Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Scott Brown’s Senate victory Tuesday sent shock waves through the Massachusetts congressional delegation, many members of which saw key communities in their districts vote overwhelmingly Republican.....Gleeful Republican strategists said three House members looked particularly vulnerable after the strong Republican turnout for Brown in their districts: Niki Tsongas of Lowell, James McGovern of Worcester, and William Delahunt, of Quincy.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2010 – Kelly Henry was hoping for a picture-perfect reunion when her husband returned after a yearlong deployment to Iraq. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Michael Henry, his wife, Kelly, and four children enjoy a Hawaiian holiday vacation. Henry, a family medicine doctor, had returned home to his family Dec. 2, 2009, after completing a yearlong deployment in Iraq. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But what she got was far from a Hollywood scene. “All four [of my kids] cried within 48 hours of my husband coming home,” said Henry, wife of Army Lt. Col....

GENEVA, October 16, 2009 -- Today's emergency UN Human Rights Council debate on the Goldstone Report predictably saw a line-up of the world's worst abusers condemn democratic Israel for human rights violations. In a heated lynch mob atmosphere, Kuwait slammed Israel for “intentional killing, intentional destruction of civilian objects, intentional scorched-earth policy,” saying Israel “embodied the Agatha Christie novel, 'Escaped with Murder'.” Pakistan said the “horrors of Israeli occupation continue to haunt the international community’s conscience.” The Arab League said, “We must condemn Israel and force Israel to accept international legitimacy." Ahmadinejad’s Iran said “the atrocities committed against Palestinians during...

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2009 – The United States continues to face severe security and governance challenges in Afghanistan this year, but U.S. efforts remain fixed on defeating extremism and boosting the Afghan government. That’s the conclusion drawn in the latest Pentagon assessment of U.S. achievements and setbacks in Afghanistan. Congress requires the so-called “1230 Report” every 180 days. The report released today covers the first half of 2009, a period during which President Barack Obama’s administration assessed the multinational effort in Afghanistan, unveiling a new strategy in late March. The strategy has yielded the appointment of a new top U.S....

After his reelection as Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extends an invitation to his American counterpart Barack Obama for a debate before the eyes of the world. Addressing Iranian heads of medical universities on Saturday, President Ahmadinejad offered to debate President Obama at the United Nations headquarters in New York before the eyes of all nations of the world. President Ahmadinejad had previously urged a debate with former US president George W. Bush. The Iranian president wrote an 18-page letter to President Bush in 2006 that touched on religious values, history and international relations. The letter was viewed as an offer...

The Obama administration’s disputes with government watchdogs do not end with fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Behind the scenes, the Treasury Department is embroiled in a disagreement with Neil Barofsky, the watchdog for the $700 billion government bailout Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The dispute was revealed in a letter that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent on Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, first reported by the Los Angeles Times’ Peter Wallsten.

WASHINGTON – A White House document says EPA regulation of the gases blamed for global warming will have serious economic consequences throughout the U.S. economy. The document is a compilation of opinions from numerous federal agencies about the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health. It was released Tuesday by Republican senators. The nine-page document says that if the EPA proceeds with the regulation of heat-trapping gases, factories, small businesses and institutions would be subject to costly regulation.

COMBAT OUTPOST DEYSIE, Afghanistan, April 23, 2009 – Nothing illustrates the difficulties of combat in Afghanistan’s Regional Command East like this base on the Gardez-Khowst road. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the base yesterday to hear from the soldiers on the ground what life is like in Afghanistan. He flew from Kabul to Forward Operating Base Airborne, and then to this combat outpost. Mullen met with leaders and servicemembers who explained their duties and talked about the challenges they face. The area is “geographically challenging,” said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Milley, deputy commander...

