Free Republic

The military policeman who blew the whistle on fellow soldiers who were photographed abusing Iraqi detainees has an independent streak and knew "right from wrong," say people who know him. Spc. Joe Darby was commended in a military report for promptly alerting superiors after discovering photographs of fellow 372nd Military Police Company personnel taking part in abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Darby, 24, who is still on duty overseas, "didn't worry about what people thought," said Robert Ewing, Darby's history teacher and football coach at North Star High in Jennings, Pa. "He wasn't one that went...

CUMBERLAND, Md., May 7 — Ivan Frederick was distraught. His son, an Army reservist turned prison guard in Iraq, was under investigation earlier this year for mistreating prisoners, and photographs of the abuse were beginning to circulate among soldiers and military investigators. So the father went to his brother-in-law, William Lawson, who was afraid that reservists like his nephew would end up taking the fall for what he considered command lapses, Mr. Lawson recounted in an interview on Friday. He knew whom to turn to: David Hackworth, a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on...

As Ani, 47, repeated his story, he was interrupted by Jabber al-Okaili, a member of one of the human rights groups that organized the gathering. "He's lying," al-Okaili shouted. "He's a liar!" Al-Ani was rushed to an office, where al-Okaili and others unwound the bandage on his left arm and found the elbow unscarred and healthy. They cut off half of the cast on his forearm, even as al-Ani insisted, "By God, it's true, everything I say is true." "All his papers were forged," al-Okaili, of the Free Iraq Institute, said after al-Ani left the building. "Who knows why he...

DUBAI, May 6 (Reuters) - Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired on Thursday what it said was a videotape showing an American engineer working for the Pentagon held hostage in Iraq. The network said it had received the tape from a group calling itself The Islamic Rage Squadrons which said it had kidnapped the man on May 3. He was shown blindfolded with a chequered Arab head scarf and wearing an olive green jacket.

Arabiya TV Airs Videotape of 'American Hostage' Thu May 6, 2004 08:51 AM ET DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired on Thursday what it said was a videotape showing an American engineer working for the Pentagon held hostage in Iraq. The network said it had received the tape from a group calling itself The Islamic Rage Squadrons which said it had kidnapped the man on May 3. He was shown blindfolded with a checkered Arab scarf and wearing a jacket. "My name is Aban Elias from Denver, Colorado," an Arabiya transcript quoted the man as saying. "I am...

We are in danger of losing something much more important than just the war in Iraq. We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world. I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today. I was just in Japan, and even young Japanese dislike us. It's no wonder that so many Americans are obsessed with the finale of the sitcom Friends right now. They're the only friends we have, and even they're leaving. This administration needs to undertake...

DISNEY FORBIDS DISTRIBUTION OF MICHAEL MOORE FILM THAT CRITICIZES BUSH Headline only on board now; story just breaking -- Details to follow.

By JIM RUTENBERG and LAURA M. HOLSON Published: May 6, 2004 ASHINGTON, May 5 — Michael Moore took to television on Wednesday to denounce the Walt Disney Company's refusal to allow its Miramax division to distribute his new documentary criticizing President Bush, stoking a controversy that Hollywood executives expect to lure new distribution partners to the project and, eventually, audiences. As Mr. Moore sat for interviews with ABC News, CNN, "Entertainment Tonight" and elsewhere to discuss his film, "Fahrenheit 911," some Democrats in Washington said Disney was quashing dissent. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey called for hearings into...

"President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney answered questions before the 9/11 commission ... They did not testify under oath, there was no videotape, no audiotape, not even a stenographer writing down the questions or the answers; there's no record of any kind; kind of like President Bush's National Guard service." —Jay Leno "President Bush and Vice President Cheney went before the commission investigating what exactly happened on 9/11. The President is weird...afterwards, he told reporters he 'enjoyed' it. What? You can say many things, but you can't 'enjoy' it. We kicked back, talked about 9/11, there were cookies —...

As an avid supporter of the President's Iraq policies, the last few days have been difficult for me. The number of casualties seemed to reach a "critical mass" for me. I found myself simply not caring to sacrifice anymore of our brave soldiers for Iraqi independence and democracy. Screw 'em. I was not sure why I began to feel this way. As I said I am an avid supporter of the plan to bring an oasis of freedom and liberty to the 12th century toilet that is the middle east. It seemed to me that if we are to end...

ROME, April 15 (Reuters) - An Italian hostage killed in Iraq was hailed on Thursday as a hero who in his last moments told his kidnappers defiantly: "I'm going to show you how an Italian dies." Fabrizio Quattrocchi, one of four Italian security guards abducted earlier this week, was shot dead on Wednesday after Italy refused to bow to the kidnappers' demands and withdraw some 3,000 troops stationed in Iraq. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said a video recording of the killing showed that Quattrocchi was hooded when his kidnappers put a gun to his head. "When the murderers were...

