Free Republic

None of us who are believers of individual freedom are fans of Hugo Chavez. But it seems that the situation is growing more worrisome by the day. The Washington Post outlines the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a searing and authoritative report on the destruction of Venezuela's political institutions and the erosion of freedom under President Hugo Chávez. It details the fearful deterioration of rights in the country, and the blind eye the Organization of American States (OAS) has turned to those events. The report details facts and events that document how Mr. Chávez's regime has done away with...

A Spanish judge has charged 13 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian rebel group FARC over an alleged plot to assassinate Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, judicial sources said on Monday. Judge Eloy Velasco said he believes FARC asked ETA's help with a plot to kill a number of Colombian officials in Spain, including Uribe.

bon Gogeascoechea Arronategui, whom the Spanish Government alleges is the "most senior" member of the Basque separatist organisation ETA, has been arrested in Normandy in France along with two other senior members. AFP - The presumed military chief of the armed Basque separatist organisation ETA was arrested Sunday in northwestern France, the Spanish interior ministry announced. Ibon Gogeascoechea Arronategui, who was arrested during a joint Spanish and French operation, was the "most senior" member of ETA, the ministry said in a statement. He was picked up in the Lower Normandy region with two other people, one of whom was suspected...

Portuguese police have seized half a tonne of explosives at a house that they say was being used as a base by Basque separatist group Eta. The discovery, which also included bomb-making equipment, was made in the central Portugal town of Obidos. Fake licence plates, detonators and maps were also found, officials said. A militant group fighting for an independent Basque homeland, Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its campaign in Spain. "The material was stored in secure conditions which indicates the work of professionals," local police chief Helder Barros said. Several of the explosives were...

AFP - Two suspected ETA militants arrested in France earlier this week have been charged with conspiracy to collaborate with a terrorist organisation, a legal official said Saturday. Police apprehended 30-year-old Aitor Elizaran in a car park at the wheel of a stolen car in the Brittany seaside town of Carnac on October 19, along with a woman suspect, 32-year-old Oihana Sanvicente. Both were carrying loaded weapons at the time and have also been charged with firearms offences, possession of false documents, and car theft, the official said. The pair had been renting a studio at the holiday resort where...

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP) – Police in Spain's northern Basque Country arrested an ex-leader of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed separatist group ETA, and eight other militants accused of seeking to rebuild the party, judicial and police sources said. Former Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi was held in the city of San Sebastian along with a top union leader and three other Basque militants suspected of having tried to "reform the leadership of Batasuna on the instructions of ETA," a judicial source said. The interior ministry said later that four other "leaders of the independentist left" had been...

French police have arrested three suspected Basque separatist militants in an Alpine ski resort, officials say. The men were reportedly armed and had false identity papers. Police arrested them in a raid on an apartment in Le Corbier Villarembert on Wednesday. One suspect, named as Alberto Machain Beraza, is thought to be linked to recent Eta bombings, including an attack in Majorca, Spanish media say. Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its separatist campaign. Eta claimed responsibility for the bombings in Spain in July, carried out just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the group's founding....

BURGOS, Spain — A powerful car bomb exploded early Wednesday outside a barracks housing police officers and their families in this northern Spanish city, slightly injuring 46 people and causing major damage in the area. The attack was blamed on Basque separatist group ETA. Most of the injuries from the blast were from flying glass, and 38 of the wounded were treated in hospitals, regional ministry representative Miguel Alejo said. Many of the injured were Civil Guard police officers and family members. The bomb detonated around 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT, 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday) and left a crater that had...

"Europol Report Describes Afghanistan-Pakistan Connection to Trends in European Terrorism" Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 12 May 8, 2009 04:03 PM By: Thomas Renard SNIPPET: "Terrorist activities within the European Union (EU) declined in 2008 as compared to the previous year, according to the annual report published by Europol, the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency. [1] The report lists 515 failed, foiled or successful attacks reported by EU member states, a decrease from 583 attacks in 2007 but still higher than the 2006 total. The decline in terrorist activities was also observed geographically, with only seven member states reporting...

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan ...Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities. The maps date back to the country's feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the "burakumin," ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death,...

MADRID (AFP) – Security forces in France on Saturday arrested the suspected military chief of ETA, the third top leader of the Basque separatist organisation to be captured in the last six months, Spanish national radio said. Jurdan Martitegi was detained along with two other ETA suspects in the vicinity of the southern French city of Perpignan in an operation carried out in cooperation with Spanish security forces, the radio said, quoting anti-terrorist sources. The French interior ministry said three ETA suspects were arrested in the village of Montauriol, but it did not identify them. Spanish news reports said Martitegi...

A car bomb has exploded in a business district of Madrid, following a telephone warning claiming to be from ETA, the Basque armed separatist group. No one was hurt in the blast, which destroyed about 30 cars and blew out windows at nearby offices, leaving a crater in the ground about one metre deep. The Spanish Red Cross received the warning call 90 minutes prior to the blast, allowing police to cordon off the area before the device exploded at around 0900 local time (0800 GMT). The incident came a day after Spain's supreme court banned Democracia 3 Millones and...

A car bomb exploded in Spain’s Basque country near the headquarters of a local television station in the town of Bilbao on Wednesday without causing any injuries, a police spokesman said. Police said emergency services had evacuated television station ETB, which broadcasts in Basque and Spanish, and surrounding buildings following a bomb warning in the name of separatist group ETA. The explosion shattered the windows of the round, glass walled building. Emergency services had found a suspicious vehicle after closing off the area and discovered the owner of the vehicle tied to a tree on a nearby mountain, police said....

In a statement the bishops condemned “this action against life and freedom,” and recalled that “terrorism is a radical No to the law of God and to the most basic aspect of the dignity of the human person.”

MADRID, Spain (AP) - French and Spanish police arrested the reputed leader of ETA's commando units on Monday—dealing a devastating blow to the armed Basque separatist group. Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, 35, is suspected of taking part in several killings, including the December shooting deaths of two Spanish guardsmen in France, according to French and Spanish officials. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Aspiazu Rubina—known by the alias "Txeroki" (pronounced cher-OH-kee)—has been the operational chief of ETA's hit squads and bombing units for several years.

Devolution has been good for Spain, but it may have gone too far THE hardest problem for the authors of Spain’s democratic constitution was to strike a balance between the central government and the claims of Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia for home rule. The formula they came up with was known as café para todos, or coffee for all: Spain was divided into 17 “autonomous communities” (plus the enclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast), each with its own elected parliament and government. This estado de las autonomías seemed a neat solution. Over the past...

Pamplona, Oct 30, 2008 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- The University of Navarra, a Catholic school in Pamplona, Spain was bombed by the Basque separatist group ETA on Thursday morning. Initial estimates indicate that 21 people have been injured.  At around 11:00 a.m. a car-bomb exploded at a parking lot located between the main building and the Library of Humanities, injuring 21 people and destroying 20 vehicles. "There were other small explosions after the fire set off by the fuel tanks in the parked cars nearby," Bernardino Leon, a University of Navarra professor, told the Antena 3 TV channel. The bombing...

He also reveals that The Tunisian talked to UCIE agents.Cartagena Identifies the Police Officer that Asked Him to Go into the Leganés Apartment in the Morning of April 3rd.The testimony as protected witness, asked by the State Attorney Olga Sánchez, of the Police informer nicknamed Cartagena has left a lot of question that might change drastically the trial. Some details had been already revealed by EL MUNDO, as the pressure from the Police to avoid mentioning ETA. According to his testimony, The Tunisian was also linked to UCIE Police Officers. Asked by the Accusation Attorney, he gave names: “Enrique, Rubio,...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...