Free Republic

ANTI-ISRAEL BOMBER IN BULGARIA WAS RELEASED FROM GITMO THANKS TO LEFT By WILLIAM BIGELOW Leftists who hate Israel can rejoice; their efforts at securing the release of a Gitmo detainee and their subsequent lionizing of him allowed him to murder five Israelis in the bombing Wednesday in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bomber has been identified as Mehdi Ghezali, who was detained at Gitmo Bay in Cuba from 2002 to 2004. According to Wikileaks documents, Ghazali was “uncooperative, unforthcoming and deceptive during interrogations.” His father had met with Abdolrahman Barzanjee, an Al Qaeda associate and possible Ansar Al-Islam coordinator for Europe (Ansar...

“We know what your first strike will be and we promise you a big surprise,” said Hassan Nasrallah Wednesday night in Beirut. “The most important weapons we fought with in the July war (of 2006) were from Syria, not only in Lebanon but also in the Gaza Strip. They forced more than a million settlers to stay in bunkers and frighten Tel Aviv. Nasrallah added that the Americans are now trying to break of Syria as they did Iraq.

Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali. Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported. He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided. [Snip] Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Iran is likely behind the attack on Israeli civilians in Bulgaria, Army Radio reported.

An explosion on a bus transporting Israeli tourists at the airport near the city of Burgas in Bulgaria has reportedly left seven dead, five of whom are apparently Israelis. Bulgarian television said that the dead apparently include a Bulgarian tour guide. The destination is popular among Israeli youths and most of the casualties are reportedly youths. The Foreign Ministry has announced that it is sending personnel to the site. Voice of Israel Radio said that about 30 people are wounded, four of them seriously, quoting Bulgarian TV. It said that a suicide bomber boarded the bus before the explosion occurred,...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Iran for a terror attack on an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria today that has claimed the lives of seven Israeli civilians, vowing that Israel will respond. The attack comes on the eighteenth anniversary of a deadly Iranian terror attack against a Jewish community center in Argentina. Netanyahu promised to respond: "Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror." Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that Israel's message had to be taken seriously, given that Netanyahu did not mention Hizbullah--an Iranian proxy with a presence near...

According to Bulgarian press Sega.bg, and confirmed by other wire sources, a bus with 40 Israeli tourists was "blown up" at 5:30 pm local time at the local airport of the seaside town of Bourgas. Sega says that according to BTV "it is an assassination attempt." The bomb was located in the trunk of a white bus with Israel tourists from Israel who were en route to the seaside town of Sunny Beach according to an airport source. The mayor of the city, Dimitar Nikolov confirmed the news according to Sega. Furthermore, according to the airport's website, an Air Via...

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mehdi Ghezali was named by Bulgarian media Thursday as the suspected suicide bomber who killed at least seven people and injured dozens on a bus full of Israeli tourists. The Muslim Swede had been held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba from 2002 to 2004, according to media reports picked up by The Times of Israel. He previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. He was released to Swedish custody in 2004, the Times reported. The Swedish government did not press charges, it said.

Karzai made the statement to journalists gathered at a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday, responding to a question as to whether he felt the US should release the prisoners to Qatar - an earlier plan. "On the issue of the release of the Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo, we are fully in support of that. We actually sent a delegation three months ago to Guantanamo prison where Taliban prisoners were interviewed. We want the release of those Taliban figures and we want them to have the freedom to settle where they want," Karzai said. Karzai replied to a question about...

An audio message to the Syrian people purportedly from a current Guantanamo detainee has been released online by jihadist forums, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The message is reported to be from Fayiz al Kandari, a Kuwaiti who has been held at Gitmo since 2002. American intelligence officials have identified al Kandari as an al Qaeda propagandist who was allegedly close to Osama bin Laden. "The people's morale is high, praise be to Allah," al Kandari says in the message, according to a translation provided by SITE. "The only thing that is making us sad is the situation in...

