Free Republic

Detail by painful detail, the CIA is coming to grips with one of the most devastating episodes in its history, a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China that stole two decades of freedom from a pair of fresh-faced American operatives and cost the lives of their two pilots. In opening up about the 1952 debacle, the CIA is finding ways to use it as a teaching tool. Mistakes of the past can serve as cautionary tales for today's spies and paramilitary officers taking on al-Qaida and other terrorist targets. At the center of the story are two eager CIA paramilitary officers...

Jon Voight's Profile in Courage Jeffrey Lord. "'There's a group being formed to deal with you,' the unidentified voice said. 'They're going to fix you so you won't ever act again.'" -- Ronald Reagan, writing in his autobiography Where's the Rest of Me of an anonymous phone call he received while fighting Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry in 1949. The threat was simple. Either Ronald Reagan stopped speaking out on his views of Communists in the movie business -- or he would have acid tossed in his face, disfiguring him. His main asset as an actor thus destroyed,...

Syria demands humanitarian access to Golan Damscus says it will oppose emergency service emblem agreement unless it can send 'humanitarian workers' to Golan The approval of a new emblem allowing Israelis to join the Red Cross movement was held up Tuesday by Syria's demand that Israel allow its humanitarian workers into the Golan Heights. The move could delay until at least Wednesday a decision by the 192 signatories of the Geneva Conventions on a "Red crystal" Emblem that Israeli paramedics could use in place of the red cross or Muslim red crescent. Israel's Magen David Adom - or Red Shield...

PA Appeals to Pope to Support 1949 Borders 00:14 Dec 04, '05 / 3 Kislev 5766 By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu The PA turned to the Pope on Saturday to back a new Arab state with Jerusalem as its capital. Last week, the PA addressed the EU, which ignores Jerusalem's status as a united Israeli city. Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) invited Pope Benedict to visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem after meeting with Italian officials on Friday. He asked them to host an international peace conference, according to its Italian envoy, Nemer Hammad. "You will be very welcome in...

Bush to Abbas: Any Changes in 1949 Borders According to Palestinian-Israeli Agreement. http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=Enews&id=2765 GAZA, May 30, 2005, (WAFA-PLO News agency)- Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa said that the US President George W. Bush has assured President Mahmoud Abbas that the US administration thinks that any changes in the borders of the Hudna (truce) in 1949 should be applied according to Palestinian-Israeli agreement. In a statement issued Monday, Al-Kidwa said that President Abbas discussed, with the US administration, the bilateral negotiations as well as the necessity of the US responsibility for implementing the Road Map. Al-Kidwa added that the...

When challenged about his disengagement plan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consistently retorts that his concessions earned historic achievements in the form of the Bush letter of April, 2004. Sharon argues that the disengagement plan cemented US support for retaining large blocks of Israeli towns in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. For example, on April 18th, 2004 Sharon declared in the Knesset: "…whoever wants to maintain large settlement blocs under our control forever; whoever wants to guarantee that for as long as the Palestinians don't act against terrorism, diplomatic pressures will not be exerted upon us... must support the...

1949 Armistice Agreements [significant restrictions on Israel not implicit in '67 line]Dr. Aaron Lerner 27 May 2006 President Bush has adopted the terminology of referring to the "1949 Armistice Line" instead of the "1967 Line" as the starting point for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians . Among the "features" of the "1949 Armistice Line" not in the "1967 Line": 1. Israeli forces barred from entering Arab villages in the "triangle" that was transferred to Israel (Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement Article VI, paragraph 2). 2. Force restrictions within 10 kilometers of the Line (Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement Article VII, paragraph 1). 3....

News Analysis: Bush Policy Pushes Israel Back to 1949 Armistice 20 Iyar 5765 When challenged about his disengagement plan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consistently retorts that his concessions earned historic achievements in the form of the Bush letter of April, 2004. Sharon argues that the disengagement plan cemented US support for retaining large blocks of Israeli towns in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. For example, on April 18th, 2004 Sharon declared in the Knesset: "…whoever wants to maintain large settlement blocs under our control forever; whoever wants to guarantee that for as long as the Palestinians don't act...

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

TAIPEI - Proposed Chinese legislation that would give a mandate for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland would provide a legal basis for an attack on the island, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said. Mr Chen, speaking for the first time on the mainland's proposal to adopt a reunification law, said he was very concerned about it. 'China is undertaking a legal battle. If Taiwan does not follow, it will undertake a military battle,' he was quoted by the United Daily News as saying during a visit to the southern county of Tainan late on Thursday. 'The reunification law...

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, fellow citizens: I accept with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon me. I accept it with a resolve to do all that I can for the welfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world. In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and the prayers of every one of you. I ask for your encouragement and for your support. The tasks we face are difficult. We can accomplish them only if we work together. Each period of our national history has had its special...

One of the first acts by China's Communists after they took power in 1949 was to seize all private property (and kill landlords). It was the main reason for the Chinese Revolution. But in spring 2004, the party plans to allow Chinese to own land and to welcome wealthy entrepreneurs as party members. Officials revealed the language Monday for a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee private property rights. The move comes 25 years to the month after China began its long march toward a market economy (see opinion). The wording simply states that "private property obtained legally shall not...

Europe heads indoors for hottest summer since 1949 By Alex Duval Smith in Paris 07 August 2003 One of the few queues on the otherwise deserted streets of the French capital yesterday was for the "fogger" - a 30-metre covered walkway that sprays a cooling mist of water onto any pedestrian still heat-resistant enough to venture down to the Hôtel de Ville as part of the Paris-Plage summer festival. Everyone else who could, was indoors yesterday, packed into air-conditioned bistros and fleeing the usually fashionable outdoor café terraces whose scaldingly hot tables and chairs were slowly sinking into the warm,...

<p>Granted, there is upheaval in the world and there are battles where a great deal is at stake -- life itself. All the more precious, then, the minor skirmishes on the home front that mean a great deal in a small way and remind us of how lucky we are to feel innocent hatreds, from summer to summer, at the ballpark.</p>