Free Republic

Lately some have been carping about the issue of military tribunals. Questions are being raised as to its rationale. There is merit in scrutinizing the appropriateness of the exercise of power, even when it comes to defending a nation at war. John Adams' involvement with the Alien and Sedition Acts, Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's internment of the Japanese are examples of misuses of war power. But military tribunals are different. Tribunals are constitutionally, historically and pragmatically sound for the following reasons. The new military tribunals are established with reliance upon the constitutional grant ...

AVIATION investigators were examining a security camera video tape yesterday which appeared to have caught the break-up of the American Airlines Airbus A300 which crashed over New York on Monday as inquiries continued to focus on the failure of the tail section. A National Transport Safety Board official in Washington said evidence was growing that the complete tail section had broken off in flight before the engines, making the jet uncontrollable. He added that there "doesn't appear to have been sabotage in any way". Large sections of the tail and rudder assembly, made of lightweight non-metal graphite composites, have ...

A CANCER treatment that works like a "Trojan horse", delivering a single radioactive atom inside cancer cells and then unleashing a shower of atomic fragments to kill them, has been developed by scientists. In the laboratory the technique killed a variety of cancer cells - including breast, leukaemia, lymphoma, ovarian, neuroblastoma and prostate - and tests on humans could begin next year. The treatment could be administered by injection at a doctor's office or outpatient clinic. The atoms, known as nanogenerators, use a minute dose of radiation - a picocurie, which is a millionth of a millionth of the ...

Just two days after the FBI said it was investigating witness accounts that American Airlines Flt. 587 exploded in midair before it broke apart over New York's Jamaica Bay on Monday, NTSB investigators are pushing the theory that air turbulence from another jetliner -- and not any explosion -- caused the crash that scattered wreckage covering a half mile wide area. "We are consistently looking for any sign of sabotage and not finding any," said NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely on Wednesday. "There is no evidence of any bomb, of any sabotage, at this point." That's not what the investigators were ...

No matter what the NTSB determines to have caused the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, the event will have a significant impact on airline travel. Taken in the broader context of the September 11 attacks and a world now at war against terrorism, the loss of another large airliner full of passengers has no doubt penetrated the consciousness of a country even somewhat numbed by tragedy. Who will not think twice about airline travel now, especially out of New York or on American? Who is convinced that the crash was truly an accident and not another sinister act ...

This summer I wrote a book review for an academic journal -- one of those terribly important pieces of writing that will be read by tens and tens of people, some of them actually people outside my own family. The book is about the history of governmental restrictions on U.S. news media during war, and it's a good book in many ways. But I faulted the author for accepting the American mythology about the nobility of our wars and their motivations. I challenged his uncritical use of the term patriotism, which I called "perhaps the single most morally and ...

THE LEFT COAST REPORT People have been talking about ways in which we might address terrorism. Sylvester Stallone thinks he may have the answer: Bring back Rambo for a fourth time. According to the London Sunday Times, the plot of the proposed movie involves a Green Beret force of one who parachutes into Afghanistan, conquers the Taliban and maybe even captures Osama bin Laden. The Left Coast Report does see a slight problem with the timing of the movie. The Taliban and bin Laden are likely to be history long before the film’s projected release date of next summer. How ...

We are hearing rumblings from places that we would never expect. In Newsweek magazine, Jonathan Alter writes that it is "Time to Think about Torture." Alan Dershowitz argues that we might soon make requests for "torture warrants." And numerous journalists ask a question that, in the United States of America, we are completely unaccustomed to hearing: Should our government torture terrorism suspects? It is safe to say that most people are uncomfortable with the topic and find it difficult to contemplate its possible application. But then again we are at war and find ourselves dealing with a whole host ...

Summary: Two senior PLA Air Force colonels wrote "Unrestricted Warfare", presented here in summary translation, to explore how technology innovation is setting off a revolution in military tactics, strategy and organization. "Unrestricted Warfare" discusses new types of warfare which may be conducted by civilians as well as by soldiers including computer hacker attacks, trade wars and finance wars. "Unrestricted Warfare" provides insight into the thinking of some Chinese military theorists about the impact of science and technological change on China and other countries. Many Chinese books and magazines on military subjects have appeared this year. Overviews of three other recent ...

JUST below the surface of the West's troubled collective unconscious, a killer anxiety is struggling to be born. It is that Islam - not just "Islamic fundamentalism" but Islam tout court - is going to become not merely one of the hazards we will have to negotiate from time to time, but something a great deal more dangerous. This re-emergence of Islam as the scourge of the West is what Osama bin Laden wants to bring about and what the West is determined to forestall. As the Spectator argued recently, it is why Tony Blair "is going to such heroic ...

