Free Republic

Israel planned 1991 strike on NKorea-Syria ship: report Wed Jan 9, 2:47 AM ET Israeli agents prepared to strike a ship suspected of smuggling missiles from North Korea to Syria in 1991 but cancelled it at the 11th hour under US pressure, a Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday. Undercover agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency secretly attached a guidance system for an airstrike on a cargo vessel believed to be carrying 23 short-range Scud missiles to Syria, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The Yomiuri, reporting from Jerusalem, said it spoke to one of the agents involved in the operation, whose name was...

A former consultant to ABC's investigative unit admitted yesterday that he put his name on a purported interview with Barack Obama that he never conducted. Alexis Debat, a former French defense official who now works at the Nixon Center, published the interview in the French magazine Politique Internationale. He said he had hired a freelance journalist to conduct the interview, in which the Democratic presidential candidate supposedly said that Iraq was "already a defeat for America" that has "wasted thousands of lives." Debat said he had been unable to locate the intermediary, and the Obama campaign says no such interview...

Dunbar, PA - Blinded and disabled on the 54th day of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing parade that outdid anything this small, depressed Appalachian town had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put Dunbar on the map,” his grandfather said. That was then. Now Mr. Ross, 24, faces charges of attempted homicide, assault and arson in the burning of a family trailer in February. Nobody in the trailer was hurt, but Mr. Ross fought the assistant fire chief who reported to the scene, and later threatened a state trooper with his prosthetic leg, which was taken...

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling May 15, 2006 10:33 AM Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report: A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources. "It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation. ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA...

The truth is a little more complicated than mere plagiarism, and takes a while to explain. Carter not only appears to have copied maps from Ross but -- more importantly -- to have re-titled them to make them appear to be something they are not. Moreover, his maps omit the descriptive notes that Ross included on his maps, which would have contradicted the point Carter was trying to make. Finally, the point he was trying to make with the borrowed and altered maps is central to his entire book. So this will be a long post, but an important one.

Big ice shelf's disappearing act By Kim Griggs The drill rig is near New Zealand and US bases on Ross Island (Image: Cliff Atkins) Sediments extracted from the Antarctic seafloor show the world's largest ice shelf has disintegrated and reappeared many times in the past. Fluctuations in the Ross Ice Shelf are revealed by an early look at cores drilled from the seabed underneath the giant ice slab. The investigation is being carried out by scientists drilling near the US and New Zealand bases on Ross Island. Tim Naish, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences The long-term aim of the...

This thread will continue right up till the end of the night. Focus on Mass./New England and nationally, too. Governorships, Senate/House, ballot questions...who will control the Senate and House nationally? Key races... keep it here!

WRKO radio today fired loose-lipped talk jock John DePetro for calling Green Party gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a “fat lesbian” on his morning show yesterday. The station also fired DePetro’s board operator, Jimmy Kiesling. DePetro, hired by the Entercom-owned AM station in 2004, has retained an attorney. “I was stunned and very disappointed,” DePetro told the Herald after station brass showed him the door at a meeting this morning. “I have no doubt that terminating John’s employment was the right action to take,” WRKO program director Jason Wolfe said in a statement released today. “In the context of what he...

WRKO Radio talk show host John DePetro has been fired after he made a derogatory remark Thursday about the sexual orientation and the weight of Green-Rainbow party gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross. George Regan, a spokesman Entercom Communications, the owner of WRKO, said this morning that DePetro had been let go. A full statement from the company would be released shortly, Regan said. DePetro apologized on the air Thursday after making the remark about Ross, who describes herself on her campaign website as "a white lesbian living in Worcester" and life-long activist for gay/lesbian civil rights and other "progressive causes." DePetro...

WRKO talk jock John DePetro is back in the hot seat and fighting for his job after calling gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a “fat lesbian” on his radio show yesterday. Sources say Julie Kahn, vice president and New England market manager for Entercom, owner of WRKO-AM (680) and WEEI-AM (850), is “furious.” “This corporation has zero tolerance for this type of nonsense. We have a high standard,” said George Regan of Regan Communications, which represents WRKO. DePetro was pulled off the air today and has been ordered to a meeting at the station. The latest on-air insult comes nearly four...