Guantanamo Bay Prisoners Were Tortured With Sesame Street Guantanamo Bay prisoners were reportedly tortured with the sounds of children’s Sesame Street songs, in an attempt to get them to talk. Al Jazeera reports that Thomas Keenan, a human rights researcher, explained that: “Prisoners were forced to put on headphones. They were attached to chairs, headphones were attached to their heads, and they were left alone just with the music for very long periods of time. Sometimes hours, even days on end, listening to repeated loud music.” Christopher Cerf, the award-winning composer of the songs used to torture prisoners at both...

<p>The defense attorney who wore a traditional Islamic outfit during the rowdy arraignment of the accused Sept. 11 terrorists is defending her courtroom appeal that other women in the room wear more "appropriate" clothing to the proceedings -- out of respect for her client's Muslim beliefs.</p>

The defense attorney who wore a traditional Islamic outfit during the rowdy arraignment of the accused Sept. 11 terrorists is defending her courtroom appeal that other women in the room wear more "appropriate" clothing to the proceedings -- out of respect for her client's Muslim beliefs. Cheryl Bormann, counsel for defendant Walid bin Attash, attended the arraignment Saturday dressed in a hijab, apparently because her client insisted on it. She further requested that the court order other women to follow that example so that the defendants do not have to avert their eyes "for fear of committing a sin under...

"...the lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, Cheryl Borman — who wore traditional black Muslim garb, covering everything but her face — asked women on the prosecution team to consider dressing more modestly so that the defendants would not have to avoid looking at them “for fear of committing a sin under their faith.” The women were wearing military or civilian jackets and skirts."

The arraignment of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four top Al Qaeda lieutenants opened Saturday in a heavily guarded island courtroom with the so-called “Gitmo 5” launching a silent protest, refusing to cooperate, listen to translations or even answer fundamental questions about a process that could end their lives. The long-awaited trial began with defense lawyers speaking for the alleged terrorists and arguing that the protest was over their clients’ anger about alleged CIA torture and mistreatment at the prison on the southern rim of Cuba. … (Updated at 10:14 a.m., May 5:) Three hours into the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was not just U.S. Democratic voters who were looking forward to "hope and change" when Barack Obama became the 44th U.S. president. Around the world, many anticipated the United States would behave very differently under the new leader. They wanted to hear less about Americans swaggering and throwing their weight around. Some, perhaps, wanted more talk of U.S.-style freedom and democracy, but not if it meant Washington imposing its will. ... A scandal over the hiring of prostitutes by the U.S. Secret Service in Colombia, killings and Koran burnings in Afghanistan and drone strikes in Pakistan...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15202 MMEDIATE RELEASE No. 291-12 April 19, 2012 Detainee Transfer Announced The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of two Uighur detainees from the detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to the Government of El Salvador. These detainees were subject to release from Guantanamo as a result of a court order issued on October 7, 2008 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and are voluntarily resettling in El Salvador. As directed by the President's January 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a...

In October 2010, Canadian Omar Khadr was convicted of using a grenade to kill a U.S. soldier. In May 2012, President Barack Obama and/or members of his administration are fighting for Khadr’s freedom. That’s right—although Khadr was found guilty of killing US Army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer and sentenced to 40 years by a military jury, there is a deal in the works to transfer him to Canada where his prison sentence can be cut drastically. And the Obama administration is pushing the deal. To be clear, they began pushing for it just weeks after Khadr was convicted and imprisoned...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and four accused co-conspirators will be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. The five men were charged with crimes that carry the death penalty -- the alleged planning and execution of the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 attacks. In addition to Mohammed, the others charged Wednesday are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi. They...

In honor of the second anniversary of the bloated leviathan known as Obamacare(less) and its grandpa, Mitt Trotsky, I've decided to put together a little tribute to government-run healthcare. Without further ado: *********************************** "CROW AGENCY, Mont. - Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt. When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed....