Free Republic

  Reports: WaPo's Jason Rezaian convicted in Iran http://t.co/8H5bVnPY5K | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/D1MH9fICXI   — POLITICO (@politico) October 12, 2015 For people who might not have followed the story as it unfolded there’s an easier explanation for why Iran is holding Jason Rezaian.   The underpinning is Iran knowing the U.S. State Department and CNN collaborate to use media as a tool to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. In December 2014 CNN ran and episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown filmed in Iran. It seemed innocuous at the time, yet as with all things Turner Broadcasting, it also seemed to be another set...

shots fired officer down! KSP officer was just shot on I24 2 gunshots wounds (officer is in full arrest cpr in being done) Foot pursuit now in the woods with the shooter, In Lyon Co they are shutting the interstate down at the 45 mile marker

Three young Jews wearing skullcaps were attacked Saturday night in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, by a dozen individuals who beat them with hammers and iron bars, "extremely serious" acts denounced by the Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls. A youth suffered an open wound to the skull and a young girl was hit in the neck, according to the Ministry of Interior. Briefly hospitalized, they were all released from the hospital Saturday night, after five days of hospitalization, the police told AFP. Manuel Valls described the anti-Semitic attack as "extremely serious" and reiterated his "determination to fight against any...

Mohammed Merah belonged to extreme Salafi group that works to topple French democracy • Group’s website shut down with homepage reading: “Due to great pressures brought upon us, we have dismantled the Forsane al-Izza movement.” Mohammed Merah, the confessed murderer of three children and a rabbi at a Toulouse Jewish school this week, was not a lone wolf, and on Wednesday the testimonies poured in about his involvement with a Salafi (extreme strand of Sunni Islam) group named Forsane al-Izza (FA). The “Knights of Pride”- as the group’s name means in English - was founded in France about a year...

Gay rights activists staging a mass "kiss-in" to protest homophobia faced off with Roman Catholic protesters late Tuesday outside Lyon cathedral in southeastern France. About 200 gay campaigners gathered outside the cathedral were heckled by dozens of counter protesters, including a group of skinheads wearing dark blue uniforms and gloves who gave a Nazi salute. Police and paramilitary gendarmes kept the two groups apart, as they shouted slogans at each other in a face off that lasted more than two hours. An hour into the demonstration, around 10 gay couples staged their "kiss-in" to applause from their supporters and heckling...

The biannual Bocuse d'Or culinary competition in Lyon, France, ended on a familiar note Wednesday: A chef from Norway won again. It was a disappointment for U.S. contestant Timothy Hollingsworth, who placed sixth.

A depot in France from which a large quantity of powerful explosive went missing was poorly guarded, the regional head of security has said. The storage of 28kg (61lb) of Semtex at the site near Lyon was "not usual and certainly not authorised", Xavier de Fuerst also told the AFP news agency. A search by anti-terrorist officers is under way, and the manager of the site has been suspended pending an inquiry. Semtex is favoured by terrorists as it is odourless and difficult to detect.

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28 kilograms of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. Semtex is a powerful, odourless explosive which is difficult to detect and often used by terrorist groups. The theft was from a depot in a disused 19th century fort at Corbas in the southern suburbs of Lyon. The depot is used for storing explosives by a civil defence unit with the job of blowing up bombs and ammunition left over from the two world wars. Twenty-eight kilograms of Semtex was found to be missing in a routine...

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28kg (61lb) of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. France's interior ministry confirmed an investigation was underway, saying the manager of the site had been suspended. Semtex is a powerful explosive favoured by terrorist groups as it is odourless and difficult to detect. Police said detonators were also missing and that they are treating the theft "very seriously". The depot, in a disused 19th century fort at Corbas, is used for storing explosives by a civil defence unit charged with the job of blowing up bombs...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Explosives used to destroy land mines have disappeared from a site near Lyon, France, the French Interior Ministry said Friday. About 62 pounds (28 kilograms) of explosives were stolen from a depot at the civil security site at Fort de Corbas, the ministry said in a written statement, because of an apparent breach in the site's protection. Michele Alliot-Marie, France's minister of the interior, immediately suspended the head of the security center and started an investigation. French anti-terrorism authorities and the Lyon police also are participating in the investigation, the statement

LYON (AFP) - La disparition de 28 kilos d'un puissant explosif, vraisemblablement du Semtex, a été constatée dans un centre de déminage de la banlieue de Lyon, un vol que le ministre de l'Intérieur, Michèle Alliot-Marie, a imputé à des "défaillances dans la sécurisation du site". LYON (AFP) - the disappearance of 28 kilos a powerful explosive, probably Semtex, was noted in a center of mine clearance of the suburbs of Lyon, a flight that the Michele Al, Minister of Interior Department, charged to failures in the security of the site.

