Free Republic

Energy: With the price of oil spiking above $127 a barrel, the search for scapegoats has begun. Some point to the Saudis, OPEC's No. 1 producer. Others blame the oil companies. We have a better candidate: Congress.As President Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia to ask the House of Saud to open the oil spigots a bit wider, Congress showed once again how clueless it is when it comes to energy policy. Underscoring its failure to grasp the nature of our current problems, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday refused to end its moratorium on oil shale development in Colorado. "If...

US military finds sailor in slain taxi driver's case: report Weekend March 22, 2008 The US military Saturday took into custody a deserter in Japan wanted for questioning over the killing of a taxi driver, a report said.The US military, which has been looking for the sailor since early this month, informed Japan early Saturday that he was found in the military hub of Yokosuka near Tokyo, Kyodo News said, quoting police sources. The report said the sailor's credit card was found Wednesday in a parked taxi in which the 61-year-old driver was stabbed to death with a kitchen...

In a move that will allow movie studios to inject racy jokes into the trailers they use to promote their more adult-oriented films, the nation's largest theater chain has decided to permit restricted, "red band" trailers in its multiplexes. The move by Regal Entertainment Group, which operates 6,388 screens in 39 states and the District of Columbia, likely will lead to similar decisions at a number of the nation's other major chains. As last week's ShoWest convention of movie theater owners in Las Vegas drew to a close, the Knoxville, Tenn.-based circuit began notifying the studios of its decision. The...

A 7-year-old girl said she had been raped and repeatedly molested over the course of a year. Police in Montgomery County, acting on information from a relative, soon arrested a Liberian immigrant living in Gaithersburg. They marshaled witnesses and DNA evidence to prepare for trial. What was missing -- for much of the nearly three years that followed -- was an interpreter fluent in the suspect's native language. A judge recently dropped the charges, not because she found that Mahamu Kanneh had been wrongly accused but because repeated delays in the case had, in her view, violated his right to...

Howard Dean: Democrats Should Reach Out To Young Evangelicals May 11, 2007 6:28 a.m. EST Christopher Rizo - AHN Staff Writer San Francisco, CA (AHN) - Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said Thursday that his party should welcome into the political fold young evangelical Christian voters who feel disenfranchised from the Grand Ole Party. "We ought to reach out to those folks ... and not be afraid,'' Dean told an audience of about 125 at a DNC fundraiser Wednesday night, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. Dean told the group gathered at the swank Palace Hotel that in the...

ISTANBUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Turkish police have detained 46 people on suspicion of links to al Qaeda, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Monday. It said 25 people had been held in the central Turkish province of Konya. A further 21 people had been taken into custody in raids in the western provinces of Istanbul, Izmir and Kocaeli, and in the southeastern province of Mardin. No further details were immediately available. Police in secular Turkey, which has a mainly Muslim population, have carried out a series of operations against suspected Islamic guerrillas since November 2003 suicide bombings by...

Roughing The Spectator By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist | January 19, 2007 Ends up, the most serious injury in the Patriots phenomenal playoff run hasn't been sustained by a player, but by a boy in the stands.

RUSH: You've got to hear this next ad. It's an ad that Democrats are running against Jim Talent in Missouri. They are using children to make you think that Jim Talent wants people to die. BOY: Next summer, I'm going on a camping trip with my friends. On my way home, I'll be in a car accident and I'll be paralyzed for the rest of my life. WOMAN: In 20 years I'll have Alzheimer's. I won't recognize my husband or my kids. LITTLE GIRL: This week my mommy and daddy are going to find out that I have diabetes. WOMAN:...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Nov 4, 2006 (AP)— Since going to Canada to avoid another deployment to Iraq, Corey Glass has considered returning to the United States. But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all. "They're not going to win the hearts and minds like that," said Glass, 24, who signed on with the Indiana National Guard in 2002. Kyle Snyder, a one-time combat engineer who joined the military in 2003, disappeared Wednesday, a day after surrendering at Fort...

The father of a U.S. Senate candidate on Tuesday tried to dissuade a Tennessee news station from filming a news conference critical of his son, according to the pro-life event's organizers. Brian Johnston, an organizer with Tennessee Right to Life, called a news conference outside the Memphis campaign offices for U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat running for U.S. Senate. Johnston told Cybercast News Service he called the conference to expose Ford's real position on abortion. During the campaign Ford has portrayed himself as moderate on abortion and other issues. But before the planned new conference began, Ford's father,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2006 – Iraqi police and coalition forces captured two insurgents Oct. 9 in Samarra, Iraq, and Iraqi police shut down an insurgent financial operation Oct. 9 in Tikrit, military officials in Iraq reported. Iraqi police and coalition forces conducting a joint patrol captured two suspected insurgents who were attempting to enter Samarra by vehicle through a gap in the city’s surrounding berm. A search of the suspects’ vehicle revealed a sniper rifle. The individuals were detained for questioning. The combined patrol also apprehended an individual after receiving small-arms and indirect fire at a checkpoint. After determining the...

