Free Republic

History is now who stood for Liberty, Freedom, and Justice, and who did their best to rob it from the people they swore an oath to protect. Why do Americans pay to protect millionaire past presidents for life? The past can be a scary thing to think about when it was spent only thinking of oneself, with other peoples money. Who would rob the poor for self gain? The same one that would do whatever it takes to keep it all going? Nearly all of the highest-profile domestic terrorism plots in the United States since 9/11 featured the “direct involvement”...

Wednesday’s oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee vindicated civil libertarians skeptical of the surveillance state, but it also deserves to be remembered for the Obama Administration’s introduction of a concept so absurd and Orwellian that we can only conclude that the national security apparatus has jumped the shark.First, the vindication. Gen. Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency, finally admitted what astute observers of the American counter-terrorism apparatus have been arguing for months: the claim made by the Obama Administration that the NSA’s domestic spying program foiled dozens of terrorist plots was egregiously untrue. Under pressure from Sen....

As the nation’s spy agencies assess the fallout from disclosures about their surveillance programs, some government analysts and senior officials have made a startling finding: the impact of a leaked terrorist plot by Al Qaeda in August has caused more immediate damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the thousands of classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. Since news reports in early August revealed that the United States intercepted messages between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in...

Abstract The Heritage Foundation has tracked post-9/11 terrorist plots against the United States in an effort to study the evolving nature of the threat and to garner lessons learned. The best way to protect the United States from terrorism is to ensure a strong and capable domestic counterterrorism enterprise—and to understand the continuing nature of the terror threat. The Boston Marathon bombing was the 59th publicly known terror plot against the United States since 9/11. In a political environment of sequestration on the one hand, and privacy concerns on the other, there are those on both sides of the aisle...

Barack Hussein Obama was finally talking tough. The President said this past week in New York City, before the General Assembly of the United Nations, that "we understand the gravity" of the threat. "We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations." He said that a failure to address the threat could lead to an "irreversible catastrophe." Time, he said, is "running out," but "we can reverse" the problem. "If things go business-as-usual, we will not live, we will die," he said. "Our country will not exist." He told us that it wouldn't be easy,...

A search warrant filed in Hennepin County connects a shooting investigation to a possible terror plot. According to court documents, four Somali teenage males were riding in a cab on June 24 the same night a man was shot in the chest around 9:00 p.m. Video surveillance at the Glendale Housing Projects captured the cab fleeing near the scene of the shooting. Police were able to identify the taxicab and located the vehicle at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport four days later. Inside the cab, police found a handwritten note describing acts of terrorism and bombings. Police questioned an 18-year-old relative...

MI5 and the police are investigating "dozens and dozens" of possible al-Qa'ida-inspired plots to cause mass murder in Britain, counter-terrorism sources have disclosed. The alleged plot to destroy up to 10 transatlantic airliners, which police say they foiled last week, was believed to be just one of about 12 similar terrorist plans that are currently being investigated. Earlier, Mr Reid said that "at least four" plots had been thwarted since last year's July 7 attacks in London. He also said that a suspected al-Qa'ida operation in Birmingham had been foiled six years ago. But police and intelligence chiefs stressed that...

More than 70 anti-terrorist investigations involving over 100 suspected Islamic extremists are under way in Britain in an operation unmatched even at the height of the IRA's mainland campaign. John Reid, the Home Secretary, confirmed yesterday that police and security services were aware of about 24 "major conspiracies". They are believed to be "multi-handed" terrorist plots, such as the alleged plan to blow up transatlantic airliners that led to the arrest of 24 people last Thursday. Sources say that, on top of the inquiries confirmed by Mr Reid, up to 50 more are being conducted by anti-terrorist police, most of...

Terror plots accelerating, warns police chief By John Steele (Filed: 04/07/2006) Anti-terrorist police are tackling an "accelerating" number of plots by violent Muslim Jihadi extremists, according to Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer. Scotland Yard anti-terrorism branch is involved in an "unprecedented" 70 investigations, Peter Clarke the head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch and national co-ordinator for anti-terrorist investigations, warned yesterday. More than 60 people are facing trial on terrorist allegations. Two-thirds of those have been charged since last July. In one of the most sombre and detailed statements yet on the threat to Britain from Islamic extremist terrorists, Mr...

The White House has given details of 10 major terror plots that President Bush says have been foiled by the US and its allies since the 11 September attacks. Mr Bush cited the disrupted plans in a speech, designed to boost support for the so-called war on terror. They include a plot to use hijacked aircraft to hit the US East and West coasts and to attack Heathrow Airport. But the sketchy details provided by the White House make it hard to assess how serious or advanced the plans were. Most of the plots have been previously reported in some...

British citizen facing extradition to the United States on terrorism charges was found in possession of detailed military plans for a US Navy battle group in the Gulf, federal prosecutors said. AFP/File Photo An indictment unsealed in Connecticut also accused Babar Ahmad, 30, of operating two US-based web sites that solicited financial support for terrorist organizations, including the Taliban and Chechen rebels. "In order to dismantle terrorist organizations, we must attack them at their roots, so it is critical that we uncover and sever the financing stream and communication that supports the terrorists' violent intentions," said US Attorney Kevin O'Connor....

9/11 Inquiry Reveals WTC Threat in 1998 Wed Sep 18, 6:49 PM ET By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional hearing was told on Wednesday that three years before the Sept. 11 attacks intelligence agencies had information about a group that planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center. The information obtained in August 1998 about the group of "unidentified Arabs" was passed to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, but "the FAA found the plot highly unlikely given the state of that foreign country's aviation program," said Eleanor Hill,...

Some of the al-Qaida operatives whose activities led to a U.S. security warning last month have been captured, while others remain at large, U.S. counterterrorism authorities say. "We have received a lot of good information from these detainees over the past several weeks and corroborated the fact there were active plans, ongoing, to conduct another attack in the United States," said William H. Parrish, a top intelligence official with the Homeland Security Department, during a recent interview with The Associated Press. "This attack as they indicated was probably going to be multiple attacks, simultaneous," he said...