Free Republic

Afghanistan, World's Longest War Has Only Just Begun Politics / Afghanistan Dec 20, 2009 - 07:22 AM By: Rick_Rozoff The higher number of Defense Department contractors, 160,000, added to over 100,000 troops - with the likely prospect of both numbers climbing yet more - will result in over a quarter of a million U.S. personnel serving under the Pentagon and NATO. The latter has 42,000 non-U.S. troops fighting under its command currently and pledges of 8,000 more to date, with thousands in addition to be conscripted after the London conference on Afghanistan next month. Approximately 35,000 U.S. soldiers are also...

Kay Bailey Hutchison votes with Democrats to speed up process to healthcare vote.

A $626 billion Pentagon budget narrowly advanced in the Senate Friday morning but not before Washington’s political battles seemed to eclipse the real wars of Iraq and Afghanistan overseas. The whole Senate scene, played out in a post midnight session on a freezing night, dramatized how poisonous the atmosphere has become in the health care fight.

A St. Rose, Louisiana homeowner reportedly shot two armed burglar who broke in to his home and threatened his life. Police say that a pair of burglars, who were armed with a pistol, kicked down the down the back door to a St. Rose home. Upon entering the house, one of the robber then reportedly shined his pistol's laser sight on the homeowner. Fearing for his life, the homeowner is said to have fired one shot from his shotgun, which caused both intruders to flee, according to police. One suspected burglar, 21 year old Michael Cockerham, was found dead from...

A gunman accused of a weekend killing spree on Chicago’s South Side and in the suburbs that left two dead and a third fighting for his life was enraged because he believed his father was having an affair with his wife, Cook County prosecutors said today. James Amison, 37, is charged with murder in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Reed, 40, and attempted murder in an attack on his 59-year-old father. He is also suspected in the killing of his wife, Tashika Smith, 38, during a four-hour killing spree that authorities believe began around 10 p.m. Friday, prosecutors said...

PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix police on Saturday released a man who told them he fatally shot another man in self-defense. Officer Luis Samudio says a 24-year-old man called police at about 3:15 a.m. to report a shooting at a northwest Phoenix apartment. Arriving officers found a 27-year-old man dead of gunshot wounds in the apartment. Samudio said the man told officers he shot the other man in self-defense. After being questioned, he was released pending further investigation. The names of the victim and the man who shot him were not released.

Investigators say they’ve uncovered evidence that a Pittsfield Township homeowner was acting in self-defense when he fatally shot another man outside his home Wednesday morning. Both men were armed when they got into a dispute, police revealed this afternoon. The shooting took place early Wednesday on Rockport Court in the Arbor Creek subdivision. The accused shooter, Adham Mofiid Abu Farha, 34, was released from the Washtenaw County Jail this afternoon as police continue to investigate the shooting outside Farha’s home in the Arbor Creek subdivision. Police say Michael Robert Rajchel, 28, of Van Buren Township, came to Farha’s home at...

Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...

An elderly Clayton County, GA man reportedly used his handgun to fend off a pair of criminals who tried to rob him at gunpoint in his own home. Police say that the elderly resident sells firewood from his home. A pair of robbers is said to have posed as firewood buyers, with one of the criminals first buying some firewood then asking to enter the man's home to wash his hands. After washing his hands, the robber is said to have pointed a gun at the elderly homeowner, while the pair of criminals searched the home for valuables. At this...

War On Terror: As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed receives the benefits of U.S. justice, three Navy SEALs face court-martial for allegedly punching a captured terrorist who hanged Americans from a bridge in Fallujah. Apparently our efforts to impress the world about the marvels of our criminal justice system require us to give foreign terrorists such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man who invented the manned cruise missiles that flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and plowed into a Pennsylvania field on its way to the Capitol Building, the full rights and protections of the American citizens he conspired...

Most of you will have heard by now about cop killer Maurice Clemmons and the slaying of four Seattle-area police officers this past Sunday as well as his violent end Tuesday following an alleged attempt at killing another police officer. If not, you can read what Dave Workman, Howard Nemerov, and John Longenecker have written. To recap, Clemmons stormed into a Seattle-area coffee shop and shot and killed four police officers who were working on their paperwork. He was later confronted by officer Benjamin Kelly who approached his stolen car. When Clemmons allegedly refused to comply with Kelly's orders to...

