Free Republic

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A religious watchdog group complained Monday that a Bible study course taught in hundreds of public schools in Texas and across the country promotes a fundamentalist Christian view and violates religious freedom. The Texas Freedom Network, which includes clergy of several faiths, also said the course offered by the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools is full of errors and dubious research. The producers of the Bible class dismissed the Texas Freedom Network as a "far left" organization trying to suppress study of a historical text. The National Council on Bible Curriculum...

Police investigate Saudi link to London attacks By Andrew Alderson, David Harrison and Bruce Johnston in Rome (Filed: 31/07/2005) London under attack Scotland Yard is investigating evidence that the two waves of terrorist attacks on London this month may have been masterminded from Saudi Arabia. The Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist squad has learnt that Hussain Osman, 27, one of the suspects for the second failed attacks, called a number in Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest in Rome on Friday. He was believed to be making only the most vital calls because he feared his mobile phone was being tracked by...

London, July 29: Assaults on Asians in Britain has increased by over 13-fold after the London bomb blasts, with reports of attacks on mosques, firebombing and faith-based insults on streets and homes, police and Muslim groups said today. "Nine mosques have been attacked, a garage firebombed, people assaulted in the street and homes had had their windows broken since July 7 London bombing incidents. It is really very worrying," Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of Islamic Human Rights Commission told BBC. He said three days after the July 7 bombings, Kamal Butt, 48, from Pakistan was murdered outside a corner shop in...

Iraqi and U.S. troops respond to two separate attacks; ordnance disposal teams detonated unexploded ordnance discovered at the scene. MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, July 26, 2005 — Iraqi Army and U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad helped treat victims of two separate terrorist attacks in Mahmudiyah and Al-Dora, July 21. Prior to the explosions, U.S. troops assigned to 3rd Platoon, E Troop, 108th Cavalry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division operations and intelligence leaders met to plan future combined missions near Siad Abdullah and the surrounding areas which are known...

In the last few weeks, innocent men, women and children have been blown up, paralyzed, brain damaged and otherwise had their lives ruined by Muslim suicide bombers in Britain, Egypt and Iraq. Who can we thank for this man-made plague? Palestinians and the Left. We need to thank Palestinians for their major contribution to humanity -- religiously sanctioned mass murder of innocents through suicide. Prior to the Palestinians, this did not exist. It is true that Tamil suicide bombers in Sri Lanka have murdered many thousands and they are not Muslims. But the Tamil rationale for suicide terror -- though...

It's always shocking when the left unmasks itself — it's usually very brief but when it happens not only can't you turn away, it's actually important that you don't. While it would seem impossible, the left has found a new low, this time courtesy of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. On the same day, both newspapers published bizarre attacks on the most basic values of personal appearance and physical health of the president and those he supports. It's the newest indication of how frustrated and frenzied the left has grown in the face of an America...

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2005 – President Bush condemned the deadly July 23 attacks on Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort area today, pointing to them as another example of the need for the international community to unify in the global war on terror. Pre-dawn explosions rocked the popular Red Sea tourist playground, leaving at least 88 people dead and more than 200 injured, press reports said. Bush, who visited the Egyptian Embassy here to express his sympathy for those lost in the attack and sign the condolence book, vowed to "stand with the government of Egypt and the people of Egypt in...

California's Department of Homeland Security is warning hospitals in Los Angeles and San Diego of a possible terrorist attack. The department says it received "uncorroborated information" in early July that Al Qaeda has planned attacks in Los Angeles and San Diego. It quotes a U.S. government source saying eight trained pilots are already in the U.S., and nearly a dozen Al Qaeda members in California are helping them plan attacks using planes hijacked from Mexico or India. Their top targets are said to include a nuclear facility, a military or civilian airport, or a major hospital. The attacks are said...

On July 15, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 214 reported that al Qaeda was diluting its Iraq force for a major terror offensive in Europe and Middle East engineered by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and on its recommendation. The countries targeted were named as Britain, Italy, France, Denmark, Russia – with the UK and Italy at the top of the list; and, In the Middle East, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Zarqawi in one recent release: Israel is in our sights – and very soon. Al Qaeda’s ability to carry out tightly coordinated strings of attacks very close together in different...

An incredible number of attacks by Islamic jihadists have been planned over the last 35 years. Although many have been averted, far too many plots have succeeded: Since 1970, jihadists carried out attacks in over 60 cities, in at least 41 countries, on five continents and Pacific islands. Jihadists have assassinated heads of state, ambassadors and military personnel, and killed thousands of men, women, and children of many ages, ethnicities and religions (including Muslims). They have sometimes deliberately targeted children and babies.The 78 incidents listed below should not be taken as a complete list, merely a representative one. The listed...

