Free Republic

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - A compromise between the House and Senate aviation security bills proposed late Tuesday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has too much private sector involvement, according to Senate Democrats, and too little flexibility according to House Republicans. "The problem is, we are diametrically opposed between the House and the Senate," Hutchison said. "And if we don't talk to each other about how we can fashion something that everyone feels is comfortable and treats every airport equally, we're going to still be here on December 14th arguing about this bill." Members of the conference committee and ...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - As the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have demonstrated, the need for immigration reform has gone beyond the familiar territory of crime, education and taxes and become an issue of public safety as well, a longtime congressional champion of immigration reform said Tuesday. Only nine of the 19 terrorists who took part in the Sept. 11 attacks were in the country legally, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), crime subcommittee chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told a group of reporters and policymakers. Ten of the terrorists had overstayed a temporary visa and were in illegal status on that day. ...

London (CNSNews.com) - U.K. military officials put thousands of troops on a high state of alert Wednesday in case they are needed to assist in humanitarian or peacekeeping missions in Northern Alliance-held areas of Afghanistan. A Ministry of Defense spokesman said that the number of troops put on alert was in the "low thousands," but he declined to be more specific. "There has not been a decision on deployment, but we've put troops on alert because of the rapidly developing situation on the ground," the spokesman said by phone. No specific missions have yet been outlined, but a Ministry of ...

The surprisingly swift advance of Northern Alliance soldiers, aided by U.S. bombing and special forces, has once again turned Washington punditry upside down." --Washington Post editorial "The chaotic retreat by Taliban forces from Kabul, and indeed from most of northern Afghanistan, is a dramatic development that did not seem conceivable even a week ago. But the Northern Alliance's triumph does not, by itself, achieve the basic American objective of defeating the Taliban and destroying the terrorist organization Al Qaeda." --New York Times editorial "We give the Northern Alliance an air force and they embarrass us with savage force." --Maureen Dowd, ...

Today is Wednesday, November 14th, the 319th day of 2001. There are 47 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On November 14th, 1900, Aaron Copland, one of America's leading composers of the 20th century, was born in New York City. On this date: In 1851, Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the United States. In 1881, Charles J. Guiteau went on trial for assassinating President Garfield. (Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.) In 1922, the British Broadcasting Corporation began its domestic radio service. In 1935, President Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a ...

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 2001 NOV 12 (NB) -- By Michael Bartlett, Newsbytes. The American jury trial system has, with rare exceptions, been played out in the public eye for over two centuries. But the Internet has added a whole new dimension of visibility to the legal process. In the case of Varian Medical Systems, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Susan B. Felch and George Zdasiuk versus Michelangelo Delfino and Mary Day, not only are Internet message board postings the focus of the plaintiffs' lawsuit, the two co-defendants have also set up a Web site that gives their version of a ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 2001 NOV 12 (NB) -- By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes. For the first time in the history of the World Wide Web, native English speakers are no longer the dominant demographic group on the Internet, thanks to a surge of more than 100 million new Internet users in 2001, a report released today found. The third annual "State of the Internet Report," produced jointly by the U.S. Internet Council and International Technology & Trade Associates Inc., (ITTA) found the new users - mainly from the South Pacific region - helped shrink the share of native English speakers online ...

FRANCIS BOK unfolded his wiry, 6-foot-7-inch frame from the chair on the stage of the auditorium that serves Polytechnic Institute and Western High School. He strode to the microphone and told a group of 1,000 students from nearly a dozen private and public secondary schools his tale of terror. Yes, Arab militiamen abducted him from his Dinka village in the Bahr al-Ghazal region of the African nation of Sudan in 1986, when he was 7 years old. They killed his parents and two sisters, and gave Bok to an Arab family. Yes, the Arab family did beat him and call ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Department inspector general wants to make sure that the $5 billion allocated to the airlines for their financial losses is being distributed properly. The inspector general's office announced Monday that it was looking at how the department is awarding the money and ensure the airlines' claims are reasonable. Congress earmarked $5 billion to reimburse airlines for losses as a result of last month's terrorist attacks. The money was to have been allocated based on each carrier's market share or its actual losses. The airlines can also apply for a share of $10 billion in loan ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A measure giving military recruiters the same access to high school campuses as college and business recruiters will likely be approved by congressional lawmakers Tuesday, sources familiar with the legislation said. The Pentagon estimated last year that about 2,000 public high schools have policies that bar military recruiters, hampering their efforts. In 2000, all military services except the Marine Corps failed to meet their recruiting goals. "It's in everyone's interest to ensure that young people receive information, including military options, so they can make an informed choice about their future," Bill Carr, the Defense Department's chief director ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction, with six-month rates reaching their lowest level ever. The Treasury Department sold $15 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.050 percent, down from 2.170 percent last week. An additional $14 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 2.005 percent, down from 2.130 percent. The three-month rate was the lowest since Aug. 18, 1958, when the bills sold for 1.895 percent. The six-month rate was the lowest on record. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors - 2.089 percent ...

