Free Republic

A pro-life pregnancy center in Minneapolis, Minnesota was vandalized on Tuesday, and the group Jane's Revenge has claimed responsibility for carrying out the act in an online post. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life says in a Facebook post that their building was vandalized on Tuesday and posted pictures of graffiti plastered on the building as well as broken windows. "Last night the MCCL office was vandalized, including graffiti and some broken windows. It's the second time we have been targeted in recent weeks. But we are grateful that we are all safe. As the Supreme Court prepares to rule in...

Jane’s Revenge, the group responsible for firebombing dozens of pro-life pregnancy centers throughout the country, has now threatened acts of domestic terrorism. In an open letter issued to pro-life centers across the country, Jane’s Revenge took ownership for acts of violence and vandalism at pregnancy centers throughout the country and promised to escalate their tactics if pro-lifers continue operations as usual. The group declared: Your 30 days expired yesterday. We offered an honorable way out. You could’ve walked away. Now the leash is off. And we will make it as hard as possible for your campaign of oppression to continue....

Twelve years after 9/11, the U.S. has changed sides. The Long War Journal reported on June 29 that the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, which is “al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria,” has “cooperated with Free Syrian Army units to establish sharia, or Islamic law, in Aleppo and in eastern Syria.” What is the Free Syrian Army? The "moderates" whom we are training and to whom we are giving weapons: “the US government is backing the Free Syrian Army despite the group’s known ties to the Al Nusrah Front.” "Training of Syrian insurgents steps up in Saudi...

South Korea moves to heightened alert level EVENT South Korea raised its five-level Watch Condition (Watchcon) to level two on 28 May, for the fifth time since the Korean War ended in 1953. The move comes after North Korea’s 25 May nuclear test. The increase in Watchcon from level three means that the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) will deploy additional intelligence-collecting assets and increase reconnaissance missions. The heightened alert status of the CFC came after North Korea’s bellicose reaction to South Korea joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on 26 May. Pyongyang subsequently stated through its state-run news...

Jane's: North Korea Could Test-Fire Missile By End Of Month LONDON (AFP)--North Korea could be ready to test fire an intermediate range ballistic missile by the end of the month, the military analyst group Jane's said Friday. Experts at Jane's Defence Weekly say that satellite images taken Wednesday indicated that Pyongyang was preparing to launch either a prototype Taepodong 2 missile or a Paektusan 2 space launch vehicle. "There has been a significant increase in launch preparation activity at the Musudan-ni Launch Facility," said Jane's analyst Joseph Bermudez. Bermudez said satellite images and other reports indicated that the activities included...

China could have military edge by 2010 2007/4/25 LONDON, AFP China's rapid beefing up of its military might should give it the edge over Taiwan for the first time by 2010, Jane's Defense Weekly said Tuesday. China announced last month a 17.8-percent rise in military spending to US$45 billion for this year -- a boost aimed at making its forces capable of a quick, decisive invasion of Taiwan while deterring US intervention, the authoritative magazine said. "China is working hard to transform its Vietnam War-era defense establishment into a credible regional military power with a new generation of indigenous equipment,...

AQ Khan-esque N-trafficking continues: Jane’s WASHINGTON: Despite the break-up of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s nuclear smuggling operation, there have been several indications in the past two years that trafficking activities along similar lines continue, according to Jane’s. In a news report circulated on June 16, the generally authoritative British publication said that portions of the AQ Khan network appear to be intact. Several officials involved in investigating the network’s activities said it now appears that parts of the organisation are yet to be uncovered and includes individuals who are more senior in the Khan network than previously believed. The...

Joining a debate over the reliability of the W-76, a top American warhead, a nuclear arms expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has concluded that at worst, 70 percent of those in the nuclear arsenal would explode as designed. "No matter how cautious the assessment, the W-76 remains a reliable component of the U.S. nuclear deterrent," the scientist, Geoffrey E. Forden, wrote in the July issue of Jane's Intelligence Review. Dr. Forden based his estimate on an investigation of the likely number of classified nuclear tests the warhead underwent during its development and on a statistical analysis of that...

