Free Republic

Imagine how Serbia could have handled the situation in Kosovo differently and see the weakness of war and the power of peace. NATO presents Serbia an ultimatum at Rambouillet. Accept a document that allows NATO to occupy all of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or else NATO will start bombing. Serbia cannot give up its sovereignty and so refuses to sign the ultimatum. Then NATO starts bombing. NATO chooses war over peace, force over diplomacy. Serbia then has a choice to make: command its army to go on the offensive in Kosovo or command its army to take cover ...

"We have a problem here. And we apologize for it." This is the text on the front of a mailing (folded postcard type thing) I received today from Bell Atlantic. The inside reads: Beginning January 1, 1999, the Federal Communications Commission required Bell Atlantic to define all additional telephone lines at a residence as non-primary and subject to a higher FCC Line Charge of $6.07 per month, instead of the rate for a primary line of $3.50 a month. (The FCC Line Charge on the first or only line at a location remains $3.50 per month.) Bell Atlantic has identified ...

Panicked Serbs Flee Historic Center By ELLEN KNICKMEYER .c The Associated Press PEC, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbs fled the Kosovo city of Pec in panicked, tearful convoys Friday, abandoning the revered cradle of their faith, where ethnic Albanians looted and burned their homes. Smoke rose across the western city from about 20 burning, abandoned homes in Friday afternoon. About a score more - belonging to Serbs and Gypsies - had gone up in flames in the previous 24 hours. Gunfire crackled in the city intermittently through the night and day. NATO armored vehicles escorted a convoy of cars, buses and ...

One Dead, At Least 50 Hurt In Bus Blast In Southwestern China HONG KONG, Jun 25, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) One person died and at least 50 others were injured after a bomb exploded on a bus in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, a human rights group said Friday. Witnesses believe the bomb could have been planted by separatists from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, said the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China in a statement. The powerful explosion wrecked the bus when it exploded near the railway station at Wukuaishi Road Thursday afternoon, ...

Witnesses Contradict Cisneros' Ex By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Attacking the credibility of the chief witness against former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, defense lawyers summoned a trio of Texas attorneys Friday to contradict her testimony. In the fifth day of a hearing for Cisneros' September trial on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, the Texans directly disputed this week's testimony by Linda Jones, who had a highly publicized extramarital affair with Cisneros while he was mayor of San Antonio in the late 1980s. Cisneros' legal team has methodically tried to destroy Ms. Jones' credibility, eliciting ...

Latest developments in Kosovo's crisis ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Latest developments in Kosovo's crisis Latest developments concerning Kosovo: -Frightened Serbs flee as their houses blaze after being ransacked by ethnic Albanians. NATO reports unrest throughout most of Kosovo's major cities. There are also reports of Serb paramilitaries terrorizing ethnic Albanian villages. -President Clinton says he's not surprised that ethnic Albanians are engaging in revenge attacks on Serbs ``after what they've been through,'' but he said NATO is doing its best to stop the violence as refugees return home. -U.S. Marines come under fire in Gnjilane and kill one person while returning fire, ...

The Government Is Reading Your E-mail With the Echelon program, the U.S. and its allies are collaborating to monitor the Internet In the past month a series of announcements from the governments of Australia, the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and the U.S., among others, has brought to light the existence of a massive international electronic surveillance network known as "Echelon." Its existence was officially confirmed by the Australian intelligence agency back on May 23. In a nutshell, Echelon is a joint project undertaken by the U.S. and its allies to monitor satellite transmissions, phone calls and the Internet. ...

June 25 (AFP) - Israeli planes hit power stations and bridges in Lebanon late Thursday and early Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring 54 after rocket attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas on northern Israel. The outgoing Israeli government of President Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese government and the Shiite extremist guerrillas of further raids unless Israel was left undisturbed. The Lebanese capital and the surrounding area were plunged into darkness after attacks Thursday and early Friday set power stations at Jamhur and Bsalim, east and northeast of Beirut, on fire. A high-voltage relay station at Meshref, ten kilometres (six ...

1442 GMT, 990625 Yugoslavia – The New York Times reports that top leadership in the KLA have ordered the execution, arrest and purge of internal rivals as a means for strengthening their hold on power. According to KLA commanders and western diplomats, six senior KLA leaders were shot on the commands of Hashim Thaci and two lieutenants, Azem Syla and Xhavit Haliti. Rifat Haxhijaj, a former KLA member, told the Times, "When the war started, everyone wanted to be the chief. For the leadership, this was never just a war against the Serbs. It was also a struggle for power." ...

