Free Republic

FBI probes claims of body part sales UTMB admits cadavers' ashes mixed in 'an unforgivable failure of oversight' By KEVIN MORAN Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle GALVESTON -- Federal agents are investigating allegations that an employee at the University of Texas Medical Branch illegally sold body parts for his own gain, an FBI spokesman said Monday. And, in what UTMB President Dr. John Stobo called "an unforgivable failure of oversight," officials at the medical school said they have discovered that the cremated remains of many people who willed their bodies to science were mixed. In a letter e-mailed to the medical...

Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider on Tuesday night said he had evidence that Osama bin Laden-led Al Qaeda network financed last month's car-bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi that killed at least 12 people. "We know Al Qaeda was behind the attack on the US consulate," Haider told reporters. "We have credible information that Al Qaeda financed it," he added. He, however, refused to specify whether Al Qaeda was directly involved in the attack or Pakistan extremist groups with ties to the terrorist outfit carried out the bombing. The minister, who is in charge of police and internal...

efense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today warned that American forces may not join future peacekeeping missions without a grant of blanket immunity from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court. Mr. Rumsfeld aggressively defended the Bush administration's demand that American troops be exempt from the court two days after the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution extending the United Nations' peacekeeping mandate in Bosnia. The veto, which was based on the United States' objections to the international court, has triggered pointed criticism from America's allies such as Britain who see it as yet another example of the...

President Bush headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin today to emphasize the need for welfare reform. Bush spoke a little on several subjects, including garnering support for his CARE Act -- Charity Aid Recovery And Empowerment Act. Also today, the President continued to point blank refuse to subject U.S. soldiers to a United Nations-sponsored International Criminal Court, despite the impact it could have on any and all U.N. peacekeeping missions. Bush was quoted as saying, "We'll try to work out the impasse at the United Nations. But one thing we're not going to do is sign on to the International Criminal Court."...

"Become a Muslim warrior during the crusades or during an ancient jihad." Thus read the instructions for seventh graders in Islam: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, a three-week curriculum produced by Interaction Publishers, Inc. In classrooms across the United States, students who follow its directions find themselves fighting mock battles of jihad against "Christian crusaders" and other assorted "infidels." Upon gaining victory, our mock-Muslim warriors "Praise Allah." Is this a legal activity in American public schools? Interaction says it merely urges students to "respect Islamic culture" through identification with Islam. But the Thomas More Law Center, a...

JULY 2 @ 8:30 pm UPDATED AS EVENTS OCCUR CATS BUDGET FAILS IN THE HOUSE 47 to 45. NAIFEH INCOME TAX VOTE FOLLOWS SHORTLY. PROTEST DOWNTOWN NOW IF YOU WANT YOUR VOICE HEARD PRIOR TO THE VOTE!!!!

Don't you think it's time you followed through with your reservations?  It won't be the same without you at FRiva Las Vegas.See details below.First of all, thank you for your patience folks.  I'm very sorry I had problems the last two nights. Please check out the information at the bottom of this thread after you've completed the contest tonight. Oh you are a tenacious one!  I did my best to elude you, but you guys are like terriors on a fox.I guess next time I'll have to think outside the box.Here's that blessed clue.  Basil Wastewater  Well this is...

  Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department is facing resistance from seven cities over the Patriot Act. (Kenneth Lambert/AP Photo)   Patriot Revolution? Cities From Cambridge to Berkeley Reject Anti-Terror Measure By Dean Schabner July 1 — Cities across the country have been quietly staging a revolt against the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives law enforcement too much power and threatens civil rights. <! -- begin print page / send page box --> Over the last three months, the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge, Northampton and Amherst and the township of Leverett, as well as the town of Carrboro,...

J A C K S O N V I L L E, N.C., July 2 — More than 80 active-duty Marines and sailors were identified as users and sellers of designer drugs during a two-year investigation, authorities said today. More details of Operation Xterminator, headed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, will be released at a news conference Wednesday at Camp Lejeune. Authorities said in a news release that 61 active-duty service members were identified as possible distributors and 23 as designer drug users. Military officials said some were brought to court-martial but did not say how many. Million-Dollar Military...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com We Need to Really Thank George Bush for This Effort!Neal BoortzTuesday, July 2, 2002 Click here for the Social Democratic Party's SECRET PLAN for America after the elections! Another anniversary to be celebrated in the future for July 1. This day marked the beginning of the International Criminal Court. This U.N.-sponsored court is described as a court to "prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity." Clinton loved this thing. He signed the treaty. Signing the treaty wasn't enough to subject the United States to the jurisdiction of this court – Senate ratification was still needed....

