Free Republic

Washington (CNSNews.com) - A former U.S. intelligence officer believes the FBI and CIA could not have known the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were about to occur because both agencies had been crippled in their intelligence gathering. Herbert Romerstein, who spoke in Washington Monday, worked on countering Soviet disinformation for the United States Information Agency from 1983 to 1989. According to Romerstein, U.S. intelligence agencies have been prohibited from collecting information on terrorist and anti-American groups since the 1970s, due to actions taken by Democratic majorities in Congress and by former Attorney General Edward Levi, who served under former...

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail! [President Bush] Good morning!! Do not let the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington, nor the brave members of our Nation's military who have given their lives to protect our freedom, die in vain!! Please take a moment to upset a liberal and a Ninth Circus Court Judge by honoring our flag: I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATIONUNDER GOD WITH LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE, FOR ALL. In the three-ring...

(CNSNews.com) - Hammered by a burgeoning number of costly class action lawsuits, American businesses are asking Congress to make a few procedural changes that would consolidate redundant lawsuits and try to re-direct damage awards to injured plaintiffs, rather than their lawyers. The reforms advocated by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) will help "lift one more burden off the beleaguered American business sector that finds itself in the most intensely competitive world marketplace the world has ever seen," said Michael Baroody, NAM executive vice president, speaking at a Monday roundtable forum. "There's no derogation of anybody's right to sue or...

I wrote both my Senators and my Representative about the mideast conflict, strongly supporting Israel. Here's the full text of the letter I received today from Sen. Bayh's office. (I apologize for any typos, which are my fault and not the fault of anyone in the Senator's office.):Dear Mr. ____:Thank you for contacting me regarding the ongoing problems between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I appreciate your concerns -- a peaceful resolution through peaceful negotiations must be the primary goal.As you may know, the series of negotiations between the Israel and the Palestinian Authority has gone through many stages, starting...

WorldCom investors flooded the Nasdaq yesterday, swapping a record 1.5 billion shares as bank loans went into default and the imperiled telecom said it was looking at more accounting fraud. Indeed, bad news came calling from every direction on the No. 2 long distance provider — parent of MCI. The Nasdaq said it plans to delist WorldCom shares Friday. The Bush administration said it will explore whether the government should suspend all new business dealings with the company. And WorldCom itself conceded it was officially in default of more than $4 billion in unsecured loans in a sworn statement to...

IN CARTOONS, WHEN A a character runs away suddenly, there’s always a little swirling dust devil left behind. Last Wednesday, America was overcome with these little vortexes — whatever you call them. A court in California ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it uses the phrase “under God,” and every politician in the country was in such a hurry to be a character witness to God’s constitutionality that it was like we became a nation of Speedy Gonzalezes. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer and other leaders of the Christian Right raced back to their offices to...

Dozens of suspected paedophiles have been held in synchronised raids across the world in an operation led by UK police. Officers from the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit worked for a year to smash an Internet-based child abuse ring which called itself the "Shadowz Brotherhood". Hundreds of officers swooped on suspects' homes this morning in seven countries, seizing dozens of computers. Even hardened detectives described the images and videos involved as the most horrific they had ever seen - many involved babies. The police investigation - code-named Operation Twins - was supported by Europol in The Hague. A Europol spokesman...

Cousin, can you spare a dime for our brother's appeal? That's the grim message dispatched by Skakel siblings Stephen and Julie, who are urging friends and family to send letters of support and "discreet" donations to their convicted killer brother Michael. "Michael's best (if only) hope is his legal appeal to the state Supreme Court," states Stephen Skakel, Michael's closest brother and the youngest of Rushton Sr.'s seven offspring, in a widely distributed e-mail. "Thanks so much to those who contributed in the past. ... Please assume that Michael's financial resources for appeal are non-existent at this time," he adds,...

After watching the first week of CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight," I have no idea what kind of news and information show it's supposed to be. I suspect Chung and CNN don't have much of an idea yet, either — but they're trying just about everything. Partly because of the luck of the news draw, and partly because of the types of stories Chung likes to chase, many portions of her show's opening week seemed populated by, and obsessed with, people who could politely be described as unpolished. In the case of missing 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, one of the trailer-park interviews...

The Osceola Sentinel SUNDAY, JULY 5, 1998 -- An Edition of The Orlando Sentinel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historian: Civil War tales are pure bunk History doesn't lie. Right? Well, the winners want history to make them look good. Sometimes the losers get their say, too. Perspectives can change. Villains can be made to look like heroes. Interpreting the past can lead to lively debates. And because it is history, often the only confirmation comes from what was written down or told orally through generations. Even so, care must be taken. When talk turns to the Civil War and blacks' role with the...

