Free Republic

Last week a Department of State retiree and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Cuba for thirty years. In this article I will sort out what we know, don't know and need to explore about this matter. Walter Kendall Myers, Jr .and his wife Gwendolyn Steingarber Myers

President Barack Obama has nominated a lesbian activist lawyer to serve as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In a recent White House announcement, President Obama nominated Chai Feldblum, a professor of law (gay studies) at Georgetown University who formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign Fund, to serve as one of five Commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In the mid-1980s, Ms. Feldblum clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmum, the liberal Supreme Court justice who authored the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. “She has also...

A marathon deportation case against two Palestinian immigrants, pursued by the administrations of four U.S. Presidents over 20 years, has been dismissed. The ruling closes a Byzantine legal saga that wound its way through federal appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court and federal immigration boards, breaking new legal ground along the way. It ended at the Department of Homeland Security, where the dismissal order was entered Tuesday. One of the defendants, Khader Musa Hamide, said in an interview that he will never get over the experience of being under suspicion for 20 years but now "I can breathe better." A...

"To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds." Photo caption of Michelle Obama speaking to her daughter Malia posted on The Free Republic. Disclaimer on The Free Republic: "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. " For those of you who have argued vociferously with me that we are living in a "post-racial America" rather than an America in which Jim Crow is on steroids, you apparently have not read the daily diet of racism that the readers and bloggers on this site consume and then regurgitate....

MAS' Esam Omeish Seeks Virginia Office Campaign Mum on MAS Ties, Radical Omeish Speeches IPT News May 1, 2009 The last time the public got a good look at Esam Omeish, he was resigning from a Virginia immigration panel, claiming that the posting of videos showing him praising Palestinians who chose "the jihad way" to liberate their land was part of a smear campaign against him. Now Omeish is diving into the deep end of smear campaigns, offering himself as a candidate for a partisan legislative seat in Northern Virginia. Omeish is among four Democrats vying to win their party's...

NATO allies have named U.S. Marine General James Jones as the top commander of alliance troops in Europe. Meeting in Brussels, the alliance's Defense Planning Committee, including representatives of the 19 alliance countries, agreed that General Jones should replace U.S. General Joseph Ralston as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. The alliance announcement mentioned no date for the change, but said the nomination of General Jones still needs U.S. Senate approval. The top NATO command, based in the Belgian town of Mons, outside Brussels, is always held by an American officer. General Ralston, a Vietnam War veteran, took command of NATO...

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY -- Responding to the spread of swine flu to the United States, university officials have temporarily evicted residents of one of Georgetown’s two university-designated quarantine houses to make space for any students who may contract the virus. Wednesday morning, residents of 3517 Prospect St. were told that they have 24 hours to vacate their residence. According to Mark Valtierra (SFS ’10), one of three residents at 3517 Prospect, Patrick Lukingbeal, hall director of Alumni Square and university townhouses, notified Valtierra of the eviction at 10:30 a.m. Valtierra and his housemates were given several boxes and told they must...

THE LATEST flare-up on the Obama Watch (we have trouble keeping up with all of them) was sparked by Georgetown University's covering up its Christian symbols, or trying to, when the president visited the campus to deliver a speech. The cover-up didn't entirely work. The university's (and the Jesuits') abbreviation for Jesus' name-IHS-was still visible elsewhere in the hall. Along with the cross above the university's seal. Was it sloppy planning or divine will? And why not both? He works in mysterious ways. We vote for this scandalette's having been the product of just another bad idea from some lower-down...

Washington, DC -- Georgetown University could find itself as the latest Catholic college to upset pro-life Catholics as it plans to present a legal award to pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden. It could join the University of Notre Dame, which has invited President Barack Obama to give commencement, in the doghouse. Tomorrow, Georgetown University Law Center will host an event honoring Biden with the “Legal Momentum Hero Award."

At the request of the White House, Georgetown University covered up all the symbols in Gaston Hall, before the Great Man spoke, including IHS, the millennia-old monogram for the name of Jesus Christ. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, had adopted the monogram in his seal and it became an emblem of the Jesuit order. When it comes to rendering unto Caesar, Georgetown is not going to be outshone by Notre Dame, which stole a march by offering the nation's avatar of abortion a doctorate of laws degree, honoris causa. Actually, it is regrettable the IHS in...

Surprising word today that President Barack Obama's White House asked Georgetown University to cover all religious symbols at the scene of the president's economic speech at the Roman Catholic institution Wednesday. And the prestigious Jesuit university agreed. The decision, unnoticed at the time, seems likely to add further fuel to the ongoing controversy over Obama's upcoming graduation speech at the University of Notre Dame, where the Jesuit Indiana campus is plastered with numerous religious symbols. This includes a mosaic of Jesus Christ covering the entire 14-story southern wall of the Hesburgh Library next door to the speech site in the...

