Free Republic

Montgomery County Police are searching for a group of men who claimed to be members of the MS-13 street gang and stabbed a man Sunday night after a soccer game in Gaithersburg. The victim, a 30-year-old Hispanic man, was found by police on a field at Gaithersburg Middle School at about 9:18 p.m., police said. He suffered minor injuries and was flown to a local hospital for treatment. The victim and other players were talking after an adult pickup soccer game when they were approached by a group of young Hispanic men wearing bandanas over their faces, police said. They...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that aggressive interrogations of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have foiled new terror attacks and saved American lives. "The information we've gotten from terrorists that have been imprisoned has stopped other terrorist attacks," Rumsfeld told NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's saved American lives and let there be no doubt about it," he emphasized. Rejecting the claims of Bush administration critics who say that terrorist detainees are being systematically tortured, Rumsfeld echoed recent comments by White House advisor Karl Rove, saying the American people had a choice: "Do you want to treat terrorists with...

Ignored by the Intelligence Community: crucial information that could prevent another major terrorist attack against the United States. If the explosive information revealed in this book had been collected by the Intelligence Community, it would be classified at the highest security level, above TOP SECRET, and would never be seen by the public. But Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), the Vice Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee can share this information with you because he himself collected it -- and because he's trying to make the public aware of this threat that the intelligence community is ignoring before it's too...

If Democrats like Dick Durbin believe the vicious attacks they so relentlessly spew against America and America’s military then I wouldn’t blame them for hating this country and seeking its overthrow. After all, if America were truly led by Adolph Hitler (as the Democrats repeatedly call George W. Bush) and our soldiers were “only following orders,” like the Nazis that Durbin compared them to, and the American people not only solidly returned Hitler to power but did so with even more support at every level of government, all good people should seek its demise. What is more likely, however, is...

In an official statement, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan stated that Hamas associates that deal with politics "may be members of organizations, but are not terrorists, versus terrorists, people who have blood on their hands."[1] Is this distinction enough to convince us that Hamas only makes wine and honey and provides social welfare? And does the Bush administration not know what Hamas really is?Hamas is the Arabic acronym for "The Islamic Resistance Movement" (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya) and connotes heat, zeal and passion for a cause, the cause here being the destruction of Israel. Hamas was legally registered in Israel in...

WASHINGTON - Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Saturday that positive responses from key supporters have reinforced his determination to keep talking tough even though some congressional Democrats have suggested he should tone down his rhetoric. "People want us to fight," Dean told the national party's executive committee. "We are here to fight." Addressing Iowa party activitists later Saturday in Des Moines, he added: "We need to be blunt and clear about the things we're going to fight for. I'm tired of lying down in front of the Republican machine. We need to stand up for what we believe in."...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-11-dean_x.htm?csp=34 USA Today piece. Howard Dean says he is bringing in $1 million weekly to the Democratic party. By Kevin Wolf, AP

Most Americans have not been paying attention to the bureaucratic wrangling and political jockeying that has plagued the construction of the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. But it's not just New Yorkers and developers and 9/11 families who should care. A good portion of the project is federally subsidized. All of us have not only a financial stake, but also a moral stake, in protecting the honor of the victims -- and the dignity of our country. A Blame America Monument is not what we need or deserve. But it looks like one is already...

The Left-leaning crowd -- notably Democratic politicos, the mainstream media (MSM), the New York and Hollywood literati/glitterati set, and various surrogate organizations including Amnesty International -- continue to be emboldened. With the new revelations surrounding Mark Felt as "Deep Throat", they're luxuriating in memories of their Watergate heyday thirty years ago and the "press takedown" of Richard Nixon, a Republican president. And of course, the Left likes nothing better than to destroy Republican presidents. In fact, it's the Left's favorite blood sport. All this Watergate nostalgia has to have them hankering for another impeachment, another "Deep Throat" type informant to...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Violence flared in Gaza with an Israeli airstrike on Palestinian rocket launchers just hours after Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 400 prisoners as a gesture to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The Israeli airstrike early Monday was a rare attack since a February truce. The Israeli military said the air force targeted rocket launchers just before an attack was to be launched from northern Gaza, and two launchers were destroyed. Hospital officials said a man and two women, apparently bystanders, were wounded by shrapnel. Palestinians said unmanned aircraft fired the missiles, but the military would...

