Free Republic

B>CNN says it erred in Mideast coverage By Steve Weizman, Associated Press, 6/24/2002 ERUSALEM - CNN erred in giving more programming time to the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber than to his Israeli victims and tried to rectify the mistake, the network's top news executive said yesterday during a damage-control visit to Israel. CNN's coverage of recent suicide bombings has provoked anger in Israel and led a local cable company to start carrying CNN's chief US competitor, Fox News Channel. Fox said it expects others to follow suit. Recent comments from CNN founder Ted Turner describing both Israel and...

What can Arab Americans do? James Abou Rizk* offers suggestions in an abridged version of a speech he gave to the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee conference -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2 May US House of Representatives vote, 352 to 21, expressed unqualified support for Israel. On the same day the US Senate voted 94 to 2 for the same motion. That these votes occurred at the same time the Israeli army was slaughtering Palestinians in the West Bank sent the signal that no matter what Israel did it was OK with our senators and congressmen. I do not recall my member of congress...

(CNSNews.com) - Amtrak supporters - including many New York and New Jersey Democrats - are demanding that U.S. taxpayers bail out the government-run passenger rail service, which faces a mid-week shutdown without a financial infusion. "With a loan guarantee from the administration, rail service can be maintained ...as Congress continues to work with public and private partners in devising a long-term strategy for reform," said Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). "Now more than ever, our nation needs national passenger rail service, and I hope that the administration finally lends its support to Amtrak by providing this loan guarantee." Biden and others...

The last time the world heard from Osama bin Laden, there was reason to believe his end was near. In a videotape released in December, bin Laden looked sallow; his speech was slow, and his left arm immobile. (The Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported last month that bin Laden was nursing a shrapnel wound when he made the tape.) The U.S intercepted chatter in the Tora Bora mountains between bin Laden and his forces that seemed to give up his location. Pakistani forces bottled up the border while American warplanes pounded the caves of eastern Afghanistan and special-ops troops positioned...

GAZA CITY, June 24 (AFP) - The spiritual leader of the radical Islamic Hamas movement rejected Monday orders by Yasser Arafat putting him under house arrest, as his supporters clashed with Palestinian police outside his Gaza City home. Police and security officers surrounded Sheikh Yassin's house in western Gaza City early in the morning, acting on orders from the Palestinian leader, a day after arresting an unspecified number of Hamas militants. A senior Palestinian police officer told AFP that the blind cleric was under house arrest but Sheikh Yassin and Hamas officials said they were not informed of this...

Nat Hentoff 'All of Us Are in Danger' The Sons and Daughters of Liberty n 1756, in Boston and other cities and towns, the coming of the American Revolution was speeded by mechanics, merchants, and artisans who organized against British tyranny. Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, they set up committees of correspondence in the colonies to spread detailed news about British attacks on their liberties. They focused on the general search warrant, which allowed customs officers to invade and ransack their homes and offices at will. In the spirit of the Sons of Liberty, on February 4 of this...

<p>ROME — Suspected Islamic militants were plotting an attack on a northern Italian church that has been the subject of protests by Muslims in the past, a newspaper reported Sunday.</p> <p>The Milan daily Corriere della Sera said the San Petronio basilica in Bologna was targeted apparently because it contains a 15th century fresco that depicts Islam's prophet Muhammad in Hell, being devoured by demons.</p>

WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush is tentatively scheduled to deliver a speech Monday unveiling his administration's new Middle East policy, Ha'aretz reported, citing White House officials. Bush was scheduled to deliver the speech last week, but decided to postpone following the two suicide bombings in Jerusalem, in which 26 people were killed and the subsequent Israeli reaction. The president spent the weekend conferring with advisers on the timing and details of the much-anticipated speech, which will outline new American proposals to end the Middle East conflict. The newspaper reported in its Monday edition that aides want...

A NEW sonic weapon being developed for the Pentagon makes use of one of the most fearsome sounds known to humans: a baby crying. Once aimed at the enemy, a focused beam of the familiar noise, played backwards, will be painful enough to make enemy soldiers run for their lives, according to its developers. They call it the ‘‘sonic bullet’’. There are 50 soundtracks to choose from, and they are played at 140 decibels. That is akin to standing beneath a passenger jet as it takes off. Hardly surprising, then, that the weapon causes an intense headache in its victim....

MANCHESTER, Conn. -- A local man accused of shooting a cat with a bow and arrow has been granted a special form of probation. Superior Court Judge Jorge A. Simon also ordered 22-year-old Jesse Reimann to do 50 hours of community service with the Connecticut Humane Society, make a $500 contribution to the society and pay $500 toward the cat's veterinarian bills. Reimann is in an accelerated rehabilitation program for six months. If he successfully completes the program, a cruelty to animals charge against him can be dismissed. Reimann was charged with cruelty to animals for shooting his neighbor's cat...

