Free Republic

Date: Feb 5, 2006 3:08 PM From: Kenneth T. Tellis kenttellis@gmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: The time for Russia to act in defense of its own interests As long as the Russian nation sits back and accepts the world situation as a fait accompli Russia is doomed to medocrity ... but Russia can and must put its own interests before all. Perhaps the Russian families who lost their sons, fathers and youth in Afghanistan, might do well to remember who created that situation for them. It was the US that spent millions of dollars in a proxy war, fought by US-armed,...

n Monday, Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) initiated an overhaul of the country’s constitution that will codify the rule of longtime dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-presidents.” The reform follows an escalating campaign of persecution against the Catholic Church, the last bastion of opposition against the Ortegas, who nonetheless claim that their regime is a beacon of “Christian socialism.” Days prior, they had celebrated the New Year by expelling all Catholic nuns from the country. Nicaragua’s attacks on the Church and broader descent into tyranny culminates the stunning fall from grace of an erstwhile...

MANAGUA: At least 121 people have been killed in a wave of protests since Apr 18 against President Daniel Ortega's government, Nicaragua's main human rights group said Tuesday (Jun 5), calling it a "human tragedy." The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said another 1,300 people have been wounded in the protests, which have met with a violent crackdown from the government. "This is now a massacre, a human tragedy where the goal is to exterminate all those young people who think differently than or are critical of the government," the group's executive secretary, Marlin Sierra, told AFP. "It amounts...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A fundamentalist Muslim who is listed by the U.S. State Department as a suspected al-Qaida collaborator was named Saturday as the new leader of an Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia's capital. The militia, which changed its name Saturday from the Islamic Courts Union to the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts, said in a statement it had appointed Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys as its new leader. The Bush administration says Aweys was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. The Islamic militia seized control of the capital Mogadishu and much of southern...

'I want to pay tribute to Alaa's family and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment,' Starmer said. 'Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I'm grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.' Per his X Acct: “ I Fu&$ing hate white people, they don't understand sharing or community. a blight on the earth they are. good thing they stopped breeding.”

Sant Chatwal courts controversy for helping Hillary By Arun Kumar, Washington, Sep 3 : Indian American businessman Sant Chatwal helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary Clinton's campaigns even as he battled to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens, the Washington Post alleged Monday. The founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, Chatwal is one of a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions about how much screening the candidates devote to their "bundlers" while they press to raise record amounts, the daily said. Chatwal's case reached from...

The terrorist responsible for the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors on the USS Cole in 2000 is believed to be dead this week. A U.S. official told CNN on Friday that Al Qaeda terrorist Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi is believed to be dead after a U.S.-led airstrike on Yemen on Tuesday. A predator drone reportedly struck Al-Badawi’s vehicle in an isolated attack as he was driving alone in the Ma’rib Governorate located in central Yemen. Al-Badawi is believed to be the terrorist behind the Oct. 12, 2000 suicide bomber attack that struck the USS Cole as it refueled in...

The former vice-president of Baath Party, Izzat Ibrahim has been appointed as the new party leader after the execution of Saddam Hussain, according to a statement issued from the party today. Saddam Hussein`s fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri vowed that the ousted president`s execution would only strengthen the anti-US insurgency in an internet statement posted Tuesday. "I call on the valiant commanders of the jihad and the brave fighters in all jihadi groups to strive seriously to create a jihad and resistance front .. in order to destroy the enemy and liberate our beloved homeland," said the statement posted on...

Researchers have discovered there was an anomaly in Earth's gravitational field between 2006 and 2008, potentially caused by a mineral shift deep within Earth's mantle...The large gravitational anomaly lasted for about two years over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It peaked in January 2007, the same month Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone (though, of course, there was no connection between the two events).Researchers recently discovered the signal while analyzing data collected by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites between 2003 and 2015. The gravitational anomaly happened around the same time as a geomagnetic "jerk" -- an abrupt change...