Is this the new politics Barack Obama promised to bring to Washington? His hand-picked DNC Chairman just went on national TV and claimed the Obama administration never requested Georgetown to cover up the IHS monogram representing the name of Christ. Confronted with a CNSNews.com article flatly reporting that such a request had indeed been made, Tim Kaine resorted to the hoary dodge of claiming he hadn't seen the story. Adding insult to injury, Kaine even claimed to be ignorant of CNSNews.com itself, NewsBusters' sister organization. Kaine made his credulity-busting claims during a Morning Joe appearance today. View video.

When President Obama gave his economics speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, several folks noticed something was missing. That "something" was an ancient monogram -- the letters IHS -- that symbolizes the name of Jesus. It was missing from a wooden archway above the dais in Gaston Hall where the president delivered his 45-minute speech. The gold-lettered monogram appeared near a painting of three female figures -- symbolizing morality, faith and patriotism -- and decorative edging along the wall that spelled out the Jesuit motto "Ad majorem Dei gloriam"—"To the greater glory of God." Georgetown was founded by the Jesuits....

What occurred at Georgetown University is one of those symbolic moments in history which speaks beyond any single incident. The administration literally covered over the Cross of Christ and the “I.H.S.”, both of which were engraved on the backdrop against which the President spoke on the Gaston Hall stage. The reaction to this censorship of Christian signs at a Catholic University was immediate. The associate Vice President of Communications of Georgetown gave her spin: "In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday's event, Georgetown honored the White House staff's request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind...

(CNSNews.com) - Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there. As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up--when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.

CNSNews.com) - Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.

Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus. The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com. The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported. The Washington Times' Belief Blog asked the university about the presidential request: Julie Bataille from the university's press office...

When President Barack Obama spoke at Georgetown University on April 14, the White House requested that all religious symbols and signage that might appear as a backdrop to where the president was to speak be covered up. Georgetown acceded to the request and made sure that the symbol “IHS,” a monogram of the name Jesus Christ, was not in sight. Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today: “The cowardice of Georgetown to stand fast on principle tells us more than we need to know about what is going on there, but the bigger story is the audacity...

At Georgetown University today, while sitting in the press section at Gaston Hall awaiting the arrival of President Obama for a "major address" on economics, I overheard a reporter discussing the advance text of the speech. The reporter said that senior presidential adviser David Axelrod had compared Obama during his European trip to one planting seeds for a harvest. Along the same lines, he noted, in today's speech, Obama was set to use another Gospel analogy: that of the "house built upon a rock." And so it came to pass, beneath Gaston Hall's beautiful painting of Morality, Faith, and Patriotism,...

In a speech at Georgetown University yesterday, Pres. Barack Obama tried to explain how his economic policies “fit together in a single, overarching strategy.” The only constant we could discern, however, was the president’s desire to use the financial crisis to justify enormous expansions of government power. Because the crisis is so dire, Obama explained, “we’ve had no choice but to attack all fronts.” His stimulus package, for instance, attacked the financial crisis — a crisis afflicting the banking sector — on the federal-building-construction front, the state-highway-slush-fund front, the green-energy-boondoggle front, etc. The president repeated his line that the stimulus...

SNIPPET: "Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there." SNIPPET: "Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name." SNIPPET: "Although the monogram was removed from the wooden pediment on the Gaston Hall stage where it would have been directly above and behind President Obama as he spoke, the letters “IHS” are posted elsewhere around the hall approximately 26...

Abortion, Obama - Now Georgetown - "Catholic" Georgetown University Follows Notre Dame, Invites Obama to Speak; Pro-Lifers to Protest WASHINGTON, April 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue: On Tuesday, April 14, from 10:30 a.m. to the end of Mr. Obama's speech, DC area Pro-life leaders and activists will protest at the entrance to Georgetown University at 37th and O Street. Their presence is to denounce Georgetown, who invited President Obama to speak, knowing the scandal and outrage surrounding his scheduled speech at Notre Dame on May 17. Randall Terry, Operation Rescue...

Georgetown University President John J. DeGoya announced today that Satan, Prince of Darkness will receive an honorary doctorate at the University's 220th commencement. DeGoya called the announcement a proud day for Georgetown. "We've been honored to continue the proud tradition of Catholic education which has produced alumni such as President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and World Spiritual Leader Al Gore, but when Notre Dame scored the Messi-- uh, the President for this year's graduation, well, it didn't seem fair. We felt being named the fighting Irish gave them an unfair advantage with O'bama. The faculty felt like...

