Free Republic

OSAMA BIN LADEN will soon make a televised address to the Muslim world, a prominent Arabic language website has reported, reinforcing American intelligence information that he is still alive. US intelligence believes that he is surrounded by al-Qaeda’s high command either in Afghanistan or just over the border in Pakistan. Washington has been braced for a new bin Laden video. One official told The Times: “We expected them to take six months to reorganise. They have taken nine. But we’re sure he’s still there.” It would not surprise some in Washington if the video were broadcast on or just before...

St. Thomas More — Bearing Witness Long After His Death by Mark Shea June 22 is the Feast of one of our greatest saints: Thomas More. St. Thomas More (1478-1535) was one of the most gifted men of his day. He entered Oxford at about age 15, was a brilliant scholar, writer, and lawyer (thereby showing that lawyers can get to heaven) was fluent in Greek, Latin and French, was schooled in mathematics and was an accomplished musician. More's Early Life By his early 20's he was lecturing on St. Augustine's City of God to some of the foremost minds...

Federal Judge in Los Angeles Dismisses Terrorism Fund-Raising Case Against Seven Iranians The Associated PressPublished: Jun 22, 2002 LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge dismissed charges Friday against seven Iranians accused of using a charity scam to solicit $1 million for a terrorist group. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Takasugi said that unconstitutional measures were used to put the case together. In throwing out the 59-count indictment, Takasugi wrote that the government's system for designating a group as a terrorist organization violated the defendants' rights to due process. The designation thus cannot be used in the criminal prosecution, the...

Arafat approves Taba plan too late Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Saturday June 22, 2002 The Guardian The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, yesterday belatedly accepted a Middle East peace plan put forward 18 months ago by the then US president, Bill Clinton. But the Israeli government said the offer, which was discussed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at Taba in Egypt in January last year, was no longer on the table. The Israelis had claimed the Taba package was generous and that Mr Arafat had been foolish not to grab it. Mr Arafat had repeatedly insisted that it was far from...

Anger at Saudi bomb claims By Steve Boggan 22 June 2002 The British government has made a formal complaint to Saudi Arabia in response to security officials in Riyadh linking the murder of a Briton in a car bombing to an illegal alcohol racket. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, is understood to be angry at suggestions by unnamed officials that Simon Veness, 35, a British banker, was blown up on Thursday as part of what the Saudis insist is an alcohol turf war. Five other Britons, two of whom are thought to have been sentenced to death, are in prison...

For thousands of years, men have tried to understand the rules when dealing with women. Finally, this merit/demerit guide will help you to understand just how it works. Remember, in the world of romance, one single rule applies: Make the woman happy. Do something she likes, and you get points. Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted. You don't get any points for doing something she expects. Sorry, that's the way the game is played. Here is a guide to the points system: SIMPLE DUTIES You make the bed..............................................+1 You make the bed, but forget to add the decorative...

Former Inter Services Intelligence operative in Kashmir Mir Khursheed claims he can organise the surrender of Kashmiri militants if the Government of India promises them amnesty. Chairman of the Jammu & Kashmir Muttahida Mahaz and the Kashmir International Foundation, Khursheed says there was a time he slept over US $1.5 million tucked under his bed because he did not have a place to keep the money safely. An advocate by profession, he also points out that the ISI is unshaken by United States President George Bush's threats of punishing countries that finance and train terrorists. "Believe me, the ISI has...

The following statement has been issued by Father Kevin A. Codd, Rector of The American College, concerning allegations made about The College in the recently published book Goodbye! Good Men.It is with sadness that I am obliged in the interests of justice and truth to respond briefly to scurrilous charges made against The American College of the Immaculate Conception, its students, and faculty members in the book Goodbye!  Good Men, by Michael S. Rose.  First of all, the former student upon whose testimony the allegations are based was dismissed from The American College seminary program with just and reasonable cause. ...

From the Coca-cola/Mr Pibb site in reference to the Mr Pibb Extra Mr. Pibb was launched in Texas and quickly expanded through much of the U.S. Mr. Pibb appeals to 12-to-15 year olds who are just gaining independence from home and looking for things to call their own. I have enjoyed Mr Pibb most of my life. It is my favorite soft drink. As always when something is really great, it changes. This new drink that is called Mr Pibb Extra is not my cup of tea. I guess it would be ok if I had a choice between the...

'Weepee' the cat saves man from fire By Hillary Wasch Sun-Sentinel.com Posted June 21 2002, 4:54 PM EDT POMPANO BEACH -- Firefighters put out a house fire Friday morning in Pompano Beach, and homeowner Felisberto Lopes credits his cat, Weepee, for saving his house and his life. Lopes told firefighters he was taking a nap on his couch after watching the U.S. World Cup Soccer game early Friday morning. He was awakened by Weepee's loud meowing and started to smell smoke. Lopes said he saw smoke coming from a back room office, opened the door and saw that the room...

