Free Republic

Posted on Sun, Jul. 10, 2005 In London, terrorists soil the nest ATTACKS WILL SHARPEN SCRUTINY ON LAX HANDLING OF ITS RADICALS By Lynne O'Donnell LONDON - For years, those in diplomatic and security circles have referred to England's capital as ``Londonistan'' because of the large number of radical Muslims -- including acolytes of Osama bin Laden -- who have used the city as their base and because of the British government's reluctance to silence them. By allowing people to settle in London and use the country's liberal values as a protective umbrella for openly preaching jihad, the British government...

NY's Penn Station shut down due to "police activity"

Does China pose a territorial threat to Russia? 1/07/2005 MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Chinese are already settling in large numbers in Siberia and Russia's Far East, and some experts do not rule out that sooner or later there will be no Russians left in these areas. Izevstia, a respected daily, invited experts and politicians to comment on the issue. Sergei Darkin, the governor of the Far Eastern region of the Maritime territory: This is an invented problem. China is our neighbor and important strategic partner. The Maritime territory accounts for 10% of Russia's trade with China and...

Duma refuses to amend presidential election system 1/07/2005 MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) rejected an amendment to the presidential election system Wednesday. Only 32 deputies (226 votes were needed) voted for the amendment submitted by parliamentarian Alexander Moskalets (United Russia). The law on presidential elections stipulates that an acting president who resigns before the end of his term is not allowed to run in the next elections. Moskalets proposed lifting this restriction, which had already caused disputes in the Duma and media. The media discussed this proposal that could...

Mazzaglia: Intolerance and Islam By Frank Mazzaglia / Local View Sunday, June 26, 2005 It is now common knowledge that real or perceived disrespect toward the Koran by Americans is destined to have severe repercussion in the streets of nations throughout the middle east. Newsweek's now retracted story alleged that American troops flushed down a copy of the Koran ended in riots and the loss of life. What is far less known are the contemptible ways that Jews, Christians, and the Bible are treated in Muslim dominated nations. There is a legitimate place for outrage in the face of the...

Cossacks return to state service MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) - The Saiga hunting rifle beloved of Russia's Cossack community may soon be experiencing a boom in sales if a bill currently going through parliament becomes law. The Duma recently approved in first reading a draft law submitted by President Vladimir Putin on state service by Russian Cossacks. If the bill is passed, Cossacks will be able to return to one of their traditional public roles for the first time in decades. Although the draft does not specify Cossack uniform and military equipment, should it become law some...

Uzbekistan ready to allow Russian military units on its territory 1/07/2005 MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - The main result of Uzbek President Islam Karimov's Moscow visit was that Uzbekistan may allow Russia to deploy its military units on its territory if the Central Asian situation becomes destabilized, today's issue of an opposition newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, reported. Karimov's visit was semi-official and Russian President Vladimir Putin received him at his residence outside Moscow rather than in the Kremlin. The sides did not make any sensational political statements and no documents were signed. According to the paper's sources, Karimov and Russian...

Patriots owner says Super Bowl ring was gift to Putin The Associated Press June 29. 2005 6:04PM New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the 2005 Super Bowl Ring he handed to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday was a gift. "I showed the president my most recent Super Bowl ring," Kraft said in a statement released Wednesday. The Russian president "was clearly taken with its uniqueness," Kraft said. "At that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin,"...

Militants kill journalist in Russia's Caucasus 29 Jun 2005 17:06:43 GMT Source: Reuters MOSCOW, June 29 (Reuters) - An Islamic militant group said on Wednesday it had killed a journalist working in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus, accusing him of being a Kremlin lackey. The Shariat group in Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya, said in a statement on rebel Web site www.kavkazcenter.com it had killed Magomed-Zagid Varisov, a writer and commentator whose views appeared in the local and national press. "With Allah's permission we have destroyed this scum, giving him finally a taste of the reality of our words and death," the...

By David Greene Soldiers Lend Somber Tone to Iraq Speech NPR.org, June 29, 2005 · The White House carefully chose its backdrop for President Bush's Tuesday night address on Iraq. It was Fort Bragg, a sprawling Army base in central North Carolina. The president's audience du jour was 700 soldiers. But to Americans watching Mr. Bush on television, he may as well have been at a convention hall in Washington. Through most of the speech, all viewers saw was the president speaking in front of a stage-style blue backdrop with American flags. The men and women in uniform were not...

Al Muqrin: Al-Qaeda's Angel of Death From goalkeeper to Al-Qaeda''s Death keeper; the story of the making of a terrorist. 20/06/2005 Mshari Al-Zaydi London-No one could have predicted, back in the early ninteies, that the young skinny Saudi youth, Abdul Aziz bin Isa bin Abdullah Muhsin Al Muqrin would become an al Qaeda sympathizer and mastermind of the Khubar and al Mahya bombings in 2003. Classmates at the Al Imam al Bayhaki intermediate school in the conservative district of al Suwaidi, West of the capital, Riyadh, remember how al Muqrin joined the al Tawiya al Islamia (Islamic awareness) religious group...

