Free Republic

The C.I.A.’s concerns were not unwarranted. In 2019, the Russians undertook an elaborate operation to find Mr. Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico, to help. The scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and later earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a source of pride for his family, with a history of charitable work and no criminal past. But the Russians used Mr. Fuentes’s partner as leverage. He had two wives: a Russian living in Germany and another in Mexico. In 2019,...

In less than two weeks, the Office of Personnel Management is expected to launch the new background investigation service to help fix the mess created by a series of incidents ranging from a lack of contractor oversight to the massive data breach affecting 21.5 million current and former federal employees. Officials promise the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) will be a much different organization than its predecessor, the Federal Investigative Services. “It will have a politically appointed director, will be headquartered in D.C. and be a full member of the Performance Accountability Council, so it aligns with customers for increased...

A BREAKING NEWS, Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) communique is reporting that a comment allegedly made by outgoing President Obama to President Elect Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner in their secret meeting Wednesday at a Marine Corps Base in Hawaii was so antagonistic that US Secret Service agents had to intervene! Their meeting "erupted in a Scream Fest that caused US Secret Service protective agents to intervene before physical violence was caused." Kushner was reacting to stark criticism of his father in which Obama, "suggested/implied that his father, Charles Kushner, might be safer living in Israel if the Trump team didn't like...

HALLANDALE BEACH— A little crack can cause a mighty mess — and a heap of disappointment. "The casino's closed today," Lucille Sfalanga told customer after customer Monday outside the Gulfstream Racing and Casino Park. A mysterious chink in the casino's floor-to-ceiling fish tank caused a deluge around 12:15 a.m. Sunday, forcing the two-story casino to close even while the village's shops, restaurants and racetrack remained open. On Monday, dehumidifiers and fans were at full blast, removing moisture from soggy carpets on both floors. Engineers were still trying to figure out what caused the leak, said Mike Couch, director of gaming...

Abbas Madani, leader of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria, has expressed his reservations over the Charter for Peace and (National) Reconciliation on which the Algerian people voted in a referendum last month. Madani, who now lives in Qatar, said he cannot call on the Algerian armed groups to lay down their arms and turn themselves in. He said: "If the president (Abdulaziz Bouteflika) guarantees their safety and grants them the right to defend themselves and they do not come down (from the mountains), then we will have something different to say. However, to give them the choice...

The Algerian Connection Why did Saddam financially support an al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria? by Thomas Joscelyn 08/03/2005 12:00:00 AM LATE LAST MONTH an Algerian-born terrorist named Ahmed Ressam received a commuted sentence of 22 years (prosecutors had recommended 35 years) in prison for his role in planning to blow up the Los Angeles airport. His sentence infuriated many since his involvement in the plot against LAX was immediately transparent. After all, he was captured in December 1999 after driving off a ferry from British Columbia in a vehicle laden with bomb-making explosives. Ressam received a commuted sentence after providing...

ALGIERS (AP) - Police detained a leader of Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front after he publicly praised Iraq's insurgency and condoned the killing of two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Ali Belhadj, who was freed from prison in 2003 after serving a 12-year sentence, was detained by police on Wednesday after making the comments in a telephone interview with Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, El Watan newspaper reported. The report could not immediately be confirmed with police or government officials. Iraq's most feared terror group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, said on Wednesday that it had killed the two Algerian...

REUTERS: 27 Sep 2003 10:59:07 GMTAlgerian army kills 150 Islamic rebels - report ALGIERS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Algeria's armed forces have killed 150 Islamic rebels in their most successful attack on guerrilla hideouts since the North African country plunged into violence a decade ago, a newspaper said on Saturday. A crackdown on the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) by the armed forces and state-armed militias started two weeks ago and is still going on in the province of Setif, 300 kms (190 miles) east of Algiers, the influential El Watan newspaper said, citing military sources. It said...

Algeria bars foreign press The Algerian authorities have asked all foreign correspondents to leave the country. Even journalists who went to the country purely to cover the release on Wednesday of the founders of the Islamic Salvation Front - FIS - have been asked to leave. The order was given on Thursday morning by an official of the Algerian ministry of communication and culture. Some of the journalists have left the country already, but others are preparing to leave by Thursday's afternoon. In the meantime, they have been restricted to their hotels and banned from covering events linked to...

Sun 30 Mar 2003 US assassins 'kill Iraqi chiefs' in Baghdad IAN JOHNSTON ijohnston@scotlandonsunday.com AMERICAN special forces have assassinated several senior Iraqi officials in a series of bomb and sniper attacks in Baghdad and other cities, it was revealed yesterday. American government sources say that in the past week of covert operations "more than a handful" of Republican Guard commanders and Ba’ath Party officials have been killed. The ultimate aim of the undercover squads, according to sources, is to kill Saddam Hussein’s closest associates and even the Iraqi president himself. A source said at least some of the explosions seen...