A Miami catering company turned into a crime scene Monday morning after police and paramedics rushed to help a man who had been shot. The man was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, according to Miami Fire Spokesman Ignatius Carroll. The shooting occurred sometime after 9 a.m. inside Yolene Catering on the 5900 block of Northwest Second Avenue. Yolene Francois, the owner, told CBS4's Tiffani Helberg that her husband shot a man in self defense. She said the man had worked for them briefly. He allegedly came in demanding money and picked up a chair as if to strike him. That's...

GRESHAM, Ore. -- A person who kicked down an apartment door was shot and injured Thursday night, Gresham police said. Officers were called at 9:11 p.m. on Thursday about someone trying to kick in Nathan Brown's apartment door in the 1200 block of East Powell Boulevard. Brown said his 2-year-old daughter was sleeping when he heard a loud noise. "I heard three distinct loud bangs like someone was kicking my door. It wasn't like a knock, it was emotionally charged. It scared me," Brown said. He grabbed his handgun and cracked the door to see who was there. Brown said...

Russian President, Dmitry Medvdev, has sent a security proposal to European security agencies, including NATO and the EU. The draft calls for all nations that agree, to the final writing, will follow the principle “indivisible, equal and undiminished security”. The proposal includes these few ideas of joint security. “That parties do not undertake, support or participate in actions that can jeopardize the security of another party to the treaty". The sides also agree not to allow the use of its territory with the purpose of attacking their partners. The draft suggests that every party to the agreement is entitled to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 17, 2009) — In 1940, as World War II tightened its grip in Europe, Congress prepared for eventual U.S. involvement by issuing billions of dollars in defense contracts. However, in early 1941, then-Sen. Harry S. Truman began hearing reports of widespread contract mismanagement and wasteful military spending. Convinced that this corruption would strangle the nation’s efforts to mobilize itself if left unchecked, Truman proposed a new committee, the Senate Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. The Committee, which came to be known as the Truman Committee, saved our country millions of dollars by subjecting defense contracts...

Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit on Sunday amid warnings that a full blown war is brewing over a festering territorial dispute. Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit yesterday amid warnings that war was brewing between the countries over a festering territorial dispute. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said the negotiations in Munich were a final attempt to avert a military confrontation. They were convened by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as part of efforts to find a peaceful solution to a problem that has divided the two former Soviet republics since the 1991...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- No charges will be filed against a man who stabbed a teenager to death earlier this month in Minneapolis. The Hennepin County Attorney says the man acted in reasonable self defense. Timothy Jackson, 17, died in the early morning hours of November 7. Investigators say Jackson and another teenager tried to rob the man on the Midtown Greenway. The man stabbed Jackson Robbery charges were filed last week against the teenager who was with Jackson.

Assembling defense team will be among the initial challengesFederal court set to confront issue of self-representation By Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 15, 2009 In a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Sheik Mohammed kicked his military attorney off the defense team, forced a civilian lawyer to sit at the back of the courtroom and reluctantly accepted the presence of another advisory civilian counsel to help him defend himself. **SNIP** That is, of course, if Mohammed doesn't attempt to plead guilty to capital charges so he can be executed -- his stated desire in a quest for...

President Barack Obama was surprisingly given the Nobel Peace Prize "primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament," according to Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician who served on the award committee. Valle told the Wall Street Journal that the stewards of the prize wanted to "support" Obama's goal, as expressed recently at the U.N., "of a world without nuclear weapons." It's tough to think of a goal more widely espoused than the dream of an H-bomb-free planet. President Ronald Reagan and activist Jane Fonda, political opposites, came together on this one — in his second term, Reagan stunned...

A former engineer for defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. claims in a federal whistleblower lawsuit that the company knowingly used "defective" stealth coatings when building its F-22 Raptor stealth jets. Darrol Olsen, a stealth engineer who was fired by Lockheed in 1999, claims Lockheed "falsely certified" the coatings between September 1995 and June 1999, saying they had passed stealth tests and concealing results that showed otherwise. Olsen said in the lawsuit he was told to "stay out of it" when he complained to his superiors. The whistleblower suit was originally filed in October 2007 in California and was unsealed earlier...

