Free Republic

Over more than a decade, consumers became accustomed to the sweet, steady flow of free news, pictures, videos and music on the Internet. Paying was for suckers and old fogeys. Content, like wild horses, wanted to be free. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation charges for access to The Wall Street Journal and could do the same on Hulu. Now, however, there are growing signs that this free ride is drawing to a close

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization. The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed...

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) published last month a detailed 268-page dossier disclosing the addresses and specifications of hundreds of U.S. nuclear-weapons-related facilities, laboratories, reactors and research activities. The document, which was removed from the Web on Tuesday, is a draft declaration of facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, required under agreements that the United States signed in 2004. It is considered highly sensitive though technically not classified. The vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, said the disclosure revealed "a virtual treasure map for terrorists."

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, March 13, 2009 – U.S. forces and Iraqi officials are working together to restore ancient monuments in Iraq. Army Brig. Gen. Jefforey Smith, deputy commanding general of support for Multinational Division Central and 10th Mountain Division, and other senior leaders escorted Qahtan Jubouri, Iraq’s minister of tourism and antiquities, through the ancient cities of Ur and Nuffar on March 10. “The purpose of this visit was to have the minister of tourism and antiquities meet with public state officials to talk about future projects that are under consideration to reconstruct and excavate some of these sites,”...

TEHRAN (AFP) — The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has warned that any Israeli or US attack on its nuclear sites would mean the outbreak of war, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. "Any action against Iran will be interpreted as the start of a war," General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying late on Thursday. "Iran's response to any military action will make the aggressors regret their decision." The United States has never ruled out an eventual resort to force against Iran over its contested nuclear programme, which the West fears is cover for a...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian concerns over Washington's plan for a missile shield in Europe will only be eased if Russian officers have permanent access to the shield facilities, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Russia says the planned shield is a threat to its own security and the row over the issue has helped to drive diplomatic relations with the United States to their lowest point since the Cold War. Moscow has, however, agreed to consider a set of confidence-building measures proposed by Washington to allay Moscow's concerns. "In all these many proposals we are interested only in two...

Beirut cashes in on wealth of archaeological sitesAs New construction unearths ancient treasures, the law says excavations must precede buildings By Hassan Abdo Special to The Daily Star Wednesday, December 19, 2007 BEIRUT: Passing through the many narrow avenues that make up Achrafieh, few would realize that major archeological excavations are under way all around them. The Beirut neighborhood has been experiencing a development boom in the past few years, and construction projects are ongoing, yet in the midst of all this local archaeologists have been experiencing a boom of their own. Construction companies clearing away old buildings to make...

Valentine’s Day approaches, but it seems consumers are being standoffish about online dating. The number of U.S. Internet users visiting dating Web sites is falling, says a report set to be released Monday. Last year, only 10% of Internet users visited at least one online dating site, down from 16% in 2005 and 21% in 2002, says the report by Jupiter Research. The decline in unique visitors hasn’t yet resulted in a decline in subscribers, the study found, but the trend likely will at some point, analysts say. Other research firms track the same trend. Traffic to seven of the...

WASHINGTON - In his televised 9/11 address, President Bush said that we must not “leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.” There’s only one such current candidate: Iran. The next day, he responded thus (as reported by Rich Lowry and Kate O’Beirne of National Review) to a question on Iran: “It’s very important for the American people to see the president try to solve problems diplomatically before resorting to military force.” “Before” implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable. An aerial attack on Iran’s...

WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 -- Bruce Gorman is driven, literally, in demonstrating his belief that Americans should close ranks against terrorism and never forget the people who were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Bruce Gorman poses inside his 36-foot-long International bus parked on the Pentagon’s north parking lot Sept. 2. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gorman retired from the Navy in January as a petty officer first class with 20 years’ service. Since then, the 47-year-old former religious program specialist has poured time, energy and money into a...

