Free Republic

Today, President Obama visited Ground Zero and met with those affected by 9/11. Somehow, however, his visit seemed to look different to every person who witnessed it. Particularly cable news channels. MSNBC seemed thrilled as they eagerly discussed how the visit would totally show up tonight’s Republican debate. Meanwhile, Fox News was less enchanted. Witness the network’s interview with Debra Burlingame, a 9/11 widow, who was brought on to discuss Obama’s meeting with the victims’ families.

While the Obama administration deservedly revels in the success of the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden this week, one question remains: Why is the Justice Department threatening criminal prosecution of the men who made the mission possible? CIA Director Leon Panetta has acknowledged that the initial information that led to the discovery of bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad came, in part, from information obtained by "enhanced interrogation techniques against some of those detainees." Yet, Attorney General Holder persists in what appears to be a vendetta against these very CIA interrogators. In August 2009, Holder ordered a continued investigation...

Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame (pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon) met with President Obama today, along with other families who were victims of 9/11. Burlingame said she confronted Obama about Attorney General Eric Holder prosecuting the men who interrogated KSM, which may have produced intelligence leading us to bin Laden. Burlingame describes the encounter with Obama: "As a former attorney I know you can't tell the Attorney General what to do, he said, 'No, I can't.' But I said 'we -- that shouldn't stop you from giving your opinion. We wouldn't be here...

President Obama voiced his strongest support yet Friday for a plan to locate a Muslim community center and mosque two blocks from ground zero in New York City, saying constructing the facility there was an "inalienable right." Asked during a Friday news conference what he thought the reaction would be if the site were moved, Obama replied: "This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights. One of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely. And what that means is that if you could build a church...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America Statement of Debra Burlingame, Co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, in Response to President Obama's Remarks about the Ground Zero Mosque 911 Families Stunned Presidents Support of Mosque at Ground Zero New York, NY, Aug. 14 -- Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America's heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see. Since that dark day, Americans have been asked to bear the burden of defending those values, again and again and...

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the following in response to yesterday's press conference conducted by Rick Lazio, his potential opposition in the coming election for governor in New York state: “If there is a criminal case, then there is a criminal case. But, if this is: I don’t like this religion, and I don’t like this religion on this block. Or: I don’t like this religion in this city. Then I agree with Mayor Bloomberg. Then I agree with the community board that approved the mosque. What are we about, if not religious freedom? What is the country...

That is quite a headline 'NYers wage jihad vs. WTC mosque' in the New York Post this morning with their third report on last night's Community Board 1 meeting. Things got a little heated. But then, "things" were really heated on 9/11, in the Towers, and down in the Pit; 2,752 were murdered and 1,100 families have yet to receive even one speck of human remains after sharia-compliant Muslims slaughtered their loved ones. Debra Burlingame addressed the board last night, "I am actually, in a way, glad that this has happened, this controversy, because finally, maybe, Americans, New Yorkers will...

<p>Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has insisted the project he's spearheading is meant to build bridges between Muslims and other religions, but so far he has not been able to cite any specific sources of funding.</p> <p>But in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Rauf told the newspaper that funding would come from Muslims in the United States and from overseas.</p>

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder will attempt to explain his decision to bring war criminal Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in Manhattan's federal courtroom six blocks from Ground Zero. This is our Action Alert to you: Americans, it is time to unite, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as Conservatives or Liberals or Progressives. It is time to unite as CITIZENS. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have forgotten that their chief duty is the safety and the security of the American people. IT IS TIME FOR US TO REMIND THEM. AG Eric Holder...

News reports described the meeting as a touching and powerful coming together of the president and these long-suffering families. Mr. Obama had won over even those who opposed his decision to close Gitmo by assuaging their fears that the review of some 245 current detainees would result in dangerous jihadists being set free. “I did not vote for the man, but the way he talks to you, you can’t help but believe in him,” said John Clodfelter to the New York Times. His son, Kenneth, was killed in the Cole bombing. “[Mr. Obama] left me with a very positive feeling...

