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You may not have noticed because most of the plots were foiled, but 2009 saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.

President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday. Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy — most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19. But the president raised questions at a war council meeting Wednesday that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what...

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

The Washington Post reports tonight that Barack Obama and top administration officials have concluded the Taliban cannot be beaten and that they are looking for ways to cede parts of Afghanistan to the Taliban without those regions becoming safe havens for al Qaeda.The article also reports that Obama may wait until after he returns from a 10 day visit to Asia that begins November 11 to decide his policy for Afghanistan.The Post article is largely about Obama's request made this week, two months after he received Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands more troops to fulfill Obama's counter-insuregency...

<p>Just announced by Jennifer Griffith in a live interview, WH has asked Pentagon for a formal assessment of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, that the Afghan Wart is no longer in our nations interest, blamed the Afghan elections.</p>

George F. Will, the elite conservative commentator, will call in his next column for U.S. ground troops to leave Afghanistan, according to publishing sources. “[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters,” Will writes in the column, scheduled for publication later this week. Obama ordered a total of 21,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan in February and March, and casualties have mounted...

'JUSTICE Secretary Kenny MacAskill freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al- Megrahi over fears Scotland would suffer a terrorist backlash if he died behind bars. He believed Megrahi would have been seen as a MARTYR by Islamic extremists if he had been left to die in Greenock Prison. And last night a source close to the Cabinet Secretary said: "Kenny feared the repercussions would have haunted Scotland for a generation and more. "If Megrahi had died in a Scottish jail, we'd have seen burning Saltires across the Middle East." MacAskill and SNP First Minister Alex Salmond are preparing to publish...

Tourists are being warned to steer clear of Asian hornets that are colonising France, after swarms of the aggressive predators attacked seven people. An Asian predatory wasp (vespa velutina), a predator of honey bee hives An Asian Hornets' nest A beekeeper holds an Asian Hornets' nest The bee-eating hornets, instantly recognisable by their yellow feet, are rapidly spreading round France Hundreds of the insects attacked a mother on a stroll with her five-month-old baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, southwestern France, at the weekend before turning on a neighbour who ran over to help. The baby was unharmed. They then pursued...

Here is video of John Brennan, Obama's top Homeland Security and Counterterrorism official, giving a speech today where he said the United States is not engaged in a "War on Terror," and also does not believe we are in a "global war" nor are we fighting "jihadists." He said the only acceptable term is that we are fighting "Al-Qaeda." Who does he think Al-Qaeda is? The are "Jihadists!" But political correctness will not allow Obama to say what is true, that Islamic Jihadists have declared war on the United States and we do face a Global War against those who...

Obama, Medvedev Call for Cut to 1,500-1,675 Nuclear Warheads Title only - story to follow

Mexico got tough with the U.S. today, raising tariffs on $2.4 billion in U.S. exports to retaliate for the ending of a pilot program that allowed illegal Mexican day laborers to wait on U.S. curbs for work. President b. Hussein, in his first big trade policy test, immediately wimped out, issuing an executive order that gives a tax break to any American employer who pulls their pickup into the parking lot of a Mexican grocery and flashes five fingers on one hand, then all 10 fingers twice. (Translation: “Five laborers needed, at $20 an hour.”) Tax breaks will be calculated...

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is leaning toward making a major diplomatic overture to Iran before the country's presidential elections in June. This initiative could come in the form of a letter from President Obama to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two senior European diplomats who have met in recent weeks with key State Department officials crafting a new US policy toward Iran. The letter would be aimed at initiating talks over the Iranian nuclear program and Iran's role in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

President Obama said the military was not winning the counter insurgency war in Afghanistan as he opened the door for peace negotiations. By persuading Iraqi Sunni insurgents to turn on al-Qaeda extremists, US commanders engineered a sharply drop in violence in Iraq. President Obama said deals similar to those implemented by General David Petraeus in Iraq could be cut in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work...