Last night, the Office or Mission and Ministry sent out a campus-wide email alerting the student body that an unknown suspect had vandalized the statue of Mary that stands on Copley Lawn by painting its face black. From the looks of the email, (”we do not know the motivation of the person or persons who painted the face, nor whether they are members of the University community or not”), nothing seems to be known about the perpetrator. According to the email, the incident happened “late last week” and the Department of Public Safety is investigating. The OMM also said they...

First Muslim Congressman Speaks of Faith, Change Minnesota Democrat Says Norway Good Model for U.S. By Natalie Lescroart | Feb 15 2008 The nation’s first Muslim congressman called for political change and spoke about how his faith has affected his job in a speech Tuesday at the Georgetown University Law Center. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told a packed crowd at the Gewirz Student Center that “the time is now” for political change and reworking. Ellison, a freshman congressman, is the first African-American to represent Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and sits on the Financial Services...

Tyler Savage: he is fed through a tube in his stomach A boy of 12 suffers from so many allergies that he is able to eat only five foods. Tyler Savage is violently ill every time he is given dishes containing dairy products or wheat, gluten, eggs, lactose and soya. The sole foods he is allowed are chicken, carrots, grapes, potatoes and apples. To help him survive, minerals and vitamins are pumped directly into his stomach through a tube. Tyler started to fall ill at the age of six when even a morsel of food would leave him writhing...

SHOCKER: Catholic Georgetown U. Will Now Fund Law Students to Lobby for Abortion Oldest Catholic university in U.S. By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, September 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A change of policy at Georgetown University Law Center will permit the university - which is the oldest Catholic university in the nation - to give grants to students who lobby for abortion for agencies such as Planned Parenthood.   The Hoya, the Georgetown University newspaper, reports on its front page today about the policy change. The policy change was announced September 7 by Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff in a letter...

Washington DC, Sep 27, 2007 / 10:18 am (CNA).- The oldest Catholic university in the nation has changed its policy to permit grants to law students who intern with abortion agencies, such as Planned Parenthood. Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff of Georgetown University announced the policy change Sept. 7 in a letter published in the Law Center's student newspaper. It was reported in The Hoya, the Georgetown University newspaper. The decision came after the Law Center got flack from pro-abortion students and faculty for directing student group Equal Justice Foundation to refuse funding to a student who applied to...

Bit h/t to the Commenters at Just One Minute. We bloggers owe our best work to their diligence and tenacity. The following is a complilation of some what they found so far, of what just may be the key to getting to the bottom of a Democratic conspiracy in the Foley Setup. As I previously posted here, there apparently was a promise of a book deal to pages by a Robin Kasaros. Googling her name brought about useful information such as she hosted “House Parties” back in 2005. No, not where you sell Tupperware, but the kind that like to...

Georgetown University has rediscovered its Catholicism. The nation’s oldest Catholic school, the flagship of Jesuit education in America, has been a sad topic among American Catholics for some time now. Crucifixes removed from classrooms, a lay president, pro-abortion activity, a general embarrassment at religion. Indeed, over the years, Georgetown has been perhaps the clearest example of what many such schools practice: the whipsaw of “Catholic tradition,” in which the strongest declarations of Catholic identity come from the fund-raisers, the alumni association, and the public-relations office—all the people trying to sell the university in a tight economic situation that requires a...

Georgetown University has banned outside Protestant ministries from holding on-campus events and using the school's name, prompting group leaders to question whether the prestigious Catholic school is restricting religious choice. "All we're wanting is diversity," said Kevin Offner, a staff leader for InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship. "We're simply saying, 'Can't we worship and conduct our meetings in a way appropriate to our tradition?' And it feels like [Georgetown is] saying 'no.' " In a letter last week to leaders of the campus's Affiliated Ministries, the Rev. Constance C. Wheeler, a Georgetown Protestant chaplain, said that "as a result of our...

This is the third of my speeches on the challenges facing the international community. In the first, I argued that the global terrorism that menaces us, can only be defeated through pulling it up by its roots. We have to attack not just its methods but its ideas, its presumed and false sense of grievance against the West, its attempt to persuade us that it is we and not they who are responsible for its violence. In doing so, we should stand up for our own values, asserting that they are not Western but global values, whose spread is the...

