Free Republic

NEW YORK -- Officials on Wednesday decided to reject the Iranian president's request to visit ground zero just weeks after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The decision came in a meeting that included representatives of the NYPD, the Secret Service and the Port Authority, according to police. NYPD officials confirmed in a statement that earlier this month the department received a request from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit the World Trade Center site during the United Nations General Assembly. A statement issued by the NYPD said, "Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be...

Muslims "seem to be about to take over Europe,” which has "given up” efforts to maintain its culture, said world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis. Lewis, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, told the Jerusalem Post that soon the only important question regarding Europe’s future would be, "Will it be an Islamized Europe or Europeanized Islam?" Lewis, whose many books include the recent "What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East,” said the Islamic takeover of Europe would be assisted by "immigration and democracy." Instead of fighting the threat, he added,...

One of America's most influential neocons says President Bush is prepared to use military force against Iran if he believes it will acquire nuclear weapons. This past Sunday, Richard Perle, speaking in Israel at the Herzliya Conference, said he had no doubt of President Bush's intentions. "President George Bush will order an attack on Iran if it becomes clear to him that Iran is set to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities while he is still in office," Haaretz reported of Perle's remarks. Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, served as chairman of the Bush administration's Defense Policy Board. Perle...

I. For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel. Arab leaders resented the fact that Israel was the only atomic power in the region, a resentment heightened by America’s tacit approval of the situation. But they were also pretty certain that Israel (which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons) would not drop the bomb except as a very last resort. That is why Egypt and Syria were unafraid to attack Israel during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. “Israel will not be the first country in the region to use nuclear weapons,” went the...