Free Republic

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The criminal underworld in the sun-baked Arizona capital of Phoenix has long enjoyed the hot money profits from illicit smuggling of drugs and people over the border from Mexico. But now its members are living in fear as they are stalked by kidnappers after their proceeds, authorities say. Police in the desert city say specialized kidnap rings are snatching suspected criminals and their families from their homes, running them off the roads and even grabbing them at shopping malls in a spiraling spate of abductions. "Phoenix is ground zero for illegal narcotics smuggling and illegal human smuggling...

By now you would think that diplomats, analysts, and military planners in Washington would understand that China, a nation that was the world’s sole superpower for centuries, today is preparing to regain that role — in other words, to first make itself a peer competitor of the United States and then push us aside. It cannot attain these goals without a military that is better than America’s, especially on the sea, in the air, and in space. Why do we turn a naive and blind eye to Beijing's massive military build-up?....

The American military faces a growing threat of potentially fatal equipment failure—and even foreign espionage—because of counterfeit computer components used in warplanes, ships, and communication networks. Fake microchips flow from unruly bazaars in rural China to dubious kitchen-table brokers in the U.S. and into complex weapons. Senior Pentagon officials publicly play down the danger, but government documents, as well as interviews with insiders, suggest possible connections between phony parts and breakdowns. In November 2005, a confidential Pentagon-industry program that tracks counterfeits issued an alert that "BAE Systems experienced field failures," meaning military equipment malfunctions, which the large defense contractor traced...

SPECIAL REPORT: "Commandments Before The Strike" ALERT: Instructions for actions Muslims are to take before, during & after an attack in the U.S. posted: Message suggests activation of worldwide jihad following U.S. attack; Message indicates large-scale attack within the U.S., perhaps early October; Text, posting under analysis by U.S. Intelligence officials 24 September 2008: A posting uncovered in an Arabic language Internet forum is currently raising a few eyebrows in the intelligence community. The single posting, which is presently being scrutinized by intelligence officials, appears to provide detailed instructions for Muslims living within the United States, giving them specific actions...

Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., introduced a bill to the House of Representatives that seeks to prevent Islam's radical Shariahlaw from gaining a foothold in the U.S. legal system, as it has in other countries. Tancredo introduced HR 6975, the Jihad Prevention Act, last week. If made into law, the bill would allow American authorities to prevent advocates of Shariah law from entering the country, revoke the visa of any foreigners that did champion Shariah law and revoke naturalization for citizens that seek to implement Shariah law in the U.S. The radical form of Islam's Shariah religious law includes several statutes...

Three Democratic senators demanded "bare-minimum" civil rights protections Tuesday for Americans who might be targeted in FBI national security investigations without any evidence of wrongdoing. In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the senators also urged the Justice Department to delay still-tentative rules that would expand FBI powers to seek out potential terrorists. They said the new policy could allow surveillance of Muslim- or Arab-Americans based, in part, on their race, ethnicity or religion. "The Justice Department's actions over the last eight years have alienated many Americans, especially Arab and Muslim Americans," wrote Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold...

Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) – “Everybody” deserves credit for the fact that there have been no terrorist attacks in America since 9/11, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in response to a question about whether the Bush administration merited any credit for preventing terrorism. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) evaded the question, saying instead that the anniversary of 9/11 was a day of remembrance and “renewal.” Casey made his remarks following a congressional September Remembrance Ceremony held on the steps of the Capitol on Sept. 11, 2008. Pelosi spoke with CNSNews.com at a news conference that same day. “Well, I think...

Notable Terrorism Prosecutions in Recent Years -- Toledo Terror Cell (Northern District of Ohio)-In June 2008, Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum were convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts against Americans overseas, including U.S. armed forces in Iraq, and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Christopher Paul (Southern District of Ohio)-In June 2008, Paul pleaded guilty to conspiring with members of a German terrorist cell to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosive devices) against Americans vacationing at foreign tourist resorts, against Americans in the United States, as well against U.S. embassies, diplomatic premises and military bases...

