Free Republic

Distracted by the antics of conservatives who can't win, liberals are missing that the GOP will select Big Money's staunchest ally Mitt Romney goes into the New Hampshire primary Tuesday with a 19-point lead. But, of course, Romney has been the Republican nominee for president for nearly six months now. Since the flare-out of Rick Perry, the only other GOP nominee able to raise any serious cash, Romney has faced only a parade of reality-show contestants posing as presidential candidates. Romney, the candidate of the 1%, has benefited from Citizens United in ways we thought wouldn't come to light until...

The United States has reportedly released three high-ranking Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay Prison in return for an American soldier held by the militant group. The move is also considered as a big concession by Washington to persuade the Taliban to the negotiating table. The three senior Taliban leaders are reportedly on their way to Qatar despite strong opposition from Afghanistan. According to media reports, the released prisoners include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan and maybe Mullah Fazl Akhund, a Taliban Army Chief of Staff. Kabul says the prisoners must...

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government said Thursday that it was shutting down the operations of one of the largest foreign security companies operating in the country after detaining two of its contractors on suspicion of gun smuggling. After months of growing tension between the government and foreign security contractors, the decision marks a sharp escalation into public action by the Afghan authorities. President Hamid Karzai is in the midst of replacing foreign security contractors with Afghan guards. The Interior Ministry said it was immediately withdrawing the company’s license, although the company, GardaWorld, a private Canadian security outfit, said it...

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force did not disclose the nationalities of the troops, but most of those serving in southern Afghanistan are American or British. The south of Afghanistan includes the volatile provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, the traditional heartland of the Taliban. Four of the eight were killed Friday in a single explosion, military officials said in a statement, and a fifth died as the result of an earlier “insurgent attack,” a phrase often used to characterize a firefight with Taliban militants. Late Thursday, military officials announced that three troops were killed in the south by a makeshift bomb....

President Hamid Karzai has called on Washington to hand over the detention facility at Bagram Airbase, which is the main US base in war-battered Afghanistan, to Afghan control within a month. A presidential statement said on Thursday that Karzai issued instructions to a commission consisting of the ministers of defense, interior and justice, as well as other top government and judicial officials, "to complete their job regarding the handing over of the (Bagram) prison and other prisoners who are held by foreign forces." "The work should be completed within a month," the statement stressed. The presidential statement noted that keeping...

Fox News has long been seen as the American right's staunchest defender. But this election year has seen the channel demolish the campaigns of several Republican frontrunners. But what is good for ratings may not be good for US conservatives. With two decades of experience under his belt, US journalist Bret Baier is a veteran in his field. Yet hardly anyone has ever accused him of being particularly fair or balanced. Baier is, after all, a host on Fox News, the most important television network for American conservatives. And he knows where he needs to stand -- when in doubt,...

Around one million Britons have taken out a payday loan to pay their mortgage or rent over the last 12 months, a survey reveals. It highlights the financial squeeze facing workers who are being pushed over the edge by soaring household bills, rising taxes and paltry pay rises, or pay freezes. The report, from the homeless charity Shelter, said a further six million people are being plunged into debt in other ways in order to pay these essential bills. They are using unauthorised overdrafts, personal loans or credit cards to pay their housing costs - rather than face being evicted...

EOUL, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military in South Korea said Tuesday that it will extend a curfew for service members in the country indefinitely in an attempt to ensure continued mission readiness. "We must remain focused on our primary mission here, which is to deter against external aggression and if required, defend the Republic of Korea side-by-side with our ROK counterparts," U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. James Thurman said in a statement. "I anticipate and expect that our service members will continue to maintain the highest standards of individual readiness and professionalism while they serve in the Republic...

Islamabad has stepped up work on its bilateral agreements with Tehran including the implementation of a Pak-Iran gas pipeline project despite US threats. “Construction work on the pipeline in Iranian area was completed. And on remaining portion that was to be constructed in Pakistani area the survey has been completed. Pakistan is bearing losses due to energy crises and it would go ahead with different options including Iran,” The Nation quoted a Pakistani official as saying on Thursday. The Pakistani source added Islamabad had not backed down from its trade agreement with Iran. On December 19, high-ranking Islamabad diplomats said...

Washington - US and Taliban negotiators reached a tentative deal last month to transfer five Afghans from Guantanamo to Qatar, the Washington Post said on Friday, but it was rejected by President Hamid Karzai. The accord would have called for five inmates from the US-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be placed under house arrest in Qatar while the Taliban would have issued a public renunciation of international terrorism in a de facto break with al-Qaeda, the Post reported, citing unnamed US and European officials. "Right now, things have stopped," a senior US administration official is quoted as...