In the absence of intellectual arguments, liberals in the media and in politics have increasingly reverted to name calling. When I was a boy, school children would inevitably begin calling each other names when frustrated or angry. "You're stupid," one would shout. "You're dumb," came the reply. "Well, well, you're so ugly your mother doesn't even love you." "She does too—and you don't even have a mother." As tempers flared, the kids searched for even more hurtful names, eventually stumbling into the aura of World War II which had engulfed the globe. "You're Hitler," was the "baddest" insult one could...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - In 1997, two figures clad in black slipped through the northern Wisconsin pines and let hundreds of minks out of their cages. Nearly eight years later, a man identified by authorities as one of those figures, Peter Daniel Young, is about to be brought to Wisconsin for trial on federal charges in a case that could open a window on the radical animal-rights movement, which federal authorities regard as a growing terrorist threat. While his alleged accomplice was captured six years ago, Young was on the run for more than seven years before a San Jose,...

Sami al-Arian, the Florida professor accused of leading a Palestinian terrorist group, will try to embarrass the U.S. government at his trial by revealing his numerous White House meetings with high-level figures in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, according to court records reported by Newsweek. Al-Arian, a former computer science professor at the University of South Florida, goes on trial next month on charges that he served as a secret leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group in the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. U.S. officials say PIJ is responsible for numerous deadly suicide attacks against Israelis and...

People may wonder why I write so often about the War with Islam. There is no “War on Terror.” Our war is with the violent ideology of Islam and those that follow that doctrine and there are millions of such followers. Americans need to understand the seriousness of the situation in which we find ourselves. Islam is in full jihad mode and Islamic leaders know that to succeed, they must destroy the United States. On one hand, we have moderate Muslims denying that Muslims kill and behead innocent people. When they are forced to admit the truth, the argument switches...

The Bush administration's push for quick democracy in the Middle East has an increasingly clear implication: if Islamist organizations such as Hamas are to be likely electoral winners, Western powers should stop classifying them as terrorists and instead come to terms with them. This conclusion follows from such efforts as those led by Alastair Crooke and his Conflicts Forum; the European Union's exploration of opening a dialogue with the Islamists; and an astonishing statement in which the White House spokesman referred to Hamas members as "business professionals." Before this whitewashing of Hamas proceeds too far ahead, it bears noting that...

The John Bolton nomination would have already gone through if not for the actions of Republican Senators Lincoln Chafee and Chuck Hagel. The Democratic Party has conducted itself in a shameful manner with regard to its scrutiny of John Bolton. This, of course, hardly comes as a surprise given the Democrats propensity for obstructing President Bush’s judicial nominees, or conduct with respect to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. These days the Democrats are more of a high school clique than a loyal opposition. However, in the case of John Bolton, Democrats would not have been able to take their shenanigans...

Islamist zealots attack Ahmadiyya Mosque in Bangladesh Unruly Islamist zealots attacked an Ahmadiyya mosque and the homes of a number of leaders of the minority Muslim sect in south-western Satkhira district of Bangladesh on Sunday. Witnesses said several hundred bigots brought out a procession in Joginagar village of Samnagar Upazial of the district, demanding that members of the Ahmadiyya community be officially declared 'non-Muslim'. They marched towards the mosque and replaced a signboard inscribed with "It's not a mosque and no Muslim will enter here for namaj (prayer)" instead of the "Ahmadiyya mosque". "The Islamist bigots captured the mosque complex...

-- Cleveland Metroparks officials have closed part of the North Chagrin Reservation after a pair of aggressive female coyotes bit a bicyclist and a pet dog over the weekend. Park officials said the wild animals are believed to be protecting their den -- and possibly a litter of coyote pups -- but park rangers shot and killed the older female Sunday and have taken the head to the Ohio Department of Health to be tested for rabies. "It's just a precaution because we don't believe she was rabid, just that she was territorial," Cleveland Metroparks spokeswoman Jane Christyson said Tuesday....

Secretary Bolton's intimate understanding of these subjects has caused him to have strong views about them. On occasion, he has expressed those views forcefully and with a measure of rhetorical hyperbole. While some have seized upon his choice of words to disqualify Mr. Bolton, he is indisputably correct in arguing that the UN has rarely been united in the way and for the purposes its founders envisioned. He is also correct in noting that the international community has generally proven most effective in dealing with international crises when led by the United States. It would serve U.S. interests well to...

Chinese facilities attacked with metal balls Vandals fired metal balls through air guns into China-related friendship centers in and near Tokyo early Monday, possibly in reprisal for anti-Japanese demonstrations across China over the weekend, police said.The makeshift bullets burst through a glass panel at the Nitchu Gakuin, a language center affiliated with the Japan-China Friendship Center in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.The balls resemble ball bearings and are similar to those that were fired into a Bank of China branch in Yokohama on April 10. The Bank of China is a state-owned bank in China.Police said a cleaner arrived at the Nitchu...