Free Republic

We strongly object to the President creating a two-tier system of justice for terrorists in which those responsible for the death of thousands on 9/11 will be treated as common criminals and afforded the kind of platinum due process accorded American citizens, yet members of Al Qaeda who aspire to kill Americans but who do not yet have blood on their hands, will be treated as war criminals. The President offers no explanation or justification for this contradiction, even as he readily acknowledges that the 9/11 conspirators, now designated "unprivileged enemy belligerents," are appropriately accused of war crimes. We believe...

Click on photo to enlargeThe soon to be commissioned USS New York sails up the Hudson River approaching midtown Manhattan a few minutes after pausing near the World Trade Center. A detail rendered a 21-gun salute in remembrance of the 2,976 murdered on September 11, 2001 as 9/11 family members, first responders, and a honor guard gathered just west of Ground Zero.

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is the Obama administration keeping America safe? DEBRA BURLINGAME: When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I actually had a sliver of hope that he would surprise his worst critics and govern from the center — the smart pragmatist. That hope pretty much evaporated on January 22 when he signed a series of executive orders shutting the Guantanamo Bay detention center by a date certain and suspending the trial of 9/11 conspirators — who were at that moment sitting at Gitmo, crowing about their role in the murder of 3,000 of our fellow human beings. Surrounded...

Friday evening, Mark Levin spoke with Michael Ledeen about Iran and his new book 'Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West.' Ledeen says of the situation in Iran, "The Supreme Leader is in a coma ... When an evil man dies, it is never bad." (Audio interview plus links and evidence of Iran's involvement in 9/11 after the jump.)

DENVER - Claims that an Afghan immigrant was on the verge of unleashing a terrorist attack on New York City on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 are missing a key element: explosives or the chemicals allegedly used to make them, the man's attorney said. FBI agents have yet to find those elements and connect them to Najibullah Zazi, charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in a plot authorities say was aimed at commuter trains, attorney Arthur Folsom told a federal judge in Denver Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ultimately ordered Zazi's transfer to New York,...

Michelle Malkin asked "Who’s behind “Islam on Capitol Hill?” today. Part of the answer is Sheikh Ahmed Dewidar who, shortly after 9/11, implied Jews were complicit in the mass-murder of the 2,976. On June 6, 2006, the Steven Stalinsky wrote about it in the New York Sun: Within weeks of September 11, 2001, an Egyptian sheik serving as Al-Azhar University's representative in America and an imam at the Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque of New York City, Muhammad al-Gamei'a, was interviewed at an unofficial Al-Azhar University Web site, www.lailatalqadr.com. Sheik al-Gamei'a returned to Egypt shortly after his interview was translated....

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in New York, Washington and Virginia are vying to try the accused plotters of the September 11 attacks if their cases are moved into U.S. civilian courts, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes court said. The Obama administration said last week it would decide by November 16 whether to try Guantanamo prisoners in a revised version of the much-maligned military tribunals or in regular civilian courts. Case files for self-described 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged al Qaeda co-conspirators are already under review by U.S. attorneys...

The jihadi attacks against New York and Washington created an unforgettable date in the collective psyche of Americans: this nation was bled by men indoctrinated by an ideology that, both in its texts and in its actions, knows no mercy for free societies. The terrifying three numbers and a hyphen 9-11 took their place in the country's national identity, alongside Pearl Harbor in the high drama of American history. But 9-11 became also a benchmark to other nations and regions of the world. In Europe, Russia, and India, civil societies began identifying the date 9/11 with their own subsequent traumas....

Okay-- imagine that the week after the worst terrorist attack in world history, in which almost 3,000 of your countreyment were murdered you were in church and the pastor began telling the parishioners that the United States brought it on itself. That we deserved it. That America deserved to be damned by God. Imagine he's saying this, complete with foul language, in front of your young children. He's saying that your country deserved the vicious assault and that your countrymen just got in the way. Wouldn't you punch that pompous asshole in the face?

