This Week In The News -- From The Archives

ON THIS DAY IN WND HISTORY…

Panic in the Year Zero

Dec. 31, 1999: WorldNetDaily and Talk Radio Network joined forces to provide live, wall-to-wall coverage of Y2K weekend in a marathon radio-Internet special.

Readers were clicking on their "Refresh" buttons frequently to download the latest news postings on the arrival of the Year 2000, and listened to WND editors, reporters, columnists and guests break the news and discuss live on TRN's national broadcasting outlets and online.

"Who knows what to expect?" asked Joseph Farah rhetorically in advance of Y2K weekend. "But we'll be there to chronicle it while most of the radio world plays recorded programming. It might be chaos and pandemonium, or it might be one big party to ring in the New Year. Either way, it will be worth listening."

Gun control doesn't reduce crime, violence, say studies

Dec. 30, 2004: While it is an article of faith among gun-control proponents that government restrictions on firearms reduces violence and crime, two U.S. studies reported by WND could find no evidence to support such a conclusion.

The National Academy of Sciences issued a 328-page report based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey of 80 different gun-control laws and some of its own independent study. In short, the panel could find no link between restrictions on gun ownership and lower rates of crime, firearms violence or even accidents with guns.

The panel was established during the Clinton administration and all but one of its members were known to favor gun control.

UFO-clone cult spreads atheism

Dec. 29, 2002: A former French magazine sportswriter, wannabe race-car driver and founder of a UFO sect who claimed his company, Clonaid, had helped an anonymous mother clone her child Eve, let it be know that his agenda included strange religion as well as weird science.

Claude Vorilhon, aka Rael, said there is no God – men were cloned in test tubes 25,000 years ago by space aliens called "Elohim," and it was the mission of his followers, Raelians, to help mankind achieve immortality through cloning.

"Traditional religions have always been against scientific progress," he said. "They were against the steam engine, electricity, airplanes, cars, radio, television, etc. If we had listened to them, we would still have horses and carts and candles."

He robustly defended the cloning experiment that "created" Eve, saying: "We are for peace and love. This is a time of danger for earth. We are spiritually lost. The two most powerful countries on earth – America and Britain – are ready to kill 100,000 civilians in Iraq, yet people are angry over the birth of a beautiful little girl through cloning."

Gadhafi armed al-Qaida with bio-chem weapons

Dec. 28, 2003: It may be the ultimate good-news-bad-news "joke."

First the good news: Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi had a change of heart and agreed to destroy his arms program.

The bad news? Before his come-to-Allah moment, he provided al-Qaida with tens of thousands of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction produced at 10 secret sites in the country.

Gadhafi was welcomed back onto the world stage with the understanding that his help to Osama bin Laden would never officially be mentioned, reported Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

'Brokeback Mountain': Rape of the Marlboro Man

Dec. 27, 2005: WND publishes Managing Editor David Kupelian's analysis of the film "Brokeback Mountain," which becomes widely reprinted, quoted – and attacked – and throws Kupelian into a stream of TV appearances including Fox News' "Dayside" and "Your World with Neil Cavuto," and CBN's "Newswatch" and "The 700 Club," exposing the propaganda techniques used to marketing "gay marriage" in the controversial film.

Michael Jackson: It's still OK to sleep with boys

Dec. 26, 2003: A month after being arrested for multiple, sexual child molestation charges, pop star Michael Jackson continued to sing the same tune: It's OK to sleep with boys.

Jackson told CBS News' "60 Minutes" anchor Ed Bradley he sees no harm in sharing his bed with children.

"Why not? If you're going to be a pedophile, if you're going to be Jack the Ripper, if you're going to be a murderer, it's not a good idea. That I am not," he said.

The superstar first prominently professed his advocacy for sleeping with boys in a television documentary earlier in the year.

"It's what the whole world should do," Jackson told interviewer Martin Bashir. "Why can't you share your bed? The most loving thing to do, is to share your bed with someone."

