Free Republic

From the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze: Gregory: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”[ My mention yesterday of Obama’s former literary agent, Jane Dystel, got me thinking about the fishy circumstances under which Dreams From My Father came to see publication, and Ms. Dystel’s strange silence on the subject — even though she apparently was euchred out of a significant payday by her client. You may recall...

The family of a murdered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is demanding to know if U.S. agencies could have seized the weapons used to kill him before they crossed the border into Mexico. Amador and Mary Zapata also believe their son Jaime, who was only in Mexico for 9 days before his death, was not adequately trained for his assignment, a trip on one of Mexico’s most dangerous roads in a $160,000 armored Suburban. “We want to find out the truth,” Amador Zapata said from the living room of his Brownsville, Texas home. “Who thought of this program? How...

The wife of former U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesus Diaz, who was jailed over his treatment of a drug smuggler, says she's outraged that the government has told her husband he won't be allowed to return home to be with her or associate with any other law enforcement-linked member of his family while on probation. "I have to ask what does the DOJ want me to do? I can't retire, I'm too young. Divorcing him is not an option as he would still have to come around for the children. What is Chito going to do about his brother, not...

The Fast and Furious scandal is causing the Obama administration to try to suppress evidence from public view. Judicial Watch reports: The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

'Notice of intent to offset' sent to home, even though Diaz is in federal custody The federal government has sent a collection notice to the family of a Border Patrol agent who was jailed and fined for pulling on the arms of a handcuffed suspect to get him to comply with orders, according to a charitable organization working on a defense for Jesus E. Diaz Jr. WND reported earlier on a call for Congress to hold hearings to uncover why U.S. law enforcement officers are being charged, prosecuted and sent to prison for apparently doing what their jobs require. That...

A  U.S. State Department law enforcement agent from the mainland was arrested for fatally shooting a man in his 20s early this morning on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki, sources said. Honolulu police identified the alleged shooter as Christopher W. Deedy, 27, and sources who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he is a federal agent who was off-duty at the time of the shooting. A State Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said only, "We are aware of the incident and we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation." She would not confirm whether he was here for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference...

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Brian Newell continues to deny Operation Fast and Furious allowed for guns to be “walked” into Mexico. “Sir, in this investigation, we did not let guns walk,” Newell told House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, at a Tuesday hearing. Newell was the lead agent in ATF’s Phoenix field office throughout Operation Fast and Furious. “You’re entitled to your own opinions, not to your own facts,” Issa responded. “But, there comes a point when I go, ‘Wait a second: 730 weapons bought by a man who had no money....

A bladder cancer survivor says he was left drenched by his own urine after he was manhandled by an arrogant airport screener at the Detroit Metro Airport. Even more galling for 62-year-old Thomas Sawyer is that it's the second time in less than a year that this has happened to him - and he's not settling for another apology from the Transportation Security Administration. (Snip) "He said, 'Yeah, I know,' and he patted me down," Sawyer said. "He was rough and he squeezed the bag a couple of times. The young kid was anything but gentle, and he didn't ask

Holder to oil fraud panel: Report if gas prices don't fall Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday ordered the newly formed government working group investigating oil and gas prices to make sure gasoline prices are dropping after this week's sudden decline in crude oil prices. Holder sent his memo to several federal agencies, including the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the departments of Treasury, Energy and Agriculture. He also sent the directive to state attorneys general.

From 10News in San Diego: --- Hezbollah must be laughing at the idea that our drug habit is funding their operations.

Michael Scheuer, a former counter-terrorism analyst for the CIA, scolded CNN's Christine Romans Thursday for letting her support for the current President show. Toward the end of a lengthy interview on "American Morning" about the situation in Libya, Romans took issue with her guest saying America is "nearly bankrupt" leading Scheuer to respond, "You're just carrying the water for Mr. Obama" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The parents of a teenaged resident of the Mexican city of Juarez today sued the U.S. government for $25 million in connection with the boy's shooting death at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso last year. The Border Patrol says Sergio Hernandez Guereca, 15, was pelting U.S. agents with rocks from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande last June when Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side shot him to death. But attorney Bob Hilliard told 1200 WOAI’s Berit Mason that the boy was the victim of 'brutality' on the part of the federal agents,...

A fifth man is in custody in connection with the Dec. 14 fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent Brian Terry near Nogales, the U.S. Marshals office has confirmed.

TSA Agent Takes Child From Parent As I sit and write this post, 24 hours after this event took place, my hands still shake… with rage and with terror. I woke up this morning to my husband’s alarm clock, sat straight up in bed and thought “Where’s Jackson?” with fear paralyzing me. My worst nightmare took place yesterday. Worse than events that have taken place and that I have survived in my short 28 years of living. Worse than my wildest of dreams could conjure. My son was taken from me. Taken. My son was taken from me by the...

Kremlin reportedly dispatches contract killer to US to pursue 'traitor' colonel, claims reputable Moscow newspaperA contract killer has been dispatched to assassinate the Russian double agent who betrayed Anna Chapman and nine other spies in the United States this spring, according to reports in Moscow. "We know who he is and where he is," a high-ranking Kremlin source told the reputable Kommersant newspaper. "You can have no doubt – a Mercader has already been sent after him." Ramón Mercader was the KGB-hired Spanish communist who was sent to kill Leon Trotsky with an icepick in Mexico in 1940.

My previous post looked at Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and his links to senior Communist Party USA member Mike Bayer. I speculated that Bayer may be both a communist spy and agent-of-influence inside Sanders' Vermont Progressive Party. It turns out that Bayer is not the first possible communist agent to back Bernie Sanders. During his unsuccessful 1988 run for U.S. Congress, then Burlington, Vermont mayor Sanders received the endorsement of I. F. Stone, an iconic leftist journalist, alleged communist sympathizer, Soviet spy and possible agent-of- influence. Here is a letter that Stone mailed out on behalf of the Sanders...

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders may have a Communist Party USA agent in his camp. The person in question is Mike Bayer, who is currently serving as Treasurer of Bernie Sanders' Vermont Progressive Party. The Senator from Vermont, is a self proclaimed socialist and proud of it. As a student in Chicago, Sanders was active in the Young Peoples Socialist League and has a decades old relationship with America's largest marxist organization, Democratic Socialists of America. It was in conjunction with D.S.A. that Sanders formed, in 1991, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, now a more than eighty strong alliance of far...

Alleged Israel spy Uri Brodsky will be extradited to Germany as soon as Friday, a spokesman for German state prosecutors told Reuters on Tuesday. "I'm gearing up for him to possibly arrive on Friday," the spokesman from Cologne was quoted by Reuters as saying. After he arrives in Cologne, a German judge will have to determine if Brodsky will be brought up on charges and remain in custody or whether a deal with defense lawyers could be reached.

TAMPA — An off-duty FBI agent shot and killed an Army veteran Wednesday night after a confrontation and chase at MacDill Air Force Base, officials said. It all started at the base's family camp, a recreational vehicle area at the south end of the base, said Col. Larry Martin, 6th Air Mobility Wing commander. The veteran was visiting the base when an altercation broke out. He took off on a motorcycle with security officials in pursuit, according to Martin. "He became more and more aggressive as the pursuit continued," said Dave Couvertier, a special agent with the FBI. When the...

Elena Kagan, the President’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, is an affable and intelligent Trojan horse. Obama’s high court nominee has been groomed for years, standing ready for the judicial mission of advancing the secular-progressive agenda, if confirmed, for decades to come. Conservatives can (and must!) build a coalition to defeat Kagan’s nomination.