MUZAFFARGARH: The virgin daughter of a labourer was gang-raped by four persons in the presence of about 1,000 people, following a ‘verdict’ by a ‘panchayat’ (local tribal council) in Moaza Meerwala Jatoi near here. Members of the Mastoi tribe accused the girl’s eleven-year-old brother of having ‘illicit relations’ with another girl from the tribe. They then called upon the panchayat to decide on the issue and forced the boy’s father, Ghulam Fareed, to bring his daughter before the council, threatening to abduct and rape all the female members of his family if he did not comply. When Mr Fareed brought...

The same day, Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov said in an interview published in "Rossiiskaya gazeta" that terrorist leader bin Laden is funding the Chechen militants. "Every day, bandits bring pain to Russians on bin Laden's money." ("RFE/RL Newsline," 24 September) Russia is an ally with our invasion of Afghanistan. Following the terrorist attacks on the US on 11th September, Putin announced Russia's full support for the US's war against terrorism, allowing US forces to use Russian intelligence, airspace and bases in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. Russia and the US have had a common enemy to fight....

Saudi Arabians have a colloquial name for the people of Buraydah. They call them mutawwa. A respectful translation is "deeply devout Muslims". The phrase is formally applied to the religious police who enforce the kingdom's strict moral code. A less flattering interpretation, given privately by westernised liberals and expats, is "fanatics". Buraydah sits at the very heart of the Saudi kingdom, an oasis surrounded by nothing but desert for hundreds of miles in all directions. The terrain is harsh, pounded by a sun that will push the temperature to an extreme 50 degrees within the next few weeks. The residents...

QALAT, Afghanistan (CP) -- Canadian soldiers descended upon unexplored Afghan territory in the early hours of Canada Day in an ambitious terrorist hunt unlike any the coalition here has mounted to date. More than 50 vehicles -- including the Canadian Coyotes reconnaissance vehicles in their first opportunity to participate in an offensive combat operation here -- snaked upon crumbled and sandy roads on the bone- rattling nine-hour trip from Kandahar to Qalat in the Zabul province bordering Pakistan. Just a few hours later, at first light Monday, the Coyotes were on their way to a rendezvous with American Chinook and...

JERUSALEM, Jul 02, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The army lifted its curfew Tuesday in the West Bank city of Hebron to allow students to take exams - then rounded up about 300 Palestinian students for questioning, witnesses said. Soldiers ordered men and women students at the Palestinian Polytechnic Institute, a two-year-college, into separate groups and checked identification cards and questioned students, witnesses said. There was no immediate word if any students were detained as part of Israel's search for suspected Palestinian militants. The army did not immediately comment. Also, the Israeli army pulled out of the West...

Trial lawyers like those who negotiated the tobacco settlement are frequent targets of Republicans, who contend the lawyers file frivolous lawsuits that result in large awards and legal fees, which raise business and consumer costs. The lawyers say they use the legal system to seek redress for people who have been hurt by negligence or faulty products. Many trial lawyers contribute to Democratic candidates. AUSTIN -- More than four years after Texas secured a $17.3 billion settlement in a lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the political aftermath -- which still lingers like the smell of stale smoke -- could cloud...

Undercover agents got fake guns, bombs and even dynamite past security screeners almost 25% of the time at 32 major airports, a government report said yesterday. But Transportation Security Administration officials gave high marks to Newark and Kennedy airports, where security screeners detected fake weapons 90% of the time.No airport got a perfect score.The agency began supervising airport checkpoints in February, taking over the job from airlines, though screeners still work for private companies. Federal employees are to replace them by Nov. 19.In the meantime, the agency continues to test how well the private screeners find weapons and explosives.At three...

Since the first batch of documents relating to Father Paul Shanley was made public by Roderick MacLeish Jr., attorney for the Ford family of Newton, in an April 8 press conference, their content has generated a fierce backlash against Cardinal Law for his handling of the issue. In their coverage of the Shanley case, the media have almost exclusively seemed to cite as facts, not the full content of the documents, but the interpretation of a few select passages highlighted by MacLeish -- to the point that many now believe that those interpretations are "facts" extracted from the documents. The...

On July Fourth this year, we can do more than venerate the Declaration of Independence; we can learn from its embrace of coalition politics. American leaders favoring the Revolution almost 230 years ago were split into two theological camps. Most were theists, believing in a God who both created the world and was still active in it. But some scoffed at biblical claims. One of the latter, Thomas Jefferson, was charged with finding language that would satisfy theists as well as partisans within his own camp. He succeeded remarkably well in at least three instances. Jefferson's first artful sentence...

Nato-led peacekeeping troops have raided the family home of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. A guard at the house in Pale, within the Bosnian Serb territory, told Reuters news agency that French troops from the Stabilisation Force (S-For) told him they were looking for weapons. Mr Karadzic's wife arrived at the house an hour after the pre-dawn raid to inspect the damage, the news agency reported. Nato troops have been searching for the former Bosnian Serb president - the UN war crimes tribunal's most wanted suspect - for several years. Mr Karadzic's family said nobody had been arrested...