Free Republic

<p>Is Pakistan taking Afghanistan's place as the new fulcrum of transnational terrorism? Intelligence sources in Washington, London, Paris and Rome agree that al Qaeda's underground network in Pakistan is functioning with the complicity of the clergy and intelligence services. President Pervez Musharraf's much-publicized crackdown on Islamist extremists is a dismal failure, according to Western intelligence appraisals. Pakistani national police sources in Islamabad estimate that some 10,000 Afghan Taliban cadres and followers and about 5,000 al Qaeda fighters are now hiding in Pakistan "with the full support of intelligence authorities, as well as religious and tribal groups."</p>

<p>What did the FBI know of possible terrorist attacks before September 11? The CIA? The White House? President Bush's dog Spot? The media and Congress are demanding answers, and not without reason if the purpose is to try to ensure terrible mistakes aren't repeated.</p>

<p>It's been a rough few years for historians. The higher the rung, the greater the fall. Plagiarism infected the works of superstar authors Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose. Both are prolific writers who fell prey to pressures of time, sloppy researchers, careless rewrites and history as big business, all of which interrupted their 20 minutes of academic celebrity.</p>

<p>The death Monday of John Carter Brown left writers and editors scrambling for the proper — yes, proper, and all the respect it conjures — adjectives and superlatives befitting a man who changed the landscape of the nation's capital. "Part Barnum, part Albert Schweitzer," said the New York Times. "Populist patrician" and "unashamed elitist," quoth The Washington Post. To be sure, Mr. Brown was that. And much more.</p>

<p>After suffering five deaths and 13 illnesses directly resulting from anthrax infections last fall, Americans can no longer deny the presence of a serious bioterrorist threat. Last week, President Bush signed an anti-bioterrorism bill that allocates $640 million to stockpile vaccines against smallpox — a deadly disease that killed roughly one-third of its victims before being eradicated in 1978. By the end of this year, the federal government will have collected more than enough doses of the vaccine to give all Americans a shot in the arm. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal agency charged with protecting the public from disease, wants to keep the vaccine out of the hands of U.S. citizens until a smallpox attack actually occurs. This policy fails to properly protect U.S. citizens from a menacing external threat.</p>

<p>Time is running out for the Senate to live up to its claims of fairness in considering President Bush's judicial nominees.</p> <p>Over the last dozen years, the Senate has annually been in session an average of 152 days. Observing day-long holidays with week-long breaks, taking the month of August off and quitting early to campaign for re-election leaves only about 50 legislative days this year.</p>

<p>The head of the House subcommittee on immigration told the Immigration and Naturalization Service yesterday not to selectively enforce immigration laws by accepting the presence of millions of illegal immigrants.</p> <p>Rep. George W. Gekas, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary immigration and claims subcommittee, called "troublesome" recent reports that he said indicate the INS may have to ignore the broader issue of illegal immigration to focus on potential threats to domestic security.</p>

<p>The International Criminal Court (ICC) opens for business on July 1. One of the United Nations' most worrysome creations, it is independent of any rule of law other than its own. It has jurisdiction over war crimes ranging from genocide to environmental "crimes," which the ICC defines as causing more harm to the environment than the mission requires. Bill Clinton signed the treaty establishing the ICC as one of his last acts of contempt toward the American soldier. It must have amused him to think about boys on a battlefield worrying about which snipers were hiding near the nest of some endangered species.</p>

<p>Early Tuesday morning, 19 Israelis, most of them teen-agers headed to school and workers headed to their offices, got aboard one of the busiest bus lines in the Jerusalem area heading for downtown. They didn't make it to their destinations alive. Shortly before 8 a.m., Mohammed al-Ghoul, a law student from a Nablus-area refugee camp who had just boarded the vehicle, detonated a bomb packed with nails. Along with Ghoul, at least 19 Israelis died and 70 more were wounded in the bombing. "We tell the Zionists to prepare your coffins, dig your graves, because your dead will be in the hundreds," Hamas said in a statement announcing it had carried out the bloodbath. The group also released a videotape explaining the "best" places on an Israeli bus to detonate a bomb in order to achieve the maximum number of casualties.</p>

<p>Congressional Democrats and their labor allies yesterday threatened to kill a key component of President Bush's homeland security plan — the executive authority to remove civil-service protections from some federal employees.</p> <p>"I will oppose that vigorously," said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat. "It is simply using Americans' and Congress' justifiable support of ensuring our security as a ruse to do the agenda that I think this administration has, to undermine the rights of workers in the federal government."</p>

The Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up near a Border Police patrol on Monday was not infected with the virus that causes AIDS, according to initial tests, Health Ministry officials said yesterday. There were no casualties in the attack near Kibbutz Bahan, north of Tulkarm. Afterward, rumors spread that the 17-year-old assailant was HIV-positive. Health Ministry spokesman Ido Hadari said a sample of blood from the bomber was tested Tuesday and proved negative. He said a second, more accurate, test was still being done and that results were expected today. Prof. Yehuda Hiss, director of the L. Greenberg Institute...

