Free Republic

Washington Post closing all US bureaus outside DC The Washington Post is closing its last US bureaus outside the nation's capital as the money-losing newspaper retrenches to focus on politics and local news. Published: 12:48AM GMT 25 Nov 2009 "At a time of limited resources and increased competitive pressure, it's necessary to concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington and the news, trends and ideas that shape both the region and the country's politics, policies and government," the newspaper's editor, Marcus Brauchli, wrote in a memo to employees that was obtained by Reuters. The Post will...

Man Survives 47 Minutes in Cardiac Arrest Doctors Wouldn't Give Up on N.Y. Man, Delivering 4,500 Chest Compressions and 8 Defibrillator Shocks to Save Him (WCBS)  What happens if your heart stops beating? Is it possible to survive? CBS station WCBS in New York recently met a Brooklyn man who lived after his heart quit for 47 minutes, and it's all thanks to a team of doctors who refused to give up until they brought him back from the dead. "These doctors did not stop," Joe Tiralosi said, fighting through tears to find the words to describe his experience....

President Obama has said it was Attorney General Eric Holder who decided to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind, and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian federal court in New York City. Yet, as a matter of law, that can't be true. "You know, I said to the attorney general, 'make a decision based on the law,' " the president told CNN. In Holder's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he confirmed that Obama had left it up to him: "This was a tough call, and reasonable people can disagree with my conclusion that these individuals should...

Here are a few facts we can’t overlook. *A retired Army lawyer speaking at a TEA Party rally this past week explained the dangers this trail poses to national security. He predicted a “civilian” trial will lead to the exposure of some of America’s most important military secrets and methods of keeping us safe since 9-11. During the trial of John Walker Lindh he was in charge of a team of military lawyers whose only job was defeating ACLU filings designed to expose America’s secrets. He confidently predicted this would happen again during this trial, but sadly concluded the military’s...

Six critical reasons to never try those who wage Jihad terror against America, or any other irregular enemy combatant, in any U.S. civilian criminal court: It extends American juris prudence rights and procedure to enemy combatant irregulars who, according to the Geneva convention, don't deserve prisoner of war status and deserve, according to the same, to be executed after a military tribunal. It offers a very real prospect because of venue, how testimony was obtained, miranda readings to someone who deserves none, etc., etc. that terrorists will get either reduced sentences or be aquitted. As a result of giving testimony...

Hey folks, I was in on a conference call with Rudy today. Unfortunately, only the big girls got their questions in - seems the moderator cherry-picked. Oh well. The topic was the terror trial in NYC. Here's the raw audio:

Rudy Giuliani says trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in lower Manhattan will make New York City vulnerable to terrorism again and sends the message that the United States is on defense in the war on terror. "One of the best things the Bush Administration did was put us on offense. Putting us back on defense puts us in a very vulnerable position, not just in New York, but nationally," Giuliani said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. "New York City is a prime target of terrorists, unfortunately, we know that for reasons we can't control, otherwise...

Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.

Bringing those accused in the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial would increase the security threat to the city and give radical Islamists a platform to propagate their ideology, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Sunday. Giuliani's view that the Obama administration is erring in trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others near the site of the World Trade Center was echoed by other Republicans on the Sunday news programs. Democrats defended the decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to try the five in New York where more than 2,000 civilians were killed on Sept. 11. If...

Just announced. No follow-up yet.

There is obviously a lot of discussion on FR concerning Obama's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civialian trial in NYC. Most of the comments have centered around the horrible possibility of a new terrorist attack against the court or somewhere nearby. I want to focus on another item I haven't seen discussed... what would happen to KSM, etc if the verdict is Not Guilty? Do they walk? Are they deported? As cleared, are they free to roam the streets of NYC? I am being deadly serious... If you open this to the civilian legal system, what would...

Call it the fortress of steel. When the murderous 9/11 Gang of Five finally lands in New York for trial, they'll face an impenetrable wall of security -- with five times the normal number of US marshals flooding lower Manhattan and a ring of marksmen watching their every move, sources said yesterday. National Guardsmen will be placed at major transportation hubs while the NYPD will close off subway entrances near the federal courthouse and intensify bag searches throughout the system, the sources said. Marshals will be shipped in from out of town and snipers placed on roofs nearby the courthouse,...

