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British troops in Iraq are afraid to open fire, secret MoD report confirms By Sean Rayment. Defence Correspondent (Filed: 30/04/2006) British troops in Iraq "lack the confidence to open fire" because of a "fear of prosecution", says a confidential Ministry of Defence (MoD) report seen by The Sunday Telegraph. It confirms that soldiers believe that if they shoot dead insurgents they will become embroiled in a "protracted investigation" and if prosecuted will receive "no support from the chain of command". British troops show restraint when attacked in Basra The study into soldiers' confidence is understood to have been ordered by...

NASA’s quest to send astronauts back to the Moon and then to Mars has been undermined by NASA’s strange reluctance to provide justifications for its ambitious Vision for Space Exploration, even in the face of the ritual questions about competing earthbound priorities. The space agency’s stand is particularly strange because the lunar explorations of the Apollo astronauts have provided a solid reason to resume exploration of the Moon, namely Apollo’s great bounty of scientific information. Thanks to the lunar samples and other data from Apollo, most scientists agree today on the early history of the Earth and the Moon. They...

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...

Yaa, you repukes are not doing so well, huh? Imagine, you repukes control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and appointed 7 of the 9 Supreme Court justices. Yet the Supreme Court thre out sodomy laws in all 50 states and recognized the right of government to seize land for any reason. And you couldn't pass your Social Security changes could you? Sorry, that was your last shot. Come November, we're going to start seeing more Democratic faces in the House. It's the end for you guys. You guys are celebrating when Bush's numbers go *up* to 45%. Then Faux...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Why does anybody support George w Bush as President? He is clearly the worst President I have ever seen -- a complete disaster. And before you say anything, I have been a registered Republican for 25 years.

After reading all of the crap that people have been saying regarding Adult Private Social Clubs, I felt that I had to post an article and give my opinion. I am sick and tired of all the religous groups that are saying that there are drugs, prostitution, minors, non-consenting people, and just immoral people at these clubs! First of all, who do these people think they are to decide what is morally right or wrong for me? I believe that I have a good set of morals. I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen, I work full time and...

Lies of omission about 9/11 -- stoking fears of terrorism THEY WANT YOU TO BE AFRAID The following post was censored by freerepublic.com shortly after it was posted on their "public" forum on 9/11/04. That forum is designed to appear as though it is a community forum open to all, but this post only received three responses before it and its replies were deleted, and a repeat posting at 4 am PST on 9/20/04 didn't stay online for 5 minutes! Someone is apparently watching closely over the content of the freerepublic.com forums and censoring them 24/7 (though they might have...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein told the judge at his trial Monday that "I am not afraid of execution" during an unruly court session in which the first witness took the stand and testified that the former president's agents carried out random arrests, torture and killings. The outburst was one of several by Saddam or his co-defendants at the trial that also saw a brief walkout by his defense lawyers. At one point, Saddam appeared to threaten the judge, saying: "When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable." Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin replied: "This...

Who's Afraid Of Hillary Clinton? 2008: A new book says only one person can save America from Hillary Clinton — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. When it comes to irrational fear of the former first lady, this marks a new frontier in silliness. You've got to hand it to Clinton adviser-turned-critic Dick Morris. He knows what sells books. And what could sell better than a story of the 2008 presidential race turning into a no-holds-barred cat fight between the two most famous women in politics? Morris and his wife have co-authored "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race," in...

As a longtime observer of government, I've come to realize that no matter how much public money one gives to any government agency or group of government workers, it will absolutely, positively not be enough. The unions representing the agency's workers will always cry poor-mouth, always find ways to shake down the taxpayer for more money. California's public school system consumes more than 40 percent of the budget, guaranteed by constitutional decree, and the governor's budget would increase educationspending by more than 7 percent, yet we've all witnessed the California Teachers Association and its unceasing anti-Arnold rallies and overheated "you're...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Gas costs so much. I cant afford it. Why want Bush do something? Don't say he can't. His daddy or his handlers could be on the phone in 2 minutes with the Rothchilds and by 1 week, oil prices would be under $20 and gas would be 1 dollar a gallon. You know it and I know it. Why want he? Do you know? Is there sombody we can call? Plaese advice.

PATONG, Thailand (AFP) - A second surge of tsunami terror is hitting southern Thailand, but this time it is a wave of foreign ghosts terrifying locals in what health experts described as an outpouring of delayed mass trauma. AFP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster Tales of ghost sightings in the six worst hit southern provinces have become endemic, with many locals saying they are too terrified to venture near the beach or into the ocean. Spooked volunteer body searchers on the resort areas of Phi Phi island and Khao Lak are reported to have looked for tourists heard...

With the Republican National Convention's platform committee convening in New York less than three weeks from now, no draft platform exists, no subcommittees have been named, and no special lodging for committee members has been assigned. Rather than signifying sudden collapse of accustomed Republican efficiency, all this looks more like a coolly calculated plan. The suspicion has grown that President Bush's re-election strategists--Karl Rove and Karen Hughes--do not want the open debate over principles and policy that has characterized Republican platform-making for a generation. The carefully guarded Bush campaign game plan is to present delegates on the platform committee with...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Many NASA (news - web sites) workers feel unappreciated by the agency and are still afraid to speak up about safety concerns, more than a year after the shuttle Columbia was doomed by those very problems, according to a survey released Monday. The 145-page report includes an assessment of NASA's culture by a behavioral science company in California, and a three-year plan for change. "Safety is something to which NASA personnel are strongly committed in concept, but NASA has not yet created a culture that is fully supportive of safety," the report says. "Open communication is...

All our fears boil down to one simple thing: our fear that we're not special. We're afraid that we're replaceable, one of a crowd, that there's nothing unique about us. And we're afraid, as a result, that we won't be able to meet whatever challenges life presents us with. And while this fear is ancient, it has been greatly exacerbated in the modern era because of our culture of lovelessness. If you're not made to feel in your earliest years that you are of infinite value, then you will usually spend the rest of your life trying to prove that...

I was never afraid says Lawal The Nigerian mother who was spared death by stoning says she has renewed faith in Islam. Amina Lawal, 32, won clemency from an Islamic appeals court from her death sentence for bearing a child conceived out of wedlock. She said: "The trial did not affect my faith in Islam, because I know that Shariah makes room for fair trial. It is a fair procedure, and so I was never afraid throughout my trial." Lawal, a devout Muslim, would have been the first person stoned to death since more than a dozen heavily Islamic states...

While George Bush was delivering his State of the Union address two weeks ago, a British cartoonist came up with his version of "the State of the Other Nation" and the state of that other nation, meaning Europe, looked pretty bleak in the drawing. The illustrator put the leaders of the continent around a large round table and showed them at their best: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was sticking a knife into the back of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who in turn was plunging a knife into the back of his British colleague, Tony Blair, who was smiling...