FAIRFAX, VA --(AmmoLand.com)– The National Rifle Association and MetaMedia Training International have won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for the Personal Protection Outside The Home DVD in the Business- Safety, Training, and Employee Development category. The training-oriented DVD is based on NRA’s Basic Personal Protection Outside The Home Course, developed by NRA’s Education & Training Division and taught to the public by NRA Certified Instructors. “We focus on educating the public about responsible handling and ownership of firearms. Our nationally-recognized firearms training programs, coupled with MetaMedia’s skill and experience in producing high-quality training videos, make the Personal Protection Outside the...

Karen Hankins said Monday she doesn't think she'll ever get over what happened last week, when she says she fatally shot her ex-husband in self-defense. But she wants to share her story to help heal and bring awareness of the dangers of mental illness. In her first TV interview, the Redmond woman talked tearfully about how, on a night much like any other, she had to react to a situation not many people could ever dream of facing. "I dropped the phone and took both hands on the gun, and pulled the trigger. Without even thinking. It wasn't a choice....

RPG's are cheap, lethal, and they're everywhere. They operate by focusing a jet of explosive gas on one tiny point of armor, piercing it with a tiny stream. Currently, heavy "birdcage"-type armor serves to prematurely detonate that gas stream, diminishing it to a level that proves comparatively harmless --but cage armor is HEAVY. This new armor concept is like a car air bag; the incoming warhead detonates, emitting a recognizable flash. The special light flash is picked up by the vehicle receiver, causing micro-second release of the airbag on the vehicle area of interest. The lightweight but sturdy airbag meets...

Dear Elected Representative Washington, D.C. Re: CAN YOU HEAR US NOW? You ignored our tee parties, you ignored the 1.7 Million marching on Washington DC on September 12, and you ignored our letters, phone calls and emails. Yesterday despite everything that POTUS and the Democratic Party could do, including pouring 3 times the amount of money into the New Jersey race than the Republican challenger, the electorate said “NO”. “ENOUGH” “STOP THE MADNESS”. C A N Y O U H E A R U S N O W? We are retired with a pension. That means we can dedicate 100%...

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C.-- Police have made an arrest after a team of robbers invaded a home in Rowan County twice in the same week. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne have been charged with multiple counts of robbery and Starks is also being charged with attempted murder. Investigators say a home on Corriher Grange Road near Highway 152, was first held up Monday night. NewsChannel 36 spoke exclusively with the Deadmon family after the first home invasion. They told us how the robbers forced them to open the safe at gunpoint. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne They reported the robbery to...

A man San Marcos police said was shot after breaking into a home on Oscar Smith Drive armed with a BB gun, is in stable condition today at University Medical Center Brackenridge, police Commander Penny Dunn said. Police released no names involved in the shooting as they continued their investigation, Dunn said. No charges have been filed in the case, she said. Officers were first called at 9:50 p.m. Wednesday from someone reporting a break-in in progress at the back door of a home in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Drive, Dunn said. One of three people in the...

Initial fielding of FNH USA's Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) to the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM)...is anticipated in early 2010 to fully equip the majority of [SOCOM]. So far 1,200 Mk 16 and Mk 17 SCAR weapon systems have been delivered...but...it expects a larger order for around 20,000 weapons next year...The order will also include...15,000 5.56 mm Mk 16 SCAR-Light and 5,000 Mk 17 7.62 mm SCAR-Heavy weapons as well as a number of 40 mm Mk 13 Enhanced Grenade Launcher Modules.

Louvon Harris (L) stands with Betty Byrd Boatner (2nd R), both sisters of James Byrd, Jr., as Boatner embraces Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard during a White House ceremony following the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Shepard was murdered in Wyoming in 1988 because he was gay. Byrd, an African American man, was dragged behind a pickup truck to his death in Texas the same year. Saul Loeb-AFP/Getty Images Matthew Shepard's death was a tragedy. But I think it's a shameful political hoax to make him the poster boy for the...