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2006 – Extremists in Afghanistan attacked coalition forces from a religious site yesterday, and targeted several civilian areas this week, including a bridge, a school and a wedding party, military officials in Afghanistan reported. Extremists began firing on coalition forces in the village of Nowzad in Helmand province yesterday. The sniper fire came from the direction of a religious shrine. There were no reported injuries to coalition forces or damage to equipment. In a separate incident in Kandahar province, a supply convoy received small-arms fire from a nearby mosque. While there were no casualties in this incident,...

BAGHDAD (June 16, 2006) – A week after the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Iraqi security forces, with the support of the Coalition, have beefed up operations aimed at improving security throughout Iraq. In fact, on June 14, only a week after Al-Zarqawi was eliminated, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new plan to improve security conditions in Baghdad. During his address, the prime minister emphasized that Iraq’s new constitutionally based, representative government is in charge and providing security. He further noted that he will ensure that Iraq’s security forces are professional, impartial, and continue...

KARMAH, Iraq (Feb. 3, 2006) -- Iraq’s national election was a milestone towards making it an independent and free nation. The polling sites in 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment’s area of operations had to be protected from any insurgent activity. The main effort of the Coalition Forces in Iraq is to make conditions where the people can take care of themselves. To further that goal, the Iraqi Police protected the polling sites and the voters waiting in line there. “The IPs did an excellent job of protecting the Iraqi people that wanted to vote,” said 2nd Lt. Bryan R. Kelsey,...

Take out the sites Take out the leadership Leave it to Israel Invasion Trade sanctions Continue diplomacy Nothing Don't know/pass Leave it to the UN Other

BEIJING - Chinese police have closed 598 Web sites in a crackdown on pornography, but online gambling and fraud are growing, state media said Friday. The latest crackdown, launched in March, led to 25 arrests, the China Daily Newspaper said, citing figures from the Ministry of Public Security. That figure was low compared with more than 500 people arrested in a nationwide crackdown last year. China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 100 million people online. The communist government encourages Internet use for education and business but has launched repeated campaigns...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is again spouting Jew-hatred, and displaying his complete ignorance of history (but what's rationality when expousing genocide?). In October, he urged that Israel be "wiped off the map." Today, he: ...expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred and suggested Israel be moved to Europe. ... In his own words: "Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "Although we don't...

Nothing has angered me more than Kevin Sites's cheap-shot reporting of the shooting of the terrorist in the mosque during Operation Phantom Fury (Fallujah II, November 2004). Several times now Sites has tried to explain himself while everyone can plainly see what kind of person he is. Sites was willing to play judge and jury against a Marine in the middle of a bloody battle. He sold his soul for his 15 minutes of fame. Now Sites is working for Yahoo with his "Hotzone" and again tries to wash the blood from his hands by returning to Fallujah one year...

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Hand stands ready to have a barrier lifted off a trailer and emplaced around a local polling site in south Baghdad, Iraq, for the Oct. 15, 2005, Constitutional Referendum. Hand is assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 648th Engineer Battalion, 48th Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Bill 48th Brigade Prepares Security at Polling Sites Iraqi Army soldiers provided security with an outer cordon as 48th Brigade Combat Team battalions put concrete barriers and concertina wire into place. By U.S. Army Sgt David Bill 48th Brigade Combat Team RADWINIYAH, Iraq, Oct....

WASHINGTON - A consortium of utilities narrowed the potential locations for what could be the first nuclear power plant built in the United States in more than three decades. The group chose sites of existing nuclear power plants in Mississippi and Alabama. The consortium emphasized that no decision had yet been made on whether to seek a license for a new plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The group is developing an application for advanced approval of the two sites, which would allow for quicker completion of the project if a go ahead is given. The group decided the new...

During the election process, Iraqi police will provide security at the polling sites; Iraqi army troops will provide additional security in the vicinity. By U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel W. Bailey 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment FORWARD OPERATING BASE NORMANDY, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2005 — To ensure Iraqis in the Diyala Province are confident they can vote safely for the upcoming constitutional referendum and in the December national elections, Task Force Liberty soldiers are keeping a close eye on the polling stations to make sure everything runs smoothly. With the start of voter registration, U.S. soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored...