Free Republic

In this latest episode of the Covert Radio Show, we cover the latest on Post-Musharraf Pakistan, the latest on the Taliban assaults in Afghanistan and the fall out from Russia and Georgia and NATO's decision to censure Russia.

A few days ago, Ukraine offered a Soviet-built facility as a base for Western missile defense. Today, Poland and the U.S. have signed a missile defense deal. Someone is standing up to the bully. The people who have the most to lose (the little kids whose lunch money the bully wants) and their only real defenders (conservatives in the U.S. and the West) are joining forces to oppose them.Meanwhile, NATO is proving that it may be a spent force—owing to the fact that most of its members are the now-useless countries of Western Europe. It's tepid response to the Georgia...

<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Polish counterpart signed a deal Wednesday to build a U.S. missile defense base in Poland, an agreement that prompted an infuriated Russia to warn of a possible attack against the former Soviet satellite.</p>

In the equation which makes up the odious, criminal and murderous Bush regime and its murderous, criminal and odious foreign policy, the constant factor is constituted by a teacher, promoted to positions way above her personal and intellectual station by a gullible fool of a President. This teacher, whose sheer incompetence as National Security Advisor and as Secretary of State is today so blatantly apparent, goes by the name of Condoleeza Rice. The fact that Rice was National Security Advisor at the time of 9/11 speaks for itself, period. As Secretary of State, she is supposed to be responsible for...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad headed to Moscow today to discuss an expansion of his pariah state’s military cooperation with Russia. The trip is raising fears that the new Cold War that has erupted in the Caucasus will spill over into the Middle East, long a battleground between East and West, and crush tentative hopes for peace. "Of course military and technical cooperation is the main issue. Weapons purchases are very important," said Mr Assad. "I think we should speed it up. Moreover, the West and Israel continue to put pressure on Russia." Israel, like its main sponsor America, has developed...

It was only about a year ago that Modi'in, a city of some 70,000 residents situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, landed on the terror map. The Shin Bet uncovered and averted a plot by a group of terrorists based in Hebron to blow up a Modi'in synagogue. They had planned to carry out other attacks, including kidnapping an American citizen. The terror cell was headed by a man who was familiar with the area because he had been employed at a man who was familiar with the area because he had been employed at a building site across the...

VERKHNY ZARAMAG, Russia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Russian military trucks crossed from Georgia back into Russia on Wednesday but there was no sign of the large-scale, rapid pullout demanded by the West. A Reuters correspondent near the Roki tunnel that links Russia with Georgia's pro-Russian rebel province of South Ossetia said about 40 trucks covered with tarpaulin crossed the frontier from midday. "Some were obviously laden. Most of them seemed to be empty, riding high on their suspension," he said. "And there was no sign of armoured vehicles or of artillery." A local official said no Russian armour had crossed...

VIETNAM veteran Ian Fruend attributes the breakdown he suffered six years ago to one thing - it was "because of some of the things I did and saw" in battle. After a harrowing war, the infantryman, who served with 8RAR in Nui Dat, Vietnam, returned to Australia without fanfare, landing in Sydney to find the airport in darkness. There was no one to meet him, or offer support. Seeking solace at nearby Liverpool RSL, he was singled out by an old Digger who, identifying his short hair and bandaged arms as that of a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spat...

GOETI, Georgia (AP) - A convoy of flatbed trucks carrying badly needed food aid to beleaguered Georgians rumbled through a Russian checkpoint on Wednesday, waved past by soldiers who showed no signs of moving to fulfill their president's promise of a pullback within two days. A top Russian general, meanwhile, said Russia plans to construct nearly a score of checkpoints to be manned by hundreds of soldiers in the so-called «security zone» around the border with South Ossetia, the Russian-backed Georgian separatist region that was the flashpoint of fighting this month that brought Russian troops deep into Georgia. The cease-fire...

AMMAN (AFP) - Four Jordanian prisoners handed over by Israel last year to complete their life sentences in the kingdom were released from a jail north of the capital Amman on Wednesday. The four, who were convicted of killing two Israeli soldiers in November 1990 four years before Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, received a hero's welcome from relatives as they walked out of Qafqafa prison carrying Jordanian flags. Jordan's Islamist-dominated trade unions said they were planning a festival later on Wednesday to celebrate the release of the prisoners, who were transferred by Israel in July 2007 in...

