Free Republic

Through the eyes of Israeli sympathizers, the Internet is a haven for those who support Yasser Arafat, the idea of a Palestinian state and Islamist ambitions for world hegemony. Through the eyes of Arab sympathizers, the Internet is a haven for those who unequivocally support the Jewish state. No matter who's right, both sides in the debate are taking the war in the Mideast to cyberspace – with plans for new sites and greater efforts at networking. The Jewish Internet Association was created to provide "truthful, positive information to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli activity on the Internet." Chuck Chriss, president...

Moroccan report reveals rich detail about al-Qaida tactics By NICOLAS MARMIE   06/19/2002 Associated Press Newswires Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Three al-Qaida operatives, plotting a terror attack in Morocco, argued over whether it would be noble to blow up a cafe if it would take Muslim lives.Their debate emerged in a detailed report from the usually tight-lipped Moroccan government that shed light on the training, recruiting and planning of three alleged al-Qaida members in their custody. The three Saudis, caught in May and arraigned in a Moroccan court on Monday, are...

WASHINGTON – After overcoming more than 80 objections from bureau lawyers, a new tell-all book by a veteran FBI agent who worked in counterintelligence with turncoat Robert Hanssen and is all too familiar with the palace-guard mentality of headquarters, has one final hurdle to clear – FBI Director Robert Mueller's desk. Ivian C. Smith, a 25-year veteran of the bureau, says his memoir, pawed over for more than a year by damage controllers, is parked there, waiting for the top dog's OK. The latest flap involves a chapter in his more than 868-page manuscript about an old "national security issue"...

WHAT PERCENTAGE of America’s poor would you say escape poverty in any given year? Two, five, 10? Try between a third and a half. A study recently published by the Employment Policy Institute concludes that between one third and nearly one half of families who have incomes below the federal poverty line are no longer in poverty one year later. Specifically, the study found that between 1991 and 1992, 34 percent of families in poverty moved out. The numbers were 42 percent in 1993-94, 46 percent in 1996-97, and 47 percent in 1997-98. What about poor families not in poverty?...

White commercial farmers in Zimbabwe have lost much of this year's tobacco crop due to theft by operatives loyal to dictatorial President Robert Mugabe, only to see it sold to U.S. and other international firms for pennies on the dollar, say sources inside the African nation. According to sources in Zimbabwe and neighboring South Africa, dozens of white-owned commercial farms have been raided of their entire tobacco harvest, lost to "war veterans" – roving bands of black Zimbabweans, some of whom fought for independence from colonial rule in the 1980s, who are loyal to Mugabe and who take over the...

Arafat is only interested in saving himself. By EDWARD SAID.   06/20/2002 The Independent - London P17 (c) 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited . All rights reserved. Six distinct calls for Palestinian reform and elections are being pressed now: five of them are, for Palestinian purposes, both useless and irrelevant. Sharon wants reform as a way of further disabling Palestinian national life. The United States wants reform principally as a way of combatting "terrorism", a panacea of a word that takes no account of history, context, or anything else.Third is the Arab leaders' demand which, as far as I can...

<p>When energy reserves run low this summer, the state will turn to some California businesses to help make up the difference, state officials said Tuesday.</p> <p>Businesses that volunteer for the new "Demand Reserve Partnership" will reduce the amount of energy they use at key times, when demand for power is high and blackouts are imminent.</p>

Bogota, Jun 19, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Colombian President Andres Pastrana has invited the man elected to succeed him, Alvaro Uribe, to participate in an economic forum in Cartagena that former U.S. President Bill Clinton is also scheduled to attend, officials here said Wednesday. The invitation to Uribe was made public by the president's press secretary. The forum will take place June 28-29 in the Caribbean resort city and aims to bring together leaders of Colombia's private sector and a number of distinguished invitees from abroad. "The role of the private sector in a nation in crisis" is...

Now on Art Bell Program.

<p>The Chronicle's Ad Watch provides an occasional look at the truth behind the claims, charges and political statements made in the campaign spots that run on television and radio in California. Today: "Fulfilled Dreams," by GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon. .</p>

This is a wake up thread for all those who would be active -- if they only knew -- what kind of danger we are in. Here is the one of the sites that has kept me up tonight ... now I can't sleep. Jihad!

