Free Republic

I attended the Bush campaign rally in Hedgesville, WV on 8/17. It rocked!!! My nephew and I were lucky enough to get to sit right behind where the President was speaking. The only photograph that I can find showing either of us is on the Martinsburg Journal News website. It only shows my nephews head to the right of the President. If anyone can find another picture showing both of us it would be very much appreciated as this would be a great momento for him.

Judge's Report Shows Cheney Aide Is Accused Of Broad Deception The special prosecutor in the CIA leak case alleged that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was engaged in a broader web of deception than was previously known and repeatedly lied to conceal that he had been a key source for reporters about undercover operative Valerie Plame, according to court records released yesterday. The records also show that by August 2004, early in his investigation of the disclosure of Plame's identity, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald had concluded that he did not have much of a case against I....

Two weeks ago, Turkish police arrested an Islamist with ties to many upper tier al-Qaida members. The man not only tried to get asylum in Germany, but claims to have known about the London bombings beforehand and to have helped the 9/11 pilots. The Turkish interrogators in Istanbul's high-security prison wanted to be polite; they wanted to show respect for Islam. They offered their prisoner, an Islamist named Luai Sakra, 31, a chance to pray during a pause in questioning. They'd done the same thing with earlier suspects. The move was supposed to establish trust. But this prisoner reacted a...

1. Ahmad Abu Adass In 2005, the last year of his life, Ahmad Abu Adass was 22 and still living with his parents in Beirut, Lebanon. He was kind and liked people, his friends later told investigators, but none of them thought he was very sophisticated. The best way to describe him was simple, one said. He was generous and a little naïve. He was very weak, physically. A Sunni Muslim of Palestinian descent, Adass had become interested in religion and now spent many hours at the Arab University Mosque near his home. It was there, after a prayer session,...

NIGERGATE THE TRUTH: HOW THE FRENCH TRICKED THE USA “I was employed by the French since 1996. I handed the false documents on the uranium trade between the Africa and Iraq to them” –-- With this startling declaration Rocco Martino, the freelance spy at the centre of the false Niger dossier, has confirmed that France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq. Before examining Martino’s deposition it’s worth taking a look at some of the details regarding France contained in the Senate Select Committee...

The lawyer for Jonathan Keith ''Jack'' Idema said Tuesday that he doesn't think Idema can get a fair trial in an Afghan court. Idema, who is from Fayetteville, has been held in an Afghan jail since his July 5 arrest on charges of kidnapping and torturing Afghan citizens. Two other Americans, Brent Bennett of Fayetteville and Ed Caraballo of New York, are being held with him. Idema has been identified as the leader of the group. He has said he and the others were hunting down terrorists. A hearing in a Kabul court for the three men was set to...

WITH RECENT U.S. and British allegations that shipments of explosives similar to those used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are being shipped into Iraq from Iran for use by the insurgency, it is long past time for American policy-makers to examine the role of Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani and the Qods (Jerusalem) Force unit under his command in fomenting and facilitating anti-American terrorist activity since the September 11 attacks.The very nature of General Suleimani's position within the IRGC warrants him being on America's radar. As the commander of Qods Force, Suleimani is charged with overseeing the IRGC's...

Two New York mosque leaders charged with conspiring to support terrorists. Amazing how they could have risen to the leadership of a Muslim religious center while so thoroughly misunderstanding Islam. Funny thing: the same thing happened in Lodi, California. And all over the world, as we document here every day, we see Islamic clerics -- people who have dedicated their lives to studying and living out the religion -- at the forefront of terrorist movements. And yet so many people refuse to see what is right in front of their faces: maybe they aren't misunderstanding Islam at all. Aref and...

Perils of Good Intentions Roh's idealism has turned South Korea into a debtor state By B. J. Lee Newsweek International Sept. 6-13 issue - South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun came to power last year as a populist outsider, and in recent months has spelled out spending plans that deliver on his promises in a big way—some say too big. The total amounts to as much as $300 billion over 10 years, a vast sum for a $600 billion economy with an annual government budget of $150 billion. There's $100 billion to support financially troubled farmers and fishermen, $52 billion...

