Free Republic

Before he folded his presidential campaign and turned to trolling President Trump on Twitter, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared at AIPAC last Monday: “I was never prouder than when I stood in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and argued that Muslims had every right to build a Mosque anywhere in our city, including near the World Trade Center.” He may have been proud, but he was not successful. The infamous Ground Zero Mosque was Bloomberg’s pet project and was hailed by all the leftist intelligentsia, including Barack Obama, but the planned 16-story structure was not...

The news was buried under two dense paragraphs and five large photos in an article in New York YIMBY about a different project: "Construction has also yet to begin on 51 Park Place, which is slated to become a 71-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot Islamic cultural center." The infamous Ground Zero Mosque project, a long buried effort to build a triumphal mosque at the site of the worst jihad terror attack in American history, is back. Construction has yet to begin, but it will: the shady developer behind the Ground Zero Mosque scheme, Sharif El-Gamal, has been working to build this sinister structure...

A man whose mother is a 9/11 victim ripped Rep. Ilhan Omar for describing the terror attacks as “some people did something” during the annual anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero on Wednesday. Nicholas Haros Jr., wearing a black T-shirt with the words “Some people did something?,” singled out the congresswoman and the other members of “the Squad” after reading the names of the dead, including his mother’s, Frances Haros, at the ceremony. “’Some people did something,’ said a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota,” said Haros in reference to Omar. Amid some applause, Haros continued, “Today I am here to respond to...

This is truly one of the most troubling news stories I have come across since President Obama took office, and that says a lot from my point of view. I have tried to warn people in general, but Christian in particular about the evil fruit that Liberalism cannot but produce. We may be about to witness this on a global scale as President Obama will have the United States join the United Nations backed Alliance of Civilizations. From the Associated Press: “The Obama administration is preparing to join an international advisory group that the U.S. has largely shunned due to...

Our current state of counterterrorism is such that Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, Patrick Poole, Dave Reaboi, John Rossomando, Stephen Coughlin, or Philip Haney would be extremely unlikely to be invited as experts on terrorism. The wife of the Ground Zero Mosque Imam though? Sure. Come on down and tell us that ISIS supporters don't understand Islam. ... why is the defense bringing in Khan to testify as to whether an ISIS supporter properly understands Islam? Is this really about helping the defendant or about allowing Khan to promote a particular narrative?

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will remove an art installation featuring a nine-foot tall statue of Saudi Arabia’s flag from the World Trade Center campus. “We have been in contact with the 9/11 Memorial and various stakeholders, and in full collaboration with the artist will relocate the exhibit from its current location,” a spokesperson for the organization told Observer on Monday. “We believe this solution respects the unique sensitivities of the site and preserves the artistic integrity of the exhibit.” Created by French sculptor Laurence Jenkell in 2011, the exhibit ‘Candy Nations’ depicts countries in the...

A New York City firefighter, who heroically aided in the evacuation of hundreds of people in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 as the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history unfolded, has died. Thomas Phelan, 45, of Brooklyn, died on Friday, according to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York. Phelan, family and friends told the New York Daily News, died from cancer linked to the toxic fumes at Ground Zero. He is one of more than 170 firefighters who have died as a result of an illness related to the attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001,...

Victims' Remains Found Near Ground Zero By ERIC LIPTON and JAMES GLANZ n the week since a ceremony marked the end of the recovery effort at ground zero, Fire Department and construction crews have found the remains of about a dozen victims in nearby buildings damaged in the Sept. 11 attack. City officials had long suspected they might find additional human remains in these adjacent structures, including 90 West Street and 130 Cedar Street, office buildings that were struck and punctured by plane parts and sections of the twin towers. But they had put off the task of thoroughly sifting...

A former inspector for the federal government now diagnosed with a terminal 9/11 illness is battling with the Labor Department for his workers’ compensation benefit.  Dale Henderson, 59, was a compliance inspector with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on 9/11.  He’s been diagnosed by government doctors with interstitial lung disease — one of several illnesses linked to exposure to hazardous materials on 9/11 or at Ground Zero.  Henderson’s 9/11 illness was acknowledged by the World Trade Center Victims Compensation Fund — which awarded him a $300,000 payout when he first got sick.9/11 asbestos debris lawsuits cleared by N.Y....

vThis morning's column by James Carroll, the Boston Globe's resident gushy liberal, is so predictable you wonder whether it might have been written by a liberal-column generator software program. You know the kind: insert issue, names of political players, a few factoids, and let the program spit out the boilerplate of a standard leftist diatribe. I mean, as soon as you knew that Carroll was writing a column about Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.S., could there be any doubt as to where he'd come down on the controversy surrounding the Iranian president's desire to visit Ground Zero? And Carroll doesn't...

