Free Republic

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian troops launched a major military offensive Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia and the president accused Russia, which has close ties to the separatists, of bombing Georgian territory. A Russian official denied the bombing. But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship. An Associated Press reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia and villagers were fleeing into Russia. "I saw...

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is on record stating his ambitions to make his country a modern and secular state modeled on the Turkish republic under Kemal Ataturk. Ironically, even as that goal appears mind bogglingly unachievable for Pakistan, recent events will conspire to push Turkey in the direction of Pakistan; into becoming a breeding ground for a new class of Islamic militants. The transition of Turkey into a new front for Saudi interests will follow typical ideological, strategic and political trends... It is no mere coincidence that the Saudis need a functioning Sunni army to counter the likely expansionism of...

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday. The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over its nuclear ambitions. Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran's nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran. At a White House news conference, Bush expressed hope Putin would brief him on his talks in Tehran and said he would ask...

Bush warns Putin over 'World War Three' By Matthew Moore and Adrian Blomfield Last Updated: 6:10pm BST 17/10/2007 George W Bush, the US president, today warned that world leaders risk helping bring about "World War Three" unless they do more to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. David Blair: No warmth or trust behind the handshake Leader: Vladimir Putin in Teheran In remarks timed to coincide with Russian president Vladimir Putin's visit to Teheran, Mr Bush said the Islamic republic must remain isolated until it drops its nuclear ambitions. New best friends: Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after their meeting in...

Report: Israel spots nuclear installations in Syria Washington official says Israeli surveillance shows possible Syrian nuclear installation stocked by North Korea, Israeli Arab newspaper claims target of alleged raid last week was Syrian missile base financed by Iran Israel believes that North Korea has been supplying Syria and Iran with nuclear materials, a Washington defense official told the New York Times. “The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” he said. The official added that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights over Syria revealed possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials estimate might have been...

The Prince of Wales was a "most likeable person", President Gaddafi a "mad clown" and Michael Jackson was "surprisingly shy". The private diaries of Ronald Reagan, which are about to be published for the first time, reveal a US president who was worried about imminent Armageddon but who also fretted about how he would handle chopsticks in front of the Chinese. The man who was credited with ending the Cold War reveals that he was "lonesome" when his wife, Nancy, was away and refused to talk to their son, Ron Junior, after he hung up on him. His carefully handwritten...

Markus Wolf, the sinister East German spymaster who spun his web across Western Europe, has died peacefully in his sleep — taking with him some of the darkest secrets of the Cold War.A solitary red rose was deposited by a sympathiser yesterday on the doorstep of his Berlin apartment block. But few tears were being shed for the 83-year-old Stasi general who dispatched some 30,000 agents to seduce Nato secretaries, buy up politicians, vacuum up secrets and train terrorists. Normally voluble politicians contacted for comment yesterday refused to utter a word, as if Mr Wolf were a demonic presence. “Let...

Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho's residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town, especially because its isolation cuts it off from outside help. When nearly everything they know seems gone, will the residents of JERICHO band together to face their unfamiliar and mysterious new world?

A new armor-busting rocket-propelled grenade believed to be of Iranian origin has shown up in Iraq in what may be “a hint about things to come,” the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Sept. 19. Gen. John Abizaid said the weapon, an RPG-29, has a dual warhead and has proved effective against most types of armored vehicles. ”The first time we saw it was not in Iraq. We saw it in Lebanon. So to me it indicates, number one, an Iranian connection,” he told defense reporters here. ”It’s hard to say in our part of the world...

Hizbollah mourners on a funeral parade shoved aside anti-tank barriers at a United Nations base in Lebanon yesterday in a demonstration of their new political strength. The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three "martyrs" at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising. When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry. A mob of young men then...

Freepers, I am looking to create a group blog consisting of posters to FR. The focus of the blog will be counterterrorism, intelligence, defense, foreign policy and, of course, politics. A sense of humour is welcome although not required. I have been blogging at alphabetcity.blogspot.com for the better part of three years and would like to start this venture there. Here is an idea of what I hope to create: A blog with the PR savvy of Allah (Hot Air), the erudition of Ed Morrissey (Captains Quarters), the in-your-faceness of Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs) and the research slash investigative...

