Free Republic

CAIRO — Conditions in the US detention facility in Guantanamo are worsening with the sweeping majority of detainees being held in cruel isolation, Amnesty International said in a new reported issued on Thursday, April 5.

BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 19, 2007 – Positive developments in southeastern Iraq may enable British leaders to reduce their troop strength in that region, a spokesman for Multinational Division Southeast said here today. “Our political leaders are saying that if the conditions here continue to improve, we will have a reduction in force in the spring,” said British army Maj. Chris Ormond-King. British officials were among the coalition military leaders who briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates here today. Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, met the secretary at the airport here, and British army...

Pelosi: 'Permitting Indefinite Detention Under Conditions that Cannot be Challenged in Court is Contrary to Our History and Values'Wed Sep 27, 3:45 PM ET To: National Desk Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor this afternoon in strong opposition to H.R. 6054 -- Military Commissions Act. Three major amendments offered by Democratic Members were rejected by the Rules Committee. Below are Pelosi's remarks: "It's been five years since 9/11, yet not one person who has been directly...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2006 – The activities in the Hezbollah-Hamas battlespace are being manipulated by Iran, directed by Syria and executed by Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior U.S. military official, speaking on background, said today. The official also spoke about conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said three major movements are coursing through the Middle East. The first is Iran’s posturing for leadership in the region. Iran’s prominence in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, the official said, points to the problem a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the region and world. Iran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah and its moves...

FOB KALSU, Iraq (Army News Service, July 17, 2006) – Living conditions at Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, continue to improve with the work of Soldiers from Company C, 62nd Engineer Battalion and 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Under construction are a brigade tactical operations center, two battalion headquarters and four additional buildings capable of holding up to 16 companies. The structures will provide workspace for more than 2,500 Soldiers moving to the FOB from Najaf’s Forward Operating Base Duke this fall. “These new work spaces are cost efficient compared to the tents and old buildings we have...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has imposed three conditions for a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has been waging a deadly three-day assault, a Government spokeswoman says. "The Prime Minister is prepared to finish our operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah releases our two soldiers, stops its rocket fire and if the Lebanese Government decides to implement UN Security Council resolution 1559," spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP. The resolution calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Shiite movement based in Lebanon that abducted two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday. "If these conditions are met, we are ready to cooperate with a delegation from...

CAMP ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq – The lucky soldiers live in air-conditioned "cans" surrounded by concrete blast walls. The less fortunate get hot, moldy tents. They drink rivers of Red Bull and Mountain Dew. On Sunday nights they might eat steak and crab legs. For entertainment, they can buy bootleg DVDs of The Dukes of Hazzard for only $3. Inside the gate, absent the occasional mortar attack, soldiers are relatively safe. But they never go "outside the wire" unless fully armed. Such is life in the American military's forward operating bases, which represent a new approach to war.

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2006 – One day after Iraq's unity government was sworn in, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it's too soon to try to project when major U.S. troop withdrawals might occur. Speaking today on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice said conditions on the ground and consultations with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government would play the question out over time. "We are going to sit with the new Iraqi prime minister and his team and look at the security situation both in terms of what remains to be done and who should do it," Rice said. The secretary...

STRIPTEASE artists have had an early win in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in their fight for an award to establish basic wages and workplace conditions. Canberra-based union Striptease Artists of Australia (SAA) presented its 47-page log of claims listing more than 300 businesses as respondents at a two-day hearing of the AIRC in Melbourne, beginning yesterday. The union has sought pay rates of up to $310 for three minutes of lap-dancing in skimpy clothing, $360 for a topless dance and $510 for a three-minute nude performance, $1960 for a 15-minute explicit table-top dance and $1100 an hour for a...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2005 – Iraqi and coalition forces have set the conditions for a successful Dec. 15 parliamentary election in Iraq that will be mostly free of violence, U.S. officials said today. The officials also said a broad and representative cross-section of the Iraqi population, including Sunnis, will participate "By and large, with the exception of the al Anbar province, (we) are very confident that there will be a large turnout and little or no violence," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said. Even in Anbar, "we expect better turnout this time than...