Tyler DurdenSeptember 12, 2016 In all the confusion surrounding yesterday's Hillary health scare, the WaPo reported originally, and then revised, that none other than the Secret Service "broke its own protocol" in the confused, stunned context of Hillary Clinton's early departure from Ground Zero on Sunday. The Wapo brought attention to the widely circulated video of the Democratic presidential nominee's departure from the ceremony, in which Clinton can be seen leaning against a security bollard and then buckling and stumbling as her security detail helps her into a black van. Citing two former Secret Service agents who reviewed the video,...

Hillary Clinton suddenly exited the 9/11 anniversary ceremony in NYC today suffering from being “overheated,” according to her campaign, but the ex-Secretary of State is still coming out West to rake in some Hollywood dough on Tuesday. “Nothing has changed in the Secretary’s schedule,” a source very close to the Clinton campaign told Deadline Sunday. After flying into the Bay Area and hitting up Silicon Valley wallets on Monday, the Democratic Presidential candidate is set for big ticket Los Angeles fundraisers at Seth MacFarlane and Barry Diller’s homes on September 13. Ex-Disney boss Michael Eisner and wife Jane are among...

Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, visiting ground zero in Manhattan. Trump visited ground zero early Sunday morning, where he spoke to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New York Rep. Peter King (R). “Fifteen years ago, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Thousands of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and innocent American children were murdered by radical Islamic terrorists,” the Republican nominee said in a statement. “Today, we mourn for all the lives lost. We mourn for...

People are furious after pictures of a Florida Walmart's 9/11-themed Coke display began to circulate on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. Twitter user Shawn Richard tweeted a picture of the display, which presented Coke Zero in place of Ground Zero and spurred thousands of angry retweets about the beverage company's marketing ploy. “We stopped and stared at it, like oh my God,” Richard said, according to BuzzFeed News. “Nobody seemed to be noticing it. It wasn’t very crowded, and I got the feeling that it had just been assembled. So, we took some pics and went on our way.” Orlando Weekly reports...

The developer of the failed Ground Zero Mosque has nailed down “Sharia-compliant financing” for a new, luxury condominium tower and Islamic cultural museum on the same site, he and his banking partners said Wednesday. The $174 million dollar project features a three-story Islamic cultural museum at 51 Park Place and 48 high-end residential condos in a 43-story tower at 45 Park Place in the Financial District.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The developer of an Islamic cultural center that opened Wednesday evening near the site of the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center says the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the start. People crowded into the center, where a small orchestra played traditional Middle Eastern instruments and a photo exhibit of New York children of different ethnicities lined the walls. The enthusiasm at the opening belied its troubled beginnings. snip He called opposition to the center - which prompted one of the most virulent national discussions...

Back in 2010, a group of Muslim investors wanted to build a mosque near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. This sparked outrage with millions of Americans who found it to be a slap in the face to allow a mosque to be built near such hollowed ground. The man behind it all was Hashim Elzanaty who along with eight other investors purchased the location and set the plans in place. But a famous billionaire New Yorker stepped in to stop the development. He did this by offering Elzanty $6 million to purchase the property from him — a dollar amount...

The developer of the ill-fated Ground Zero Mosque won't relent on his goal of planting a flag on the grave of 3,000 Americans. The New York Post reports that Sharif El-Gamal and his banking partners announced Wednesday that he secured "Sharia-compliant financing" to build a luxury condominium tower and an Islamic museum on the same site as the proposed Ground Zero Mosque -- four blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood. The $174 million dollar project features a three-story Islamic cultural museum at 51 Park Place and 48 high-end residential condos in a 43-story tower at 45 Park...

Monday on “CNN Tonight,” host Don Lemon interviewed Feisal Abdul Rauf , the imam behind the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, about GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s recently announced stance on Muslims entering the United States.

A Church Near Ground Zero Reimagined St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church Designed by Santiago Calatrava By Ralph Gardner Jr. Oct. 15, 2014 8:54 p.m. ET It took two hours of talking with architect Santiago Calatrava—we touched on rock climbing, the Swiss cheese dish raclette, Rembrandt’s self-portraits and New York City’s tradition of great civic architecture—before I realized how appropriate the placement is of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which will overlook the 9/11 Memorial. And not just because it’s the rebirth of the church, a fixture in the neighborhood since the 19th century until it was destroyed by the collapse...