In the March 9, 2009 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 2), "Radical Islam is A Fact of Life. How To Live With it" Fareed Zakaria makes the case for why the West needs to adopt a more sophisticated strategy toward Radical Islam. Plus: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman discuss the country's future in their first foreign media interview since winning in the recent election. Lastly: A review of the latest comic book inspired movie, "Watchmen."

In his latest “Memo from Cairo,” New York Times correspondent Michael Slackman virtually begs the Obama administration to avoid using the word “terrorist” in reference to Hamas and Hezbollah. According to Slackman... calling these groups “terrorists” turns off the Arab world, in which people view Israel as the “real terrorist,” whereas Hamas and Hezbollah are just “trying to liberate their countries.” In turn, intimates Slackman, using a “loaded word” like “terrorist” when describing Hamas or Hezbollah makes peace impossible. Let’s leave aside for a moment that Slackman has managed to pass off his own view on the mind-numbingly dull one-man’s-terrorist-is-another-man’s-freedom-fighter...

U.S. Senate Republicans are not planning to try and use procedural maneuvers to delay passage of a proposed $789 billion economic stimulus bill, the party's leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said on Wednesday. McConnell said there was a widespread feeling in the minority party that they "ought to vote and move on." He spoke after congressional negotiators said they had reached a deal on the massive package of spending and tax cuts to try and rescue the flailing economy.

I'm with David Frum on this from yesterday: But Obama? McCain’s attack on him is the equivalent of the William McKinley campaign attacking William Jennings Bryan for having kept company with Nathan Bedford Forrest decades after the Civil War. Yes, the old rebel was an unrepentant traitor. Mostly though, he was all washed up. Republicans have been fighting this second American civil war for eleven election cycles now. It’s been a good run! But just as 19th-Century Republicans eventually ran out of Union generals from Ohio, so the modern Republican Party has bumped up against the statute of limitations on...

Judging by the reaction to Thursday night's CNN debate, everything seems to be falling into place for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for president. After flirting with subjecting her to some scrutiny, the media seem to be coming to the conclusion that her nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate is inevitable. The moderator, Wolf Blitzer, let Hillary off the hook on the issue of illegal immigration while luring Hillary's main competitor, Barack Obama, into a Wolf trap, and he stiffed candidate John Edwards on air time during the debate. It was Hillary's moment to shine, which is what CNN intended....

BARRINGTON, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd said Saturday the United States cannot afford to wait for President Bush's successor to end the war in Iraq. "We really can't wait another 18 months," the U.S. senator from Connecticut said while campaigning. "We have to have the convictions to stand up to this president." Dodd said the war has been waged "for all the wrong reasons" and that it is eroding both the nation's security and its moral leadership. For those reasons, he said, it was not difficult for him to vote in the Senate against continued funding...

GREEN OAK TOWNSHIP -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney started a two-day campaign swing through Michigan by accusing Democrats of surrendering in the Iraq war. Romney said the United States must defeat the Islamic jihad movement, and that President Bush will do whatever it takes to protect the American people. "When we're dealing with nations of the world, we stand united,'' Romney said Friday night at the Livingston County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Barnstormer Banquet Center on M-36 in Green Oak Township. Romney also was scheduled to speak at GOP events today in Flint, Saginaw and the Lansing area....

Michael Ramirez's latest cartoon commentary on Harry Reid is here.

In an effort to put a stop to Israeli overflights in Lebanon, the French Armed Forces has deployed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) squadron in southern Lebanon to conduct intelligence-gathering missions in place of the IDF. France, a member of UNIFIL, has expressed adamant opposition to IAF overflights in Lebanon. Last month, OC Planning Division Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan traveled to Paris for meetings with senior military officials during which he tried to explain Israel's operational needs. The flights, the IDF claims, are necessary for gathering intelligence and keeping an eye on the Lebanese-Syrian border through which weapons are smuggled to...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 — Democrats sought on Friday to put their new political power to use in shaping the debate over Iraq, promising stepped-up Congressional oversight of the war and a resolution demanding a schedule for reducing the number of troops there. David Scull for The New York Times President Bush met Friday with the Senate’s incoming majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada. After the meeting, Mr. Reid said Democrats will increase the focus on Iraq when they formally take over in January. After two days in which both sides pledged bipartisanship in the aftermath of the Democratic victory in...