Clintons 'most corrupt' of 2002

Dec. 25, 2002: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., was named the most corrupt person in America by the public-interest watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The former first lady edged out her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, for top honors in the group's 'Dirty Dozen' list for 2002.

The year's ranking included eight Democrats, three Republicans, one businessperson – former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay – and an honorable mention for then-Congressman Tom DeLay, another Republican.

Did boy Jesus look like this?

Dec. 24, 2004: What did Jesus Christ of Nazareth look like as a boy?

While no one knows for certain, forensic experts used computer images from the Shroud of Turin along with historical data and other ancient images to make an educated guess.

In a documentary called "Jesus' Childhood" that aired on the Italian TV station Retequattro of the Mediaset Group, police artists used the same "aging" technology employed when searching for missing persons and criminals.

"In this case the experts went backwards. Now we have a hypothesis on how the man of the shroud might have looked at the age of 12," Mediaset said. "While some features, such as the color of the eyes and the hair's length, cut and color, are arbitrary, others come directly from the face impressed on the shroud."

Man sets himself ablaze over use of 'Christmas'

Dec. 23, 2006: A 31-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition after setting himself ablaze in an apparent protest over a school district's decision to call winter and spring break, Christmas and Easter break.

The protester, reportedly draped in a flag, ignited a decorated Christmas tree, an American flag and a revolutionary flag replica that read "Don't Tread on Me" before pouring a can of fuel on himself in front of the Kern County Court Building in Bakersfield, Calif.

The man survived, thanks to the quick action of a sheriff's deputy and several court employees.

"It's the most awful thing I've ever seen in my entire life," said Deputy Lance Ferguson who finallt smothered the flames with a sweater he found on the ground.

U.S. fails to follow terror money trail

Dec. 22, 2003: Over two years after the 9/11 attacks, a Government Accounting Report said U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies trying to track the funding sources of international terrorists haven't done such a good job.

Terrorists, said the report, use the illicit drug trade, interstate cigarette dealing and charities as principal sources of money-raising in the U.S. According to officials from the ATF, Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaida have earned assets through trafficking in contraband cigarettes or counterfeit cigarette stamps.

Rooting out terrorist money in U.S. banks proved every bit as difficult as finding Osama bin Laden. Two years after Congress rushed to pass the USA Patriot Act, terrorists, drug lords and other criminals continued to launder funds through U.S. financial institutions. Hundreds of billions more in illicit cash gushed through banks, brokerage firms and the like last year even though they spent more than $11 billion to bolster their internal controls.

A lack of cooperation among several competing agencies was also criticized by the report.

President Clinton sued in rape case

Dec. 21, 1999: Juanita Broaddrick, the Arkansas woman who told a nationwide television audience she was raped by Bill Clinton, filed suit, accusing the president's office and Justice Department of conducting a campaign to "smear and destroy her reputation."

The civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court, was the first legal action Broaddrick had taken since she was interviewed by NBC News earlier in the year regarding her allegations of sexual assault. Broaddrick charged Clinton raped her while serving as Arkansas attorney general in 1978.

The Broaddrick allegation even entered the presidential election race as Vice President Al Gore was questioned by a New Hampshire resident on national television about his view of the charge. Gore spent several uncomfortable minutes trying to answer the question, claiming not to have seen the NBC News interview.

Democrat senator praises bin Laden

Dec. 20, 2002: Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told a group of high-school students in her state the U.S. should adopt Osama bin Laden's nation-building tactics.

"We've got to ask, why is this man so popular around the world?" said Murray. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries that are riddled with poverty?"

The then-second-term senator made the mastermind of 9/11 sound like a New Deal liberal as she responded to questions from world history students and student government leaders at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash.

Murray said bin Laden hah been "out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that."

"How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?" Murray asked.

It's a Sony, Saddam

Dec. 19, 2000 : In "Why Iraq's buying up Sony Playstations 2s," WND editor Joseph Farah broke the surreal Christmas story of Saddam Hussein's clandestine purchase of thousands of Sony Playstation 2s in order to bundle them together to form a crude supercomputer for military applications.

