Free Republic

Chile's extreme militant left is reorganizing around the Patriotic Front Manuel Rodriguez -- or FPMR -- but only the Communist Party seems to be noticing. Most politicians, concerned with their own pre-election internal squabbles, have ignored the process. But the communists, the only remaining legal institution of the Marxist left, paid considerable attention. The government, kept informed by the Defense Ministry, apparently preferred to turn a blind eye to the rebuilding of the FPMR. Rocking the boat would have overshadowed the tributes that it lavished on former president Salvador Allende in September as part of its of national and international...

LOUSY FREEPER TROLL!!! How many times have we heard that over the past 7+ years that we have been monitoring DUmmieland? Many! We have planted plenty of moles in the DUmp to egg the DUmmies on and to expose their nuttiness. Well, the New DUmmieland ain't puttin' up with it anymore! With characteristic panache and aplomb, Assistant Head DUmmie EarlG, aka DUAC Earl, has rolled out a brand-new Troll Patrol to catch and dispatch the nasty intruders. He's calling it the "MIR Team," the "Malicious Intruder Removal Team." I call it the "MIR Spaced-out Station," in other words, a...

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

NEW DELHI: The agreement between David Coleman Headley and US authorities, under which he pleaded guilty to being part of the 26/11 plot in order to dodge the death sentence and extradition to India, has considerably abated the fear here that the Americans would let off Headley aka Daood Gilani, a suspected "double agent", lightly. It also marks a big boost to New Delhi's efforts to expose Pakistan's propaganda to project Lashkar as a group focused on J&K. Details of the "guilty" plea made by Headley validate India's claims about the Lashkar leadership masterminding 26/11, and suggest that the American...

Al-Qaeda Threat in Philadelphia? Philadelphia, PA June 27, 2002 — David Henry reports from the Action Newsroom. An Action News investigation reveals that a chain of jewelry stores operating in the Delaware Valley is being investigated by the FBI for possible connections to the Al Qaeda terror network. A series of raids were carried out yesterday in Philadelphia and across the state of Pennsylvania. The stores are mostly kiosks in shopping malls operating under the name "Intrigue Jewelers." They are all owned by Pakistanis under franchise agreements with a company called Gold Concepts, based in Pennsacola, Florida. Intrigue operates stores...

The Polyus military testbed was put together on a crash basis as an answer to America's Star Wars program. It was built around a surplus TKS manned spacecraft and was meant to test prototype ASAT and Star Wars defense systems. It failed to reach orbit, but it had succeeded, it would have been the core module of a new Mir-2 space station. Its mere presence could have decisively changed the shape of the Cold War in its final months. In 1985, it became clear that the Energia launch vehicle would be ready for launch before the Buran space shuttle that...

Hamid Mir truly has deep access inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He is best known as the last journalist to interview Osama Bin Laden, and the only one to do so after the attacks of September 11, 2001. He is currently the Bureau Chief of Islamabad for Geo TV and is writing a biography on Osama Bin Laden. He has interviewed countless members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in many countries over the years. HM: I don’t think that Iraq had any direct link with Al-Qaeda. Saddam tried to contact Osama Bin Laden in 1998 but he was not entertained....

While the Bush administration is on the defensive for its conduct of the war in Iraq, the real setback in the U.S. war effort is coming in Afghanistan where the Taliban is alive, well and thriving throughout the countryside and even in much of neighboring Pakistan, according to an exclusive report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. In a report by Paul L. Williams, author of the new book, "Dunces of Doomsday," and David Dastych, one-eyed Mullah Omar and his army of radical Islamic students are currently in control of all of the rural and mountain areas of Afghanistan, including Khost,...

The luxury plane was exported to Havana from Russia Cuba is buying one of Russia's most up-to-date airliners, carefully crafted for President Fidel Castro's personal comfort. The purchase is part of an initial Cuban order for two brand new Ilyushin planes worth $110 million (£63 million) which Russian officials say is a shot in the arm for their struggling airline industry. To head off criticism that a new presidential jet is an expensive luxury in austere times, Cuba says one of its new planes is being used to ferry workers to and from Venezuela. To finance the deal, Cuba has...

The "mysterious Mr. Zzylch" boarded the posh Gulfstream executive jet for his Russian business trip accompanied by a few friends, a pizza somebody grabbed along the way and the board game Risk, just for laughs. Zzylch, as millionaire Washington telecom mogul Walter C. Anderson once jokingly called himself, was in negotiations with Russian officials to lease their moribund orbiting spacecraft, Mir. They needed money. He had plenty.

<p>At least three men reportedly were taken into federal custody in two Pensacola malls as the FBI and the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated a nationwide sweep Wednesday.</p> <p>Witnesses said plain-clothes agents closed Intrigue jewelry vendors at Cordova and University malls, Wild Things at University and possibly other shops.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 27 Mir Dreams Credit: STS-76 Crew, NASA Explanation: This dream-like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir resembles a whimsical flying insect hovering about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait. In late March...

24 Oct 2003 11:50:59 GMTSaudi police nabs 80 during protest attempt-source By Fahd al-Frayyan RIYADH, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Saudi authorities arrested more than 80 people who sought to protest in response to calls by an exiled dissident group demanding reform in the absolute monarchy, a security official said on Friday. The protest, the second in the kingdom in two weeks, was seen as a new challenge to the Saudi royal family, which is already mounting a crackdown against militants loyal to Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Tens of people were detained as they gathered. The number reached...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 28 Mir Dreams Credit: STS-76 Crew, NASA Explanation: This dream-like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir resembles a whimsical flying insect hovering about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait. In late March...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 20 The Space Shuttle Docked with Mir Credit: Nikolai Budarin, Russian Space Research Institute, NASA Explanation: Before there was the International Space Station, the reigning orbiting spaceport was Russia's Mir. Pictured above in 1995, the United States Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the segmented Mir. During shuttle mission STS-71, astronauts answered questions from school students over amateur radio and performed science experiments aboard Spacelab. The Spacelab...

When your arch-rival is Coca-Cola, it is important to aim high. Pepsi is doing this with possibly the biggest promotional giveaway in marketing history - a trip to space. The fizzy drinks giant is in talks with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency to buy a £10million shuttle ticket to the Mir space station. If successful, Pepsi plans to give this away as a prize on a TV gameshow broadcast in the US. 'It's the most audacious PR tactic any consumer brand has ever attempted and I think it will be successful,' said Gidon Freeman of PR Week. 'The media...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 May 4 The Moons of EarthCredit: STS-91 Crew, NASA Explanation: While orbiting the planet during their June 1998 mission, the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery photographed this view of two moons of Earth. Thick storm clouds are visible in the lovely blue planet's nurturing atmosphere and, what was then Earth's largest artificial moon, the spindly Russian Mir Space Station can be seen above the planet's limb....

Virus 2: The Real Story of the 'Mir' Threat By Igor Popov In a Hollywood blockbuster, the Russian orbital station "Mir," having fallen into the Pacific Ocean, threatens mankind with a terrible virus that it has brought in from the space. It is interesting that in 2001 a similar chilling plot moved from science fiction to the news. Shortly before the Russian space pride found its last resort in the Pacific waters, both Russian and western media started to scare their readers with the frightening reports about "the Mir danger." The alarm was caused by nothing else but. . ....