Ask people outside the French immigrant community why the Jews are leaving their country, and the usual answer is that they are making aliya to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Ask the French olim themselves, however, and the responses become more diverse and complex. Many recent arrivals say in no uncertain terms that it was primarily anti-Semitism that brought them from France to Israel. Others acknowledge that while anti-Semitism has increased in recent years, the phenomenon has been due largely to the intifada and emanates mainly from young Muslim immigrant men, mostly from North Africa and poorly integrated into...

Nicolas Sarkozy is campaigning hard to be the next president of France on the jogging trails of Central Park and in the corridors of the White House. On a four-day trip to the United States, the 51-year-old minister of the interior, France’s leading presidential hopeful on the right, pinned the Legion of Honor on the police commissioner of New York, honored firefighters in Midtown Manhattan for their losses on 9/11 and signed hundreds of copies of his new best-selling book on France’s future. He told Jewish leaders of his love of Israel, American business leaders of his love of free...

Lib/Dem/Soc/Commies -- You've Forgotten The Lessons Of 9/11 Written by Doc Farmer Monday, September 11, 2006 Author's Note: This is a request to most of my conservative, patriotic readers. Please don't read it with yourself in mind. Instead, send it along to every lib/dem/soc/commie discussion board, mailing list or group you can find. Send it to every lib/dem/soc/commie media outlet. Call every lib/dem/soc/commie talk show with it. This message is for them, and it's high time they heard it. Five years. It's not that long a time, when you consider the history of our nation. It's a mere blink of...

Post-9/11 policy hasn’t made world safer: Rather than occupying Iraq, we must destroy al-Qaeda By John Kerry Saturday, September 9, 2006 Five years after Sept. 11, where are we? Bogged down in Baghdad, beleaguered around the world and bitterly divided at home. Democrats have a unique responsibility not just to oppose what has failed but to propose a new course that can defeat jihadist terrorism once and for all. There are many things we can and must do better, but there are five steps to start: Redeploy from Iraq, recommit to Afghanistan, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, reform our...

Imagine it's 1939 all over again. Imagine we haven't learned the tragic lessons of appeasement. Imagine there are still people in the world – in powerful and influential positions – who believe that you can build lasting peace with evil forces upon foundations of paper. You don't have to imagine such a world. It's here. You can see it in the U.S. State Department's eagerness for a cease-fire in Lebanon. You can hear it in the cries for same from the four corners of the world. And you can read it for yourself in yesterday's editorial in the New York...

Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who is considering another run for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Saturday the United States should start pulling troops out of Iraq immediately. The former senator from North Carolina told reporters America should "make it clear (to Iraqis) we are leaving, and the best way is to start leaving. We should take 40,000 combat troops out now." Edwards, who has said he regretted his vote as a U.S. senator authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq, said he would ask the country's military leaders for a strategy "to have the (rest of the) troops out...

But we Americans seem to have short memories. What else could explain the fact that we, generally speaking, so-often lambaste the French, calling them “cowards” for not allying themselves fully with us in every instance? We constantly throw in their faces the fact that we came to their rescue in World Wars I and II. And we’ve all heard the jokes: “Surplus French military rifles for sale. Never fired. Dropped once.”

Peretz: An IDF escalation would bring more Qassams on Sderot Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Monday that a sharpened military response to Palestinian rocket fire would lead to intensified bombardments of the southern city of Sderot. "I will do everything possible in order to avoid an escalation because it would lead to days of Qassam barrages," Peretz said during his meeting with President Moshe Katsav in Sderot on Monday afternoon. Peretz was joined by President Moshe Katsav for a meeting Monday afternoon in Sderot with bereaved families and city officials, including Mayor Eli Moyal. The "Red Dawn" Qassam early-warning system...

NICE, France — At least 21 people have gone from France to Iraq to join the anti-coalition fighters since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, national police said Thursday. National Police Chief Michel Gaudin told The Associated Press that nine of them had been killed, and 10 were believed to be alive and still in Iraq. Five of those killed were French citizens, while the other four had traveled to Iraq from France. "We are working with international authorities to determine their identities," Gaudin said. Two more French people were in custody after having been detained by coalition forces operating in...

Dear Viewer, Thank you for your correspondence regarding the "South Park" episodes entitled "Cartoon Wars." We appreciate your concerns about censorship and the destructive influence of outside groups on the media, entertainment industry and particularly Comedy Central. To reiterate, as satirists, we believe that it is our First Amendment right to poke fun at any and all people, groups, organizations and religions and we will continue to defend that right. Our goal is to make people laugh and perhaps, if we're lucky, even make them think in the process. Comedy Central's belief in the First Amendment has not wavered, despite...

PARIS - President Jacques Chirac on Monday scrapped a controversial part of a youth labor law that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid to end the crisis. Unions celebrated what they called "a great victory," and also were deciding whether to keep up the protests. The top two student union UNEF and FIDL said they would press on with demonstrations Tuesday across France. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who devised the law, had faced down protesters for weeks, insisting that its most...

Chirac may back down over job law backlash By Colin Randall, in Paris (Filed: 20/03/2006) President Jacques Chirac was under pressure from the threat of a general strike over France's new employment law. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets The unrest could force his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to perform a humiliating climb-down. Mr de Villepin has tried to ride out the storm whipped up by the legislation and ignore the huge demonstrations and fierce rioting it has provoked. But speculation was growing last night that the president was pushing him towards major concessions to end...

Since the GOP is going on the offensive now with a white flag campaign, let's get some freepers who own printing presses into gear pushing white flag bumper stickers. Sort of something like "If you support the Dems, you better be ready to (picture of dean's back running with a white flag)" or If you're a Democrat, it's time to (hold up a white flag). So let's get 'em printed to support FreeRepublic and the GOP.

This is AWESOME. The Republicans are finally getting the message out. This is a must see video - Retreat & Defeat. It probably will be shown all over TV in the near future. Please pass on to all your friends and Democrats

Rally Round the (White) Flag, Boys! Democrats finally find an Iraq policy they can get behind. THE GOOD NEWS for the Democrats is that their leadership has settled on an electoral strategy for 2006. The bad news is that they have cribbed their game plan from one of the most disastrous campaigns in their history. The Democratic leadership has decided to elevate surrender to a party platform for the upcoming elections, with their national chairman, House leader, and last presidential nominee all running up the white flag as the Democratic war banner. When was the last time that an entire...

MIDI - WHITE CHRISTMAS They're dreaming of a white Christmas The white is their flag in the air We can hear Howard blabbing...with big time back stabbing For our troop morale he doesn't care They're dreaming of a white Christmas John Kerry's nice white French beret We cannot ever trust them, you see Not with our national security (musical break - some nice Barney Frank twinkle toe music) They're dreaming of a white Christmas Some nice white wine while they retreat While our men are out fighting...at home they're inciting Pelosi is hoping for defeat They're dreaming of a...

A busy time in the U.S. Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body." Judging from the 2006 conference report, the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education -- Chairman Arlen Specter (R), ranking member Tom Harkin (D) -- has been deliberating especially hard: "Sec. 221. (a) The Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building (Building 21) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center. (b) The Global Communications Center Building (Building 19) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Thomas R....