The Iraq inner facsistic massacres are not just "sectarian". Nor is Iran's playground: Lebanon a local "conflict". http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1222824,00.htmlTIME.com:How the Hizballah Factor Will Determine an Iraq Civil ... http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/03/sunni_vs_shiite.html Sunni VS Shiite, or rather, Iran VS Iraq? http://www.meib.org/articles/0404_iraq1.htm "Iran, Sadr, and the Shiite Uprising in Iraq" (April 2004) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124835,00.html Iran presses Shi'ites to step up Iraq attacks - Times | Top News http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-12T045657Z_01_N12291036_RTRUK OC_0_UK-IRAQ-IRAN.xml Iranian Intel Officers Captured in Iraq - US & World http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2310725 ABC News: US: Iraqi Shiites Get Help From Iran http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/11/business/iraq.php Iran stokes Iraq unrest, US says - Africa & Middle East ... http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-sadr.htm Iran's Al-Madi army

Well .. that got your attention.Actually, the thought got mine .. I figured I'd throw it out and see what happened.

PARIS- Police have shut down makeshift Muslim prayer rooms at Paris' two main airports after they came under scrutiny following a far-right politician's allegations that Islamists were compromising security. Officials insist there was no threat. But the prayer sites set up by Muslim workers in cloak rooms, depots and other areas at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were quietly shuttered. There are three official prayer rooms still open at each airport, just as there are chapels for Christians and synagogues for Jews. A book published in May by Philippe de Villiers, a presidential hopeful who opposes Muslim immigration, said...

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Six people were killed in shootings and 10 wounded in a grenade attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Indian Kashmir, police and the army said. Indian troops shot dead four Muslim rebels during a fierce gunbattle near the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. "The four were killed during a gunbattle that erupted late Sunday in the (northern) Gurez sector," army spokesman Hemant Joneja told AFP on Monday. He said the four were part of a group that had infiltrated into Indian Kashmir on Wednesday from across the Line of Control...

<p>Three Arab Knesset members were removed from the Knesset on Monday after heckling government leaders during a session called to discuss the war on the northern border.</p> <p>Knesset member Ibrahim Sarsur called Defense Minister Amir Peretz a “war criminal” and together with two other Arab legislators, antagonized both peretz and opposition leader and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu.</p>

THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA CALLS ON ALL TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH HONEST, CONSCIOUS AND INTERNATIONAL MORAL AND HUMANITARIAN LAWS. IT ALSO WARNS ALL THAT IF THE PEACE OPTION IS REJECTED DUE TO THE ISRAELI ARROGANCE THEN ONLY THE WAR OPTION REMAINS AND NO ONE KNOWS THE REPERCUSSIONS BEFALLING THE REGION, INCLUDING WARS AND CONFLICT THAT WILL SPARE NO ONE INCLUDING THOSE WHOSE MILITARY POWER IS NOW TEMPTING THEM TO PLAY WITH FIRE.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice salutes a US Marine as she walks towards a helicopter upon her departure from Beirut after meeting with Lebanese officials.

Hezbollah terrorists fire a missile from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.

ABU DHABI (AP)--France will participate in an international peacekeeping force for Lebanon under certain conditions, French Defense Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie said on Saturday. Such a force would have "no meaning," Alliot-Marie warned, without contributor countries identifying in advance its duties and how these would be carried out. She didn't say how large the force would be. Alliot-Marie made her comments at a press conference after meeting Abu Dhabi's crown prince Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed. While the fighting in Lebanon between Israeli and Hezbollah forces was part of a larger problem, Alliot-Marie added that a quick end to the clashes was...

This info was included on another thread, but I thought it might be helpful to have its own thread. After the recent discovery of cbr suits, a CS canister, and weapons in a London mosque, it is important for all of us to help be the eyes and ears of homeland security. THIS LINK will provide a site at which you can locate mosques in your area. If you see some suspicious activity, report it. SEARCH BY ZIPCODE There are sleeper cells all over this nation, particularly in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, and...

Bill Engvale is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. For years he’s been doing a routine about stupid things that people say. Each example ends with the tag line, “Here’s your sign.” That means a big sign with STUPID written on it. Although geopolitics are not Bill’s metier, he offers a way to cut through the twaddle about the beginning of WW III. Let’s start with Howard Dean. (Remember him? He was in all the papers.) Dean cropped up today giving a fire-breathing speech to the faithful (and forlorn), screaming that we wouldn’t have these problems in the...

An Israeli soldier maneuvers an armored personnel carrier at their position along the Israeli Lebanese border. Israel was amassing thousands more reservists on the Lebanese border to stage ground incursions aimed at destroying Hezbollah positions, warning it would not rule out a full-scale invasion despite mounting calls for a ceasefire.

