Free Republic

Starrgaizr collected these 18 years ago:

"A flag bearing a crescent and star flies from a flagpole in front of the World Trade Center, next to a Christmas tree and a menorah." New York Times, 1997 In 1997, Mohammed T. Mehdi, the head of the Arab-American Committee and the National Council on Islamic Affairs, lobbied to have a crescent and star go up at the World Trade Center during the holiday season. His wish was granted, despite the fact that Mehdi had been an adviser to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. In the name of diversity and political correctness, an adviser to the religious leader behind the...

A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York's World Trade Centre. It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators. The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball' has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik. He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience. It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre," he...

NEW YORK - As the city agency overseeing the removal of the World Trade Center rubble was wrapping up its work in 2002, several officials handling the painstaking recovery of human remains warned that things were moving too fast. They believed that more pieces of the 2,749 dead could be found, and that the city shouldn't be rushing such an important task. But they were overruled, two of those officials told The Associated Press this week. Over the past few days, dozens of bones have been discovered in underground passages at ground zero, more than five years after the tragedy....

An al-Qaida-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence. The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified. The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross"...

Just in. I am looking at a picture of the WTC with smoke pouring out of the western tower. Looks like a huge amount of damage. Debris raining down on people in the street.

Here are some links from the FR archives in observance of the fifth anniversary of 9/11/2001 - Threads list of several breaking news items - Latest Articles The first post reporting the attacks by OldEconomyBuyer - World Trade Center Posted on the first anniversary - Associated Press newswire - September 11, 2001 - Chronology of news alerts, bulletins and flashes

At dawn on September 11, 2001 in Mount Vernon, New York, a man wakes, dresses, pulls black high-top trainers onto his feet, kisses his sleeping wife and heads to work in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Meanwhile in Queens another man — a pastry chef at Windows on the World, the twin towers’ top-floor restaurant — puts on jeans, a blue checked shirt and a Casio watch handed to him by his wife. She drives him to the station, where he waves goodbye, disappearing down the subway steps. In New York City and its suburbs more than...

This picture of Islamic extremists at Ground Zero was taken by UAC members of protesters who showed up to protest against the National Rally Against Islamofascism Day. This image is free to publish everywhere, let's get it out to as many Americans as possible. Publish this everywhere you can and send it to everyone you can. Anti-UAC Protesters at Ground Zero protesting the United American Committee's Rally Against Islamofascism on February 1. Keep in mind this is at GROUND ZERO where 3,000 Americans were murdered by Islamic extremists. You have permission and we ask that you please publish this picture...

Subscription required thus no excerpt Canadian special forces soldiers in southern Afghanistan have killed Taliban and Al-Qa'ida rebels over dozens of operations in recent months as they work secretly in small units, military sources say. The modest contingent of troops from Joint Task Force 2 is an integral part of coalition efforts to stem the tide of insurgency that has risen since campaigning began for tomorrow's elections. JTF2 commandos have joined counterparts from the United States and some British Commonwealth countries, such as Australia, in fighting that has claimed more than 1,200 lives in six months, defence sources say. Authorities...

It was reported in the Washington Post on Monday that the civil liberties board, whose main goal is to make sure individual rights are not trampled upon during our so-called "War on Terror," has yet to meet and is under-funded by the Bush administration. Created by Congress last year, the board consists of five members nominated by the president to act as an independent watchdog against potential abuses of the Patriot Act. President Bush took six months to appoint five members to the panel as reported in the Washington Post. In his proposed budget for fiscal year 2006, he allocated...

Today I propose we the American people (Freepers) start voting with our remotes. Allow me to explain. We are at war with an enemy that seeks our total destruction. In order to defeat this enemy, we the American people must reach a common bond with a common purpose and that being total Victory. While this war may last decades, we cannot loose unless we do not stay united. However, if we are divided from internal struggles, there is a chance our civilization will be destroyed and replaced with a Muslim culture. The most dangerous internal struggle I see today is...

To day judge R. Paris ruled in the court case against Ayaan Hirsi Ali that she did not acted unlawfully when she talked about the Islam and Mohammed. A group of Muslims had started the trial to forbid her of speaking about the Islam, Mohammed and to forbid the sequel of submission. The judge said he has no indication that Hirsi Ali did grieve the Islamic people on purpose: "[Hirsi Ali] chooses in her struggle against women suppression an maltreatment consciously for a method that stimulates debate about Islam reform" But amazingly the judge also warned Hirsi Ali to be...

On Tuesday, May 10, 2005, America became a true police state. Your U.S. senators voted -- unanimously, with no discussion, and without even reading the bill -- to create a national ID card. The Real ID Act blackmails state governments into turning their drivers licenses into a draconian tool of the federal homeland security apparatus. If states refuse, their citizens lose such "privileges" as being allowed to board an airplane, enter a federal building, or apply for social security. President Bush is expected to sign the bill eagerly on Thursday. In three years -- by May 2008 -- this Stalin-style...

SEATTLE – While most Parent Teacher Student Association meetings might center on finding funding for better math books or the best way to chaperon a school dance, a recent meeting here at Garfield High School grappled with something much larger - the war in Iraq. The school is perhaps one of the first in the nation to debate and vote against military recruiting on high school campuses - a topic already simmering at the college level. In fact, the Supreme Court recently agreed to decide whether the federal government can withhold funds from colleges that bar military recruiters. High schools...

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said. The 10-day suspension was issued because Kevin Francois was "defiant and disorderly" and was imposed in lieu of an arrest, Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham said. The confrontation Wednesday began after the 17-year-old junior got a call at lunchtime from his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, who left in January for a one-year tour with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion. Mobile phones are allowed on campus...

A memo leaked to Narco News by some brave soul within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers a revealing insight into the so-called war on terrorism. In short, the memo seems to show that for at least one federal law-enforcement agency, investigating terrorism is not unlike the childhood game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” The memo, issued on March 28 by a high-ranking official with DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), essentially orders supervisors in the field to sanitize terrorism-related case files maintained in a major law-enforcement computer system called TECS. All told, TECS contains about 12,000 terrorism-related...

<p>I forgot to duck. By the time most of us read this I will be on my way to Germany for treatment. The doctors have decided that I'm too severely injured to continue my job. I don't know when I be back stateside but I will let you know.</p>

<p>For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon official could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped ''For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.</p>

In the fight against terrorism, few stones are left unturned. Every day, patient data from a handful of emergency rooms is sent to the Indiana State Department of Health to be crunched and analyzed. An epidemiologist watches intently for upward trends in rashes, fevers and unexplained deaths. Or a sudden surge in over-the-counter drug sales. The practice -- called syndromic surveillance -- broke onto the public health scene immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later anthrax deaths. The surveillance method is widely viewed as a tool to detect a possible bioterrorism attack. Computers allow the instant sharing...