Free Republic

And they are giving Mansourian President credit for the save. The question one must ask oneself is, who was Hussein secretly rooting for in this stand off? President Obama Restricted Navy SEALs From Rescuing Ship Captain With Force (hat tip Larwyn) Now this is interesting if true, and not surprising in the least. (h/t Ex-Liberal In Hollywood) Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following: 1. BHO wouldn’t authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on...

QALAT, Afghanistan U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government. The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means. "You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished we'll be...

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has a problem with the Republican agreement on rules for the interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror. President Bush is pushing Congress to put the agreement into law before adjourning for the midterm elections, but Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Sunday he "vigorously" disagrees with the habeas corpus provision of the bill. The provision would allow legal counsel and a day in court to only those detainees selected by the Pentagon for prosecution. Other terror suspects could be held indefinitely without a hearing. "The courts have...

US Senate sets 200 million dollars to fund hunt for bin Laden Thu Sep 7, 6:51 PM ET The US Senate unanimously approved an additional 200 million dollars to this year's defense budget to fund an intelligence unit that would seek to hunt down top Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden. The measure, approved by a vote of 96 to 0, would also require the US Defense Department to report to Congress every three months about progress made toward apprehending bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The legislation was authored by Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron...

25 minutes ago Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), a frequent Republican critic of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, said on Sunday it was irresponsible and wrong to send more U.S. troops to Baghdad. Speaking on the CBS show "Face the Nation," Hagel said pouring more U.S. troops into Baghdad would not reverse the rising tide of sectarian killing there. "Where we go from here ... is a cold, hard assessment that Iraq is not going to turn out the way we were promised it would, and that's a fact, not because I say it -- that's...

The United States needs to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within the next six months, Sen. Chuck Hagel said Thursday, rather than ratcheting up its military commitment now. With Iraq exploding in sectarian violence and “moving closer and closer to a straight-out civil war,” Hagel said, the Bush administration’s decision to transfer nearly 5,000 additional U.S. troops into Baghdad is “only going to make it worse for us.” With violence “out of control” and militias in charge, Hagel said, U.S. troops increasingly are “seen as occupiers.” It’s also possible Iraq may evolve into some kind of Islamic republic, he said....

A leading Republican senator said President Bush should call for an immediate Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire. “The sickening slaughter on both sides must stop,” Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said Monday on the Senate floor.Hagel said the U.S.-Israel link is special, but said that the link should not come at the expense of relationships with the Arab and Muslim worlds. Hagel is a possible contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation's borders and increase security at U.S. ports. An amendment cutting Bush's Iraq request by $1.3 billion to pay for new Border Patrol agents, aircraft some fencing at border crossings widely used by illegal immigrants was adopted on 59-39 vote. While the border security funds had sweeping support, Democrats and Republicans argued over whether the cuts to Pentagon war funds would harm troops on the ground in Iraq. The cuts, offered by Judd...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three U.S. senators plan legislation that will send a stark message to Iraqi politicians: Form a government quickly or risk losing U.S. military support. Iraqi lawmakers have been in prolonged negotiations since the December 15 parliamentary elections to form a government, drawing criticism from many U.S. politicians for the slow pace. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, said Tuesday the legislation they plan to introduce in Congress would place "significant pressure" on politicians in Baghdad.

Reject assertion he has right to waive rules to protect US security WASHINGTON -- Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees. John W. Warner Jr., a Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, issued a joint statement rejecting Bush's assertion that he can waive the restrictions on the use of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against detainees to protect national security. ''We believe the president...