Free Republic

Osama Bin LadenNew Yorkers last week were reminded yet again of the horrors of the 9/11 attacks, when their unrepentant mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arraigned in Guantanamo Bay. But few are aware a tectonic shift has taken place beneath the headlines in the wider war on terrorism - one that could within a few years significantly lower the likelihood of terror returning to New York's streets. This is because Al Qaeda has gotten itself into hot water with the one constituency that it cannot afford to alienate: its fellow jihadists.Over the past year, a growing number of very consequential...

Absolut-ely Ridiculous Rick Moran Take a look at this map that Absolut Vodka is using in its latest campaign in Mexico and the US: Now I have an open mind about a lot of things. But somehow, giving California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, and about 4 other states to Mexico because they don't like a treaty they signed after losing a war 160 years ago seems a little too much in the way of good neighborliness if you ask me. The word is "reconquista." The open borders crowd tells us that this is a myth, that the issue of...

'Osama bin Laden is Planning Something for the US Election' US author Steve Coll spent years looking into Osama bin Laden's family. Now, his new book provides a unique insight into the clan. SPIEGEL spoke with him about where the terrorist might be hiding, how his father got his start, and the unique romantic liasons pursued by one of his brothers. SPIEGEL: Mr. Coll, Osama bin Laden recently broke a long silence. He threatened Europe and called for the "liberation" of the Gaza Strip. How seriously should we take these missives? Do they tell us anything about him or about...

A jihadist Web site Wednesday posted a message from Osama bin Laden chiding the European Union for allowing newspapers to republish cartoons insulting the prophet Muhammad. In his five-minute audio message entitled, "The Response Is What You See, Not What You Hear," bin Laden accuses Europeans of abandoning the "etiquettes of disputes and morals of fighting." Bin Laden says he considers the reprinting of the cartoons a more serious offense than the killing of women and children. He also adds the revenge for republishing the cartoons "will be more severe." Bin Laden concludes his message by saying if there are...

The amazing series of events that led to an Al Qaeda terrorist manual becoming freely available on the internet can be revealed today. Only last week a terror suspect was jailed in Britain for having a copy of it and told that its possession was a serious criminal offence. But the deadly document, described as a Declaration of Jihad, is a public record in the US after being translated from Arabic and typed up for MI5, passed to the American authorities and then declassified by the Department of Justice. The manual includes advice on planning kidnappings, bombings, assassinations and torture....

The US captured an al-Qaeda terrorist who played an instrumental role in helping Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan after 9/11. Mohammed Rahim now sits in a Guantanamo Bay cell after his capture, arriving there this week, although the CIA won’t say when or where they caught him: The Pentagon says authorities have captured a high-level al-Qaida figure who helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001.Officials declined to say when or where Mohammad Rahim was captured — announcing only that he was handed over by the CIA to the Pentagon earlier this week and is being held at...

The Jordanians had held Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi without trial for several years without trial, but could apparently find no charges to bring against him.  Earlier today, the man described as more influential in al-Qaeda than either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri went free from the prison where he mentored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded al-Qaeda in Iraq: Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said.They said Maqdisi, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor of slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,...

U.S. intelligence agencies are beginning to suspect that Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden is dead after all, despite a recent audio tape exhorting Al Qaida terrorists in Iraq. The Al Qaida leader who was the main force behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, was last heard on an audio tape released Dec. 30. The tape mentioned Iraqis who are opposing Al Qaida, but there has been no specific time referenced from his last two messages. An earlier message in October also exhorted Al Qaida to fight in Iraq. Questions about Bin Laden are being...

Which target got a million-dollar missile in the rear yesterday? ABC News reports that Pakistani officials believe they killed someone high up the al-Qaeda food chain with a missile strike yesterday, but they're not saying who it might be. Hopes have been raised in the past, but usually have wound up either killing lower-level figures or, as George Bush famously noted, a camel and a ten-dollar tent: Pakistani intelligence sources say they believe a "high-value" al Qaeda target was killed in a missile strike yesterday in the country's tribal region bordering Afghanistan. U.S. officials said there was no indication that...

