Free Republic

In his interview with CBS News, Obama says: Logan: Because you do have a situation seven years on into this war where Osama bin Laden and all his lieutenants and all the leaders of the Taliban, they’re still there. And they’re inside Pakistan. Obama: Right. It’s a huge problem. And first of all, if we hadn’t taken our eye off the ball, we might have caught them before they got into Pakistan and were able to reconstitute themselves. Several times in recent interviews, Obama has referred to "taken our eye off the ball" in terms of the invasion of Iraq,...

Vince Foster's Death In July 1993, Clinton aide Vince Foster was found dead in a Virginia park. The death was officially pronounced a suicide, but rumors abounded that Foster was murdered. Foster's death has ties to several White House scandals, including the administration's handling of "Travelgate," the Waco incident and the Whitewater affair. The Whitewater Connection Kenneth Starr, special counsel in charge of the Whitewater investigation, investigated Foster's death and what relationship it might have had with Whitewater. In three articles in the Electronic Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported on the investigation and the possibility of a coverup. In March 20,...

For years I have heard from many sources that the Clinton Administration was able to create a budget surplus and then the Bush Administration came in and squandered this surplus. This is repeatedly reported so someone tell me how my perception of this issue is in error. Here's what seems to be apparent to me: By dramatically defunding the military and intelligence agencies the Clinton Administration was able to show on paper a projected 10 year federal budget surplus. The terrorists attacks of September 11th occured. The Bush Administration needed to dramatically refund the defunded military and intelligence agencies. This...

The United States will pledge $400 million in aid to Kosovo next week at a donors conference expected to raise more than $1 billion for the newly independent state, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday..... The Bush administration requested the bulk of its pledge from the U.S. Congress more than a year ago, well before Kosovo declared independence, out of a certainty that the region would need financial help whenever it declared independence.

The travel section of the paper featured a story on Kosovo the other day with a recommendation that readers visit this latest "must see" spot on the globe. It made me laugh. Almost forty years ago--1971 to be exact -- I traveled in what was then called Yugoslavia and is now called Kosovo. The memories of that trip remain so vivid and so utterly at odds with this report.

The Rage Offstage at Marvel By BILL ALPERT Lawsuits against Marvel, Lee and Bill and Hillary are pressing Paul's claims that a dot-com he started with Stan Lee in 1998 was undone by the actions of the former president, short-sellers and Stan Lee himself. In a Manhattan federal district court, some of Paul's associates argue that the bankrupt dot-com, Stan Lee Media, still owns rights to Marvel characters like Spider-Man and The X-Men. On behalf of the former dot-com, they want half the profits that Marvel (ticker: MVL) is piling up, now that it's producing its own films like the...

[JURIST] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) [official website] announced Wednesday that it will prepare a report [press release] on allegations of organ trafficking in Kosovo. Former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has alleged in a new book [JURIST report] that about 300 Serbian and other non-Albanian prisoners were victims of organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, but that a 2003 probe by her ICTY team failed to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute. In response, parliamentarians submitted a motion [text] in...

NEW YORK, NY - The cigar made famous during Ken Starr's investigation of former President Clinton's relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky was sold on eBay yesterday for $1.2 million. The cigar - rumored to have been lost since 1998 - was posted on eBay by longtime Hillary Clinton supporter Lanny Davis, stirring speculation that the Clinton campaign is quietly raising funds for a comeback at the Democratic Convention...

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment deployed to the Balkans earlier this year to provide Kosovo Forces with armored capabilities during Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia, according to Army officials. Information on the deployment was kept under wraps until now because of the mission’s sensitivity. In the days following Kosovo’s declaration of independence, protesters marched in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. Kosovo Force troops and U.N. police closed the border with Serbia after hearing that protesters were being bused to Mitrovica to join the protest. During the deployment 1-4 soldiers were manning Bradley fighting...

MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not opposed to an EU mission replacing the UN force in Kosovo, but the move should have the formal backing of the UN Security Council and Serbia, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday. "We are not opposed to the European Union taking on part of the responsibility for what is happening in Kosovo," Vladimir Chizhov, envoy to the European Communities, said adding a European mission should be approved by a UN Security Council resolution and Belgrade. Chizhov said UN Security Council Resolution 1244 was currently the only legal basis for an...

