Free Republic

While buyout talks continue, it currently looks like the number of editors who will be given pink slips at the New York Times will be around 60, sources tell Media Ink. The seven two-person teams of editors breaking the news to those who are staying and to those who are going are being referred to in the newsroom as “death panels,” insiders said. As part of a streamlining process unveiled by Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn, the title of copy editor and backfield editor is being eliminated.

"In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars."  U.S. government "Summary of Evidence" for an Iraqi member of al Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay, CubaFOR MANY, the debate over the former Iraqi regime's ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ended a year ago with the release of the 9/11 Commission report. Media outlets seized on a carefully worded summary that the commission had found no evidence "indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or...

An Iraqi prisoner details Saddam's links to Osama bin Laden's terror network. A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam-al Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who...

Biyara, controlled by militant Islamists until the US-led war, is wary of news that such groups may be returning. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BIYARA, IRAQ - The merchant shuddered when told that Islamic militants of Ansar Al Islam - the Al Qaeda-backed group dispersed by American bombs last March - may be returning to Iraq. "If they come to my orchard, I will shoot them myself!" vows Shaho Abdulkarim, a merchant-smuggler with a perfect moustache. Such a visceral reaction is common in this village on Iraq's northeastern border with Iran, where Ansar imposed...

<p>February 7, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The United States has extensive proof of communication between Iraqi officials and an al Qaeda-affiliated group - but has been reluctant to reveal the information because of its sources, The Post has learned.</p> <p>A stream of intelligence links Saddam Hussein's government to Ansar al Islam, which wants a Taliban-style government in Kurdish northern Iraq, sources said.</p>