Photo credit Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2009 - President Barack Obama today signed the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act during a ceremony at the White House. Obama hailed the act, which contains $680.2 billion in military budget authority, as transformational legislation that targets wasteful defense spending. The president was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, congressional leaders and other senior officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There's still more waste we need to cut; there's still more fights that...

A patient in a psychiatric center near the Massachusetts General Hospital stabbed his doctor this afternoon before being shot dead by an off-duty security guard, police said. maeda_28shooting_met4.jpg(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff) The physician is in stable condition, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said at a press conference this afternoon as he described a chaotic scene. A relative said the victim was Dr. Astrid Desrosiers, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatrist who worked at the center. Isabellie Desrosiers, Desrosiers' sister-in-law, said she had been told by Desrosiers' sister that Astrid had been shot. Police identified the patient late this afternoon as 37-year-old Jay...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release October 28, 2009 Remarks by the President at the Signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 East Room 2:42 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please, everybody be seated. Good afternoon. I have often said that meeting our greatest challenges would require not only changing policies in Washington but changing the way business is done in Washington; that it would require a government that's more efficient and effective and less...

Oct 21, 2009 — Plants are not as stationary as one might think. Parts of them, like seeds, can travel for miles. One good example is the maple seed. Its little helicopter seeds can catch an updraft and fly a long distance from the tree. Now, engineers at University of Maryland have imitated its physics and designed a radio-controlled mono-copter that can sustain stable flight for hours...

Charles Bronson is dead. But if he were still with us, where would he find roles to play? Now many movie heroes are cartoon characters like Spiderman, or magical characters like Harry Potter. Young people may be entertained, but they cannot emulate such fantasy heroes. Many people have become pacifists. They sit on the sidelines of life, watching with smug indifference. They are apathetic spectators, both in our struggle against violent criminals at home, and in our war against terrorists abroad. Many people have been taught not that they should fight evil, but that it is evil to fight. But...

Congressman John Murtha reminds me of Big Julie in play Guys and Dolls, who boasts: “I got a poifect record: thoity-three arrests, no convictions.” Months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group. What they found suggested that Murtha and his buddies at the PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, another one of John Murtha's most favorite contractors was charged for taking $200,000 in kickbacks, the FBI is Investigating Multi-Billion-Dollar Murtha favored Defense Contractor With Tax-Exempt Status, Murtha has even gotten family into the earmark business, and...

In 2008 an enraged, deranged known drug dealer/crack cocaine smoker attempted a violent attack on a Central Illinois man. The FOID-carrying victim pulled his legally owned, legally carried, unloaded, disassembled, non-functioning, encased semi-automatic pistol, inserted the magazine, readied a bullet and stopped the attack abruptly. The crackhead had a spiritual awakening, a "Come to Jesus" moment. Possible instant death creates instant deep thinkers. Police responded. Police rejected the gun owner's vehicular carry methods. Plus, the gun wasn't unloaded immediately after the event. Police arrested the gun owner on a questionable felony and several questionable misdemeanors. The legitimate, recordless, lawful defender...

On this forum we share a number of problems with John F. Kennedy.  We could spend a fair amount of time focusing on those problems, and for good reason.  Let's not spend time on that here. I am presenting his last address, because it so well contrasts what the Communists/Fascist Democrats in the United States have become.  I'd like that to remain the focus if you folks don't mind.  We really do want that to be the focus, because it's a very important matter that has not been focused on at all by the left. Note Kennedy's pride in the...

National Security: On the eve of a visit by China's No. 2 ranking military officer, the Obama administration loosens export controls on technology that will benefit Chinese missile development. It's deja vu all over again. The Pentagon has announced that Chinese Gen. Xu Caihou will visit the United States and meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission. While here, Xu will visit American military installations around the U.S., including the U.S. Pacific Command. Perhaps Xu will bring with him a note of thanks for the administration's...

