Free Republic

Ever since the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, critics have contended that more people were involved than Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. A recent federal lawsuit alleges that Iraqi agents also played a role and McVeigh’s former defense attorney claims that prior to the bombing Nichols made contact with international terrorists. In a special report CBS 11’s Steve Narisi says the trail some investigators are following leads to the Philippines. “The U.S. Government has contended all along that any link between Nichols and Islamic extremists is strictly coincidental. During Nichols and McVeigh’s trial, the court didn’t allow...

The Russian parliament and media refer to him merely as a “Russian businessman.” But to much of the rest of the world, Viktor Bout is known as the “Merchant of Death,” the most notorious member of the dark fraternity of global weapons traffickers who arm terrorist organizations, as well as the tyrannical regimes and brutal warlords and militias responsible for horrendous genocidal slaughters over the past two decades. Since his March 2008 arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, in an elaborate U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting, Viktor Bout has been in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Special Prison awaiting trial. The U.S. Department of...

Five crop-duster planes have crashed on the terror-plagued island of Mindanao in a short period of time. Annie Jacobsen says that while it may feel like Mindanao is half a world away, the island’s plantations are linked to the international food supply chain. Is it time to start worrying about what’s being sprayed on your bananas? Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers by Annie Jacobsen There have been five crop-duster plane crashes on the terrorist-plagued island of Mindanao in the Philippines in a 90-day period. The most recent incident happened on December 6. Three of the five crashes occurred on...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Gunmen abducted an Italian Roman Catholic priest who was on his way to a remote village to celebrate Sunday Mass in the southern Philippines, police said. Giancarlo Bossi, 57, was riding his motorcycle in Zamboanga Sibugay province's Payao township, about 500 miles south of Manila, when about 10 armed men blocked his path then seized him, said Senior Superintendent Francisco Cristobal, the provincial police chief. Cristobal said he suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels who operate in Zamboanga Sibugay, despite a cease-fire agreement with the government. He did not elaborate, but said that al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf...

The Philippine government and a Muslim rebel group have been urged to end a three-day battle that has left at least 12 people dead and displaced thousands.The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on both sides to abide by a 1996 peace agreement. Government troops and helicopter gunships pounded a base of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on southern Jolo island at the weekend. It followed a mortar attack on two marine camps on Friday. That attack, which killed two marines and a child, has been blamed on an MNLF commander, Habier Malik. Government forces retaliated by...

MANILA, Oct 3 (AFP) - The Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnap gang is flexing its muscles in the southern Philippines, staging bombings and abductions two months after US troops ended an anti-terror campaign. A daring bomb attack that shook the relatively peaceful southern port city of Zamboanga late Wednesday and killed three people, including a US soldier involved in relief work, has been blamed on the notorious group. The blast occurred just as a motorcyclist carrying the bomb drove in front of a karaoke bar where the victims were gathered, officials said. National police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said...