Free Republic

BALTIMORE -- A former leader of Maryland's ACORN chapter said the group shaken by a national video scandal will no longer operate in the state. The videos showed ACORN workers, including workers in Baltimore, giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. Former Maryland chapter co-chairwoman Sonja Merchant-Jones said the group was torn apart by infighting after the September incident.

NEW YORK - A CIA unit that had hunted for Osama bin Laden and his top deputies for a decade has been disbanded, according to a published report. Citing unnamed intelligence officials, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the unit, known as "Alec Station," was shut down late last year. The decision to close the unit, which predated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was first reported Monday by National Public Radio. The officials told the Times that the change reflects a view that al-Qaida's hierarchy has changed, and terrorist attacks inspired by the group are now being carried out...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -- The United States has demanded that the IRA disband after the guerrilla group's astonishing offer to shoot the killers of a murdered Northern Ireland Catholic man. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business," U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss said Wednesday. For the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's biggest Irish nationalist party, the U.S. demand was yet another blow to its democratic credentials. Reiss told BBC radio: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated. "You can't sign...

Mexico disbands anti-drugs force in drive against corruption By Kieran Murray in Mexico City 18 January 2003 Mexican soldiers have raided and closed the offices of a federal anti-drugs force in a crackdown on agents who work for or protect drug traffickers. Rafael Macedo, the Attorney General, who ordered the raids, said the 200-strong narcotics unit, Feads, will be shut down and its agents investigated. He said the government of President Vicente Fox had launched an all-out war on police corruption and scored some major successes but more work was needed. "We have to admit there are people who have...