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - A powerful bomb tore through a food court Sunday, killing at least six people and injuring scores while U.S. military officers were in town to discuss helping the government fight Muslim rebels. The Americans were unhurt in the early evening attack in this city in the restive southern Philippines, officials said. They were staying at a tightly guarded military camp a few miles from the site of the explosion, said Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, who heads the Philippine military's Southern Command. There was no evidence the group of more than 20 Americans was targeted, but Cimatu ...

<p>WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense reshuffled its military structure yesterday as it pondered creating a new command that would focus on the domestic battle against terrorism.</p> <p>Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld temporarily gave a pair of military commanders additional responsibilities for defending US territory while the Pentagon explores whether a permanent homeland defense command is possible. Under the plan, the military's role would be expanded to battle terrorism at home, inside US borders. Currently the military's focus has been more on guarding the borders and the country from external threats.</p>

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said in an interview with a British newspaper Sunday that the United States and Britain planned to launch 1,000 missiles at 300 Iraqi targets in a bid to topple President Saddam Hussein under the pretext of waging war against terrorism. "We know that they are preparing for such an attack," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "We know that it is just a matter of time." He added: "When they decide to attack Iraq it will be for their own agenda because they want to replace this government because it is independent and will not ...

WASHINGTON--The bad guys know how to start a bio-panic. Don't go for the jugular. Go for the megaphone. Hit the media and the politicians. They have unique access to the national consciousness, and they have been filling it with all-anthrax all-the-time. We have had three deaths. All are tragedies, and the last two, the postal workers in Washington, were tragically unnecessary. Unnecessary in the sense that if we knew two weeks ago what we know today--that anthrax spores can traverse an envelope--the postal workers would have been tested and prophylactically treated. The problem is that until now we have had ...

I was standing behind an old fashioned parapet made of mud brick and oil drums looking out across the lovely orchards of the Shomali valley at the Taleban positions opposite when the action of the day began. The unmistakable insect-like hum of a jet gradually got louder and the Northern Alliance soldiers around me - just kids with guns for the most part - started pointing up into the sky. There it was, a tiny silver cross in the blue. My cameraman focused on it and filmed it unleashing its single bomb. He followed the bomb's downward flight all the ...

LONDON (AP) - The war in Afghanistan won't be quick, easy or painless, government officials stressed Sunday but British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was confident of victory. Blair said in a brief statement that the U.S.-led war was morally just, while his deputies used morning talk shows to prepare the nation for the grim consequences of putting British soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. "Whatever our faults, Britain is a very moral nation with a strong sense of right and wrong, and that moral fiber will defeat the fanaticism of the terrorists and their supporters," the prime minister ...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - After suffering the loss of a whooping crane in a wind storm, researchers took advantage of good weather Saturday to resume a migratory trip to Florida with their remaining small flock of the endangered birds. Two ultralight aircraft led six cranes on a flight that covered 94.7 miles in one hour and 55 minutes, stopping at a location in Illinois' De Kalb County, according to the Operation Migration Web site. One other crane was transported in his crate by the ground crew because the pilots wanted to wait until they are over more open terrain for ...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel was ready to pull its troops out of Bethlehem Sunday if Palestinian gunfire stops, a senior official said, but Palestinians insisted that the withdrawal must be unconditional. In violence Sunday, an Israeli soldier was killed in a drive-by shooting inside Israel near the line with the West Bank, Israeli police and rescue workers said. An anonymous caller told The Associated Press that the Al Aqsa Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, attacked an Israeli military vehicle, revenge for Saturday's killing of a Fatah activist in nearby Tulkarem. Israel canceled a planned Saturday pullout ...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Police have freed 48 people, including a journalist and two cameraman, who were detained for several hours during a protest against internal security laws. Human-rights activists said Sunday that everyone detained had been freed on bail. Authorities had not yet filed any charges, but could do so in coming days or weeks. Those detained had been attending a protest Saturday by about 300 opposition activists near the Kamunting prison camp, 155 miles north of Kuala Lumpur. At least 14 people are imprisoned under the Internal Security Act at the camp, including six arrested in April ...