NICE audio interview Lars has posted at his website. Worth the listen. Two quotes: "Alaskans want to see Anwar developed" "What we [Alaska] need if for congress to unlock our lands!"

GRANJENO - Border residents are being asked to act as witnesses to any “abuses” perpetrated by the Department of Homeland Security or its agents during construction of the border wall. Documented evidence of “abuse” is being sought by the No Border Wall group in the hope that it can be used as testimony at congressional hearings held to review the border wall project... Although the No Border Wall group originated in the Rio Grande Valley, No Border Wall spokeswoman Stefanie Herweck said....."The feeling is that we have until now and January, when the new Congress meets and the new administration...

MEXICO CITY -- Moving quickly to address mounting anger over crime, President Felipe Calderon promised Sunday to adopt several proposals from civic groups who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily kidnappings and killings.

...EXERTED FROM ARTICLE... The agency, formed in 2003 after the 9/11 attacks, has about 216,000 employees and posts around the world. It includes divisions that protect the country's borders, develop new radiation detection equipment, study and test infectious diseases, enforce immigration and maritime laws, protect the president and other dignitaries, coordinate disaster response, work to keep terrorists off of airplanes and other transportation, and monitor and prevent cyber-intrusions.

The curious case of Sonia Pitt has officials in Washington asking whether the Department of Homeland Security's hiring practices are inept.......... One week after ousting disgraced Minnesota transportation official Sonia Pitt from the job she found at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the massive federal agency has taken a new step to beef up its vetting of potential hires. From now on, more job candidates will have their backgrounds searched on Google. The policy change, put forth by Kip Hawley, the top administrator of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration, is one among several signs that TSA's admitted blunder in...

A longtime adviser and close confidant of President Bush funneled millions of dollars in U.S. government grants to radical Islamist organizations, many of whose leaders have been convicted or indicted in terrorism cases in the United States, respected terrorism expert Steven Emerson told Congress last week. “When Ms. [Karen] Hughes was appointed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, she set the tone to continue a disastrous policy of outreach with Islamist partners,” Emerson told the House International Relations Committee. Among the recipients of the State Department grants actively championed by Hughes was Ahmed Younes, formerly an...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has concocted a remarkable new policy: It reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time laptops taken across the border. A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize, make copies of, and "analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States." (See policy No. 1 and No. 2.) DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating "copyright or trademark laws."...

In further evidence of our rapidly eroding civil liberties, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler's laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The rules -- which we reported on in February -- allow for searches of hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, and video or audio tapes, and specify that the agencies can "detain" belongings for a "reasonable period of time," (i.e., as long as they please). Additionally, the DHS can share the data...

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons...

Another "broken record" column. Congress is poised to leave for August, satisfied that it has passed or will pass what it needs to pass. That may be true in terms of making it through the summer intact. But there are other pressing areas that remain wholly untouched and are unlikely to see any focus at all during the compressed and frenzied session in September. One of them is the continuity of our governing institutions in the event of another terrorist attack on Washington.

Homeland Security: Forced to defend its growing terrorist watch list, the FBI let slip a chilling fact that should silence ACLU grumblers: America is teeming with 20,000 terrorists.After 9/11, federal authorities estimated that as many as 5,000 terrorists were living in the U.S. The new figure is jarring not only because it's four times as large but because it's based on real persons, not estimates. It's not something headquarters wanted to publicize. Officials had downplayed the threat so as not to spook the public. The spin had been that Britain has the homegrown problem, not us. But that was before...

Ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is sunburning. Yankee fans are seeing - and turning - red over a ban on sunscreen, which Stadium security guards say was widely expanded in the last few weeks. Security guards collected garbage bags full of sunblock at the entrances to Yankee Stadium over the sweltering weekend, when temps hit 96 degrees and the UV index reached a skin-scorching 9 out of 10 - a move team officials said was to protect the Stadium from terrorism. But fans baking in the bleachers and upper deck argued that the sun may be a bigger threat than...