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AP) — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Sunday that he was seeking greater consensus on the Supreme Court, adding that more consensus would be likely if controversial issues could be decided on the "narrowest possible grounds." In a 15-minute address to Georgetown University law graduates, Chief Justice Roberts, 51, sketched a vision for leading a court sharply divided on issues like abortion, the death penalty and gay rights. "If it is not necessary to decide more to a case, then in my view it is necessary not to decide more to a case," Chief Justice...

NCAA Tournament Games TIME (ET) 12:10 PM ET No. 13 Bradley at No. 5 Pittsburgh 2:15 PM ET No. 9 Bucknell at No. 1 Memphis 2:20 PM ET No. 11 George Mason at No. 3 UNC 2:30 PM ET No. 8 Kentucky at No. 1 Connecticut 2:40 PM ET No. 14 Northwestern St. at No. 6 WV 4:45 PM ET No. 10 N.C. State at No. 2 Texas 4:50 PM ET No. 7 Georgetown at No. 2 Ohio State 5:00 PM ET No. 8 Arizona at No. 1 Villanova

Today's schedule: 12:15 PM ET (15)Davidson (2)Ohio State 12:25 PM ET (14)Northwestern St. (3)Iowa 12:30 PM ET (9)Bucknell (8)Arkansas 12:30 PM ET (9)Wisconsin (8)Arizona 2:35 PM ET (10)Northern Iowa (7)Georgetown 2:45 PM ET (11)Southern Illinois (6)West Virginia 2:50 PM ET (16)Oral Roberts (1)Memphis 2:50 PM ET (16)Monmouth (N.J.) (1)Villanova 7:10 PM ET (12)Kent State (5)Pittsburgh 7:10 PM ET (11)George Mason (6)Michigan State 7:20 PM ET (10)N.C. State (7)California 7:25 PM ET (16)Albany (1)Connecticut 9:30 PM ET (13)Bradley (4)Kansas 9:30 PM ET (14)Murray State (3)North Carolina 9:40 PM ET (15)Pennsylvania (2)Texas 9:45 PM ET (9)UAB (8)Kentucky

It’s been two weeks since the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) held its Fifth Annual Divestment Conference at Georgetown University.  A few articles have briefly discussed some of the seminars at the conference and what outwardly occurred there. But the major thing missing in all these reports -- that this article will reveal -- was the importance of what occurred behind the scenes just before, after and during the Georgetown divestment conference that really shows the current state of the ISM as a movement on US campuses. But before doing that, a little history is in order: Three years ago, I went...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor used a speech at Georgetown University to attack pro-life lawmakers who sided with Terri Schiavo's parents in their efforts to prevent their daughter's euthanasia death. She claimed a Congressional effort to have federal courts review the case was a first step towards a dictatorship. O'Connor, who backs abortion, announced her retirement last year and was recently replaced by federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito, who pro-life advocates hope will be more open to upholding laws that protect the right to life. "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would...

This month Georgetown University plans to host the annual conference of an anti-Israel propaganda group called the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM). The PSM certainly is controversial. It is also dangerous. The purported aim of the PSM is to encourage divestment from Israel. To this end, its conferences boast a cavalcade of anti-Israel speakers whose speeches often degenerate into anti-Semitism. At the 2004 conference at Duke University in North Carolina, for example, keynote speaker Mazin Qumsiyeh referred to Zionism as a "disease." Workshop leader Bob Brown deemed the Six-Day War "the Jew War of '67." Not to be outdone, Nasser Abufarha...

This week, Georgetown University began announcing the Fifth Annual Student Palestine Solidarity Conference on the University’s website using the same rhetoric that Duke University used in announcing a similar event almost two years ago. The Conference is being billed as a testimonial to the exercise of "freedom of speech" and the participants are telling everyone they are "peace activists" even though they refuse to condemn terrorism. And, in true form, Al-Awda, one of the main organizations of the ISM, immediately dispatched an open email to its membership. The following email was sent out as an “open letter” by Al Awda...

Georgetown U's Terror ConferenceBy Lee KaplanFrontPageMagazine.com | January 11, 2006 This week, Georgetown University began announcing the Fifth Annual Student Palestine Solidarity Conference on the University’s website using the same rhetoric that Duke University used in announcing a similar event almost two years ago. The Conference is being billed as a testimonial to the exercise of "freedom of speech" and the participants are tellng everyone they are "peace activists" even though they refuse to condemn terrorism. And, in true form, Al-Awda, one of the main organizations of the ISM, immediately dispatched an open email to its membership. The following email was sent out as an...

