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OROFINO, Idaho -- A man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting his friend through a protective vest on an apparent dare, police said. Alexander Joseph Swandic, 20, died of a gunshot wound to the heart Monday after donning a protective vest and asking David John Hueth, 30, to shoot him, police said. Hueth initially told police that Swandic's wound was self-inflicted, but later admitted to the shooting. The two had apparently tested the vest by propping it against a dirt bank and shooting it twice, police said. Police said the vest was designed to protect against grenade...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

On May 13, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy berated Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemning "disaster after disaster" in U.S. Iraq policy. Well before the Abu Ghraib revelations, Kennedy has sought to transform Iraqi freedom from a philosophical and strategic issue into a partisan debate, without regard either to reality or result. On April 6, Kennedy called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam." On March 5, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, took the president to task for allegedly exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq: "The evidence so far leads to...

Attorney General Abbott Sues Top Manufacturer Of Bullet-proof Vests Alleges potential vest failures pose threat to police officer safetyFARMER’S BRANCH - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued a major manufacturer of police protective body armor, alleging a failure to reveal potentially fatal flaws in the material from which many of its protective “bullet-proof” vests have been made. The suit againstSecond Chance Body Armor Inc. of Central Lake, Michigan, which made and sold a protective vest containing the material “Zylon,” follows an investigation the Attorney General launched last December. According to the suit, the company maintained that its “Ultima” and...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Working full-tilt, nine contractors have finished crafting 160,000 Interceptor body armor vests, and the equipment is now en route to units preparing to deploy to Iraq and a central distribution point in Kuwait, according to Army officials. This month’s production run of the Interceptor tactical vests fulfills a promise to Congress by Army officials, who said that by January the service would have enough of the vests to outfit every soldier deployed to Iraq, according to Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman. “Congress has been notified that the requirement has been met,” Tallman said Friday. Interceptor vests are...

London-based Al Hayat newspaper: Saddam Hussein is wearing an explosive belt, for use if he is captured by U.S. forces.