Free Republic

A convicted Nazi war criminal arrived in Italy yesterday to start a life sentence imposed in his absence for the murder and torture of prisoners in the final year of the Second World War. Michael Seifert, 83, a Ukraine-born Canadian citizen dubbed the "Beast of Bolzano", has lived in Canada since 1951. He had been fighting extradition for eight years. The former SS corporal was a guard at a prison camp in Bolzano, northern Italy - used as a transit point for Jews, Italian resistance fighters and others - in 1944 and 1945. An Italian military tribunal convicted him in...

Minnesota House Minority Leader Marty Seifert has signed on to lead Republican Fred Thompson's Minnesota presidential campaign, Seifert said today. The Marshall Republican's Thompson endorsement further splits the state's elected officials' presidential picks. Gov. Tim Pawlenty long ago signed on to help with Sen. John McCain's presidential bid. Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman announced he would be former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign chairman for Minnesota and the Midwest.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Relatives of those killed in Sgt. Hasan Akbar's grenade attack on his comrades said yesterday that he deserved a jury's death sentence, but experts in military law say it's hardly certain the execution will ever happen. The military hasn't executed one of its own since 1961, while states have put scores of civilian killers to death. Experts say the key difference in military justice is the role of the president, who, unlike a governor, must take an active role when a service member gets the ultimate punishment. ''It is unique to the military justice system that there...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The parents of an officer killed by a soldier's grenade and rifle attack on a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait testified Tuesday that their son's death created a hole in their lives that they can't fill. "When you think about all the plans you were going to carry out ... that's not going to happen now," said Richard Stone, father of Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone. "With Greg, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him." Gregory Stone and Army Capt. Christopher Seifert were killed and 14 other service members...

(FORT BRAGG) - Almost a dozen eyewitness accounts marked the second day of testimony in the court martial of Sergeant Hasan Akbar. Akbar is the army sergeant accused of murdering two fellow soldiers during the opening days of the war in Iraq. Eleven former and present soldiers testified in a Fort Bragg courtroom about what they saw on March 22nd of 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. One officer said that Akbar admitted to him that he threw grenades into tents where soldiers were preparing for bed. Akbar is accused of killing two people and wounding 14 others. A number...

Is it asking too much for something more than a verdict in the court-martial of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the man accused of killing two officers -- including Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert of Williams Township -- a few days after the start of the war in Iraq? Something like an answer to the question: Why? Jury selection in Akbar's court-martial is under way in North Carolina, but pre-trial events only seem to have muddied the picture. Akbar is accused of using grenades and a rifle to attack fellow troops at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in March 2003. He has been...

The way State Rep. Marty Seifert figures it, taxpayer money effectively pays the $374,341 yearly compensation for the Walker Art Center director, and there's $59 left over for arts programming. He bases the calculation on the $375,000 the state gave the Walker last year. The Walker is among dozens of nonprofit groups that get state appropriations or grants and pay outrageously high salaries, Seifert, R-Marshall, said Thursday. He proposed legislation to cut off state funding to nonprofits that pay salaries higher than the cap for most state executives, $114,506. "Unfortunately, many nonprofits beg for donations from the public and the...