Free Republic

The release of the already discredited Senate “torture report” has left liberals in a state of gleeful pearl clutching as they pretended to be shocked by the shocking revelation that enhanced interrogation can mean sleep deprivation and assorted mind games.Meanwhile here’s a little reminder of what real torture looks like as perpetrated by the Taliban. I was one of the Taliban’s torturers: I crucified peopleInstead of just searching for criminals, the night patrols were instructed to seek out people watching videos, playing cards or, bizarrely, keeping caged birds. Men without long enough beards were to be arrested, as was any...

Vladimir Putin is quietly toiling away at reestablishing last century’s utopia-on-earth, known more commonly as the Soviet Union. Aside from rolling some T-72 tanks into Crimea, and giving a helping hand to the Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, he’s also been ramping up efforts to remake modern Russia into a more 20th century image. Putin’s Justice Ministry (I’m not sure, but it is possible that they took that agency’s name straight from the pages of a George Orwell book) is trying to shut down one of Russia’s oldest civil rights organizations.I know, I know, I know... You’re thinking “so what?”...

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared universal access to wireless Internet to be a "fundamental right of all citizens" and stated that access to the Internet "is a civil rights issue as much as anything else."  This is the same San Francisco government pushing a complete ban of all handguns within city limits.  They are putting it to a referendum and proposition H will be on San Francisco city ballots next month.  If it passes, any possession of a handgun within city limits will be banned.  Everyone but government personnel and security guards will have to surrender their handguns within 90 days. ...

Is access to the Internet a "civil right?" Each individual's answer to this question is generally dependent upon a variety of factors — political affiliation, geographic location, economic status and the like. While one side of the debate claims that high speed broadband access is most certainly a right that everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, should enjoy, others disagree. Really, the entire debate is focused upon the "haves" and "have nots" (i.e. the people fortunate enough to have access at home or in their local communities and those who do not have the ability, for a variety of reasons, to...

Reading this made me feel like Ron Burgundy listening to Baxter tell him he ate a whole wheel of cheese: I’m not even mad. It’s amazing.Jon Ward of Yahoo News wonders if the next human right is the right to Frosted Flakes. “Baby boomers and older were often told that if we specialize in terms of our skills, we will be more secure and prosperous, that the definition of ‘making it” was living out in the suburbs as far way as possible with the biggest lawn possible,” he said. “Young people have flipped that on its head. Younger people...

Governor of Maryland and potential 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Martin O'Malley raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he was quoted in a CNN profiledeclaring access to wireless internet (WiFi) as a "human right." The quote occurred when O'Malley was discussing the "rebirth" of the American city and the skills of young people that make these changes happen. 

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a potential Democratic White House contender, said in an interview published Wednesday that "Wi-Fi is a human right." O'Malley, a two-term governor who has fundraised vigorously for Democrats running in midterms races this year, said in an interview with CNN that he can relate to his 20-something daughters. "I am noticing a generational shift. While baby boomers were led to believe that sometimes our prosperity comes from separating from other[s], people under 40 believe that it will come from being closer to others," he said. O’Malley said young people are no longer following the path of...

A U.S. report released Thursday says China’s human rights record has worsened in key areas over the past year and that limits on free speech and assembly are growing. The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the country has tightened restrictions on civil society, rights advocates, journalists and religious organizations. It added that President Xi Jinping has adhered “to the authoritarian model of his predecessors” since taking power last year. That model “poses a serious challenge to U.S.-China relations and China’s own development,” the report said. It recommended that the U.S. press for more freedoms in China,...

For years, the Mail has campaigned against the insidious and remorseless undermining of the sovereignty of Parliament and our judicial system by the remote, unaccountable European Court of Human Rights. From demanding that prisoners should get the vote to halting the deportation of terrorists who hate this country’s values, it is synonymous with judgments that fly in the face of common sense and the interests of the British people. Indeed, judicial activism in Strasbourg—and, remember, some ECHR members represent countries with populations smaller than the London borough of Islington—has warped the original noble intentions of the British authors of the...

We all know how tolerant radical Shari’a Muslims are toward Christians, especially when it comes to kidnapping, torture, hangings, and beheadings. As brutal as they are toward Western Christians, they are even worse (if that’s possible) toward Islamic converts. It’s also no secret that Shari’a based Islamic governments don’t like to be criticized for the iron veil of oppression by which they control their populations. So in 2009 when an Iranian web publisher petitioned Sweden for asylum in order to escape political persecution from the strangulating Iranian government, one would think the welcome mat would have been laid out...