Travellers to an exotic island in the Indian Ocean have been issued with warnings against a rare tropical disease. Seventy seven people have already died in Mauritius from the rare chikungunya virus which is carried by mosquitoes. Mauritius, an island paradise particularly popular with honeymooning couple has about 700,000 visitors annually, generating more than £400 million. Following the outbreak the number of French tourists who normally account for about a quarter of the total, plummeted.

With U.S. policymakers distracted by the situation in Honduras, Nicaragua continues to move toward authoritarianism. On October 19, a Nicaraguan Supreme Court panel overturned a constitutional provision limiting presidents to two non-consecutive terms in office. The ruling will allow incumbent Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega--the Sandinista party leader, former Soviet client, vociferous critic of the United States, and current Hugo Chávez acolyte--to run for another term in 2011. If there were any doubts that Nicaraguan democracy is slowly being extinguished, this latest development should remove them. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court is composed of 16 members. Thanks to a political deal made...

Urgent help needed for Army Sgt. Follow the link to read the complete story.

King County prosecutor Norm Maleng says he will seek the death penalty for Conner Schierman who is accused of killing four people in Kirkland last summer. Maleng said he deliberated for ten days after receiving a mitigation packet from Schierman's defense attorneys. The packet included information about Schierman's mental health history. Prosecutors filed the notice to seek the death penalty at a hearing in King County Superior Court this morning. Schierman, 25, is accused of killing his neighbor Olga Milkin; her sister Lyubov Botvina; and Milkin's two small sons, Justin and Andrew, on July 17 and then setting their Kirkland...

They Don't Support the Troops by Lisa De Pasquale Posted Jul 27, 2006 The constant mantra of the radical left is that while they don’t support the war, they do support the troops. Other than making hollow and flippant claims of support, the anti-war left has done little for the troops or their families. To the contrary, their actions show how little respect they have for the military. In a recent interview with CodePink’s Troops Home Fast cofounder Diane Wilson, she dismisses the troops by comparing their real sacrifices and efforts to CodePink’s faux fast, which includes liquids like...

LOS ANGELES Several thousand protesters marched through California's two largest cities Saturday to condemn U.S. policy in the Middle East and appeal for an end to the bloodshed in Israel's war with Islamic militants in Lebanon. "I hope that we will stop the aggression against Lebanon, the killing of innocent civilians," said Dina Tawamsy, 32, an engineer who was among over 1,000 people marching in downtown Los Angeles. "I don't believe the kidnapping of two soldiers should lead to the destruction of the infrastructure of a whole country," she said, alluding to the fighting that began in Lebanon July 12...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Seven people arrested in Miami planned attacks on the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago and other buildings as part of a pledge to al Qaeda to wage war against the United States, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday. An indictment handed down against the men by a grand jury in south Florida said they sought to gain support from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in order to destroy FBI buildings in the United States. At least one of them also plotted to blow up the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, it said. The men, named as Narseal Batiste,...

A fist fight breaks out among the crowd of counter-demonstrators during a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Fla. on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006. Fist-fights broke out and police made more than a dozen arrests at the rally and march through a predominantly black neighborhood. Most of the arrests came after fights between marchers and angry counter-demonstrators, who were upset with the group's anti-minority message. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is warning that Western countries must increase their defense budgets in order to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire" that could be as deadly as Hitler's Third Reich. Speaking at a global security conference in Munich on Saturday, the U.S. defense chief said that Islamic radicals "seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent. "They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire," he added....

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s liaison to China is the daughter of a computer scientist building a genealogical database for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who has considerable ties to Chinese intelligence and military personnel, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered. Amy Tong has held multiple cabinet positions in Newsom’s administration, such as serving as the Government Operations Agency secretary, and is now listed as “senior counselor to the governor,” government records show. Newsom has repeatedly sent Tong to negotiate with CCP officials and Chinese intelligence personnel, and “appointed Tong to lead people-to-people exchanges with China,” according to a July...

(08-29) 15:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said. Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said. Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Ohmeed Aziz Popal, who has an address in Ceres. Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That victim died. Popal was arrested at...