There is not now – nor will there ever be – enough money to satisfy government's wish list for America. It didn't used to be so. I'll tell you why. Do you remember when the money that government took it spent "to provide for the common welfare"? In the Pacific Northwest great dams were built east of the Cascade mountains to control flooding and irrigate what became a rich agricultural valley, employing thousands and feeding millions. Across the nation interstate highways were dug, graveled and paved, creating a transportation network that still moves food, industrial materials, workers and finished products...

Federal prosecutors now are examining the possibility that Terry Lynn Barton may have deliberately started the Hayman fire because she wanted to be a hero by putting it out. The inferno begun by the U.S. Forest Service technician has blackened more than 100,000 acres near Denver and displaced more than 5,000 people. Barton's told investigators that on June 8, while on patrol in the Pike National Forest to enforce a fire ban that was imposed because of a drought, she did the unthinkable and burned a letter from her estranged husband in a campfire ring. She claims that she stayed...

When you write a treatise titled, "Why I am not a conservative," and follow it up with one titled, "Why I am not a libertarian," you are, according to popular demand, obligated to publish a third discourse titled, "Why I am not a liberal." This may prove to be the toughest challenge of all. For me, it is like explaining why I am not a communist, or why I am not a Nazi. Where does one begin? I've never been mistaken for a liberal. Let's start here: Liberalism, as we know it in the United States in 2002, is an...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The California Legislature wrapped up its grueling inquiry into the state's botched Oracle contract Monday night with a blunt appeal from the head of the investigating committee: ``We must find another way.''</p> <p>With the hearings behind them, the Legislature and the governor are promising to embark on an ambitious overhaul of the way the state buys not only technology but nearly everything that requires a contract.</p>

Perception truly is greater than reality – and the world's growing perception is that the dollar has seen better days. The actual strength of the dollar isn't even the question here; the consequence of this mounting world perception is. It's clear, especially over the past six months, that there's been a steady defection from the dollar by nervous foreign investors. Are these defections deserved? Both the Wall Street Journal and Morgan Stanley recently offered the opinion that the dollar could drop by some 20 percent to 25 percent in the near future, with the Journal adding that such trends "invariably...

SEATTLE (AP) - Soon after moving into a retirement home, Paul Trummel began complaining that his neighbors fell asleep with their TVs blaring or flushed their toilets during quiet hours. Then he really turned up the heat by starting a Web site accusing tenants and staff members of housing-law violations and conspiracies. The Web site landed him in jail for 3 1/2 months and made the 68-year-old an unlikely hero to free-speech advocates in a positively bizarre First Amendment case. Trummel was locked up Feb. 27 by Superior Court Judge James Doerty after refusing to remove from his Web...

America has infuriated its allies at the United Nations by threatening to keep US troops out of peacekeeping forces unless they are granted a blanket immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which comes into being next month. Richard Williamson, a US representative at the UN, said he had warned the security council that "there should be no misunderstanding. If there is not adequate protection for US peacekeepers, there will be no US peacekeepers." Human rights campaigners accused the US of a "shortsighted and ultimately pathetic" scare campaign. Mr Williamson's comments reflect long-standing US opposition to the court, which...

Les Kinsolving, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent and columnist, will appear as a guest on the "American Breakfast" talk-radio program tomorrow at 8:10 a.m. Eastern time. Broadcasting live from the Shawmut Diner in New Bedford, Mass., "American Breakfast" seeks to mirror what a classic diner provides in a community: a forum for average Americans to express themselves, host Phil Paleologos says. Local patrons of the diner frequently join in the discussion as Phil asks them their opinions of ideas and proposals coming out of Washington. Every Friday morning during the 8 a.m. segment of the show, "American Breakfast" features a columnist...

Students at Miami-Dade Community College in Florida have settled a dispute with college administration personnel who had denied them the chance to pass out literature on campus without prior approval. A student-filed lawsuit recently was settled when the college agreed to change its previous distribution policy by dropping the pre-approval requirement. "This will affect all the community colleges in Florida," said Mathew Staver, the students' lead counsel and president of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit legal defense organization, commenting that all community colleges in Florida have similar policies regarding prior approval for literature distribution. Students allegedly were threatened with arrest after...