WARNING: For discussion purposes only. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. Foreign report can reveal that the nuclear co-operation between India and Israel has never been as good as it is now. Eliyahu Leviteh, deputy director of Israel's nuclear energy agency, paid a visit to India in early December 2004 for meetings with his Indian counterparts. It seems that India and Israel are building up an alliance against Pakistan, a Muslim nuclear power, and, just possibly, Iran, which the Israelis believe has nuclear ambitions. We disclose the latest information about the size of the Israeli nuclear forces. The visit of Leviteh, a veteran Israeli...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

...Russian news services are reporting that both U.S. and Colombian military sources have confirmed that Venezuela's defense ministry has purchased several advanced MiG-29 fighters and that that U.S. sources have detected them on training missions. ..."Venezuela plans to spend approximately $5 billion on acquisition of Russian fighters including purchase of armament, airdrome and airborne equipment." ...UPI: "letters addressed last year to the director general of Russian Aeronautic Corp., Nicolai F. Nikitin, the Venezuelan air force requested the 'latest version' of the MiG-29 SMT equipped with high-tech weaponry, including radar-guided missiles and 2,000-pound bombs." UPI: "The plane must have the capacity...

North Korea is deploying two new missile systems which could enable it to threaten the continental United States for the first time, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported today. American officials had previously claimed that North Korea was developing missiles, based on the Soviet submarine-launched SSN6, which were capable of hitting the United States. Jane’s said the new missiles, apparently based on SSN6, have a range of 1,500 miles or more. “The submarine-launched ballistic missile or ship-mounted version of this new system is potentially the most threatening,” Jane’s reported. “It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK and...

The London-based Jane's Intelligence Digest has warned that the al-Qaida terrorist network and its international affiliates are probably stronger today than they were in 2001. The authoritative publication says the question, unthinkable in the aftermath of 9/11, is relevant today, namely whether al-Qaida is winning the war. It concedes that for many people in the West, the question is provocative and even outrageous, since they argue that the US and its allies hold the moral high ground and possess the resources and determination to defeat this terror network, reports the Daily Times. According to Jane's, the invasion of Afghanistan and...

The US Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) is conducting several efforts that could improve the performance and increase the lethality of the AC-130 gunships operated by US Air Force Special Operations Command. The work could also provide these and other C-130 Hercules models with greatly expanded capabilities. The NSWCDD, which had earlier worked on integrating gun armament into the baseline AC-130 models, has conducted the Killer Hercules Demonstration Program - generally referred to as 'Killer Herc' - at the request of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. This involved four major...

The specialist military review Jane's Defence Weekly on Tuesday published what it said were exclusive images of a radar-evading bomber being developed by the United States. Jane's said the pictures were of scale mock-ups of a long-range strike aircraft being developed by US firm Lockheed Martin to eventually replace a series of similar "stealth" craft currently in service. The new plane would have a range of some 4,800 kilometres (3,000 miles) without refuelling and be capable of carrying between six and 18 tonnes of ordnance depending on the version, the magazine said. The current fleet of stealth bombers includes...

Kim Burger JDW Staff Reporter, Nick Cook JDW Aerospace Consultant, Andrew Koch JDW Washington Bureau Chief, Michael Sirak JDW Staff Reporter With the regime of Saddam Hussein soundly defeated by overwhelming military force, coalition leaders are analysing what initial lessons can be drawn from Operation 'Iraqi Freedom'. A high-level Pentagon team is already sifting through the data. The team-members will be aware that their conclusions will be leapt upon by proponents of two quite disparate camps: those who will use the war to bolster the process of the military's transformation from a Cold War-era fighting force to one that is...

28 February 2003 North Korea tests anti-ship cruise missiles By Joseph S Bermudez Jr, JDW Special Correspondent, Colorado The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK's) test launch on 24 February of two anti-ship cruise missiles is almost certainly an integral component of the Korean People's Navy's (KPN's) annual winter training. The timing of the tests, however, is sure to be seen as politically motivated and designed for maximum effect: it occurred on the eve of the inauguration of Republic of Korea (RoK) President Roh Moo-hyun; US Secretary of State Colin Powell is on a visit to the region; the DPRK's...

In Foreign Parts: GI Janes flaunt their sports bras as body search arrives in cultural minefield of Afghan frontier By Jan McGirk in Peshawar 14 December 2002 I idly mention to my translator in Peshawar how a war photo published in all the Pakistani dailies has outraged everyone who has seen it. Janula Hashim Khan is usually rather bored by my attempts to make polite conversation, but he suddenly comes to life, eyes ablaze. "Yes, I know the photo. It's a disgrace to see our sisters and mothers mauled like that," he says. To my amazement, he pulls a carefully...

LONDON, Sept 27 (AFP) - Israel special forces are operating inside western Iraq, pinpointing locations where Iraqi missile lauchers might be positioned, the Jane's Foreign Report newsletter said in its latest issue, received Friday. The newsletter said the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit was ordered into Iraq "to find and identify places used by, or likely to be used by, Iraqi Scud missile launchers." "Our information is that neither Israel nor the United States have a clue about what, if anything, Saddam Hussein is hiding," the newsletter said, referring to the Iraqi leader. "It was this ignorance that persuaded...