Free Republic

Today in the Department of Defense, Tuesday, July 2, 2002 Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, conduct a DoD news briefing today at noon EDT in the DoD Briefing Room, Pentagon 2E781.

FOR years America’s allies have courted and cajoled the United States into accepting the idea of a permanent international criminal court (ICC) to try those accused of the world’s worst crimes—large-scale war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. At best, they hoped, America would come to see it as an important tool in deterring the likes of Saddam Hussein, and of extending and strengthening the rule of law everywhere. At worst, they also hoped, America might reluctantly tolerate the court, adopting a wait-and-see attitude as it tried to establish its credibility. This week that strategy looks in tatters. Far from...

The five-justice majority opinion in the school-choice decision last week, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, gave school-choice reformers a sweeping doctrinal victory. This was no narrow ruling, as some have claimed. The opinion establishes a clear, bright-line rule broadly supporting the constitutionality of school choice. Even the dissenters say so.What is equally striking, however, is the enormous gulf between the majority doctrine and the opinions of the four dissenters. Sadly, the dissenters radically reject what is now a long line of Supreme Court precedents leading unambiguously to this decision.Pro-choice reformers should not be defensive about this decision. If it had been...

A Few of FR's Finest...........Every Day FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues;  salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves. Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.  I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars...

HOUSTON - Lliana and Ricardo Valbuena's applications for naturalization would have been in the mail on the afternoon of Sept. 11, if the post offices hadn't closed unexpectedly. The couple from Venezuela was so affected by the events unfolding in their living room that they went to the INS website, downloaded the applications – the final step in becoming US citizens – and filled them out that very day. "It's difficult to express all the emotions I had on that day, but it felt like I had been punched in the stomach, like something had been ripped from me," says...

The Supreme Court did more last week than hand a victory to supporters of school vouchers. Its controversial 5-to-4 ruling presented a heady breakthrough for advocates who seek to expand the place of religion in American public life. Christian organizations and scholars have been working to nudge the court into a new interpretation of the First Amendment that would open the door to widespread change, putting faith institutions on an equal footing with secular groups as recipients of public funds. They've had small victories in recent years, but hope this serves as the "tipping point." The shift away from strict...

Business Group Seeks Relief from Trial Lawyers By Christine HallCNSNews.com Staff WriterJuly 02, 2002 (CNSNews.com) - Hammered by a growing number of costly class-action lawsuits, American businesses are asking Congress to make changes that would rein in trial lawyes. The reforms advocated by the National Association of Manufacturers -- consolidating redundant lawsuits and re-directing damage awards to injured plaintiffs rather than their lawyers. -- 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. He made...

WASHINGTON - The resignation of J.C. Watts – the highest-ranking African-American Republican in Congress – means that the House GOP leadership is losing one of its most independent voices. An ordained minister and former football star at the University of Oklahoma, Mr. Watts has never seemed to view himself as a conventional career politician. Some colleagues have described him as a moderating voice in his party's top ranks. Others have at times complained about touches of self- promotion. "J. C. Watts has his own agenda – being his own man. He doesn't seem himself or feel comfortable just being a...

THE three Ceesay brothers left their parents' impoverished peanut farm in rural Gambia and headed to the capital Banjul to get their passports. That was their first time in a city. A day later, they boarded a plane for Nigeria. "I wish I could tell my mother about the sky," says 14- year-old Sulayman, the youngest of the three Ceesays, who spent most of the six-hour flight staring wide-eyed out the airplane window. "I cried when my mother kissed me goodbye," he admits, "but I told her I would find a diamond and buy her a house some day. And...

AL-UDEID AIR BASE, QATAR (AP) - The government of Qatar is spending millions of dollars to expand Al Udeid, a remote base in the central Persian Gulf. If President Bush were to order airstrikes on Iraq, this base, about 20 miles from the capital, Doha, would be a critical hub for US warplanes and their aerial pipeline of bombs and supplies. In the past months, the US military quietly has moved munitions, equipment and communications gear to the base from Saudi Arabia, the control center for American air operations in the Gulf for more than a decade. About 3,300 American...