Tampa’s Terror for Kids   By Joe KaufmanFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Sami Al-Arian has been in prison, away from his digs in the Tampa, Florida suburb of Temple Terrace, for over five years, yet one of the structures that he left behind continues to propagate the same fanatical ideology that led to his punishment. Al-Arian’s mosque, the Islamic Community of Tampa (ICT), has been proudly advertising hatred and violence meant for the eyes of children. The mosque’s connection to an area youth academy should have all Americans concerned.When Al-Arian arrived at the University of South Florida (USF)...

China's Bible Problem   By Kathy ShaidleFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Amid the medal-bedecked pageantry of the Beijing Olympics, it’s easy to forget that China holds another, less savory distinction: It maintains one of the more repressive regimes of religious persecution. As the recent travails of one missionary group demonstrate, even with the world watching, the host country remains as intolerant of religious freedom as ever. On Sunday, August 17, members of the Sheridan, Wyoming, mission group Vision Beyond Borders arrived at Kunming Airport in Yunnan province with 315 Bibles they planned to give out to Chinese Christians....

China stocks soar 7.6 pct on stimulus hopes Reuters - Wednesday, August 20 SHANGHAI, Aug 20 - China's main stock index soared more than 7 percent on Wednesday because of hopes that the government would introduce a stimulus package to boost the slowing economy and aid the stock and property markets. ADVERTISEMENT Individual investors, many of whom had lost heavily during a 10-month bear market, cheered in the trading hall of a Shenyin & Wanguo Securities branch in downtown Shanghai as the index posted its biggest daily rise since April. Vice premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday that China needed...

Who'd have ever thought the Taliban in Afghanistan would try to emulate Hanoi's strategy in the latter days of the Vietnam war. When Hanoi was losing the ground war against American soldiers in Vietnam, it switched to propaganda and capitalizing on war weariness in the U.S. itself. After the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, when the Viet Cong staged simultaneous attacks on the Americans all over Vietnam, the U.S. media depicted it as a tremendous enemy coup when actually it was a huge military miscalculation and a disaster for the VC. Thereafter in the war, the Viet Cong gave way...

IOC breaks ranks with hosts over protests By Roger Blitz Published: August 19 2008 20:42 | Last updated: August 19 2008 20:42 Olympic officials have for the first time openly criticised their Beijing hosts for China’s intolerance of public protests, questioning their desire to allow citizens the right to raise grievances during the games. The International Olympic Committee is also understood to believe that lower-than-expected attendances at games venues is the result of Beijing’s poor distribution of tickets for the general public, including a failure to reallocate unwanted tickets.

US and Poland sign missile deal in Warsaw Nico Hines Condoleezza Rice today signed an historic and highly controversial deal to build a US missile base in Poland. The US Secretary of State signed the agreement to a build a missile defence shield in the former Soviet satellite state in exchange for greater American military support for Poland. “The negotiations were very tough but friendly,” Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, told Dr Rice at the signature ceremony. “We have achieved our main goals, which means that our country and the United States will be more secure,” he said. Moscow...

S erbia's government has intensified its activity in buying out the property of Albanians in northern section of Mitrovica, a city in the Republic of Kosovo, says Mitrovica Mayor Bajram Rexhepi. Rexhepi expressed his concern about the attempts of Serbia's government to buy out the properties with Albanian owners in the neighborhood Kroi i Vitakut in northern Mitrovica by offering very high prices. He said that at the Security Council meeting will be insisted for this to stop. "Although the trading of property is the right of owners, we will insist to stop this trade, because it is politically motivated...

Russia blocked UN Security Council action on the Georgian crisis, refusing to support a Western-backed draft resolution calling for an immediate Russian military withdrawal. Even though Moscow has said it will withdraw, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council the resolution should include and endorse a six-point peace plan promoted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and signed by both Georgia and Russia. Since the French-drafted text did not do this, "the Russian Federation will not be able to support (it)," he said. The council meeting ended with no attempt to put the resolution to a vote and French and other Western...

Foreign secretary believes keeping alliance's pledge to grant Georgia membership is 'important signal' The formal process leading to Georgia's membership of Nato has begun, partly because of Russia's occupation, David Miliband said today. In an interview with the Guardian in Tbilisi, the foreign secretary said Georgia had been given a "route map to membership" after the formation on Tuesday of a joint commission aimed at forging closer ties. He said this was an important step towards implementing a pledge made by Nato leaders at a summit in April. "I think the formal process kicked off yesterday with the establishment of...

