Free Republic

January 25, 2010 Nimble Agencies Sneak News Out of North Korea By CHOE SANG-HUN SEOUL — For a journalist who helped break one of the biggest stories out of North Korea in the past year, Mun Seong-hwi keeps an extremely low profile. The name he offers is an alias. He does not reveal what he did in North Korea before his defection in 2006, aside from mention of a “desk job,” in order to protect relatives left behind. He also maintains a wall of secrecy around his three “underground stringers” in North Korea, who he says do not know he...

In an article for the Heritage Foundation entitled “Congress’s Secret Plan to pass Obamacare” authored by Brian Darling layout a four step plan for Obamacare to hitch a ride on an existing piece of Legislation which has originated in the House using a rare parliamentary procedure. Steps one and Two have been completed.

Premiums are key issue for health care negotiatorsPublished: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 4:12 AM CST WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama began work in earnest Tuesday on difficult issues still standing in the way of their national health care overhaul after months of tortuous debate. Topping the list: How to help Americans pay for insurance premiums. Republicans weren't invited, and they complained that the Democrats intended to deliberate behind closed doors - though lawmakers often do so in the final stages of such complex legislation. Separately, the head of C-SPAN, the nonpartisan public affairs network, called for...

Some 65 years ago, as World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, the American people faced an unprecedented constitutional crisis of which they were completely unaware — and which has remained a secret ever since. It has long been known that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the last year of his life, was gravely ill with serious cardiac problems: He'd been diagnosed with acute heart failure in March 1944 and suffered from astronomically high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. But what the public did not know was that four years earlier, while still in the second of his four...

Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on...

The existence of a new secret plane photographed this week has been confirmed by the United States Air Force. The secret aircraft now has an official denomination: The RQ-170 Sentinel, a flying wing developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. The RQ-170 is a stealthy unmanned aircraft designed to "provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces." It's flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, under the Air Combat Command's 432d Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. The aircraft has a 65-foot wingspan, with a fat body and a blended wing design. It's...

Remember the secret plane spotted in Kandahar? The one that looked like a Nazi stealth plane? Well, it's been spotted again, but this time the picture is crystal clear, and it doesn't look like anything in the US arsenal. There's a possibility that it may have a canopy above the nose, which means it could be a very small manned plane instead of a UAV. On the other side, it could just be the air intake. Its buttocks look like those of the P175 Polecat, a design by Skunk Works—Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs. Whatever it is, I want...

Dsvid Littman, 75, was awarded the Order of "Hero of Silence" last Summer 2009 by the Israeli Mossad for having been an undercover volunteer helping 500 children leave Morocco clandestinely in 1963. The Order of "Hero of Silence" is a very rare award. Only nine people have received it, seven whose identities remain classified. "drzz.info" obtained exclusive photographs of this private event taking place at the heart of Israel's intelligence community and featuring Ephraim Halevy, the Mossad's former director general, and the current Mossad's deputy director whose face has been "blacked" for confidentiality restrictions.

Secretive front group battles health billAmericans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare is trying to shape opinion updated 1:34 p.m. ET, Sun., Nov . 15, 2009 WASHINGTON - One operative tried to enlist trade groups in Maine to oppose government-run health coverage. Another helped a member of a Las Vegas conservative group appear on local talk radio to criticize the proposal. A third persuaded a Louisiana activist to post an opinion piece on a conservative blog. These below-the-radar activities were the handiwork of a law firm in Charlotte, N.C., that operates a secretive group called Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare....

In his new suburban American home, Shaker Yakub, a Yemeni Jew, folded a large scarf in half, wrapped it around his head and tucked in his spiraling side curls. "This is how I passed for a Muslim," said the 59-year-old father of seven, improvising a turban that hid his black skullcap. The ploy enabled Mr. Yakub and half a dozen members of his family to slip undetected out of their native town of Raida, Yemen, and travel to the capital 50 miles to the south. There, they met U.S. State Department officials conducting a clandestine operation to bring some of...

