Free Republic

Former United States President Donald Trump has lodged a legal challenge to a Justice Department (DOJ) order that his long-sought tax returns be turned over to a House of Representatives committee. In a filing in federal court in the District of Columbia on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said the House Ways and Means Committee lacks a legitimate basis for seeking his federal tax returns, and that the Justice Department erred when it backed the committee’s request.... The Democratic-led Ways and Means Committee has said it wants the tax data to determine whether the IRS is properly auditing presidential tax returns in...

Al-Jazeera America signed on with a brisk hello from anchor Tony Harris before he got down to business with his network's first stories: continued turmoil in Egypt, shots fired at an Atlanta elementary school and more wildfires in the West. With that, the network entered the cable-news fray long dominated by CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Media Network launched its U.S. outlet only eight months after announcing the new venture, which replaced Al Gore's Current TV in more than 45 million TV homes Tuesday.

A reporter claiming to work for Al Jazeera was involved in a violent confrontation with Washington, D.C., police on Tuesday evening after he was ejected from a pro-Israel conference for surreptitiously videotaping attendees and events, according to eyewitnesses. Reporters identified as Matthew Cassel and Micah Garen were ejected from the Christians United for Israel’s (CUFI) annual D.C. gathering after they were caught infiltrating and clandestinely filming events closed to the press. The reporters, who claimed to be affiliated with Al Jazeera, were initially denied press credentials for the event due to what a CUFI official said is Al Jazeera’s anti-Israel...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities announced Sunday that they had revoked the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels, alleging that they are promoting a sectarian agenda as the country grapples with a wave of violence. The move, effective immediately, comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country following clashes at a protest camp last week.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney) Pioneering Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera has acquired Current TV, and will use the network's wider distribution avenues to launch a new U.S.-based channel. The takeover will provide Al Jazeera with access to millions of U.S. households, a lucrative market the Qatar-based broadcaster has long coveted. The deal also means the end of Current, the low-rated channel co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, Al Jazeera entered into an agreement to buy Al Gore's failing network Current TV. Hours later, as a result of the purchase, Time Warner Cable dropped the station with a message reading to viewers "This channel is no longer available on Time Warner Cable." According to multiple news sources, Current co-founder Joel Hyatt said in a statement that TWC dropped his TV network because TWC "did not consent to the sale to Al Jazeera." “Current will no longer be carried on TWC," wrote Hyatt. "This is unfortunate, but I am confident that Al Jazeera America will...

Britain and the United States are the worst places in the industrialised world for children to live, according to a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). They ranked among the bottom third in the study which looked at overall well-being, health and safety, education, relationships, risk and their own sense of well-being. The study said that child poverty - defined as the percentage of children living in homes with incomes below 50 per cent of the national median - remains above the 15 per cent mark in Britain, the US and Ireland, as well as Spain, Portugal and...

The US President, George Bush, planned to bomb the pan-Arab television broadcaster al-Jazeera, according to a British newspaper that cited a Downing Street memo marked "Top secret". The five-page transcript of a conversation between Mr Bush and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, published in the Daily Mirror yesterday, reveals that Mr Blair talked Mr Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the newspaper. The transcript of the pair's talks during Mr Blair's visit to Washington on April 16 last year allegedly shows Mr Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters. Mr Blair...

Given the choice, most people would opt for a straight bullet to the head rather than have it sawn off with a cutlass.However, personal preference has not figured highly in the modus operandi of Iraqi and Saudi insurgents for whom decapitation has become the method of choice for dispatching POW's and collaborators. Until the shooting death in June of US soldier Keith Maupin, the insurgents had made a point of beheading their captives and disseminating the grisly scenes over the Internet. Most people would recoil at the mere thought but experts say that is precisely the aim. In war, ascendancy...

THE Arab news channel that won global influence after broadcasting a video of the terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden was infiltrated by Iraqi intelligence agents in a campaign to subvert its coverage, according to documents obtained in Baghdad. Senior officers of Iraq’s intelligence agency controlled three agents who worked at the Al-Jazeera network, say the files. Their detailed reports also refer to the Qatar-based news network as an “instrument” of the regime. Since Al-Jazeera was founded in 1996 it has won a worldwide audience of 35m- 50m and become “the CNN of the Arab world” — watched in cafes and...

By now you have probably read a dozen (or two) emotional recollections - and have watched more than a few hours of television coverage - on the grand spectacle that was the Hussein statue coming down in Baghdad two days ago. And make no mistake as to the underlying significance of the event; it was one of those collective demands for freedom that warms the heart. Freedom, it has been said, begins with the word no; those born with the highest liberty humanity has ever allowed should take great pleasure when a people discovers (or rediscovers) a liberty of its...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  The CIA has determined that Osama bin Laden provided the voice recording for the latest al-Qaida videotape to air on television, but intelligence officials say they don't believe he was taped recently.</p> <p>The agency matched the voice on the tape to previous recordings of bin Laden, said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera has been airing excerpts of the tape this week and is set to air the entire video on Thursday.</p>

DOHA, 10 September — Suspected terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden was heard claiming responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in video clips aired by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television yesterday. Al-Jazeera also broadcast footage of militants which it said were among those Al-Qaeda members who carried out the 9/ 11 attacks.The video showed them pouring over flying manuals and aerial maps of the Pentagon, one of the group’s targets along with New York’s World Trade Center.The militants were filmed in the Afghan city of Kandahar "a few months" before heading to the United States to carry out...

Al-Jazeera television says Tuesday it will broadcast a complete videotape on al-Qaida 9-11 hijackers that includes a statement of Osama bin Laden. In a tape excerpt broadcast Monday, a voice that al-Jazeera identifies as Osama bin Laden, praises the September 11 hijackers. It says the hijackers "changed the course of history" with their so-called New York and Washington "raids." The voice goes on to name four of the hijackers, including Mohammad Atta, who is identified as the destroyer of the first World Trade Center tower - and is praised for being serious, diligent and faithful. The excerpt shows footage of...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sep 09, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The U.S. Congress was the fourth American landmark on al-Qaida's Sept. 11 hit list and the terror group also considered striking U.S. nuclear facilities. The claims were made in an interview conducted in a secret Pakistani location between a correspondent from pan-Arab satellite station al-Jazeera and two fugitive Sept. 11 plotters. Al-Jazeera's Yosri Fouda told The Associated Press on Sunday that al-Qaida, the terror network headed by Osama bin Laden, contacted him to arrange an interview with wanted terrorists Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh in June. Bin...