Thousands across the Muslim world used Friday's Islamic day of prayer to protest Israel's attacks on Hezbollah, urging Sunni-Shiite unity to defeat the Jewish state. Police clashed with anti-Israeli demonstrators in Egypt, Bahrain and Indian-run Kashmir. Waving posters of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, thousands gathered after Friday prayers at Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, the most prominent Sunni Muslim institution in the Arab world. “Sunnis or Shiites (there is) no difference; all together to resist the enemy,'' Sameh Ashour, head of the Arab Lawyers Union, told the crowd. “Resistance is the solution.'' The fighting between Israel and the Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon...

Israeli gunners cover their ears as an artillery piece fires into southern Lebanon from a position on the border near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Friday, July 14, 2006.

Police set up roadblocks following warnings that suicide bomber infiltrated Israel, plans to blow up in city Owing to warnings of a possible terror attack in Tel Aviv, security forces across the Dan bloc were on heightened alert Friday night. According to reports, a female suicide bomber had managed to infiltrate the city. Police and security forces set up roadblocks throughout the area. This is not the first time recently that roadblocks were set up in the vicinity of Israel’s coastal cities. On Wednesday alert levels were raised in the Sharon area after intelligence was received that a suicide bomber...

An Israeli soldier scouts the area near the Israel-Lebanon border, July 20, 2006.

The Israelis are learning the hard way how not to deal with terrorists. They evacuated southern Lebanon after being told that that action would bring peace. They also left the West bank, and the Gaza Strip with the same understanding. The leftists and the UN told them that those actions were necessary in order to bring peace to the region. What have they received as a result? Missile attacks on its cities and kidnappings of its soldiers, and they are coming from the previously occupied territories? Now that they are responding, the world, those who look at appeasement as a...

Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago JERUSALEM - Israel declared Tuesday it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 260 people and displaced 500,000. The military said early Wednesday it sent some troops into southern Lebanon searching for tunnels and weapons. Despite the diplomatic activity, Israel is in no hurry to end its offensive, which it sees as a unique opportunity to crush Hezbollah. The Islamic militants appear to have steadily...

Israeli girls write messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position near Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border, Monday, July 17, 2006

09:02 Amir Peretz: We won`t stop fighting before achieving our objectives (Haaretz) 08:52 Barrage of Katyusha rockets hits Kiryat Shmona (Itim) 08:48 IDF arrested 12 wanted Palestinian militants in overnight West Bank raids (Itim) 08:32 Two Qassam rockets land in Ashkelon; no casualties or damage reported (Channel 10) 08:07 One IDF soldier lightly injured in fighting in northern Gaza Strip (Israel Radio) 07:57 Asia-Pacific officials working to evacuate citizens from Lebanon (AP) 07:31 Rocket barrage slams into Safed; no immediate report of casualties, damage (Haaretz) 07:30 Two people lightly injured in Acre from rocket hits (Haaretz) 07:21 Alarm sirens heard...

Like you, I spent the past week viewing the events in the Middle East with growing concern. In the 13 weeks that I have been bringing you my thoughts in Winning the Future, I have shared with you directly many challenges facing us. But no challenge confronting America is greater than the one I am writing about today. And no challenge requires us to be more candid and more direct about what victory will require. As I talked about yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," I am now firmly convinced that the world confronts a situation that is frighteningly similar...

09:19 MDA: More than 20 people hurt in Katyusha rocket strike in Haifa (Channel 2) 09:16 Residents of Acre, Haifa and its suburbs told to enter bomb shelters (Israel Radio) 09:15 Tenth Katyusha rocket lands in Haifa (Israel Radio) 09:15 Explosions heard in Rosh Hanikra (Israel Radio) 09:11 Katyusha rockets hit Acre and suburbs around Haifa Bay (Channel 2) 09:06 Report: Three to five explosion heard in central Haifa (Israel Radio) 08:47 Chirac: Forces threatening Lebanon`s security, sovereignty must be stopped (AP) 08:41 Sgt. Tal Amgar killed on Navy ship to be buried 16.00 Sun. at Ashdod cemetery (Itim) 08:39...

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president. "We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,' " Gingrich said. He talks about the need to recognize World War III as important for military strategy and political strategy. Gingrich said he is "very worried"...

The North Korean launch of seven missiles last week might be going to the Security Council. But don't expect much to happen. China is expected to veto any threat of council sanctions. U.S. intelligence sources said China and North Korea have essentially become partners in missile production and export. The sources said the two countries cooperate in missile programs in Iran, Syria and Yemen and used to operate in Libya as well. China and North Korea have also been collaborating in nuclear exports throughout the Middle East. The sources said China helped build a zirconium production plant in Isfahan. The...

