Free Republic

The European Commission criticises a daily newspaper's Mohammed cartoons for opening the door to hate and radicalisation After months of silently observing, the leadership of the European Commission has weighed in on the Danish debate over daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to publish caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed. The Commission's vice-chairman, Franco Frattini, called the newspaper's decision to publish the twelve cartoons as 'thoughtless and inappropriate' in a time when animosity towards Islam is on the rise. 'Honestly, these kinds of drawings can add to the growing Islamophobia in Europe,' Frattini said. 'I fully respect the freedom of speech, but, excuse...

Nov. 11, 2005 - Hany Abu-Assad is nervous. In just two hours, his new film, “Paradise Now,” will premier in Tel Aviv. But there’s more to it than just opening night jitters for Abu-Assad. The director is Palestinian, the audience is Israeli, and his film is about the lives and moral struggles of two suicide bombers. “I’m trying to take deep breaths,” he laughs. “But it doesn’t seem to be helping.” It wouldn’t be the first time a film about terrorists, or freedom fighters (depending which side of the wall you’re on), has shown in Israel. But “Paradise Now,” a...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2005 – Increased U.S. and coalition operations throughout the Euphrates River Valley have forced insurgents to switch tactics in an attempt to cause damage, a coalition spokesman in Baghdad, Iraq, said today. The two major attacks that killed 20 Marines this week in Haditha are evidence of these shifting tactics, Air Force Brig. Gen. Donald Alston said in a press briefing. One of the attacks involved small-arms fire, and the other used an exceptionally large improvised explosive device. The IED may have been an "explosively formed projectile," which is a more sophisticated explosive used to defeat armored...

EN ROUTE TO BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27, 2005 – Iraq needs "to be aggressively communicating" with its neighbors to stop the infiltration of foreign terrorists across its borders, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today. Speaking to the traveling press aboard his C-17 aircraft en route to Baghdad after visits to the Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Rumsfeld asserted that the behavior of Syria and Iran in allowing insurgents to enter Iraq "has been harmful" to the Iraqi government. Iraq should work with Syria and Iran "to see that foreign terrorists stop coming across those borders," Rumsfeld said....

Iraqi and U.S. troops respond to two separate attacks; ordnance disposal teams detonated unexploded ordnance discovered at the scene. MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, July 26, 2005 — Iraqi Army and U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad helped treat victims of two separate terrorist attacks in Mahmudiyah and Al-Dora, July 21. Prior to the explosions, U.S. troops assigned to 3rd Platoon, E Troop, 108th Cavalry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division operations and intelligence leaders met to plan future combined missions near Siad Abdullah and the surrounding areas which are known...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2005 – A terrorist bomber killed himself and five others today during an attack outside an airfield in Iraq, military officials in Baghdad reported. The attack, which wounded 24 others, happened near the Muthana Airfield around 9:30 a.m. Those injured in today's blast were Iraqi army recruits and one Iraqi soldier. Another Iraqi soldier was among those killed. The airfield houses a recruiting center that provides additional security forces for Baghdad, officials said. Also today, Task Force Liberty soldiers and Iraqi police conducting a joint search in Kirkuk detained three people suspected of terrorist activity. Soldiers and...

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2005 – Iraqi security forces detained eight suspected terrorists June 29 in eastern Baghdad during combined operations, military officials in Iraq reported. Seven of the suspects were found with material used for the production and emplacement of roadside bombs. One had false Palestinian documents. Elsewhere, an Iraqi army unit captured five suspected terrorists June 28 after an Iraqi citizen told the soldiers about a terrorist safe house in northern Baghdad's Rabi district. The Iraqi soldiers found two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and two RPG rounds in addition to the five suspects. The five terror suspects were taken into...

OBEIDI, Iraq -- The U.S. military wrapped up a major offensive in a remote desert region near the Syrian border Saturday, saying it had cleaned out the insurgent haven and killed more than 125 militants during the weeklong campaign against followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during Operation Matador _ one of the largest American campaigns since militants were driven from Fallujah six months ago. The number of civilian casualties was not immediately known.

Life Imitates 'Art' as Deaths of Arab Boys in Combat Zone Depicted as Extension of Palestinian Propaganda Film By Michael Widlanski Sunday, 10 April, 2005 When three Arab teenagers were killed, according to the Israeli army, smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza Saturday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said, it was, essentially, a case of life imitating "art"-specifically a well-known PA propaganda film showing children murdered when their football game angered Israeli soldiers. "Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed Saturday three children as they were playing in [a] playground in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah," declared WAFA, the official PA-PLO...