Five Koreans ― four men and one woman ― had been abducted by several unidentified kidnappers who had disguised themselves as police officers in a U.S.-Mexico border city on July 14, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday. The official, asking not to be identified, said the abductors have demanded $30,000 in ransom, but declined to give details about the whereabouts of the South Korean nationals and their condition. "As far as I know, the kidnappers have contacted one of the families of the hostages and asked if they were willing to meet their demands...

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trials of laser missile-dazzler defences on airliners have passed another milestone, with armaments maker BAE Systems announcing that its "JetEye" gear has made its first scheduled passenger flight. The JetEye-equipped plane, a Boeing 767 operated by American Airlines, made a routine trip from New York to Los Angeles. "BAE Systems worked closely with DHS and the airline industry to develop an effective response to potential terrorist threats," said Burt Keirstead, JetEye program director for BAE Systems in New Hampshire. "It took a combination of ingenuity and perseverance to get to this point, and everyone...

In a recent email discussion with Winfield Myers, Director of Democracy Project, I mentioned that rather than searching for topics, issues seem to find me. Recently the issue of immigration reform has been pursuing me, and it dovetails with the critical issue of the failure of American schools to prepare our students to compete in an international marketplace. The issue came up as a result of my firsthand empathy with the dilemma of a talented young colleague on a temporary visitor’s visa. He would love to build his future in America, but sadly for him and our company, the door...

The Department of Homeland Security has solicited a proposal from a Canadian security company to develop a stun bracelet. In order to enhance the security of air travel and to help manage illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security has solicited a proposal from a Canadian security company to develop a passenger stun bracelet.

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all... A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers. This bracelet would: • take the place of an airline boarding pass • contain personal information about the traveler • be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage • shock the wearer...

It's official: Thanks to overwhelming grassroots action, and the heroic efforts of Senators Dodd and Feingold, the Senate's vote on whether to grant phone companies immunity from the law for assisting in the President's illegal wiretapping program has been delayed until after July 4th Recess! This is an unexpected reprieve for civil liberties and the rule of law. As recently as last night, the mainstream press was reporting that the immunity bill would see swift and uncontested approval. Senate Leaders emphasized that passing an immunity bill this week was one of their highest priorities. And yet, in the end, the...

Boy, the spine sure has melted out of those Democrats! Was it really only just last week Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised to fight the telecom amnesty element of the new FISA legislation that gave Bush everything he wanted and more to protect America from terrorist attack? When promoting how the House Dems caved on the FISA legislation, Obama made a promise I knew then was as fake as all his positions on key issues of the day: “Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everyone. This week over at CovertRadioShow.Com Brett visits with Aaron Mannes from the University of Maryland and the Terror Wonk Blog about the seeming collapse of FARC and what it means. Brett then visits with Cloud Morris, an attorney who examines privacy matters in the GWOT. Cloud is concerned about the new Cyber-initiative proposal from the FBI.

WATERLOO — Normal operations on the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds have been suspended for most of May as the federal government has leased out virtually the entire facility for a training exercise, NCC general manager Doug Miller said Saturday. Miller said he could release few details. But activity on the NCC fairgrounds was apparent Saturday, as contractors installed massive generators adjacent to many buildings on the NCC fairgrounds and windows of many of the buildings were covered up, blocking views of any work going on inside. A number of large mobile home-size trailers also have taken up residence on the...

Washington, D.C. – In commending the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to terminate its Project 28 virtual fence initiative, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) once again called for the construction of physical, reinforced fencing in place of technology-only alternatives. The decision to abandon Project 28 in the Tucson sector of Arizona was the result of multiple system failures, significant cost over-runs and project delays. “The decision to terminate the Project 28 initiative underscores the fact that technology alone is an unreliable and ineffective border enforcement tool,” said Congressman Hunter. “I hope that DHS has learned from this experience and will begin...

Industry official says ticket counter can't substitute for the Border Patrol WASHINGTON — The Bush administration announced plans on Tuesday to require the nation's airlines and cruise ship operators to collect digital fingerprints of all foreign visitors on departure, contending that as many as 1 million remain unaccounted for in the U.S. each year. The trade association for the country's hard-pressed airlines balked at the proposed rules announced by the Homeland Security Department, declaring that border protection is a function of government — not industry. Congress has been pushing the administration to close a security gap and implement the identification...

How many federal employees does it take to waste our tax dollars and push an agenda? The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is familiar to anyone who flies. They’re the people that make you take off your shoes, your belt, conduct body cavity searches and make grandma get out of the wheel chair because she might be a terrorist. Aside from being worthless and unionized (so they can’t be fired easily, thanks Dems), they are also pushing a PC agenda, at least in Atlanta. One of our contributors flew to Atlanta today and sent back the pictures below of an...

“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the service of Allah is our highest hope”. Credo of the Muslim Brotherhood Political Correctness Run Amok To most in government, revelations such as these were worrisome but dismissed as anomalies. There was little speculation in government that there might be a larger, organized, well-oiled conspiracy. Those who sought to probe further often found their efforts constrained, undermined or thwarted by a culture of “risk avoidance” and “political correctness” that in recent years has run amok. It is the nature of...

By Ann Shibler Published: 2008-04-07 New "anti-terrorism" rules ordered up by DHS for those who fish the Great Lakes are causing a wave of dissent. While still leaving our southern border wide open, the northern border will be protected by stricter security rules heavily enforced by the DHS, particularly for those tall-tale-telling anglers. Follow this link to the original source: "Going fishing? Pack your passport" COMMENTARY: Starting with the 2008 charter fishing season on the Great Lakes, and particularly impacting Lake Erie because of its geography and popularity among anglers, fishermen will now have to have their passports or two...

WASHINGTON - The number of people who legally immigrated to the U.S. dropped 17 percent last year, largely because of administrative problems, according to a Homeland Security Department report. A total of 1.05 million people became legal permanent residents in 2007, falling from 1.27 million a year earlier, according to the report by the department's Office of Immigration Statistics. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been under fire after processing times grew because immigrants flooded the agency with applications filed last year in advance of a dramatic increases in filing fees. The delays will keep some people from becoming citizens in...

To the long list of things the Bush administration is willing to trash in its rush to appease immigration hard-liners, you can now add dozens of important environmental laws and hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat on the southern border. On Tuesday, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, waived the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections to allow the government to finish building 700 or so miles of border fence by year’s end without undertaking legally mandated reviews of the consequences for threatened wildlife and their habitats. Will this stop or slow...

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- State police say a sniper wounded two people and hit at least four cars on Interstate 64 near Afton Mountain this morning. The injuries were not life-threatening and the victims were treated and released from Augusta Medical Center. More than 20 miles of I-64 was closed between Charlottesville and Waynesboro from shortly after midnight until about 6:20 a.m. State troopers, Charlottesville police and Albemarle County deputies are searching wooded areas along the interstate, but no suspect has been found.

Two injured after shooting in dorm parking lot in Tyler © 2008 The Associated Press TYLER, Texas — Two people were injured early Thursday morning after being shot in a parking lot outside a Texas College dorm in Tyler, police say. Tyler Police Lt. Derreck Wagoner tells Tyler television station KLTV that one person was shot in the abdomen and the other was shot in the hand. Wagoner says the abdomen wound victim is hospitalized in serious

March 26, 2008 The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside.FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism. The car was reported stolen last week. After the theft, the car’s owner was fueling his motorcycle when he spotted his stolen car. “While he was refueling his motorcycle, low and behold, the vehicle that he had reported stolen that belongs to him happened to pull into the gas station area also,” said Los Lunas Police Captain Charles Nuanes. The car’s owner pulled...

KENNER, La. — The cake had been served and the children were jumping up and down in a big, inflatable castle when the birthday party turned to bedlam. Clarence McGraw's jaw dropped as he saw the visitors coming, guns drawn. The screaming began. Children ran everywhere in the courtyard of the low-income apartment complex; adults fell to the ground. Bullets flew. The killers wounded three youngsters, but for reasons police can't explain, it was 19-year-old McGraw they were after.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 AP March 26: A firefighter inspects the scene where explosions blew the manhole covers off an underground electrical vault in Los Angeles. March 26: A firefighter inspects the scene where explosions blew the manhole covers off an underground electrical vault in Los Angeles. LOS ANGELES — A hospital spokeswoman says a Los Angeles firefighter has died of injuries from a series of explosions that blew the manhole covers off the top of an underground vault. Deborah Ettinger says the firefighter was pronounced dead after being taken to Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center Wednesday afternoon. Another firefighter...

