Free Republic

When Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, it generated considerable debate between those who saw its success as a potentially liberalizing force and critics who feared it would ultimately bring the end of Turkish democracy. Depending on who you spoke to, the AKP was poised to turn Turkey into either Sweden or Iran; to finally realize Ataturk’s vision of making the country modern and Western or permanently destroy it.Today, a decade and a half later, the future of Turkish democracy certainly looks grim. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now leading a heavy-handed campaign to further...

She's b-a-a-a-ck! Remember Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg? She's the tenured Marxist activist who from circa October 2001 until August, with the media's consent, manipulated coverage of last fall's anthrax attacks, in which five people were murdered and over a dozen sickened by anthrax-contaminated letters. She also engineered the smear campaign that sought to railroad scientist Dr. Steven J. Hatfill for the anthrax attacks. On September 22, 2002, Rosenberg published a long op-ed essay in the Los Angeles Times, in which she sought to resurrect her discredited theory, according to which the anthrax killer was an insider from the American biodefense...

WASHINGTON -- Now that the festivities are over, it is time for the masters of the media to stop asking inane questions of the new folks in town -- such as, "How do you like your new office?" -- and for the Obama administration to get down to work on a clear and present danger. Notwithstanding the "day one" and "first week" coverage, the most pressing issue confronting the American people isn't closing "Gitmo" or the always ephemeral "Mideast peace process" in the aftermath of Gaza or even "fixing the economy." Item No. 1 ought to be preventing the world's...

Hundreds of cases, including Trump’s, will be affected if the top court strikes down the government’s use of an ‘obstructing an official proceeding’ charge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Supreme Court will strike down the use of a key federal law in the Biden administration’s ongoing prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants and in the process shut down the government’s case against hundreds of defendants, legal experts predict. If the top court finds an Enron-era obstruction law—18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c)—is being used improperly against the defendants, their charges are likely to be thrown out. At issue is the evidence-tampering provision that appears in...

The man sitting in the back of the vehicle is wearing a light-colored shirt, a patterned tie and an air of authority. He's headed to a conference in Anaheim to give a speech and, as trees, hedges and apartment buildings flash by, he rattles off a list of accomplishments — his book, his expert witness testimony. "This has been a dream of mine," he says in the online video, referring to his speaking invitation. "You know how many people have said, 'You can't do it'?" There was every reason to doubt Rene "Boxer" Enriquez could. Enriquez, 52, is serving a...

A senior CIA official this week said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is "absolutely wrong" to oppose placing all components of the intelligence community -- including those now under the authority of the Pentagon -- under the centralized control of the director of central intelligence. James Simon, assistant director of central intelligence for administration, said he supports a recommendation advanced by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, head of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, to transfer the National Security Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office from the purview of DOD to direct DCI control. "Brent...

Madness -- politically correct madness. The FBI showed it wasn't anti-Arab by hiring Nada Prouty, and she handsomely repaid them for it, too. Nada Nadim Prouty Update: "Fake citizen worked on major terror cases," by David Ashenfelter for the Detroit Free Press (thanks to Sr. Soph): Nada Prouty, the Lebanese immigrant who parlayed a sham marriage into U.S. citizenship and key jobs at the FBI and CIA, worked on several counter-terrorism investigations, including the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen, her lawyer said in court documents Thursday. "Nada Nadim Prouty accepts full responsibility for her actions and is...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/26/02 - Bagram, Bamiyan, Gholghola, Hamburg, Dahuk, Aziz taken BREAKING: Dr. Germ taken, Lahore, Pakistan, Dr Amir Aziz, Bagram, live-fire exercise, Apache Hellfire, heroes return from a sortie, Harrier jets, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, Gholghola School, Kabul cricket game, 772nd MP Company, Massachusetts Army National Guard, Kandahar, 82nd Airborne, Gaza,Akram al-Zatma, Hamburg, Germany, Terrorist Mounir el Motassadeq at trial, Arad, Israel, at the funerals caused by Palestinian terrorists, Khan Younis, terrorists practice, Dahuk, Turkey =========== Bagram =========== In Bagram, live-fire exercise with Apache Hellfire missile. In Bagram, heroes return from a sortie. In Bagram,...

IRVINE, Calif. — On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and fled. The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the shooting. That is where the story probably would have ended — a lurid but ultimately local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange...