Well, it’s been eight years since that terrible morning – George Bush was as deep into his first term of office as Barack Obama is today when those awful events unfolded. The anniversary in the mainstream media will be muted, as always – and we’ll come back to that. And even though three thousand people died that day, I want to concentrate on two – not to exclude the others, but simply to show you that they were not some abstract number but individual lives. Kevin CosgroveOne of the people who died that day, eight years ago, was a businessman...

Here is video of Glenn Beck remembering 9/11 and asking why Ground Zero is "still just a whole in the ground" after 8 years and "is this the best we can do?" Beck points out the the Empire State Building took only 400 days to build in the 1930s. (Watch Video)

Examining President Barack Hussein Obama’s ubiquity – even when your favorite TV show has not been pre-empted yet again by one of his prime time speeches or press conferences, you can still watch his Public Service Announcement (video link) about national service that gets heavy rotation, even on FOX – an unabashedly worshipful article by Jennifer Senior in New York magazine noted: “Since occupying the White House, Barack Obama has hosted fifteen town-hall meetings; appeared in more than 800 images on the White House Flickr photo-stream; and held four prime-time press conferences, the same number held by George W. Bush...

An emoticon is worth a thousand characters:

NASA has released this terrible image of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, as captured by Frank Culbertson—the commander of the International Space Station at the time. His words that day: Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else. Click on the image to zoom in. You can see downtown Manhattan—south, where the towers were—, with the East River and Brooklyn on the top, and the Hudson and New Jersey on the bottom.In the anniversary of the attack, let's take a few minutes to reflect on the stupidity of all violence,...

Every commemoration of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 reveals our confusion. Eight years after 9-11, we are still asking ourselves too many questions, and in those questions are embedded the reasons the war has gone on so long. Who is this enemy and why do they want to harm us, many ask. If you can’t define the enemy, you cannot defeat him. Where are we this year in the confrontation with the forces that caused us harm and want to defeat us? Are we making progress in the war against the “terror forces;” are we far from victory;...

"The floor is completely engulfed. We're on the floor, and we can't breathe, and it's very, very, very hot...I'm going to die, I know it. Please, God, no. It's so hot, I'm burning up!" These were some of the last words of Melissa Doi, 32, one of the thousands of innocent victims that perished at the hands of radical Islamists on September 11, 2001. In all, 3,017 souls were lost and 6,291+ people were injured on that fateful day by al Qaeda terrorists in New York City, Arlington County, VA, and Shanksville, PA. Now, eight years later, one of the...

Are we already forgetting the horrid events of that day? Are we already relegating it to only being worthy of recognition every five years? Neither the L.A. Times nor the Chicago Tribune had any front-page stories commemorating the anniversary.The Washington Post -- which only had a single ad in remembrance (a full-page tribute from Lockheed-Martin) -- did have this article above the fold on its cover which was titled "9/11 a Distant Memory for Teens: Eight years later, the Sept 11 attacks have become relegated to history books for a generation that's too young to remember." The bad news: It contains an anecdote about a class that groans when they...

Michelle did not die curing cancer, saving the rain forest, or protecting the lives of others. Michelle died for the very thing B. Hussein Obama is trying to destroy, capitalism. As you go about your day today, as you go about your life, each and every day, remember what it is that made America the greatest nation in the world, people like Michelle, who participated in capitalism, lived their lives to the fullest and made the American dream their dream.

Please join us in Studio City to commemorate those lost on September 11, 2001. Let us never forget! SE corner of Ventura Blvd at Laurel Canyon Blvd in front of First Republic Bank. 6:30 pm - Parking in the lot or behind CVS. If you park in lot, please make a purchase at either Coffee Bean & Tea, or the yogurt shop. We have flags and candles, but feel free to bring yours. Dinner to follow.

Seeing none from this year, I would like us to share our memories of 9/11. Like Kennedy's assassination or Pearl Harbor, few can ever forget where they were on that dreadful day. Please share your memory of 9/11, where you were, and also tell us in a few sentences how it changed you.

The following is a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder aboard United Airlines Flight 93. All times are in EDT on Sept. 11, 2001. Text in parentheses was translated from Arabic. "Unintelligible" indicates that the tape couldn't be transcribed.

