Free Republic

Neoconservatism is an elite calling. It thrives in think tanks, not union halls; its proponents want most of all to influence the powerful. No wonder Ivy League labels have always been important to neocons. This fixation on intellectual prestige explains the recent neocon uprising over the possibility that Juan Cole, scholar and blogger, would become a Yale professor. It was one thing for Cole to hold forth from the University of Michigan, where he has been a professor for twenty years. But Yale would provide "honor" and "imprimatur," says Scott Johnson, a right-wing blogger. "That's a huge thing, to have...

When it comes to off-the-wall commentary on the Middle East conflict, University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole is the gift that keeps on giving. If there's anti-Israel propaganda to be found, one can be sure Cole will be peddling it at his ironically named blog, Informed Comment. His labeling of Gaza in September, 2007 as "the worst outcome of Western colonialism anywhere in the world outside the Belgian Congo" is a case in point. As noted by Noah Pollack at Contentions, Cole's latest blog ramblings ratchet up the hysteria another notch. Not content with alleging persecution of the self-defeating...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

The Justice Department on Wednesday indicted eight young anti-Israel activists, most of whom studied or worked at the University of Michigan, for orchestrating a criminal plot "to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation" of Detroit. The defendants, many of them known campus agitators, targeted the homes of university officials and intended to use "poison, bombs, and psychological torture" on their targets. "In the dead of night, masked and hooded defendants allegedly threw noxious chemicals through the windows of families' homes and taped demand letters to their front doors," said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the...

China has emerged as the most prolific intelligence threat to U.S. having engaged in corporate espionage, intellectual-property theft, and personnel information breaches going back decades. A naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from China has been sentenced to four years in prison after conspiring to act as a agent of the Chinese government, highlighting the broad reach of Beijing’s security service and strategy of co-opting immigrants for intelligence gathering, according to the Justice Department. The plea agreement and court filings announced Monday show China’s Ministry of State Security – the Communist-run country's intelligence service – used operative Peng Li as a...

A Palo Alto father who has filed multiple lawsuits against major university systems over his son's college rejections says artificial intelligence has become the key to pursuing the cases after no law firm agreed to represent them. The legal fight stems from a 2023 ABC7 News story about Stanley Zhong, then an 18-year-old Gunn High School student with a 4.4 GPA and a near-perfect 1590 SAT score who was rejected by 16 out of the 18 colleges he applied to. Despite the rejections, he was later hired as a software engineer at Google. Two and a half years later, his...

Amir Makled, who introduced El-Sayed at an event with Hasan Piker, represented Michigan students who faced criminal charges related to the school’s anti-Israel encampment The left-wing candidate for Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, campaigned this week with a man running for the University of Michigan's board of regents who shared since-deleted X posts that celebrated late Hezbollah leaders as "martyr[s]"

A Chinese researcher at the University of Michigan took his own life after being subjected to 'hostile questioning' by federal agents, it is claimed. Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the school's College of Engineering, died on March 20 inside the university after falling to his death. Police said they are investigating his death as a 'possible act of self-harm', with the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming he took his life after 'hostile questioning'. A statement, which did not name Wang, said that the postdoctoral scholar took his life 'after being subjected to hostile questioning by U.S. law...

We should not underestimate the prevalence of microplastics. They are everywhere—in our rivers, our lungs, and even in our blood. But researchers tracking this global pollution crisis may have inadvertently contaminated their research samples. The protective lab gloves they wear are shedding microplastic-like particles that tamper with their numbers. The culprit, according to a University of Michigan study, is a soap-like residue used to pop disposable gloves out of factory molds. Even a light, dry touch sheds thousands of these false-positive particles onto lab equipment. Because this residue can produce a very similar vibrational signature to common plastics under a...

New genetic research is reshaping how scientists understand ancient relationships between early humans and Neanderthals. A study published in Science suggests that mating between Homo sapiens women and Neanderthal men occurred more often than the reverse, leaving a lasting mark on the human genome. The finding helps explain a long-standing mystery in genetics. Modern humans carry small amounts of Neanderthal DNA across most of their genome, but almost none on the X chromosome. These gaps, known as Neanderthal deserts, puzzled scientists for years. Modern humans and Neanderthals split from a shared ancestor about 600,000 years ago. Human ancestors evolved in...