WEST COLUMBIA — When private property gets in the way of a road project, its owners will be moving out of the way, one way or another, in almost every case. With a widening of Highway 36 on the horizon and state and federal officials ready to drive the Trans-Texas Corridor through the Lone Star State, many land-owning Texans are preparing to defend their property from their own government. Brazoria County residents troubled by the looming eminent domain fights came to the Gulf Coast Christian Center on Saturday morning to voice their views to Tom Lizardo, chief of staff for...

CAIRO, Egypt - Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar — one of bin Laden's 19 children — raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father—except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar—one of bin Laden's 19 children—raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name...

Conservative and liberal bloggers alike are buzzing about Mitt Romney's alleged statement to an Islamic businessman that he "cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified" for a Muslim, based on the percentage of Muslims in the U.S. Romney quickly disputed businessman Mansoor Ijaz's account of their exchange, but Ijaz stands by his telling. To make matters worse for Romney, TPM Election Central just dropped another bomb: apparently two NV GOPers had asked Romney a similar question several months ago and gotten a similar answer, which one of them even described as "racist." Will this hurt Romney among IA...

Bin Laden's latest tape--translated http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/New/osamamessage.asx

When al-Qaida’s media arm released its first Osama Bin Laden video in nearly three years, most of the media attention was focused on Bin Laden's beard. It appeared either dyed — or perhaps even pasted on. He was ridiculed and a variety of theories were offered to explain it. But now, there is a running debate among video analysts about whether al-Qaida faked the video altogether —that rather than being new, the September 7 message may have been something recorded at the same time as his last video in October 2004 (and then released with new audio). The point of...

A Simple Way to End the War on Terror by Yacka Jah Yacka Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 09:03:20 PM PDT While it appears from more than one point of view that the War in Iraq and the War on Terror are situations from which we may never be able to extricate ourselves, from the mountains of Pakistan comes a very simple solution: convert to Islam. Before we reject this out of hand, lets seriously consider it for a moment: Osama Bin Laden promised the wars would be over if Americans convert to Islam. This may sound like a lot...

Bronxville, N.Y. - In yet another sign of trouble for Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden publicly conceded that his like-minded militants in Iraq "made mistakes." In an audiotape broadcast by Al Jazeera this week, he sounds deeply anxious about the survival of Al Qaeda in Iraq – a group that is largely independent of his own organization but adheres to a similar ideology. Al Qaeda's top leader appealed to Sunni Arab tribes and other armed Iraqi Sunni groups to stop fighting Al Qaeda members and unite against the real enemy – the US-led coalition. Al Qaeda in Iraq faces growing...

<p>The last days on Earth of Abu Osama al-Tunisi apparently were filled with anxiety: “We are desperate for your help,� he said in a letter to al Qaeda chieftains.</p>

Banner announcing Osama bin Laden's audiotape. Click image to view animated version. Recent report from US commanders in Iraq have stated al Qaeda in Iraq has been set back by a combination of the latest offensive and the willingness of local Iraqis to turn on the terror group. Based Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape, al Qaeda central command agrees that the fight against the US and the Iraqi government is not going well. A clearer picture of Osama bin Laden's view on the state of jihad in Iraq emerges after the release of the full transcript of Osama bin...

TxDOT knows where you went It hired a firm to film plates, send surveys — a move some call sneaky AUSTIN — Did you drive on Interstate 35 in early September? Where were you going, and why? How many people were in the car with you? And by the way, how many people live in your house? The Texas Department of Transportation wants to know, and a company it hired may have videotaped your license plate, then sent you a survey to find out. The survey is being done in the name of sound transportation planning. Officials say the method...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

Frequent demands for justice are trumpeted in leftist-derived articles, for intentions of slamming President Bush over the administrations perceived failure to apprehend Osama Bin Laden. Such cries for justice, by the left, are normally reserved for the benefit of convicted criminals who’ve been offered more than ample opportunity to take full advantage of what our system of laws entail in the way of protection. When they’re not busy protesting on behalf of the truly guilty, liberals are typically found demanding stiff punishment for the innocent. Among the many lies originating from the left – and there are many – is...

