Free Republic

Hunkered down in a mountain-top ravine, armed only with a pistol, and with gun-toting tribesmen bearing down on him, the US Airforce colonel probably had slim hopes for his survival.However, after what is being called the 'most daring' Special Forces rescue operation in US history, he is now safely out of Iran.It took hundreds of Special Forces commandos, a CIA drone operation, and some lateral thinking to avert last-minute disaster.Step-by-step, this is how the rescue operation unfolded.

Sen. Mary Landrieu was either being diplomatic or disingenuous when she used "good start" to describe Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's lifting of the federal government's drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. More to the point was her insistence that lifting the ban means nothing in the absence of "an action plan to get the entire industry in the Gulf of Mexico back to work. This means that the administration must continue to accelerate the granting of permits in shallow and deep water, and provide greater certainty about the rules and regulations industry must meet." The Louisiana Democrat also warned...