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 2 July — Threatening with more bloodshed, the Islamist Hamas organization yesterday vowed revenge for the assassination of its West Bank leader, while Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer praised the killing as “the most important military operation in the past two months”.The call for revenge came as Palestinian Authority Cabinet’s Secretary-General Ahmed Abdel Rahman called on Palestinian residents to engage in “civil disobedience” to protest the Israeli takeover of seven West Bank cities over the past two weeks.Speaking on Israel Radio, Ben Eliezer called Muhaned Taher, 26, the commander of Hamas’ military arm in the West Bank,...

TOKYO - It was a photo for the history books: South Korean President Kim Dae Jung sitting next to Japanese Emperor Akihito at the final soccer match Sunday of the first Asian World Cup, which was cohosted by the two nations. Perhaps the only stronger image of mutual outreach, analysts say, would have been the Japanese emperor next to the Korean leader – in Korea. But such a move, given still unresolved tensions on both sides, might well have backfired and spoiled what has turned out to be a net gain toward better relations. Indeed, as one of the globe's...

TARSHING, KASHMIR - Nasir Ali, a wiry jeep driver, says Al Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan have arrived here in large numbers. He should know, he says, because he was the one who gave them a lift in from northern Pakistan after their escape from Afghanistan. "I, myself, drove three Arab fighters into the center of Kashmir," says Ali. "I carried them only part way in and their own jeeps met us and drove them the rest of the way. Hundreds have entered Kashmir in the last several months." Mr. Ali, an employee for a private transport company, described in detail...

Starting tonight on the History Channel - Civil War Combat: From high-ranking officers to the farm boys at the front lines, learn the personal stories of soldiers who saw Civil War combat. Meet the soldiers who braved the battles of First Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Little Round Top and experience these legendary battles from the perspectives of the men and boys who fought there. Show Times: First Manassas airs Tuesday, July 2 at 9pm/8C Fredericksburg airs Wednesday, July 3 at 9pm/8C Chancellorsville airs Thursday, July 4 at 9pm/8C Little Round Top airs Friday, July 5 at 9pm/8C HistoryChannel.com

THE Palestinians are not famous for their sense of humour. You see very few Palestinian stand-ups. There is no such thing as a "Palestinian joke". There is no Palestinian equivalent of Woody Allen.You might say - well, these poor, persecuted people haven't had much to laugh about over the last hundred years.To which I would reply - the Jews haven't had much to laugh about over the last thousand years. And nobody could deny that the Jews have a sense of humour.The theory has always been that centuries of persecution were precisely why the Jews invented their own brand of...

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful Press statement on Bush speech Commenting on American president George Bush’s speech regarding the American vision on the Middle East conflict delivered on 24/6/2002, a responsible source in the Hamas Movement stated the following: American president Bush delivered what he considered an American vision of a solution to the conflict in the region, which was nothing more than a carbon copy of the Zionist speculation. Bush adopted all Zionist demands as if the speech was allocated to extricate the Sharon government from its ordeal on various levels. The American...

The United States is undoubtedly more virtuous than the average hegemony through history — but will that carry the day? It's one thing to be the big muscle in your neighborhood. It's another to be the local bully. What we all have to accept is the geopolitical reality of our current "unipolar world," asserts the lead essay in the summer issue of Foreign Affairs, the pre-eminent U.S. establishment journal. The political world these days has but a north pole. And this dramatically unidimensional structure of the global magnetic field is not going to be altered any time soon. Dartmouth University...

CHAPEL HILL - As chairman of the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, Mark Dorosin hoped to be as idle as the proverbial Maytag repairman. After all, Chapel Hill has long been seen as a refuge for radical thinkers, a liberal oasis in a state that elected Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate five times in a row. But over the past 10 months, Dorosin has found himself tilting at issues that make him wonder whether this college town -- the place right-wingers once suggested fencing in as a cheap way to get a state zoo -- still leans as...

<p>Security screeners at the San Jose airport Sunday night became so distracted while testing a suspicious carry-on bag for explosives residue that they never noticed whether the passenger was male or female -- or that the passenger had picked up the bag and left -- until it was too late.</p>

"In God We Trust," it says on the back of a dollar bill. That may be the only bit of trust left in the U.S. financial system. Enron. Andersen. Tyco. Qwest. Global Crossing. Adelphia. Now WorldCom. Or should that be WorldCon? Where can anyone have any confidence in the probity of corporate America if a company's accounts aren't worth the paper they are printed on? As Francis Fukuyama argues in Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, high levels of trust facilitate economic interaction and lower transaction costs, thus encouraging development of large-scale corporations which help a society...