Free Republic

Note: The following text is a quote: For Immediate Release February 4, 2010 United States Attorney's Office Central District of California Fifth Gang Member Sentenced to Life Without Parole After Convictions in Massive Federal Racketeering Case Other Members of Florencia 13 Gang Receive Multi-Decade Sentences for Numerous Crimes, Including Race-Based Attacks, Committed in Bid to Control Drug Trade and Extend Gang Territory into Other Neighborhoods A fifth member of Florencia 13 (F13), a street gang involved in narcotics distribution and shootings of African-Americans, has been sentenced to life in federal prison for his conviction on a host of federal criminal...

<p>CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — Amid fresh violence in Iraq, President Bush discussed military operations yesterday with national security aides and with three foreign leaders who have sent troops.</p> <p>Mr. Bush spoke by phone with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland and Francisco Flores of El Salvador.</p>

CRAWFORD, Texas - Amid fresh violence in Iraq, President Bush discussed military operations Friday with national security aides and with three foreign leaders who have sent troops. Bush spoke by phone with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland and Francisco Flores of El Salvador. Nearly 3,000 Italian troops and paramilitary police are serving in Iraq, 2,400 Polish and 380 Salvadoran. Seventeen Italians have died in Iraq and one soldier each from El Salvador and Poland. Bush discussed "the current situation in Iraq" with the men, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "All four leaders reaffirmed their...

Dorothy Oxendine presides over American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a national organization of women whose sons and daughters have died in military service to the nation. (Photo by Mark Abraham) AMERICAN IDENTITY With the Iraq War, a New Generation of Gold Star Mothers BY DELIA M. RIOS More stories by Delia M. Rios WASHINGTON -- As Dorothy Oxendine knows, the most dreaded words a parent can hear are "We regret to inform you ..." She lost her only son, Pfc. Willie F. Oxendine III, to a land mine in Vietnam on May 30, 1968. His death at age 21...

ALONG ROUTE 8, Iraq -- The crew and the tank nicknamed ''Hermes'' disappeared just after midnight last Tuesday. It vanished, it seemed, in the dust and darkness just ahead of Marine Capt. Brendan Rodden. In his tank immediately behind, Rodden didn't realize the Hermes was gone until his unit had traveled five more miles -- after the column of M1A1 Abrams tanks from the 1st Tank Battalion turned away from an unfinished bridge and skirted west along the Euphrates River. They probably just got disoriented, Rodden thought, maybe mixed up with another unit. It was easy enough to get lost...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.