Mugabe spurned loan 'in fury over conditions' By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 17/09/2005) President Robert Mugabe rejected South Africa's offer of emergency cash to bail out Zimbabwe's collapsing economy and "humiliated" his officials when they presented him with a draft rescue package, it emerged yesterday. Mr Mugabe was "apoplectic" when he learned of the stringent conditions attached to a loan from South Africa. The conditions are believed to have included Mr Mugabe being required to open talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, repeal a series of repressive laws and implement ambitious economic reforms. A senior western diplomat...

8/18/2005 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- When providing medical care at a remote location, the pace of business and the variety of medical conditions can change quickly. For medical Airmen with the 40th Air Expeditionary Group at this forward-deployed location, it has been a combination of business as usual and urgent issues requiring 12 medical evacuations. “It seems surprising to have that many medevacs since we have a bunch of young, healthy people,” said Capt. (Dr.) Kevin Turneau, a flight doctor. The unrelated cases included appendicitis, heart attacks, a seriously gashed finger and a collapsed lung. Because the medical...

U.S. Democrats demand conditions on Social Security Sat Aug 13,11:46 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the eve of Social Security's 70th anniversary, Democrats said on Saturday they are ready to move toward revamping the financially troubled retirement program but warned against stripping away benefits to retirees and relying on private accounts for funding. "We have a moral obligation to stand up and protect Social Security for the next 70 years and beyond -- that means stopping privatization and dropping partisan demands for private accounts," said Rep. John Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, in his response to President George W. Bush's...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military plans to ease conditions for some detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — housing them in a renovated section with televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean, the detention center's commanding officer said in court papers. For the past several weeks, the military has been renovating Camp Iguana for detainees who are deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Brig Gen. Jay Hood said in an affidavit filed late Tuesday in federal court in Washington. The renovations are scheduled to be finished around Aug. 15, and some of those designated...

BEIJING - North Korea's main envoy said Tuesday his country won't give up its nuclear weapons until an alleged U.S. atomic threat against the communist nation is eliminated, the first public comments from the North after eight days of six-party negotiations. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said "differences in opinions" remained between the North and the United States. "Our decision is to give up nuclear weapons and programs related to nuclear weapons if the United States removes its nuclear threat against us and when trust is built," Kim said outside the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. The North has...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - During a tour of the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists on Saturday, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said the United States has made progress in improving conditions and protecting detainees' rights. The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring. A Senate delegation also was visiting this weekend. "The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few...

You know things aren’t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay’s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the “We Support the Troops” party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the “torture” are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture...

The latest hysteria alleging American human rights abuses of suspected terrorists comes from Amnesty International, which apparently hopes to turn even the slightest supposed mistreatment of prisoners into a full-scale Abu Ghraib-type scandal. According to the Washington Times, Amnesty International "last week called on foreign governments 'to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating U.S. officials implicated in the development or implementation of interrogation techniques that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' at the U.S. military base known as Gitmo." Furthermore, in a report titled "The State of the World's Human Rights," the organization charged that "the...

[VHFCN] Real news from Iraq Went to an AUSA dinner last night at the Ft. Hood Officers' Club to hear a speech by MG Pete Chiarelli, CG of the 1st Cav Div. He and most of the Div. have just returned from Iraq. Very informative and, surprise, the Mainstream Media (MSM) isn't telling the story. I was not there as a reporter, didn't take notes but I'll make some the points I remember that were interesting, suprising or generally stuff I had not heard before. It was not a speech per se. He just walked and talked, showed some slides...

While this writer was in the research process regarding allegations that Kerry had received a less than honorable discharge from the Navy, which was later changed, others were similarly engaged. Consequently, there are emerging simultaneously a number of allegations to that effect on the Internet; and the writer finds them to be generally true. Although the records Kerry has posted on his official site do not show an earlier discharge; and, incidentally, Kerry has finally admitted that he has not posted all of his records despite earlier claims that all were posted. Kerry publicly admitted during an interview with Tom...