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<p>Obama, all his advisers, and the fawning MSM are clueless.</p> <p>As mistakes go, I would say this is the ultimate. A prepared speech (not an off-the-teleprompter gaffe), announced days in advance to the world. How is a mistake this huge possible? There is no chance he misread (misspoke), otherwise, there would be no mention of Belfast in that portion of the speech.</p>

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

The President and First Lady continued their visit to United Kingdom today spending part of the day in London and then travelling to Northern Ireland before departing for Washington. There were some serious meetings where the Presdent was assure that Britain would continue their support and in fact would increase troops in Afganistan. The relationship between Gordon Brown and the President seemed more relaxed than at any of their previous meeting. On a lighter level the President and First Lady visited an integrated primary school in Belfast and the First Lady also visited the British Museum earlier in the day...

The body of Edward Burns, 36, - who was shot in the head - was found near Falls Road and the beaten body of Joe Jones, 38, was discovered in Ardoyne. Irish police said that three men and a woman had been arrested by detectives in Dublin and Dundalk on Sunday. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said three men and a woman were being questioned in Antrim over the killings. Police said the killings took place against the backdrop of tension within dissident republicanism.

Hain not sorry for his slavery apology  The Northern Ireland Office has said Peter Hain will not be apologising for clouding the issue over Ulster's role in the slave trade. The Secretary of State said his reason for attending an event in New York on Wednesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery was to apologise for "the role Wales and Northern Ireland played in the slave trade". "We acknowledge that. We take responsibility for it and we now are going to try and at least say that that historical legacy must be recognised and we...

A watchdog committee at Westminster has said the Goverment isn`t tackling the underperformance of Protestant pupils urgently enough. The committee has sent the Department of Education an end of term report. It grades the department on what it has done to lift exam results in loyalist areas. The verdict: could do a lot better. GCSE Maths: Appalling performance; literacy and numeracy: progress manifestly unsatisfactory. In fact the latter criticism applies across Northern Ireland. The Public Accounts Committe reports that one in five pupils leaves school here without being able to read and write properly. But though concerned with the broad...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Belfast's most infamous militant stormed into the Northern Ireland Assembly headquarters Friday with a bagful of pipe bombs, forcing an evacuation that overshadowed the politicians' failure to meet a deadline for forming a new Catholic-Protestant administration. Two security guards trapped Michael Stone — an icon of Protestant extremism because of his grenade-and-gun attack on an Irish Republican Army funeral in 1988 — halfway inside the brass revolving door of Stormont Parliamentary Building. Stone, a long-feared figure who boasts of his desire to kill Sinn Fein leaders, repeatedly screamed "No surrender!" as one guard twisted Stone's arm...

An Islamist explosives expert now in a Northern Ireland prison conducted dummy runs for terror attacks at Dublin and Knock ************************************ A convicted al-Qaeda bomb-maker serving a jail sentence in Northern Ireland carried out dummy runs for a potential terrorist plot at Dublin and Knock airports, The Observer can reveal.Last Tuesday the expelled Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was seen exhorting young British Muslims in an online broadcast from Beirut to target Dublin because he incorrectly believed US troops used the airport as a transit centre on the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that key al-Qaeda...

An Algerian with suspected links to al-Qaida was today jailed for six years for downloading instructions on how to blow up an aircraft with a bomb. The 27-year-old man, sentenced at Belfast crown court, was found guilty of possessing and collecting information connected with terrorism. Authorities have admitted they are unsure exactly who he is. During his six-week trial, he appeared in court under the name Abbas Boutrab. He has used at least seven aliases since his first known arrest for stealing a bag in Paris 13 years ago. Detectives in Northern Ireland, the British security services and the FBI...

The body of former high-profile Protestant militant, Jim Gray, lies beneath a shroud on a street in East Belfast. One of Northern Ireland's most high-profile Protestant militants - nicknamed Doris Day - has been shot dead outside his home, police say. Two gunmen fired several shots at Jim Gray last night after he answered his door in Protestant east Belfast, his longtime power base. Detectives covered his body with a white sheet as they combed the yard outside his home for forensic evidence. No group claimed responsibility for his assassination. Gray, 43, had been free on bail while awaiting trial...

