Free Republic

A former U.S. law enforcement official on Friday was chosen as the lead candidate to head Interpol, the global law enforcement organization. Ron Noble, former Treasury undersecretary for enforcement, was named during an executive session at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. Noble, 42, best known as the chief investigator of the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas, is the only person the United States has ever nominated to head Interpol in the 75-year history of the organization. Attorney General Janet Reno personally picked Noble for the position. The move ...

Picnics and Politics: Celebrating the Fourth! by Edward L. Hudgins Edward L. Hudgins is director of regulatory studies at the Cato Institute. Most Americans will mark July 4 with picnics, cookouts, ballgames and days at the beach. And such festivities are more appropriate than most imagine. There is a solid connection between that merrymaking and the event of more than two centuries ago that resulted in this annual holiday. What's the bond between picnics and politics? The answer begins with a close look at the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, that on July 4, 1776, gave birth ...

Whats with this story...did the sports writer have nothing better to do than destroy the hopes of a young kid playing today on the center court at Wimbledon...not to mention trash the good name of Dr.J...this jerk deserves to get fired .....I know this is not politics however it explains the mindset of newspaper mullets ‘Dr. J’ says he's tennis star's dad July 2, 1999 2:39 PM EDT PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Julius "Dr. J" Erving said today he is the father of tennis's new sensation, Alexandra Stevenson, confirming reports that surfaced after she started her dramatic run to the Wimbledon ...

FBI Subdues 'Privacy Gone Crazy' by Declan McCullagh 3:00 a.m. 2.Jul.99.PDT WASHINGTON -- Law enforcement groups and their supporters in Congress rallied late Thursday to defeat a bank privacy proposal. Warning in the darkest terms that a plan to protect the confidentiality of bank records was "privacy gone crazy," opponents angrily denounced it on the floor of the House of Representatives. The House then rejected the reform package, 299-129, with only 12 Democrats supporting it. Federal law requires banks to monitor their customers for suspicious or unusual behavior and submit a report to a massive database in Detroit jointly administered ...

July 2, 1999 Clinton Meets With S. Korean Leader Filed at 4:12 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- With tensions rising on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met today with President Clinton and said he hopes continued close cooperation between Washington and Seoul ``sends a clear message to North Korea.'' Just hours before Kim's arrival, South Korea suspended talks with North Korea in Beijing on reuniting families separated by division of the two countries. The impasse resulted from a demand by North Korea for fertilizer shipments from the South. During a photo session ...

WHITECLAY, Neb. (AP) — Authorities evacuated the town's 22 residents, closed down its businesses and sent in 100 troopers Friday on the eve of a protest march by American Indians. Sioux Indians from the Pine Ridge Reservation set fires and looted a grocery store in the town a week ago during a protest over alleged treaty violations, two unsolved murders and the sale of alcohol to Indians. Activists said they would again march the two miles from the reservation in South Dakota over the state line into Whiteclay, where they planned to set up tepees and occupy the village ...

No recent issue has divided Americans more than Y2K. Even as more evidence of the Y2K problem rolls in (Washington D.C. admitting they won't make it, the raw sewage spill in L.A., the increased food orders by Y2K programmers…), the two camps -- those who believe Y2K has been solved and those who don't -- appear to be hardening their positions. What can it be, then, that makes intelligent, everyday people look at this information and reach the conclusion that Y2K has already been solved? ORIGINS OF THE Y2K DISCONNECT It is, of course, the Y2K Disconnect -- a twist ...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. UK inquiry should establish why contaminated blood products were given to people with haemophilia Karin Pappenheim British Medical Journal Vol. 319; No. 52 July 3, 1999 EDITORA government inquiry has been announced into the infection by contaminated blood products of people with haemophilia in the In the United Kingdom, however, the government has failed even to hold an inquiry into how and why patients with haemophilia came to be infected with bloodborne viruses before 1986.Republic of Ireland; this follows a public inquiry into ...

KIEV, Jul 2, 1999 -- (Reuters) Ukraine's leftist parliament said on Friday that NATO should pay for any peacekeepers Kiev sends to Kosovo but should not command them. In an angrily worded resolution it ruled out participation in a force under NATO command, and said the alliance should finance the peacekeeping mission because it had "unleashed the criminal war" against Yugoslavia. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma opposed NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia, but in terms less harsh than those used by neighboring Russia. British Defense Secretary George Robertson, who visited Ukraine last month, said NATO would welcome Ukrainian servicemen in ...

Religion police arrested a Filipino Christian employed in Saudi Arabia. Romeo Macabuhay, 46, reportedly has been accused of being a Christian pastor and producing gospel literature in the Islamic country, Compass Direct News said. His wife, Marietta, said her husband was arrested May 24 during a raid on a Riyadh apartment. Police say a photograph found in the apartment shows Romeo preaching from a pulpit. "But he is not a pastor," Marietta said. The Filipino embassy said it has not been informed of Macabuhay’s arrest, but has inquired into the situation. "Official channels usually take weeks," Consul Jesus Domingo said. ...

