From the Trenches World Report

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law offered a rare glimpse of the al-Qaida leader in the hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, recounting during surprise testimony Wednesday in a Manhattan courtroom how the two met that night in a cave in Afghanistan.

“Did you learn about what happened … the attacks on the United States?” the son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, recalled bin Laden asking him. “We are the ones who did it.” The testimony came as Abu Ghaith’s trial on charges he conspired to kill Americans and aid al-Qaida as a spokesman for the terrorist group took a dramatic turn. His decision to take the witness stand was announced by his lawyer, Stanley Cohen, who surprised a nearly empty courtroom that quickly filled with spectators as word spread.    Continue reading “Ex-al-Qaida spokesman recalls 9/11 with bin Laden”

Mail.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday urged state officials to follow through on Common Core education standards despite what he called an “avalanche” of criticism from those who oppose them.

Bush said at an education forum with Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., that the standards are key to improving educational achievement around the country. “This is a real-world, grown-up approach to a real crisis that we have,” said Bush, who later brushed off reporters’ questions about his presidential aspirations. “And it’s been mired in politics.   Continue reading “Jeb Bush: Follow through on Common Core standards”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Strauss could work with anybody — Democrats and Republicans, Americans and Soviets, Israelis and Arabs. Playing the game and making the deal made his day.

Of Strauss’ many accomplishments — earning a fortune in postwar investments, co-founding an international law firm, leading the Democratic Party, running one successful presidential campaign and surviving the loss of another — being welcome on either side of the political street might have been the achievement he most treasured.   Continue reading “Ex-Democratic Chairman Robert Strauss dies at 95”

Tales from the Clothesline

Wall Street Journal – by Joe Palazzolo

Encouraging someone to commit suicide is not a crime, Minnesota’s high court ruled Wednesday, reversing the conviction of a nurse who urged people to hang themselves and let him watch via webcam.

William Francis Melchert-Dinkel had been found guilty under a law that made it illegal to “advise, encourage, or assist” in a suicide.   Continue reading “Minnesota’s High Court Rules Encouraging Suicide Isn’t a Crime”

RT News

The USS Truxtun destroyer started a one-day military exercise with the Bulgarian and Romanian navies in the Black Sea.

The US military has described the exercise as a “routine” mission scheduled ahead of the Ukraine crisis, which witnessed the Ukrainian opposition forcing the democratically elected president, Victor Yanukovich, to flee the capital Kiev on February 22, a US Naval official told Reuters on Wednesday.    Continue reading “US warship Truxtun begins naval exercise in Black Sea”

Disinfo – by Matt Staggs

It looks like New Hampshire police will get their BEARCAT (Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck – sounds like a mid-eighties GI Joe toy.) armored vehicles. You know – for “the terrorists.” Wondering who the terrorists du jour are today? Well, on a grant application to Uncle Sugar, Concord Police Chief John Duval identified C.O.B.R.A.,  the New Hampshire Free State Project and Occupy New Hampshire. Don’t worry – he’s really sorry, though, and promised he didn’t mean it.   Continue reading “New Hampshire Lawmaker Tries and Fails to Pass Bill to Keep Police From Buying Tanks”

Mail.com

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas has obtained a new batch of the drugs it uses to execute death row inmates, allowing the state to continue carrying out death sentences once its existing supply expires at the end of the month.

But correction officials will not say where they bought the drugs, arguing that information must be kept secret to protect the safety of its new supplier. In interviews with The Associated Press, officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice also refused to say whether providing anonymity to its new supplier of the sedative pentobarbital was a condition of its purchase.   Continue reading “Texas finds new execution drug supply”

90 Miles from Tyranny

PJ Media – by J. Christian Adams

When it comes to the Tea Party, Obama’s IRS probes private citizens beyond the legal limits. But when it comes to Swiss banks engaged in widespread criminal conduct, Eric Holder’s Justice Department turns a blind eye.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse has perpetrated a criminal enterprise on American soil by intentionally fleecing the federal government of billions of dollars in taxes, yet top political leaders at the U.S. Department of Justice refuse to pursue criminal charges against all of the bank officials engaged in the scheme.   Continue reading “Eric Holder Gives Pass to Banking Criminals at Credit Suisse”

Reuters – by ROBERT EVANS

Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia’s treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.

Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.   Continue reading “Moscow signals concern for Russians in Estonia”

Huffington Post – by JAKE PEARSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Jerome Murdough was just looking for a warm place to sleep on a chilly night last month when he curled up in an enclosed stairwell on the roof of a Harlem public housing project where he was arrested for trespassing.

A week later, the mentally ill homeless man was found dead in a Rikers Island jail cell that four city officials say had overheated to at least 100 degrees, apparently because of malfunctioning equipment.   Continue reading “A New York Jail Let A Homeless Man ‘Bake To Death’”

Yahoo News – by PETER LEONARD

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s government said Wednesday it has begun drawing up plans to pull its troops from Crimea, where Russia is steadily taking formal control as its armed forces seize military installations across the disputed peninsula.

In a warning to Moscow, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden declared the United States will respond to any aggression against its NATO allies, which include neighbors to Russia.   Continue reading “Ukraine making plans to pull troops from Crimea”

Sovereign Man – by Simon Black

Truth can be a damn difficult thing to digest sometimes.

Some of us have been there. You get that news from the doctor that you, or a loved one, has just been diagnosed with a serious disease, and it hits you like a ton of bricks.

Several years ago my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor known as a Glioblastoma (GBM). A GBM diagnosis is essentially a death sentence– it’s one of the most aggressive tumors in existence, and it grows in the part of the body that modern medicine understands the least.   Continue reading “What a surprise– it turns out they lied about the deficit last year”