Free Republic

A coalition of 25 student groups at the University of Maryland have issued a letter to the school’s administrators containing 64 demands to help “marginalized student populations” feel more welcome on campus. Among the demands is a ban on public screenings of the film “American Sniper.” The group, who call themselves ProtectUMD, sent the letter in the wake of President-Elect Donald Trump’s victory, according the Diamondback student newspaper Monday. In response to Trump’s election, the student coalition demanded additional support and protection for minority groups — particularly the Muslim, illegal immigrant, pro-Palestinian, and LGBT communities. The Muslims students especially wished...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday in a major push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a sharp warning from the United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians.

Pakistan has told the US it risks losing an ally if it continues to accuse the country of playing a double game in the war against al-Qaeda, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries. Hina Rabbani Khar, the Pakistani foreign minister, was responding to comments by Admiral Mike Mullen, the US joint chiefs of staff, who said Pakistan military's spy agency, ISI, was closely tied to the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is the most serious allegation levelled by the US against Pakistan since they began an alliance...

Earlier this year, Phillip Whalen packed his bags, left his home in Louisiana and set up shop in western Pennsylvania. The 15-year oil and gas industry veteran said work has dried up around the Gulf of Mexico, in part because of the fallout from the BP PLC oil spill last year. In what has become a kind of reverse national oil rush, Mr. Whalen said, his motivation for heading north to this small community 20 miles south of Pittsburgh was simple. “I’m doing what I have to do to keep a roof over the head and pay the bills,” the...

ABC News' Jake Tapper reports here and here on the Obama administration giving Osama bin Laden a Muslim-led Islamic burial at sea so as not to "inflame" the Muslim world....The SEALS shot the terrorist leader dead after he refused to surrender. Bin Laden's corpse was taken to Afghanistan to have his DNA tested for positive identification. The body was then flown to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, officials told ABC News and he was buried at sea. The burial was done in accordance with Islamic law, officials said. A Muslim seaman conducted the process and said the prayers, with...

Predictably the ACLU are crying over the verdict of Osama's Driver in his military trial. After a trial filled with overwhelming constitutional and procedural flaws, a jury of military officers today found Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support for terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union has been at Guantánamo Bay observing the Hamdan proceedings, which lacked the fundamental legal safeguards found in traditional U.S. courts or military courts governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Followed by bloviation and terrorist love from Anthony Romero. The Center For Constitutional Law is also pitching a hissy fit. And in a...

The teenagers all know what the "stop-snitching" T-shirts mean - even if their parents don't. Waiting outside John F. Kennedy High School after class Thursday, 10th grader Victor Arellano said that even though he doesn't own one, his classmates are still wearing the shirts that were a hot summertime fad. "That means stop telling on other people what goes on the streets - hustling," Arellano said. Some adults, including 1st Ward Councilman Anthony Davis, have voiced concern about the fashion that they say promotes drug dealing and discourages people from cooperating with the police. "It's not a positive thing to...

The leader of a U.S. Muslim lobby group met with Republican Sen. John Warner this week to demand a full Senate investigation into alleged incidents of Quran desecration. Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, also asked the Virginia senator to support Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., in calling on the Bush administration to shut down the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bray contends the Department of Defense's denial of the May 9 Quran-in-toilet report by Newsweek, which the magazine retracted, contrasts with subsequent statements by both Defense and the White House, acknowledging various...

A poll done just before U.S. President George Bush's first official visit to Canada yesterday informs us that nearly three-quarters of Canadians view America as our "closest friend." But the same poll also indicates Canadians in equal number dislike Bush. There is something wrong when Canadians proclaim friendship for their most important trading partner and traditional ally, then distance themselves from the democratic choice of Americans, with whom their common continental destiny is joined. The answer lies somewhere in the reality of an America that challenges Canadian self-identity, is unnerving and, hence, many Canadians indulge in caricatures of an America...

  Singapore Reaffirms Commitment to War on Terror By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 21, 2004 — Singapore's deputy prime minister reaffirmed his county's commitment to the war on terror and vowed to continue working closely with the United States "to uproot this menace to modern society" after a meeting today at the Pentagon. "Singapore supports the war on terror led by the U.S.," Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "The war on terror is taking place on many dimensions and many views and in many countries," Tan said....