Free Republic

A couple in Philadelphia has filed a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency and Verizon, claiming they and their phone records were targeted for surveillance because of their outspoken criticism of Barack Obama and the U.S. military. This is believed to be the first official lawsuit filed against the government and the company, since it was revealed that Verizon had been ordered to turn over phone metadata for all of its customers. The couple who filed the class-action suit are not just any disgruntled Verizon customers, however. They are Charles and Mary Ann Strange, the parents of a Navy...

(CNN) -- Human error is to blame for a mortar round explosion that killed seven U.S. Marines and injured eight other service members during a training exercise in Nevada this year, the Marines said on Wednesday. An investigation of the March 18 incident at Hawthorne Army Depot revealed that "the Marines employing one of the mortars did not follow correct procedures, resulting in the detonation of a high explosive round at the mortar position," the Marines said in a statement. "The investigation also determined that the mortar section had not conducted appropriate preparatory training leading up to" the nighttime training...

The story of a fallen soldier, a father’s grief, and a hit song By Lee Habeeb It happens now and then. You hear a story so sad, so beautiful, so filled with loss and pain and grief and love, that it makes you cry. Really cry. Two years ago, I was making a grocery run for my family on Memorial Day when a story came on the local NPR station in Oxford, Miss. It was about a father whose son had been killed in action in northwest Afghanistan. The father was Paul Monti; his son was Sergeant Jared Monti. Jared...

Six Americans were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign troops in Kabul on Thursday, according to a NATO source. The victims included two soldiers and four civilian contractors, the source added. Officials said at least six Afghan civilians had also died. Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai said the attacker detonated a Toyota Corolla. He added that 35 people had been injured.

(Reuters) - Four U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Tuesday, the coalition and officials said, a day after three Georgian soldiers were killed in nearby Helmand. The soldiers were in a vehicle on patrol in Kandahar's Zhari district when they were killed, provincial spokesman Jawid Ahmad Faisal said.

Press Conference held with a few of the parents of the Seal Team 6 Warriors who died in the helicopter attack in Afghanistan. Watch these Navy SEAL Team VI families and other family members as they reveal the Obama Administrations culpability in death of their sons in the fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Families say Muslim cleric disparaged dead Navy SEALS at their own funeral. Islamic Iman Curse Dead Soldiers at Their Memorial Service (Seal Team VI)

Seven US service members were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans in Afghanistan in recent months and the latest of attacks against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive. The renewed violence came as Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a US-Afghan bilateral security agreement to govern future American military presence in the country had been delayed because of conditions the Afghans were placing on...

even U.S. soldiers and a member of the NATO-led coalition were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans and other foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, as the Taliban continued attacks as part of their spring offensive. The renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement to govern future American military presence in the country had been delayed because of conditions the...

Five United States troops were killed Saturday by an attack involving an improvised explosive device, the NATO-led security force in the country said.

Sgt Cable was playing with a group of children outside when the attacker, thought to be 16 years of age, came from behind and stabbed him in the neck with a large knife. Zalmai Khan, a senior district official, said the teenager had escaped to nearby Pakistan.

<p>TUCSON, Ariz. — The U.S. military has identified a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 who died during parachute training in southern Arizona.</p> <p>Navy officials say 31-year-old Special Warfare Operator Chief Brett D. Shadle of Elizabethville, Pa., died when he and another SEAL collided in midair Thursday. Shadle was taken to University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, where he was pronounced dead.</p>

<p>A Navy SEAL from the elite SEAL TEAM 6 was killed and another SEAL injured Thursday night during a parachute training accident in Marana, Arizona, the military said. Details of the accident are not immediately available.</p> <p>One SEAL was pronounced dead on arrival at the University of Arizona Hospital. The second remains hospitalized in stable condition.</p>

A soldier from the 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire) has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The soldier was serving in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province when he was injured in an attack by insurgents on Monday. In a statement the MoD said he had been flown to hospital for treatment "where, sadly, he succumbed to his wounds".

The heroic last stand of a young soldier who died trying to defeat an insurgent sniper team has been recognised with the posthumous awarding of the Victoria Cross (VC), the country's highest recognition for valour. Lance Corporal James Ashworth, aged 23 from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was killed by enemy fire when he made a lone advance on an insurgent position that was engaged in a deadly battle with his platoon in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand, Afghanistan. His family (pictured top) were invited to a special media event at Lille Barracks, home of 1 Grenadier Guards, today, where Commander 12...

