Free Republic

A retired British businessman accused of plotting to sell missile components to Iran will be extradited to the United States, his lawyer said Monday.

His views on immigration and the EU struck a chord that resonated with the majority of British people at a time when those same opinions were deemed unacceptable by the cultural elite that dominated – and continues to dominate – politics, the media and academe. As a result he was ostracised and ignored by the establishment and remained a political outsider from the late 60s onward. Though popular with everyday folk he never deliberately courted popularity. Indeed some of his views (he was opposed to capital punishment) went against the grain of public opinion. But this independence of mind merely...

Remember when Barack Obama promised to restore our standing with America’s allies and exercise “smart power� in diplomacy? Good times, good times. In the latest dispute over the Falkland Islands, Obama has failed to support our closest ally on the world stage even after their military and diplomatic support for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in what the Telegraph’s Nile Gardiner called another knife in the back: First, military weakness is provocative. Argentina ramped up its aggressive rhetoric and diplomatic efforts to reclaim the Falklands only after P.M. Cameron announced massive cuts to the Royal Navy and British ground...

U.K. MEP Gives Epic Warning on Greek Chaos: ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet!’ Jonathon M. Seidl, The Blaze Febuarary 15,2012 URL Jonathon M. Seidl is an assistant editor at The Blaze. An outspoken member of the European Parliament has struck again with another viral speech, this time warning that the chaos in Greece is just the beginning. Nigel Farage is the leader of the UK Independence Party and has been an outspoken opponent of bailouts and what’s been going on in Greece. This week, he blasted his colleagues who have treated Greece like a puppet government, and he shunned the...

The great myth of the last few decades is that people can establish sustainable savings by investing in other people’s debt. That is how relatively astute and candid writers, such as Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph, can claim that “Britain is still a hugely wealthy nation� and actually mean it. In his latest blog post, Warner tries to convince us that aggregate private debt in Britain is not so bad when we factor in “assets� as well.From his piece:Believe it or not, Britain is still a hugely wealthy nationLast week I drew attention to a report by Royal Bank of...

A Muslim activist group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood has asked the British government to restrict the way the British media reports about Muslims and Islam. The effort to silence criticism of Islam comes amid

Britain won't decide on F-35 fighter numbers till 2015 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has deferred to 2015 a firm commitment on how many Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets it will buy, adding to uncertainties over the multinational program which has recently been questioned in the U.S. Congress. "We will not make final decisions on the overall number of aircraft we will order before the next planned Strategic Defence Review (in 2015)," a Ministry of Defence MoD spokeswoman said on Tuesday, adding an initial order would be placed next year. The F-35 project ranks as the most expensive...

Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic preacher once described as Osama bin Laden’s “right hand man in Europe”, will be back on the streets within days after being granted bail. A senior immigration judge said yesterday that Qatada could be released despite even his own defence team suggesting that he posed a “grave risk” to Britain’s national security. Qatada was granted bail by Mr Justice Mitting after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that he could not be deported to his native Jordan. The bail conditions will be similar to those set in 2008, with the cleric confined...

The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and self-recruitment are key elements, is a formidable challenge for security services [2]. The jihadi decentralization trend is clearly a result of counter-terrorism successes. These "defeats" have been scrutinized and digested in the writings of key jihadi theoreticians during the past few years. New roadmaps and operational concepts are being explored as the jihadis search for...

Another racially-motivated attack again? 5 02 2012 We have been given a picture of a young boy in a bad way, this happened in Hyde, Greater Manchester. The boy was attacked by a group of ’asian’ (newspeak for Muslim) thugs on Saturday, 4th February 2012. No more details as yet, but it makes you wonder after the Rhea Page incident, if they DO get caught, will they also get a ‘slap on the wrists’? Our children should NOT be victims to these sort of attacks, the sooner this country wakes up and realises what the hell is going on, the...

India's Finance Minister referred to the financial aid given by Britain to his country as nothing more than 'peanuts', it is claimed. It is also claimed that Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian ministers tried to reject the money - around £280million a year - from the UK in 2011, but the British Government 'begged' them to take the money. The Sunday Telegraph claims that the Indian government were disposed to reject the money in April last year, because of the 'negative publicity of Indian poverty' highlighted by the aid. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096628/British-foreign-aid-India-tells-Britain-dont-need-peanuts-offer-us.html#ixzz1lWkmhZjq

Turbulence ahead with Indian jet deal The Indians, stormed “senior government sources,” had gone for the “Asda option instead of Waitrose”. By preferring the French Rafale jet rather than the British-built Typhoon, they rejected, according to the Prime Minister, a “superb aircraft with far better capabilities”. How dare they, asked MPs, snub Britain, which had given them £1.2 billion in aid? One newspaper even blamed the decision on the Gandhi family. The truth about Britain’s “failure” to land the £6.3 billion Indian military jet deal — and the thousands of jobs it will sustain - is different. The game is...