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development. The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that it is speeding up plans to deploy a massive bomb capable of knocking out deeply buried enemy facilities. The giant "bunker buster" is believed to add fighting power to the U.S. arsenal against Iran's nuclear program, defense experts argue. U.S. officials, however, have refused to confirm the connection. The 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator is capable of penetrating up to 60 meters of earth, or a thick layer of concrete, before exploding. It weighs more than 13 metric tons, allowing just one such bunker buster to be carried by U.S. bomber aircraft. "It is under development...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Brazilian brigadier bashes US defense export policies on YouTube By Stephen Trimble on October 8, 2009 9:07 PM | A video has surfaced on YouTube showing a senior Brazilian officer expressing deep frustrations with the US government's technology transfer policies for military equipment. Complaints about the US government's technology transfer policies are widespread globally, but this video is remarkable for citing examples in such specific detail, including showing photocopies of US government denial letters. The two-day-old clip is attributed to a lecture presented last December by Brigadier Engineer Venancio Alvarenga Gomes, the director of projects for Brazil's command-general for aerospace...

Japan is negotiating a contract with the United States that will provide Tokyo with sensitive information about the systems and performance of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as it seeks to evaluate the aircraft in a bid to procure a next-generation fighter (FX) for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. A source at the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Jane's on 6 October that the contract is expected to be signed shortly....the development signals a clear move by Japan towards the JSF - and away from the F-22 Raptor ...the MoD has been requesting the US government...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Pence: "Defense Bill A Vehicle for Liberal Social Policies Wholly Unrelated to Our Country's National Security" Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, made the following statement today on the House floor to oppose the Democrats' attachment of the hate crimes bill to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010: "Throughout my nearly nine years in Congress, I have been downrange with our troops every year in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have also supported every defense authorization bill that has come before this body. And so I rise with a heavy heart...

GLENDALE, Ore. (AP) - The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says the shooting death of a 93-year-old man in southwest Oregon appears to have been in self-defense. Spokeswoman Andrea Zielinski said detectives learned Clarence Hartley had been pointing a gun before he was shot by 75-year-old Clement Dewart on Friday. She says Hartley was a relative of the Dewart family and lived on their property in Glendale. Zielinski says the investigation remains active. When it's finished, the results will be forwarded to a grand jury for a review of any possible criminal charges.

obama recently reneged on a US commitment regarding Missile Defense. obama canceled plans to put long range ground-based interceptors (GBIs) and a powerful radar in Europe. This system was to have two missions: protect both the US and Europe from medium/long range missile attacks originating in the Middle East. obama canceled these plans. The rationale given was a re-assessment of the Iranian missile threat. Supposedly, obama wants to focus on Missile Defense oriented towards thwarting shorter range and regional threats. His stated plan is to defend against these allegedly more likely threats with lower-cost, "proven" mobile land and sea-based systems....

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards will hold missile defense exercises on the upcoming Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Iranian media reported on Saturday. The announcement of the war games coincided with increased tension in Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, after the Islamic Republic disclosed that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant. The reports did not say what kind of missiles would be used in the war games, which will start on Sunday, the eve of Yom Kippur. In May, Iran said it had tested a missile that defense analysts said could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the...

Barack Obama’s chances of re-election in three and a half years’ time may be evaporating at unprecedented speed, but his presidential ambitions could still be realised in another direction. He would be a shoo-in to win the next Russian presidential election, so high is his popularity now running in the land of the bear and the knout. Obama has done more to restore Russia’s hegemonial potential in Eastern and Central Europe than even Vladimir Putin. His latest achievement has been to restore the former satellite states to dependency on Moscow, by wimping out of the missile defence shield plan. This...

Defense contractors are complaining that the ACORN defunding act will affect them...if they've been convicted of wrongdoing. Well, WAH!

With one swift slash from a samurai sword, John Pontolillo made a convincing case for ... private ownership of handguns? Oh, you betcha. Pontolillo is an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. Before Sept. 15, that's all he was... But nine days ago, Pontolillo went from being a simple college guy to being in the center of the maelstrom that developed after he slashed a burglar in the backyard of a house he shared with fellow JHU students. Pontolillo used a samurai sword to defend himself after the burglar lunged at him. With one swish he nearly severed the burglar's left...