Free Republic

Congressman told FBI he asked for -- and got -- free home upgrades ### Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Gutierrez's comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase. "I walked in with my wife -- as any other consumer could have -- and purchased the unit at the listed price, with no considerations," the Northwest Side congressman said then,...

November 26, 2009, 0:00 a.m. Apocalypse When?Our enemies are contemplating attacks worse than 9/11. By Clifford D. May The Heritage Foundation recently convened a meeting of experts to discuss “Weapons of Mass Destruction and America’s Communities,” the various ways our terrorist enemies might attack us and our allies in the future, and what might be done to stop them. You can imagine what a merry gathering this was. The most obvious concern: the spread of nuclear weapons. Within the group, there was consensus that if Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, is not prevented from acquiring nukes, the...

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--Radioactive dispersal devices--also known as dirty bombs--might be less harmful to fire fighters or police officers than long feared. That's the conclusion of a new set of explosive experiments described here yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW). Dirty bombs have been on the radar for decades, but their threat has taken on increased urgency since 11 September 2001. The idea goes that terrorists unable to secure a nuclear weapon would instead strap an explosive device to a container filled with radioactive material, which would likely be stolen...