Free Republic

A study by an American organisation has claimed that in the three years after the 9/11 attacks, US military aid to Pakistan increased 45,000 per cent, soaring to $ 4.2 billion from $ 9.1 million earlier. The study by Center for Public Integrity, using information gathered through Freedom of Information requests, said more than half the money was provided through a post-9/11 Defence Department programme informally called Coalition Support Funds (CSF). Pakistan received $2.3 billion of the aid from CSF money in fiscal years 2002 through 2004 and $ 3 billion in 2005. Thus the country was at the first...

A Hawaii county erected a Christmas tree to protect a Chanukah menorah from a church-state separation challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union complained to Maui County this week after seeing the menorah, accompanied by a dreidel, in front of the county building. A local rabbi had asked authorities for permission to set up the menorah. The ACLU cited laws that say that displaying a religious symbol by itself could constitute endorsement of that religion. County workers scrambled Wednesday to find a Christmas tree, in short supply in Hawaii this late in the season. One was found at a local botanical...

Over the next two years, Republican leaders need to remember that they came to Washington to change it, not embrace it. We need an agenda that approaches issues from a conservative perspective and not one driven by politics. America is a conservative nation and wants conservative government. They don’t want corruption and power-hungry politicians.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A famous political name does not guarantee hassle-free voting, as former "first daughter" Chelsea Clinton discovered Tuesday. She turned up shortly after 6 a.m. at her polling site on West 20th Street -- in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan -- only to be told her name was not in the voter registration books there, a voting official said. It turned out the registration book for her district had been mistakenly sent to the wrong location, said New York City Board of Elections Executive Director John Ravitz. She filed an affidavit vote -- a paper ballot that...

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that the Western position in the nuclear dispute is getting weaker. 'The Western position against us is day by day getting weaker while ours is getting stronger,' Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the city of Shahriar, west of the capital Tehran. 'The West is getting unstable in its decisions. One day they threaten us, the other day they come with a smile,' the Iranian president said in the speech carried live by the news network Khabar. Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran's nuclear programmes would continue despite all pressures and intimidation, but stressed...

Thomas report - Download 525k Listen to Thomas report North Korea's claims to have detonated a nuclear weapon are expected to have wide-reaching effects on efforts to stem nuclear proliferation, especially with regard to Iran. Tehran will be calculating what the international response to the North Korean test will be, and how it will affect its bargaining position. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il The physical shock waves from North Korea's test may have been limited, but the political shock waves are far more profound, and no more so than in Tehran.Karim Sadjapour, an Iranian affairs analyst with the International...

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) - The situation regarding the Iranian nuclear problem was in the focus of attention during the conversation on Tuesday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak and ambassador of the Republic of Iran to Moscow Gholamreza Ansari. The diplomats also exchanged opinions on a number of international problems, the ministry noted. The meeting was held at the request of the Iranian ambassador. Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary of state, said earlier to the BBC that the drafting of a new Security Council resolution on Iran’s nuclear programme would start this week. He said the resolution would...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Dozens of protesters pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday after Danish television broadcast footage deemed insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, witnesses said. Denmark's state TV aired footage on Friday of a number of members of the youth wing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) drawing cartoons in August mocking the Prophet. Iran condemned the broadcast. Reuters witnesses said protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs into the embassy compound. The crowd chanted "Down with Zionists" and "God praise the party of God". Riot police guarded the embassy and two...

(Agencies) A NORTH Korean official has warned the communist nation could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, a South Korean news agency has reported. "We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," the unnamed official said, according to a Yonhap report from Beijing.

Mr Keating said . . . "My great concern is that Japan may use the impasse of North Korea and this testing of its nuclear weapons to move into nuclear weapons itself, eschewing the nuclear protection provided to it by the United States under its umbrella," he told a business breakfast.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, facing a new election-year foreign policy crisis, condemned North Korea's reported nuclear test on Monday and vowed the United States will respect its security commitments in Asia. Democrats eager to oust Republicans from control of the U.S. Congress wasted no time in accusing him of being in a "state of denial" about North Korea for several years as he pursued war in Iraq. They demanded a change in strategy. In his first reaction to the North Korean test, Bush said he talked by phone with the leaders of China, South Korea, Japan and...

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- South Korean stocks dropped sharply Monday after North Korea announced it had conducted an underground nuclear weapons test, raising concerns that investment money may flow out of its neighbor to the south over risk concerns.

LONDON (AP) - High-level representatives from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia are planning to meet in London on Friday to assess Iran's refusal to suspend uranium-enrichment. They are expected to refer the Iranian nuclear case to the UN Security Council, which will start discussing possible sanctions against Iran next week, some western diplomats said Thursday. Russia's foreign minister, however, said he believes it is too soon to impose sanctions and further efforts are needed to push Iran to negotiate. To avoid alienating Russia and China, any sanctions are likely to be relatively mild, including embargoes on...

The Anglo-American special relationship today faces one of its greatest challenges ever in rising British opposition to the United Kingdom’s close ties to the United States. The resurgent Conservative Party under David Cameron must do more to counter this change in public attitudes. British Conservatives should embrace their Party’s traditional pro-Atlanticist agenda and resist the temptation to adopt an anti-American foreign policy. The realistic alternative—spurning Washington in favor of closer ties to Brussels—threatens the effectiveness and leadership of both the United States and Great Britain on the world stage, as well as the progress of the war on terrorism. Changing...

Gollust report - Download 304k Listen to Gollust report U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment and it is time for the U.N. Security Council to move on sanctions against Tehran. Rice is expected to meet with fellow foreign ministers from the other permanent Security Council member countries and Germany on the issue as early as this week. Condoleezza Rice Though a Security Council deadline for Iran to halt enrichment expired August 31, the major powers allowed a dialogue between the European Union and Tehran to continue.But EU chief diplomat Javier Solana declared...

TEHRAN A letter written by Iran's former supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and published last Friday refers indirectly to Iran's needs to pursue nuclear weapons and has become part of the struggle between moderates and the military as it tries to expand its power under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - U.S. and world emergency crude oil reserves could replace a complete shut-off of Iranian oil exports for 18 months, avoiding an estimated $201 billion in damage to the American economy, the Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday. There has been concern among energy traders that tough action by the United States and other western countries against Iran's nuclear program could cause Tehran to retaliate by cutting off the country's oil exports. Iran is the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, selling about 2.7 million barrels a day. Such a disruption would remove close to 1.5 billion...

WASHINGTON - Former advisers ridiculed ex-President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying he had a plan to invade Afghanistan, topple the Taliban and kill Osama Bin Laden after jihadists nearly sank the destroyer Cole. "The only order we got from [Clinton] after the Cole was to put together a target list for air attacks," said Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden under Clinton. "What I was involved in could in no way be called a full-fledged plan to attack and overthrow the Taliban," he said. In his fiery interview on "Fox News Sunday," Clinton claimed he...

Muslims For America Endorses Senator George Allen - The Senator Allen That We Know By Muhammad Ali Hasan As an American Muslim activist, I am growing upset over the accusations that Senator George Allen is facing. Granted, the use of the word “macaca” was completely inappropriate, but I forgive Senator Allen for good reason. I have met Senator Allen personally, our organization has provided advice to his campaign, and I want to confirm it now and for all – Senator Allen is not racist; in fact, he is one of the Senate’s most open-minded and unbigoted leaders. Senator Allen has...

BERLIN, Sept 23 (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment programme first, but Washington would not take part, a German magazine reported on Saturday. So far Iran has refused to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which could refine uranium for atom bombs, saying its nuclear fuel ambitions are limited to fuelling power stations. Western countries suspect Tehran wants to produce weapons. Citing unnamed German diplomatic sources, weekly Der Spiegel said the goal of this new strategy would be to lure Tehran to the negotiating...