"It requires a bomb on American soil to awaken our citizens" Mary Mostert June 18, 2005 The title of this article, which was a comment in an e-mail from a reader I'm afraid,is true. We Americans are incredibly fortunate and unbelievably gullible. We have lived remarkably sheltered lives and most Americans alive today have never experienced or witnessed any real cruelty, much less actual torture. We have people, some of them in politics and the media, who actually believe that embarrassing men who have been arrested for terrorist acts is a form of "torture!" Then, we have those such as...

TERRORISM: Why al Qaeda is Not in Iraq June 23, 2005: Actually, there is no al Qaeda operating in Iraq. Instead, there are two Islamic terrorist organizations in Iraq, largely composed of foreigners, that have pledged their allegiance to al Qaeda, and several smaller ones that have not. The largest Islamic terrorist operation in Iraq is Jamaat Al-Tawhid Waal-Jihad (JTJ), which is run by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and is otherwise known as the al Zarqawi network, or “al Qaeda in Iraq.” There are only a few hundred active members of JTJ, at any one time. Casualties have been high,...

Archbishop of Serbian Orthodox Church Sentenced to Prison in Macedonia Posted: Saturday, June 25 , 2005, 21:33 (UK) Archbishop of Serbian Orthodox Church, Jovan (Zoran Vranisskovski) of Ohrid was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Macedonian Court of Appeal, Forum 18 has reported. Archbishop Jovan was charged of "inciting national, racial and religious hatred, schism and intolerance." The Archbishop commented on the situation: "When they imprisoned an archbishop of a church in the 21st century - merely for serving his people - what else can you say about the system and the state?" The archbishop is due to...

Anglicans Call for Sanction on Investment in Israel to Uphold Justice Posted: Saturday, June 25 , 2005, 20:55 (UK) At the Anglican Consultative Council Friday meeting in Nottingham, England, church leaders unanimously voted on the first resolution regarding the Palestine-Israeli conflict, which suggests boycotting investments that support Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories or violence against innocent Israelis. The decision follows moves by the USA Presbyterian Church to consider selling holdings in companies that profit from the occupation and a statement by the World Council of Churches (WCC), a global ecumenical body, who back divestment. The Church of England Ethical...

Italians hunt covert CIA snatch squad Barbara McMahon in Rome Sunday June 26, 2005 The Observer Italy and the United States were embroiled in a growing diplomatic row today over the CIA's alleged kidnapping of a terror suspect, as other countries also began investigations into America's role in the disappearance of their citizens. Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was seized two years ago on the streets of Milan. Italian investigators claim he was bundled into the back of a van, driven to a US airbase in the north of Italy and secretly flown to Egypt,...

Bulgarians vote, Socialists seen defeating ex-king (Reuters) 25 June 2005 SOFIA - Bulgarians voted on Saturday in an election expected to see the Socialists topple ex-king Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and take over the tough task of steering the country into the European Union in 2007. The poll’s winner must complete a mountain of difficult reforms under increased Brussels scrutiny as scepticism over further EU expansion grows after recent French and Dutch rejections of the bloc’s constitution. If efforts fall short, Sofia’s entry could be delayed by a year, dealing a blow both to investors betting on its convergence with...

Bush and Putin -- For Life? by William Norman Grigg June 25, 2005 After President George W. Bush met Vladimir Putin in 2001, he described looking into the "soul" of his Russian counterpart and deciding that he could "trust" the ex-KGB officer. In the years that followed, the Bush administration has occasionally tweaked Putin for his increasingly dictatorial ruling style – for instance, his regime’s ongoing intimidation of relatively independent media and political dissidents, and the ongoing centralization of power in Putin’s office. To that list can now be added a proposal that the Russian constitution be changed to permit...

Ireland’s Growing Evangelical Churches Shift Congregation from Catholic Majority Posted: Friday, June 24 , 2005, 17:28 (UK) A report released by the Evangelical Alliance Ireland (EAI) recently showed that increasing numbers of Irish people are converting to evangelical Christianity. With an estimated weekly total congregation in evangelical churches rising by 13,000 members each week in the Dublin area alone, the Catholic majority in Ireland is shifting and forming a new religious face. Greater Europe Mission (GEM), a devoted mission agency which supports church planting throughout Ireland, told the Mission News Network (MNN) about the trend. Twenty-five years ago there were...

Vatican & Orthodox Leaders Pledge to Revive Spiritual Values in Europe Posted: Friday, June 24 , 2005, 17:33 (UK) High-profile sensitive talks between the top Vatican envoy and the Russian Orthodox Church were held this week in Moscow. Despite centuries of long disputes between the two Churches, the representatives were able to identify the common challenge faced by Christians in the 21st century "Post-Christendom" Europe. The two Churches pledged their cooperation in promoting Christian spiritual values in the lives of individuals, families and societies across the continent and the world. Representing the Vatican was Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the...