Free Republic

My friend Karen Kingsbury, the New York Times best-selling author, sent me the most wonderful suggestion for a story the other day. It’s about woman named Hope Painter, from Lebanon, Pennsylvania and her nine-year old son, Kingston. Hope was in Lower Manhattan on that fateful Tuesday morning - 15 years ago. She was being evacuated when the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers. She saw things - unspeakable things - that caused her unimaginable trauma. The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months yet Hope was unable to escape from the memories of September 11,...

When people think of 9/11, the first names that should cross their minds is Jamie Gorelick and Bill and Hillary Clinton. "Gorelick's Wall" was created to block, slow and mislead investigations into the plethora of Clinton scandals and leads by literally destroying the ability of the country's investigative agencies to speak to each other. For those of you who missed this, in typical Clinton style it was that blunt - Gorelick wrote a memo that decreed that the various agencies could not talk to each other about their investigations, if they thought their leads, evidence or other information might be...

The day before the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, former President Bill Clinton told a group of businessmen in Australia that he "could have killed" the man behind those attacks, Osama bin Laden, in 1998, but he decided against launching a strike out of concern for civilian casualties. It's a startling and tragic bit of irony that remained hidden until Wednesday, when Michael Kroger, the former head of the Liberal Party in Australia, released the audio during an interview on Sky News. Mr. Clinton knew he was being recorded, but the audio was never released because Kroger said he'd...

Hank Crumpton, a former CIA officer and top counterterrorism official, said in a recent interview that President Bill Clinton’s White House missed a golden opportunity to take out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in 1999. Bin Laden was in Afghanistan in 1999, Crumpton told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired on Sunday. His convoy had been clearly identified by an early edition Predator drone, which at the time didn’t have weapons capabilities. “We saw a security detail, a convoy, and we saw bin Laden exit the vehicle, clearly,” Crumpton told CBS’s Lara Logan, describing aerial images captured by...

When Heather Penney entered the cockpit of her F-16 fighter jet on Sept. 11, 2001, she knew it was unlikely she would ever survive. Her task? Take down the United Airlines Flight 93 that was unaccounted for after two planes struck the Twin Towers. She would have to do so in an unarmed fighter jet because equipping the plane with missiles would require too much time. Her plane would be the weapon; it was essentially a suicide mission. Penney never completed the job, though, because Flight 93 crashed as brave passengers wrestled control from the hijackers while it flew over...

Two police union leaders are so outraged that the NFL denied Titan Avery Williamson wearing a patriotic pair of cleats honoring those who died on 9/11, that they promised to pay his fine if he wears them in Sunday’s game anyway. Williamson had hoped to wear a pair of specially-designed cleats at his team’s home opener Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but he backed off when a league rep vowed to fine him for violating the league’s uniform code. The left cleat says 9-11-01, with the 11 in the outline of the...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering 9.11.2001 ~ ~ We Will Never Forget!! ~ Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. John Phillip Sousa ~ Star Spangled Banner John Wayne ~ America, Why I Love Her John Phillip Sousa ~ Stars & Stripes Forever Toby Keith ~ Courtesy of The Red, White, & Blue (Angry American) Bobby Bare ~ God Bless America Again Charlie Daniels ~ My Beautiful America John Phillip Sousa ~ Armed Forces Salute John Wayne ~...

For roughly 40 years, Scott Wallace has bought tickets and sat in the stands at Gopher football games. But on Saturday, the University of Minnesota graduate walked onto the field of TCF Bank Stadium because of the most important ticket of his life. "I call it my ticket to the Titanic," said Wallace. That ticket is the visitor's pass to the World Trade Center's North Tower, which was given to Wallace on a business trip on Sept. 11, 2001. Wallace was on the 63rd floor when the first plane struck. He was one of three Minnesota graduates honored before the...

Students at a southern California community college say campus leaders canceled a Sept. 11 memorial and a professor tore down "Never Forget" remembrance posters. A conservative group of students at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo released video footage Thursday of a history professor ripping down posters with images showing various terrorists acts and the words “Never Forget," according to the College Fix. The video shows history professor Margot Lovett telling the students -- who are members of the Young Americans for Freedom group -- that they did not have permission to hang the posters. Lovett, who is chairwoman of the...

