Free Republic

KABUL -- The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets "security and economic guarantees," President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies. U.S. officials have made no final announcement about how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain to train and advise Afghans and continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and...

Customs agents thought something didn't seem right with the coconuts that arrived at Port Everglades. When they looked closer, they found 90 of them were hollowed out and stuffed with pounds of cocaine. The routine inspection of a container of produce shipped from the Dominican Republic to Fort Lauderdale turned up bags that were missing labels. Federal agents put tracking devices into some of the fruit and let them be delivered to a produce-importing business in Miami, leading investigators to two men who unloaded and separated out the suspicious bags and a third man who took them to his home.

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he has introduced a bill to repeal mandatory minimum sentencing for drug use and told the story of two young men—Barack Obama and George W. Bush—who were said to use drugs but did not go to jail. “In this story, both young men were extraordinarily lucky. Both young men were not caught using illegal drugs, and they weren’t imprisoned. Instead, they went on to become presidents of the United States. Barack Obama and George Bush were lucky,” Paul said in a speech at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC. “The law...

I was tuning around channels the other morning and tuned into "Imus In the Morning". He had some inane/insane comments and suddenly he went on a rant. He was defending that commie bit*h who said kids should be brought up by the "collective". He also defended the word 'collective' stating it was NOT a communist word. He called Sarah Palin a number of names, he called Rush a fat, pill popping pig plus few other nasty names. His 'sidekick' Colin McShane just sat there and agreed half heartedly (he strikes me as being terminally stupid). He ranted like a village...

Cocaine addicts could be cured using a technique that stimulates the brain with magnets. Experiments on mice addicted to cocaine found they were weaned off the drug after laser beams were used to change neurons in a particular part of the brain. Scientists who report their study in the journal Nature say a similar strategy using magnets could work on human drug abusers—and clinical trials should start soon to see if it works. They showed by stimulating a region called the pre-frontal cortex with light they could wipe away addictive behavior in the lab animals—or conversely turn non-addicted rats into...

Genghis Khan Found Guilty in Rockland Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe announced Tuesday, March 26 that Genghis Khan (DOB 06/01/89) of 1008 St. Marks Avenue, Brooklyn, New York was found guilty following a jury trial of: One count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree, a class “A-II” Felony One count of Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a Violation On April 30, 2012, at approximately 4:40 p.m., Khan was traveling on the New York State Thruway (I-87) in the Town of Clarkstown. During a traffic stop, state troopers found the defendant in possession of approximately...

In another case in the annals of conservative "adaptation" to yesterday's liberal innovation, Ohio Republican senator Rob Portman has just announced that he now supports faux marriage. The change was motivated, he said, by his son having come out to him and his wife as a homosexual. Well, it's a good thing his son didn't announce that he was involved in bestiality. Talk about a pandering parent. We can also talk here about letting your personal life influence your public policy. If I were a statesman and learned that a child of mine were hooked on cocaine or had joined...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 16, AD 2013 8:08 PM MST Here is the full video of Pope Francis' first Mass in the Sistine Chapel. The consecration of the Host happens at 51:47. The consecration of the Chalice happens at 52:32. I cannot believe I am about to type these words. The Pope DID NOT GENUFLECT after either consecration. He did a weird bow thing, but didn't feel the need to bend his knee to God Almighty, physically present in his hands upon the altar. HE. DID. NOT. GENUFLECT. This is absolutely stunning. And unprecedented. Oh yeah, we're in...

Six Boston cops fired after testing positive for cocaine have been ordered reinstated — with back pay — after a state board struck down hair tests as unreliable in a bombshell ruling that could have a far-reaching impact on how city workers are drug-tested. In a stunning, 134-page ruling, the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission this week ordered the six cops back on the job, finding that “the present state of hair testing for drugs of abuse ... does not meet the standard of reliability necessary to be routinely used” to fire someone.

Hundreds of thousands of kilograms (pounds) of cocaine are seized en route to the U.S. every year, and the Defense Department estimates about 850 metric tons of cocaine departed South America last year toward the U.S., down 20 percent in just a year. The most recent U.S. survey found cocaine use fell significantly, from 2.4 million people in 2006 to 1.4 million in 2011. ... Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield, head of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said the goal is to make it so hard for traffickers to move drugs to the U.S. that...

A search of a South Side home Friday revealed about $10 million worth of cocaine and more than $500,000 cash, leading to the arrest of the 21-year-old man who lived there. Two others also face felony charges in the case. Jose Pelayo-Aguilar, of the 3600 block of South Leavitt Avenue, was charged with manufacturing or delivering and possessing more than 900 grams of cocaine. During a Sunday court appearance, Judge Israel Desierto ordered him held on a $75,000 cash bond.