In West Texas, it was not uncommon to see the bumper sticker “fear the government that fears your gun” on a lot of pick-up trucks during both terms of the Clinton administration. Like the rest of the South and much of the Midwest, we were hypersensitive to the thought of having our right to keep and bear arms infringed upon in any way. Moreover, common sense and annual FBI crime statistics taught us that 99.9% of the population only used their guns for defensive reasons, thus we were particularly leery of an administration that sought to take away our instruments...

<p>President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he had no regrets about sending 700 more troops to Afghanistan, after insurgents killed 10 French soldiers, the biggest single loss for foreign forces in combat since 2001.</p> <p>The troops were killed in a major battle that erupted when Taliban insurgents ambushed a French patrol just 60 km (40 miles) east of the Afghan capital on Monday. The fighting has heightened fears the militants are gradually closing in on Kabul itself.</p>

via translation - In the Stavropol region detained a senior Russian army officer, who is suspected of spying for Georgia Moscow. August 20. INTERFAX.RU - Georgian special services have intensified their activities on Russian territory - today, 20 August, it became known that members of departments in the Stavropol region detained a senior Russian army officer, who is suspected of spying for Georgia. As told Interfax DSP FSB representative of Russia, he proved a Hachidze Michael, who, according to the secret services, was recruited in the territory of Georgia at the end of last year. "During the period of service...

via translation - Moscow. August 20. INTERFAX.RU - Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov said that Russia's upper house of parliament is ready to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, for that would be the will of the people of these republics. "The Federation Council is ready to recognize the independent status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, if people so wish these republics, and if it so decides president of Russia," - told reporters the Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, who arrived in North Ossetia and accompanies a shipment of humanitarian aid, prepared Members of the Federation Council. He...

THE acute phase of the crisis provoked by the Georgian forces’ assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is now behind us. But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks, the deaths of people taking cover in basements, the destruction of ancient monuments and ancestral graves? Russia did not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position domestically; it did not need a little victorious war. Russia was dragged into the fray by the recklessness of the Georgian...

WASHINGTON - The chaos in Georgia has forced the United States to halt a high-priority program that was helping the former Soviet republic to identify possible smugglers of nuclear bomb components across its borders, long considered a transit point for terrorists seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to US officials. A team from the US Nuclear Security Administration was providing Georgian authorities with radiation equipment and training at key border crossings and the Batumi airport on the country's Black Sea coast when Russia invaded two weeks ago. The advisers were forced to flee the country within days, according...

EVEN as Russia and Georgia continue their on-again, off-again struggle over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a frenzied tea-leaf reading about the war’s global political ramifications has broken out across airwaves and think-tank forums. But as the situation on the ground recedes inevitably to some new form of the pernicious “frozen conflict” that has plagued the region since Georgia’s civil wars of the early 1990s, few are paying attention to a less portentous but equally critical international threat: an increase in the longstanding, rampant criminality in the conflict zones that is likely to further destabilize the entire Caucasus region and at...

The United States has accused Russia of targeting civilians in its conflict with Georgia and said Moscow wants to strangle Tbilisi, the latest in a steadily escalating stream of criticism from Washington. "It's becoming more and more the outlaw in this conflict," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of Russia in an interview with CBS Evening News yesterday. "They intend and probably still do intend to strangle Georgia and its economy," she told CBS in the interview in Brussels, where she attended a NATO meeting on the crisis. Ms Rice said Russia had used its overwhelming force to beat...

Russia has rejected a draft UN Security Council resolution on Georgia, saying it contradicted the terms of last week's ceasefire deal. The draft text called on Russia to pull back its forces to the positions held before the current conflict. But Russia says the truce allows its troops to stay in a buffer zone on the Georgia side of South Ossetia's border. Moscow earlier dismissed a Nato warning that normal relations were impossible while its troops remained in Georgia. The conflict broke out on 7 August when Georgia launched an assault to wrest back control of the Moscow-backed breakaway region...

Russia stood behind its pledge to withdraw its troops from most of neighboring Georgia by Friday, rebuffing pressure from the United States, United Nations and NATO to leave sooner. It remains to be seen whether Russia will follow through with the pledge, as a Pentagon official said Tuesday that there appears to be no significant change in the Russian military's occupation of the region despite an earlier promises to withdraw. Russia signed a cease-fire with Georgia on Saturday, but since then, its troops have appeared to be digging in rather than pulling back after the fighting over the rebel province...

President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Afghanistan to support French troops a day after one of the deadliest attacks on France's forces abroad. Ten French soldiers were killed and 21 injured in an ambush by Taleban fighters east of the capital, Kabul. Mr Sarkozy said France was committed to the fight against terrorism, and the mission in Afghanistan would continue.

