Free Republic

A senior CIA official has died in an apparent suicide this week from injuries sustained after jumping off a building in northern Virginia, according to sources close to the CIA. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Calif.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has said the CIA has blocked efforts by the committee to investigate harsh interrogation of terrorists. Committee staff members working at a CIA facility in Northern Virginia to investigate agency interrogation practices also have charged that the CIA covertly searched the agency’s computers that were being used in the investigation. The agency subsequently reported that several Senate...

It is actually illegal for two or more people to get together to do what they did to Brendan Eich. Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code states as follows: If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on...

The U.S. government masterminded the creation of a “Cuban Twitter” — a communications network designed to undermine the communist government in Cuba, built with secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks, The Associated Press has learned. The project, which lasted more than two years and drew tens of thousands of subscribers, sought to evade Cuba’s stranglehold on the Internet with a primitive social media platform. First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent.

Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) was leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and Chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945; he led that country into World War II in 1939. The documents in this file range from 1933 to 1947, but primarily fall either in 1933 or between 1945 and 1947. In 1933, the FBI investigated an assassination threat made against Hitler. In the aftermath of Germany’s surrender in 1945, western Allied forces suspected that Hitler had committed suicide but did not immediately find evidence of his death. At the time, it was feared that Hitler may have escaped in the closing days...

In several threads on FR this past week, as well as in the conservative media for a long time now, I have been amazed at the number of avowed conservatives who still talk about Obama as if he is merely incompetent, rather than purposefully diabolical in his destructive domestic and foreign policies. This Sunday is admittedly a little long in the tooth for a really robust weekend vanity post before the news cycle hits again in the AM, but I suppose it is not altogether too late to start a discussion by asking the obvious: how can any Freeper in...

What can one write about when there's nothing new and interesting? Here's an idea for a new conspiracy theory: Iran and Supreme Leader Khamenei are imaginary, created to distract us from real problems by giving us somebody and something to hate. That's always been a useful ploy.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW4_4jFpn4I?feature=player_detailpage] Video linkSupreme Leader Khamenei recently said, Does anybody dare talk about Holocaust in Europe? The Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and, if it happened, it’s uncertain how it happened,” Khamenei said in an event in the northern city of Mashhad marking the Persian New Year’s Nowruz. Could any sentient person...

Valiant Knight of Government-Approved Information Rides to the Rescue Look who is warning us again about the great harm conspiracy theories are doing to the minds of impressionable citizens everywhere: Cass Sunstein has emerged at Bloomberg, to once again plead for 'correction' of the many conspiracy theories that are disseminated on that pesky new medium, the intertubes, seemingly without inhibition. Contrary to the infamous paper in which he described how to precisely combat the spreading of false information that lacks the government's seal of approval, he doesn't list his favored censorship and disinformation techniques outright this time, but it is...

Sixty-five years ago this month, Gen. George S. Patton Jr., hero of World War II and an outspoken critic of the Soviets, was en route to a Sunday hunting trip, a day before permanently leaving Europe, when he was critically injured in a vehicle accident on a deserted two lane highway near Mannheim, Germany. A large US army truck that Patton’s driver later said was waiting for them, suddenly — and without signaling — abruptly turned into his limousine’s path, causing a head-on crash. Even though Patton had an aide with him and the driver of the truck had one...

Cops find five Indian Ocean practice runways in MH370 pilot’s simulator, BH reportsInvestigators have discovered the runways of five airports near the Indian Ocean loaded into Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home-made flight simulator, a Malay daily reported today. “The simulation programmes are based on runways at the Male International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States (Diego Garcia), and three other runways in India and Sri Lanka, all have runway lengths of 1,000 metres. “We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the...

Details concerning the sudden, Saturday disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 continue to trickle in. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority, said the missing Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers an "unprecedented mystery." In short: We have no idea where the plane is, where the passengers are, or if they're even alive.

