Free Republic

To win the war on terrorism, America needs to move beyond killing and capturing enemies, according to terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman. He told a Syracuse University audience this afternoon that Americans need greater cultural and linguistic understanding. "Without that understanding, we are going to fail," he said. Hoffman was the keynote speaker at the fourth annual Conference on Peace and Security at SU. More than 50 people attended the daylong event, sponsored by SU's Student Association on Terrorism and Security Analysis. Terrorists tend to recruit members from countries with a poor economy, polarized government and high unemployment, Hoffman said. He...

If John Erickson hadn't had his gun with him when a neighbor's pit bull attacked him, there's no telling how bad things might have been. Erickson, 22, was walking up to his house on 400 South near 700 West in Orem on Wednesday when a neighbor's pit bull bit him from behind. As he rode his scooter to his house around 8:30 p.m., Erickson saw the dog sitting calmly while a neighborhood girl petted it. Then he parked and took three or four steps toward his house when the dog bit him. "All of a sudden the dog grabbed my...

A Gainesville man awoke to the sounds of a dog fight early Monday. When he walked outside, he found his dog locked in the jaws of a large pit bull. "I'm sound asleep and my wife says there's a dog fight in the yard," said Fletcher Sutton, 58. "And within 90 seconds I find myself standing in the yard in my bathrobe with a knife in one hand, a gun in the other and a dog dead between my legs." ...

Threats anger Islamabad WASHINGTON, July 22: The US claim that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and Washington does not rule out attacking Al Qaeda bases in Pakistan drew an angry response from Islamabad on Sunday, with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri warning that any incursion would be irresponsible. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said if anyone had any information about Osama (s)he should give it to Pakistan so that it might apprehend him. Appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition,” the Foreign Minister criticised talk of US forces attacking Al Qaeda on Pakistani territory, warning that any incursion would alienate opinion in the...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Around 10,000 US and Iraqi troops launched a major air and ground assault on Al-Qaeda networks in and around the restive city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday, the US military said. "Task Force Lightning commenced Operation Arrowhead Ripper today in a large-scale effort to eliminate Al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists operating in Baquba and its surrounding areas," the military said. "Approximately 10,000 soldiers, with a full complement of attack helicopters, close air support, Strykers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, are taking part in Arrowhead Ripper, which is still in its opening stages."

December 26, 2006: As expected, Ethiopian troops drove Islamic Courts fighters from several towns around Baidoa. The Islamic Courts can harass the Ethiopians, but they cannot stop them. The Islamic Courts don't have an army, but rather a collection of warlord and tribal militias. They also ahve several hundred foreign Islamic radicals. Some of these guys have military training, and they are much more motivated. Actually, many Somalis are motivated to resist Ethiopian invasions, but in a straight up fight, the Somalis are at a disadvantage. The Ethiopians are better trained, armed and led. While the Somalis have a reputation...

Snip FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want? After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a...

JAKARTA - Eleven percent of the people in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, believe suicide attacks against civilian targets are sometimes justifiable, a survey said on Thursday...

We are urged on all sides to appease Muslims. Why? Well, because they get angry and kill people. Not all of them, of course, just some of them. But, enough of them to matter.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Thousands of worshippers emerging from Friday prayers demonstrated against drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in the Mideast, Asia and Africa, clashing with police in some cities despite religious leaders' attempts to keep marches peaceful. In Kenya, police shot and wounded one person among about 200 demonstrators trying to march to the residence of Denmark's ambassador. About 60 protesters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, threw firebombs at the French Embassy, shattering nearly every window on its street facade, even after a cleric at a prominent Iranian mosque urged people not to attack diplomatic missions. "Down! Down with...

AMMAN: A Jordanian father who suspected his daughter of having sex before marriage promised police he wouldn't harm her – then shot her dead. An autopsy later revealed the 17-year-old girl was still a virgin. Police here in the Jordanian capital detained her to protect her from family members who believed she was having sex. The girl, whose name has not been released, was handed over to her father after he signed a declaration promising not to harm her. But he shot her dead soon after. The girl's death was the third "honour" killing in Jordan in the past week....

