Free Republic

Judicial Activism: Earlier this month New Mexico police raided what many believe was a terrorist training camp on U.S. soil after the FBI refused to act in a timely manner. Islamic extremist Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was arrested last week because he was allegedly training children to commit school shootings. Siraj ibn Wahhaj is the son of a Brooklyn imam who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But despite these very serious allegations — and despite the fact that prosecutors in the case provided more than enough evidence to keep these alleged terrorists locked...

Democrat judge sends dangerous jihadists back into our midsts. New Mexico state judge Sarah Backus on Monday released five Islamic radicals on a $20,000 “signature bond,” which requires no payment.  The decision came as a shock, given what local law enforcement had discovered.  At a ramshackle compound near the Colorado state line, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, Lucas Morton, 40, Jany Leveille, 35, Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, and Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, trained 11 children to use firearms and attack schools. The compound had been under surveillance but police only launched a raid when one of the children texted that they were all...

The state judge who on Monday set a $20,000 bail for five defendants arrested at a remote New Mexico compound where authorities say children were being trained to conduct school shootings has a history of issuing low bail to violent offenders. Judge Sarah Backus, an elected Democrat, ordered the two men and three women to wear ankle monitors, have weekly contact with their attorneys and not consume alcohol or own firearms while on bail. She said although she was concerned by “troubling facts,” prosecutors failed to articulate any specific threats to the community. The five suspects were arrested more than...

The state judge who on Monday set a $20,000 bail for five defendants arrested at a remote New Mexico compound where authorities say children were being trained to conduct school shootings has a history of issuing low bail to violent offenders. Judge Sarah Backus, an elected Democrat, ordered the two men and three women to wear ankle monitors, have weekly contact with their attorneys and not consume alcohol or own firearms while on bail. She said although she was concerned by “troubling facts,” prosecutors failed to articulate any specific threats to the community.

A New Mexico state judge ruled Monday that five alleged Muslim extremists accused of training children to conduct school shootings do not have to remain in jail while they await trial for child abuse. Judge Sarah Backus released the five defendants, Siraj Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhannah Wahhaj, Jany Leveille, and Lucas Morten, on a $20,000 "signature bond," according to the Albuquerque Journal. That means that the defendants will not have to pay money unless they violate the conditions of their release. Backus said that New Mexico state prosecutors were unable to show that the five defendants should have their bail...

John W. Backus, the software pioneer who developed Fortran, died earlier this week at 82. His Fortran brainchild was an important watershed in computing because it freed programmers from the tyranny of writing machine code. Back in the Ice Age of the electronic digital computer -- the 1950s -- there were just a handful of computers. It took a few years to build a computer then, but what made them even more forbidding was the labyrinth that had to be entered to create the machine code that made them do anything of use.

McCain wants Kerry to stop looking ahead By Noelle Straub WASHINGTON - Straight-talking Sen. John McCain wants his friend Sen. John Kerry to ice his ``obvious'' desire to run for president again and focus on his day job. ``It's pretty obvious, the way he's acting, he'd like to try it again,'' the Arizona Republican said of a 2008 Kerry bid. ``I'd advise him to be the best senator he could be and put those ambitions aside for a while.'' McCain said he ``absolutely'' wants to be president himself but will focus on the Senate and ``wait a couple years'' to...

Astronomers have completed their most sensitive search yet for radio signals from intelligent life in space. They believe the best way to find ET is to look for a radio signal. Such signals can travel vast distances. The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, supported by Jodrell Bank, searched over a period of 10 years. The scientists looked at 800 nearby stars with no evidence of a signal from ET. They say they have learned a lot, and plan another search next year. From the ashes The last star scrutinised by Project Phoenix - the most powerful search for intelligent...