AMID scenes of poverty, chaos and piteous despair, Afghan refugees told yesterday how the Taleban have unleashed a new wave of terror in direct retaliation for America’s B52 bombing raids. Chanting Islamic militiamen swarmed into villages behind their front lines just hours after the high-level attacks began a week ago and murdered hundreds of men, raped women and girls, and conscripted teenage boys. The revenge attacks have triggered a fresh exodus of refugees who brave the journey across no-man’s-land to Northern Alliance territory, crowding into camps already teeming with thousands of families living with little food and no housing. ...

THE Foreign Secretary made his feelings clear when he said that Osama bin Laden’s state of mind was psychotic, but Mr Straw’s terminology was awry. Psychosis is the term for a group of mental diseases such as schizophrenia and some types of manic depression. They are characterised by the patient being paranoid, deluded and having hallucinations — auditory, visual or olfactory — and gross disturbances of the thought processes. There is no evidence that bin Laden suffers from any mental disease, let alone that he is psychotic, but his behaviour makes it highly likely that he has a serious ...

On Wednesday, in Irvine, California, Jeane Kirkpatrick addressed a group from Claremont McKenna College. The former Reagan cabinet member spoke of the problems we now face. Kirkpatrick remarked that our forebears, as well as those who set out to explore our nation, had a virtue we must exhibit today. She described the quality as "simple raw courage.” In an effort to place the September 11th attack in context, Kirkpatrick noted that it was the first time since 1812 that such a military attack had taken place on our soil. She also provided some important facts about our enemy, Osama ...

Should we really have towards Islam, at this point in history, a tolerance that in the West we have not had even towards Christianity? The Church of the Crusades, of the Inquisition, of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, of religious wars, of book burnings and burnings at the stake, was as “fundamentalist,” as they would say today, as the Muslims we complain about so much and with such reason. The Church of Rome was fundamentalist in particular, because it had the desire, both in ancient and medieval times, to impose itself on the state, to determine as well civil law,---in short, ...

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 29 — Former U.N. weapons inspectors tell ABCNEWS they've learned the anthrax spores found in a poison letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle are nearly identical to those discovered in Iraq in 1994. ABCNEWS also has learned that at least two labs have concluded the anthrax was coated with additives linked to the Iraqi biological weapons program. Despite continued White House denials, five well-placed and separate sources have told ABCNEWS that initial tests have detected traces of bentonite and silica, substances that keep tiny anthrax particles ...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Bit by bit, the evidence accumulates, and some conservatives are dismayed at what they see: a Republican administration sending low-key but clear signals that homosexuals are welcomed in its ranks and respected as a voting bloc.</p>

Oops, they did it again. Congress passed another bill that significantly increases the power of the federal government. It is for our protection, so they tell us. Just as in the past, the bill was rushed on through. There was very little time for anyone who was actually voting on the legislation to review its details and, as usual, this is where the devil is. The bill has already been signed into law by President Bush and will be implemented immediately. Benjamin Franklin warned us that if we were willing to give up liberty for safety, we would be ...

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com)—If America would adopt the process of atonement, she would remain strong hundreds of years into the future, said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan during his Oct. 16 Holy Day of Atonement address celebrating the 6th anniversary of the Million Man March. “I would hope that President Bush would lead the country in atonement” and say to the world that “we’re going to change our policies that are unjust, unfair; we’re going to deal with the Middle East crisis with an even hand,” he said to more than 3,000 people at Christ Universal Temple, and thousands more nationwide via ...

As we talk about what should be done with Osama bin Laden, we get the sense that there is an effort going on to lower the emotional pitch of our language. The word we are hearing most often, meant to quiet our impassioned tongues, is the word "justice." It somehow causes the mind to conjure up staid images of things such as courtrooms and lawyers. Osama bin Laden is said to be a fugitive from justice. President Bush says that we need to bring bin Laden and his terrorist companions to justice. Jessie Jackson and others talk about bringing ...

The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has reversed a month-long ban on Western journalists. He is now inviting TV crews from CNN and other news organizations to pay a visit to Karam, a village in Afghanistan. Has he suddenly developed a desire to fraternize with Western journalists? No, Omar has decided to use an age-old combat device, commonly known as propaganda. Propaganda in war has two simple goals: solidify resolve and demoralize the enemy. Reporters will be escorted to Karam, cameras in hand, to see the approximately 200 civilians who were allegedly killed by a rogue U.S. weapon. Pictures ...