Free Republic

The Obama administration, especially DOD secretary Robert Gates and DHS secretary Janet Napolitano has been attempting to disarm America by cutting the most important portions of the national budget and increasing threat of national security, in terms of a new era of Cold War against China, and against war on terror as well as illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border, while the Obama administration has been trying to spend tax payers' money on unwanted Obamacare. In 2010 December, photos of China's stealth fighter prototype J-20 during taxi flight test appeared on websites in China, assumed to be leaked by unknown...

<p>VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Wednesday denounced as "outrageous and grave" plans by a Christian minister in Florida to burn copies of the Quran to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary.</p> <p>The Vatican office responsible for relations with Islam issued a stern statement saying every religion has the right to expect that its sacred books, places of worship and symbols will be respected and protected.</p>

DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's army has seized control of a key Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold in a region bordering Afghanistan after killing 75 local and foreign militants, a top general said on Tuesday. "The first Pakistan army uniformed soldiers have arrived in Damadola after a recent operation and the Pakistan flag has been raised (there) for the first time since (independence in) 1947," Major General Tariq Khan told journalists. Damadola, in the district of Bajaur near the Afghan border, was the scene of the 2006 US drone strike that targeted Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.

More than 120 Taliban militants have been killed and 56 others captured since a major offensive against Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province was launched on Feb. 13, Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said Thursday, DPA reported. "The troops have killed over 120 rebels and captured 56 others, " Azimi told a joint press conference.

South Korean internet users, bothered by Japanese internet bashing of Korean gold medal figure skating star Yu-Na Kim, may be behind a massive denial of service (DoS) attack that has disabled one of Japan’s most popular message boards known as 2channel, Japanese and Korean media outlets reported on March 2nd (JST). On February 28th, the Japanese-language version of a South Korean news site, Joins.com, reported that a Korea internet site was trying to gather internet users for a joint attack aimed at taking down the parts of the 2channel (2ch.net) message boards known to be filled with ultra-nationalist Japanese rhetoric...

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the United States Central Command, said Sunday that the battle being fought in the Taliban stronghold of Marja was the “initial salvo” in a military campaign that could last 12 to 18 months. In an interview on NBC’s news program “Meet the Press,” the general, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, sought to put the Marja battle “into context” by explaining its part in the overall effort by American, Afghan and other forces to defeat the Taliban. He said that international forces had spent recent months mapping strategy, gathering resources and...

ebruary 21, 2010: An Indian firm (Metaltech) has created what amounts to an armored golf cart for protecting facilities and chasing down terrorists. The ATAC (Anti-Terrorist Assault Cart) looks like an enclosed golf cart, and it is armored (in addition to some large bulletproof windows) to protect the two people inside from bullets and grenade fragments. ATAC has firing ports so the crew can shoot back. The $45,000 vehicle is battery powered, and can operate for six hours between recharges. Top speed for the half ton vehicle is 25 kilometers an hour and it is small enough to move around...

Another leader of the Afghan Taliban has been captured by authorities in Pakistan working in partnership with U.S. intelligence officials. Taliban sources in the region and a counterterrorism officials in Washington have identified the detained insurgent leader as Mullah Abdul Salam, described as the Taliban movement's "shadow governor" of Afghanistan's Kunduz province. Taliban sources told NEWSWEEK's Sami Yousafzai that Salam was grabbed by Pakistani security forces in the city of Faisalabad about a week ago—close to the same time that Pakistani forces, again with American support, captured the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi. The...

Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as "human shields" as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said. Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them. The joint offensive in southern Helmand province has entered its fifth day. US Marines fighting to take the Taliban haven of Marjah have had to call in air support as they come under heavy fire. They have faced sustained machine-gun fire from fighters hiding in bunkers and in buildings including homes and mosques.

