Free Republic

AMMAN, Jordan -- Amer Ahmed recalled the television pictures of Iraqi fighters resisting U.S. soldiers in the sleepy port of Umm Qasr, unlikely Arab heroes pinning down the invaders as soon as their boots stepped onto Iraqi sand. Then only days later, Ahmed watched from his home in Amman as Baghdad abruptly fell. American troops were practically joyriding through the storied Arab capital, with no one to challenge them. The dream of Arab champions putting up a fight against the superpower was shattered. "In Baghdad, the Iraqis had weapons. They had an army. If you fought only with your hands,...

March 31, 2003 — Meigs Field is now out of service after the city cut into its runway. According to the city and the FAA, Mayor Daley has the authority to close Meigs, but many want to know why he chose to do it now-and in the middle of the night. Very few people knew what was about to happen when the heavy equipment rolled into Meigs Field Sunday night at about 11:30. The FAA wasn't even informed until 2 a.m. Monday, well after the hired crews had started carving four X's into Meigs runway. "I still can't believe it...

<p>With the capture of top al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (known as "KSM"), getting him to disgorge the contents of his brain quickly and truthfully is critically necessary before his network has a chance to vanish undercover.</p> <p>What, then, would the most efficient and effective form of interrogation be? In 1995, the Philippine State Police captured an al Qaeda agent. They knew he was planning some terrorist act, but didn't know what. So they tortured him — the old-fashioned way, right out of the movies with putting out cigarettes on his testicles, breaking his ribs, the whole brutal nine yards. It took two weeks and finally he broke, revealing a plot to hijack 11 airliners. By exposing and unraveling the plot, the torture saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives, so it was clearly justified.</p>