Derek McConnell, a 23-year-old Army sergeant who lost his legs in Afghanistan, was found dead in his bed Monday morning. The cause of death hasn't been been determined, his mother, Siobhan McConnell, told NJ.com in a text message. McConnell enlisted in the military in 2009. He was deployed in 2011, and in July of that year, he lost both his legs, fractured his skull and right arm, and suffered severe blast wounds after getting hit by two improvised explosive devices while on patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

An explosion at a military ammunition storage facility in Nevada during a Marine Corps training exercise killed seven U.S. Marines and wounded several others, military officials said. The North Carolina-based Marines with the 2nd Marine Division were killed late Monday when a 60-millimeter mortar exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot as they were preparing to fire it. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear whether the mortar exploded prematurely inside its firing tube or whether more than a single round exploded. The official was not authorized to speak about the...

<p>HARRY REID: "As I indicated, it was quite a big explosion. We'll follow this news very closely. I will do whatever I can going forward to support the United States military and the families of the fallen Marines.</p> <p>Mr. President, it's very important we continue training our military, so important. But one of the things in sequester is we cut back in training and maintenance. ....</p>

A fifth French soldier was killed in the nine-week-old military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali, the French government said on Sunday. The corporal from the 1st Marine infantry regiment of Angouleme was killed in action, President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement, without giving details. Dozens of Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaida have been killed as French and African forces have fought to drive them out of the northern region of Mali they have controlled since last April. France launched a ground and air operation in January to break the Islamist rebels' hold on the region, saying militants...

FULL TITLE: My hero brother: Heartbreaking moment soldier's grieving sister collapses in front of his grave at Arlington National Cemetery This is the heart-wrenching moment a sister was so overcome with grief that she lay down and sobbed on the grave of her brother, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Lesleigh Coyer, 26, traveled to Washington’s Arlington National Cemetery with her parents on Monday to pay respects to her brother, Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Ryan Coyer, on the first anniversary of his death. Her only sibling served two tours of duty during the war

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — An American soldier arrived home Wednesday more than 60 years after he disappeared in North Korea. Police, fire officials, the USO Greater Los Angeles and family greeted the remains of Private First Class Roosevelt “Jack” Clark around 5:40 a.m. at Los Angeles International Airport. Clark was reported missing in action on Nov. 28, 1950 while fighting with the 35th Regiment in North Korea. The 20-year-old Bakersfield resident was never found and few details about his death were available. Clark’s remains were recently located overseas and positively identified through DNA. Following the arrival of Clark’s remains, a...

REST IN PEACE, FALLEN BROTHER! SWOC Christopher Scott Kyle, USN, Died 2Feb2013 U.S. NAVY SEALS"People Sleep Peaceably In their Beds At Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready To Do Violence On Their Behalf. " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7 (KJV) "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in...

A French commando raid in Somalia to free a captive intelligence agent ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed Saturday to have seized a second soldier. Confusion surrounded early reports of the botched rescue of the French agent, known by his code-name Denis Allex. He was captured in the east African country on July 14, 2009, and last seen in a video released in October pleading for the French president to help him. But it...

"So, you know, I think that, have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. You know, there's a human enterprise, and you know, you fall short of the ideal," said Obama. The president went on to say that America has achieved some measure of success in Afghanistan, however. "Did we achieve our central goal? And have we been able, I think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible Afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future...

A local soldier killed in Afghanistan on Saturday died in a suicide bomb attack, U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young told the Tampa Bay Times on Monday night. Earlier Monday evening, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a news release saying that Army Spc. Brittany B. Gordon died from injuries caused by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The military provided no other details. Contacted by phone later that night, Young, R-Indian Shores, told the Times that military officials had advised him that the IED came from a suicide bomber. "It is not one that was planted as a mine....

After Romney's remarks, Barbara Doherty told Boston's WHDH 7News that the GOP nominee shouldn't invoke her son that way again. "I don't trust Romney," she said. "He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. It's wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama." Romney has amplified his criticisms of Obama's foreign policy and defense record with a speech on Monday that fact-checkers and the Obama campaign said was rife with errors and policy reversals

http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=1889169871001&w=466&h=263

NACO, Ariz. — Nearly 100 people gathered Thursday evening for a candlelight vigil at St. Michael’s Catholic Parish in Naco, Ariz., to remember U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie and his sacrifice. Family members, law enforcement officials, local residents and members of the media attended the event in honor of Ivie, who was fatally shot around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, after he and two other agents responded to a ground sensor hit near mile marker 352 on Highway 80, in a remote area of the desert, about seven miles east of Bisbee. Rev. Seth Polley, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church...