MOSCOW (AFP) – Muslim leaders in Russia have called for believers to boycott Saint Valentine's Day, saying it "preaches universal permissiveness, amorality and nihilism." A council of Muslim leaders in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region released a statement Wednesday calling for a "ban" on celebrating Valentine's Day, which is growing in popularity in Russia although it is not an official holiday.

Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range Watch VideoWatch RT News Report Also see news posted via Free Republic.

You're looking at a mosquito who got taken down mid-flight by a laser gun designed by Nathan Myhrvold. The malaria-carrying pest never saw it coming, but you can watch everything happen over and over again in this video. The idea behind the laser is that it could be used to control mosquito populations in developing countries in hopes of reducing the number of deaths due to malaria, a disease f More..requently carried by the flying insects. The device was shown off during the TED 2010 conference and does in fact appear to be capable of tracking and killing mosquitoes.

THE STANSUAV Swarm Attack Waziristan Stronghold "Up to eight US drones fired some 18 missiles at multiple militant targets in Dattakhel village," a senior security official told AFP. by Staff Writers Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Feb 2, 2010 At least 16 militants were killed on Tuesday after US drones fired numerous missiles at a village in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said. The strike, which officials said involved 18 missiles fired from eight of the unmanned planes, is the latest in a series of US attacks on the lawless tribal area, which Washington calls the most...

WASHINGTON — The deaths of seven Central Intelligence Agency operatives at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan are a pointed example of the civilian spy agency’s transformation in recent years into a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s far-flung wars. The C.I.A. operatives stationed at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, where Wednesday’s suicide bombing occurred, were responsible for collecting information about militant networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plotting missions to kill the networks’ top leaders. In recent months, American officials said, C.I.A. officers at the base had begun an aggressive campaign against a radical...

WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago in Pakistan, Central Intelligence Agency sharpshooters killed eight people suspected of being militants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and wounded two others in a compound that was said to be used for terrorist training. Then, the job in North Waziristan done, the C.I.A. officers could head home from the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters, facing only the hazards of the area’s famously snarled suburban traffic. It was only the latest strike by the agency’s covert program to kill operatives of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and their allies using Hellfire missiles fired from Predator aircraft controlled...

Marines are trying to make good on President Obama's promise to "reverse Taliban momentum" in southern Afghanistan, launching with the first major offensive since the president spoke about his Afghanistan plans Tuesday night. Share U.S. forces attack Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province. In the early morning hours, arriving by helicopter and V22 Osprey aircraft, approximately 300 Marines from Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine recon unit Task Force Raider, dropped into a strategically important area in northern Helmand Province. This is the first time the Osprey tilt-wing aircraft have been used in an offensive in...

A Washington state family whose turkey was stolen by a dog on Thanksgiving have quite a story to tell about how they eventually got the bird back (Nov 28). See Video News for more

WASHINGTON – More than 2.1 million drop-side cribs by Stork Craft Manufacturing are being recalled, the biggest crib recall in U.S history, following reports of four infant suffocations. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said late Monday the recall involves 1.2 million cribs in the United States and almost 1 million in Canada, where Stork Craft is based. Sales of the cribs being recalled go back to 1993. Nearly 150,000 of the cribs carry the Fisher-Price logo. The CPSC said it is aware of four infants who suffocated in the drop-side cribs, which have a side that moves up and down...

WELLINGTON : The New Zealand government said the army vehicles would provide increased protection for 71 Special Air Service soldiers, especially from roadside bombs, Radio New Zealand reported on Friday. Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said the light armored vehicles would stay there as long as they were needed to provide increased protection for the personnel, particularly from roadside bombs, which were one of the greatest threats.

KABUL - Europe may send 5,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan, Britain’s prime minister said yesterday - affirming support for the NATO mission as the Obama administration nears a decision on increasing American troop levels. The announcement came as the Taliban struck again in the capital. A suicide car bomber blasted a US convoy near an American military base in Kabul, injuring nine American soldiers and 10 contract security guards.