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<p>For years, a citizen who wanted to know the name and phone number of a Pentagon official could buy a copy of the Defense Department directory at a government printing office. But since 2001, the directory has been stamped ''For Official Use Only," meaning the public may not have access to such basic information about the vast military bureaucracy.</p>

<p>The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.</p> <p>Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.</p>

WASHINGTON – Within a decade, the government will be footing the bill for nearly half the nation's medical costs, its share propelled higher by the new Medicare drug program, administration economists estimated Wednesday. At the same time, total health spending – both private and government – will take an ever-larger portion of America's economic output, said the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rise in federal payments raises "some really, really big issues" about a government budget in which other programs already are being squeezed out, said Urban Institute tax analyst Eugene Steuerle. The projections were...

EXTREMIST Muslim scientists are developing a bomb that turns anyone within a 30-mile radius of its blast into a homosexual, say U.S. Intelligence insiders. It's all a part of the Al Qaeda master plan to pull our country apart and kill the patriotism that makes us strong. " They believe that making more Americans gay will start civil war between gays and ultraconservatives," says one highly placed intelligence officer. "They also figure it will lead to a decrease in the U.S. population." The Gay Bomb was already in the planning stages when Osama Bin Laden and close, intimate friend Muhammad...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

No, we haven't found Osama. Haven't found Saddam. Haven't found weapons of mass destruction. But we sure are making discoveries in our own self-evidently compromised military. Now that it appears security has been distressingly breached at the Guantanamo terrorist tank, the Pentagon has at last agreed it might be useful to "review" the clearances of Muslim Americans in the U.S. armed forces. Right. Good plan. Sen. Chuck Schumer has been saying this for only months now. He and Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl will shortly open formal inquiries into whatever disturbing degree Islamic radicals and those sympathetic to them have...

Enemy Within May Complicate War Posted April 1, 2003 By Scott L. Wheeler Muslims constitute an estimated 2 percent of the 400,000 soldiers serving in the U.S. Army. Perimeter guards were in place to protect resting U.S. troops awaiting deployment orders that soon would send them rappelling from hovering helicopters to the ground assault that distinguishes the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. With the perimeter secured, the officers of the 1st Brigade were getting some of the sleep they knew would be in short supply once they were dropped into combat. But shortly after 1:00 a.m. local time,...

US preparing to abandon UN and launch war within a week By David Usborne Rupert Cornwell Andrew Grice and Katherine Butler 14 March 2003 The United States sent a powerful signal last night that it will soon abandon efforts to win a second United Nations resolution, in effect clearing the decks for military action against Iraq late next week. Washington left the door open to a few extra days of diplomacy so that frantic negotiations on Britain's near-moribund compromise plan could continue over the weekend. A vote that had been expected today could be put off until Monday, White House...