Hamas leader says it will suspend attacks if Israel stops targeting militants, releases Palestinian prisoners - GAZA CITY - The top Hamas leader said his militant group is prepared to suspend attacks if Israel stops targeting militants and agrees to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, according to an interview published Tuesday. The apparent softening of Hamas' position raised hopes that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would soon reach a formal cease-fire with militant groups that would pave the way for a new round of peace talks with Israel. In an interview published in the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, Hamas leader Khaled...

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's most feared terror group claimed responsibility Sunday for slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where dozens of bodies have been found. The claim raises fears the terror group has expanded to the north after the loss of its purported base in Fallujah. Meanwhile, insurgents attacked U.S. and Iraqi targets in Baghdad and in Sunni Arab areas, underscoring the risks of holding national elections on Jan. 30. Two U.S. soldiers were injured in a Baghdad attack, and another American soldier died in a traffic accident north of the capital, the military said. U.S. and Iraqi...

CAIRO – The revulsion felt across the globe after the murder of some 335 people by Chechen separatists didn't bypass the Arab world. Condemnation has rung out from Arab governments and editorial pages. The attack on schoolchildren has created space for a rare debate over what Muslims can do to clean up what many see as a small and dirty corner of their own house. "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims,'' wrote Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al-Arabiya, one...

The Beslan massacre illuminates Russia's weaknesses in the face of a campaign of Chechen terrorism Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a security overhaul sparked by the school hostage crisis, but experts are skeptical that authorities can prevent more terrorism by Chechen separatists.With a death toll of at least 340 in Russia's worst-ever hostage crisis, Putin went on television to admit official failings and vowed to bolster his shaken nation's security.The region's top police official resigned after the three-day hostage siege in Beslan but analysts warned that the series of audacious militant attacks point to a widespread failure of intelligence."The...

Dozens of families who had gone out to view the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem (MY NOTE: They were praying at the Kotel, the Western Wall, not "looking at it") were on Egged bus 49 when a suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday night. All of the windows on the bus were shattered, and segments of the bus were blown out, leaving gaping holes. "I saw young children and adults leaving the bus burnt," said a yeshiva student who studies in the area. He said that he saw a little girl lying on the street who said, "Take...

A tense stand-off developed outside a north London mosque being used by hard-line Muslims for a controversial conference marking the 11 September attacks. Dozens of police separated those attending the meeting from about 100 British National Party protesters and a counter demonstration by 30 Anti-Nazi League members. The conference, at the Finsbury Park mosque, was organised by al-Muhajiroun, whose supporters hung banners from the building, calling for Britain to be turned into an Islamic state. Entitled September 11: A Towering Day in History, some of Britain's most radical Muslim clerics were due to discuss topics including the "positive outcomes"...

Trulock Sees Cover-up of Intelligence Failures Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com Friday, July 12, 2002 WASHINGTON – Battle-scarred whistle-blower Notra Trulock says leftists in Congress and in the media are covering up the intelligence failures before Sept. 11, possibly in the interest of protecting operatives who fell down on the job and "smoothing over” the intelligence meltdown that occurred during the Clinton administration. Trulock took strong exception to a story in Thursday’s Washington Post saying that "after six months of culling through intelligence files and dozens of closed-door hearings,” a joint House-Senate panel had "uncovered no single piece of information” or any...

Tales of battle - Marines meet the enemy at firefight on Afghanistan's Route 1GIDGET FUENTES Staff WriterCAMP PENDLETON ---- Near a desert road in Afghanistan last fall, Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Haislar's first real view of combat came through a night scope on his vehicle, 200 yards from a truck bulging with suspected terrorists. For Marine Gunnery Sgt. John A. Dailey, the enemy was just feet away from the barrel of his MP-5 submachine gun. Bill Wechter / Staff Photographer Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Haislar, 21, sits beneath the 25mm chain gun mounted on the light-armored vehicle, nicknamed 'Rusty...

<p>THIS is a story about Wannabes - you know, people who "want to be" something special and unique. There are SEAL wannabes and Green Beret wannabes. The Palestinians are soldier wannabes.</p> <p>They have several pictures of dead Palestinian terrorists, at least one of which is a "before and after."</p>