Muslim fundamentalists are plotting to take over state schools, according to leaked documents. Activists have launched a campaign to oust headteachers using dirty tricks such as spreading false allegations and packing governing bodies with their supporters. The plot, which ringleaders have named Operation Trojan Horse, has emerged in documents drawn up by the group and leaked to a local newspaper. The dossier names several schools in the Birmingham area as targets of alleged plots. The authors of the documents discuss extending the ‘jihad’ operation to Bradford and Manchester – cities with rapidly growing Muslim populations.

Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies openly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, according to her attorney. House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced Sunday that Lerner will testify at Wednesday’s hearing, but Lerner’s attorney Bill Taylor said that Lerner will seek to continue invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and will also seek a one-week delay of her testimony. Oversight members are reportedly open to granting Lerner a one-week delay if she petitions for one in person at Wednesday’s hearing. The delay would allow Lerner’s lawyers to continue negotiating for immunity, which they...

Is the Israeli Mossad behind the Arab Spring? According to a play which recently aired on Egyptian television, the answer is yes. The anti-Semitic play, entitled "The Spy," recently aired on the Egyptian Al-Hayat TV channel. It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The play displays anti-Semitic stereotypes and portrays Mossad officials preparing "for a huge operation of espionage and sowing disunity" which targets the entire Arab world. The play features a group of Mossad officials, five men and one women, and the men are all dressed up in hareidi attire. The males are all named...

Confidential to U.S. drone operators: If you’re looking for Jesse Ventura’s remote Mexican hideaway, it can be found at 23° 30' 57.08" N 109° 28' 41.17" W. During an appearance Tuesday on CNBC, the former Minnesota governor claimed that he was living “off the grid” in Mexico “so that the drones can’t find me.”

Former wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura says he has gone “off the grid” in Mexico to avoid drones knowing where he is. The former third-party governor hosts a show called “Off the Grid” on Ora TV. Ventura said he could remain off the map “as long as we have solar power and we can reach the satellite.” “I view the United States, today, much like East Berlin. And I’m off the grid. I’ve tried for 20 years to warn the country about the Democrats and Republicans, and nobody’s listening.”

A document currently circulating through the Washington state government details the attempt to vastly expand Continuity of Government powers by amending the state’s constitution. Exclusively revealed to Storyleak, the document, entitled “Modernizing State’s Continuity of Operation Planning,” asks State Representatives to pass legislation concerning the government’s ability to implement COG. Spearheaded by the Washington Military Department and the State Auditor’s Office, the document also details the move to add Continuity of Operations planning to state law. Created at the height of the cold war during the 1960s, the Continuity of Government (COG) program was designed to give the federal government...

US Senator for Arizona John McCain (L) talks with Soros Fund Management Chairman George Soros at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 23, 2014. Some 40 world leaders gather in the Swiss ski resort Davos.

With the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination this past November, I began revisiting the various conspiracy theories that have appeared over the years. I never put any stock in the Warren Commission and the establishment verdict of “Oswald as lone killer.” But among all the conspiracy portrayals put forth, none truly satisfied me as definitive. That is until I read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, by James W. Douglass. There are hundreds of “JFK conspiracy” books in print, but Douglass takes the reader to places not visited by others eloquently and hauntingly. And...

Updated (Jan 19, 2014 at 01:45 am) The pattern is not completely clear, and there are pieces missing from the puzzle, but I have found enough bits of evidence to convince me that it is more likely than not that someone purposely initiated the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident. This is a difficult story to tell; it’s not easy to revise history. It’s even harder to it successfully when there is sure to be disbelief, dismissal, and efforts to discredit. I prefer being respected and strive to avoid the potential of being marginalized as a crackpot. However, I feel a...

One tactic liberals love to use in dealing with conservative or libertarian ideas is not to respond to an argument, but to say that you are advocating a position solely because you’d been paid off by some insidious entity. Offer some skeptical views about the notion that the world will inevitably be ruined by climate change, and well, obviously you’re the tool of energy companies, aren’t you? George Zornick makes this claim in a blog entry for the Washington Post.... ... According to Zornick, “climate-denial (sic) money has largely been driven underground to dark-money sources.” How does Zornick know this?...