Free Republic

A group of bipartisan US congressmen is urging reform in UNRWA, the UN body that deals exclusively with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and calling for alternative solutions to the containment of refugees in squalid camps. "The Palestinian refugees have been used as political pawns for the past 60 years by people who don't want peace in the Middle East," said Congressman Eliot Engel (D-New York) at a meeting of international parliamentarians hosted last week by the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus, a bipartisan pro-Israel parliamentary group. "The UN has been part and parcel of this conspiracy," he said. Engel, who...

Actor Peter Hansen, known for his role as lawyer and addiction counselor Lee Baldwin on General Hospital, has died at the age of 95. Hansen died Sunday in Santa Clarita, California, the General Hospital twitter account confirmed Tuesday. Though he made over 100 film and television appearances, Hansen was best known for his role as the stalwart Lee Baldwin on General Hospital and its spin-off Port Charles. He appeared on the weekday soap opera from 1965 through 2004, making his last appearance at Lila’s (Anna Lee) funeral in 2004 and retiring from the screen thereafter. His character began as Port...

On Monday the Israeli ambassador to the UN demanded the resignation of Peter Hansen, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, accusing him of complicity in terror. However, the story began to unravel when the agency claimed that the object in the video was too thin and light to be a missile and that a militant would be more careful in handling a crude, homemade explosive device. A day later the agency produced the driver of the ambulance in question, who said that the object was a rolled-up stretcher and his crew had been on...

Bush forces UN refugee chief to go Israeli pressure backed by conservative and Jewish groups in US stops reappointment of controversial head of relief agency Chris McGreal in Gaza City Thursday January 20, 2005 The Guardian The Bush administration has blocked the reappointment of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency chief, Peter Hansen, after a campaign by conservative and Jewish groups in the US, and the government in Jerusalem which accused him of being an "Israel hater". Some European and Arab governments were keen for Mr Hansen to stay on at the end of his nine-year tenure but the US supported...

A Staten Island mailman who was a follower of the blind terror sheik tracked down confidential addresses of FBI agents and prosecutors pursuing Al Qaeda, according to court records and federal sources. Ahmed Sattar, described by federal prosecutors as a point man for a major terror group in America, was spotted by one federal agent near his home. The agent moved his family from the area.Sattar also was put on the federal payroll, receiving thousands of dollars to be a paralegal for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman during his 1995 terror trial, government officials said.Even though federal investigators became suspicious of...

JERUSALEM - The international media this week buzzed with the news that Israel had accused the UN of allowing its ambulances in Gaza to participate in terrorist activities, only to back down when local representatives of the world body fought back. But far less attention was given to the fact that the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) in the Gaza Strip openly admitted Monday to having Hamas members on the payroll.

UN Official Admits Hamas on UNWRA Payroll October 06, '04 The top UNRWA official in Gaza, Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, admitted that Hamas terrorists are on the payroll of the supposedly neutral body - but the world media are ignoring the story. A significant news item reported by Arutz-7 yesterday has received little coverage in the international media: The top UNRWA official in Gaza admitted that Hamas terrorists are on the payroll of the supposedly neutral body. Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA in Gaza, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation two days ago that some UNRWA workers are...