Free Republic

I mourned the untimely passing of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for the very personal reason that I hoped he would one day get to play Whittaker Chambers in a film version of Chambers’ 1952 masterwork, Witness. Short, heavy set, permanently rumpled, Hoffman would have made a near perfect Chambers to George Clooney’s Alger Hiss, the smooth, handsome, establishment golden boy. Chambers’ 800-page story of his life and their encounter remains the great political book of the twentieth century. Chambers was a deep thinker, a dazzling writer, and a reluctant participant in the most riveting political drama of the era. No...

The Justice Department stated Wednesday that acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will overtake supervision of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday afternoon and replaced him with Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff. We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018 Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe...

In a letter released Wednesday, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson  60% (R-WI) asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson for all documents and communications regarding the dismissal of ICE whistle-blower Taylor Johnson and his underlings’ secretive effort to discredit her to reporters. Confused by all these Johnsons? It’s hard not to be. The story also features a cameo by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  2% (D-NV). In 2013, Johnson, a decorated agent, was stripped of her gun and badge without explanation and placed on desk duty. The single mother of four was ousted right after Reid’s office...

How a Soviet mole in FDR's inner circle triggered Pearl Harbor – and its dire relevancy to our conflict today. ... On December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese aircraft delivered a shocking blow .. Nearly seven years later, Harry Dexter White, a senior official in the Roosevelt Administration, appeared to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities . Numerous witnesses, including Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, had implicated White in involvement with the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. ... Harry Dexter White, a Harvard PhD and Assistant Treasury Secretary, had played a major role in creating the World Bank...

A library featuring the personal papers of anti-communist hero Whittaker Chambers is being planned on the site of his farm in Maryland. Unfortunately, local authorities are considering a water project that could damage part of the property. Chambers' son John is asking for help to save the farm. Time is of the essence. Whittaker Chambers blew the whistle on the Communist penetration of our government and exposed Soviet spy Alger Hiss. Hiss became the first acting secretary-general of the United Nations, causing it to be dubbed "the house that Hiss built" He also advised President Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta...

A website launched Friday with the backing of technology industry and Hollywood elite urges people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions. The Charter for Compassion project on the Internet at www.charterforcompassion.org springs from a "wish" granted this year to religious scholar Karen Armstrong at a premier Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in California. "Tedizens" include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with other Internet icons as well as celebrities such as Forest Whittaker and Cameron Diaz. Wishes granted at TED envision ways to better the world and come with a promise that...

Following is a quote from Whittaker Chambers' autobiographical masterpiece, Witness, in which the former Soviet/Communist spy gave his account of his turn and ultimate fight againt the communists and his testimony naming Alger Hiss a communist before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The following is taken from pages 536-7: "I was even less impressed by such shrieks of outraged innocence uttered by some of the Committee's witnesses, as sometimes reached my ears. Experience had taught me that innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does. Innocence is a mighty shield, and the man or woman covered by it, is much...

Whittaker Chambers: Man of Courage and Faith by Lee Edwards, Ph.D.Executive Memorandum #735 April 2, 2001 The wave of publicity about Robert Hanssen, a veteran FBI agent who became a master spy for the Russians, brings to mind a far different man--Whittaker Chambers, a veteran Soviet spy who became, in William F. Buckley Jr.'s words, "the most important American defector from Communism." This April marks the 100th anniversary of Chambers' birth. In August 1948, Chambers, an editor at Time, identified Alger Hiss, a golden boy of the liberal establishment, as a fellow member of his underground Communist cell in...

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CHARLESTON, W.Va.-Record powerball winner Jack Whittaker has reported his 17-year old granddaughter missing, police said late Thursday. Family members had not seen or heard from Brandi Lasha since 9 pm Saturday when she was at her Hurricane home, Putnam County Sheriff's Sgt. Lisa Arthur said.

Story Photo FIRST ON 13 NEWS: Powerball Millionaire Faces 2nd DUI Charge This Year; Also Accused of Carrying a Weapon Without a License Record Powerball jackpot winner Jack Whittaker spent Tuesday night in jail after being charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and carrying a dangerous weapon without a license. 13 News was the first to report the latest arrest of the 57-year-old Scott Depot man. Whittaker also was charged with failure to maintain control of his vehicle and failure to submit to a Breathalyzer test after he wrecked his Hummer on the West Virginia Turnpike. The accident...

After icy weather near Nitro forced Powerball multimillionaire Jack Whittaker off the road, the State Police say they found him drunk and slumped over the steering wheel of his dark green Cadillac. Whittaker, who hit the $314.9 million Powerball jackpot on Christmas 2002, was charged Sunday with drunken driving. Whittaker said he was on his way to Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center when he pulled off Interstate 64 near Nitro because ice was covering the roads. “I’m nowhere near intoxicated,” Whittaker told WSAZ NewsChannel 3 Sunday as police escorted him into Kanawha County Magistrate Court. But State Police Trooper B.R....