In her book "The Hunt: Me and War Criminals," Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor at The Hague, reveals the gruesome details of the hundreds of Serb prisoners whose bodies were stripped of their organs during the Kosovo war. According to her sources, senior figures in the KLA were aware of the scheme, in which hundreds of young Serbs were reportedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania, where their organs were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of the reported organ harvesting and of how some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed. Miss Del Ponte...

Syria, NKorea helped Iran develop nuclear programme: German report Sat Jun 21, 1:57 PM ET Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported. But the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is considering withdrawing his support for the Iranian programme, added the German newsweekly in its next edition out Monday, quoting German secret service reports. According to those intelligence reports, it said, a joint plan by Syria, North Korea and Iran for a nuclear reactor for military use was to have been...

A Massachusetts city is investigating an apparent teenage "pregnancy pact" that has at least 17 high-school girls expecting babies, four times more than last year, including many aged 16 or younger. A high school health clinic in the city of Gloucester became suspicious after seeing a surge in girls seeking pregnancy tests. Local officials said on Thursday nearly half of those who became pregnant appear to have entered into a pact to have their babies together over the year. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time...

There were more than 200 student assaults on county public schools teachers last academic year, according to a state report. But school officials said many of the incidents weren't serious assaults and involved elementary schoolers.clip Mr. Mennuti said he is worried about the effect assaults have on teacher morale. "I don't want teachers to be afraid to come to schools," he said. "That's the last thing we need when we're trying to recruit. We can't afford to have something negative like this permeate through the system.

What makes a grown woman pursue a guy who gets carded at R-rated movies, lives with his parents who give him an allowance and, who if your actions are revealed, would ruin your reputation and possibly land you in jail? Theories abound. Some might surprise you. Like how mentally, they are about the same age.Sexual abuse involving older women and teen boys is an underreported crime, one that experts say has been largely ignored by the public, legal system and academic researchers for reasons including sexual double standards and evidence suggesting teen boys often are willing participants. But that attitude...

John McCain has called off a fundraiser at the home of a Texas oilman who joked about rape during a 1990 gubernatorial run in the state. The Texan, Republican Clayton Williams, made the joke during his failed campaign against Democrat Ann Richards. Williams compared rape to the weather, saying, "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." He also compared Richards to the cattle on his ranch, saying he would "head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt." Williams' comments made national news at the time and remain easy to find...

Campaign May Leave Blot on Clinton Legacy By JOHN M. BRODER and ROBIN TONER WASHINGTON — Bill and Hillary Clinton have stirred virulent passions in their nearly two decades in the national spotlight. They have been known as many things, good and bad — brilliant policy analysts, manipulators of facts and friends, tireless campaigners, skillful political tacticians, monumentally self-absorbed baby boomers. But most of all they were known as winners. Until now. While the Clintons will almost certainly play a continuing role in the nation’s political life, and Mrs. Clinton could yet emerge as this year’s vice presidential nominee, a...

BOSTON, (AP) -- A Massachusetts state senator recently arrested on charges that he groped and made lewd comments to two women says he will not seek re-election. The Arlington Democrat said in a statement Thursday that he would not seek another term this fall. He spent 17 years in the House before winning a special election in December to fill a vacant seat in the Senate. The 50-year-old Marzilli pleaded not guilty . . .

WASHINGTON, — Sexual activity is on the rise among U.S. teens while their use of contraceptives is sliding in the other direction, according to a study released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Click here to view the study.Approximately 48 percent of 14,041 high school students said they have had sex, representing a 2 percent hike since 2005; however, teens still are having less sex today than their counterparts did in the 1990s. The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study showed a 2 percent drop-off in the percentage of teens who said they used condoms...

Kosovo Muslims arrest Serbs over t'shirts SERBIANNA June 3, 2008 Brothers Miomir and Milos Stojanovic from Gnjilane have been arrested on the regional road from Gnjilane to Bujanovac for wearing t-shirts saying Kosovo is Serbia, stated official of the Kosovo Ministry Milorad Todorovic. He told the Serbian news agency Beta that two youths were arrested and brought before the municipal prosecutor in Gnjilane. The Islamic judge decided that the brothers, who are Christian, must either pay 250 Euros each or to spend 60 days in jail.