Task Force Grizzly soldiers prepare for a night operation in Pashmul, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, in mid September. Operation Medusa, which lasted approximately 20 days, was a successfully operations that effectively pushed enemy insurgents from this region of the country. Army photo by Sgt. Mayra Kennedy Task Force Grizzly Soldiers Eliminate Insurgents Operation Medusa which lasted approximately 20 days, was a successful operation that effectively pushed enemy insurgents from this region of Afghanistan. By U.S. Army Sgt. Mayra Kennedy 345th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment PANJWAYI, Afghanistan, Oct. 10, 2006 -- A small number of soldiers from the 207th Infantry Brigade...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2006 – Iraqi soldiers, with coalition assistance, captured suspected terrorists in two separate operations near Baghdad yesterday. Iraqi security forces captured one individual believed to belong to a kidnapping and murder cell in the Jabbur area, south of Baghdad. Iraqi forces, with coalition advisors, quickly secured the objective area and entered multiple buildings looking for members of a kidnapping and murder cell allegedly responsible for numerous violent crimes against Iraqi civilians. The targeted individuals had outstanding Ministry of Interior arrest warrants. Iraqi forces detained one individual and departed the area. During their return to base, the Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2006 – An Iraqi police chief survived an insurgent ambush Oct. 3, urging his troops to continue the mission, and Iraqi and U.S. soldiers captured three high-value terrorists and 25 others in Baghdad Oct. 3, military officials in Iraq reported today. The Iraqi police chief was wounded when his patrol was ambushed while in pursuit of suspected insurgents in the city of Baghdadi, Iraq. Col. Shaban al Obeidi was evacuated to a nearby U.S. military medical facility by helicopter for treatment and was reported in good condition. One policeman was killed in the attack. When asked if...

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces captured and detained the driver of Abu al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, during a raid Sept. 28 in here. In other developments, the Ministry of Interior issued a no-notice recall of an Iraqi police brigade, which will be pulled out of service and given corrective retraining. “Based on information from a recently detained al-Qaida in Iraq member, coalition forces on September 28th detained a former driver and personal assistant of Abu al-Masri along with 31 others during a series of raids that were conducted in the Baghdad area specifically targeting al-Qaida in Iraq targets,”...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2006 – Terrorists are destined to lose if the U.S. keeps its nerve and refuses to abandon its overseas commitments, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said today at Fort Hood, Texas. “The world can have confidence in the resolve of the United States,” he said. “We will stand by our friends; we will help Iraqis build a nation that is free, secure and able to defend itself. We will confront our enemies on this and every other front in the war on terror. With good allies at our side, we will prevail.” Cheney said the terrorists were...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2006 – Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, prevented a large-scale sectarian attack in Iraq’s Obiedi region, south of Baghdad Sept. 30 after receiving reports that local residents had been driven out of their homes. Soldiers from 2nd Brigade linked up with soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, and conducted a cordon-and-search operation in the eastern section of the Obiedi region. Eight suspects were detained for questioning. In a separate incident, soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2006 – Iraqi army and coalition forces detained two suspected insurgents and captured a sizable cache Sept. 29 in a combined operation in Khan Bani Saad, Iraq, south of Baqubah, military officials reported. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, and 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, made the find as part of ongoing operations in the town and surrounding villages. The cache consisted of a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, four RPG rounds, one sniper rifle, three hand grenades, seven AK-47 assault rifles, several rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition and...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2006 – Iraqi soldiers today captured a person suspected of complicity in recent murders and kidnappings during a raid in northeastern Baghdad, while another Iraqi operation conducted yesterday near Mahmudiyah netted two suspected terrorists, according to Multinational Corps Iraq news releases. The person caught in today’s Iraqi military operation is believed to be involved with illegal militias and improvised explosive bomb attacks against civilians, officials said. The raid was conducted in conjunction with Operation Together Forward, officials said, with the goal of catching criminals inciting sectarian violence, denying them safe havens and providing for a safe and...

BAGHDAD — Coalition Forces thwarted a potentially deadly attack on the International Zone this week, and officials responded to news reports citing unnamed senior military members as being critical of the Iraqi government. Coalition forces detained an individual suspected of planning a multi-vehicle suicide operation inside Baghdad’s International Zone. They arrested the suspect at the residence of Dr. Adnan al Dulaymi in Baghdad Sept. 29. Dulaymi is the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni parliamentary bloc. Credible intelligence indicates the individual, a member of Dulaymi’s personal security detachment, and seven members of the detained individual’s cell were...