Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2008 – About 100 U.S. European Command soldiers, airmen and Marines deployed to Israel to help set up an early warning radar system reported no close encounters with air strikes or retaliatory attacks along the Gaza Strip, a Eucom spokesman said. The Palestinian militant group Hamas refused to renew a ceasefire agreement with Israel when it expired Dec. 19, and began stepping up rocket attacks on civilian targets in Israel. Israel, in turn, began launching airstrikes against Gaza Strip targets Dec. 27 in an effort to eliminate Hamas’ ability to fire rockets into Israeli territory. Air...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2008 – The number of daily attacks in Iraq has dropped nearly 95 percent since last year, a U.S. military official said yesterday. Iraq suffered an average of 180 attacks per day this time last year. But over the past week, the average number was 10, Army Brig. Gen. David G. Perkins, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said. “This is a dramatic improvement of safety throughout the country,” Perkins told reporters during a wide-ranging news conference in Baghdad yesterday. He added that the country’s murder rates have dropped below levels that existed before the start of American...

MURIDKE, Pakistan – Pakistan's vow to crack down on militants behind the Mumbai attacks may meet an early test with the Islamist charity accused by the U.S. of being the front group for the prime suspects. Washington and India view Jamaat-ud-Dawa as the successor to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant organization that India says trained the 10 gunmen who killed 171 people in India's commercial capital.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – A 26-year-old man faces criminal charges after being accused of using a pickax to attack a speed enforcement camera recently installed along a Phoenix-area freeway.

MUMBAI, India – India suspects that two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group masterminded last week's three-day terrorist attacks that killed 171 people in Mumbai, an Indian intelligence official said Thursday.

International law enforcement officialdom has plenty of work to do as Indian “morning of terror” still unfold to this day.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2008 – Coalition officials denounced three “cowardly” terrorist attacks in Iraq that left five Iraqis dead and 70 injured over the past two days. Two explosions occurred today in northern Baghdad at approximately 6 a.m. The attack left 18 Iraqis, including three Iraqi Police injured. All casualties were taken to local hospitals. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, helped secured the site and are investigating the scene with an explosive ordnance disposal team. “It is with a heavy heart to witness these attacks on innocent civilians who...

The leaker who "revealed" to Carl Cameron of FOX News that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent or which nations were in the North American Free Trade Agreement has outed himself. First of all the leaker turned out not to be Mitt Romney nor one of his associates as some have suspected. More importantly, the leaker's own revelation does not show that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent nor that she didn't know which countries were in the NAFTA. Okay, so who is the leaker? Drum roll please, maestro! And the leaker is....Martin Eisenstadt,...

Here is video of Katie Connolly of Newsweek, being interviewed on CNN Headline News about the leaked attacks against Gov. Sarah Palin. Newsweek is where much of the story on these leaks has been first reported. She is asked if Mitt Romney supporters are the ones doing the leaking. She says they are not the ones doing the leaking. . . . (Watch Video)

--- Transcript: Joe: Was it patriotic for Joe Biden to say, "take my money and give it to other people?" That's patriotism? Colmes: Well, let me ask, you were on welfare once, was that taking somebody else's money and giving it to you? Joe: Paid into welfare. It something to be used, not to be abused like it often is. ~ Colmes: We looked at the numbers, you're going to get a tax break under Obama, you should be happy about that. Joe: It goes against my principles. I stand firmly on those. Taking someone's hard earned money and putting...

The McCain Campaign: Mistakes, But Hampered Ultimately By Both the Candidate and his Campaign Advisers--Not by Sarah Palin McCain Campaign is Responsible for McCain's Defeat Palin Was Attacked from the Inside from Almost the Moment She gave the McCain Campaign their First Realistic Chance at VictoryThe McCain Campaign Unnamed Aides vs. Sarah Palin UPDATES at end of post. FROM GOSSIP TO GOSPEL The McCain campaign made some shrewd moves, but it also was guilty of some moves that ultimately doomed its unlikely candidate--with the most momentous misstep coming from John McCain himself. Like any losing campaign, those in charge of...

by Gina L. DiorioBarack Obama may deserve a new address, but it sure isn’t 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In fact, Beverly Hills would be more fitting, as his actions in recent days and weeks are more suggestive of an egotistical – and rather spoiled – Hollywood starlet than a man who would be president of the United States. Take, for example, his confrontation yesterday with reporters while walking with his daughter in his Hyde Park neighborhood. When journalists approached the duo, an irritated Obama stated, “That’s enough. You’ve got a shot. Leave us alone…. Come on, guys. Get back on...

WASHINGTON — An ugly line has been crossed in this presidential campaign, one in which some people don’t mind calling Barack Obama a dangerous Muslim, a terrorist and worse. "To me, this all feels much worse than we’ve seen in some time," said Kathryn Kolbert, the president of People for the American Way, which monitors political speech. Experts agree on the reasons: Obama, the Democratic nominee, is different from any other major presidential candidate in history in many ways, and people often don’t accept such change gracefully. That different background fuels many fears, said Penni Pier, an expert on political...

WEST CHESTER, Ohio – Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Friday kept up the Republican ticket's attack on a community activist group that registers voters and cited an Ohio plumber's encounter with Democrat Barack Obama as indicative of his tax policies. Campaigning in one of the swing state's conservative strongholds, Palin said Obama hasn't been forthcoming about his ties to ACORN, the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now. The group faces allegations of voter registration fraud in Ohio and other states. Obama has said he doesn't have any significant links to the group. "You deserve to know," Palin told...

Sen. Joe Biden said Monday that the tenor of the presidential campaign has gone “over the edge” and that if John McCain continues to push some lines of attack against Barack Obama he may regret it “for the rest of his life.”

The political rhetoric continues to heat up in the U.S. presidential race. On Friday, Democrat Barack Obama accused Republican John McCain of trying to divide the country with angry remarks and negative television ads. For his part, McCain demanded that Obama answer questions about his relationship with a 1960's anti-war radical, William Ayers. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has the latest from Washington. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama waves at a rally at the Genoa Park and Amphitheater in Columbus, 10 Oct 2008 Democrat Barack Obama continued his campaign swing through the critical state of Ohio by focusing on...

Sen. Barack Obama says the personal attacks levied against him by the campaign of his presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, particularly references to his association with 1960s anti-war radical Bill Ayers, are an attempt to "score cheap political points." "I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I guess we've got one last debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will raise it during the debate."

Congratulations to Jonathan Alter, he wins the Lighten Up Francis award for the week: Jonathan Alter: “Unleashing the furies of the dark side of American politics, perhaps risking some peoples lives if things get out of control. All of that is out the window in the service of winning an election.”Tried to embed the video, perhaps someone can do it, video at the link.

In a video marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, al Qaeda’s top leader in Afghanistan vows more “large-scale” attacks against the United States and its allies. In another segment, the personal adviser to Taliban leader Mullah Omar says al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well. Al Qaeda leaders featured on the video promise more violence against their enemies. “We inform the forces of the Cross and their apostate agents that the Mujahedeen’s policy in the coming stage, God permitting, is going to be more major, large-scale attacks like the Kandahar prison operation, the...

UPDATE: There’s been a number of rumors over the past several months that terrorists may use the ‘lull’ between the election and the new President entering office to launch an attack either on US soil or against US interests. In course with a number of al Qaeda’s manifests of targeting the west, the current financial crisis may instigate attacks that will target some aspect of financial importance whether it be maritime shipping lines, any one of the world-wide stock exchanges, physical financial institutions, energy sources (oil) or other infrastructure. TAM-C analysts have picked up chatter on jihadi websites in both...