9/11 speech by President George W Bush Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbours. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten...

I know you all are thinking about it.....so let it out....talking about it helps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdznv9Q6o9s

We are about to honor the victims of September 11, 2001 on the eight year anniversary of the slaughter of the innocents, perpetrated by men whose religion promises them 72 vestal virgins, if they murder non-believers. But enough of the murderers, still labeled “Terrorists” and their handiwork aptly described as “Terrorism,” in my book. On September 11, 2009, my focus will be on the murdered ones, the ones who lost limbs, and the ones who lost their liberty. I am hoping to join my fellow citizens in a period of reflection and respect for those who were murdered. The significance...

Matthew Vadum recently reported that Barack Obama was operating under the radar to subvert observances of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks by using anti-American leftists Van Jones and Lennox Yearwood to hijack the day with a radical environmental agenda under the guise of Green the Block, a joint project of their respective groups Green for All and the Hip Hop Caucus.Sure enough, the project has been pretty much ignored by the media, even by the conservative media that covered the Van Jones saga.Below are examples of events listed at Green the Block for this Friday, September 11, 2009--the...

The "resignation" shortly after midnight on Sunday morning of President Obama's "green jobs czar" Van Jones has generally been seen as a convenient holiday weekend move. By Friday, after White House Secretary Robert Gibbs would only say that he still was a part of the administration, it was obvious that Jones's resignation was only a matter of time. The 9/11 truther and other evidence accumulated by Glenn Beck, Gateway Pundit, and others was simply overwhelming. But it seems to me that it would have been more convenient had the White House waited until early Sunday afternoon to announce Jones's resignation....

September 11, 2001 was a defining moment for me and everyone in my generation. We were young and watched something we could have never imagined. It will imprint us and our politics for the rest of our lives, which is what the Democrats are afraid of. Yes, I will remember it: as a day when Islamic terrorists attacked American soil; a day of patriotism; a day to honor the fallen; a day to thank a soldier; a day to be thankful for my family; and a day to work and to live … not as a day to turn it...

Was this what family members at MyGoodDeed.org envisioned for a 9/11 Day of Service? Did they hope President Barack Obama’s classless energy czar, a self-describe “communist” named Van Jones, would co-opt their efforts after his group held an anti-America “vigil” on September 12, 2001 and summarized their event this way? “That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We...

Liberals have a penchant for revising history, but some of their recent rewrites are especially alarming. Look at the sanctification of Sen. Edward Kennedy, which is moving beyond whitewash and into fantastic territories. Modern liberalism strikes again in blogger Melissa Lafsky’s Huffington Post article, “The Footnote Speaks: What Would Mary Jo Kopechne Have Thought of Ted’s Career?” (8/27/09). Incredibly, Lafsky wonders what Kopechne, the young woman Teddy left to drown in Chappaquiddick, would think about Kennedy’s life and career. Lafsky’s conclusion: “Who Knows – Maybe She’d Feel It Was Worth It” (The Huffington Post, August 27, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-lafsky/the-footnote-speaks-what_b_270298.html). You read...

On the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the U.S. The Stiletto wondered why President George W. Bush was expanding a program that brought young Saudi men to study in our universities – quintupling the number to 15,000: "The Stiletto doubts that exposing young Saudis to American education and culture will make them more sympathetic to us – it may well have the opposite effect, and reinforce the fundamentalist Muslim view of America as a decadent and immoral society." Well, guess what Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told CIA interrogators about the effect that an American college education...

Some might find the following a benignly public-spirited initiative. In April, the White House signed legislation [1] that established September 11 as an “annually recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance.” A regretfully [2] bipartisan bill, the measure [3] was passed as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, and was promoted as a means to “encourage and facilitate community service across the country.” Yet the reality behind this legislation is quite different. As Matthew Vadum reported at the American Spectator [4] on Monday: The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to...