At the same time, a week before Christmas, one of America's most popular gifts was almost impossible to buy, thanks to the "Butcher of Baghdad."

"Most Americans don't realize that each PlayStation unit contains a CPU – every bit as powerful as the processor found in most desktop and laptop computers," said one military intelligence officer who declined to be identified.

"Beyond that, the graphics capabilities of a PlayStation are staggering – five times more powerful than that of a typical graphics workstation, and roughly 15 times more powerful than the graphics cards found in most PCs."

Megachurches closed on Christmas

Dec. 18, 2005: With many large churches across the U.S. announcing they would not be open on Christmas Day, some pastors defended their decision to stay closed, even going so far as to blast those who questioned their motives.

Among them was Jon Weece, pastor of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky., who received complaint e-mails from Christians in all 50 states.

Weece blamed Satan the devil for using the Christmas issue as a distraction, prompting Christians to bicker among themselves.

"People are not the enemy," he said. "The devil is, and it is obvious that he has been at work in this situation."

I'm not dead yet!

Dec. 17, 2002: When 87-year-old Jimmy Cornet heard that he was dead, it nearly shocked the life out of him.

After all, the retired miner was still alive and kicking, so far as he could tell. But a rumor floating around town had locals thinking the Scottish gent had passed away.

"I'd also like to know how I died, as nobody seems to know this either," he laughed.

Cornet decided he wasn't going to take the news lying down. He stiffened his resolve, and after considering buying a newspaper ad, he posted an announcement at a news vendor's shop.

His message read: "James Cornet would like to inform the public that he is not dead or ever has been!"

Twin teachers busted over lewd act with student

Dec. 16, 2006: The "sexpidemic" of teachers – particularly female teachers – who pursue their students for sex took a new turn when police arrested twin sisters and a female roommate for charges related to lewd acts with an underage female student one year ago.

Officers initially intended to arrest only one of the sisters, but after questioning determined that her sibling – also a teacher – knew of the sexual contact and did not report it as California law required. Their roommate was taken into custody because officers had reason to believe she had "facilitated the crime."

WND's coverage of sexual predators continues ...

Arabs still enter U.S. illegally from Mexico

Dec. 15, 2003: WND reported growing evidence Arab terrorists were continuing to use the Mexican border as an entry point into the U.S. over two years after 9/11 and in the midst of efforts by the Bush administration to effect broad-based amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

An Arab-smuggling ring broken up in November 2003 that included a former Mexican diplomat who worked in Lebanon's consular ministry office and gave out passports was only the most-recent evidence.

An Arabic journal found on the Mexican route to U.S., the legalization as a seasonal agricultural worker under the 1986 amnesty plan by the leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, growing ties between radical reconquista Hispanics and Muslim radicals already pointed to a growing vulnerability on the southern border.

SADDAM CAUGHT!

Dec. 14, 2003: "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, told a news conference announcing the capture of Saddam Hussein. "The tyrant is a prisoner."

Saddam was found by forces from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special Forces in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn." He was hiding in a specially prepared "spider hole" in the cellar in the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit. The hole was six to eight feet deep, camouflaged with bricks and dirt and supplied with an air vent to allow long periods inside. The former Iraqi president had $750,000 in cash on him.

Although he was armed with a pistol, Saddam didn't fire his weapon. "There was no way he could fight back so he was just caught like a rat," Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said. He added, "The intimidation and fear this man generated for 30 years are gone ... [but] our work here still continues."

In the Baghdad, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air and others drove through the streets, shouting, "They got Saddam! They got Saddam!"

Chad-maker says 'dimples' made up

Dec. 13, 2000: Ever wonder how a chad could dimple? Printer Randy Stiles makes chad for a living, and he wondered the same thing.

"It would basically be impossible to do that," said Stiles, a production manager at the printing plant that made the controversial punch-card ballots for Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

He says his own machines don't produce any dimpled chad as they perforate the thousands of ballot cards used by the Florida counties and others around the country.