Public officials concealed their conflicts of interest and role in funding research that may have caused the pandemic, says health reporter Emily Kopp.Journalists and scientists routinely dismissed the lab leak hypothesis as a crackpot theory and even as "racist," up until the summer of 2021 when science journalist Nicholas Wade published an influential article, and a viral rant by Jon Stewart pushed it into the mainstream. Until that point, social media platforms had been removing or throttling posts that took it seriously. Anthony Fauci, who didn't respond to our interview request, said it wasn't worth even considering the possibility that...

House Republicans alleged on Thursday that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter each received a $5 million payment from the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma to shake off a corruption probe. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Marjorie Taylor Greene were among those given access to an FBI document from June 2020 that detailed testimony given to agents from an informant who had spoken with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky. That informant claimed that Zlochevsky said he had doled out $5 million to each Biden to call off an ongoing investigation by the Ukrainian prosecutor general at the time, Viktor Shokin....

The widely available drug fentanyl, already the number one killer of Americans under 50, could be weaponized and used for terroristic mass poisoning, according to health experts at Rutgers and other institutions. “Before fentanyl, the only viable mass poisons were rare and difficult-to-access agents such as cyanide or nerve agents,” said Lewis Nelson, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and senior author of the new Frontiers in Public Health paper. “Fentanyl can be just as deadly if properly disseminated, and it’s ubiquitous. A motivated person could readily obtain enough to potentially poison hundreds...

Two Pakistani brothers held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay detention facility for two decades were freed and returned home on Friday to be reunited with their families, officials said. Pakistan arrested Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani on suspicion of links to al-Qaida in 2002 in Karachi, the country’s southern port and largest city. That same year, Ramzi Binalshibh, a top al-Qaida leader, was arrested by Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence on a tip from the CIA. The Rabbanis’ releases come months after a 75-year-old Pakistani, Saifullah Paracha, was freed from Guantanamo. The Foreign Ministry later Friday released a statement...

What is called Black History Month might more accurately be called “the sins of white people” month. The “sins” of any branch of the human race are virtually inexhaustible, but the history of blacks in America includes a lot more than the sins of white people, which are put front and center each February. Obviously, there is current political mileage to be gotten from historic grievances. At a minimum, politicians and activists get the media attention that is the lifeblood of their careers. Then there are racial quotas, money for special minority programs and hopes for reparations for slavery. If...

"Intelligence trafficker to the world" sets up shop in the nation's capital. “It [the Cuban embassy opening] is going to be a celebration on our part,” gushed Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “Many Americans who have supported the Cuban Revolution will be among the 500 celebrants at the new Embassy.” Despite the innocuous professional title the mainstream media insists on using for Gustavo Machin, he’s actually a KGB-trained Cuban spy who was burnt and booted from the U.S. back in 2003 shortly before the invasion of Iraq. He was among 14 other Cuban spies...

Dr. Patrick Chavis, 50, was fatally shot by foiled carjackers as he returned to his auto following a stop for ice cream in Hawthorne, Calif. Chavis was infamous, having been admitted to UC Davis medical school in 1973 under a special program that enrolled five black applicants who had lower scores than Allan Bakke, a white male denied admission. Bakke challenged the admissions program and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bakke's favor; Davis had committed a constitutional no-no. Bakke is now a respected anesthesiologist in Rochester, Minn. Chavis' life was a Shakespearean tragedy because of affirmative action. While Sen....

Tehran, Dec 28 (ANI): al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were spotted in Iran's Najamabad city two months ago, The News reported on Sunday while quoting a British daily. The daily attributed the story to a source having links with the Revolutionary Guards. The report said: "A man with links to Iran's intelligence services and hard-line Revolutionary Guard Corps (RGC) has told the daily that he saw the al-Qaeda leader in Iran two months ago. He saw him arrive at an RGC guesthouse close to the small town of Najmabad on 23 October." The Al-Qaeda leader,...

I’ve been too busy to keep up with local politics lately. Yeah, I know. I welcome your advice on the upcoming primary. I would really appreciate some thoughtful criticism of the particular candidates. Thanks! -Jeff

Japanese police officials have identified Tetsuya Yamagami, a resident of Japan’s Nara city in his 40s, as the person who attacked Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Yamagami attacked Abe with a shotgun while he was delivering a speech near the Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara City. Abe fell to the ground and was bleeding from the chest as per photos shared by Japanese news agencies. Abe was campaigning for the upcoming Upper House elections. Yamagami was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was brought to Nara Nishi police station. The police also confiscated the gun and the confiscated gun...

That didn’t take long. Tom Brady announced on Sunday night that he is returning for his 23rd season, just six weeks after he retired from the NFL. In a Twitter post, Brady said he would be returning to the Buccaneers. “These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands,” Brady wrote. “That time will come.