Free Republic

Khaled Mashal, a leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, claimed in an interview translated by MEMRI TV that Russia intends to use the brutal October 7 attack against Israel as teaching material in its military academies. “We want the Arab communities in the West to be active and cooperate with superpowers like China and Russia," Mashal said in the interview. "For your information, Russia has benefited from our attack, because we distracted the US from them and from Ukraine. “China saw our attack as a dazzling example," he continued. "The Russians told us that what happened on October 7 would...

Senior cadet Steven Fox from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is accused of assaulting a date he brought to an AFA dance back in 2015, KKTV reported. Court papers accuse Fox of penetrating the man with a finger without his consent and rubbing himself against the man’s leg for sexual gratification, The Gazette reported. Fox’s defense lawyers say the acts were consensual and the two men were dating at the time.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gay students at America's military service academies are wrapping up the first year when they no longer had to hide their sexual orientation, benefiting from the end of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that used to bar them from seemingly ordinary activities like taking their partners openly to graduation events. For the first time, gay students at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis were able to take a same-sex date to the academy's Ring Dance for third-year midshipmen. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., officially recognized a club for gay students this month....

The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy. Advertisement The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that "diversity" here means nonwhite skins. Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic. The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was "more diverse" than ever before: 35 percent minority.

<p>Want to trim the federal budget and improve the military at the same time? Shut down West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, and use some of the savings to expand ROTC scholarships.</p> <p>After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I've concluded that graduates of the service academies don't stand out compared to other officers. Yet producing them is more than twice as expensive as taking in graduates of civilian schools ($300,000 per West Point product vs. $130,000 for ROTC student). On top of the economic advantage, I've been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military.</p>

Why not the right to pray voluntarily at military school events? The New York-based Anti-Defamation League informed the US Naval Academy in Annapolis that prayers at mealtimes were to be shut down. Abraham Foxman wrote the academy’s superintendent stating that mealtime petitions to the Almighty were out of step with the American way. Therefore, they should be forbidden. The chaplain should be shown the exit sign. Midshipmen should sit down to their meals with no thought of thanking the Lord for the food. To have prayer before meals at the academy was unAmerican in that it forced those in attendance...

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), working with the Social Security Administration and Air Force Office of Special Investigations today arrested 27 foreign nationals working illegally at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. http://www.ilw.com/lawyers/immigdaily/doj_news/2003,0716-employees.pdf