Free Republic

State Department officials on Monday confirmed Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, will soon be going on a trip of the Middle East and the U.S. government will be picking up the tab. The planned construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City has set off a contentious national debate over religious freedom in the U.S., drawing impassioned opposition from some families of 9/11 victims. Rauf has emerged as a controversial figure because of his refusal to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization, which is how the U.S. government classifies the group....

(CBS) American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month, a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and ProPublica reveals. This, despite the fact that Al Hurra management promised Congress nearly two years ago that they would take measures to prevent such mistakes, which had occurred repeatedly before. The joint investigation will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT and be detailed on ProPublica's Web site simultaneously. Al Hurra is headquartered in Springfield, Va.; it was created four years ago by the Bush Administration...

By EDUARDO PORTER Published: June 7, 2005 TLALCHAPA, Mexico - Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. *** The number of people...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.S. congressional committee has drafted a bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of dollars in dues from the United Nations unless the world body conducts wide-ranging reforms, possibly setting the stage for a funding battle like the one that plunged the U.N. into financial crisis a decade ago. The "United Nations Reform Act of 2005" targets a panoply of issues that have troubled critics of the United Nations, particularly Republicans, for years. Among other things, it would seek to cut funding for programs seen as useless and bar human rights violators from serving...

I guess I’m really dense, but can someone – ANYONE – tell me why the US tax-slaves must take it in the shorts for “Operation Iraqi Freedom?” There’s a madman and his two crazed kids tyrannizing the Iraqi people. They’re harboring, aiding and abetting radical islamist terrorists who threaten not only every democratic nation on the planet but the decidedly less than democratic Middle East states around them, states which perhaps for ill-thought out religious reasons, do NOTHING to bring the tyrants to justice. Finally beyond frustration, the U.S. MOVES and moves in such a way as to avoid as...

The conversion of Roosevelt Roads Naval Base into a super seaport for excursion boats and cruise ships of every size could transform Puerto Rico into the hub of nautical tourism in the Caribbean, a local investor said Tuesday. "A way to guarantee that Puerto Rico will play a leading role in the future of tourism in the Caribbean is to...[have] the facilities at Roosevelt Roads Base turned over to us, along with Vieques," said Luis M. Corujo, president of Grupo Financiero Corujo investment company and a yacht aficionado. Corujo testified during a hearing held Tuesday by the House Tourism Committee,...