Before British prime minister David Cameron went into his fateful European Union negotiations regarding the euro earlier this month, it is said he used the "full bladder technique". To concentrate the mind on the task at hand he remained "desperate for a pee" throughout both the formal dinner and talks. When it came to sealing the deal he subsequently went and pissed Britain's bargaining position up the wall. One can only guess what John Boehner's strategy has been during the past week over the payroll tax cuts. But it looks like he employed the "full bowel technique" with equal success....

For several months a stream of mostly young men and women, fresh off the plane from Greece, has been knocking at the doors of a large building on Lonsdale Street in the heart of Melbourne. The 1940s block houses the headquarters of Australia's biggest Greek community. In scenes reminiscent of the great gold rush at the turn of the 20th century, the men and women have travelled to the other side of the world in search of a better life. Unlike Greeks of old, however, these new émigrés are noticeably accomplished, with hard-earned degrees won in some of the toughest...

Miscommunication and bad maps contributed to the deaths of 24 Pakistani troops in a NATO airstrike last month, a military investigation concluded Thursday. A statement issued by the Pentagon on Thursday said "inadequate coordination by U.S. and Pakistani military officers ... resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units." "This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result," Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The U.S. investigation also conceded a critical error by U.S. troops - telling Pakistan the cross-border shooting was taking place...

A drastic exodus from the church is underway in the Netherlands. With two churches shuttered each week, one man has become the country's top advisor on how to repurpose the once holy buildings. Some are demolished, while others find new life as mosques, stores and even recreation centers. The church pews will be sold according to size. The shortest ones, at 3.6 meters (12 feet) long, can be purchased for €40 ($52), the longer six-meter pews for €60. Churchgoers in the Dutch town of Bilthoven have already carried 17 pews out of their sanctuary. The pews will not be a...

The above coin, which I photographed in its plastic container, was sent to me by my daughter who works in Saudi Arabia. She says that this is what Saudis give to each other as gifts. I know some Freepers have lived and worked in Saudi Arabia and may know more about this coin. I believe the inscription says "There is but one God and Allah is his name"

French aviation authorities said Tuesday they were ready to replace striking airport security personnel with police to minimise travel delays. The strike, which started Friday, has been causing delays at Charles de Gaulle airport and in Lyon. Aviation authorities say they are ready to send in police to replace striking airport security personnel to limit the strike’s impact on travelers leaving for the Christmas holiday weekend. Civil aviation authority DGAC said that the strike - in its 5th day - was causing delays at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and in Lyon. Speaking on France Info radio, Interior Ministry spokesman...

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said Senate Democrats are done negotiating with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "Trying to negotiate with Speaker Boehner is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall," Schumer said on MSNBC. The Senate passed a two-month extension of the backed payroll tax cut legislation in a 89-10 vote on Saturday morning. The House was expected to pass the proposal until Boehner voiced the rejection by House Republicans on Sunday. Boehner said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that legislating tax policy two months at a time is "kicking the can down the road." Schumer expressed...

In the 14th century there were two pandemics. One was the Black Death, the other was the commercialisation of warfare. Mercenaries had always existed, but under Edward III they became the mainstay of the English army for the first 20 years of what became the Hundred Years war. Then, when Edward signed the treaty of Brétigny in 1360 and told his soldiers to stop fighting and go home, many of them didn't have any homes to go to. They were used to fighting, and that's how they made their money. So they simply formed themselves into freelance armies, aptly called...

Pakistani officials say NATO forces knew they were opening fire on Pakistani forces, and even apologised to Pakistani officers, throughout the friendly fire incident on a military checkpoint that killed 24 troops near the Afghan border in November. Pakistani officials on Thursday briefed reporters in Washington on their findings, drawn from interviews with survivors and local residents in the remote, mountainous area. Results of NATO's official investigation are due next week. Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said it could be an attempt by Pakistani officials to shape public opinion before the NATO report is released. “The Pakistanis...

BAGHDAD (AP) — After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead and 100,000 Iraqi dead, U.S. officials formally shut down the war in Iraq — a conflict that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said was worth the American sacrifice because it set Iraq on a path to democracy. Panetta stepped off his military plane in Baghdad Thursday as the leader of America's war in Iraq, but departed as one of many U.S. and global officials who hope to work with the struggling nation as it tries to find its new place in the Middle East and the broader world. Bombings and gun...