox will formally announce the endorsement at a Romney rally in Virginia later Thursday evening. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will also be on hand. “In this election, there is no debate,” LaPierre said in a statement. “There is only one choice – only one hope – to save our firearms freedom and our way of life.” The endorsement is not surprising — the NRA has a history of supporting conservative candidates, who traditionally support...

Debkafile reveals one of the CIA's most dramatic scoops in many years, and epic disaster for Iran. Our most exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal cameraman, Hassan Golkhanban, who defected from his UN entourage in New York on Oct. 1, brought with him an intelligence treasure trove of up-to-date photographs and videos of top Iranian leaders visiting their most sensitive and secret nuclear and missile sites. The cameraman, who is in his 40s, is staying at an undisclosed address, presumably a CIA safe house under close guard. He stayed behind when Ahmadinejad, after his UN...