Former Navy SEALs are speaking out after President Barack Obama referred to recent events in the Middle East, including the deaths of two former Navy SEALs, as "bumps in the road." Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty were providing security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya when it was attacked on 9/11. They were both hailed in the aftermath of the attacks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Both had gone into private security after retiring from the Navy after distinguished careers. Former SEAL and current Montana State Senator Ryan Zinke issued the following statement: The President refuses...

Four American service members were killed by an Afghan policeman early today, the third attack on coalition forces in three days, bringing the death toll in the recent violence to eight. The attacks -- two "green on blue" incidents and an assault on a coalition base by 15 Taliban fighters -- come as tensions flared across the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film that was produced in the United States. In the latest attack, an Afghan police officer turned his gun on NATO troops at a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan before dawn. Four U.S. soldiers were killed before the...

Militants armed with rockets have attacked the main Allied military base in Afghanistan, leaving at least two people dead and a number of others hurt. The perimeter of Camp Bastion was breached as it was hit by small arms fire and there was major damage to buildings, an aircraft hangar and several military jets. The two soldiers killed are thought to have been US Marines. This facility is often subject to indirect fire, but officials in Afghanistan say the damage that has resulted is far more severe than normal. The attack was launched in the US area of the base.

<p>KABUL—The Taliban's weekend assault on a major coalition base was one of the most determined and effective ever seen in Afghanistan, according to details released Sunday, destroying six U.S. combat jets and damaging two others.</p> <p>In addition to the Taliban strike, which killed two U.S. Marines Friday night, two separate insider attacks by Afghan service members claimed the lives of six coalition troops. A lethal coalition airstrike, meanwhile, threatened to raise additional tensions in the country, amid reports of civilian casualties.</p>

WASHINGTON — It was another week at war in Afghanistan, another string of American casualties, and another collective shrug by a nation weary of a faraway conflict whose hallmark is its grinding inconclusiveness. After nearly 11 years, many by now have grown numb to the sting of losing soldiers like Pfc. Shane W. Cantu of Corunna, Mich. He died of shrapnel wounds in the remoteness of eastern Afghanistan, not far from the getaway route that Osama bin Laden took when U.S. forces invaded after Sept. 11, 2001, and began America's longest war. Cantu was 10 back then. Nearly every day...

On August 6, 2011, 30 US service members killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter they were being transported in crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs were killed in the crash. Yesterday, Karen and Billy Vaughn, parents of Aaron Carson Vaughn, spoke at the Defending the Defenders forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots outside the RNC Convention in Tampa. Karen brought a copy of the form letter they were sent following their son’s death. It’s a form letter. It...

August 16, 2012: Seven American soldiers were killed Thursday when their helicopter crashed in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, U.S. officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter, although the insurgency often exaggerates its victories and is quick to claim responsibility for any incident involving foreign troop deaths. The area where the helicopter went down is an insurgent hotbed and supply route, lying north of Kandahar city near volatile Zabul and Uruzgan provinces. This story is still developing. R.I.P.

Pendleton captain killed by Afghan police SAN DIEGO - A captain based at Pendleton was one of three Marines killed Friday in Helmand province by an Afghan police officer with whom he had just shared a meal, it was reported Saturday. Matt Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills, was killed after being invited by an Afghan police commander to a meeting in Sangin district, long a Taliban stronghold, to discuss security issues, The U-T San Diego reported. Before the meeting, Manoukian and the other two Marines killed shared a meal with their killer. The attack was the third of its...

We lost one today and 6 still waiting to see how they are doing.

3 Italy-based U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan VICENZA ITALY JULY 25, 2012 BY: SUSY RAYBON The Pentagon announced today the deaths of three Italy-based soldiers who were killed while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Pfc. Adam C. Ross, 19, of Lyman, S.C., died July 24, 2012, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered small arms fire. Ross was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy. Of note, the DOD announced last week that the base in Vicenza, Italy, is soon to be closed under the Base Realignment and...