9/11 Trial in NYC?? Published: 11/14/2009 Author: Carolyn Posted On: November 14, 2009 at 8:54 AM By: Kathy As you know by now, President Obama and Eric Holder are planning on bringing the 9/11 masterminds toNYC for trial.  There is a massive grassroots movement to block this - retired members of the FDNY, theBravest.com, have partnered with 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong and America and Keep America Safe to bring attention to this travesty.  They are recruiting the families & friends of the FDNY to combat this ill-conceived policy of the current administration.  They are asking that all of America join in with...

President Obama’s decision to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in New York City along with four others accused of helping destroy the World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon on 9-11 paints a bulls-eye for terrorists right on New York City, their favorite target. Now Obama has identified where the terrorists should focus their energies – on New York City. His decision to bow to political correctness and not to try Mohammed at a secure military base and to try him in a civilian court, according him all the rights of an American citizen, raises important questions: Most importantly,...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted the Obama administration on Friday for its decision to try five Sept. 11 suspects in New York, saying that such a trial would only encourage terrorists to target the city once again. Earlier Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba would be transported onto U.S. soil to face justice in civilian court. "After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for that attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice," Holder said. "They...

Eric Holder's decision to move a trial on war crimes to American soil is morally confused, dangerous and political to a fault. Coming soon to a civilian courtroom blocks from Ground Zero: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other al Qaeda planners of 9/11. Be sure to get your tickets early, and don't forget to watch out for the truck-bomb barricades and rooftop snipers. Attorney General Eric Holder, who dropped this legal bomb on New York yesterday, called his decision to move their trial on war crimes from a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay to American soil "the toughest" he...

ATTORNEY General Eric Holder's decision to send the radical Islamic terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks to New York City for trial is horribly misguided. This public-safety mistake will further endanger our city and the lives of New Yorkers. New York City has always been in the crosshairs of terrorists seeking to attack our nation. Our city likely will always be the No. 1 terrorist target, but yesterday we had another bulls-eye placed on our backs, inviting yet another terrorist attack. The trials for these murderous terrorists are expected to be long and drawn out -- perhaps taking years, thanks...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be Sent to New York for Trial

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed to City Hall an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, later claiming he didn't know the radical Muslim cleric had been invited, the New York Post reported. Siraj Wahhaj has called the FBI and CIA the "real terrorists," defended the convicted World Trade Center attack plotters and said his hope is that all Americans will become Muslim. Wahhaj was among a group of religious and community leaders who met Wednesday with Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to talk about the Fort Hood massacre that killed 13 last week in...

WASHINGTON -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others accused in the attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce later Friday. The decision, described by people familiar with the matter, is part of wider announcement planned on how to bring to justice detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. It's the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 prisoners remaining at the facility, which President Barack Obama has ordered closed.

The sudden, and apparently life-threatening, illness of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called blind sheik, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison, has sparked fears that that his followers might launch terror attacks against the United States should he die in custody. The sheik was rushed to a prison infirmary last week after spitting up blood and is reportedly in grave condition. The terror alert was sparked, not by specific information about a plot, but because the sheik has told his followers to seek revenge if he should die while in American hands.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

It could jeopardize counterterror programs and thereby endanger Americans, but who cares? "9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to go on trial in New York," from the Telegraph, November 13 (thanks to Anne Crockett): President Barack Obama said the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be put on trial in New York City. Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Obama said Mohammed, the self-proclaimed organiser of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001, would face "exacting" US justice. Bringing such notorious suspects to US soil to face trial would be a key...

NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors are taking steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization. The organization -- called the Alavi Foundation -- has long been suspected of being under Iranian government control. Prosecutors say the foundation has been helping to illegally funnel money back to the Iranian government. The government filed a forfeiture action in federal court in New York to seize four mosques in the city and in Maryland, California and Houston. The government also wants to take control of a 36-story office tower on New York's Fifth...

Federal prosecutors are taking steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization

A spate of recent deaths of New York police and fire officers who took part in the emergency operation at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks has heightened fears that it could be the start of a delayed epidemic of cancer-related illness. Five firefighters and police officers, all of whom were involved in the rescue and clear-up at the site of the collapsed Twin Towers, have died of cancer in the past three months, the oldest being 44. Three died last month within a four-day period. Those three were Robert Grossman, a Harlem-based police officer who spent several weeks at...

New York, November 10 (ANI): An English teacher was suspended for providing his students with a graphic short story about masturbation written by “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk. Greg Van Voorhis had given the story to read to students preparing for the English Regents exam at The Bronx School of Law and Finance in Marble Hill. The material written for Playboy magazine told the tale of a teenage boy’s use of a carrot in a sex act on himself and autoerotic asphyxiation. Even though students were made to return the copies of the text at the end of the class,...