Osama bin Laden is Already Dead By Highwheeler at freerepublic.com In the weeks since the terrorist airliner hijackings and the subsequent attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, both U.S. military and U.S. political strategies have been slowly revealed. Not every piece of information was overt and obvious to the casual observer about these operations. While certain pieces of information were outwardly and proudly proclaimed, most were the carefully and heavily edited bits of information that still remain the most interesting. I am talking about the sporadic information that was missing, retracted, or just puzzling in its nature. This thesis ...

A little more than a month ago...some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago. For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora... (snip) The military operation included "several hundred" U.S. and Afghan ground forces... Elements from the 82nd Airborne blocked off escape routes through the mountains on the Afghanistan side of the border, while helicopters inserted U.S. Navy Seals at night. The Seals pinpointed enemy positions...

Muslim terrorist leaders are "thankful" for the efforts of activist and congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan, stating in a new book Sheehan's anti-Iraq war activities and her statements against President Bush "give us hope" the U.S. will change its Mideast policies. "You [Sheehan] give us hope and you show us that there are different Americans than those whom we know," stated Ramadan Adassi, chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the West Bank's Anskar Refugee Camp. "This sincere woman says what we've been saying all these last years – Saddam never threatened America or its security. Now Iraq...

On the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Americans were treated to two starkly contrasting images that speak centuries of difference between the U.S. and its enemies. In Frame One, we see Gen. David H. Petraeus testifying before Congress on the status of the war in Iraq. In Frame Two is Osama bin Laden in a new video -- resplendent in white robes, his beard recently rinsed dark to conceal the gray -- promising that Islam will subjugate the West. One an image of courage, integrity and honor; the other a caricature of manhood. Then there is a third frame....

Friends, this is not a do-it-if-you-have-time request. This is the most urgent kind of request for your action Friday — and again Monday.... In the middle of actions on Defense next week, the open-borders Senators are going to attempt to attach three proposals that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and dramatically increase the importation of additional foreign labor for American jobs. Many of the Senators who helped us kill the Comprehensive Amnesty in June are indicating they are in favor of these preferences for illegal foreign workers and new foreign workers over American workers. We must keep...

Like Brian De Palma, Osama Bin Laden has recently released a new movie. Like De Palma’s new release, Bin Laden’s new feature is predictably anti-American. Unlike previous Bin Laden special productions, America’s arch-enemy has taken another arrow out of Hollywood’s quiver. Bin Laden has moved almost far enough left to successfully compete for next year’s presidential endorsement from MoveOn.Org. We could almost call him Osama Bin Lenin. Bin Lenin’s latest propaganda flick incorporates many of the “known facts”™ that pervade the typical speech given by the average leftwing American Populist. He perhaps read Senator Jim Webb’s November 2006 editorial in...

A banner once displayed in front of an abandoned Al-Qaeda safehouse in Iraq has found a new home at a US military museum.The three-meter-long (10-foot-long) black flag, recovered by a battalion of Marines in Fallujah in November 2004, is now on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia.The flag "is believed to be the same banner seen in the atrocious videos broadcast all over the world displaying the torture and executions of many innocent civilians by insurgents and terrorists," according to the text accompanying the exhibit.The flag was found, the narrative went on to say,...

So you've seen the latest message from our favorite goat-toucher Usama bin Laden. In it, he criticizes Americans for reelecting, instead of punishing Bush, as well as harping on Democrats for not securing a retreat out of Iraq. He also mentions global warming and praises Noam Chomsky, the patron saint of the left. It was at this point, I thought I was listening to Keith Olbermann. That's when it dawned on me: bin Laden isn't just a terrorist, he's worse — a liberal! So, when one political party shares a wartime agenda with the guy who's trying to end your...

Projection: The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or suppositions to others. Maureen Dowd's columns are as much pop psychology as political commentary. The NY Times columnist understands virtually everything in terms of the underlying impulses of the id, ego and super-ego. When it comes to Republicans' presidential preferences, Dowd's idée fixe is that they seek father figures -- strong men who will dole out discipline and authority. But could this ultimately be the projection of Dowd's deep-seated desire for a strong man of her own? Take today's [p.p.v.] opus, Old School Inanity, in which Dowd twice trots out her...