Plans to build Lyon in Dubai, bistros and all By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 7:09pm GMT 04/01/2008 A businessman in the desert Arab emirate of Dubai has launched plans to faithfully reconstruct the French city of Lyon, right down to its cafes, cinemas and schools, officials from the southwestern city have announced. A French cafe and a view of Dubai The project, due to be completed in 2012, is being driven by businessman Saeed Al Gandhi who fell in love with France’s third biggest city after a visit to draw up plans for a French-language university in Dubai...

Champions Lyon returned to winning ways with a comfortable 3-1 victory at local rivals St Etienne in a match marred by crowd trouble on Saturday. The runaway league leaders stormed into a 3-0 lead by the 47th minute but moments later the game had to be stopped after fans threw smoke bombs onto the pitch. Police responded by firing tear-gas into the crowd to quell the trouble. The game was held up for 20 minutes as players were sent back to the changing rooms before emerging to resume the game. That was followed later in the day by fights between...

PARIS, Sept 7, 2006 (AFP) - A controversial imam with a conviction for supporting terrorism was deported by France to Algeria Thursday, the interior ministry said. Chelali Benchellali, 61, a former preacher at a mosque in the suburbs of Lyon, was put on board a flight to Algiers from Orly airport in Paris. Benchellali was given a six-month jail term in June for his role in an underground network that was found guilty of plotting to bomb targets in Paris. He was not imprisoned as he had already served the time in pre-trial detention. Two of Benchellali's sons, Menad and...

Police in the French city of Lyon have fired tear gas to break up groups of youths who hurled stones and bins hours before a curfew was due to begin. Police on the city's famous Place Bellecour square made two arrests in what state news agency AFP says is the first rioting in a major city centre. Lyon has imposed a curfew for the first time in two weeks of nationwide unrest. Thousands of police are patrolling Paris to enforce a ban on all public meetings likely to provoke rioting. The trouble in Lyon began at about 1700 (1600 GMT)...

Like the exploits of 21st-century special operators – including U.S. Navy SEALs, Army Delta soldiers, Force Recon Marines, Air Force commandos, and CIA paramilitary operatives – stories of men like Ortiz are rarely gleaned from books, newspapers, and magazines. Their incredibly dangerous work often goes unseen and is thankless.

Today's edition of the Review Journal says "Poll says Bush has Big Lead". This is the Mason Dickson poll from yesterday. That's great to read but long ago, I promised myself that I will get involved in the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaign here in Las Vegas. I have memories seared in my brain from Election 2000, when I lived in Boca Raton, Florida - Ground Zero. I've told countless people since then how I observed the evil, criminal corrupt Democrat Party attempt a coup during those 36 days. They are trying the same thing again here in Nevada....

An Islamic terrorist cell was poised to launch biological or chemical attacks in France and possibly Britain last year, say French police. They were ready to use the deadly toxins ricin and botulism. French magistrates were expected last night to launch an official investigation into six suspects, five of whom were arrested last week in the Lyon area. Information from the group confirmed that an attack was "on the verge of being launched" last year. Investigators are examining if there is a link between the findings and a small amount of ricin seized in Britain last January, he said. France's...

Six suspected Islamic extremists including the imam of a Lyon area mosque were due to appear before anti-terrorist judges here amid allegations they knew about plans for a chemical attack in France in 2002. Chellali Benchellali, an imam in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, his wife Hafsa, his son Hafed and two others were detained last week in a series of raids near the eastern city. The sixth suspect was detained southeast of Paris. They were taken into custody as part of a 2002 probe ordered by Paris anti-terrorist judges into a so-called "Chechen network" of Islamic radicals with links...