Free Republic

Advisers to President Trump are pushing him to dismiss his campaign manager Brad Parscale, arguing he lacks the political instincts to lead the team to a second term in the White House. With just five months until the election, Republican operatives, individuals close to the Trump family and advisers both inside and outside the White House believe Parscale is out of his depth for what will be a closely fought election against Democratic opponent Joe Biden. All spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity. “People within his inner circle continue to question Brad’s ability to bring the campaign down...

Fearful Final Hours for Briton in China The day before his death in the fog-shrouded Chinese city of Chongqing, Neil Heywood sensed that something was amiss. The British businessman had been summoned on short notice to a meeting in Chongqing in early November with representatives of the family of Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief, according to an account by a friend whom Mr. Heywood contacted at the time. Mr. Heywood told the friend he was "in trouble." After he flew to Chongqing, he tried to telephone his usual contacts but couldn't get through to any of them, according...

At The Vatican: Vying Factions For Petrus Romanus Highlighted, Unknown Reasons May Keep Benedict On Past April by Steve Eastman, Raiders News Network One thing we may be certain of is that Benedict XVI is the next to the last Pope in St. Malachy’s Prophecy of the Popes. And both those who speak openly of his successor as Petrus Romanus and those who don’t, can’t help thinking about the upcoming Conclave. No date has been announced since Benedict has neither died nor resigned, but that did not stop the "National Catholic Reporter" from featuring Papal Transition as a top story....

Fiction writing is a far tougher road to travel than op-ed; ask anyone who's tried it. As satisfying as it can be artistically, its practical frustrations can make the aspiring fictioneer wonder why he didn't put his spare time into something constructive, like teaching manatees to tap-dance. Many fiction writers claim to write for the sheer pleasure of it. Some claim they only write for the revenue: "to buy groceries," as the late Robert A. Heinlein put it. But all of us, without exception, write to be read. Anyone who claims otherwise deserves no more of your time. Thus, it...

The whereabouts of a Russian-manned cargo ship that vanished last month in the Atlantic remained in question Friday -- after a Russian envoy said that a reported sighting off the West African coast proved to be untrue. French and Russian officials had said that the ship, the Arctic Sea, had been discovered off the coast of Cape Verde, and Russian ships were on their way to investigate, the Associated Press reported. But a Russian news agency later quoted Alexander Karpushin, Russia's ambassador to Cape Verde, disputing that information about this ship, which had been carrying a load of timber and...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The mystery surrounding a missing merchant ship deepened Thursday with the vessel's operator suggesting piracy and maritime experts suspecting foul play or even a secret cargo. The Kremlin ordered Russian warships to join the hunt for the 4,000-tonne, 98-meter bulk carrier Arctic Sea, whose fate has baffled maritime authorities across Europe and North Africa. The Maltese-registered vessel, carrying a $1.3-million cargo of timber, was supposed to have docked on August 4 in the Algerian port of Bejaia. It never arrived and is thought to have last made contact from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France....

LONDON: A Defence Section official of the Pakistan High Commission in London committed suicide on Monday evening by jumping from the fourth floor of the high commission building. He had recently been posted here. Sources at the High Commission said Munir Ahmed, who worked as an assistant in the Naval section of the High Commission, jumped out of the toilet window around 3.30 pm. He stayed alone in London and is survived by his wife and five children, reported The News . The incident has raised several questions on what may have forced the father of five children to go...

Altantuya trial postponed, family sues govt and accused PETALING JAYA: The Shah Alam High Court has postponed the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial to June 18 to allow the new prosecution team time to prepare its case. In the meantime, her family has filed an RM100mil civil suit against the Government of Malaysia as well as the three defendants in her murder trial which began Monday. The three include policemen Cif Inspektor Azilah Hadri, 31, and Koperal Sirul Azhar Umar, 36, who are charged with committing the murder in Mukim Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on...

----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Tira - McClatchy Corporate To: CHACHI Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 12:36 PM Subject: RE: There are pro-Castro folk inside The Herald As the new owners of The Miami Herald, we want to join in the apologies that have been extended for mistakes and missteps there, and to ask you to give us the time and opportunity to show what our ownership will mean. The McClatchy Company is proud of almost 150 years of newspaper history and its long record of respectful community journalism. We want to assure you that we intend to bring...