How big a threat is the global jihad being waged against the United States and the west? I agree with the left that the threat should be kept in perspective. I do not agree with the left when they attempt to minimize it. Fred Thompson’s take on OBL and The Long War is just about right: “Bin Laden being in the mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan is not as important as there are probably al-Qaida operatives inside the United States of America,” Thompson said... Thompson said the al-Qaida leader and the Iraq war must be seen as part of the...

Bin Laden Tape: 'No Overt Threat To US' Updated: 19:10, Friday September 07, 2007 There are no overt threats or calls to attack on a new video featuring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to reports from the US. Unidentified American officials are quoted as saying that date references on the video indicate it was made recently. The recording of bin Laden has been timed to mark the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks against the United States. It contains the first new images of the terror leader in nearly three years. The Homeland Security Department has said it...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a new videotape Friday, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end, according to a transcript obtained by ABC News. The videotape appeared to have been recently made, since bin Laden refers to the Democratic victory in COngress and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May. "I invite you to embrace Islam," bin Laden said, according to a transcript posted by ABC News on its Web site. "It will also achieve your desire...

Mexico’s president Felipe Calderón used the occasion of his first state-of-the nation address to declare war on the United States (AKA Azatlan), proclaiming that, "Mexico does not end at its borders," and "[w]here there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."El gato is out of the bag. The 400,000 illegal aliens who cross our southern border with Mexico each year – now 12 million strong - are not here to "do the jobs that Americans won’t do." They are an invading force waging Mexico’s protracted campaign to achieve "La Reconquista."Calderón’s ambitions are being aided and abetted by a Fifth Column in...

An agreement announced by Transport Canada last month advances toward reality the massive planning that has been done to develop the NAFTA Superhighway in Canada. A July 30 press release on the website of Transport Canada, the Canadian government's counterpart to the U.S. Department of Transportation, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, between the governments of Canada and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec to develop the "Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor." The memorandum noted Ontario and Quebec are "vital contributors to the Canadian economy representing approximately 60 percent of Canada's exports and gross domestic product."...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Bush administration can go ahead with a pilot program to allow as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies to freely haul their cargo anywhere within the U.S. for the next year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request made by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and the nonprofit Public Citizen to halt the program. The appeals court ruled the groups have not satisfied the legal requirements to immediately stop what the government is calling a "demonstration project," but can continue to argue their case. The trucking...

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit in Canada released a plan that established U.N. law along with regulations by the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization as supreme over U.S. law and set the stage for militarizing the management of continental health emergencies. The "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza" was finalized at the SPP summit last week in Montebello, Quebec. At the same time, the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, has created a webpage dedicated to avian flu and has been running exercises in preparation for the possible use of U.S. military forces...

The Americans were getting close. It was early in the winter of 2004-05, and Osama bin Laden and his entourage were holed up in a mountain hideaway along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Suddenly, a sentry, posted several kilometers away, spotted a patrol of U.S. soldiers who seemed to be heading straight for bin Laden's redoubt. The sentry radioed an alert, and word quickly passed among the Qaeda leader's 40-odd bodyguards to prepare to remove "the Sheik," as bin Laden is known to his followers, to a fallback position. As Sheik Said, a senior Egyptian Qaeda operative, later told the story, the...

Al Qaeda has an active plot to hit the West. The United States knows about it but doesn’t have enough tactical detail to issue a precise warning or raise the threat level, says Vice Admiral (ret.) John Scott Redd, who heads the government’s National Counterterrorism Center. In an interview at his headquarters near Washington, D.C., Redd told Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball and Jeffrey Bartholet that the country is better prepared than ever to counter such threats. But he also believes another successful terror attack on the U.S. homeland is inevitable. Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: People in various agencies have said that since Tora...

Santos he had tuberculosis Friday, health officials said the Gwinnett County 17-year-old refused to believe it. Then the wiry, dark-haired youth refused to submit to any treatment. Worse, he said he was walking out of the Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville and heading back to his home country of Mexico, officials said. (ENLARGE) Francisco Santos lives in Norcross with at least one parent and several younger siblings, records show. "I think he was scared," said David Will, attorney for the Gwinnett County Board of Health. Gwinnett health officials found themselves in a bind. They had a person with a case...