"There's some new words that have come up. You know, 'dimpled chad,' 'pregnant chad.' I've never heard about those before this election," he told WorldNetDaily.

Stiles said all chad punched with a stylus leave a kind of fingerprint: A pinhole and a vertical crease from where pressure was applied in the middle of the square piece of paper. Any dimpled or pregnant chad would most likely also show a pinhole and crease, he says. If they don't, chances are they weren't made with a stylus.

Stiles said he was baffled by Democrats' claims of voters having problems piercing through ballots – using sharp, pointed styluses – to vote for Gore.

Soy making kids 'gay'?

Dec. 12, 2006: Columnist Jim Rutz ignited a national sensation when he wrote a 5-part series, beginning with "Soy is making kids 'gay.'"

"There's a slow poison out there that's severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture," wrote Rutz.

"The dangerous food I'm speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they're all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore.

"I have nothing against an occasional soy snack. Soy is nutritious and contains lots of good things. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens."

NBC show stars Jesus, pill-popping priest

Dec. 11, 2005: NBC began promoting a new weekly show centering around a troubled, pill-popping Episcopal priest played by veteran actor Aidan Quinn, who talked with a manifestation of Jesus, played by Garret Dillahunt.

"The Book of Daniel," written by a homosexual, was touted as the riskiest new show of the year. It was also billed as the only show on television in which Jesus appeared as a recurring character.

On Jan. 23, 2006, WND broke the exclusive story that NBC was canceling the show, in the wake of pressure from viewers and the American Family Association.

"This shows the average American that he doesn't have to simply sit back and take the trash being offered on TV, but he can get involved and fight back with his pocketbook," said Donald Wildmon, chairman of the AFA.

WND introduces WorldNet

Dec. 10, 1999: WND announced it was launching its monthly magazine, WorldNet, commencing in January 2000.

"We've designed WorldNet as the perfect companion for readers of our WorldNetDaily.com daily newspaper," said WorldNet founder and Editor Joseph Farah. "It contains some of the most compelling articles readers will ever encounter, and provides a unique look at the world that is informative and highly thought-provoking."

WorldNet evolved from the long-popular monthly magazine published by WorldNetDaily called Dispatches.

The magazine kept its name WorldNet until August 2001, when it was renamed to the current and popular title of Whistleblower.

Judge orders Florida's military votes counted

Dec. 9, 2000: WND was first among the American media to report the judicial reinstatement of many previously disqualified military absentee ballots in Florida.

"It is truly an unfortunate circumstance when a citizen of the United States is denied the fundamental right to vote, whether residing in one of the several states or residing overseas," U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier wrote in his ruling. "It is even more unfortunate when a vote cast by a member of the armed forces serving abroad is rejected for no legitimate or compelling reason."

"It is unfortunate that Florida will accept an overseas absentee ballot with an unsworn, handwritten date, yet questions the oath, under penalty of perjury, of many of its service men and women," Collier said. "The Court reminds the local canvassing boards ... that their job is to accept votes, not reject them."

According to unofficial tallies, 1,547 overseas absentee ballots – about 40 percent of the total Florida received – were thrown out by county elections workers.

Motorola, Clinton and the Red Gestapo

Dec. 8, 1998: WND first reported that Motorola employee and former Clinton national security adviser Richard Barth obtained the export waiver for advanced encrypted radios sent to the Chinese police – over the objections of the State Department.

Motorola, antsy over recent British approval to sell high-tech communications equipment to the People's Armed Police, received backing from President Clinton for sales of its own equipment to Beijing, but officials at the State Department, concerned over numerous human rights problems, "hadn't gotten the memo" and refused to issue a waiver.

"The memo," sent to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, finally came from Barth: "Please forgive the informality of this note, but I want to move the process along here and not stand on formalities. We currently have about $100 million worth of two-way radio business tied up by the lack of a waiver for China. ... I urge you to get in writing to the State Department asap language that seeks a waiver for 'cellular, PCS and two way radio systems,' as recently agreed."

It worked. And those radios were used by Chinese police during the arrest of Harry Wu, the famed dissident reported.

Russian flyover takes Navy by surprise?

Dec. 7, 2000: On the 59th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, WND reported a more recent surprise "attack" on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk by a pair of Russian warplanes in the Sea of Japan.

The flyover of the carrier's tower -- at 500 knots and 200 feet -- On Oct. 9, 2000, occurred without the ship's commander getting a single plane into the air. And when an aircraft was finally launched -- 40 minutes after the first alert was given -- it was a plane used for electronic jamming, not a fighter. By then, the Russians had made three passes over the Kitty Hawk. The Pentagon admitted the Russians were easily in a position to destroy the ship if the planes had hostile intentions.

"We went down as low as possible and from the direction of the Japanese coast – without crossing the Japanese border, of course," Aleksandr Renev, the reconnaissance mission's squadron commander, told the BBC. "We went over the aircraft carrier. It looked as if they were not expecting us."

Dennis Miller: Gore had 'stick up his a--'

Dec. 6, 2006: Comedian Dennis Miller said Al Gore would be president today if he didn't have "such a stick up his a--" during the 2000 campaign against George W. Bush.

His comment came on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," as Miller discussed the former vice president's movie about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

"I saw Al Gore's movie, and you know, I remember thinking as I watched it, I thought, 'God, if he was half this charming when he ran for president, he'd be president right now.' He had such a stick up his a-- when he ran for the presidency," Miller said.

"I will pass that along to him," said Leno.

"Don't pass it along, take it out!" Miller responded, to a huge burst of laughter from the studio audience.

Why Gore lost the presidency

Dec. 5, 2000: WND revealed how Vice President Al Gore was tortured by the fact he lost Tennessee, according to friends. After all, had he won his home state – the state he represented all his years in Congress – he would have been President-elect Gore, with or without Florida.

"I know that's one thing bothering him the most, that he lost Tennessee," said close friend Steve Armistead, who spent his summers with Gore while growing up in Tennessee. "The other night he asked me, 'What happened in Tennessee?'"

Although the media accurately reported that Tennessee's 11 electoral votes would have put Gore at 271 and thereby made him the next president of the United States, most have missed the reason Gore suffered his first-ever defeat in Tennessee: a series of WND articles profiling Gore's seamy political dealings in Tennessee.

"It was the character issue," said popular Nashville radio talk host Phil Valentine. "Thanks to talk radio and sources like WorldNetDaily getting out the truth, I believe it tipped the state to Bush. They (the stories) stayed under the radar nationally, but around here they were on everyone's lips."

NBC affiliate solicits cash for illegals

Dec. 4, 2006: WND broke the astounding story of how the top-rated television station in Florida called on viewers to put aside their ''political beliefs'' to help 13 illegal aliens trying to "survive the American Dream" after being displaced by a fire – never mentioning on the air the immigrants were in the U.S. illegally.

Jamie Holmes, a reporter for channel 5, NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, avoided referring to the families as illegal aliens or undocumented immigrants in an original on-air report, instead describing them as ''the hard-working kind of people which created such a controversy in America this year ... .''

Station officials never returned calls seeking comment on how the station decides which stories to become advocates for, why the original report didn't note the families are illegals, should the station be soliciting on behalf of those who are breaking the law and how it is decided when reporters should admonish viewers as to how they should respond.

Feds sell secret coin-knife after 9/11

Dec. 3, 2001: Despite new post-9/11 measures to secure the safety of commercial air travel in the United States, WND revealed how an agency of the federal government continued to sell an easily concealable fake silver dollar that included a double-bladed hidden knife.

The item, offered by the U.S. Mint, was available for purchase online. It could likely slip past an airport metal detector when concealed with other coins in a coin purse.

According to the Mint's online catalog, the coin "features a hardened steel pocket knife mechanism that opens on either side to reveal a knife blade and nail file." The item is even antiqued to give it an "aged" appearance.

The government website selling the item provided no warning about taking the weapon onto an airplane, nor did it indicate if airport security had been alerted to the existence of such weapons.