Excerpt - UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Veto-holding Russia blocked U.N. Security Council action on the Georgian crisis on Tuesday, refusing to support a Western-backed draft resolution calling for an immediate Russian military withdrawal. Even though Moscow has said it will withdraw, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council the resolution should include and endorse a six-point peace plan promoted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and signed by both Georgia and Russia. ~ snip ~

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): The Venezuelan government has locked up control of more than 90 percent of the domestic cement industry with its nationalization of one foreign-owned plant and pressured buyout of two others. In the most recent of a series of state takeovers of key foreign-controlled businesses, at midnight Monday, Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez led workers and supporters to take symbolic control of the Mexican-owned Cemex plant in the eastern part of the country. Picture of the entrance of the Mexican cement company Cemex's Mara plant in Maracaibo, Venezuela. AFP PHOTO The move, after talks on a buyout...

Why do conservatives and liberals respond so differently to the current war in Georgia? The answer to that question exposes the great political divide separating left and right, Democrats and Republicans, in today’s America. The stark contrast between Barack Obama and John McCain at this weekend’s televised Civil Forum at California’s Saddleback Church further underlined the vast gulf in worldviews when it comes to injecting moral standards or arguments into politics. Conservatives approach every challenge with a determination to approach the question (as far as possible)as a choice between right and wrong, good and evil. Liberals, on the other hand,...

President Medvedev of Russia yesterday promised a “shattering blow” against any foreign power that moved against Russian citizens. The threat will compound the fears of former Soviet states, which are concerned that they could be next after Russia’s attack on Georgia. “If someone thinks they can kill our citizens, kill soldiers and officers fulfilling the role of peacekeepers, we will never allow this,” Mr Medvedev told a group of Second World War veterans in Kursk. “Anyone who tries to do this will receive a shattering blow.” He continued: “Russia has the capabilities - economic, political and military. Nobody has any...

"I’m not offended," a Chinese friend told me today when I asked her about the controversial photos of Spanish and Argentinian Olympic teams making 'slit-eyed' gestures. "They can do what they want." she said laughingly as she used her fingers to try to make her eyes look more "Western."

NEW YORK, USA (AFP): Crude oil prices spiked higher Tuesday after OPEC member Venezuela said it would ask the cartel at its September meeting to cut production if downward price pressure continues. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, jumped 1.66 dollars to close at 114.53 dollars a barrel.

Washington, Aug 18 - WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and former Chairman of the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) is scheduled to arrive in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, August 19, 2008. Smith has been working for the past several days with Joe and Tea-h Evans, his constituents from Howell, New Jersey, to secure the safe return of the Evans’ two young daughters, Ashley (7) and Sophia (3), who were visiting their grandparents in Georgia when hostilities broke out. “Congressman Smith left this evening to be on...

Obsessed with rankings, Americans are bound to see the Beijing Olympics as a metaphor for a larger and more troubling question: Will China overtake the U.S. as the world's biggest economy? Well, stop worrying. It almost certainly will. China's economy is now only a fourth the size of the $14 trillion U.S. economy. But given plausible growth rates in both countries, China's output will exceed America's in the 2020s, projects Goldman Sachs. But this is the wrong worry. By itself, a richer China does not make America poorer. Indeed, because there are so many more Chinese than Americans, average Chinese...

Olympics: A committee takes back a bronze medal from a tantrum-tossing Swede but says nothing about China's humiliation of a winner of the same award. Why do dictatorships get a free pass on sportsmanship in Beijing?The International Olympic Committee put on a poor show over the weekend when it took back a bronze medal awarded to Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian. Abrahamian threw a fit over a bad judgment call on Friday and hurled his bronze to the floor at the awards ceremony. But there was less to the wrestler's fit of pique than met the eye, because he'd already made...

A combative Barack Obama said Tuesday that Republican John McCain "doesn't know what he's up against" in this election and challenged his rival to stop questioning his character and patriotism. Obama, campaigning in a state where he hopes to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in more than three decades, implored his supporters to fight for the presidency. "Our job in this election is not just 'win,' although I'm a big believer in winning," Obama said during the rally. "I don't intend to lose this election. John McCain doesn't know what he's up against." "He can talk all...

In the equation which makes up the odious, criminal and murderous Bush regime and its murderous, criminal and odious foreign policy, the constant factor is constituted by a teacher, promoted to positions way above her personal and intellectual station by a gullible fool of a President. This teacher, whose sheer incompetence as National Security Advisor and as Secretary of State is today so blatantly apparent, goes by the name of Condoleeza Rice.

