Free Republic

Henry Kissinger used to say that while it can be dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, to be a friend is fatal. The people of South Vietnam learned that bitter lesson when the United States abandoned them in 1975. The Poles learned it after Yalta, the Hungarian freedom fighters learned it in 1956, and Cubans learned it at the Bay of Pigs. And tens of thousands of Iraqis learned it in 1991, when at the urging of George H.W. Bush they rose against Saddam Hussein, only to be slaughtered when American support never materialized. Now we can...

July 15, 1999 Web posted at: 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) From Correspondents Chris Plante and Jamie McIntyre WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen canceled a visit to Albania this week to avoid a "hornets' nest" of Osama bin Laden operatives, CNN has learned. Defense Department sources told CNN that the Albania visit was dropped from a six-nation trip to Europe because of "a threat on the ground" related to Islamic militants affiliated with bin Laden,the alleged mastermind of the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa last year. The sources, who asked not to be named, declined to elaborate...

Volunteers who have converged on the Mexican border to watch for illegal immigrants are disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors that alert agents to possible intruders, an agency spokesman complained Monday. Scores of participants in the Minuteman Project began assembling late last week and planned to begin regular patrols on Monday, in an exercise some law enforcement authorities and civil rights groups fear will result in vigilante violence. Many of the volunteers were recruited over the Internet, and some planned to be armed. Over the past few days, they have set off sensors, forcing agents to respond...