Free Republic

In the hunt for Saddam Hussein's billions, investigators have identified five networks of more than 100 companies used to launder money skimmed from Iraqi oil sales. Saddam's gangster regime set up shell companies in Switzerland, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Panama, according to investigators. Those company networks and their banking affiliations were used to enrich the former Iraqi strongman, his sons Uday and Qusay, and other family members. "Ultimately, the money was stolen from the Iraqi people," said Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the Treasury Department, which is heading the government's laundering probe along with U.S. Customs, the Secret Service and various...

US details Haditha shoot-out A roadside bomb that killed a US Marine in the restive town of Haditha on Saturday also killed 15 Iraqi civilians and led to intense clashes with insurgents. The powerful bomb detonated as a US military convoy was passing through the town, which is 220 kilometres north-west of Baghdad. The US military says immediately after the blast, gunmen opened fire on the convoy. US and Iraqi soldiers returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another in a firefight. A cameraman working for Reuters in Haditha says bodies had been left lying in the street for hours...

The Alabama State Legislature approved a bill for MMI to be merged into the Alabama post-secondary education system. The MMI Board of Trustees voted unanimously to accept this offer on Tuesday, March 7, effective June 1, 2006. The immediate effect of this merger will be the added financial support of the state along with 375 additional college scholarships (state cadetships). The Preparatory school will be financially supported by the state for up to 3 years. During this 3 year period, which begins on June 1, 2006, MMI will not be permitted to enroll any new preparatory students.

MARION, Ala. (AP) — College life isn't about parties and freedom from authority for Nolan Michalski. Weekday mornings, the 21-year-old Memphis native is in uniform and, by 7 a.m., standing in formation, saluting as the flag goes up. His college town is quaint and quiet, lacking the typical bar scene. Marion is all right, he says, "except for being in the middle of nowhere and my cell phone not working." But Michalski, who has wanted to be an Army officer since he was in the sixth grade, has found a place and a focus as he prepares for a future...

HER dusty file was one of hundreds of thousands of documents stacked in a house in a wealthy neighbourhood of Baghdad. Asma Rasheed married a pilot, lived comfortably in the presidential compound of Saddam Hussein and directed a microbiology programme that was not supposed to exist. Rasheed’s light blue folder has emerged from a huge archive seized by forces loyal to Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which opposed Saddam. The archive — a dark who’s who of Iraq — reveals the tiniest details of blandishments and humiliations by a paranoid regime that shared the Nazis’ obsession...

Chicago Fed factory index drops in October Thursday December 11, 11:59 am ET NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said on Thursday its Midwest manufacturing index fell back in October after a strong rise the month before, but nevertheless the region's factories are on the mend. The Chicago Fed's manufacturing index dropped 1.8 percent to 111.0 in October, after an upwardly revised surge of 3.9 percent in September. Compared with a year ago, the index was down 2.2 percent. Chicago Fed senior economist William Strauss cautioned not to read too much into the October decline,...

KUALA LUMPUR, November 10 (IslamOnline) - The Muslim leader accused of terror links with the al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Abu Bakar Bashir risks deportation to Malaysia, Singapore or the U.S. if he is stripped of his Indonesian nationality, sources said Sunday, November 10. Singapore and Malaysia have in the past urged Indonesia to arrest Bashir for his alleged role in terror activities on their soil. Basyir is accused by Singapore of being the spiritual leader of the JI while Malaysia has him high on the terror list allegedly for connections with the Malaysian Mujahidin Movement (KMM). The U.S....