AP abortion poll misleads respondents

Dec. 2, 2004: File this one under "You get what you ask for."

An Associated Press poll's finding of surprisingly high numbers of Americans wanting President Bush to appoint judges to the Supreme Court who would uphold the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion could be traced back to how the question was asked:

"As you may know, President Bush may have the opportunity to appoint several new justices to the U.S. Supreme Court during his second term. The 1973 Supreme Court ruling called Roe v. Wade made abortion in the first three months of pregnancy legal. Do you think President Bush should nominate Supreme Court justices who would uphold the Roe v. Wade decision, or nominate justices who would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision?"

In reality, Roe v. Wade struck down all laws restricting abortion in all 50 states, in effect legalizing abortion throughout the entire nine months of gestation.

"Roe v. Wade allows absolutely no limits on reasons for abortion until nearly six months into pregnancy," National Right to Life legislative director Douglas Johnson said. "It is way past time for the news media to stop distorting the real terms of Roe v. Wade."

Terrorist base south of border

Dec. 1, 2003: WND reported growing concerns among international law-enforcement authorities combating terrorism over a major influx into the Latin American nation of Paraguay of Arabic-speaking visitors carrying European passports.

Some of these "Europeans" could not even speak the language of their so-called mother land, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, an online premium intelligence newsletter published by WND.

Many of the visitors and emigres travel to the triple border region where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. This region, often described as a lawless area, is nicknamed by some intelligence station agents as "The Muslim Triangle meeting zone."

Information surrounding such activities arrived in the U.S. before Sept. 11, 2001, but failed to sound any alarms.

Tancredo: Not even Miamians believe they are American

Nov. 30, 2006: Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., continued his verbal volley with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sparked by his earlier characterization of Miami as a "Third World country" in an interview with WND.

The governor responded with a letter addressed to Tancredo's Washington office that, "The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult. Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January."

Citing a current issue of TIME magazine that described Miami as a "corrupt, exorbitant mess" where locals are fleeing in droves, Tancredo fired back: "Florida, like America itself, attracts people from many places, and immigrants always bring diverse cultures, races, and religious beliefs to our shores. It is precisely because of these diverse origins, cultures and languages that Florida and America depend on a few things to hold us together. One of the most important things that contributes to cohesion and not fragmentation is the English language and the evidence suggests that this is something that fewer and fewer Miamians share."

It's apparent, he added, fewer and fewer residents of that city even think of themselves as Americans.

Lindbergh's double life proved?

Nov. 29, 2003: DNA tests prove one of the 20th-century's best-known figures, Charles Lindbergh, had a second family in Germany that apparently remained hidden from his wife, according to three siblings who claimed to be his children.

Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister, Astrid Bouteuil, said they had no plans to stake claim as legal heirs.

Bouteuil, who now lives in Paris, said she discovered the identity of her father after coming across more than 100 letters in the attic of her mother's house in Ammersee, Upper Bavaria.

The man who won the hearts of millions around the world for his non-stop solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927 met Hesshaimer in Munich in 1957 when he was 55 and maintained the relationship until his death in 1974, the siblings claimed.

Hannity ignites revolt against left-wing profs

Nov. 28, 2005: College students bombarded with the personal political views of their professors were urged by talk-show host Sean Hannity to fight back with hard evidence of purported indoctrination.

"All you college kids out there, check your state laws, check your campus laws," Hannity said.

"Get your little tape recorders if legal, and I want you to start recording these left-wingers. Bring it to this program and we'll start airing it every single time on this program. I'm sick of this indoctrination. I'm sick of this left-wing propaganda."

Hannity's call to action came in the wake of the case of a 19-year-old freshman who was sharply rebuked by an English professor for inviting a war hero on campus.

"Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors," said the professor.

Paul Harvey healed for 'rest of the story'

Nov. 27, 2001: Radio legend Paul Harvey, who had been completely voiceless for three months, credited God with healing him in order to broadcast an important message regarding the war on terror.