Judge allows Aimee Weiss to see baby with supervision By Shannon O'Boye Sun-Sentinel Posted June 21 2002, 4:43 PM EDT A dependency court judge ruled Friday that Aimee Lee Weiss and her boyfriend can see their newborn daughter while she is in the hospital as long as one of their parents are there to supervise them. The Department of Children & Families was granted temporary custody of the infant last week because Weiss is accused of killing a newborn that she gave birth to last year and throwing his body into a canal. An Assistant Attorney General representing DCF argued...

MORE ON MILOSEVIC'S MILLIONS... "The Times" reported from London on 21 June that it has obtained a copy of a report from the National Bank of Yugoslavia showing how former President Slobodan Milosevic sent an unspecified quantity of gold ingots belonging to the bank out of the country toward the end of his regime (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 June 2002). The bank's identification seals were removed from the ingots in an unnamed Greek port, and the gold was then sent to Italy. In 1999, an unspecified quantity of antiques, artifacts, gold and silver cutlery, and rare carpets were sent from...

In the old James Bond films, Sean Connery played Agent 007. The double-0 meant Bond was one of but a handful of British agents who were licensed to kill. So it would appear is George W. Bush. According to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, President Bush has directed the CIA to conduct a covert operation to oust Saddam Hussein from power, and to use all available means, including the Special Forces. Adds Woodward, "Such forces would be authorized to kill Hussein if they were acting in self-defense." Now this may not be a presidential assassination order, but few could...

From: "MARIAM MOBUTU SESE-SEKO" | Block Address | Add to Address Book To: Subject: PLEASE HELP MOBUTU FAMILY. Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 08:48:37 DEAR FRIEND, I AM MRS. MARIAM MOBUTU SESE-SEKO, WIDOW OF LATE PRESIDENT MOBUTU SESE-SEKO OF ZAIRE NOW KNOWN AS DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC). I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER, IN STRICT CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE AND SITUATION. I ESCAPED ALONG WITH MY HUSBAND AND TWO OF OUR SONS JOHNSON AND MICHAEL OUT OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) TO ABIDJAN-COTE DIVOIRE, WHERE MY FAMILY AND I SETTLED. WHILE WE LATER MOVED TO...

IS COVERAGE OF MISSING CHILDREN RACE-RELATED? (06-21-2002) - Everybody has heard about the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart, the young girl who was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City, but there are outstanding cases involving African-American children that we have heard little about. Does race matter when it comes to the coverage of abducted children? It's a tale of two missing children, 7-year-old Alexis Patterson and 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Both girls have been missing for weeks. Smart is seen almost daily on any newscast across the country, but Patterson receives little national attention at all. "Every hour, it's...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 22 Io: The Prometheus Plume Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: Two sulfurous eruptions are visible on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in this color composite Galileo image. On the left, over Io's limb, a new bluish plume rises about 86 miles above the surface of a volcanic caldera known as Pillan Patera. In the middle of the image, near the night/day shadow line, the ring shaped...

Four Dead in Colo. Wildfires CrashBy Associated Press June 21, 2002, 11:52 PM EDT PARACHUTE, Colo. -- A van carrying fire personnel to a wildfire southwest of Denver crashed Friday night, killing four passengers, a state trooper said. Colorado State Patrol spokesman Don Moseman said the van was from La Grande, Ore., and was carrying 11 people. It was part of a convoy of eight vehicles traveling along Interstate 70 en route near Parachute to the 137,000-acre blaze. "We had a lot of distraught people out there," Moseman said. "Of course in a convoy, some of their group saw it...

Channel Four just reported that a search dog has "hit" on something high up on South Mountain at the south end of the Salt Lake valley. The report said a second dog was on the way to the area to see if it would also hit on the same source. Other search units are on the way to the area.

$1.8-million in marijuana confiscated from state park The man says he was growing pot to help support his family in Mexico. Authorities in San Joaquin County have confiscated $1.8-million worth of marijuana after finding a man growing the plants inside a valley state park. State rangers discovered the 400 pot plants at Caswell State Park. That's just east of Ripon in San Joaquin County. A ranger stumbled across the plants, then found their owner nearby and arrested him. The man says he was growing pot to help support his family in Mexico. So far, his name has not been...

KARACHI, Pakistan, June 21 — The man accused of organizing the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl told a court today that the case against him was a jumble of lies and faked evidence concocted by the government to please the United States. In a statement that followed the completion of the prosecution's case, the neatly groomed, well-dressed defendant, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, 28, said he had never met Mr. Pearl, was in another city when he was kidnapped and had nothing to do with menacing e-mail messages that threatened the reporter's death, his lawyers reported....