Two Houston police officers are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole after allegations they accepted $2,000 in bribes to protect a stash of cocaine being smuggled through the city

"Paraguay: Alleged Hezbollah financier detained Wassim el Abd Fadel, a Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship, faces human trafficking and narco-terrorism charges."  SNIPPET: "ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay – Wassim el Abd Fadel is behind bars inside Tacumbú prison in Asunción, Paraguay, as he awaits trial on human trafficking, money laundering and narco-trafficking charges. But Paraguayan authorities suspect the Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship’s involvement in crime is much greater, which is why he’s being investigated for financing the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Fadel, 31, was arrested on Dec. 21 in Ciudad del Este, which is on the border shared by Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, about...

A 56-year-old British grandmother has been sentenced to death by firing squad in Indonesia for drug trafficking. Lindsay Sandiford was arrested at Bali's airport in May last year after 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine was found in the lining of her suitcase during a routine customs check. Sandiford, whose last UK address was in Gloucestershire, said she was coerced into bringing the drugs to the island. Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire has condemned the sentence. He told MPs the government strongly objected to the death penalty imposed. Her lawyers have said they were "surprised" at the verdict and would appeal. Prosecutors...

Shortly after Hugo Chávez won his first election as Venezuelan president in December 1998, a lawyer from the western state of Barinas, which was then governed by Chávez's father, delivered a prescient warning to Newsweek magazine: "Venezuelans are dreaming of a savior, but Chávez is a dictator. People don't know what they are getting."  More than 14 years later, a cancer-stricken Chávez is reportedly near death, but his autocratic legacy is very much alive. Venezuela long ago ceased to be a real democracy: The ruling regime effectively controls the Supreme Court (which in 2004 was expanded and packed with Chávez allies), the National Assembly...

<p>The battle to retake Mali's north from the al-Qaida-linked groups controlling it began in earnest Saturday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists from a town seized earlier this week.</p>

Forty-odd (exceedingly odd, I might add) years ago, who would have envisioned a national war against drugs? Nobody took drugs -- nobody you knew, nobody but jazz musicians and funny foreign folk. Then, after a while, it came to seem that everybody did. Drugs became a new front in the war on an old social culture that was taking hard licks aplenty in those days. I still don't understand why people take drugs. Can't they just pour themselves a nice shot of bourbon? On the other hand, as Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy argue, in a lucid piece...

At Stratfor, we follow Mexico's criminal cartels closely. In fact, we are currently finishing our 2013 cartel forecast, which will be released later this month. As we analyze the Mexican cartels, we recognize that to understand their actions and the interactions between them, we need to acknowledge that at their core they are businesses and not politically motivated militant organizations. This means that although violence between and within the cartels grabs much of the spotlight, a careful analysis of the cartels must look beyond the violence to the business factors that drive their interests -- and their bankrolls.  There are several distinct business factors that have...

From Chicago to Rio, from Jamaica to Nigeria, gang violence is leaving an indelible mark on communities across the globe, leaving authorities at a loss for what to do about the epidemic of lawlessness among young men who see little hope in their futures. Certainly the global economic crisis has much to do with the rise in gang violence and influence, as young men of color in most of the affected countries see few options for gainful employment. In Chicago, among 400 murders that have occurred in 2012, an estimated 80 percent of them have been gang-related. The killing in...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms (3 pounds) of cocaine concealed in breast implants. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder...

Quebec police have busted more than 100 individuals for their alleged roles in a drug conspiracy which used a trucking firm to bring cocaine into Canada from the United States, and the arrested include those with suspected ties to the Italian Mafia, the Irish West End Gang and Hells Angels motorcycle club as reported by The Canadian Press: "Police said the organization, which had been under investigation for about six months, managed to rake in an estimated $50 million in that short time. * * * The group allegedly used a middleman to co-operate with Mexican drug cartels and appeared...

Unlike Bill Clinton, Barack Obama has admitted that he did drugs when he was young: In the book [Dreams from My Father], Obama acknowledges that he used cocaine as a high school student but rejected heroin. “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though,� he says. We know from David Maraniss’ Choom Gang reports that Obama didn’t just flirt with pot. Instead, he was a serious stoner in high school.  As far as I know, though, no reporter has tied Obama to long-term cocaine use.  Obama’s own statement — “maybe a...

Snorted cocaine peaks in about a half hour, and the high then continues for slightly less than that after the peak. To complicate matters, presidential debates last about 90 minutes. So, an informal, two-question poll for Freepers: At tonight's debate, will Obama be: 1. Wiping his nose or not? (Outstanding reference YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdkxLDdxMA for anyone who's been under a rock on this matter.) 2. If you answered in the affirmative to question one, do you anticipate that he will be over, under, or properly dosed?