Baucus Supports Reid's MoveOctober 26, 2009 In announcing a health care bill with a public option, it sounds like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has already lined up the support of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Said Baucus: "It is time to make our system work better for patients and providers, for small business owners and for our economy. It is time for health care reform. For more than a year, we've been working to meet the goals of reducing the growth of health care costs, improving quality and efficiency and expanding coverage. There are a tremendous number...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Friday jailed a Serbian national for eight years for attempting to pass secrets about Russian missile and other defense projects to a Pentagon intermediary, Interfax news agency reported on Friday. Aleksandar Georgijevic took his orders from a U.S. citizen who worked for a firm acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, Interfax reported. In 1998, Georgijevic attempted to collect information on a number of Russian military projects, including the Iskander tactical missiles and the R-500, a supersonic cruise missile. But only information on the "Arena" tank protection system was passed on...

Former Secret Service agent opens window into private lives of presidents October 14th, 2009 Jamie Weinstein In his In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents they Protect, journalist Ronald Kessler gives us a peek inside the intimate lives of our presidents. Through interviews with over 100 secret service agents from the past and present—dating all the way back to John F. Kennedy—Kessler paints a picture of what our presidents are like when no one is looking. They're always watching. We learn from the agents Kessler interviews that John F....

RABAT (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will discuss domestic policy on Tuesday in what he termed a "secret" speech to high-ranking supporters that will not be broadcast. Gaddafi has been uncharacteristically quiet on domestic issues in recent months and Tuesday's speech will be the first time he has discussed internal policy since February. "We will meet tomorrow and the talk and the speech will be secret," he told thousands of supporters, including government officials, military and policy commanders, gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of his Free Unionists Movement on Monday. "Our meeting tomorrow will focus on our own...

Stores, hospitals, entertainment venues, and other places where the public are together in large numbers, use secret codes to pass information between store employees. These are meant to be a secret as they don’t want to alarm the non-staff members or alert someone (like a thief) to the fact that they have been noticed. Many stores have their own codes – for example WalMart, but there are a number that are nearly universal in application. This is a list of ten secret codes that may prove useful to you in future, or at least dispel any curiosity you may have...

In an exclusive interview with TIME, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says America should back off from allegations about Iran's nuclear program...video

SAN FRANCISCO -- After years of wrangling over legal procedures, the lawyer for a defunct Islamic charity laid out his case Wednesday that former President George W. Bush's secret wiretapping program was illegal - an argument that an Obama administration attorney refused to discuss. "May the president of the United States break the law in the name of national security? ... We're asking this court to say, 'no,' " Jon Eisenberg, lawyer for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, told a federal judge in San Francisco. Neither the president's constitutional powers as commander in chief nor Congress' authorization to use military force...

London - Researchers found that women will typically spill the beans to someone else in 47 hours and 15 minutes. A study of 3 000 women aged between 18 and 65 also found that four in ten were unable to keep a secret, no matter how personal or confidential the news was. Michael Cox, UK Director of Wines of Chile which commissioned the research said: "It's official - women can't keep secrets." No matter how precious the piece of information, it's often out in the public domain within 48 hours. The study found that the average woman hears three pieces...

Rush just said he is heading to Washington, DC on a "super-sectret" mission this weekend, having nothing to do with the Jindal conservative conference. Mmmmm, I wonder what it could be? Any ideas, FReepers??

(IsraelNN.com) A secret IDF Intelligence (AMAN) assessment warned as early as 1993 that the Oslo Accords would likely end with The Rabin government 'completely ignored' IDF assessments. rocket attacks on Ashkelon, according to former AMAN Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror. The politicians, however, were not interested. Amidror leveled the charges during a lecture at the Netanya College on Monday. According to Amidror, who headed the IDF's Research and Assessment Division responsible for preparing the National Intelligence Assessment, the decision to go ahead with the Oslo agreements between Israel and the PLO terrorist organization was made without taking into account the military implications....