Free Republic

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch died Friday morning at the age of 88. He plans to be buried in Manhattan, the three-term mayor said in 2008. His headstone and a memorial bench, placed at Trinity Church Cemetery in 2009, evoke his faith and his admiration of a murdered journalist. Koch explained his plans to the Associated Press: The marker will bear the Star of David and a Hebrew prayer, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” It also will be inscribed with the last words of journalist Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by...

CNN reporting live that "New organizations have received Email claiming that kidnapped WSJ has been killed. Searching for wirecopy confirmation.

An anti-terrorist judge in France has thrown weight behind claims that the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and the bombing of French engineers in Karachi both had their roots in murky arms deals with Pakistani officials. By FRANCE 24 (text) In 2002, two brutal terrorist attacks targeting westerners in the Pakistani city of Karachi shocked the world. In January that year, the American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped before being beheaded in cold blood by his captors. A video was later released showing his execution. Three months later, on May 8, a bomber targeted a bus carrying French n

A muckraking ex-Mormon researcher struck again this week, revealing that some Mormons conducted a proxy baptism for slain Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl last year. The disclosure comes after recent revelations that Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including Anne Frank and a parent of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, had been baptized by proxy by Mormons. Helen Radkey, who has been combing through Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints records for years, told CNN the Pearl incident was one of "the most egregious," because of the circumstances of Pearl's death. Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in...

Washington Post:Murder and Kidnapping of Daniel Pearl The report from the Center for Public Integrity (which is over 80 pages—the Washington Post has it all here) says that U.S. officials matched the veins in the hand seen on a video decapitating Pearl to the veins in the hand of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who's currently in Guantanamo Bay, never to be freed. It was confirmation of KSM's own confession to the CIA. Here is the WaPo's summary of Pearl's awful end: Mohammed slashed Pearl's throat, killing him, but one of his accomplices failed to operate the video camera, which they had...

An analysis of veins corroborates a confession by a senior al Qaeda leader that he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, according to a new report released Thursday. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is suspected of planning the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. Mohammed has not denied his role in the killing of Pearl, who was abducted in January 2002. A video of the journalist's slaying was distributed online nearly a month after he was abducted, but the face of the killer who slit his throat was not visible. U.S. officials have not charged Mohammed in...

A recently completed investigation of the killing of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan nine years ago makes public new evidence that a senior al-Qaeda operative executed the Wall Street Journal reporter. Khalid Sheik Mohammed - the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who is being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - said at a military hearing in 2007 that he killed Pearl. But there have been lingering doubts about his involvement, and the United States has not charged him with the crime. According to the new report, which was prepared by faculty members and...

Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren. That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs....

I have been trying hard to find an explanation for the intense controversy surrounding the Cordoba Initiative, whereby 71 percent of Americans object to the proposed project of building a mosque next to Ground Zero. I cannot agree with the theory that such broad resistance represents Islamophobic sentiments, nor that it is a product of a “rightwing” smear campaign against one imam or another. Americans are neither bigots nor gullible. Deep sensitivity to the families of 9/11 victims was cited as yet another explanation, but this too does not answer the core question. If one accepts that the 19 fanatics...

Is the president an insensitive boob? Or an anti-Semite?......

Even given Obama’s ever more terrifying and lethal performance in office, his comments about the jihadi murder of Daniel Pearl, and in front of Daniel’s bereaved family, are simply astounding. This is what Obama said: ‘Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.’ Daniel Pearl was not murdered because he was a journalist. He was decapitated because he was an American Jew. Khalid Sheikh Mohamed cut off his head in an act of unimaginable barbarism, which was videoed in order to...

One of Those Moments The president has become the latest Western liberal to try to hammer Daniel Pearl’s box into a round hole. Barack Obama’s remarkable powers of oratory are well known: In support of Chicago’s Olympic bid, he flew into Copenhagen to give a heartwarming speech about himself, and they gave the games to Rio. He flew into Boston to support Martha Coakley’s bid for the U.S. Senate, and Massachusetts voters gave Ted Kennedy’s seat to a Republican. In the first year of his presidency, he gave a gazillion speeches on health-care “reform” and drove support for his proposals...

Barack Obama's remarkable powers of oratory are well known: In support of Chicago's Olympic bid, he flew into Copenhagen to give a heartwarming speech about himself, and they gave the games to Rio. He flew into Boston to support Martha Coakley's bid for the U.S. Senate, and Massachusetts voters gave Ted Kennedy's seat to a Republican. In the first year of his presidency, he gave a gazillion speeches on health care "reform" and drove support for his proposals to basement level, leaving Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to ram it down the throats of the American people through sheer parliamentary...

There was an emotional ceremony at the White House on Monday when President Obama welcomed slain journalist Daniel Pearl’s surviving family members to witness the signing of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was brutally murdered in Pakistan as he was following up some leads on al-Qaeda financing in early 2002. Four Pakistanis were convicted in Pearl’s murder in July of that year. The mastermind of the kidnapping and murder, however, may have been Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to the murder under interrogation by the CIA. According to the...

The video of Dear Leader's horrific 'slip' is over at GatewayPundit. The profound idiocy of his 'captured the world's imagination' statement is so vapid and ugly that I cannot even make a TOTUS joke.

President Obama today signed into law The Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, which expands efforts to identify countries that don’t share our love for the First Amendment. He also took time to honor the man the bill is named after, journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic extremists in 2002 in what the President — with nary a teleprompter in sight — called a moment that ‘captured the world’s imagination.’ The Obama administration has pushed to have Pearl’s professed killer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, tried in civilian court.

HR 3714, The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, is supposed to require the State Department—those folks who apologize to China for Arizona’s imaginary human rights atrocities—to recognize “global threats” to journalists. At the signing ceremony, the president refused to take questions, thus avoiding embarrassment to the jihad community. At no time did Obama identify the barbarians who tortured and beheaded WSJ reporter Danny Pearl, then thirty eight years old. Danny, the lionhearted used his last moments of life to embrace his Jewish heritage rather than capitulate to his bloodthirsty butchers.

At a signing ceremony for the Freedom of Press Act, it is ironic and shameful that Obama could not bring himself to identify the killers who beheaded the man who fearlessly reported on the jihadist terrorists. Obama had this to say: All around the world there are enormously courageous journalists and bloggers who, at great risk to themselves, are trying to shine a light on the critical issues that the people of their country face; who are the frontlines against tyranny and oppression. (Snip) If you didn’t know already, you’d never figure out that he was talking about the Islamic...

WASHINGTON D.C. - Before family and friends of the late Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, President Barack Obama signed into law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. Gathered in the Oval Office with President Obama were his widow, Marlane, his parents, Judea and Ruth, his siblings, Michelle and Tamara, along with his son, Adam, who, will turn 8 years old on May 28th. Other guests included Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Adam Schiff, who were the primary sponsors of the bill.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has signed a law intended to provide more protections for a free press around the world. The law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, expands efforts to identify countries where press freedom is being violated.