Free Republic

A new camp has been opened in western Ethiopia as deadly fighting continues to displace tens of thousands of people in Sudan's Blue Nile, which lies on the border with the newly-independent nation of South Sudan, the United Nations said on Saturday. The new camp is located in the town of Tongo, from the border areas of Kurmuk, Bamza and Almahal. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Adrian Edwards said 533 refugees have already been moved to the new camp. The camp has a capacity for 3,000 people and has the possibility of being expanded if necessary. Over...

Will it be the same ol', same ol' in the UK....? Extremist cleric puts terror laws to the test By Philip Johnston, George Jones and John Steele (Filed: 19/07/2005) A planned visit to Britain next month by a Muslim cleric who has praised suicide bombings against Israel will become the first test of the Government's promised clampdown on extremist preachers after the London terrorist attackss. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, who is due to speak at a conference in Manchester, is banned from visiting America because of his links with the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. But although Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has...

WASHINGTON - A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, recommended that the base's former commander be reprimanded, but a top general rejected the recommendation, according to a congressional aide familiar with the inquiry's findings. In the latest examination of a facility that has become a battleground over the U.S. treatment of detainees from the war against terrorism, the aide said investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive. But Gen....

A radical Islamic cleric facing a life sentence on charges of aiding an al Qaeda affiliate has been released on bail while his retrial continues, Lebanon's state news agency reported. A military court convicted Omar Bakri Mohammed in absentia two weeks ago of charges including membership in an armed group, possession of weapons and explosives, and committing crimes against the state, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported at the time. Bakri was arrested after a shootout two days later. Bakri is having a retrial because he was convicted the first time in absentia. At the start of the retrial Wednesday,...

NEW YORK — After the epic disaster of , one might imagine the United Nations would tread carefully before launching any new and controversial efforts. Hardly.Still reeling from scandals on many fronts, the U.N. has launched another questionable initiative, called the , which is due to hold its first meeting this weekend in Spain. The program has been widely touted by U.N. Secretary-General as a bridge across cultural and religious divides, but it involves a daisy-chain of dubious associations that casts serious doubt both on the project itself and on the U.N.’s ability to cut loose from the scandals of the past...

A third man charged in a plot to attack Southern California military sites and other targets pleaded guilty Monday to a terrorism conspiracy charge. Gregory Vernon Patterson, 23, entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana to one count of conspiring to levy war against the U.S. government through terrorism. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to use a firearm during that offense. Patterson could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 14, prosecutors said. Two other men - Kevin James, 31, and Levar Haley Washington, 28 - pleaded guilty in the...

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong direction on this whole NSA issue. I can’t help but think that for the Dems to go to such lengths, there has to be some campaign money in it for them. Just like they pander to the far left whackos I.E. Moveon.org, maybe they also have to protect themselves as well as pander to some of their big money supporters who may not want their overseas calls monitored by the Bush administration. This is just a first attempt to connect some dots, but it is interesting. Let’s start with Judge Robertson and the Clintons....

Police probing Saturday's bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh have discovered a Pakistan connection, news agencies reported Monday, and the search is now on for nine people who flew into the country from Pakistan on July 5 using false passports. The same connection was previously established to the London attacks. So what is Pakistan's role in this fresh wave of terror? Immediately after September 11, Richard Armitage, then the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, had an urgent meeting with Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who was visiting Washington, and asked him the all-important question whether...

Note: Photo included. Trio not guilty of helping 7/7 London bombers Jury clears men of conspiring with four bombers over London 2005 explosions that killed 52 Rachel Williams guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 April 2009 17.01 BST Three British Muslims were today cleared of helping the 7 July bombers choose their targets by carrying out a reconnaissance mission in London seven months before the attacks that killed 52 people and injured almost 1,000. A jury at Kingston crown court unanimously found Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Beeston, Leeds, not guilty of conspiring with the four...

An Iowa man with white supremacist leanings was arrested after he told truck drivers over "citizens' band" radio that he was planning to set off a bomb in Washington, police said. Terry Daniels, 44, was found at a roadside gas station about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Chicago at 3:45 a.m. after truck drivers called police with his license plate number and a description of which direction his blue Ford van was heading. "We didn't find any explosives," Princeton, Illinois police chief Tom Root said. "We found a lot of documents like anti-government stuff and white supremacist stuff. There...

July 26, 2005 — Five Egyptian men with maps of the New York City subway system and video of New York landmarks have been arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark, N.J., ABC News has learned. FBI and law enforcement officials told ABC News the five men — four illegal immigrants and one law enforcement fugitive — were arrested Sunday night following a tip to the Newark Police Department. In addition to the subway maps and video, the men had train schedules and $8,000 in $20 and $50 bills.

NORFOLK -– A military judge today sentenced Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann to 12 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge for espionage, desertion and other crimes. The 22-year-old submariner from Salem, Ore. admitted guilt to the offenses earlier this week at Norfolk Naval Station in a plea agreement that spared him the maximum potential penalty of life in prison with no possibility of parole. Weinmann, who deserted from the submarine Albuquerque in July 2005 after becoming disillusioned with the Navy, passed classified information about the Tomahawk cruise missile system to the Russians, according to a Pentagon source....

Sentencing for former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who pleaded guilty in April to stealing and destroying top secret terrorism documents from the National Archives, has been delayed, NewsMax.com has learned. Asked why Berger wasn't sentenced as scheduled on Friday, July 8, a Justice Department spokesman told NewsMax on Tuesday that Berger's sentencing has been postponed till September. The spokesman declined to offer an explanation for the delay. Repeated calls asking about the postponement to Berger's lawyer, Washington, D.C., attorney Lanny Breuer, went unreturned. Federal District Court's U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, who is presiding over the Berger case, also...

Every year, as we enter a New Year, my mind goes back to Daniel Pearl, the Mumbai-based American correspondent of Wall Street Journal, who met with a brutal end to his young life during a visit to Karachi in January 2002 to enquire, inter alia, into the suspected Pakistani links of international jihadi terrorists. In his keenness to find out the truth, Pearl fell into a treacherous trap laid by a mixed group of Pakistani terrorists belonging to different organisations and orchestrated by Omar Sheikh, a British resident of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the so-called jihad against the...