Free Republic

SAGINAW, Mich. Feb 22, 2006 (AP)— Even though Jay Leno messed up a big piece of his family history, Thomas B. Mudd still is one of the late-night talk show host's biggest fans. That's because when Mudd pointed out the mistake involving his great-grandfather, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, and his role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Leno called him in Saginaw to personally apologize. Leno made the miscue in late January while interviewing actor Harrison Ford, who soon will begin filming "Manhunt," a movie about the Lincoln assassination. The "Tonight Show" host said that for years, newsman Roger Mudd...

How the CIA Funds Anti-Bush Propaganda By Bill Gertz The Washington Times | September 14, 2004 The CIA's Counterterrorist Center has spent more than $15 million in the past three years funding studies, reports and conferences produced by former Democratic administration officials and other critics of the Bush administration. The latest effort was a $300,000 grant by the CIA to the Atlantic Council for a study co-authored by Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official who wrote a best seller accusing the Bush administration of failing in the war on terrorism by invading Iraq.

Early last month, Dave Laspisa, a Poway businessman, opened his mail and discovered a holiday card from his old friend David Westerfield. "Greetings of the Seasons," the card announced, and inside was a handwritten note of thanks for Laspisa's support. Van Dams file lawsuit against Westerfield During the past year, Laspisa has been fairly vocal in his belief that Westerfield, his camping buddy, had nothing to do with the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. "Please know that I was not involved in the death of this child," Westerfield wrote. "I'm saying this to you not to solicit more help...

The family of the doctor convicted of aiding Abraham Lincoln's assassin has suffered a legal setback in their bid to clear their ancestor's name. Yesterday, a federal appeals court in Washington dismissed their case on behalf of Doctor Samuel Mudd. The court said the law the family cited in their effort to have Mudd's conviction overturned only covers people with military records. Mudd was never a soldier. A military tribunal sentenced Mudd to life in prison for setting the broken leg of fleeing assassin John Wilkes Booth, though Mudd claimed he knew nothing of the assassination or any plot. He...

A 137-year-old quest to clear the name of the Mudd family - descendants of the doctor jailed after he treated President Lincoln's fleeing assassin, John Wilkes Booth, for a broken leg - has reached the US Court of Appeal, only to run headlong into the modern war on terrorism. Dr Samuel A Mudd - whose conviction in 1865 is thought to have given common currency to the phrase "his name is mud" - took Booth into his rural Maryland home, giving him shelter, food and fresh horses just hours after the assassin fled Ford's Theatre in Washington, where he shot...