Free Republic

Years before he slaughtered 49 people at a gay club, Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was threatening to go on a school rampage, according to a former classmate. In fifth grade, the future gunman said that he was going to bring a gun to school and kill the students, fellow Mariposa Elementary alumnus Leslie Hall told TMZ. Hall, who said that she was bullied by Mateen at the Port St. Lucie, Fla., school, told the outlet that he was suspended for two weeks because of the threat. The 29-year-old’s threat would have likely come in the late 1990s, during a series...

While criticism surrounding Operation Fast and Furious has so far focused on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, three other federal agencies knew about the operation and some of their agents tried to stop it, according to the former chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Tucson. Tony Coulson, the DEA’s agent in charge of Southern Arizona during Fast and Furious, says many federal field agents knew the ATF was walking guns to Mexico, but supervisors told them to back off when they objected. “Clearly, we went too far,” Coulson said. “The question we had among rank and...

Can you imagine someone working in the private sector going to work one day and going off on a deadly rampage, murdering a number of his coworkers and then continuing to receive paychecks from that employer? That’s exactly what is happening in the case of Major Nidal Hasan. Hasan gunned down his fellow soldiers and he’s still receiving a paycheck from the United States. Good grief! At least the banks are doing the right thing. ....

The Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood massacre apparently acted alone and without outside direction in the attack, investigative officials said Monday evening. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will be charged by the U.S. military rather than in a civilian court, they said. Although investigative officials portrayed Hasan as a lone wolf, the investigators and a U.S. official disclosed that Hasan communicated 10 to 20 times with a radical imam overseas who in the past came under scrutiny for possible links to terror groups. The investigative officials said the communications began last year and continued into this year and "were...