A millionaire cocaine addict who retired abroad at the age of just 36 after making his fortune has been jailed after police found a haul of drugs hidden in his luxury car. Property developer James Brown's habit was so bad his nose collapsed after nine years of daily cocaine use. The 45-year-old has now been jailed for five years after a haul of cocaine was found hidden in the air vents and folding roof of his luxury Bentley.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala all called for a vigorous global debate of anti-narcotics laws at the United Nations on Wednesday, raising new questions about the wisdom of the four-decade-old, U.S.-led "war on drugs." Although none of the leaders explicitly called for narcotics to be legalized, they suggested at the U.N. General Assembly that they would welcome wholesale changes to policies that have shown scant evidence of limiting drug flows while contributing to massive violence throughout Latin America. "It is our duty to determine - on an objective scientific basis - if we are...

Photos of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s abandoned private island At the height of his power, Pablo Escobar was worth an estimated $3 billion (USD) and his Medellín Cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market. So he may have had a few extra dollars to throw around on a private island. In fact, many drug lords had luxurious villas on small islands off the coast of Cartagena, islands that have since been abandoned by their human occupants. Urban explorer and photographer Stefaan Beernaert, also known as Fotantje, has explored the islands off Catagena and photographed the so-called "Drug Islands."...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

A 24-year postal employee was arrested Thursday on charges he was delivering cocaine that was shipped from Puerto Rico to Orlando. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating Robert Hunt Jr. last week, when inspectors at an Orlando processing and distribution center found four parcels they suspected contained drugs.

BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) - When Rita Hairston's husband died five years ago, she adopted a dog to keep her company and help her through an emotional time. Prada was 5-years-old at the time. The black Labrador Retriever became more than a pet, but a part of Hairston's family. A companion. Last Saturday morning, she returned to her E. Morris Ave. house in University Heights in Buffalo and discovered her home had been broken into and Prada was missing. There was a puddle of blood on the floor and bullet holes in the door of a bedroom where Prada slept. But...

Griselda Blanco, the drug kingpin known for her blood-soaked style of street vengeance during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era of the ’70s and ’80s, was shot to death in Medellin by a motorcycle-riding assassin Monday.

Charlotte, NC – Former DC Mayor Marion Barry hit the Democratic convention Monday and, as per usual, the divisive and wildly popular figure immediately drew onlookers and media interviews. Barry was barely 10 feet into the Charlotte convention center before convention goers and reporters started queuing up to talk to him. Although extremely controversial thanks to numerous arrests for crack possession, Barry remains very popular in Washington and many parts of the black community nationally. Sporting a bright red t-shirt that read “I’m a Democrat and I support DC Statehood,” the 76 year old Barry was clearly in his element....

Islamic SocialismFrom the CIA factbook: Following a 1969 military coup, Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political system, the Third Universal Theory. The system was a combination of socialism and Islam derived in part from tribal practices and was supposed to be implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a unique form of "direct democracy.[1] The "Green Book" - Arabism, Islam & socialism, with Islam the main line Author John L. Esposito: Under Qaddafi three interrelated ideas were woven into Libya's ideological identity: Pan-Arabism, socialism, and Islam. Qaddafi's appeals to Islam were influenced by his...

An airline worker who was supposed to deliver lost baggage was busted yesterday for running a sophisticated drug-smuggling ring that sneaked heroin and cocaine into the country disguised as tasty treats and candy, authorities said. Some of the drugs were stuffed in chocolate candies, empanadas and homemade oatmeal cookies. More than three pounds of liquid cocaine were hidden by soaking scuba-diving diplomas in the drug.

In remarks to Black journalists this past weekend virtually unreported in the mainstream media, senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett said reducing the prison sentences for crack cocaine is one of the three reasons African-Americans have to support President Obama's reelection.The Root, a Black-oriented website owned by the Washington Post, reprinted a blog report by the Maynard Institute's Richard Prince on Jarrett's appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans.Prince reported on Jarrett's side meeting with a group of Black reporters and columnists:On Saturday afternoon, Jarrett spoke with members of the Trotter Group of African American...

IRWIN, Penn. — Standing before hundreds of roaring partisans in this sweltering Pittsburgh suburb Tuesday, Mitt Romney delivered a 30-minute speech that sounded, at times, like a greatest hits compilation of his favorite Obama-knocking stump speech lines. The president was, Romney said, "out of ideas," and "looking for someone to blame," and a "crony capitalist." One thing he was not: "A nice guy." In speeches from Des Moines to Dallas, Romney has always been careful to hedge his tough digs at Obama with a civil nod toward the president's moral character: "He's a nice guy," the Republican has often said....