The UK Is Sending Its Most Advanced Warship To The Falklands Adam Taylor January 31, 2012The UK announced today that they would be sending their most advanced warship to the South Pacific, near the Falklands Islands. The announcement seems likely to inflame tensions with Argentina over the disputed Falklands, and may worsen the increasingly aggressive rhetoric from both sides, who went to war over the islands almost 30 years ago. The Telegraph reports that the HMS Dauntless is a Type 45 destroyer, worth over £1 billion ($1.57 billion), and is "the most advanced anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic ship in the world"....

Royal Navy reveals new supersonic anti-missile system A new air defence system that can destroy enemy missiles travelling at supersonic speeds has been revealed by the Royal Navy. Sea Ceptor missiles fired from warships will reach speeds of up to Mach 3 and protect an area of around 500 sq miles. The £483 million contract to develop the defence system has been awarded to MBDA (UK). The Ministry of Defence said the five-year project would mean continued employment for around 500 workers. Facilities across the UK including at Stevenage in Hertfordshire, Filton in South Gloucestershire and Lostock in Bolton will...

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has thanked the British people for sacrificing "blood and treasure" for the future of his country. His comments followed talks with David Cameron at the UK prime minister's Buckinghamshire residence, Chequers. The leaders signed an agreement detailing how their countries would work together after UK combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014. Mr Cameron said the relationship would be based on diplomacy, trade and aid.

A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women. Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror. Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more.

"Radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed threatens Syria with a wave of suicide bombs" SNIPPET: "Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric banned from Britain for glorifying terrorism, has told The Daily Telegraph from his base in the Middle East that al-Qaida is poised to wage war against the Syrian regime. Bakri, once nicknamed the Tottenham Ayatollah, said hard-line Salafi Muslim groups, including al-Qaida, and his al-Ghuraba group were ready to help their "Muslim brothers" with a campaign of suicide attacks against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president." SNIPPET: "Speaking from his new home in Lebanon, the self-styled cleric, who caused controversy after...

British and French ships joined a US carrier group in a six-strong flotilla of warships which passed through the sensitive Strait of Hormuz, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

EXCLUSIVE Fury at wreaths for £1million armed robber Sick 'cashpoint' tribute   Fake ... but Thomas Curtis's gang took real ATMs   SICK graveside tributes have been left by family and pals for an armed robber and ram-raider found hanged in jail. Victims of the £1million crimes carried out by Thomas Curtis, 29, and his gang last night voiced fury at the display in Elm, Cambs, which includes a replica ATM and a Post Office sign. Friends and relatives "honoured" the robber by leaving rose-edged tributes at the grave that recall his trail of violent crime. Dad-of-two Curtis was...

Cameron and Clegg give a free pass to racism By Melanie Phillips Last updated at 9:53 AM on 17th January 2012 ... Clegg should be condemned in the strongest possible terms for his support of racism. For he is supporting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a future state of Palestine. Why does the expansion of Jewish housing in the suburbs of Jerusalem prevent a state of Palestine from being established? Only because Abbas and his cronies have said over and over again that not one Jew will be allowed to live in their state of Palestine. That racist agenda...

For electric vehicle enthusiasts with the “if you build it, they will come” mentality, who endorse endless taxpayer subsidies for plug-in automobiles and infrastructure to charge them, there’s bad news this week. The Daily Mail reported that sales of electric cars in the United Kingdom have fallen so sharply that there are now more charging stations than there are vehicles. If you thought the flaccid U.S. sales of the Chevy Volt (7,671 units) and Nissan Leaf (9,674 units) were a letdown – despite significant government funding for research and development, batteries, charging systems, and a $7,500 tax credit for...

More and more UK citizens are sorting out their problems the Islamic way - but unregulated growth and discrimination against women are causes for concern. See the video.

Falklands’ conflict gunner meets Skyhawk pilot he shot down, at his home in Argentina A Royal Navy veteran from the Falklands War has completed an extraordinary journey to meet the Argentine pilot he thought he had shot down and killed during the 1982 conflict. Neil Wilkinson met his former enemy Mariano Velasco at his home in Argentina - and was welcomed inside with open arms. The emotional meeting - just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the moment they clashed in battle - was filmed for a BBC Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire documentary to be screened this week. Mr...

SNIPPET: "CHANTING fundamentalist bile, extremist Abu Jibreel was on the front line battling police officers during a mock "funeral" for Osama Bin Laden. With his beard and flowing robes, the follower of hate preacher Anjem Choudary was happy to tell anyone who would listen that he wants to bring down democracy..." SNIPPET: "The Sun can reveal that the 39-year-old Muslim convert was born Paul Steven Mellor in Cheshire." SNIPPET: "He is campaigning for Sharia law and self-governing Muslim "states" to be established in Britain." SNIPPET: "Choudary gloated: "We have a former British Army soldier in our organisation. Next we want...

