Free Republic

Raising $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 is challenging, but possible through mechanisms including carbon markets, domestic carbon taxes and a variety of international transportation taxes, a United Nations advisory group said in a report Friday. Earlier this year, the UN's Ban established the panel, which includes U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, billionaire financier George Soros and Deutsche Bank vice-chairman Caio Koch-Weser. The financing will be used to support mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries--in particular, for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

SNIPPET: "OTTAWA — The May 18 firebombing of an Ottawa bank was feared to be just the start of a "domestic terrorism" campaign launched by three anarchists bent on acts of destruction at the G20 summit in Toronto, with one of the accused firebombers stockpiling boxes of ammunition and gunpowder, the Ottawa Citizen has learned." SNIPPET: "Ottawa Police Chief Vern White had publicly branded those who attacked the bank branch as terrorists days after the firebombing, which was filmed and posted online in a "catch-me-if-you-can" video by a group called FFFC-Ottawa. The acronym stands for Fight for Freedom Coalition, according...

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

It was January 8, 2005--I was in Sri Lanka, shooting footage for a documentary on the Canadian DART group, sent to help the people after a 32-foot wave, traveling 500 miles an hour hit the fragile houses and people of the Ampara district. Prior to leaving, the politicians in Ottawa had spoon-fed the Canadian news outlets. So, Canadian Press reported of the DART: "the wrong people, the wrong place, antiquated equipment"--once again the Canadian soldiers had been set up for failure by their own bureaucracy. The political ministers were fed the information by their staff, and in turn, they spoon-fed...

Abdullah Khadr, the eldest son of a reputed Canadian Al Qaeda financier, was arrested by the RCMP yesterday on terrorism-related charges at the request of American authorities. The 25-year-old Canadian recently returned from Pakistan where he was held for 14 months without charge. He was arrested last night after agreeing to meet an RCMP officer at a McDonald's near his Scarborough apartment, his relatives said last night. His mother, Maha Elsamnah tried to intervene in the arrest and was also taken into custody, but later released without charges. Khadr's brother, 22-year-old Abdurahman was also at the fast food restaurant and...

Abdullah Khadr at large: Brothers were caught in Afghanistan, father is wanted for aiding Osama bin Laden The federal government released secret intelligence documents yesterday revealing that an al-Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan was under the command of a Scarborough man whose two brothers are captives in the war on terrorism. Abdullah Khadr, 22, is described in a Privy Council Office intelligence report as a suspected al-Qaeda member who is thought to have "commanded an extremist training camp in Lowgar Province in Afghanistan." He is the fourth member of the Khadr family to come to the attention of Canadian...

Is China’s ownership interest in Alberta oil sands being financed with Canadian tax dollars? Officials with Sinopec Corp.-- a company majority owned by the Chinese government has already been in Alberta for their own look-see--an actual tour of the oil sands. A second Chinese state-owned company, Minmetals Corp. is working on a bid to acquire Toronto-based mine company Noranda Inc.--a deal worth more than $7 billion. When the fix is in, the Canadian Liberal Government will have managed to sell off our nation’s coveted natural resources–allowing China to buy them with our own money! This story begins and ends with...

Canada bankrolled man's aid agency during that time U.S. authorities have tied a Canadian aid worker to the al-Qaeda terrorist network as far back as 1988, almost a decade before the Canadian government cut off funding to his Ottawa-based Muslim charity. Evidence unsealed by a U.S. judge in Chicago shows Ahmed Said Khadr had dealings with senior al-Qaeda leaders while being financed by the Canadian International Development Agency. Although CIDA stopped giving aid money to Mr. Khadr in 1997 after he was arrested for allegedly bombing an embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, the documents allege he was working with al-Qaeda long...

'Nightmare scenarios': Ottawa suspected it might break its own anti-terror law Canadian government aid officials are concerned they might be indirectly supporting terrorism because of their dealings with violent organizations banned by Ottawa and the United Nations, newly released internal documents show. The officials were so worried they held a meeting last March on the "indirect financing of international terrorist organizations" at which they agreed more needed to be done to ensure terrorists did not receive Canadian aid money. The documents show Ottawa is particularly concerned about its aid programs in the Middle East and Sri Lanka -- war-damaged regions...