2 years ago today: The Kerry NON-VICTORY party in Copley Square On today's show---THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2 Howie will be broadcasting LIVE today from The Rustic Kitchen at The Radisson 57 Hotel in Park Square Boston. Come on by!!!!!!!! 1st Hour Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey battled to pin down rival Deval Patrick on taxes, crime and immigration last night, demanding that he “tell the truth” as she saved her strongest debate performance for their final prime-time clash. Did you watch the festivities? Do you think she can still win? 2nd Hour President Bush has hit the campaign trail for the mid...

In London, sex scandals come along every other week. You name it, British parliamentarians do it: three-in-a-bed, auto-erotic asphyxiation, gay teen flagellation, getting your toes sucked while wearing the soccer kit of Chelsea Football Club. But at least at Westminster, sex scandals require actual sex. That the governing party of the world's only superpower could be felled by one creepy pervert's masturbatory e-mails and IMs is an event historians will marvel at. Granted that the Roman Empire in its death throes got hung up on gay sex, the American hyperpower seems set to be the first to collapse over gay...

As time passes, it is increasingly clear that the ABC News report which started the Foley firestorm is odorous—and I’m not talking Chanel. (1) It dealt with the emails which the FBI and many media organizations considered as innocuous as the Republican leadership did. Who circulated these reports is not yet clear.Foley’s spokesman said his opponent, Mahoney had been shopping the story to the media for some time....(much more)

Posted by Al Brown on October 4, 2006 - 15:19. From ABC News [emphasis added]: ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp. But blogger William Kerr of Passionate America says that he has identified the former page, that he is 21 now, and that he was 18 at the time the instant messages were exchanged.Kerr says that he discovered a...

While the quivering right demands Hastert’s resignation (wrongly) the real news is being under reported and missed. And that is that Brian Ross of ABC News now says he knew of the possible crimes against children as far back as August of last year and did nothing. Brian Ross of ABC News said he learned about the e-mail messages in August but was too busy with Hurricane Katrina and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue them immediately. That excuse is pure BS! First off, he had evidence of possible child abuse and that should have been reported...

Brian Ross Reports: Richard Esposito and Rhonda Schwartz contributed to this report. Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress. Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of...

Jul 23, 2005 Obituaries in the News-The Associated Press The Associated Press/ Long John Baldry VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Long John Baldry, the British blues legend who helped launch the careers of such rock greats as Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, died Thursday of a chest infection, according to his agent. He was 64. Baldry, nicknamed Long John because of his 6-foot-7 height, was one of the main forces in British blues, rock and pop music in the 1960s. He first hit the top of the U.K. singles charts in 1967 with "Let the Heartaches Begin." One of...

(Somers-AP, May 12, 2005 Update 11:28 PM ) _ A serial killer who struggled to hasten his own death -- and was forced to prove he wasn't out of his mind -- awaited lethal injection early Friday in New England's first execution in 45 years. Michael Ross, 45, was scheduled to be put to death at 2:01 a.m. after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to save his life. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected two last-minute appeals from Ross' relatives late Thursday afternoon, and the U.S. Supreme...

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) May 11,2005 A lawsuit aimed at blocking the Friday morning execution of serial killer Michael Ross has been filed in Bridgeport federal court. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an inmate in the state prison in Newtown, claims Ross' voluntary execution will set off suicided among other prison inmates. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Antonio Ponvert (PAHN'-vehr), claims Ross' execution is like to cause what is known as "suicide contagion" among suicide prone state prison inmates. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a state prison inmate, Duane Ziemba, who is imprisoned at the Garner Correctional center....

  Here Comes the Judge, There Goes the LawFebruary 3, 2005 I have a way to keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land and still bring an end to abortion.  Just impose the same nonsensical logic to the execution of fetuses that the liberals impose on convicted murderers.  In the end, it “would cost more to kill the baby than sentencing him to a life on Earth”.  Or, as Chief U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny would say, “I don’t want to be responsible anymore”.  And thus spoke the liberal.   Chatigny is the Federal Judge who just gave a...