NEW YORK (AP) — Humans and Neanderthals cozied up from time to time when they lived in the same areas tens of thousands of years ago. But we don’t know much about who got with whom, or why. A new genetic analysis offers some ancient gossip: The pairings were more often female humans with male Neanderthals. How exactly this happened remains a huge question mark. Did human women venture into Neanderthal populations, or were the Neanderthal males drawn to larger human enclaves? Were these interactions peaceful, confusing, secretive or even violent? “I don’t know if we’ll ever get a definitive...

Yunqing Jian, 33, first entered the country on a fraudulently obtained F1 student visa, the FBI says Fusarium graminearum creates "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, and "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year," according to the Department of Justice. It is also toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting, liver damage and "reproductive defects in humans and livestock." The affidavit, which said Jian has been attempting to smuggle the pathogen into the U.S. since she began post-doctoral studies funded by China in 2022, also accuses Jian of asking a third...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Sherrone Moore, the lauded head coach of the University of Michigan’s storied football program, threw away his $30 million career when his affair with his assistant came to light — a scandal that was capped by his stunning arrest over allegations of assault. The 39-year-old married dad of three’s promising career quickly came to a crashing end Wednesday. He was booted as Michigan’s head coach that afternoon and, within the same hour, he was busted on criminal charges for allegedly breaking into the home of his executive assistant, Paige Shiver, with a knife in hand. Moore...

The Wolverines will undergo their second coaching change in three years, releasing Moore after eight years with the organization, including two as head coachMichigan fired coach Sherrone Moore for cause at the conclusion of his second season leading the Wolverines football program. Athletic director Warde Manuel said Wednesday the termination was the result of an inappropriate relationship between Moore and a staff member. "Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately," Manuel said in a statement. "Following a university investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes...

Charlie Kirk’s murder proves free speech absolutism cannot withstand lies turned lethal—America must confront hate and incitement with lawful strength, not naïve trust.The murdered Charlie Kirk was a martyr to free speech and the belief in the power of reasoned argument to overcome lies and evil. “Hate speech does not exist legally in America,” he wrote on X in May of 2024. “There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.” There is much to admire in Charlie’s devotion to those principles, but his murder put those principles to...

Once again, the United States is using lethal force off its shores. In recent weeks, American drones and warships have sunk or disabled a string of speedboats in international waters off Venezuela. Washington says the vessels belonged to narcoterrorist networks tied to the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua and that they were carrying cocaine and fentanyl precursors bound for the United States. At least 83 alleged traffickers and others are dead. Caracas calls this extrajudicial murder. Human-rights groups call it assassination. Cable-news panels and UN press releases are already rehearsing the same ritual question: Is this legal under international...

University of Michigan assistant professor Charles H.F. Davis stated on Thursday that the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is a “solution” to “violent rhetoric spewed by empowered people.” Davis’ research broadly focuses on “racism, oppression, and structures of domination in U.S. higher education,” according to The Midwesterner. In addition to defending Kirk’s murder, Davis retweeted several posts that celebrated the assassination.

Change from Previous Month: +16.28% (+8.5 points) Change from 12 Months Previous: -11.00% (-7.5 points)

One is an event, two is a coincidence—but three is a pattern. On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that a third Chinese national has been nabbed for allegedly trying to smuggle biological materials into the United States. Making things more disturbing is a fact that a Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have come up with: the smuggler was studying in, where else, Wuhan, China. You’ve heard of Wuhan, haven’t you? The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan released a statement alleging that Chengxuan Han, “a citizen of the PRC” (People's Republic of China), sent packages containing biological material...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it has apprehended a University of Michigan (U-M) scholar from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the U.S. Chengxuan Han, a Chinese national affiliated with U-M, is accused of sending multiple packages containing biological materials to a university laboratory and lying to federal officials about the matter, according to the DOJ. Han is the second Chinese national linked to U-M in two weeks to be hit with federal charges related to alleged smuggling of biological materials. “The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien...