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BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pro- and anti-government factions clashed for a second day in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Wednesday, a day after violence nationwide claimed three lives and injured more than 170 people. Tripoli, the country's second largest city, saw some of the heaviest fighting on Tuesday, when a general strike called by the Hezbollah-led opposition sparked clashes with government supporters in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. The violence gave a frightening glance into the turmoil that could result from the long power struggle between pro-Iranian Hezbollah and the U.S.-backed govenrment of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. In...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 7/16/06 -Mar Mikhail, Safed, Balata, Dahyieh Junubiya, Rafik Hariri Airport, Gaza, Ghoubayri, Hazor, Jiyeh, Kiryat Shmona, Carmiel, Beirut, Jdaydet Yabous, Necore, Rafah, Saida, Sidon, Taanayel, Biddawi terrorist camp, Haifa, Meron, Adousiyeh, Asmiyeh, Tripoli, Tyre, Zahrani BREAKING: Haifa - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Meron - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Safed - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Mar Mikhail - Israel shows restraint BREAKING: Balata - terrorists' training camp BREAKING: Dahyieh Junubiya - Hizb'Allah stronghold BREAKING: Rafik Hariri International Airport - Israel shows restraint BREAKING: Gaza...

"In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, [.....] Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all...

Fighting Terror On The Shores Of Tripoli The Evening Bulletin (Wednesday, 8 February, 2006, Page 2) By BRIAN ROCHFORD, THE EVENING BULLETIN Philadelphia —The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia continued its Bob Guzzardi Lecture Series this week with Joshua London, whose new book, "Victory at Tripoli," was published recently. Mr. London spoke at the law office of Blank Rome, and was introduced by Blank Rome chairman emeritus Jack Bershad. London’s book focuses on the American wars with the Barbary States (Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, and Tunis) that occurred in the early 1800s. London draws parallels with the Barbary Wars to our...

Jihad in the days of Jefferson By Erik Schechter, The Jerusalem Post Apr. 26, 2006 Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation By Joshua E. London John Wiley & Sons 276pp., $24.95 A fledgling republic without a navy, the United States seemed ripe for the picking. In 1783, Muslim pirates - the sea-faring terrorists of their day - began attacking American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, and the following year, the Moroccans captured a brig called Betsey and enslaved its crew. Soon afterwards, the ruler of Algiers declared war...

April 15, 2006 -- The American pop star Lionel Richie and the Spanish opera singer Jose Carreras have performed in a concert in Tripoli to mark the 20th anniversary of the U.S. bombing raid on Libya. About 40 people, including an adopted daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, were killed in the raids on Tripoli and Benghazi in the early hours of April 15, 2006. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan said the air strikes were launched in retaliation for Libyan complicity in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque that killed an American soldier.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Twenty years after alleged Libyan-backed terror attacks spurred the United States to launch air raids against Tripoli, relations between the two are on the mend, if not yet fully normalized, the State Department says. "We are, at this point, committed to the goal of full normalization," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. "We have moved along that pathway." The first steps on that path were taken several weeks after Libya announced in December 2003 it was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Both sides moved toward reestablishing relations after a 24-year break, triggered by...

Decatur is best known for his 1816 toast to the nation at a dinner party in his honor. Raising his glass, he said, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.” ... Then there are those like Hollywood film star George Clooney and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy who today have their own takes on Decatur’s words.

A significant anniversary has just passed us by, and if there was any mention of it in the press, I missed it. It's probably too late to hang up bunting and arrange for a parade to mark an event that happened 200 years ago last month, but surely it is always timely to relearn a bit of instructive history. And, notwithstanding Santayana's too-often repeated mot about forgetfulness and history repeating, it is sometimes possible to see in such repetition not error or futility but constancy. At the time of the September 11 attacks many commentators more or less automatically called...

A significant anniversary has just passed us by, and if there was any mention of it in the press, I missed it. It's probably too late to hang up bunting and arrange for a parade to mark an event that happened 200 years ago last month, but surely it is always timely to relearn a bit of instructive history. And, notwithstanding Santayana's too-often repeated mot about forgetfulness and history repeating, it is sometimes possible to see in such repetition not error or futility but constancy. ... The Tripolitan War may well be counted the first instance of America's stepping forth...

After marching 500 miles from Egypt, U.S. agent William Eaton leads a small force of U.S. Marines and Berber mercenaries against the Tripolitan port city of Derna. The Marines and Berbers were on a mission to depose Yusuf Karamanli, the ruling pasha of Tripoli, who had seized power from his brother, Hamet Karamanli, a pasha who was sympathetic to the United States. The First Barbary War had begun four years earlier, when U.S. President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states--Morocco, Algeria, Tunis,...

Barbary Glory, Barbary Shame By Barr Seitz Two hundred years ago, seven U.S. Marines at the head of a ragtag army of European and Arab mercenaries set out on an extraordinary mission to free 300 U.S. hostages and end America's first foreign war. To do that, they first had to march almost 600 miles across the Barbary deserts of North Africa to what is the eastern part of modern-day Libya. Those were long odds for an untested Christian-Muslim army whose soldiers were as likely to kill each other as the enemy. Tripolitan War The desert expedition was a quixotic chapter...

Yet nothing in the press. Is this one of the least spoken of high points in American history or what?

Mr. Williams is a student at the University of Washington and an intern at HNN. Though a definite link has yet to be established (or publicized), it becomes more apparent with each passing day that the acts of terror on September 11 were undertaken by individuals belonging to or associated with the Al-Qaida organization. While the group has ties to the Taliban, the current ruling faction in Afghanistan, neither can really be considered a government, making war with either an unconventional one. Yet the United States is hardly unused to combating unconventional foes. While the Vietnam War and the "War...

BERLIN (AP) -- Libya agreed Tuesday to pay $35 million in compensation for victims of a 1986 bombing in Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman and injured 229 others, the Libyan ambassador to Germany said. The deal applies to Germans who were wounded in the April 5, 1986 attack on the LaBelle disco and the family of the slain Turkish woman, but not the families of two Americans, Ambassador Said Abdulaati told The Associated Press. It is the latest step in an effort by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to end his country's pariah status, following...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 7/13/04 - Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Kashmir, Tripoli, Lebanon, Wana, South Waziristan, Abu Ghraib BREAKING: Baghdad, Iraq - Islamic terrorism against Christians BREAKING: Tel Aviv Israel - Islamic terrorism against Jews BREAKING: Kashmir - Islamic terrorism against Indians BREAKING: Tripoli, Lebanon - Street battle involving family of US Marine Hassoun BREAKING: Wana, South Waziristan, - Search operation for foreign terrorists BREAKING: Abu Ghraib, Iraq - the 'hard site' QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA ========= Baghdad ========= In Baghdad, Iraq, Christians...

Military: Kidnapped Marine May Have Been Going To Lebanon POSTED: 11:48 AM EDT June 28, 2004UPDATED: 12:28 PM EDT June 28, 2004 BAGHDAD, Iraq -- There are more details from U.S. commanders on a Marine who was apparently kidnapped in Iraq. A videotape shown on Arab TV features a man believed to be Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Insurgents are threatening to behead the hostage if the U.S. military does not release all prisoners in Iraq.Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the military is working under the assumption that the Marine has been kidnapped -- but he indicates that hasn't been confirmed.Kimmitt...

Being somewhat older than most folks here and a film buff for all those years I could speak and listen, the thread on Favorite War films got me to thinking. There are many fine war films that have never been seen by those born past 1970, so I have put as many as I could remember. Just cut & paste the film's title into IMDb search mode and click away. IMDb is at http://us.imdb.com/ There are so many genres of films, television series and mini-series about warfare, so I will start threads to list all your favorites in each category:...

Being somewhat older than most folks here and a film buff for all those years I could speak and listen, the thread on Favorite War films got me to thinking. There are many fine war films that have never been seen by those born past 1970, so I have put as many as I could remember. Just cut & paste the film's title into IMDb search mode and click away. IMDb is at http://us.imdb.com/ There are so many genres of films, television series and mini-series about warfare, so I will start threads to list all your favorites in each category:...

Being somewhat older than most folks here and a film buff for all those years I could speak and listen, the thread on Favorite War films got me to thinking. There are many fine war films that have never been seen by those born past 1970, so I have put as many as I could remember. Just cut & paste the film's title into IMDb search mode and click away. IMDb is at http://us.imdb.com/ There are so many genres of films, television series and mini-series about warfare, so I will start threads to list all your favorites in each category:...

  ...MUSLIMS (surprise!) "Peace Through The Medium Of War" Muslim pirates operating in the Mediterranean from Tripoli, Morroco, Tunisia and Algeria (the Barbary States) had been terrorizing European and early American merchant ships for hundreds of years. They attacked and pillaged any and all ships along trade routes, stole all cargos and held crews hostage for ransom which, if not paid, resulted in the crews being sold into slavery. European states got so accustomed to these attacks that they actually paid regular "tributes" which were in effect blackmail "pre-ransom monies" to avoid having the crews of their ships seized. European...

Ortiz says Libyan leader seemed sincere, offered him a throat lozenge. TRIPOLI, Libya - A Republican congressman led a delegation of Americans into uncharted territory Monday: a meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and a tour of a Libyan nuclear reactor. The extraordinary meeting - in a tent beside the ruins of Gadhafi's house, bombed by U.S. warplanes - is a hallmark of improving relations between the United States and Libya after decades of animosity. "It was an extremely positive two hours," said the delegation's leader, Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. "We discussed the hope that we will achieve...

Landmark U.S. Delegation Visits Libya TRIPOLI, Libya - U.S. congressmen flew into Tripoli on Sunday aboard a U.S. Navy (news - web sites) plane they said was the first plane flying an American flag to land in Tripoli since Col. Moammar Gadhafi took power in 1969. "I'm here to reinforce the positive steps that have been taken by the leader of Libya," Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said. Led by Weldon, the bipartisan delegation arrived as U.S. and British experts were preparing to start dismantling Libya's weapons programs with Gadhafi's blessing. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., arrived in Tripoli earlier Saturday, but...

TRIPOLI, Libya - U.S. congressmen flew into Tripoli on Sunday aboard a U.S. Navy plane they said was the first plane flying an American flag to land in Tripoli since Col. Moammar Gadhafi took power in 1969. "I'm here to reinforce the positive steps that have been taken by the leader of Libya," Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said. Led by Weldon, the bipartisan delegation arrived as U.S. and British experts were preparing to start dismantling Libya's weapons programs with Gadhafi's blessing. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., arrived in Tripoli earlier Saturday, but he wasn't on a U.S. military plane. The...

Officials have confirmed that a German-flagged ship was carrying parts to build a nuclear bomb from a Persian Gulf country to Libya in October. Investigators seized the shipment before it reached its destination. Just a few months before Libya declared it would cease its efforts to create weapons of mass destruction, American and British agents seized a German freighter ship loaded with centrifuges and other parts that are used to create enriched uranium, the material needed to build nuclear bombs. The seizure is believed to have influenced Tripoli’s decision to suspend its weapons program last month. On Wednesday, U.S. State...

SOMERS POINT - Two hundred years later and local historians are still trying to bring a fallen hero home. The hero is Richard Somers, city founder John Somers' great-grandson, who died fighting in Libya in 1804. A local movement has been going on for years to have the Navy lieutenant's body brought home from Tripoli, where he was killed fighting pirates. As tension between Libya and the United States has begun to thaw in recent weeks, city officials think now might be the time to negotiate for Somers' remains. "Now that the situation has changed dramatically, there's a window of...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya made clear on Saturday it wanted to come in from the cold after decades as a pariah state, and the United States and Britain promised to reward its decision to abandon banned weapons programs. Almost 15 years to the day since its agents brought down a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Muammar Gaddafi's state opened the prospect of an end to sanctions and a return of U.S. oil firms with a pledge on Friday to stop seeking weapons of mass destruction. Britain said it had been close to an atomic bomb. Some U.S. officials cautioned that...

<p>If diplomacy does not create a unified military front against Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the United States goes to war to disarm him, it won't be the nation's first solo expedition against terrorist regimes.</p> <p>Much of America's early military history was set against the background of fighting terrorist regimes without the no-shows from other nations. The terrorist regimes were located in the Mediterranean, and as part of a British colony, Americans saw the mother country begin the policy of paying tribute to the so-called Barbary nations there — Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.</p>

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood...

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