Now that NATO forces are on the ground in Kosovo, they finally have an opportunity to observe the effects of the 79 day bombing campaign. Readily apparent is that NATO was successful in targeting buildings, fuel depots, and other fixed infrastructure. This comes as no surprise, since there was ample video footage of the damage available throughout the conflict. What has also become apparent is that NATO’s bombing campaign did strikingly little damage to Yugoslav military equipment, troops, and capacity to wage war. Despite NATO claims that it had damaged or destroyed some 40 percent of Yugoslavia’s main battle tanks ...

Authorities Had Suspected Killer By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer HOUSTON (AP) -- The man wanted in connection with eight slayings committed near railroad tracks was in the custody of immigration officials earlier this month but was let go, federal authorities said Friday. The Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested Rafael Resendez-Ramirez in the El Paso area during the week of June 1 for being in this country illegally and deported him to Mexico later that day, the FBI said. INS officials said they were unaware he was wanted for questioning in four killings at the time. ``I'm not going to ...

Watching the news I heard not one mention of Ramirez the serial killer being homeless. As Thomas Sowell said....paraphrasing....when one of the socialist's mascot groups committs a crime they lose their status.......a killer cannot be a homeless person, he becomes a drifter a rail rider, but no longer homeless. Has anyone heard the word homeless person when referring to this homeless person???

Retrieved from the old topic file.I can see we are going to need it still.EMAIL ALL OF CONGRESS

Clinton Unfazed by Kosovo Revenge. By RON FOURNIER Associated Press Writer 6/25/99. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton said today he's not surprised that ethnic Albanian are engaging in revenge attacks on Serbs ``after what they've been through,'' but he said NATO is doing its best to stop the violence as refugees return home. ``NATO is not letting it happen,'' the president said at his first news conference since March. ``We're doing what we can to stop it.'' Despite NATO's appeals, ethnic Albanians torched Serb houses in western Kosovo Thursday and looted Serb-owned shops in the capital of Pristina. Tens of ...

Is The Declaration Too Dangerous For Students? By Thomas G. West Is it a good idea for students to recite from the Declaration of Independence in class? Some New Jersey state lawmakers don’t think so. For them, America’s founding principles are too hot to handle. At issue is a bill, passed by the assembly and now pending before the senate, that would require the Garden State’s 1.2 million school children to recite part of the famous preamble of the Declaration before the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. Here is the passage students would have to recite: "We hold these truths ...

An East Wheeling woman is facing a preliminary hearing next month for allegedly strangling her boyfriend with an extension cord late Wednesday. Suzanne Vetromile, 22, of Building 3, Apartment 24, Grandview Manor, was being held in the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville without bond late Thursday charged with murder, Wheeling police said. According to police, Larry Northcraft, 35,also of Building 3, Apartment 24, Grandview Manor was pronounced dead at Ohio Valley Medical Center at 12:40 a.m. Thursday, nearly an hour after officers were called to the residence. Vetromile was arraigned Thursday before Ohio County Magistrate Worthy Paul. She is set ...

H.R.Clinton will begin an extended campaign-like swing across NY, next month with a vist to the rural home of Sen. Moynihan. Hillary will probaly start the trip July 7, in Oneonta, near Binghamton. She will also be in Albany July 9, for a fundraiser for Rep. Micheal McNulty. She also plans a month long swing across central and eastern NY, til August.

The United States said Friday thorough inspection of a suspect underground site in North Korea showed it could not be used for a major nuclear project in its present form. More details from the U.S. inspection were released as senior U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials held their third meeting in a month to coordinate policies toward Pyongyang's isolated Stalinist government. The U.S. inspection at the Kumchang-ri site last month has helped defuse a major source of friction even as a North Korea-South Korea naval skirmish in the Yellow Sea and other recent confrontations continued to roil East Asia ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton said Friday he misspoke earlier this year when he said no security breaches occurred at U.S. nuclear research laboratories during his administration. A congressional report last month said China had acquired U.S. secrets about seven nuclear weapons and the neutron bomb through 20 years of espionage. China has denied it stole U.S. nuclear secrets. ``First of all, there has been a 20-year problem with lax security at the labs,'' Clinton said at a press briefing. ``And what I said was that I didn't suspect that any actual breaches of security had occurred during my ...

Okay, so maybe offering false or misleading testimony in a civil deposition is not a legally or constitutionally sufficient basis for impeaching a sitting President, particularly in good economic times. However, the reality is that an ever-increasing number of state and federal courts, in Florida and elsewhere, are taking a much harsher and more aggressive approach toward civil litigants and nonparty witnesses, who, in an effort to create or bolster a claim for relief or otherwise obstruct the judicial process, repeatedly lie under oath. The result is a whole new set of potential problems for lawyers of less than ...