Thursday, Debra Burlingame and Hamilton Peterson appeared on The Factor with Bill O'Reilly to discuss the release of OLC memos. (See disclaimer at the end of this post.) Some portion of Islam is conducting a war upon both Islam and America. Torturing Muslims, raping Muslims, baking Muslim children in ovens, strapping bombs to mentally handicapped Muslims and setting them off among Muslims, cutting off Muslims' heads, and hanging and shooting Muslims as "spies" in soccer stadiums is al Qaeda's foreign policy, not American foreign policy. The only genocidal war being conducted is the one al Qaeda is waging. They seek...

Freedom is out of fashion at Ground Zero. Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Freedom Tower has been stripped of its patriotic name -- which has been swapped out for the more marketable "One World Trade Center," Port Authority officials conceded yesterday. More than seven years after the terror attacks and amid an effort to market the tower to international tenants, sentiment gave way to practicality. "As we market the building we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said PA Chairman Anthony Coscia. "One World Trade...

Two weeks ago, I was among a small group of USS Cole and 9/11 victims’ families who met with President Obama at the White House. Despite President Obama’s assurances that the safety and security of the American people is his number one priority, I left the meeting with little confidence that the President appreciates the grave consequences of shutting down Guantanamo or the complex problems associated with adjudicating detainee cases in the federal court system. Indeed, he told us that he is “not at all concerned” about the security issues of bringing the detainees to the U.S. His rationale for...

Debra Burlingame has previously reported President Obama smiled and admitted that he had not visited Guantanamo (to 40 family members of the victims of the USS Cole and September 11 attacks during his February 6, 2009 White House meeting with them). Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced he will visit Gitmo: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told reporters today that he would travel Monday to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his effort to determine how to handle the 245 remaining terrorism suspects detained there. "We need to have our feet on the ground...

On Freedom Radio tonight, 8 to 10 PM EST, the "Operation Valentine: A Salute to Gitmo Heroes" series will continue. Tonight's show will feature well-known commentator and 9/11 family member Debra Buringame and retired Special Forces officer, Vietnam veteran, and author Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cucullu. A "Salute to Gitmo Heroes" is part of Operation Valentine, being widely broadcast tonight across some of the best shows of Blog Talk Radio, for the purpose of honoring our men and women in uniform, giving their all and then sum, for our safety and security at our facility in Guantanamo Bay. This is a...

Over the objections of a large majority of 9/11 family members, President Barack Obama is expected to sign an Executive Order today directing that the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base be closed: Relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks, who were at the base this week to observe pretrial hearings, told reporters they oppose any halt to the trials. "The safest place to have these trials is Guantanamo Bay. If they were to move to the homeland it would endanger all of us," said Lorraine Arias Believeau of Barnegat, New Jersey, whose brother, Adam, was killed in...

Recently the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, extended constitutional rights to enemy aliens captured on the battlefield and held outside the United States. As a result of this case, Guantanamo Bay detainees now have more rights than do prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. This has never before been the policy of the United States, nor has the court ever before granted such rights to those detained outside of U.S. jurisdiction. The activities of a released prisoner, Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, discussed in the following report written by the sister of the pilot killed on Flight 77...

The lawyers who are championing the rights of terrorists should tell the public what this decision really means. It means that terrorists will be entitled to Miranda rights, to legal representation and the right to remain silent. And they will. When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, was handed over to the U.S. after his capture in Karachi in 2003, he taunted his interrogators with this, "I'll talk to you guys in New York when I see my lawyer." But they won't tell the public, they will continue to talk about preserving the rights of people who would behead...

Within his report ‘9/11 kin barred from Gitmo trial’ yesterday for the New York Daily News, James Gordon Meek questioned Debra Burlingame’s objectivity. Yet is creating a controversy, reporting the outcome, labeling some but not others within that report, and filing it as news ethical journalism? When the architects of the 9/11 attacks are charged this week at Guantanamo Bay for killing nearly 3,000 Americans, the victims' families won't be allowed to witness it. The Defense Department outraged 9/11 families by belatedly disclosing that just one victim's relative - GOP loyalist [all emphasis here added mine] Debra Burlingame, whose brother...

While the pardon scandals that marked Bill and Hillary Clinton's final days in office are remembered as transactions involving cronies, criminals and campaign contributors, the FALN clemencies of 1999 should be remembered in the context of the increasing threat of domestic and transnational terrorism that was ramping up during the Clinton years of alleged peace and prosperity. To wit, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1995 "Bojinka" conspiracy to hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing, Osama bin...