I’ve been reading about the planned Sept. 11 National Day of Service. I certainly do not have an issue with service, but if my memory serves right – and it does today – we already have a national day of service… Martin Luther King Day. There has been a bit of a kerfuffle about Democrats selecting Sept. 11 as a national day of service. The event – with more at Serve.gov – been discussed over at Hot Air, Atlas Shrugs and Gateway Pundit, but I’m wondering what this development means for the Martin Luther King national day of volunteer service?

For some service members, serving at Joint Task Force Guantanamo is one more chapter in the book they call life. For others, the significance of the mission holds a deeper meaning -- more personal -- especially for service members who have lost friends, loved ones or know someone affected by the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. For the Soldiers of the 189th Military Police Co., the mission became more personal when family members of September 11 attack victims, visiting Guantanamo during the recent military commissions proceedings, made a special effort to say “thank you,” and convey gratitude, face to face,...

The potential loss of tens of billions of dollars in damages is not what the Saudis fear most, should the Supreme Court allow this lawsuit to move forward. Way down in the Washington Times' article today about the Obama administration irking 9/11 families by asking the Supreme Court to deny their appeal of a ruling barring a lawsuit against Saudi princes was this gem: "A Justice Department spokesman said the administration held the meetings to hear from family members and declined to discuss details. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that while he sympathized with the families, the State...

[L]ast week, after more delays in the process, the administration called victims of the Cole, Bali and Sept. 11 attacks together again to receive an update about the work of the Detainee Review Task Force. The meeting was emotional and heart-wrenching. Each person was given the opportunity to speak about the impact the president's decisions were having on him or her and loved ones. The brave families of our heroes showed true courage in that room. Once again, they had traveled to Washington to express their frustration at seeing justice delayed. If they were truly involved, and the administration were...

Today I had the honor and privilege of joining other family members and victims of terrorism in meeting with members of the Guantanamo Review Task Force and the Detention Policy Task Force at the Department of Justice. I learned a lot about what our new President is doing and what he has the members of the task forces working on. After doing my own research and listening to the others present today I do not believe that there is a valid reason to close Guantanamo Bay. We are at WAR with TERRORISTS. OUR CONGRESS enacted the Military Commissions Act of...

In Washington today and tomorrow, the DOJ's Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OVT) is briefing American family members of those murdered by terrorists, as well as those injured during terrorist attacks. The stated purpose of the briefing is to: ...[offer] those interested the opportunity to meet task force members, hear an overview of task force work, and express views about the policy questions the Detention Policy Task Force is studying. Please click on the link for the Detention Policy Task Force to see some of the questions that the task force is considering. ... For those unable...

I read where Richard Clarke found it "disturbing" that "imagery and the memory of 9/11" were used in an advertisement about why the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay should be kept open. Those 26 House Republicans stated what they believe, that keeping terrorists out of the U.S. is good policy; they were not personally profiting from 9/11. When Richard Clarke testified before the 9/11 Commission, John Lehman stated that Clarke had previously told one thing to Commissioners in private and something different during his public testimony. Clarke repeatedly mentioned September 11 in his two books and his publisher reportedly rushed...

Being Burned To Death, Suffocated and Vaporized Was 3000 Americans' TortureNearly 10,000 body parts have been pulled from ground zero." "— no one is sure how many — had been "vaporized" and were beyond identification." Your Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZV2L0EM08I&feature=related 4:24 Scenes andPresident Bush's Speech Night of September 11, 2001 September 11, 2001 2,626,515 views You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNNTcHq5Tzk September 11 2001 Video. A september 11 2001 tribute, and a watch of what happend that horrible ... 2 years ago 3,245,617 views Report: Terror Suspects Kept Awake for 11 Days (Torture? G.C.) More than 25 of the CIA's War on Terror...

News reports described the meeting as a touching and powerful coming together of the president and these long-suffering families. Mr. Obama had won over even those who opposed his decision to close Gitmo by assuaging their fears that the review of some 245 current detainees would result in dangerous jihadists being set free. “I did not vote for the man, but the way he talks to you, you can’t help but believe in him,” said John Clodfelter to the New York Times. His son, Kenneth, was killed in the Cole bombing. “[Mr. Obama] left me with a very positive feeling...