I thought this could be a new thread for today. BurbankKarl's thread did well yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has confirmed that Saudi financiers are backing the new regime with ties to Al Qaida that has taken power in Somalia. Officials said the so-called Islamic Courts Union, headed by an Al Qaida commander wanted by the United States, has garnered most of its foreign support from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. "I don't want to say the Saudi government is supporting any particular [Islamic] court," Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said. "But I do know that there is money coming in from Saudi Arabia." On June 29, Frazer told the House International Relations Committee...

The U.S. intelligence community has not been surprised by Iran's refusal to respond to a Western incentive package to suspend its uranium enrichment. Intelligence sources said Iran, following North Korea's model, intends to delay any response or negotiations for as long as possible. The European Union and the United States demanded that Iran reply to the Western incentive package of nuclear technology, fuel and aircraft by June 29. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Teheran would submit an answer by Aug. 22. The U.S. intelligence community has been trying to figure out why Ahmadinejad chose that date. Sources said...

TOKYO--North Korea has launched a seventh missile, a news report said Wednesday, citing Japanese government sources.North Korea fired the latest missile at 5:22 p.m. (4 a.m. EDT), Kyodo News Agency reported. The missile landed 6 minutes later, the report said.

Condoleezza Rice spoke the language the European nations, Russia and China wanted to hear before she met their representatives in Vienna Thursday, June 1, to discuss their incentives package for cajoling Iran into abandoning its proscribed nuclear activities. The US secretary of state said the US was willing to join European allies in direct talks with Iran - provided Iran abandoned its uranium enrichment program. Tehran predictably dismissed the offer as propaganda and presenting no “new and rational solution” to Iran’s nuclear case. The enrichment program would go on, declared Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Rice had her answers ready...

Syrian and Iranian diplomats traded barbs with Israel's UN ambassador on Tuesday, as a routine Security Council meeting on fighting terrorism degenerated into insults. At a meeting aimed at assessing the progress and work of the Security Council's three anti-terror committees, Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said that World War III had already begun and urged the former Allied forces from World War to act against the axis of terror, consisting of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbullah. He called the four entities the "greatest state sponsor of terrorism and the largest threat to international peace and security." Gillerman also lashed...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, on Wednesday compared the threat from Iran’s nuclear programs to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "Just like September 11, only with nuclear weapons this time, that’s the threat. I think that is the threat," Bolton told ABC News’ Nightline program. "I think it’s just facing reality. It’s not a happy reality, but it’s reality and if you don’t deal with it, it will become even more unpleasant." Bolton ratcheted up the rhetoric as the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council failed...

April 12, 2006, 5:46 PM (GMT+02:00) The day after the announcement of Iranian success in producing uranium enrichment, Tehran’s most adept diplomat, Expediency Council head Hashemi Rafsanjani, arrived in the Syrian capital Wednesday for four days of talks. After publicly declaring Iran’s nuclear aims were “purely peaceful”, Rafsanjani embarked on secret talks with Syrian leaders on ways of working together to raise war tensions in Iraq and the Lebanese-Israeli border. They describe Tehran’s motives as being to try and put the Americans on the spot of having to appeal to its clerical leaders for a key to a political solution...

Syria Supports Iran in Nuclear Standoff Friday January 20, 2006 1:32 AM By ALBERT AJI DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syria asserted Thursday that Iran had a right to atomic technology and said Western objections to Tehran's nuclear ambitions were not persuasive. President Bashar Assad of Syria, a longtime Iranian ally facing its own international criticism, said he backed Tehran's moves toward nuclear power and wanted to strengthen ties. ``We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology,'' Assad said at a news conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of two days of meetings. ``It is the...

The man who saved the world -------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com You almost died in 1983. Do you remember what you were doing on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 25, of that year? Not likely. But you came within a whisker of dying that day. Amazingly, the news about this didn't come out until 1998. And only since 2004 has the press actually begun to pick up on the story. It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, and 120 staff were working the graveyard shift in Serpukhov-15, the secret USSR command bunker hidden in a forest 30 miles northeast of Moscow. In the...

The nightmare of nuclear war in Europe - a spectre that haunted the world for half a century - stood revealed yesterday in terrible detail. In a historic break with the past, Poland's newly elected government threw open its top secret Warsaw Pact military archives - including a 1979 map revealing the Soviet bloc's vision of a seven-day atomic holocaust between Nato and Warsaw Pact forces. Click to enlarge The defence minister, Radek Sikorsky, showed off the map at an emotional press conference. He described it as a "personally shattering experience", pointing to a long line of nuclear mushroom clouds...

Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified. Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians. Out of the ashes, Japan and the United States forged a close political...