Spring Grove soldier laid to rest Hundreds attend services for the fallen soldier on Saturday. By TIM STONESIFER For the Daily Record/Sunday News ork, PA - In the silence, you could hear the fabric rub together as the flag was folded at last into a triangle. There, on a hillside near Spring Grove, a soldier pressed it with white gloves hard to his chest, then raised a hand in salute, motionless. A church bell tolled, a butterfly arced quietly over rows of tombstones, and more than 300 American flags stirred in the breeze along a rutted road. The first crack...

Six American troops were killed in a roadside blast today in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. official told ABC News. Details about the deadly incident remain vague. Earlier today, a press release by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said six ISAF servicemembers “died following an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan today.” The nationalities of the victims were not identified because “it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities,” the statement said. A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that the six killed in today’s attack were Americans, but did not have specific details...

There are photos of 139 Arizonans — of which seven are from Cochise County — who are part of the Remembering Our Fallen From Arizona traveling memorial, which begins a nearly two week display at The Mall at Sierra Vista Thursday. At 11:30 Thursday morning a public event at which Army Maj. Gen. Jennifer Napper, commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command on Fort Huachuca, will open the display to the public near the Sears entrance inside the mall during a short ceremony, which will include a ribbon cutting. The opening is part of recognizing the 237th birthday of the...

The CIA has revealed the identities of 15 of its fallen officers, some of whose secret ties to the spy agency are being made public for the first time in almost three decades. Engraved on a memorial wall at the CIA's headquarters building in Northern Virginia are 103 stars, each representing a CIA officer who perished in the line of duty since the agency's founding in 1947. For some, the star is all recognition they have - many names have still not been made public out of concern for secret operations. At a memorial ceremony Monday, CIA Director David Petraeus...

KABUL -- A man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform opened fire on coalition troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing an American and wounding two others, officials said. "An Afghan Army soldier turned his weapon against US soldiers inside an Afghan-US military base in Kunar Province, killing one US soldier and injuring two others," provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri told AFP. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. http://www.myfoxny.com/story/18306795/man-wearing-afghan-army-uniform-shoots-dead-isaf-soldier

Two Fort Stewart soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. 25 year old Sgt. Joshua A. Born of Niceville, Florida and 22 year old Cpl. Timothy J. Conrad Jr. of Roanoke, Va. died Feb. 23, in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their unit came under small arms fire. They were assigned to the 385th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne), XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Stewart, Ga. According to an interveiw she did with WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, Joshua Born's wife lives in Illinois, and found out about her husband's death not through military channels, but when someone sent...

Cpl. T.J. Conrad, who grew up in the Roanoke Valley and graduated from Northside High School, was killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, his father said this afternoon. Conrad, 22, was one of two American troops who was shot and killed by a man wearing Afghan military or police fatigues during a protest over the burning of Qurans on a U.S. air base, according to Tim Conrad. “It was basically an ambush,” said Tim Conrad. T.J. Conrad leaves behind a wife and 7-month-old son.

Seven Marines died when their helicopter collided in midair Wednesday night...

An Afghan soldier joined protests on Thursday against the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base and shot dead two foreign troops, western military sources said. The killings came hours after the Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign military bases and kill Westerners in retaliation for the burning of the Korans at Bagram airfield on Tuesday. Eleven people have died in demonstrations across the country since then and 17 people have been wounded. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of several cities, chanting "Death to America!" and smashing cars, buildings and shops. In...

Flags will be lowered in New Jersey Saturday, the day of Whitney Houston’s funeral. But a Marine mom in Arlington says it’s an honor Houston doesn’t deserve. When Phyllis McGeath heard Gov. Chris Christie had ordered flags lowered to half-staff for Houston, she said she felt a pain deep inside her. “I was hurt and offended. Disappointed. Saddened,” she said. “I felt like the honor that was given to my son was tarnished.” McGeath had three sons who were active duty Marines. Her oldest, Philip, was killed by a suicide bomber just four weeks ago in Afghanistan. He was 25....

The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show. The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now. The Air Force had maintained that it could not estimate how many troops might have had their remains sent to a landfill. The practice was revealed last...

It was an overcast day in Newport, N.H., when a simple “20/20″ shoot turned into something that made me wonder about life after death. I was filming soldier Justin Rollin’s parents Skip and Rhonda playing with their dog Hero, whose rescue from the Iraq War zone where Justin died was nothing short of a miracle. Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?” It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in...