Enraged Iranian officials are vowing retaliation against Israel, the US and the UK over the latest assassination of a nuclear scientist, 32-year-old Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan, in Tehran. A former Iranian ambassador who served in Mexico and Italy recommended that an American being held in Tehran be executed in retaliation for the assassination. “The terrorist attack on the scientist must not be left unanswered and therefore it is advisable to immediately execute [the suspected CIA spy [Amir Mirzai Hekmati] at the site of the explosion,” recommended former Ambassador Mohamed Hassan Qadiri in a post on his blog. He added that had...

EXCLUSIVE  Sex swap teenager to enter Miss England contest   BY JENNA SLOAN Published: 14 Jan 2012   A TEENAGE transsexual has become the first sex swap patient to enter the Miss England beauty pageant. Jackie Green became the UK's youngest transsexual after an op in Thailand on her 16th birthday. The 18-year-old — who was born Jack but lived as a girl since age ten — was asked to enter by modelling scouts who had no idea of her history. The aspiring model, from Leeds, hopes to use the opportunity to speak out about bullying and transgender issues....

The Royal Navy has been named in the UK’s top 100 of ‘gay-friendly’ employers based on a major national survey. More than 350 companies, whose workforces total more than 1.9 million people in all – one in every 15 people in employment in the land – took part in the survey by Stonewall, the UK charity which campaigns and lobbies on behalf of lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women. The Naval Service has been one of Stonewall’s ‘diversity champions’ for the past seven years and has taken part in the organisation’s workplace survey since 2006. The RN was placed...

The British government set out conditions on Tuesday under which Scotland would be allowed to hold a referendum on breaking away from the rest of Britain, a move which it strongly opposes. Any referendum must be limited to a straightforward yes-or-no question on independence, excluding the option of asking whether Scotland should be given greater devolved powers, and should be held as soon as possible, the British government said. The pro-independence Scottish National Party, which heads a devolved government in Edinburgh, has said it plans to hold a referendum by 2016 on ending the 300-year union with England.

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

Kristy, 15, was in such pain after days of being attacked with sticks, a metal bar, hammer and chisel that he begged to die, jurors heard. His brother-in-law Eric Bikubi was joined by his partner, Kristy's sister Magalie, in the horror, said Brian Altman QC, prosecuting. And his other siblings were forced to join in before they were all placed in the bath to be hosed down in cold water with a shower head by Bikubi on Christmas Day, 2010. ... The jury was told that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the defendants are originally from, witchcraft...

She said she had not meant to generalise when she wrote: ''White people love playing 'divide & rule'".

Terrai Mutasa laughed at Allyson Childs for requesting painkillers amid the trauma of her labour and while doctors fought in vain to resuscitate 9lb 10oz Layla-Grace, who had been born with the umbilical cord around her neck. In response to her request for a Caesarean at Queen's Hospital in Romford, the midwife allegedly said: 'Do you think that won't hurt? Believe me it will.'

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up. It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma. This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago. ... Volcanologists believe that the Laacher See volcano is still active as carbon dioxide is bubbling up to the lake’s surface, which indicates that the magma chamber below is 'degassing'.

... Cpl Kavanagh lied about his age to join the Cheshire Regiment at 15 and was sent to the Third Anglo-Afghan War in May to August 1919. He wrote: “The endurance and experience gained by the tribesman from years of incessant raiding make him a formidable enemy. “He will sometimes hide his rifle and appear as a peaceful villager.” One tip to young recruits was: “Avoid shaking hands with a strange Pathan. They will seize with their left hand and stab with their right.” Cpl Kavanagh continued serving with the British army and was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. He...

More shops will collapse into administration or announce store closures in the next couple of weeks, afters suffering from "profits squeezed to extinction" as well as a fall in sales over Christmas, according to the head of Britain's retail trade body. As many as 40,000 are expected to lose their jobs, with more forced to work on reduced hours, as the full force of the consumer slowdown starts to makes its effects felt on the high street. After the collapse of Barratts Priceless, the shoe chain, Hawkin's Bazaar, the toy shop and D2 Jeans last week, a clutch of other...

Margaret Thatcher's early life as a grocer's daughter was a far cry from the sometimes lavish surroundings she later found herself in as Britain's first female prime minister. And it seems her relatively modest upbringing stayed with her after she entered No 10. Government papers from 1979, made public for the first time by the National Archives, suggest she kept a very close eye on the costs of furnishing her official residence. The documents reveal how the "Iron Lady" insisted on paying for her own ironing board and dictated that spending on her official residence at No 10 should be...