Last month Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talat made a serious investment in the education of American youth. He paid Harvard and Georgetown Universities $20 million each to fertilise their ivy curriculum with Islam. It was vital, he said, because "Bridging the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance.” Back at Ground Zero in 2001, Al-Waleed embedded himself with Rudi Giuliani’s entourage. And, as they salvaged 291 intact bodies and 19,500 body parts from the massive bloody wreckage, he handed over $10 million and released a statement. The statement did not refer to the fact that most...

Georgetown University was built with a Catholic and Jesuit identity. This bit of information is proudly displayed on the school’s website. But like Bethlehem in Israel, that identity is quickly being lost to a radical strain of Islam, as a counter-terror symposium has been abandoned and a pro-terror conference has been confirmed. Indeed, one of America’s most prestigious universities appears to be under siege. Fearing violent reprisal from militant Muslim members of their student body, the school’s conference center rejected an educational symposium being hosted by America’s Truth Forum (formerly the People’s Truth Forum), a non-partisan, fact-based organization whose sole...

Q: You just gave $20 million to Harvard and another $20 million to Georgetown to advance the study of Islam, and some are concerned that you are trying to increase the on-campus influence of the Saudi royal family, of which you are reportedly the single wealthiest member. I don't have control, and I don't want control. Period. They approached us with a proposal. Harvard, Georgetown, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and several of the Ivy Leagues. [...] Since you're said to be worth more than $20 billion, with major holdings in Four Seasons Hotels, Saks Fifth Avenue and Murdoch's...

Georgetown's Jihad By Lee KaplanFrontPageMagazine.com | December 29, 2005Never let it be said that the American college educational system ever missed an opportunity to promote the aims of terrorists and their allies when it came to money. Stop the ISM has received notification that the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM), the name the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) uses for its member groups in the United States, is going to have its fifth annual conference at a major American university-this time Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The following announcement was put out to ISM activists in the United States: Palestine Solidarity...

There's one good thing about the news that Alwaleed bin Talal, the richest Saudi prince in the world, just bought Harvard and Georgetown universities -- or, at least buried them up to their ivy in $40 million. It gives everybody reason to relive a McAuliffe moment. McAuliffe, of course, was Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, who, in response to a Nazi invitation to surrender during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, sent back a one-word reply: "NUTS." In kindred spirit, but in a very different war, Rudy Giuliani gave the United States a McAuliffe moment after he realized that Mr. Alwaleed's...

Waging jihad with $$$s By Stan Goodenough December 14th, 2005 Why would a Saudi Arabian prince give $40 million in grants to two prestigious American universities? And why choose Harvard as one of them? These conundrums had news anchors in the United States speculating wildly Wednesday morning. Fox News’ Alan Colmes suggested that Prince Ali Walid Bin-Talal – who the liberal co-host of the popular Hannity & Colmes show called “a friend of America” – had made the generous gesture in order to encourage the creation of an environment in which young Americans could learn more about the “true nature”...

Georgetown University, the Jesuit college in Washington DC, received a $20 million dollar donation for the school's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. From Wednesday's Arab News: Kingdom Holding Company Chairman Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal announced yesterday his donation of $20 million to Georgetown University to support and expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU). The Center, part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, is an international leader in inter-religious scholarship and research, in particular Islamic studies and Muslim-Christian relations. The center will be renamed The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. And just who...

$40M to Spread Islam in US Colleges Four years after September 11, the Saudi prince whose poisoned gift was turned down by Rudy Giuliani is handing over $40M to Harvard and Georgetown Universities. (Hat tip: LGF readers.) BOSTON - A Saudi prince believed to be the wealthiest businessman in the Muslim world has donated $40 million for Harvard and Georgetown to expand their Islamic studies programs, the schools announced Monday. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, who gave $20 million to each university, is a nephew of the late King Fahd and worth upward of $20 billion, according to Forbes...

A Saudi prince believed to be the wealthiest businessman in the Muslim world has donated $40 million for Harvard and Georgetown to expand their Islamic studies programs, the schools announced Monday. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, who gave $20 million to each university, is a nephew of the late King Fahd and worth upward of $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which ranked him fifth on its 2005 list of the world's billionaires. Harvard and Georgetown officials said they will use the gifts to add faculty and scholarships and expand their Islamic studies curricula. Governor Won't Block Williams' Execution Are...

Harvard University and Georgetown University each announced yesterday that they had received $20 million donations from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, a Saudi businessman and member of the Saudi royal family, to finance Islamic studies. Harvard said it would create a universitywide program on Islamic studies, recruit new faculty members in the field, provide more support for graduate students and convert rare Islamic textual sources into digital formats to make them widely available. "For a university with global aspirations, it is critical that Harvard have a strong program on Islam that is worldwide and interdisciplinary in scope," said...