Free Republic

Now wait a minute. We're constantly told that no Muslims in the U.S. -- none -- adhere to Al Qaeda's understanding of Islam, and only greasy Islamophobes think otherwise. So how did Amiir Farouk Ibrahim, no doubt known to all and sundry back home in Pennsylvania as a solid and respectable burgher of serious mien, come to misunderstand his peaceful religion so resoundingly? "American passport found at al Qaeda base in northern Syria," by Bill Roggio for the Long War Journal, July 23 (thanks to Jerk Chicken): A passport said to belong to an American citizen was found among a...

Excepting her bang-up performance at the Gridiron Dinner this month, Sarah Palin has an infamously fraught relationship with the media. On the one hand, frenzied coverage of her memoir ginned up sales. On the other hand, non-stop scrutiny of her clothing choices allegedly ruined a family vacation. There are costs to being constantly in the spotlight. Now she's taken some measures to control the message. Three Alaska bloggers who crossed Palin while she was governor have found themselves banned from attending her book signings. Jesse Gryphen, Dennis Zaki, and Shannyn Moore--plus an unknown fourth--are blacklisted at Palin events. Gryphen tells...

A federal grand jury has indicted three Ohio men on terrorism charges alleging they plotted to kill U.S. and coalition military personnel in Iraq and other countries. The three men were arrested over the weekend and were to be arraigned in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo on Tuesday afternoon, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer. According to the indictment unsealed Monday, the three suspects recruited others to train for a violent holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq. The indictment says they traveled together to a shooting range to practice shooting guns and studied how...

An attorney for Sarah Palin has delivered a letter threatening legal action against an anti-Palin blogger who was the source of a divorce rumor that the attorney for the former Alaska governor called "categorically false." Publication of the letter at a Web site that repeated the rumor has uncovered circumstantial evidence that the anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen" is a kindergarten teacher at an Anchorage elementary school.... CNN stringer/anti-Palin blogger Dennis Zaki published ... a copy of a letter from Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein, ordering "Gryphen" to retract the allegations -- calling them "complete fabrications, false and defamatory" -- or face...

6:39 p.m. ET: An anonymous e-mailer forwards to me this communication, which I post without editing, except for formatting purposes: I would like you to know that Gryphen of Immoral Minority (Palin divorce smear) is actually one Jesse Griffin. He must value his identity because he had his fellow Palin Hater, Dennis Zaki, black out his name in this document: http://alaskareport.com/news39/x71285_letter.htm Zaki reveals that Gryphen is a kindergarten teacher of some kind: Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin's lawyer, threatened Saturday to serve libel papers at a kindergarten to the owner of the highly trafficked "ImmoralMinority" blog for a divorce story...

[...]So what do you think the MSM would do about this? Ignore it maybe? I mean Team Sarah put the rumor down quickly right? No, they blame Sarah for answering these false charges. By having her spokeswoman repeat the charges to rebut them in a public form, Palin effectively guaranteed coverage from the mainstream media that otherwise would not report claims attributed to unnamed sources on an anonymous blog. OK, Sarah, listen to me. You ignored my very nice open letter, but this is important. You have to fire Meg Stapleton, or give her something easier to do. There are...