Friends, I have never seen a head so far up a Presidential ass (pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last night at the "news conference" given by George W. Bush. He's still talking about finding "weapons of mass destruction" -- this time on Saddam's "turkey farm." Turkey indeed. Clearly the White House believes there are enough idiots in the 17 swing states who will buy this. I think they are in for a rude awakening. I've been holed up for weeks in the editing room finishing my film ("Fahrenheit 911"). That's why you haven't heard from me lately....

Michael Gove says that the Daily Mail has been taken over by Tory appeasers who detest Americans, and the fight for Western civilisation in the Middle East Could the Iraq war really have united forces that have been hereditary foes? Are clerical reactionaries now happily joining arms with secular militants to oppose a common enemy? Well, I don’t know if it’s happening in Baghdad, but it’s already occurred in London. As the war on terror has progressed, we’ve seen a remarkable new coalition form. The nation’s most powerful reactionary force, the Daily Mail, has become the objective ally of the...

"The Republicans have allowed a communist dictatorship to flourish eight jet minutes from our borders! We must support anti-Castro fighters. So far these freedom fighters have received no help from our government." -- Democratic presidential candidate, Oct. 1960 "George Bush and the Republicans in Washington have run the most inept foreign policy in the modern history of this country! It has been a failure!" -- Democratic presidential Candidate, April 2004. No, friends, it didn't start with this campaign. Indeed, Kerry apes his idol (JFK) faithfully. Problem was, during the '60 presidential campaign Kennedy left out the sly smile, the shifty...

(CNSNews.com) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry used the president's prime-time press conference Tuesday as another opportunity to attack President Bush on his handling of the war in Iraq. "Tonight, the President had the opportunity to tell the American people what steps he was going to take to stabilize the situation in Iraq," Kerry said in a statement. "Unfortunately, he offered no specific plan whatsoever. Rather, the President made it clear that he intends to stubbornly cling to the same policy that has led to a greater risk to American troops and a steadily higher cost to the American taxpayer."...

Scott Ritter, formerly the top United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, has long argued that claims that Saddam Hussein possessed biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes were massively exaggerated. His public campaign against the US-led invasion of Iraq made him a hated figure of the American right, which still demonises him as an apologist for the ousted Baghdad regime. Now, at the very moment when the absence of weapons of mass destruction in post-Saddam Iraq should make Mr Ritter feel vindicated, he faces new questions about his relationship with Baghdad after he quit his UN job in 1998. Mr Ritter...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US support for the conflict in Iraq is eroding, according to the latest CNN/Time survey, which found, amid a new Iraqi insurgency against US troops, that 57 percent of Americans think US military goals will fail unless a tougher stance is taken. Approval of US President George W. Bush and his administration's handling of Iraq was down to 44 percent of Americans, according to the poll, new elements of which were released Sunday, down from 51 percent surveyed March 26-28. Meanwhile, Bush's overall approval rating had sunk to a record low of 49 percent since CNN/Time started...

What Would Kerry Do As President? Senator Doesn't Always AnswerBy Susan JonesCNSNews.com Morning EditorApril 08, 2004 (CNSNews.com) - For the second time in two days, Sen. John F. Kerry on Wednesday seemed unable to answer a question about what he would do if he were president. Kerry this week has blasted the Bush administration for its "failures" in Iraq. On Wednesday, in an interview with American Urban Radio Networks, Kerry called the administration's actions in Iraq "one of the greatest failures of diplomacy and failures of judgment that I have seen in all the time that I've been in public...

President Bush is facing increasing dissent among leading conservative politicians and pundits in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq. The war has become the long slog that some Republicans feared. Since Sunday, 32 Americans have been killed in fighting across Iraq. American body bags are on the front page of major U.S. newspapers. The Washington Post and The New York Times brandished images of charred U.S. civilian remains last week. The networks are leading their nightly news broadcasts with stories of dead Americans. "If we have two or three more weeks of this you are going to start...

April 7, 2004, 12:08PM Soldier from Houston dies in Iraq two weeks into duty 21-year-old killed while fighting in Fallujah By LUCAS WALL Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A 21-year-old Houston man stationed in Iraq less than two weeks died Friday during fighting with insurgents in Fallujah, his family said Saturday. U.S. Marine Pfc. Leroy Sandoval Jr. died of a gunshot wound while manning a machine gun for his unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He's the 10th soldier from the Houston metropolitan area to die while on duty in Iraq, and the second Texan killed there in as many days....