Free Republic

MADRID, Spain (AP) — The terrorists behind the Madrid train bombings financed much of their operation with sales of hashish and Ecstasy, even bartering drugs for the explosives they used in the blasts, Spain's interior minister said Wednesday. The bombers also used money from drug sales to rent an apartment and buy a car and cell phones used as detonators in the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800, Interior Minister Angel Acebes told a news conference. Acebes said the cell that staged the attacks "was local and autonomous, but its leaders have connections with...

Story Number: NNS040310-05 Release Date: 3/11/2004 3:00:00 PM By Fire Controlman 2nd Class Joseph W. Lovett, USS Port Royal, and Lt. Chris Davis, ESG 1 Public Affairs PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- USS Port Royal (CG 73) returned home to Pearl Harbor March 11 following a six-and-a-half month deployment with Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 1. The 350 crew members assigned to Port Royal returned to “the Navy’s best homeport” following operations in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Port Royal deployed Sept. 2 with ESG 1, supporting a Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps-sanctioned...

Story Number: NNS040304-03 Release Date: 3/4/2004 10:10:00 AM From Expeditionary Strike Group 1 Public Affairs SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The seven ships attached to Expeditionary Strike Group One (ESG 1) are returning home this week following a six and a half month deployment in support of the global war on terrorism. USS Greeneville (SSN 772) returned to its Pearl Harbor homeport Feb. 27. USS Port Royal (CG 73), also from Pearl Harbor, is scheduled to arrive home March 10. The remaining ships of ESG 1, USS Peleliu (LHA 5), USS Ogden (LPD 5), USS Decatur (DDG 73), USS Jarrett (FFG...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Teachers in a German school were treated in hospital after gobbling up an anonymously donated chocolate cake, unaware it was laced with hashish, authorities said on Thursday. Some 10 teachers from the school in the northern town of Lueneburg were treated for nausea and dizziness after sharing a cake left at the door to their staff room, a police spokesman said. "They thought it was food poisoning, but the doctors quickly recognized the problem," the spokesman said. "They showed all the classic signs of people under the influence of drugs." The spokesman said the teachers had not...

<p>Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has become deeply involved in international drug trafficking, using the money to buy arms and, possibly, radioactive material for use in a so-called "dirty" nuclear bomb, senior U.S. officials say.</p> <p>The seizure earlier this month of boats carrying heroin and hashish, and operated by al Qaeda-linked persons, has brought to light an al Qaeda drug operation that has grown tremendously since the September 11 attacks, the sources say.</p>

Navy forces have detained four al Qaeda suspects as a result of maritime interdiction operations in the U.S. Central Command area or responsibility, Vice Adm. David Nichols said Dec. 19. Nichols, who heads the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, 5th Fleet, said that within the last two weeks, ships stopped and searched two ships. In one instance, sailors detained one individual; in the other it was three. In one case, the suspected al Qaeda was trying to enter Iraq. In the other, Navy officials do not know where the ship was destined. At least one ship was carrying hashish, said...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Police in northeast Spain found three tons of hashish in a seaside bunker and arrested two suspects, authorities said Wednesday. Police found the illegal drug stash early Tuesday during a routine patrol of a beach in Hospitalet de L'Infant in Tarragona province. The hashish was contained in 19 bundles hidden in a bunker built during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and had a street value of $4.2 million, the Interior Ministry office in Tarragona said. Hours later, police arrested a 33-year-old Spaniard in wet, sandy clothes at the Hospitalet train station. Later a 25-year-old man from...

<p>One of the U.S. Marshals Service's "15 Most Wanted" fugitives has been taken into custody by Israeli national police, captured at a scuba-diving shop he operated in the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, Israel.</p> <p>Sidney Marvin Lewis, who had eluded capture since 1990, after being charged with trying to smuggle a ton of hashish into Oregon, was arrested Oct. 9 after new leads in the case pointed to Israel, the Marshals Service said.</p>

UN Ambassador Gillerman: Israel Has Right to Defend Her Citizens US: Syria Is On The Wrong Side in the War on Terrorism - Harbors Terror Organizations United Nations---October 6......Israel's UN ambassador defended the IDF attack on Islamic terror bases in Syria, saying that Syria was harboring and supporting terrorists. The U.N. Security Council is presently meeting at Syria's request to discuss the Israeli air raid on a Palestinian terror training base near Damascus on Sunday. Syria's U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad called on the council to adopt a resolution condemning the attack as "military aggression." Syria's draft calls for Israel to...

JUNEAU - Marijuana reform will be a major topic tackled at this year's Alaska Libertarian Party convention, being held Saturday in the Douglas Conference Room at the Prospector Hotel. Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, will give a lecture at 6 p.m. about the national efforts to reform marijuana laws. MPP is a national organization based in Washington, D.C., that has been active in challenging government policy toward marijuana.