Free Republic

Photos of male model Andrej Pejic, featured in the new issue of Dossier magazine, have caused something of a firestorm of controversy after two of the United States' biggest bookstore chains have requested that the company use opaque plastic to cover the images. Pejic is featured shirtless on the magazine's cover. At 19, Pejic has become known for his androgynous look, and frequently models men's and women's fashions. But the cover photo for Dossier, at least according to the Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, goes too far. By showing an androgynous model on its cover, the chains reportedly felt...

Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States. The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan,...

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved. A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings described them Thursday to the AP to confirm details first reported by ABC News on Wednesday. The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not...

Video Shows S.C. Troopers Ramming Suspects Two Troopers Seen Hitting Suspects With Cruisers UPDATED: 3:42 pm EDT COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Federal prosecutors were reviewing two separate cases of South Carolina Highway Patrol officers using their cruisers to chase and ram fleeing suspects. Dashboard camera videos captured the incidents, along with an earlier one in which a trooper uses a racial slur. Both of the latest videos are from 2007. They were just released. One shows the cruiser striking a man who was running away. The man is sent flying into high grass on the roadside. The trooper later received a...

A row is brewing over religious symbolism in Switzerland. Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned. They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system. Signatures are now being collected to force a nationwide referendum on the issue which, under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, would be binding. The move has shocked Switzerland's 350,000 Muslims, many of whom have been campaigning for decades for more...

In the public relations battle brewing on-line, there is a new eye to the center of the storm surrounding the war with Hizbullah - a series of photos showing Israeli children writing messages on shells meant for targets in Lebanon. Questions over the photos' authenticity have been put to rest by authorities that were present during the incident, which occurred on July 17 near the northern border. The mostly local children had been brought to see the shells by their parents. Although it remains unclear who encouraged them to write the messages, their colorful scribbles, including a Star of David,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Clemson and South Carolina will not accept bowl bids, punishment for players who brawled toward the end of Saturday's game.