Free Republic

Sir Elton John has been forced to cancel a string of concerts after contracting E.coli and an aggressive bout of influenza. The 62-year-old had already pulled out of a series of concerts in Dublin, London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield citing ill-health. But gigs in the U.S. cities of Seattle, Washington and and Portland, Oregon were yesterday shelved after the singer was admitted to hospital. Yesterday, a spokesman for Sir Elton was keen to play down reports of his condition, saying: 'He is recovering from a case of serious influenza with minor complications. We are confident he will be back on...

'Sarin Bomb!' v The Dud Heard Round the World by Scott Ritter from the May 21, 2004 edition Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache By Scott Ritter DELMAR, N.Y. v In the mid-1980s I served as the intelligence officer for a Marine artillery battalion. Stationed in Twentynine Palms, Calif., I would often find myself deployed in the field, on exercises where thousands of live artillery rounds were fired downrange. In keeping with the Marine artillery motto of "shoot, move, communicate," we were always moving from one firing location to another to simulate modern war. This mobility...