HUNDREDS of rioters returned to the streets of Belfast last night, hijacking cars, blocking roads and attacking police lines with petrol bombs, bottles and stones. A blast bomb was thrown at a police station in West Belfast, but nobody was injured in that explosion. As attacks at the New Barnsley police station grew worse, a car and van were crashed into the gates. Wheelie bins and gas cylinders were also set alight. Elsewhere, ten people were arrested and police fired baton rounds after being targeted. One officer was injured. The renewed violence came after the chief constable of Northern Ireland...

BELFAST, August (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a concerted effort by Christian and pro-family groups to put a stop to Belfast’s annual “Gay Pride” event, on Thursday the Northern Ireland Parades Commission gave the homosexual group the go-ahead to hold the event. The Northern Ireland Police Service requested that the Parades Commission – originally set up to decide on whether parades held by warring Catholics and Protestants be allowed to proceed – rule on the matter, after receiving complaints about the lewd nature of the parade from concerned Christian groups. A Christian coalition, Stop the Parade Coalition, originally complained that the event...

The Irish Republican Army announced last week an end to its 35-year terrorist campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. If the group can be believed, a conflict that took 3,600 lives, over half of them killed by the IRA, is over.... Why the IRA's apparent change of heart? According to a communique issued last week, the IRA believes "there is now an alternative way" to achieve its goal of a united Ireland, which is "to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means." This rings hollow. The IRA is already politically well-represented through Sinn...

Roman Catholic protesters assaulted police and Protestant marchers in a polarized part of Belfast, and nearly 30 people were injured, police in Northern Ireland said Saturday. The violence flared Friday night as a parade by the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternity, passed a hostile crowd on the edge of the Ardoyne district, a traditionally Catholic enclave. Hundreds of police in riot gear tried to keep the two sides apart, but Catholic men and youths spent more than an hour hurling bottles, bricks and at least 10 Molotov cocktails at the police lines. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 18...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -- The United States has demanded that the IRA disband after the guerrilla group's astonishing offer to shoot the killers of a murdered Northern Ireland Catholic man. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business," U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss said Wednesday. For the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's biggest Irish nationalist party, the U.S. demand was yet another blow to its democratic credentials. Reiss told BBC radio: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated. "You can't sign...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The Irish Republican Army (news - web sites) said Friday night it expelled three members implicated in the knife slaying of a Belfast man, a killing that has focused Catholic anger against the outlawed group. In a lengthy statement, the IRA said it was doing everything it could to ensure that the killers of Robert McCartney, 33, were brought to justice. The underground organization emphasized it would not tolerate any attempts to intimidate witnesses to the Jan. 30 attack on McCartney and his friend Brendan Devine, who had his throat and stomach slashed but survived. The...

Sunday, 10pm: Armed and masked gangs take over the homes of two Northern Bank staff, one in Loughinisland and one in Poleglass. The families are taken to undisclosed locations. Monday, 7am: The bank employees are told to go to work as usual at the Northern Bank HQ on Donegall Square West. Monday, 4:30pm: Belfast city centre is packed with Christmas shoppers. Monday, 6pm: After the bank closes only the two bank employees and security staff are left. Black bin bags are left outside to be cleared away by a 'refuse' lorry. The bank's vaults are believed to have contained up...

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!

Belfast, Nov 28 : Two leading businessmen of Indian origin are leading the way in keeping the flag of Indian culture flying in Northern Ireland. Unlike British towns such as Leicester, Birmingham, London and Bradford - which have a large Asian population - Belfast and Northern Ireland have a small but influential Indian community. Estimates vary between 200 and 250 families of Indian origin in Northern Ireland, but the community is said to be influential in trade and business. It is being increasingly incorporated in official efforts to change perceptions about Northern Ireland and sell it as an ideal destination...