The number of NHS patients who have to undergo emergency readmission to hospital within a month of being discharged has increased by more than three quarters in the last decade, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. Hospitals have been accused by ministers of treating patients “like parts on a production line” after official figures suggested that hundreds of thousands of people every year are being sent home before they are well enough. More than 660,000 people were brought back to hospital last year within 28 days of leaving, statistics show, sparking allegations that patients are being “hurried through the system” so...

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently marked the 400th anniversary of the King James' Bible by declaring that Great Britain is a "Christian country" and "we should not be afraid to say so." Cameron was speaking at Christ Church, Oxford before a Church of England audience. The speech will trouble dogmatic secularists of course. But it also should alert many American religionists who enthusiastically insist that Christendom is dead. Perhaps the embers, however muted, of what reputedly began with the Emperor Constantine almost 1700 years ago still burn, even in a nation like Britain where only 5 percent are regular...

THE EDITOR, Sir: I note your editorial 'Kudos to [Portia] Simpson Miller on gay rights' for her pledge that a People's National Party (PNP) administration would review the buggery law and allow a conscience vote on the matter. In the 1960s, the British government, with the support of the Church of England, liberalised their sodomy law. In my hearing, the then archbishop of Canterbury explained to students of the United Theological College (UTC) that the Church supported the liberalisation to encourage practising homosexuals to come out into the open so that the Church could help them to change their lifestyle....

Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world's sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America's largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east. Russia and India are expected to benefit from a surge in growth over the next 10 years and push the UK into eighth place. Like most economies, India is struggling with high inflation and slowing growth, but its highly educated workforce and skills in growth areas...

A student was shot was shot dead today at point blank range in a random attack outside a McDonalds, police said. Armed response units were scrambled to the scene in Salford, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of the morning after the 23-year-old was attacked. The Indian victim, who was studying at Lancaster University, was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead. Murder probe: Police cordon off the scene following the random shooting in the early hours of the morning Murder probe: Police cordon off the scene following the random shooting in the early hours of the morning He...

You are my children of light , you are my children of light , you are my children of light , and in this season of lights , let MY Light shine through you , for MY SEASON NEVER ENDS ! Truly this is a season of lights , but we are to be lights for Christ Jesus in an open season and heaven for him ! Isaiah 60 The Gentiles Bless Zion 1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,...

Prince Philip was treated for a blocked coronary artery and a successful "invasive procedure of coronary stenting" was performed. The duke, aged 90, had been taken from Sandringham to the cardiothoracic unit at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire. The Royal Family had been gathering at Sandringham, a traditional royal retreat in Norfolk, for Christmas. The palace said that following tests the duke was was found to have a blocked coronary artery which had caused his chest pains. This was treated successfully by the minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting.

Flashpoint Falklands: Britain dusts off war plans amid calls to send a nuclear submarine after Argentina joins forces with Brazil and Uruguay to blockade islands By Tim Shipman and Ian Drury Military chiefs are dusting off their plans for the defence of the Falklands after South American countries banned ships from the islands docking in their ports. Sources fear Prince William's six-month deployment to the South Atlantic as an air-sea rescue pilot next year could provoke more sabre-rattling. Yesterday Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed Britain was ready to use its military to steal natural resources 'anywhere, anyhow'. She...

LONDON (Reuters) - A worried letter from six-year old Leo Park sparked a mammoth operation to test what is believed to be the world's first chimney specifically designed to accommodate Santa Claus. The little boy's parents are having a house custom built and when Leo viewed the plans he was concerned that the chimney wasn't big enough for Father Christmas and his famous belly that shakes when he laughs like a bowl full of jelly. As he was penning his traditional letter to Santa, Leo decided to also write a heartfelt missive about the chimney design problem to Jeremy Paxton,...

Caution: This area is for babies and diapers only Attention cocaine users of the world: Parents everywhere would like you to know that changing tables are generally covered in baby poop, and we’d appreciate it if you’d think of that the next time you’re looking for a place to snort a line.

With credit rating agencies warning that the deal struck by EU leaders this month might not save the single currency from collapse, the Sunday Times has revealed that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office is drawing up plans to evacuate thousands of British expatriates from Spain and Portugal should their banking systems collapse. With one million Britons living in Spain and some 50,000 UK resident in Portugal – The Foreign Office is concerned that expats who have invested savings in their adopted countries could be left stranded, unable to withdraw cash and facing losing their homes if the banks call...

Is North Korea about to split into two parts not necessarily of the same size ! Could there be a big regime change be a regime change ! will the puppet master please stand up !

Interview with James Delingpole, from the Uncommon Knowledge series at the Hoover Institute. 48 minutes. Variety of topics covered include the Euro, Climategate, the UK riots, etc.

Full Title: Silly, gay and stupid': Police inspector's extraordinary outburst at boy, 15, as he used anti-terror law to stop him from taking pictures at military parade