… the remarkable reach of the global-terror network A little-noticed investigation by Swiss federal police has uncovered the existence of an apparent terror-support network with ties to the upper levels of Al Qaeda — including an operative believed to have played a role in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the May 2003 bombing of a housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The discovery of a largely invisible Al Qaeda network in the peaceful alpine nation has gotten virtually no public attention outside of Switzerland. But criminal charges outlined in a July 30 Swiss prosecutor’s report —...

Saturday's Washington Post had an article which quotes the usual unnamed intelligence sources saying that they are surprised to discover that al Qaeda has "reconstituted" itself. This surprise derives from, inter alia, the computer data found recently in Pakistan, intelligence sources (both ours and friends'), and simply looking at the range of activities in which the terrorists engage. This surprise is, as usual, unsettling, since it has been quite clear for some time now that al Qaeda and the other major terrorist groups — Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Jamaa, etc. — are all working together, and have been ever since...

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 1:09 p.m. EDT Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado. The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition. Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the...

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

TORONTO — Canadian immigration authorities tried to deport the Toronto VIA Rail terror suspect nine years ago but never did so because, as a stateless Palestinian, he could not be sent to any other country, documents obtained by the National Post show. Raed Jaser was allegedly working illegally under several aliases when he was arrested in August 2004 on an outstanding immigration warrant. Officials wanted to deport him because he had a string of criminal convictions but were forced to set him free after two days. The government’s failure to deport Mr. Jaser allegedly proved costly for Canada: He and...

PALOS HILLS, Ill. (AP) A local bank has closed a mosque's account after it donated money to an Islamic charity under federal investigation for allegedly helping terrorists. Family Bank and Trust Co. closed the account of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview after the mosque wrote two checks to the Islamic American Relief Agency, according to the mosque's imam, Sheikh Jamal Said. Mosque Foundation president Oussama Jamal said the mosque made its donations in August and September, before the federal government froze the charity's assets and raided its Missouri offices in October. The Treasury Department alleged Islamic American Relief was part...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who preached in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, loathes Israel, justifies suicide bombings against its civilians. 1. Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdallah al-Qaradawi is a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was expelled from Egypt and found refuge in Qatar, operating from there throughout the Muslim world. 2. Many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader. (In the past, he refused to accept the title of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide). He is influential in Egypt and considered one of the most important Sunni...

I’ve written about this before … but with the release of the WIKILEAKS documents, even Wired magazine acknowledges that US troops found chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. But don’t worry; if you liberals keep telling yourself “Bush Lied”… you’ll get through this. By late 2003, even the Bush White House’s staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But for years afterward, WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction In...

NEW YORK — After the epic disaster of , one might imagine the United Nations would tread carefully before launching any new and controversial efforts. Hardly.Still reeling from scandals on many fronts, the U.N. has launched another questionable initiative, called the , which is due to hold its first meeting this weekend in Spain. The program has been widely touted by U.N. Secretary-General as a bridge across cultural and religious divides, but it involves a daisy-chain of dubious associations that casts serious doubt both on the project itself and on the U.N.’s ability to cut loose from the scandals of the past...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Muslim scholar whose visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame was revoked shortly before the start of the school year has roused the support of Christians and Muslims who say he would add a valuable voice to religious understanding. Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Islamic theologian, was to have started work at the Catholic university in Indiana in August. In February, he was issued an H-1B visa, a category reserved for professionals. In late July, after his family had already shipped their belongings to Indiana, the State Department revoked the visa and told Ramadan he...

SAN`A, Yemen — Yemeni authorities have released 113 militants belonging to the Al Qaeda network — including at least five once accused of involvement in the deadly bombing of the USS Cole — after they recanted their extremist views, security officials said Thursday. The militants once accused in the USS Cole bombing were later cleared. The 15 Yemeni militants convicted in August of involvement in the 2000 bombing, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, were not released. The 113 men were released during the past two weeks after signing pledges not to carry out terror acts or criminal activities. LoL!!! Full...