JERUSALEM, Jun 24, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman announced on Monday that six major Palestinian cities in the West Bank have been declared as closed military zones.According to the announcement, the six cities are Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Jenin and Nablus.In an written message to foreign journalists based in Jerusalem, the Israeli Government Press Office said that the IDF spokesman " reminds" journalists that those cities have been declared as closed military zones, hinting that no journalist will be permitted to enter into those areas.IDF is widening its offensive in the West Bank when...

JERUSALEM Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles surrounded Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound early today — again trapping the Palestinian leader inside with top aides.Seventeen tanks took up positions outside Arafat's shelled and shattered compound — part of a force of 130 tanks seen moving into the West Bank city. Israeli soldiers flashed V signs from atop their moving vehicles as two helicopters hovered overhead. Soldiers with loudspeakers immediately announced a curfew on the 200,000 people living in the area.Arafat was inside the compound with key aides Faisal Abu Sharakh, Ribhi Arafat and intelligence chief Tariq al-Tarawi, who is...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jun 24, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Pakistani authorities working with the FBI detained 45 Muslim militants for questioning in the deadly June 14 car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and the May attack outside a five-star hotel that killed 11 French engineers, officials said Monday.The men detained late Sunday have not been charged in either attack. However, authorities said they may have information that could lead to the perpetrators.An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the men, arrested in the eastern city of Lahore, belong to two banned Sunni Muslim groups -...

Prayers requested during week of 6/23/02 Prayer request from LeeMcCoy for resolution to problemsUrgent prayer request for Teacup, mini teacup, and sonPrayer request for potlatch and mother Prayers requested during week of 6/16/02 Continued prayers for Lex and familyPrayers for EggsAckley's mother and familyPraise report--Update on NatureGirl's father-in-lawPrayers for VaBthang4's stepfather GaryPrayer request for JoePrayers for JohnnyGage's sister-in-law AngelaPrayer request for gwmoore's fatherPrayers for the wife of a friend Prayers requested during week of 6/09/02 Continued prayers for Betsy and for LeeMcCoy and familyPrayer request for Megan who lost her brother last summerPrayers for best friend during lossContinued prayers for...

Palestinian agents shoot at protesters as Hamas leader placed under house arrest By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Palestinian security officials opened fire to disperse demonstrators while enforcing a house arrest order Monday on Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian sources said. There were no reported casualties. The aim of the order issued late Sunday night is "to safeguard the national interests of the Palestinian people," a Palestinian official said. Yassin's son Abdel Hamin said the family had been notified in advance of the decision and that Palestinian security officials were positioned several hundred meters from the home. On Monday a group of...

ISLAMABAD, Jun 24, 2002 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Gen. Tommy Franks, top commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, met President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Monday for talks on the latest developments in the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan.The talks were "focused on the prevailing geostrategic environment in the region" and Franks expressed his appreciation for the assistance being offered by Pakistan and its armed forces to U.S. and allied troops in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said in a press release."Gen. Franks made particular mention of the excellent cooperation between the armed forces of Pakistan...

Betrayal of the Public Trust by Gary North We are all dependent on each other to some degree. The free market is a gigantic system of interdependence. There are degrees of dependence, of course. But every buyer and every seller has some influence on a particular price. So do our perceptions of what each other might do under slightly different circumstances – say, a price hike or reduction of 10%. What we personally know about any one tool in our lives is minuscule. Compared to what some primitive hunter knows about his spear or his traps, we know almost nothing...

Encountering A Roadblock (What to expect and how to handle the situation) Roadblocks are usually established in locations that prevent easy avoidance, offer ample parking for interrogating suspected law violators and issuing tickets, and usually in places and during times that will not cause serious traffic tie ups, although there have certainly been exceptions. The stated purposes of roadblocks are usually legalized excuses to stop and scrutinize motorists for which there would otherwise be no reason to do so. These excuses include "sobriety checks," license and registration verification, possession of insurance, proof of citizenship, and seatbelt usage. The desired effect...

BRUSSELS, June 24 (Reuters) - A Brussels appeals court is due to rule on Wednesday whether Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can be prosecuted in Belgium over his alleged role in the killings of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon two decades ago. The hearing is the latest round in a year-long saga over whether Sharon can be tried for crimes against humanity under a controversial Belgian law giving the country's courts the right to prosecute foreigners for serious human rights violations. Two previous rulings have already chipped away at the validity of the Belgian law, but whichever way the decision goes...

WASHINGTON, Jun 23, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday called for a joint operation to hunt down Osama bin Laden and other al Qaida and Taliban leaders after a spokesman for the wanted terrorist said he was "well and alive," and threatened more attacks on the United States."My idea is that there has to be a three-way cooperation, a tripartite cooperation between us and the government of Pakistan and the U.S., and we must move together into an operation to find people like Osama bin Laden," Karzai told CNN.He was responding to an audio...