Free Republic

LIKE MANY GREAT SPY STORIES, this one begins with a brief, mundane scene whose significance only becomes apparent later on. Around lunchtime on February 1, 2000, a man dropped a piece of paper near a table in a Middle Eastern restaurant outside Los Angeles and paused long enough to strike up a conversation with two Arabic-speaking men dining nearby. It would take FBI agents nearly 20 years to understand the full meaning of that small event. The man who dropped the piece of paper was Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence asset, recently declassified FBI documents show. And the two Arabic-speaking...

Sen. Ron Johnson is actively investigating 9/11. A day after the Wisconsin Republican went on a far-right podcast promoting conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a spokesperson for Johnson said the lawmaker is currently seeking information and documentation in order to hold hearings on the event nearly 25 years later. He would do so in his capacity as chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one of Congress’s most storied and powerful panels with far-reaching jurisdiction that gives its chair wide latitude to probe a diverse array of matters. It has...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger burst into the Mexican restaurant to a round of applause. Behind him trailed Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto, the ostensible star of this campaign event. But voters only had eyes for Schwarzenegger. As the governor wove through the Vacaville eatery, he tried to turn the spotlight on Podesto, who was running a hard-fought race for state Senate. At one point, he grabbed Podesto's leaflets and began handing them to customers himself. But they only handed them back with a pen for autographs. Just before roaring off in his black Ford Excursion, he gripped Podesto's shoulders and said: "I...