In Australia this week amidst anger over an Islamic man’s rape conviction and the bashing of two Aussie life savers, working-class locals erupted in a rampage of anger and brawling in some of the worst racial riots in decades. But there is more to the story than is being repeated in the American mainstream media.... Four days after he set foot in Australia, the rape spree began. And during his sexual assault trial in a New South Wales courtroom, the Pakistani man began to berate one of his tearful 14-year-old victims because she had the temerity to shake her head...

An Iranian group has killed American civilians, allied itself with Saddam Hussein, and holds a spot on the State Department’s terrorist watch list. So why might it become America’s newest friend in the Middle East? Hint: Tehran. In August 2002, intelligence reports revealed secret nuclear facilities in the Iranian cities of Natanz and Arak. The revelation left officials in Tehran speechless, in large part because the evidence was not gathered by the United States or any of its allies. Rather, the courier of such sensitive intelligence was the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), a decades-old Iranian dissident group. In most cases, dissident...

SRINAGAR: At least 12 people were killed and 100 injured on Monday when a vehicle bomb exploded near a school in Pulwama town of Jammu and Kashmir. The blast shook the town of Pulwama, 30 kilometers south of Srinagar, at around 11.00 am. Police said two people were killed on the spot, while two died on the way to hospital in Srinagar. "So far four people have died and over 50 are injured," a spokesman said. "Initial reports suggest that an improvised explosive device fitted to a vehicle - either a truck or a car - detonated," he said. The...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.(Feb. 03, 2005) -- In the early morning hours of April 9, 2004, a Marine sniper and his spotter crawled on top of an abandoned oil storage tank in Lutafiyah, Iraq. Their mission was routine as they covered their squad’s patrol movement through the small town during the Arba’een pilgrimage. As it turned out, it was also a mission that will go down in the volumes of Marine Corps history. Staff Sgt. Steve Reichert, a 25-year-old scout sniper with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and Medfield, Mass., native, was recently awarded one of...

Hostage throat-slitting videos rub shoulders with pornography in the stalls of central Baghdad's infamous "thieves market", as Islamic radicals immortalise their acts of terror in grisly films like Monday's beheading of a US national. The latest video, posted on Monday night on an Islamic website, showed five masked gunmen reading out their Islamic verdict against their American captive Eugene "Jack" Armstrong and then slicing off the victim's head as he cried out in pain. Once such gory videos are posted on the Internet it does not take long for them to make their way to the packed stalls of central...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Islamist group in Iraq (news - web sites) has said it killed two female Italian hostages in a statement posted on an Internet site not often used by Iraqi militants. The group, calling itself the Jihad Organization, said it had killed the women after Italy did not heed its call to withdraw its forces from Iraq. A group with a similar name, the Islamic Jihad Organization, said on September 12 that it would kill the hostages in 24 hours if Italian troops did not leave Iraq.

THE full horror of the Russian school atrocity began to emerge yesterday as traumatised children told horrific tales of stabbed babies and brutal rapes. It has also emerged that scores of the 323 who died - including many children - had been shot in the back. While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition. Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held...

Alleged Terrorist Lynched by Mob Outside Beslan School Building Created: 03.09.2004 17:57 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:32 MSK, 7 hours 57 seconds ago MosNews Shortly after the situation erupted at the scene of the hostage crisis in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, the area around the school was described as chaotic, with one suspected terrorist attacked by the crowd. A reporter with Britain’s Sky News described how vigilantes attacked one of the suspected rebels. She said special forces brought out a man on a stretcher and the crowd moved as one and began to attack him. The soldiers made...

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has hailed the elimination of Abdullah Kawasmeh as a "successful operation" carried out by the army for the security of Israeli citizens. Mr Kawasmeh was regarded as the most prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank. Israel holds him responsible for at least five recent attacks on the country. He was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Saturday. Mr Sharon announced that the elimination of Hamas leaders will continue as long as the Palestinian Authority does not act itself. The Palestinian Foreign Minister, Nabil Shaath, called the attack on Mr Kawasmeh a "negative and horrible...