Jihadist in the midst, the first radical Muslim talks about being commanded to terrorize the unbeliever, the second expresses his love for Osama Bin Laden, right in the heart of NYC....(Video)

-snip- The detectives were investigating an incident in which a black woman's car windows were shot out in the predominantly white neighborhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Hate crime task force members Stephon Garland and Gregory Wilson, who are black, and Faisal Khan, who is Pakistani, were wearing suits for the door-to-door canvass. About 15 members of the Shomrim Jewish Community patrol arrived, and someone dialed 911, alleging the detectives were police impersonators, according to a report reviewed by The News. The detectives identified themselves over the air to the radio dispatcher, but the situation escalated when uniformed cops from the 61st...

The soldiers at Fort Hood had it coming, says a radical Muslim in Queens who travels to mosques around the city spreading anti-American hate and has sent a "Get Well Soon" message to the major behind the Texas massacre. "An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack," Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his Web site, called "Revolution Muslim." "Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you." In the twisted logic of al-Khattab, who was born Jewish in New Jersey and converted to Islam in 2004, the 13 slain and 38 wounded Army victims gunned down by...

The USS New York was scheduled to sail up the Hudson River Monday. The $1 billion ship was built in Louisiana with about 7.5 tons of World Trade Center steel melted down and used in the bow. As part of its journey, the ship is scheduled to stop when it nears ground zero, where first responders, families of Sept. 11 victims and the public have been invited to watch a 21-gun salute. Rosaleen Tallon, whose firefighter brother Sean Tallon died in the attacks, planned to be among them. "I think it's a really nice tribute," she said, adding that her...

Some NYC Freepers need to find these (&$! and give them what for. Get the puke bucket.

...gossip mills are beginning to gush and grind about increasingly muscular CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper and his muscle Mary man-friend Antoine "Ben" Maisani snatching up a very butch firehouse on West Third Street in New York City's Greenwich Village. These roiling real estate rumors of Misters Cooper and Maisani–who recently vacationed together in India –purchasing Fire Patrol House #2 seems to have first found legs a few days ago on the New York City-centric gossip site Gawker. Listing information for the four and some story firehouse shows it was listed at $4,750,000, measures a considerable 8,420 square feet, and...

Updated: The law firm Sidley Austin has rescinded an employment offer to a Harvard law graduate who has turned himself in to police for allegedly setting fire to a Sept. 11 memorial in Manhattan. The suspect, 26-year-old Brian Schroeder, is a 2009 graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard Law Record reports. He was a 2008 summer associate at Sidley Austin; a permanent offer of employment has been rescinded, Sidley Austin partner Bill Conlon told the ABA Journal. Schroeder turned himself in for the blaze at the Memorial Park chapel housing the remains of unidentified Sept. 11 victims on Saturday...

Reporting Lou Young NEW YORK (CBS) -- Democrat John Liu has won a decisive victory in the race for New York City Comptroller. The Queens Councilman has made history, becoming the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. They pretty much knew they were having a victory party at John Liu's headquarters in Midtown. In fact, you could see the optimism on the candidate's face when we caught up with him earlier tonight in Harlem. Liu was wrapping up his successful campaign for Controller at the side of the man who currently holds the office. And his is a big deal...

NBC reverses Bloomberg call Wow: This is looking to be a very long night for the billionaire-incumben-frontrunner in New York. With more than a third of the votes in, it's a one-point race. NBC called it for Bloomberg -- but just reversed that call. The New York Times continues to indicate that Bloomberg has won.

BNO News: Independent candidate Michael Bloomberg re-elected as Mayor of New York City, defeating Democrat Bill Thompson.

In an unusually overt step into politics by a religious leader, the Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn is urging voters, via robocalls, to support Vito J. Lopez, an assemblyman and the Brooklyn Democratic boss, whose hand-picked candidate is in a tough race for a City Council seat. The bishop, Nicholas A. DiMarzio, in a recorded phone call sent to every registered voter in City Council District 34, praised Mr. Lopez’s legislative service to the Catholic Church this summer. Mr. Lopez played a key role in defeating a bill that would have let adults file suit over childhood sexual abuse that...

School nurses mistakenly gave the swine flu vaccine to two students who didn't sign up for it - including a Brooklyn girl with epilepsy who wound up in the hospital. "I was outraged," Naomi Troy, 26, told the Daily News after her 6-year-old daughter, Nikiyah Torres-Pierre, had a possible allergic reaction to the shot. Officials at Public School 335 in Crown Heights called an ambulance to take Nikiyah to SUNY Downstate Medical Center when she fell ill following the arm jab. "My stomach was hurting, and I was itching," Nikiyah said after she was released from the hospital. The snafu...

