Free Republic

Citizens of Brazil who were born in Jerusalem will have their passports amended to eliminate “Israel” from the line denoting place of birth. Existing passports are to be reissued with the “offending” term deleted, and passports that are not changed will be invalid at the end of the year. While the rule change would appear to have been influenced by the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that Americans born in Jerusalem could not have their birthplace listed as Jerusalem, Israel—but rather would be listed as Jerusalem alone—Brazil had apparently made the decision on dropping Israel a year ago,...

Link only. This is a problem with my personal computer, but the link will take you to the story.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned back a demand from Congress that Americans born in Jerusalem be allowed to have their passports changed to reflect Israel as their birthplace, heeding a warning from the State Department “a simple passport alteration could ‘provoke uproar throughout the Arab and Muslim world,’”

The Supreme Court on Monday said Congress overstepped its bounds when it tried to force the president's hand in a hot-button dispute over the Middle East. In a 6-3 ruling, the court struck down a 2002 law requiring the State Department to recognize Jerusalem as a part of Israel — over the objections of both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, which had refused to implement the law. The Supreme Court sided with the executive branch on Monday.

Starting in 2016, the Transportation Security Administration will require all airline passengers to present a REAL ID compliant identification card or a passport in order to board a flight. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 20-30% of Americans live in jurisdictions that are not REAL ID compliant, meaning their driver's licenses will no longer be accepted during security checks at the airport.

BRUSSELS, Belgium Sept. 30 A former pro soccer player who joined the al-Qaida terrorist network was convicted and sentenced to prison Tuesday for plotting to bomb a NATO base believed to contain nuclear weapons. Nizar Trabelsi of Tunisia, who once played professional soccer in Germany, received the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison from a court that also convicted 17 other men and acquitted five others in the largest terrorism trial in Belgium's history. Trabelsi admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, a Belgian military post used by NATO where...

.... Di-Natale provided coverage of the [Osama bin Laden] raid's aftermath, including an exclusive interview with Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped U.S. agents verify Bin Laden's presence, and who remains imprisoned in Pakistan to this day. Di-Natale notably reported from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound in the aftermath of the US raid, and is known for chiseling out a brick from the compound: Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when I heard about Di-Natale's death, the first thing that popped into my mind was this: Who killed him? It isn't that far-fetched to suspect foul play when a journalist...

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan consulted the White House before directing agency personnel to sift through a walled-off computer drive being used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to construct its investigation of the agency’s torture program, according to a recently released report by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General. The Inspector General’s report, which was completed in July but only released by the agency on Wednesday, reveals that Brennan spoke with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough before ordering CIA employees to “use whatever means necessary” to determine how certain sensitive internal documents had wound up in...

Stop the flood of illegal aliens into our country who claim bogus refugee status I spent three hours yesterday at the Romanian Embassy trying to obtain a passport renewal for my 82-year-old mother who wants to travel to visit her sister and brother she has not seen since 1996. It may be her last trip.

The US Supreme Court Monday decided to hear the case of an American born in Jerusalem, once again taking up the sensitive issue of the status of the contested city, according to AFP. The justices will hear arguments in the case in the fall before deciding on the constitutionality of a 2002 law that directs the State Department to give Israel as the country of birth in passports of Americans born in Jerusalem. At the center of the struggle between the Congress and the presidency is Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem in 2002 to two American parents. …

SIMFEROPOL, March 20, 22:42 /ITAR-TASS/. Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov received the Russian passport, CrimeaInform news agency reports. Deputy head of the Federal Migration Service of Russia Yelena Rodochina presented the document to the republic’s premier. Earlier in the day the premier said that the issuing of Russian passports to Crimeans proceeds in a routine way. “Passports are in sufficient supply. We aim to issue Russian passports promptly,” Aksyonov said. He pointed out again that Crimeans receive Russian passports free.

This is something the TV media are not reporting to the extent it is an explosive development. We know from media reports the two stolen passports were used by two Iranian Nationals. We have previously been told the passports were used to try and gain entry to Europe their final destination. However, if this report from the LA Times is accurate EVERYTHING changes and actually aligns with our theory of why the plane was taken.

Dubai Customs intercepts shipmentDubai Customs inspectors at Cargo Village Customs Center last year seized 52 fake passports which were intended to be smuggled into the UAE. Hamid Rasheed, Director of Air Customs Centres Management at Dubai Customs, said "Parcels that contained personal and commercial items, as stated in their declarations, went through regular clearance procedures. “Customs inspectors became suspicious of their content after they had undergone the document analysis test. X-ray images indicated the presence of internationally significant official documents." He stressed the continued efforts of Dubai Customs to detect such crimes that jeopardise national security, in line with DC’s...

<p>MILAN (AP) — Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirm that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.</p> <p>Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that an Italian man whose name was listed as being aboard is traveling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane.</p>

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

A report in a Kuwaiti newspaper Thursday said that Hezbollah terrorists are traveling the world freely, seeking opportunities to carry out terror attacks against Israelis and Jews—using passports issued in Australia, Canada, and a variety of European countries. Quoting a Western intelligence source, the report said that Hezbollah has already used these passports to try and carry out terror attacks in places like Azerbaijan, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. …

The Egyptian authorities have begun revoking the citizenship of Hamas leaders, according to reports in Palestinian and Egyptian media outlets. The move is seen in the context of intensifying tensions between Egypt and Hamas in the aftermath of the downfall of deposed President Mohammed Morsi’s regime. Under Morsi’s rule, the Egyptian authorities granted Egyptian citizenship to thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including top Hamas officials. One of the Hamas leaders who received an Egyptian passport was Mahmoud Zahar, who was born to an Egyptian mother. The Palestinian daily Al-Quds reported that the Egyptian authorities have taken effective measures...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)--a Republican member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who helped write the Senate immigration bill and one of 14 Republicans who voted for the bill’s final passage--was unaware that the legislation he helped usher through the Senate allows a person to forge up to two passports without penalty. “Under the Senate immigration bill, how many passports can someone forge before it becomes a crime?” CNSNews.com asked Rubio Thursday on Capitol Hill. “How many…you can’t forge any passports,” Rubio replied. ”That’s a federal crime now.” CNSNews.com: “It’s actually a part of the bill that it’s up, that...

Now wait a minute. We're constantly told that no Muslims in the U.S. -- none -- adhere to Al Qaeda's understanding of Islam, and only greasy Islamophobes think otherwise. So how did Amiir Farouk Ibrahim, no doubt known to all and sundry back home in Pennsylvania as a solid and respectable burgher of serious mien, come to misunderstand his peaceful religion so resoundingly? "American passport found at al Qaeda base in northern Syria," by Bill Roggio for the Long War Journal, July 23 (thanks to Jerk Chicken): A passport said to belong to an American citizen was found among a...

(CNSNews.com) – Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of the “Gang of Eight” that helped write and pass the immigration reform bill in that chamber, said he did not know how many passports a person could forge under the proposed law before being charged with a crime. On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked McCain, “Senator McCain, can I ask you a question about the Senate immigration bill? Under the bill, how many passports can someone forge before it becomes a crime?” McCain said, “You’re going to have to ask our folks that, I don't think that we stand for...