Russia: The "extraordinary" meeting called by NATO to deal with Russia's attack on Georgia turned out to be quite ordinary after all. Instead of taking a strong stand, the organization's European members opted to cower.If ever there was a time for NATO members to show some spine, this was it. Russia violated all international norms in invading Georgia's sovereign territory, threatening Eastern and Western Europe at the same time — a rare two-fer for a bully. As it stands, Eastern Europe — including the Baltics and Balkans — fears going back under the boot of the former USSR. Meanwhile, Western...

Oil production has begun falling at all of the major Western oil companies, and they are finding it harder than ever to find new prospects even though they are awash in profits and eager to expand. Part of the reason is political. From the Caspian Sea to South America, Western oil companies are being squeezed out of resource-rich provinces. They are being forced to renegotiate contracts on less-favorable terms and are fighting losing battles with assertive state-owned oil companies. And much of their production is in mature regions that are declining, like the North Sea. The reality, experts say, is...

Excerpt - CAIRO (AFP)--Helicopters and fire trucks had to be called to the Egyptian senate on Tuesday when a blaze threatened to engulf the building and left 13 people requiring emergency medical help after inhaling the smoke. ~ snip ~

Denunciations of U.S. ‘imperialism,” which were a regular staple of Soviet TV, are back on the Russian version. ...recent guests on Russia Today have included Alexander Cockburn, “an American political journalist,” and Justin Raimondo, said to be “a top U.S. author.” Cockburn denounced John McCain as a warmonger, while Raimondo warned the Russians to investigate what’s on those humanitarian flights to Georgia. “I would check that out, if I were you,” he was quoted by Russia Today as saying. The Russian channel declared, “‘Say No to War’ has been Justin Raimondo’s slogan for over a decade―from the U.S. intervention in...

President and Mrs. Bush Saddened by Death of Zambian President Levy MwanawasaLaura and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. President Mwanawasa was a champion of democracy in his own country and throughout Africa. As President of Zambia, President Mwanawasa launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign and dedicated himself to improving the welfare of all Zambians. As Chairman of the Southern African Development Community, President Mwanawasa worked tirelessly to uphold the values of good governance, speaking out against human rights abuses and threats to democracy when many others were silent. On behalf of the United...

OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used mur derous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April, Chechnya's Russian-installed "president" demanded it be disbanded. War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots reveal far more to the West than Babchenko realized. Amid photos of the horrors of war, grateful South Ossetians and triumphant Russian troops, one series leapt out at me as a former intel officer: Bearded irregulars riding atop Russian-built armored vehicles (old BMPs, for...

Ahmed Adnan Hashim proudly shows off a container of Nu-Nu brand yogurt, produced at the factory he manages with his brother, Qahetan, in Bada, a small town south of Baghdad. Soldiers recently delivered two industrial generators donated by a factory in Iskandariyah to help the dairy plant stay on its feet. Photo by Sgt. David Turner. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Ahmed Adnan Hashim is passionate about yogurt. He’s passionate about cheese and cream and the other products produced at the Nu-Nu factory in Bada, a small town in northern Babil province. With his brother, Qahetan, managing the factory, Nu-Nu...

Sgt. Paul Watkins, military police team leader, 340th Military Police Company, talks with citizens of Amin at the Amin local Iraqi police station build site, Aug. 8. The station is scheduled to be completed in the upcoming months to provide added security to the people of Amin located in the Rasheed District of Baghdad. Photo by Sgt. Daniel Blottenberger. BAGHDAD — “You shouldn’t build a station here, it will probably get blown up,� said an Amin resident to a U.S. military policeman while conducting police transition team operations at the Amin station build site recently. The Amin area, in Baghdad’s...

People stop at a water point on Main Supply Route Jackson during a pilgrimage to Karbalah in celebration of Muslim Preist, Mahdi's birthday, Aug.15, 2008. Photo by Pfc. Christopher McKenna. FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — Iraqi Army Soldiers and Coalition forces provided security, food and water to Iraqis on a pilgrimage to Karbala, Aug. 11-18. “The Iraqi Army is providing security with assistance from the coalition,� said Pvt. Esam Hussein Fleih, 1st Battalion, 23rd Brigade, 17th Iraqi Army Division. “People have been happy with the way we have been doing the security, and it shows with nothing bad happening during...