Free Republic

Blogger Doug Ross and William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection think they’ve spotted a “poser” at the Blumenthal press conference. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it applies to the thousands of people who claim either Vietnam war status or medals they did not earn. The man in question is standing just behind Bluemnthal to the right (Blumenthal’s left). Ross writes:

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, trying to save his campaign for the Democrat party's nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd after he was exposed for falsely claiming to have served in the Vietnam War, turned for support today to a veteran who himself was accused of wearing service medals and rank he had not earned.The man, Elliot Storm, actually served in Vietnam, unlike Blumenthal, however Storm was called out by the POW Network several years ago for embellishing his decorations.According to Ct News Junkie, Storm was invited by Blumenthal's campaign to stand with Blumenthal at...

Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, has been accused of defrauding investors by America's financial regulator. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges that Goldman failed to disclose conflicts of interest. The claims concern Goldman's marketing of sub-prime mortgage investments just as the US housing market faltered. Goldman rejected the SEC's allegations, saying that it would "vigorously" defend its reputation. News that the SEC was pressing civil fraud charges against Goldman and one of its London-based vice presidents, Fabrice Tourre, sent shares in the investment bank tumbling 12%. The SEC says Goldman failed to disclose "vital information" that one of...

A new indictment unveiled in North Carolina charges Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi with 'conspiring to murder U.S. military personnel' at the Marine Corps base there. Raleigh, N.C. - Two men charged in North Carolina last month with plotting terrorist attacks overseas also planned to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., authorities said today.

President Obama accused Bill Clinton of peddling "bald-faced lies" during the presidential campaign, according to a new book on the 2008 race. Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe writes in "Renegade: The Making of a President" that Obama's campaign struggled to figure out how to respond to former President Clinton, who during the early primaries was a fierce defender of his wife Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination.

Link provided below. USA Today cannot be posted on FR.

More than 400 academics, a Nobel laureate and the former chair of the Science Select Committee called on the museum to cancel workshops due to be held this week that promote Israeli scientific achievements to schoolchildren. The critics plan to picket the event and accused the museum of promoting scientists and universities who are "complicit in the Israeli occupation and in the policies and weaponry recently deployed to such disastrous effect in Gaza". Many of the critics were behind a campaign in 2002 to impose an academic boycott on Israel. That campaign failed but it provoked debate worldwide over whether...

A Canadian citizen accused of working for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service made an initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore. Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish did not enter a plea. The 47-year-old native of Iraq is charged with conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government and making false statements, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Genser ordered Darwish temporarily detained pending a detention hearing on Monday afternoon. Federal prosecutors plan to argue that Darwish is a flight risk and should remain in custody. According to an indictment, Darwish...

ROCKLAND, Mass. – An elementary school teacher accused of having sex with a teenage boy pleaded not guilty to rape charges Friday. Christine A. McCallum, 29, of Rockland, is accused of having multiple sexual encounters with the boy that began when he was 13 years old. The alleged incidents occurred in Abington and Rockland. ... The married fifth-grade teacher has been fired ..

SAN ANTONIO – A convicted child molester who pushed for the Texas law that allowed him to be voluntarily castrated more than a decade ago may go back to prison for allegedly possessing sexually explicit material. Authorities held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether to revoke Larry Don McQuay's supervised release. The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole was expected to decide in the next few days, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. McQuay, 44, who claimed to have molested hundreds of children, could be held in prison until 2016, the end of his...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska lawmaker leading an investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner should be removed because he appears to be manipulating the probe to damage her vice presidential candidacy, a Republican legislator says.

<p>HAIKU, Hawaii - Cheryl Gowadia couldn't figure out why FBI agents in riot gear, guns drawn, were storming her home on Maui's tranquil North Shore. At first, she thought they might be after the man building a pond in her backyard. Instead, she was stunned to learn they wanted to question her husband, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer.</p>

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man said a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop. The incident was caught on tape. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr. Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April. Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing. On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger. The video also showed the officer putting his...

RALEIGH , N.C. - A Marine Corps general says two officers whose unit was accused of killing up to 19 Afghan civilians in 2007 will not face criminal charges. The Marines said Friday that Lt. General Samuel Helland made the decision not to bring charges after reviewing the findings of a special tribunal that heard more than three weeks of testimony in January. The tribunal investigated allegations that as many as 19 Afghan civilians died when a unit of Marines special operations troops opened fire after a car bomb targeted their convoy in March 2007. It was the first time...

MEXICO CITY A man suspected of running over and killing a U.S. border agent has been held over for trial in Mexico on migrant smuggling charges. The federal Attorney General's office announced late Sunday that a judge had ordered a trial for Jesus Navarro, 22. It did not say when his ruling was issued. The agency said officials also believe that Navarro ran over U.S. border agent Luis Aguilar, but are still gathering evidence in that case. Aguilar was previously sought in Mexico for allegedly smuggling migrants, and faces between six and 12 years in prison if convicted. Officials say...

McLEAN, Va. - The courthouse files look like the Christmas list of a high-society fashion maven with a purse fetish: mink coats, jewelry, Faberge eggs, a Mercedes Benz and more than 100 handbags and wallets with designer names like Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Those are among the items the FBI found at the Washington home of Harriette Walters, who until recently was an $81,000-a-year city tax official. Her salary was a pittance compared with the tens of millions of dollars prosecutors say she and at least five others stole in what may be the biggest embezzlement case in the...

Two teenage boys were arrested after allegedly throwing chemical bombs into the Pioneer High School's homecoming dance and a 16-year-old girl's birthday party, sending three to the hospital Saturday night. Police booked the 16 and 17-year-old boys on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia said. The teens, according to police reports, first threw a chemical bomb into a crowd at the homecoming dance around 9:50 p.m., Garcia said. No one was injured and the boys ran away. San Jose Unified School District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua said approximately 700 students were on hand for...

BERLIN - A man accused of raising money for al-Qaida in Iraq and helping to supply foreign fighters for the insurgency there went on trial Wednesday in the northern city of Schleswig. The 37-year-old man — identified only as Redouane E.H. in court documents_ holds German and Moroccan citizenship and lived in the northern city of Kiel. He was arrested in Hamburg in July 2006. Prosecutors said he made four money transfers worth a total of $6,800 to Egypt and Syria between August 2005 and July 2006. The funds, they said, were destined to supply equipment for "holy warriors," cover...

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil police have formally accused a brother of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of influence peddling after a nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling, the government news agency said Tuesday. Genival Inacio da Silva's home in the San Bernardo do Campo suburb was searched by authorities Monday as part of a federal police operation that arrested 77 people on charges of smuggling electronic gambling machines and bribing police in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Police did not say what was seized in Silva's brother's home or elaborate on the motives for the accusation, the official Agencia Brasil...

Tehran, June 03: Iran Sunday said several US-Iranians detained on accusations linked to spying "have confessed" as it warned the united states not to interfere in their cases. "Regarding the espionage of some Iranians, we have had good results. They have confessed to many issues," the centrist ham Mihan newspaper quoted the Tehran deputy prosecutor for security affairs, Hassan Hadad, as saying. Iran has said it is holding Iranian-American academics Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh on charges of harming national security, in cases that several officials have linked to alleged US efforts to topple the clerical authorities. Washington and hardline...