Free Republic

The UK government was warned Tuesday by the U.N. that handing out long jail sentences to climate protesters could stifle public displays of dissent. The Just Stop Oil protesters in question caused traffic gridlock after scaling the Dartford Crossing Bridge for almost 40 hours in October last year, as Breitbart News reported. They were later accused of having “blood on their hands” after two women died in car crashes after being diverted from the bridge after the anti-fossil fuel activists had shut it down. Eco-extremists in Britain have a history of blocking motorways, junctions, and city centre intersections. The BBC...

WASHINGTON – The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security has issued a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin today after consultation with the intelligence community and law enforcement partners. There is currently a heightened threat environment across the United States that is likely to persist over the coming weeks. DHS does not have any information to indicate a specific, credible plot; however, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives, could continue...

The Justice Department has filed charges against a Texas man who allegedly threatened to bomb the University of Houston and praised the Islamic State during an online class. Ibraheem Amed Al Bayati, 19, allegedly said during the Zoom call last week "What does any of this have to do with the fact that UH is about to get bombed in a few days?" before using an Arabic pro-IS slogan, according to the indictment. Bayati admitted to the incident on Friday after FBI agents tracked him to a family member’s house using his IP address, according to AFP. Bayati said the...

House Panel to Ask for NSA Spying Probe A congressional panel will ask the National Security Agency's internal watchdog to investigate whether the super-secret spy agency eavesdropped without warrants on a Muslim scholar and later hid that evidence in a 2005 terror prosecution that got him a life sentence.The House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and the judge overseeing the case want the NSA's inspector general to find out if the government failed to disclose evidence that might have cleared the name of a Northern Virginia spiritual leader Ali al-Timimi, Rep. Rush Holt (D- New Jersey) told the New York Times.That...

Benghazi: As new whistle-blowers emerge and Congress tells CIA staffers to lawyer up, a grieving father demands to know how and why his son died and why no one in the administration wants to talk to him. As long as we're on the subject of finding the terrorists responsible for killing U.S. citizens on American soil, the father of a former Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi last September was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to urge support of a special committee to investigate the attacks. As we search for answers on Boston, we still have no real answers on Benghazi seven...

QUETTA: It seems there was no respite in attacks on Afghanistan bound Nato convoys as several more oil tankers were destroyed when unknown armed men attacked the oil tankers in the area of Mithri of the Bolan district.

Terrorists looking for an opportunity to study a regional counterterrorism exercise received a gift Wednesday via an embargoed news release on PR Newswire.

Federal authorities arrested an airport shuttle bus driver and his father in Colorado and another man in New York City on Saturday night, charging them with lying to investigators about an alleged terrorist plot to detonate an improvised explosive against an unknown target in the United States. Acting swiftly late Saturday after a week in which investigators worked intensely in New York and Denver to put together a case, F.B.I. agents arrested Najibullah Zazi, 24, his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, who both reside in Aurora, Colo., and Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, who lives in Flushing, Queens. The arrests indicated...

In its latest filing before the federal district court in Dallas on behalf of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and its affiliate organization, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) in the Hamas-terrorism financing case, the ACLU has made a noteworthy admission. Rather than deny that there is copious evidence tying ISNA and NAIT to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the brief argues that such evidence is merely dated. In a curious footnote on page 7, the reply states:

The main US Muslim advocacy group and rights organisations have blasted a New York Police Department report suggesting that young American Muslims are particularly vulnerable to be recruited as terrorists. "Whatever one thinks of the analysis contained in the report, its sweeping generalisations and mixing of unrelated elements may serve to cast a pall of suspicion over the entire American Muslim community," said Parvez Ahmed, Board Chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). IOL reported that the NYPD suggested that Muslims aged 15-35 are particularly vulnerable to radicalisation. The 90-page report suggested a four-phased process of radicalisation during which...

An advisor to the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr. Haras Rafiq, has told Scotland Yard that one in 11 British Muslims, or nine percent, “proactively support terrorism.” That’s according the London Daily Mail. If accurate, that’s an increase in the number of terror sympathizers who responded to a London Times poll in 2005. Nine percent might sound small, but there are an estimated 1.6 million Muslims in the UK, and nine percent of that is about 144,000 people supporting terrorism. The London Times previously reported that a quarter of terrorism suspects were asylum seekers in Britain. It recounts...