NEW YORK – Meb Keflezighi became the first U.S. man to win the New York City Marathon since 1982 on Sunday, a victory that capped an outstanding day for American distance running. Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia captured the women's race, with two-time defending champ Paula Radcliffe falling back to fourth then grabbing her left leg in pain after finishing.

thelastcrusade.orgA soft-spoken and sedate Staten Island Muslim woman tried to slit her husband's throat as he lay sleeping in the middle of the night. Rabia Sarwar, 37, was enraged that her husband Sheikh Naseem, 41, asked her to eat pork and to wear non-Islamic attire, officials said. "It's time for you to die!" the Muslim woman screamed as she pounced on hubby and hacked at his neck with a butcher knife, sources said. He woke early Wednesday to find her straddling his chest and hacking at his neck with a knife. Naseem, a burly teacher at Susan Wagner High...

With the leaves turning and the mayoral race down to its final paces, William C. Thompson Jr., the Democratic candidate, sketched out a liberal policy agenda Friday, saying he would fight to repeal laws that allow landlords to charge market rents for regulated apartments. He promised to appoint pro-tenant members to the Rent Guidelines Board to oppose higher rents and pro-rider members to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to oppose raising fares. He said he would keep subway station agents on the job, and try to place all rent-regulated middle-class apartments that are part of the Mitchell-Lama program...

2 Foster Children Killed, 3 Others Seriously Injured After Van Crossed Yellow Lines Suspect Allegedly Removed Middle Row Of Seats, Had Children Sit On Floor QUEENS (CBS) -- A Queens woman behind the wheel of a minivan that crossed the yellow lines and crashed into another van on Monday, killing two foster children inside the van, was charged with manslaughter Tuesday, and sources tell CBS 2 drug paraphernalia was found inside her vehicle. Police say Sheila Bethea, 45, was driving a Mazda minivan with six passengers – five foster children between the ages of 5 and 15 and a 43-year-old...

The New York Times: The United Nations has assigned an official, “a special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing,” to check the city’s affordable housing. The rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, is to tour the city for the next three days with housing advocates and city officials to “hear the voices of those who are suffering on the ground,” she said. VIDEO AT LINK

By MICHAEL BARBARO and DAVID W. CHEN Michael R. Bloomberg, the Wall Street mogul whose fortune catapulted him into New York’s City Hall, has set another staggering financial record: He has now spent more of his own money than any other individual in United States history in the pursuit of public office. Newly released campaign records show the mayor, as of Friday, had spent $85 million on his latest re-election campaign, and is on pace to spend between $110 million and $140 million before the election on Nov. 3. That means Mr. Bloomberg, in his three bids for mayor, will...

There aren’t many churches in Christendom where the person sitting next to you is likely a star of stage, screen or television. St. Malachy’s Church, located on 49th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, founded in 1902, is a little jewel box of a church and an essential and important aspect of New York City’s theatrical community.Because of its location in the midst of the Theatre District — and the number of actors who have graced its precincts — it has come to be known as the Actors’ Chapel. Prior to 1920, St. Malachy’s was a working-class Irish-Italian parish....

Everybody knows New York City is an expensive place to live. But the United Nations wants to know if affordable housing is so tough to come by that it actually violates human rights. The United Nations has assigned an official, “a special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing,” to check the city’s affordable housing. The rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, is to tour the city for the next three days with housing advocates and city officials to “hear the voices of those who are suffering on the ground,” she said. The United Nations Human Rights Council appoints a rapporteur, or independent...

Note: Photo and video included. SNIPPET: "Ahmad Wais Afzali, 53, is charged with tipping off Najibullah Zazi that New York City police detectives were after him. Afzali is also accused of lying about it to federal agents. The Imam remains free on bail." His lawyer says the indictment is "merely a tired rehash of the same discredited allegations."

SNIPPET: “DENVER — A Colorado man whose son is accused of plotting a terror attack in New York City is scheduled to go to trial in December on a charge of lying to investigators. A federal judge on Tuesday scheduled a 10-day trial for Mohammed Wali Zazi starting Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court in Denver.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Alex Rodriguez has done something remarkable in every game of his charmed October. CC Sabathia is settling for every time he takes the mound. Together, they’ve got the New York Yankees within one game of a return to the World Series. Rodriguez homered in the third straight game of his outstanding postseason, Sabathia pitched eight resilient innings of five-hit ball on short rest, and the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 10-1 Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the AL championship series.