Two-thousand nine-hundred and seventy-seven people were murdered 15 years ago today on September 11, 2001. In succession, two planes attacked the Twin Towers. A third plane smashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane which was supposedly headed for the Capitol Building or the White House was intercepted by heroic passengers. Fifteen years later, America's response to the attacks is still lacking and in many cases amateurish to say the least. In each case below - immigration, intelligence, and militarily - successive administrations, and particularly Obama's, have exactly reversed the policies required to win the war against and eradicate "radical Islam."...

Newly released police testimony of al-Qaeda member Louai Sakka found in case records has come the fore. In Sakka’s statements it is written that he is the one who provided two terrorists with a passport before they organized the September 11 attacks. Sakka's testimony also gives us some clues that Murat Yuce, the Turkish driver kidnapped in Iraq, was killed by a terrorist of Sakka's choice. There were also some Turkish people who took part in the execution of Yuce. The following was the structure of al-Qaeda, according to Sakka: Leader Osama bin Laden, His assistants: Mohammed Atef (Abu Hafs...

The anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks weighs heavily on the minds of Minnesota Muslims as they prepare to celebrate one of the most important holy days of the year. For weeks they had worried that Monday’s Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, might fall on the 9/11 anniversary. Though the sighting of the moon placed this year’s Eid on Sept. 12, the proximity of a major holiday and a painful anniversary has fueled anxiety and led community leaders and local law enforcement to tighten security measures for Eid celebrations. “There has been...

A Texas mattress company that was condemned for airing a commercial promoting its “Twin Tower Sale” will be “closed indefinitely,” its owner said Friday. Miracle Mattress promised to “be silent” through Sunday’s 9/11 anniversary and reiterated its apology to people offended by its commercial that featured a pair of employees toppling two towers of mattresses, according to a statement issued by the company’s owner, Mike Bonanno. “We take full responsibility for our actions and sincerely regret the hurt and pain caused by this disrespectful advertising campaign,” Bonanno said. The 20-second commercial shows three employees enthusiastically offering any size mattress for...

Despite veto threats from President Obama, the House on Friday gave final approval to a bill that would allow the victims of 9/11 to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

What may be overlooked as the news media discusses the attacks of 9/11 is that in 1993, more than 23 years ago, terrorists from the Middle East also carried out two deadly attacks in the United States. On January 25, 1993 a Pakistani citizen, Mir Aimal Kansi stood outside CIA Headquarters with an AK-47 and opened fire on the vehicles of CIA officials reporting for work.

Fifteen years after the carnage of 9/11, American foreign policy is still mired in its fossilized dogmas and dangerous delusions. The consequences are obvious. Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism and long an avowed enemy of the United States, has filled the vacuum of our ignominious retreat from the Middle East, even as the mullahs move ever closer to possessing nuclear weapons. Russia, Iran’s improbable ally, bombs civilians in Syria, kills the Syrian fighters we have trained, bullies its neighbor Ukraine, consolidates its take-over of the Crimea, and relentlessly pursues its interests with disregard for international law and...

At least five of the Sept. 11 hijackers exploited a glaring hole in visa security to stay in the U.S. beyond their time — allowing them to board the planes and conduct their murderous attack. Fifteen years later, and despite a clear consensus on the need for improvement, that gaping hole remains. “In too many cases that’s still happening — they come in legally, but we don’t know if they’ve left, and if they haven’t left, we don’t know where they are,” said Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey and chairman of the 9/11 Commission that looked into the...

President Obama and Hillary Clinton aren’t the only ones having trouble identifying the religion of certain Middle Eastern descended terrorists. At least one Muslim group wants the words “Islamic terrorists” entirely scrubbed from a new Owego, NY 9-11 memorial created to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the attack. The Islamic Organization of Southern Tier, a New York state based Muslim activist group, told KTRK-TV that the words unfairly paint all Muslims with the same brush. Believing the “inflammatory” language could lead to anti-Muslim violence, the group would like the word “Islamic” scrubbed entirely, or even replaced with the words “Al...

As another anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, some tone-deaf companies can’t resist using the memory to sell products. A Wal-Mart store in Panama City Beach, Florida, was called out on social media for a tacky display that included stacks of soft drinks built to resemble the Twin Towers with a message that read: “We Will Never Forget.” The soda was on sale for $3.33.

A 9/11 memorial monument is (causing controversy) in the small town of Owego, New York. The Islamic Organization Of The Southern Tier has taken issue with the writing on the monument, which calls the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks "Islamic terrorists."