Apr. 20, 2006 18:14 IDF shells northern Gaza Kassam launch sites By JPOST.COM STAFF The IDF began an artillery barrage on Thursday evening, targeting northern Gaza Kassam launch sites. The barrage was in response to a Kassam rocket launched from the northern Gaza Strip, which landed in the western Negev on Thursday morning. No one was wounded and no damage was reported. It was the sixth rocket to be fired on Israel since early Thursday morning.

Indications crucial Iraqi province leaning toward 'yes' vote Sunni-majority provinces play major role in fate of draft constitution Saturday, October 22, 2005; Posted: 1:18 p.m. EDT (17:18 GMT) BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Voters in Diyala province -- the district north of Baghdad with a majority Sunni Arab population -- are backing the country's draft constitution, according to early figures released from last week's referendum on the law. This is a significant development because of the Sunni Arab opposition to the proposed constitution, and a good sign for those who support the legal document, which has widespread backing from Shiites and...

NEW DELHI -- With even the wedding invitations being investigated by police, few will admit they're on the guest list let alone boast they're planning to attend the marriage in Dubai this weekend of an Indian crime don's daughter. A mobile phone message invitation - "Your presence is solicited for the auspicious wedding of Mahrukh. For travel arrangements, contact Noorabhai. Regards, from D" - has been sent to top politicians, officials, film and media personalities in Mumbai, according to police and journalists. It was purportedly sent by international fugitive and India's most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim, popularly known by his...

Recently, in an online forum, some liberal wrote “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO END THIS ILLEGAL WAR IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ FOR OIL AND MAKE GEORGE BUSH STAND TRIAL FOR TARGETING INNOCENT CIVILIANS AND FOR HIS WAR CRIMES.” I was going to tear this argument apart, piece by piece, as I usually do. But I snapped. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So instead I answered something like this… "So you want to put George Bush on trial for “War Crimes”? Well, I helped get him elected. I voted for him. I supported both missions, Afgahnistan and Iraq, and still...

For those who might as yet be unaware, a CBS cameraman has been wounded and captured by US forces in Iraq, and is suspected of working for the "insurgency." CBS: In a statement released Friday, CBS News said the man had worked as a freelancer for CBS for three months and that he was videotaping for the network when he was shot. Televised reports indicated the suspect's camera contained at least four different videos of roadside bombings. Robin Burk: It’s beginning to look as if that means that the news networks may in fact not just be reporting the news...

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ‘fully’ endorses the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Changes "call for a definition of terrorism," according to his report: In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights For All, released yesterday. The 63-page report submitted to all 191 UN Member States is described as an, implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and UN summits, and is part of Annan’s attempt to reform and enhance the role of the embattled United Nations. Expanding the UN Security Council, preventing catastrophic terrorism, ensuring environmental sustainability, freeing people from fear, and...

The re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush significantly affects the entire strategic balance in the Middle East, and particularly with regard to Iran. The Iranian and Syrian governments, in particular, plus many nominally non-state, transnational players — such as al-Qaida, HizbAllah, and the like — geared much of their strategic posturing over the past few years to removing the Bush Administration in the U.S. This created its own dynamic, but, having failed, the positions and policies of these entities will now evolve. U.S. evaluation of, and policies toward, the Middle East must take account of this transformation of realities,...

Within the last hour 5 missionaries were shot in Mosul, Iraq. Their condition is critical and we need to pray now that the military will be able to get to their position and take them to the military hospital in Baghdad. One of them was able to call leadership that he was in and out of consciousness himself. The next several hours are critical! Please be on your knees for these 5 people. Please pray for God's hand to sustain them and to guard their lives. Thank you for your prayer during this time. Further updates will be sent as...

The best line from the speech George W. Bush delivered in London on Wednesday was just nine words long. Referring to the throngs of British protesters railing against the U.S. President and the war he'd started in Iraq, Mr. Bush noted that Britain's "tradition of free speech, exercised with enthusiasm, is alive and well here in London." After the laughter subsided, he added: "They now have that right in Baghdad as well." It was the perfect segue: at once deflating the political tension surrounding his controversial trip, granting a polite nod to the protesters, and presenting listeners with the irrefutable...