The UN is not just a joke. It’s also a really expensive waste of money. But sometimes it can be hard to remember that. Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein was officially appointed by the 193-Nation UN General Assembly to become the next United Nations human rights chief in Geneva.“Prince Zeid’s work on sexual violence and his leadership on the international criminal court give a good foundation for this new role,” said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. I bet. Jordanian law protects the perpetrators of honor crimes.The section of the penal code most frequently invoked on...

What if Iraq is not a country of people with common cultures and interests and generally accepted borders, but rather an amalgam of warring groups cobbled together by British and American diplomats? What if only a strongman like Hussein — however evil and ill suited for government by Western standards — can keep peace and stability in an artificial country like Iraq?

The American who tore up his own tourist visa on landing in North Korea and demanded to be arrested so that he could experience prison life in the communist nation has been sentenced to six years hard labor for entering the country illegally to commit espionage. Matthew Miller, 24, of Bakersfield, California, looked thin and pale at his trial in Pyongyang on Sunday, as he was handed out his sentence. Miller, who looked thin and pale at the trial and was dressed completely in black, is one of three Americans now being held in North Korea.

Special to Israel News Agency from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jerusalem, Israel --- September 9, 2014 ... Instead of investigating Hamas’ deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, the UN decided to “investigate” Israel, a democracy exercising its legitimate right of self-defense. Throughout the recent conflict Israel has done its utmost to comply with the strictest standards of international humanitarian law, despite significant operational costs. On July 23, while Hamas rocket fire on Israel continued daily, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to appoint a “commission of inquiry” the purpose of...

Western intelligence agencies have been assisting the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad fight militants of Isis (now called the 'Islamic State'), by providing details on the location of militant leaders for targeted air strikes. The information was passed to Assad's government by German intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which acted as an intermediary, a source told the Independent... In recent weeks, Syrian forces have launched a series of airstrikes against Islamic State commanders and headquarters, as they battle to halt the advance of jihadist forces from their stronghold in the east of the country. The Assad regime has been accused...

Earlier this month, Senator John McCain indicated that it was time for the United States to consider selling lethal weapons to Vietnam after a 30-year embargo. The recent maritime standoff between Beijing and Hanoi over Chinese oil exploration off the central coast of Vietnam exposed Hanoi’s many strategic weaknesses. Providing Vietnam with coast guard and maritime systems as a first step - and eventually radar, fighter aircraft and spare parts for leftover American military equipment - would bolster Hanoi’s strategic capabilities vis-a-vis China and give substance to the "comprehensive partnership" announced last year between Hanoi and Washington. But more than...

“Potentially unethical.” That’s how one expert described an Italian scientist’s plan to perform a “head transplant” by severing two heads at the same time, then cooling and flushing out the ‘recipient’ head before attaching it to its new body with polymer glue.That is “POTENTIALLY unethical?” Making one person out of two, and throwing away the unused halves, is only “potentially” unethical?Shock and awe.* * * * *Neuroscientist Sergio Canavero is undeterred by criticism, however. Canavero now reports that it’s possible to merge bone marrow, surgically cut with an ultra-sharp knife, when fusing one person’s head onto another person’s spine. The...

Part Three: What the People of a Free Biafra Need from AmericaDo the Christian indigenous people of Kurdistan and Biafra deserve our support in their fight against Islamic extremists? While supplying weapons to some insurgents fighting for freedom in Syria, why has the Obama administration not supplied support and weapons to those in Kurdistan or Christian Nigeria fighting for their survival? Why has the administration refused to give support to the independence of these beleaguered peoples? As ISIS expands its grip on lands in Iraq and turns its attention to Kurdistan, Prime Minister Maliki has finally sent in air support...

President Barack Obama drew a diplomatic line at the first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House this week by not inviting Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe. But the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records. The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented. The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’ of...

Remember back in April, 2007, when then-CIA director George Tenet appeared on 60 Minutes, angrily telling the program host, "we don't torture people"? Remember a few months later, in October, President George W. Bush saying, "this government does not torture people"? We knew then it was not true because we had already seen the photos of Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib prison four years earlier. Still the US administration denied that torture was torture, preferring to call it "enhanced interrogation" and claiming that it had disrupted so many terrorist plots. Of course, we later found out that the CIA...