For the unskilled, nation's jobless rate is far from reality Belinda Kingwood laughs slightly when the talk turns to the nation's booming economy and how plentiful jobs have become. Not for her, and a new study suggests she's not alone. "I don't see it," said Kingwood, 26, of Newark, who's studying for her high school equivalency diploma and plans to roll at Essex County College for training as a dental assistant. "Where are these jobs? If someone would lead me in the right direction, I will go there." Much of New Jersey and the nation is enjoying unprecedented economic prosperity. ...

The Bear Awakens Emerging from its decade-long hibernation, Russia is back. Russia demonstrated its strategic air power during the West 99 exercises recently, showing off a couple of Tu-160 bombers - of which it is getting 10 more back from Ukraine, which also recently pissed off Russia by denying overflight rights to Pristina's military airport, Slatina, recently - which were not successfully intercepted by NATO aircraft. Russian bombers got within 16 miles of Iceland. It should be noted that air launched cruise missiles can hit Icelandic targets from, oh, about 200+ miles, if not much more. And these are big ...

Eye on the Empire by Alan Bock July 1, 1999 GEORGE DUBYA AND AMERICAN "LEADERSHIP" One shouldn't read too much into deviations from prepared texts, and in fact the prepared text of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's remarks distributed to newsies during his California fundraising swing this week carried a warning right at the top "[Note: Governor Bush frequently deviates from prepared text]." He did so fairly often in minor ways without moving notably off-message or missing applause lines. But one deviation during the $500,000 fundraising luncheon in Irvine struck me as at least potentially significant. The prepared text, ...

The Essay Of The Week winner this week is: Prometheus Norman Liebmann (firehat), parsifal, joanie-f, betty boop, are given honorable mention as first, second, third and fourth runners up. JayTee takes the honors for Quote Of The Week. Don't miss our Bonus Bytes from: Charles H. (The_r0nin), Arator, dons, MadIvan, Joe Montana, Bold Fenian, Flashman_at_the_charge, steve-b, untenured, Nick Danger, Jack Black, Diamond, Don Hicks, roughrider, Theresa, hetfield1, Michael Rivero, TMC, Paul L. Hepperla, r9etb, ex-snook, plain talk, fintan, Bluegoose, prognostigaator, John R. (Bob) Locke, HENRYADAMS, ASKEL5, Ron C., by L.N. Smithee, Sigi There are new features at Free Republic Highlights: ...

A MISSIVE FROM MOHAMMED For weeks and months on end – indeed, ever since we set up this Website – we have been getting a lot of mail asking why we never posted the stories of Serb atrocities circulated by the War Party. Naturally, a lot of these inquiries were from people named Mohammed, and were accompanied by epithets that seemed – at least to me – anatomically if not metaphysically impossible. MY IMMINENT DEMISE Ominously, Clinton has declared that the bombing of Serbia was justified because this was a war "against racism." Why does that send a chill down ...

President Boris Yeltsin promised on Thursday to keep a close eye on Russia's once-mighty but now creaking arms industry, saying he would regularly meet the new deputy prime minister in charge of the sector. Russian news agencies quoted Yeltsin as telling Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov during a meeting in the Kremlin that some defence questions were being neglected and work in some areas had not even begun. Interfax news agency quoted him saying that he would "often meet on concrete questions" with Klebanov, who was appointed at the end of May. Although the military-industrial complex is not as ...

1719 GMT, 990702 Yugoslavia/UN – Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic asked the UN Security Council to allow Yugoslav troops back into Kosovo to maintain security, which he claims has been seriously lacking since the arrival of KFOR forces. In a letter to the council July 2, Jovanovic urged the UN to enact a provision of the June 3 peace agreement, which stipulated that Serb troops would be allowed to return to Kosovo to protect cultural and religious sites. Jovanovic said that there had been a "serious deterioration of the security situation in the province, and a massive violation of ...

Governor George W. Bush deserves a second term From the beginning of his term in 1995, Gov. George W. Bush has emphasized one point above all others: Hold people accountable for their actions. The governor includes himself in that refrain. The Texas Republican often says that if voters believe he has lived up to expectations, then grant him another term. If not, then dismiss him. We strongly believe that George W. Bush's engaged, energetic and even-handed leadership has earned him a second term as Texas' governor. His first four years have produced positive results for the nation's second-largest state. Gov. ...

Web posted 7/2/99 at 4:45 p.m. EDT (Alexandria, VA) - Steve Forbes, Republican presidential candidate, made the following comments on this Fourth of July holiday: "The conservative movement is grounded in the freedoms inherent to humanity. As Americans, we enjoy more freedom than any other country. Yet, we must always stand vigilant and fight to roll back encroachments on our basic freedoms of life, liberty, and happiness. "That is why I'm running for President. The next millennium will bring new challenges for our nation and our children. To preserve and protect our basic freedoms, as well as our children's ...

Join Bill Kurtis for an in-depth look at one of today's most explosive issues. This special five-part series examines the role of the gun in America, from the NRA to the recent, tragic school shootings. This is THE CLOSEST YOU'LL GET TO THE TRUTH.