OSTON — Logan International Airport may never erase its Sept.11 stigma, inflicted by 10 terrorists who boarded two American Airlines jets here on their way to destroying the World Trade Center.But in the nine months since then, the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport, has begun building what it says will be one of the most advanced airport-security systems in the nation."If you compare Logan pre-9/11 and after, it's a completely different environment," said Rafi Ron, a former security director at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel. "Security must be an integral part of everything that happens at the...

Two Israeli soldiers killed at the time of the operation of Kalkiliya Thursday June 20, 2002 - 4h44 GMT JERUSALEM, June 20 (AFP) - Two Israeli soldiers, a commander and a sergeant, were killed Wednesday in a fixing with Palestinian combatants, in the autonomous city of Kalkiliya in the West Bank, announced to Thursday an Israeli military spokesman. Four other soldiers, two officers and two soldiers were wounded during the fixing during which was killed the regional head of a Palestinian service of safety, Mazen Slimane and one of its men captured, according to this source. The Israeli army...

WASHINGTON, June 19 — The Senate left the door open today for some form of an artillery system the Pentagon wants to kill, shifting $475 million budgeted for the weapon, the Crusader, into research for future combat systems. Despite a veto threat, senators also agreed to allow disabled military retirees to collect both disability and retirement pay, which the Bush administration opposes on the ground that it is too expensive. Opening debate on a $393 billion Pentagon spending measure, senators reached for the middle ground between the administration, which wants to cancel the $11 billion Crusader outright, and House members...

ASHINGTON, June 19 — The Bush administration will propose on Thursday to end Amtrak's monopoly on intercity passenger rail service, government officials said today.They said the plan calls for states to help decide what service will be offered, and to help pay for it. One goal of the new policy, they said, is to introduce competition to determine whether Amtrak or other entities will operate trains.The transportation secretary, Norman Y. Mineta, is scheduled to describe the policy on Thursday at a breakfast meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.The plan is also expected to call for...

WASHINGTON, June 19 — A Republican bill to provide prescription drug benefits to the elderly was approved early today by one House committee, but became bogged down in another panel, where Democrats denounced the legislation as a gift to the drug industry in return for large campaign contributions. Despite the partisan fight, the legislation still appeared to be headed for a vote on the House floor next week, just before lawmakers take a recess for the Fourth of July. By a vote of 22 to 16, largely along party lines, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the bill, which...

WASHINGTON, June 19 — Lawmakers moved closer today to a confrontation with the Bush administration over guns in airplane cockpits as a House panel endorsed legislation that could arm more than 1,000 pilots in the next two years. The vote by the House Transportation Committee's aviation subcommittee runs counter to the administration's decision last month not to allow the arming of pilots. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. Bipartisan groups of lawmakers in both houses are trying to overturn the decision of the director of the Transportation Security Administration, John Magaw, to keep guns out of the cockpit....

WASHINGTON, June 19 — The White House was partly evacuated tonight and military jets were scrambled after an unidentified light aircraft entered restricted airspace over the capital, Secret Service officials said. President Bush remained in the building, and he was never in danger, the officials said, adding that employees returned to their offices after security officials determined that the plane posed no threat. "All indications are that it was a mistake," Jim Mackin, a Secret Service spokesman, said Federal aviation officials said the pilot had been identified and that terrorism had been ruled out pending a formal inquiry. Several government...

ARTAA, Israel, June 19 — Ayman Kabaha, an Israeli Arab student killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem on Tuesday, was buried here today on a rocky hillside, mourned by relatives on both sides of this Arab village that lies half in Israel and half in the West Bank.Mr. Kabaha's death at the hands of a fellow Arab underlined the predicament of the people living here. A million Israeli Arabs are caught in a conflict between their country and their people. "We're between the hammer and the anvil," said Abed Mahameed, an Israeli Arab friend of Mr. Kabaha....

WASHINGTON, June 19 — The House began a month of late nights and short weekends today by approving a quickened schedule for creating the proposed Department of Homeland Security. If the House meets the schedule, which several members called overly ambitious, it would be ready to vote on the White House proposal for the new department before the annual August recess. If the Senate follows a similar timetable, the two houses could resolve any differences after the recess and the department could then be created by Sept. 11, a date sought for its symbolism. Skepticism was widespread, however, that the...