Two Britons reported dead in resort atrocity as tourists flee Egypt fearing fresh wave of attacks By Hugh Miles in Sharm el-Sheikh and Colin Freeman (Filed: 24/07/2005) Hundreds of British tourists fled Egypt last night, fearing fresh terrorist attacks after three bombs ripped through the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Hospital officials said that two Britons were among 88 dead, though last night the Foreign Office confirmed only that two men were missing. The market place in Sharm el-Sheikh after the blast A further eight Britons were among the 120 wounded, including a 14-year-old girl and a 30-year-old...

Bombing Mecca to revenge acts of maniacs is like nuking the Vatican to protest the [church] pedophilia scandal. The idea appeals to those whose nuanced study of Islam makes them conclude it's better to alienate 1 billion people than defeat a fraction of the same group. It appeals to those who believe that Islam is a metal shard that cannot be absorbed and must be removed, preferably by blowing up the body. And burying the remains in pig skins! That'll learn 'em! How does one respond to a nuclear event on American soil? The horrible imperatives of war demand that...

The group repeated its last warning, stated attacks on London and other European capitals will not cease until their troops are withdrawn from Iraq. Earlier the group which claimed the first round of London bombings on July 7, also answered for the attacks Thursday, July 21. In its first warning, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades gave European states still in Iraq – Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy – until Aug. 15 to bring their soldiers out. Otherwise, said the statement, whose authenticity has not been verified, “there will be a bloody war in the service of God.” There will be...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – A Pentagon report detailing the readiness of Iraqi security forces should not be interpreted to mean that Iraqis aren't meeting expectations, a military official in Baghdad said today. In a briefing from Baghdad, Air Force Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said the report -- which shows that the majority of Iraqi forces aren't ready to operate independently -- should be assessed using all the facts and the history of the situation. "The reality is, we've been building an army from scratch for the past year under combat conditions," he said. "These...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – Terrorists in Iraq have been unable to derail the political process, a new Defense Department report on Iraqi stability and security states. Still, the report contends, insurgents "remain capable, adaptable, and intent on carrying out attacks." The report to Congress on measuring stability and security in Iraq says the inability of insurgents to derail political progress is a "noteworthy strategic indicator of progress toward a stable security environment." "It's important that the political dimension is covered in this report, because, in an important sense, the strategic prize in Iraq is the political process," Peter Rodman,...

LONDON -- Subway stations closed, traffic backed up and offices were emptied Thursday after a new assault on London's transit system. Even with little bloodshed or damage, fear spread. Panicked and screaming commuters fled the affected subway stations, some running out of their shoes. One Londoner said everyone he knew was buying bicycles. "I won't be taking the Tube or bus to work tomorrow," said Dean Duffy, a 28-year-old bricklayer, who heard a bang as he left the Oval Station in south London. Near the Warren Street station, witness Ivan McCracken told Sky News that people began coming into his...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2005 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today condemned the July 19 assassination of two Sunni Arab members of the commission drafting Iraq's new constitution as a "terrible act of violence" that demonstrates the insurgents' brutality and their low regard for the Iraqi people. Mijbil Sheikh Esa and Dhamin Hussein Ubaidi were ambushed while on their way to work at a U.S. military base in Khalis, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad. "The coalition countries and much of the civilized world mourns the assassination of Iraqi officials involved in drafting the Iraqi constitution," Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters....

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Civil liberties activists, anti-war organizers, eco-militants and animal rights operatives are in a fright over news that the nefarious FBI is watching them. Why on earth would the government be worried about harmless liberal grannies, innocent vegetarians, unassuming rainforest lovers and other "peaceful groups" simply exercising their First Amendment rights? Let me remind you of some very good reasons. In March 2003, I reported on a manifesto disseminated across the Internet by infamous eco-radical Craig Rosebraugh -- former spokesman for the violent Earth Liberation Front -- who called on fellow leftists to take "direct actions" against...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2005 – Two American soldiers in Iraq were killed by improvised explosive devices July 16. Another two soldiers were wounded. In the first incident, a soldier assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died July 16 of wounds received July 15 from a car-bomb attack. The incident reportedly occurred during combat operations near Iskandariyah. Also on July 16, at about 4:00 p.m. in the Kirkuk province, an IED killed one Task Force Liberty soldier and wounded two other soldiers. The two wounded soldiers were taken to a coalition forces medical treatment facility....

The Hillary War Machine has run a coordinated attack campaign against Ed Klein and his book "The Truth About Hillary," beginning before the book was even published or available for advance readings. Team Hillary's major ally in this anti-Klein effort? The so-called Mainstream Media (MSM) - comprising mostly East Coast elitist media institutions, i.e., CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek and Time magazine - are staffed with pro-Hillary zealots and acolytes who practice what is now known as "advocacy journalism." In other words, they use their media outposts to preach a leftist political agenda - in...