MIAMI BEACH— The dramatic results of three drug busts on the high seas will be evident today when more than 3,800 pounds of cocaine are offloaded at the U.S. Coast Guardbase in Miami Beach. According to the agency, the cocaine has a wholesale value of more than $48 million.

One afternoon last August, at a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a former beauty queen named Emma Coronel gave birth to a pair of heiresses. The twins, who were delivered at 3:50 and 3:51, respectively, stand to inherit some share of a fortune that Forbes estimates is worth a billion dollars. Coronel’s husband, who was not present for the birth, is a legendary tycoon who overcame a penurious rural childhood to establish a wildly successful multinational business. If Coronel elected to leave the entry for “Father” on the birth certificates blank, it was not because of any dispute...

A single-dose vaccine capable of providing immunity against the effects of cocaine offers a novel and groundbreaking strategy for treating cocaine addiction is described in an article published Instant Online in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com) The article is available free online at the Human Gene Therapy website (http://www.liebertpub.com/hum). "This is a very novel approach for addressing the huge medical problem of cocaine addiction," says James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia. In...

President Barack Obama’s love of golf hit a milestone today as he marked his 100th time on the links. His Father’s Day achievement was reached at the Beverly Country Club in his hometown, the windy city. Mark Knoller, CBS radio correspondent and chronicler of all things presidential, pointed out the quiet occasion to the traveling press. Like 15 of the 18 presidents since Theodore Roosevelt, Obama has used golf as a way to unwind outdoors, but away from the prying eyes of press and onlookers. And despite the fact that he had never golfed before taking office, his love of...

The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has emerged as the world's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it further has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries. Indeed, Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast: Gratteri's latest operations have led to the sentencing of 34 'Ndrangheta members and have uncovered a...

Mexican government forces had bottled up a band of enemy fighters in this tiny village late last year, but feared they would escape into the dusty, rock-strewn hills. So more than 600 soldiers and federal police closed in from all directions with armored Humvees and helicopters. The outlaws responded with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault-rifle fire, tearing apart one federal police vehicle. For three days the fighting raged. In the end, according to military accounts of the battle, 22 members of the Zetas drug cartel, two police officers and a soldier were dead, and 20 Zetas were...

The Washington Post has vetted Romney's high school pranks. When are they going to vett Obama's admitted high school cocaine abuse?

Bill Maher, the largest donor to President Obama's super PAC, called Mormonism a "cult" on his HBO show last night, and said that donating money to that religion doesn't count as charity because it's "bulls---."

Enlarge Image Old beyond years. A 3D model of merged imaging scans shows the brain areas affected by age (blue) in healthy people (left) and longterm cocaine users (right). Credit: Karen Ersche/University of Cambridge Add this to the list of reasons not to take cocaine: Chronic use of the drug may speed up the aging process. According to a new imaging study, cocaine abusers in their 30s and 40s show brain changes more commonly seen in people over 60. The finding also calls attention to the special medical needs of older drug users—a group that, until now, hasn't garnered...

MIAMI — A former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice flown by federal agents to the United States is likely to be a trove of valuable information for U.S. authorities investigating the nexus of cocaine, payoffs and corruption in the government of President Hugo Chavez. Ex-Judge Eladio Aponte Aponte, who is associated with a Venezuelan kingpin facing indictment in New York, is expected to supply the Drug Enforcement Administration with the names of high-level suspects in the cocaine trade, Chavez government and its military, according to sources familiar with the former justice and other observers. "Aponte is bringing enough information to prove...

Leading banker jumped to his death after snorting cocaine at welcome home party By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:45 PM on 8th September 2010 A leading banker jumped to his death after snorting cocaine at a party thrown to welcome him back from abroad, an inquest heard today. Neil McCormick plunged sixty feet and landed on rubble after he was spotted walking in circles and mumbling 'guys, don’t do this to me', the court heard. Mr McCormick, who had used cocaine regularly since studying at Oxford University, moved to Hong Kong last September with his wife Diana and...

A MACKAY-BASED business has been producing a synthetic substitute to cocaine and distributing it across the country. The group, called Our Baked Mafia, have been selling the drug 'Shaman's Dust' and a number of other substances via their website and Facebook sites. Users from as far away as Albury-Wodonga have reported purchasing the drug, which is sold through the region's adult shops. Queensland police said it was difficult to determine the drug's legality, as the active ingredient in Shaman's Dust was unknown. However, Curtin University drug and alcohol researcher Stephen Bright said reported chemical tests had suggested the active ingredient...