CAPITOL HILL (AP) -- There's been heated debate on the House floor regarding a GOP effort to force a vote on Congressman John Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Democrats charge the effort is a cheap political stunt and a personal attack. Instead of offering Murtha's resolution, Republicans plan to reject a similarly worded resolution offered by one of their own to show support for US troops. Democrats say that's a "counterfeit" resolution, charging it guts Murtha's thoughtful approach to the situation. The fiery, emotional debate climaxed when Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, who is the lowest in seniority,...

The press is pretending that Rep. John Murtha had been a longtime, staunch supporter of the Iraq war right up until yesterday's "shocking reversal," when the Pennsylvania Democrat abruptly called for an immediate U.S. pull out. In fact, Murtha began advocating a cut-and-run strategy way back in May 2004 - after U.S. forces had been in Iraq just a little more than a year. Standing at the time next to San Francisco-based House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - who was last seen defending her city's decision to ban military recruiters from public school property - the allegedly pro-war Murtha proclaimed...

TRAPPES, France -- For the Muslims of Trappes, decades of praying in basements and cramped rooms in decrepit buildings will soon be over, once the finishing touches are applied to their new, hard-won mosque - a shiny domed structure with a minaret and wooden Moroccan doors. It took sit-in protests in front of City Hall in Trappes, some 45 miles southwest of Paris, to get approval for the mosque in 2000. With different customs, beliefs and often skin color, parts of France's large immigrant population have been shunted to the margins of French life and left to struggle with dual...

MIDI - I LOVE PARIS Why do Muslims all love Paris...someday we will own the place We've been busy procreating...while we're hating We are laughing as it's burning...they are squirming Why do Muslims all love Paris...'cause the French run from a fight Allah Akbar...we'll be chanting Allah Akbar We love flags that are white

GEORGE Galloway was accused by a senior minister last night of "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood", after the former Labour MP warned the terrorist attacks in the capital will not be the last. The outspoken Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and anti-war campaigner hit back at his accuser, the armed forces minister Adam Ingram, likening him to a "foul-mouthed ... thug". Sylvia Heal, the Deputy Speaker, had to intervene, reminding the House that "good temper and moderation" were the hallmarks of language in the Commons and they should remember that on this day of...

Londoners have paid the price for Iraq and Afghanistan, says George Galloway. The Respect MP, whose Bethnal Green and Bow constituency includes the site of at least one of the bomb attacks, said the attacks were "despicable". But he told MPs it was the US-led coalition's actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo which had inflamed hatred of the West in the Muslim world. In response, minister Adam Ingram accused Mr Galloway of "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood". The armed forces minister added that Mr Galloway's comments were "disgraceful". Same mistakes? Earlier Mr Galloway said he was...

Not allowed into Paris's chic Hermes By AP PARIS -- Oprah Winfrey is suggesting she was turned away from the Hermes luxury clothing store in Paris because she's black and is calling the incident humiliating. "People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store," Gayle King, a friend of Winfrey who witnessed the incident, told TV show Entertainment Tonight. "Oprah describes it herself as 'one of the most humiliating moments of her life.' " UNLIKELY TO RETURN King said it's unlikely Winfrey will shop there again. "She's...

TWO MEN are being put on trial by the military this week because they answered their consciences. Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman refused to accept the lies they were told about the U.S. war on Iraq. Refused to accept the racist dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Refused to participate in the violence of the most lethal military machine in the history of the world. Refused to go to war for oil and empire in Iraq. Paredes, a third class petty officer, refused to board his Navy ship bound for the Persian Gulf, bringing 3,000 Marines to the battlefield--to kill and...

MIDI - MAMA, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS Dubya, do not consider Chirac as a cowboy The Euro crap weasel is scared of a calf To think he's tough enough is such a laugh Dubya, do not consider Chirac as a cowboy If he saw a snake, we are sure that'd he cry He'd whimper, "Please, don't let me die" We all know that cowboys don't keep a white flag in their pocket Or a letter from grandma that says to be a good boy If they should see some stray doggies, real cowboys are...