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009 – The war in Afghanistan poses the biggest challenge to the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday, but he expressed confidence that Iraq “is in a better place” and warfighters and wounded warriors are better provided for than two years ago. Speaking on PBS’ “Tavis Smiley Show,” Gates reflected on the challenges he faces as defense secretary and the accomplishments he has helped to bring about. “Clearly, the war in Afghanistan is our biggest current challenge,” he said. “Getting the strategy right on that, having a path forward, and having clear and attainable...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy while posing the tricky issue of defining whether a satellite can be a weapon. Moments after Obama's inauguration last week, the White House website was updated to include policy statements on a range of issues, including a pledge to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and seek a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats will pack greater clout when the new Congress convenes on Tuesday but they face enormous expectations from voters as they grapple with two wars, a financial crisis and record budget deficits. Lawmakers begin work 14 days before Barack Obama is sworn in as president. When he takes the oath on January 20, Democrats will control the White House and Congress for the first time in 14 years. Having rolled to victory in the November election with a promise of change after eight turbulent years under Republican President George W. Bush, Democrats need to produce results. Their...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2008 – Afghanistan is making progress, and despite challenges, it can rely on America to help it defeat terrorists and grow its fledgling democracy, President George W. Bush told Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the capital city of Kabul today. “There’s been good progress made, but there are a lot of tough challenges” ahead in Afghanistan, said Bush, who made a surprise visit to Afghanistan following his unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday. “I told the president that you can count on the United States -- just like you’ve been able to count on this administration, you’ll...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2008 – Afghanistan’s complex environment colors military operations in the nation, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan told the Atlantic Council of the United States here yesterday. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan said Afghanistan’s culture of violence, exacerbated by more than three decades of warfare, combines with the opium poppy trade to produce a toxic brew in the nation. Afghanistan’s heroin trade funds the insurgency, McKiernan said. While the Taliban is the main group in the country, various other extremist groups continue to merge and fall apart and find common ground with drug traffickers,...

“Mark my words,” Joe Biden told a group of wealthy contributors. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like it did John Kennedy.” A moment later Biden added, “Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” So let’s play Name That Crisis, the one Biden says will test Obama within six months of his inauguration. Understand any answer will be tentative. Even if the prognosticator correctly identifies the antagonists and the battlefield, the actual sequence of events will defy astrologers, political science-fiction scenarists and intelligence...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today challenged military officers to become forward thinkers with the courage to advance new approaches needed to confront current and emerging threats. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Lorenz, Commander of the Air War College, presents a memento to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to commemorate his speech at Polifka Auditorium, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., April 21, 2008. Defense Dept. photo by Cherie Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “An unconventional era of warfare requires unconventional thinkers,” Gates told Air War College students at Maxwell Air...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A huge survey of the world's Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence. The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington. "Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): 'It is time...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2008 – The Afghan army air corps is going through rapid growth, but it will take eight years for the force to be self-sustaining and independent, the commander of the Combined Air Power Transition Force said from his headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul today. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jay H. Lindell told Pentagon reporters via video-teleconference that the air corps has doubled its capability since October and that he expects it to double again in the next six months. His 133 U.S. servicemembers are helping the Afghan National Army establish the air corps. Ultimately, the...

TALLIL, Iraq, Jan. 22, 2008 – Of the nearly 3,800 projects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division has completed across Iraq in four years, one stands out because of the special challenges it posed. Circuits come together and split to different directions in the country at the Amarah, Iraq, electrical substation outdoor switchyard. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Built at a cost of nearly $37 million, a 400–kilovolt electrical substation in Amarah, the capital of Iraq’s Maysan province, was built in an area deemed volatile and high-risk from a security perspective, with...

SAN DIEGO – Environmental groups filed 13 lawsuits Wednesday against the Bush administration, alleging that it fails to protect imperiled species because of political meddling and other inadequacies. Mentioned in the litigation were at least five species with current or former habitat in San Diego County: the spreading navarretia, thread-leaved brodiaea, San Diego ambrosia, red-legged frog and arroyo toad. Dozens of related lawsuits are in the works, signaling a heightened battle with national implications for how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes care of plants and animals close to extinction. The agency already was reeling from investigations that found...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2007 – Though the rapid growth of Iraq’s Interior Ministry has posed challenges, the Iraqis are forging ahead with the process, the commander of the coalition police assistance training team in Iraq said yesterday. Army Maj. Gen. Michael Jones spoke to Web journalists and “bloggers” via telephone from his headquarters in Baghdad. The Interior Ministry has grown 450 percent since 2003, he said. “As I thought about it, I tried to imagine if this was the U.S. Army,” he said. If the Army grew at the same rate, there would be an active force of more than...