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 02, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees has appealed for dlrs 55 million to rebuild and repair shelters for more than 1,700 Palestinian families affected by recent Israeli military incursions into refugee camps, a senior U.N. official said. The money is in addition to the dlrs 50 million that the U.N. Relief Works Agency has received so far this year, Peter Hansen, the agency's commissioner general told reporters Tuesday. He said the deteriorating conditions of Palestinian camps in the West Bank meant far more money was needed now than...

Is the Wall wailing? Etgar Lefkovits Jul. 3, 2002 In a highly unnatural phenomenon, water has begun dripping from the midst of a stone in Jerusalem's Western Wall. The water leak, which was first noticed Saturday by worshippers at the Wall, continued yesterday for the fourth straight day, Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said yesterday. On Sunday, Antiquities Authority director-general Shuka Dorfman and Jon Seligman, its Jerusalem regional archeologist, were rushed to the scene to examine the dripping, which has so far dampened a 10 by 40 centimeter section of the Wall. The drops of water...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Animal 'Rights' Zealot: Christianity Harmful; Infanticide OKMarc Morano, CNSNews.comTuesday, July 2, 2002 Princeton University professor Peter Singer, dubbed the "godfather" of animal rights, says Christianity is a "problem" for the animal rights movement. Singer, author of the book "Animal Liberation" and a professor of bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, criticized American Christianity for its fundamentalist strain that takes the Bible too "literally" and promotes "speciesism." He defined speciesism as the belief that being a member of a certain species "makes you superior to any other being that is not a member of that species."...

WorldCom CEO apologizes in Washington WASHINGTON--WorldCom Chief Executive John Sidgmore trekked to the nation's capital on Tuesday to reassure regulators, apologize publicly, and pledge that financial shenanigans are in the troubled company's past. In his first public appearance since WorldCom became embroiled in a $3.85 billion accounting scandal, Sidgmore acknowledged there has been an "outpouring of outrage and anger" directed at his firm and promised to do whatever was necessary to regain the public's trust. "While the deeds we uncovered were part of a past administration, I want to apologize on behalf of everyone at WorldCom," Sidgmore said. Tuesday's press...

State sues to end $6.6 billion contract with Sempra Energy Resources By JENNIFER COLEMAN Associated Press Writer Published 5:40 p.m. PDT Tuesday, July 2, 2002 SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Department of Water Resources filed a fraud lawsuit against Sempra Energy Resources Tuesday, seeking to end a 10-year, $6.6 billion contract because the energy company hadn't fulfilled its promise to build a power plant by April. The lawsuit alleges that the energy company told the state that it would build its Elk Hill power plant in Bakersfield by April 2002. Instead, the energy company has been...

<p>A federal judge has dismissed a civil rights claim filed by former workers at a Nevada County department allegedly targeted by accused gunman Scott Harlan Thorpe.</p> <p>An attorney for the plaintiffs said his clients plan to appeal.</p> <p>Former Behavioral Health Services employees Pamela Chase and Yvonne O'Keefe sued Nevada County, several Behavioral Health supervisors and Thorpe's psychiatrist, according to court records. Their claim was filed Jan. 9 in federal court in Sacramento.</p>

<p>The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision striking down the Pledge of Allegiance as unconstitutional because it contains the phrase "under God," is an outrageous example of judicial activism and overreaching. It also underscores the importance of our third branch of government — the courts — to our personal rights and freedoms.</p>

"I know here that you will agree with me that standing up for America also means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. I believe this country hungers for a spiritual revival. I believe it longs to see traditional values reflected in public policy again. To those who cite the first amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions and everyday life, may I just say: The first amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious...

Bloomberg's Aside Caught on Tape NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Aside About Weapons to 'Blow Away the Press' Caught on Tape The Associated Press N E W   Y O R K, July 2 — In an aside that was caught on tape, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested during a news conference that police have weapons substantial enough "to blow away the press." The remark was made Monday as the mayor and police officials outlined the city's security plans for July 4. Bloomberg and police Commissioner Ray Kelly were fielding questions about heavily armed police counterterrorism teams that have been...

China's sagging economy is threatening to turn China into an Asian version of Argentina, a top financial journal warns. "Unless it can patch up the situation, China risks becoming Asia's Argentina... the people's Republic can go from boom to bust in just a few short years," wrote Gordon Chang in the June 19, Asian Wall Street Journal as quoted by the authoritative American Foreign Policy Council. According to Chang, both countries crammed their banks full of bonds, created growth by playing money games and attracting foreign direct investment... "Argentina," he wrote "deferred reforms by living on foreign capital, and China...