The appearance of nuclear weapons materials on the black market is a growing global concern, and it is crucial that the United States reinforce its team of nuclear forensics experts and modernize its forensics tools to prepare for or respond to a possible nuclear terrorist attack. Large quantities of nuclear materials are inadequately secured in several countries, including Russia and Pakistan. Since 1993, there have been more than 1,300 incidents of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, including plutonium and highly enriched uranium, both of which can be used to develop an atomic bomb. And these are only the incidents we...

By Judi McLeod Tuesday, March 25, 2008 In an effort to provide them a fair trial, the Canadian government is seeking a limited publication ban on the identities of the adults charged with belonging to the so-called “Toronto 18” group. The identity of the youth charged with belonging to a homegrown terror cell is already protected under the Young Criminal Justice Act. The trial for the youth gets underway in a Brampton court today. Almost unheard of since they were nabbed in a foiled undercover operation to kidnap and behead members of Parliament, among other things on June 2, 2006,...

CAIR Exposed: Part 1 As IAP Offshoot, CAIR Followed Pro-Hamas Agenda From the Start by Steven Emerson IPT News March 24, 2008FEATURE STORY   From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue. Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Homeland Security Department is appealing a judge's ruling against its proposal to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers, and promises to try to make the policy a law. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the "no-match rule" in October, saying it would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers. Employers would incur new costs to comply with the regulation that the government hasn't evaluated, and innocent workers unable to correct mistakes in their records in time would lose their jobs, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote. In...

Sunday, March 23, 2008 The 30-year-old mother of three jumped from her disabled SUV following a chase, holding a gun to her head to keep police back. Officers fired a stun gun but the nonlethal weapon was foiled by her heavy coat. When she pointed her handgun at the two nearest deputies, officers switched to assault rifles, hitting Sarah Marie Stanfield of Boise eight times with bullets designed to break apart on impact to increase internal damage. She died last fall of multiple gunshot wounds. Some jurisdictions across the U.S. have been arming rank-and-file officers with high-powered assault rifles for...

From Terry Frieden CNN WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been taken aback by the scope and variety of potential terrorism threats facing the United States, he told reporters Friday at an informal meeting in his office. Attorney General Michael Mukasey receives terrorism updates during national security briefings. "I'm surprised by how surprised I am," said Mukasey, who as a federal judge presided over terrorism-related trials in New York. "It's surprising how varied [the threat] is, how many directions it comes from, how geographically spread out it is," he said. Mukasey issued no warnings, made no pronouncements and...

WASHINGTON — In the days immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, members of President Bush’s war cabinet declared that it would be impossible to deter the most fervent extremists from carrying out even more deadly terrorist missions with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. Since then, however, administration, military and intelligence officials assigned to counterterrorism have begun to change their view. After piecing together a more nuanced portrait of terrorist organizations, they say there is reason to believe that a combination of efforts could in fact establish something akin to the posture of deterrence, the strategy that helped protect...

By Rowan Scarborough, Insight An American Muslim group identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal terrorism case is being used by the FBI to train its agents about Islam. The FBI declined to respond to Insight’s questions about this seeming disconnect, as one of the pre-eminent anti-terrorist research centers in America is set to release an extensive report on the same prominent U.S. Muslim group, accusing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of being a foe, rather than an ally, in the war on terror. The 10-part report on CAIR from The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), led by...

The argument was so obvious it hardly needed repeating: We would all be safer if we had a better ID card. A good, hard-to-forge national ID is a no-brainer (or so the argument goes), and it's ridiculous that a modern country such as the United States doesn't have one. One result of this line of thinking is the planned Real ID Act, which forces all states to conform to common and more stringent rules for issuing driver's licenses. But security is always a tradeoff; it must be balanced with the cost. We all do this intuitively. Few of us walk...