Free Republic

A national defense analyst says it's absolutely crazy that Pentagon officials will push the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to recommend the quick ratification of the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty. Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival, has already expressed his concerns that the Chinese have been using their huge trade advantage with the U.S. to build up their navy, while the U.S. Navy plans to further reduce the number of ships in its fleet. (See earlier article) But Kincaid says instead of changing course and rebuilding to counter the Chinese threat, top Naval officials, including Chief of Naval Operations...

ABOARD THE USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN, April 30, 2006 – Despite political tensions among Iran and other countries, exchanges between the Iranian navy and coalition forces in the northern Arabian Gulf are "fully courteous and professional," said U.S. Navy Capt. Christopher Noble, during an interview here. Noble, the commander of Coalition Task Group 58.1, is charged with protecting Iraq's oil terminals, located in Iraqi territorial waters. However, exchanges with ships manned by Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen are not as professional, and the Iranian ships test the coalition on occasion. "But it's still a crisp relationship, and they know why we're here," said...

Babalu blog's Val Prieto, who was profiled recently on the front page of the Miami Herald as a brilliant new voice of the often-dismissed Cuban-American community, has a striking update about the Elian Gonzalez case. Back in 2000, the rescue of the 6-year-old Cuban refugee by fishermen off the coast of Florida triggered a three-way tug-of-war between Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the cowardly Clinton Administration, and the Cuban-American community over custody of the child. The Clinton administration resolved the question with a savage pre-dawn raid, grabbing the terrified child at gunpoint from his Miami relatives and delivering him straight to...