On April 22, 2009, the Legislative Archive verbally informed me that the [9/11 Commission’s ‘Staff Monograph about the Wall’] was releasable and I would “likely have a copy in [my] hands within two weeks.” Yet a memo to me dated April 23, 2009 from the Legislative Archive in part states, “[I]t was determined by the National Archives that the monograph requires official declassification review before it can be released. I will submit the 35-page document to the reviewing agency as a mandatory declassification review request in your name tomorrow.” A person who had reviewed the staff monograph subsequently stated to...

Two Muslim converts and two Turks go on trial in a bomb-proof courtroom in Düsseldorf today accused of plotting to blow up German civilians and US soldiers. “The world will burn!” boasted an intercepted e-mail sent between the accused, who are alleged to have wanted to wage an Islamic holy war in the heart of Europe. Three of the men — Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Daniel Schneider, 23 and the Turkish national Adem Yilmaz, 30 — are accused of attending a training camp on the Afghan-Pakistani frontier run by an Uzbek-based terror organisation known as the Islamic Jihad Union. Intelligence services...

Thursday, Debra Burlingame and Hamilton Peterson appeared on The Factor with Bill O'Reilly to discuss the release of OLC memos. (See disclaimer at the end of this post.) Some portion of Islam is conducting a war upon both Islam and America. Torturing Muslims, raping Muslims, baking Muslim children in ovens, strapping bombs to mentally handicapped Muslims and setting them off among Muslims, cutting off Muslims' heads, and hanging and shooting Muslims as "spies" in soccer stadiums is al Qaeda's foreign policy, not American foreign policy. The only genocidal war being conducted is the one al Qaeda is waging. They seek...

WASHINGTON — Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday said he believed some of the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States from Canada, triggering a new round of frustration and anger among Canadian government officials only days after a similar remark by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. McCain, an Arizona senator who has championed free trade ties with Canada, told Fox News Napolitano was accurate when she suggested the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington crossed into the U.S. across the Canadian border. "Well, some of the 9/11 hijackers did come...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., makes the dubious claim that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came under fire for saying the same thing. What's up with Arizona politicians? Arizona Sen. John McCain made the dubious claim Friday that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, said the same thing. Napolitano retracted her claim on Thursday after Canadian officials chided her for the remark, calling it an unfortunate misconception. Napolitano admitted Thursday that...

Mark Levin provided a lecture on history last night to President Barack Obama about the law and the decisions made by Lincoln, FDR, and others when American lives hung in the balance. "If we get hit again, that blood is on Obama's hands." It makes no logical difference that Bybee could have foreseen that the result of his incorrect legal advice would be the commission of a crime. Gorelick could have foreseen that the consequences of her incorrect legal advice would permit the commission of a crime (just read her memo ... and you will see that the warning signs...

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about. They don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks. And there is no way around that... They are now dependent upon immigrant bashing, and hating the black guy in the White House. Will people act on that? It's not new, but Fox doesn't mind fomenting it. Michelle Bachman...

The dilemma has taken on new urgency because the plan to close the prison depends on other countries’ accepting some of the remaining 241 detainees Diplomats say that with President Obama embarking on Tuesday on a European trip, the effort could falter unless this country signals it is willing to take some of the Guantánamo prisoners. At home, though, Mr. Obama faces the prospect of a storm of protest from some quarters if he admits detainees the Bush administration labeled terrorists and barred from this country. Already, word of the men’s possible release has brought denunciations and anxiety from military...

Not all will take the time to open and view this. Those who do, will be glad they did. http://www.4shared.com/file/63757046/6340762f/World_Trade_Center.html

Freedom is out of fashion at Ground Zero. Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Freedom Tower has been stripped of its patriotic name -- which has been swapped out for the more marketable "One World Trade Center," Port Authority officials conceded yesterday. More than seven years after the terror attacks and amid an effort to market the tower to international tenants, sentiment gave way to practicality. "As we market the building we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said PA Chairman Anthony Coscia. "One World Trade...