Free Republic

Growing up in Miami, young Cuban Americans rolled their eyes whenever the older generation warned there were spies everywhere. Agents of Fidel Castro who blended into el exilio and reported back to the island? It seemed too dime-store-novel to be true. But over the years, proof poured in. The latest: alleged Cuban agents at Florida International University. The old-timers have felt vindicated every time a spy is discovered -- just because they were paranoid didn't mean spies weren't out to get them. But just how damaging have those spies been? Whatever intelligence they may have swiped, their greatest toll could...

Presidents, in wartime, tend to think they're above the law; commanders-in-chief who rule absolutely. President Lincoln abolished habeas corpus (the right to a trial) during the Civil War -- clearly unconstitutional, but he did it. President Franklin Roosevelt imprisoned Japanese-Americans -- U.S. citizens -- in concentration camps during World War II -- clearly unconstitutional, but he did it. Richard Nixon probably put the case most clearly in an interview with David Frost back in 1977. Frost: "So ... what ... you're saying is that there are certain situations ... where the president can decide that it's in the best interests...

Media reports, specially a story that was ran by the NEWSWEEK last year about the desecration of the Qur’an at GUANTANAMO sparked outrage and uproar among the Muslim countries and Muslim communities worldwide. It was worse than ABU GHRAIB scandal involving torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees at the hands of the U.S. occupation troops. The abuse scandal was a physical and psychological torture of a few Muslims, whereas the Qur’an desecration came as a spiritual, emotional and psychological torture of Muslims all over the world. True that the NEWSWEEK magazine backed away from the report detailing how the U.S. interrogators...

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today. A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence...

President Bush is one of the biggest gas guzzlers in the country and his first stop to sell the idea of breaking the nation's oil addiction burned up thousands of gallons of jet fuel and hundreds of gallons of gasoline. The White House, Air Force and Secret Service keep a tight hold on the President's travel and mileage, but government and industry figures show that the Air Force One 747 jet gets less than the equivalent of a mile per gallon. The President usually travels with a backup 747 as well as a huge C-17 aircraft packed with the presidential...