Free Republic

US Bishops Disagree with Designation of Cuba as Terrorism SponsorIn announcing the designation of Cuba Jan. 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has provided “support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.”WASHINGTON — The US bishops’ chair for international justice and peace has expressed his disagreement with the State Department’s return of Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.The decision was based in part on Cuba’s provision of haven to Colombian rebel leaders and fugitives from US justice, as well as Cuba’s support of Nicolas Maduro, the disputed president of...

COLUMBIA — University of South Carolina students could be fined and suspended if they fail to get monthly COVID-19 tests the school is mandating in the spring semester. The state’s largest college is requiring monthly checks after it needed T-shirt giveaways and prize drawings at times to conduct nearly 50,000 student tests on campus since August. An unknown number of tests were conducted off campus.

A new report from Columbia University researchers finds that at least 130,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States could have been avoided if the U.S. had responded to the virus as well as a group of other high-income countries. The report compares the per capita death rate in the U.S. from the virus with six other high-income countries: South Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, Canada and France. It finds that if the U.S. had the same rate of death as France, it would have about 55,000 fewer deaths, while if it had South Korea’s rate it would have about 215,000 fewer....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — In a state known for its political shenanigans, the Senate race in South Carolina is living up to that reputation as campaigning between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison enters its closing days. This week, Harrison has been mounting a campaign to cleave voters from Graham and steer them toward a third, more conservative candidate, although that candidate is no longer actively running. The tactic could appeal to South Carolina voters who voted Graham in but have at times critiqued him as not conservative enough for the state

As Jews rang in the New Year, students at Columbia University voted in favor of an anti-Israel referendum that calls on the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel. The vote will have no tangible impact—Columbia University president Lee Bollinger has said he opposes any move to economically isolate Israel—but signals rising anti-Israel sentiment on the college campus. The referendum, the results of which were announced Tuesday morning, was pushed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that argues Israel is an apartheid state. The referendum's most ardent opponent, the Students Supporting Israel group, lobbied against the...

In a survival saga for the ages, a Colombian woman who had fallen off the grid two years ago was miraculously discovered alive at sea by flabbergasted fishermen. Video of her dramatic rescue has since gone viral online. “Thank God I was alive,” said Angelica Gaitan, 46, who was found Saturday by Roland Visbal while floating 1.2 miles off of Puerto Colombia. In the stunning footage shot by her rescuer, Visbal and a friend named Gustavo can be seen maneuvering their vessel toward the suspended woman, who appears unresponsive. In fact, they initially mistook Gaitan for a piece of driftwood...

A Columbia TV news anchor was arrested in South Dakota on Sunday after she was accused of smashing a beer bottle into a man’s head over a political argument, according to Sioux Falls police. Kamie Roesler, 28, co-anchors WIS Sunrise, according to the station. She joined WIS-TV in September 2019. Roesler has been charged with aggravated assault. The victim, a 32-year-old man, told police he and Roesler had been arguing about politics leading up to the incident. Roesler and the man knew each other, according to police. The victim had cuts on his face and needed stitches, police said. He...

A 29-year-old soldier in basic training was found dead in his barracks at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday, Army officials said, marking the fourth death of a soldier at the base in the past year. The active-duty soldier from Wisconsin was not immediately identified. The base is holding a 48-hour training stand down following the death, the 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment said in a statement. While the cause of death was under investigation, the base said it was unrelated to COVID-19 and active field training exercise. No further details were immediately given. Three other soldiers-in-training have died...

Charges include arson, inciting riots, and civil disorders Columbia, South Carolina --- United States Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr. announced today that six people are facing federal charges for participating in actions including arson, inciting riots, and other civil disorder in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, on May 30 and 31, 2020.Following George Floyd’s death in Minnesota on May 25, 2020, protestors in Columbia and Charleston joined to peacefully demonstrate against racism and the use of excessive force by law enforcement. While the large majority of participants exercised their First Amendment rights in a lawful manner, others engaged in...

The lights appeared on the evening of Saturday, August 29 and citizens recorded the curious event. The videos were taken from different parts of the city of Medellín. In an interview with UFO researcher Juan Jesús Vallejo on the Al Rojo Vivo program, the guest assured that "[the objects] move in an intelligent and coordinated manner. This sighting lasted a long time". Some believe that these could have been drones programmed to give off impressive light shows. However, there are is no information suggesting that swarms of drones flew over Medellín that night. VIDEO AT: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEkui0Rgxdy/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

The FBI said it searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago as part of a terrorism investigation Friday. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between local anti-war activists and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East. FBI spokesman Steve Warfield told The Associated Press agents served six warrants in Minneapolis and two in Chicago. "These were search warrants only," Warfield said. "We're not anticipating any arrests at this time. They're seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism." The homes of longtime Minneapolis anti-war activists Mick Kelly, Jess Sundin and Meredith Aby were among those...

A far-left, antifa-supporting paramilitary group in Columbia, SC, openly advocates for the use of “deadly force” against law enforcement personnel to “protect the people” from what they call government “tyranny.” In a recent Facebook post, the militia group, Civil Defense Corps, suggested that federal agents should be shot in the face, Far Left Watch has learned. According to its website, the Civil Defense Corps is actively recruiting “former infantry” to serve as armed “Reserve Units” to “investigate hate crimes and threats against minorities as well as the LGBTQ+ community.” The local media refers to the heavily armed Civil Defense Corps...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE  SUBJECT:       Continuation of U.S. Drug Interdiction Assistance to the Government of ColombiaBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 1012 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995, as amended (22 U.S.C. 2291-4), I hereby certify, with respect to Colombia, that:  (1) interdiction of aircraft reasonably suspected to be primarily engaged in illicit drug trafficking in that country’s airspace is necessary, because of the extraordinary threat posed by illicit...

Through deep genetic analyses, Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have found conclusive scientific evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and Native Americans from the region that is now Colombia—something that's been hotly contested in the historic and archaeological world for decades. (snip) Before the study brought scientific evidence to the debate, the idea that Native Americans and Polynesians had crossed paths originated from a complex—both in its structure and origins—carbohydrate: the sweet potato. It turns out the sweet potato, which was originally domesticated in South and Central America, has also been known to grow in one other place prior...

LIMA, Peru — A former president of Peru died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when the authorities tried to arrest him in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history. A personal secretary for the former president, Alan García, 69, confirmed his death. The secretary, Ricardo Pineda, also told a Peruvian radio station that as the authorities arrived at the former president’s home with an arrest warrant, he locked himself into his bedroom, shot himself and was rushed to a hospital. The charges relate to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, which last year...

The reaction by old-time liberal civil liberties institutions to Big Tech monopolies censoring conservatives has been, "Faster, Please." That's because they've become lefty facades with zero interests in their own founding missions. Here's the Knight First Amendment Institute. “This order is an effort to intimidate technology companies from using tools that are indispensable to protecting the integrity of public discourse online,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement. Parts of Trump’s proposed order “raise additional constitutional concerns, since they seem to contemplate that the government will investigate and punish internet...

COLUMBIA, SC- Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, many have resorted to at-home salon services as non-essential businesses have closed. A woman in South Carolina was attacked and killed by an alligator in a gated community while attempting to do the homeowner's nails on Friday. Authorities say 58-year-old Cynthia Covert was trying to touch the alligator when it grabbed her. She was able to briefly get out of the animal's grip and stood waist-deep in the Kiawah Island pond. She told the homeowner, "I guess I won't do this again," but the alligator grabbed her in its jaws again and took her...

A former Green Beret has taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead. Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a pre-dawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital. An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserting Venezuelan soldiers at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia....

BOGOTA, Colombia — Thinking up ways our all-encompassing crisis could get even worse has become a grimly popular parlor game for Venezuelans. For years, the go-to worst-case scenario was civil war between the political factions in our country. These days, an even scarier prospect has begun to displace that in the pantheon of Venezuelan nightmares: armed conflict with Colombia. The reason? Venezuela’s increasingly tight alliance with the drug-running guerrilla armies waging war on the Colombian state, which has rattled Bogota so hard it’s now seeking a hemispheric response. On Wednesday, Colombia, the United States and nine other countries invoked the...

The operation involved at least three boats, though only one was captured. One of its commanders sent audio recordings to Venezuelan military and police WhatsApp groups, calling for troops to rebel and take to the streets. Alemán, a Venezuelan lawmaker now living outside the country, said Sunday he had been involved in Alcalá’s operation in Colombia since last year. He said the group had to “make some adjustments” after a shipment of weapons destined for the camps was seized by Colombian authorities in March. Alemán said the plan was for the boats to land at La Guaira, home to Venezuela’s...