Free Republic

I first met Qassem four years ago, at the height of the European refugee crisis. The BBC had sent me to capture the stories of Mideast migrants, thousands of whom would daily wash ashore on the Greek isles. He was around 15, malnourished and clearly traumatized. As we sat together in a cabin at a ­migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, his hunched body rocked backward and forward. His marginal life amounted to a speck of dust amid the geopolitical earthquakes that were remaking the region at the time. Yet the story he told opened a window onto the...

Airfield manager flies U.S. flag for Afghan children’s aidby Staff Sgt. Jennifer Lindsey455th Expeditionary Operations Group Public Affairs 9/27/2004 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Each time Barry McKelvy sees the U.S. Flag waving from the air control tower here, he knows his nation’s symbol is providing comfort for Afghan children. Mr. McKelvy, the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing’s flag-flying program coordinator, flies flags in honor of family and friends for donations. The donations are used to provide children of nearby orphanages shoes, clothes, school supplies, radios, toys and basic toiletries. Originally Mr. McKelvy, the airfield manager, flew the flags as a “good...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Americans have donated more than $10.3 million to aid Afghan children in the 10 months since President Bush asked them to help in a televised address.</p> <p>But the program was marred last week when two men who worked at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., screening White House mail were arrested and charged with stealing thousands of dollars, including cash donations sent by children.</p>