WASHINGTON - It took an act of Congress to force the CIA to lift the veil on its watchdog's internal investigation that lays out the agency's many failures in the months and years before Sept. 11, 2001. Three CIA directors disparaged the document. Multiple requests under the Freedom of Information Act collected dust. Finally, on Tuesday, with the clock ticking on Congress' 30-day deadline to release the report, CIA Director Michael Hayden reluctantly caved in. Completed in June 2005, the report lays out in greater detail what has long been known: The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available...

While unauthorized entry into the United States is illegal, being in the country after having entered illegally is not necessarily a crime, according to a new ruling by the Kansas Court of Appeals. In a Barton County case, a three-judge panel issued an opinion Friday that a judge could not deny probation and order jail time for convicted drug dealer Nicholas L. Martinez based solely on the grounds that Martinez is an unauthorized immigrant. "While Congress has criminalized the illegal entry into this country, it has not made the continued presence of an illegal alien in the United States a...

WASHINGTON: Some Mexican trucks will be allowed to carry cargo anywhere in the United States as soon as a U.S. inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans, the administration of President George W. Bush announced Friday. The latest step toward implementing a controversial provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement drew instant condemnation from labor and driver-owner groups that fear the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs. The decision was announced by a Transportation Department notice in the Federal Register, a daily compendium of new federal rules read mostly by lobbyists and lawyers. A one-year...

Small town braces for protest Montebello businesses make plans to weather storm of demonstrationsBy ALAN FINDLAY, NATIONAL BUREAU MONTEBELLO, QUE. -- This small, southwestern Quebec village of 1,110 people is bracing itself for a storm of police, protesters and television cameras for the next three days. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will be huddling behind the fenced-in Chateau Montebello tomorrow and Tuesday for an annual summit that has drawn the ire of protesters across the continent. Across Notre Dame St. from the meeting, merchants and residents are prepared for the worst...

Has he really died of typhoid? robert fox weighs the claim and its implications Osama bin Laden, charismatic founder of al-Qaeda, died of typhoid earlier this month in Pakistan, according to a highly classified intelligence brief given to the King of Saudi Arabia and President Chirac this week, and leaked to the French newspaper L'Est Republicain. The chief of the terror group was known to have been suffering from acute typhoid and seeking treatment in Pakistan in mid-August. This was picked up and tracked by Saudi intelligence services. The same sources, said by the French to be very reliable, believe...

Looking for Osama bin Lauden's location REWARD $50 Millon USD

The Department of Homeland Security will issue new regulations that amount to the first step in a two step-process that — if completed — would put the government in position to shut down the illegal-immigration jobs magnet. The second step will require a new, but very simple, law. As a consequence, we will soon see whether Congress and President Bush truly want to crack down on corporations systematically violating the immigration law. The new regulations involve the so-called “no match” letters that the Social Security Administration sends each year to employers who hire illegal aliens. One of the government’s dirty...

States Pick Up Where Congress Left Off of Immigration Law Monday , August 06, 2007 AP BOSTON — State lawmakers are increasingly stepping into the void created by the failure of Congress to approve sweeping changes to immigration policy, a new report finds. Legislatures have passed bills dealing with a range of immigration issues, from employment and health care to driver's licenses and human trafficking — creating a sometimes uneven patchwork quilt of immigration law across the country. Arkansas approved a law barring state agencies from contracting with businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Louisiana has a new law barring the...

Juan and Alex Gomez, whose fight to avoid deportation started with a few classmates and a laptop computer, have gained a powerful advocate on Capitol Hill: U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. On Monday, Diaz-Balart introduced legislation that would grant both Colombian nationals American residency, preventing them from being expelled with their parents. Although the bill would only affect the brothers, their case has given fresh resonance to a much broader question: Should the children of undocumented immigrants be granted residency? Diaz-Balart says yes. ''This case is heartbreaking,'' he told The Miami Herald Monday. ``These boys arrived in the country when they...