Intelligence agents will be commissioned to Brazilian embassies in Venezuela and Bolivia, as the two countries have become a matter of concern in the hemisphere, official sources said Thursday. The Institutional Security Cabinet under the President's Office confirmed AFP the news disseminated in newspaper "Estado de Minas." Officials explained that they are not covert agents, but attaches who will cooperate with the domestic staff of the countries where they will be deployed. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) started a process of internal selection of the officials who will be appointed to Caracas and La Paz. To date, Brazil had intelligence...

by Mark Finkelstein July 17, 2006 - 21:58 Will the left wing please make up its mind as to the danger posed by conservative talk-show fans? As documented by MRC, in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, liberals like Bryant Gumbel pointed the finger at conservative talk radio: "Right-wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh . . . and others take to the air every day with basically the same format: detail a problem, blame the government or a group, and invite invective from like-minded people. Never do most of the radio hosts encourage outright violence, but the extent...

/begin my conversation"Phone Conversation of Kim Kyong-hee & Jong-nam Intercepted", Sankei in Japan Reports"North's succession intrigue intense.... even one hour conversation while drunk" Kim Kyong-hee(left,) (Kim Jong-il's sister,) and Kim Jong-nam(right,) (Kim Jong-il's eldest son) An intelligence agency of an E. Asian country has been successful in intercepting frequent phone conversations between Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-il's eldest son, and Kim Kyong-hee, Kim Jong-il's sister since early last year. They were international calls between Pyongyang and Beijing, according to May 1st issue of Sankei Shimbun(of Japan.) The paper reported that Kim Jong-nam blamed incompetent N. Korean security agencies for his arrest...

In this upside down world we call California politics, few things are what they seem, but always full of intrigue. The Protagonists. Arnold. Our maverick Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has charted a new course politically. He has proposed an ambitious infrastructure program paid for by bonds. There are few precedents in history for such a high stakes proposal during an election year and so 2006 promises to be interesting if not nail-biting - but that is not the half of it. Don Perata & Fabian Nunez. On the Democrats' side, Senate Majority Leader Don Perata (East Bay/9th District) and Assembly Speaker...

Who's next in North Korea? By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005 SEOUL Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, is pushing an age - 63 - when he is widely expected to designate a successor who will carry the mantle of power he inherited from his own father in the Communist world's first and only dynasty. But he has problems. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, has not been home for years, wandering in self-imposed exile overseas and reportedly on the run from hit men hired by supporters of his stepbrothers. His second...

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-09/07/article05.shtml Israel Tries to "Win Russia Over": Report Lavrov, right, made a distinction between occupied Palestine and Chechnya (AFP) OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, September 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –Showing appreciation for Israel's sympathy and offers of security assistance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov however drew a line between Chechnya and Palestine, making it clear Arab countries could not be excluded from any alliance against terror. "Chechnya is a part of Russia. But the Palestinian territories are declared by UN resolutions and international legitimacy as occupied lands," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom, according...

Carlisle Barracks blocks Web site Censored editor vows First Amendment fight Saturday, September 06, 2003 BY MATT MILLER Of The Patriot-News CARLISLE - A freedom of speech battle is brewing over a decision by Carlisle Barracks leaders to block access to an Internet site that purports to uncover military corruption. The move to bar Army post workers from logging onto militarycorruption.com was taken to "preserve morale, good order and discipline," barracks spokeswoman Lt. Col. Merideth Bucher said. "The command blocked access to the Web site from government work stations because of complaints by Carlisle Barracks employees that this site consists...

George Galloway, reeling from the "shock and awe" of the week's media firestorm, says that his reputation has been "carpet-bombed". Debbie Parry, the British nurse sentenced by the Saudis to be beheaded for a murder she did not commit, knows what he means. She was carpet-bombed relentlessly by Galloway in 1998 after returning from her 17-month ordeal in a Saudi jail. Galloway called her "gruesome", the female "equivalent of Dr Crippen". Her offence was to have been convicted of murder by a Sharia court in Saudia Arabia: a court which dispensed with such legal niceties as disclosure of prosecution evidence,...

Good evening Mr. Blix. Someone on this thread is an Iraqi Agent and is in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to capture the Agent and disarm the WMD before they can be implemented. The Agent is a slippery fellow and will use any means at his disposale to evade capture. THE PLAYERS:One Iraqi Agent: One person on this thread will be chosen at random to act as the Iraqi Agent. He will be notified via FRmail. The game begins after he has acknowleged receipt of the FRmail. His goal is...

Hussein`s Email Is Hacked NOVEMBER 01, 2002 23:04 by Ki-Tae Kwon (kkt@donga.com) The Iraqi Government opens the direct email address (press@uruklink.net) to the President Sadam Hussein. The reporters of the ‘Wired Dot Com’ of America hacked that email box. It contained shocking contents. Since Hussein`s email is managed by the Iraqi national Internet service provider, the Western businessmen believed that their secrets were secured and proposed many different things that are contrary to their national interests and justice. One of the shocking mails was a proposal by a businessman who called himself as a bio-chemical expert to sell bio-chemical weapons...