"Inescapably, I was haunted by the possibility that I might not broadcast again," Harvey said of his mysterious ailment.

He explained how an epiphany taught him a new way to pray.

"You remember Jesus had prescribed for his disciples a perfect prayer, the essence of which is 'Thy will be done.' My prayers so often had been a shopping list of things I wanted to be done, and I began to pray for what He wanted.

"And doors began to open. I was led to a voice specialist. An outpatient procedure reinforced a weakened muscle alongside a vocal cord and within minutes, the voice which had been mostly mute for weeks came back to life."

Is 'Choice on Earth' 'Abortion on Earth'?

Nov. 26, 2002: At a time of year when many think about "peace on Earth," Planned Parenthood expanded its controversial "Choice on Earth" holiday greeting-card theme, increasing its stock of cards and T-shirts for sale.

"Our supporters are so energized by the vicious criticism of our holiday card that we're printing additional cards and limited-edition 'choice on Earth' T-shirts," said Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt.

"Planned Parenthood believes in every individual's right to make choices and live in peace with our planet and wishes people of all beliefs a peaceful and safe holiday season," she said.

"What 'choice on Earth' really means is 'abortion on Earth,' pro-life activist Jim Sedlak told WND. "In the season that celebrates the birth of Jesus, it is absolutely outrageous to have cards celebrating the death of babies."

Veteran journalist launches WND column

Nov. 25, 2002: Five years ago today, Michael Ackley, a fixture as a daily columnist for the Sacramento Union for many years, joined WorldNetDaily as a weekly commentator.

Ackley worked with WorldNetDaily Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah in the early 1990s when the latter served as editor of the Sacramento Union, then the oldest paper west of the Mississippi.

In 1987, Ackley became daily columnist for The Union, eventually producing six short-item columns plus an essay each week, making him one of the few seven-day columnists in the country.

Is 'Iraqifada' causing manpower problem?

Nov. 24, 2003: Long before President Bush authorized the recent "surge" in Iraq, before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned his position under criticism for deploying too few troops and before Americans saw their family members in the National Guard deployed and re-deployed multiple times, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin sounded the alarm that U.S. estimates of 5,000 terrorists in-country meant a whole new war requiring many more coalition troops.

Coining the term, "Iraqifada," Farah pointed to guerilla-war experts who said in such conflicts, the conventional forces need at least a 20-to-1 manpower advantage. Indeed, a British officer, a veteran of the street fighting in Londonderry, said the numbers should actually be much higher, more like 50 to 1. The average the Indian army holds in the Jammu and Kashmir area is close to 100 to 1.

U.S. military planners did not count on a stiff guerrilla war following the conventional conflict, reported G2 Bulletin.

Big Brother banks?

Nov. 23, 1998: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's "Know Your Customer" proposed plan required banks to report "unusual" customer activity — including simple deposits and withdrawals — to the government.

Banks would create "profiles" of customers to flag behavior or transactions that seemed to be out of the ordinary. Such "suspicious" behavior would be passed on.

Exposure of the plan in WorldNetDaily led privacy activists to bombard the FDIC with more e-mails and faxes than the agency had ever previously received. Ultimately, the U.S. Senate voted 88-0 to stop the proposal.

Video game allows you to take aim at JFK

Nov. 22, 2004: A new video game, released to coincide with the 41st anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy let players recreate the shooting in Dallas and earn points depending on how accurately their shots match the official version of events as documented by the Warren Commission, which probed the assassination.

"JFK Reloaded" was called "despicable" by a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother.

"We believe that the only thing we're exploiting is new technology," said a spokesman for the game's parent company.

Players, who take on the role of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, lose points if they hit first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Condo commandos and the election mess

Nov. 21, 2000: WND news editor Diana Lynne's exclusive story, entitled "'Condo commandos' caused ballot snafu," revealed how Palm Beach County's "condo commandos" – leaders at condominium complexes for those 55 and older – and other Gore operatives created the perceived need for a recount by giving the wrong instructions to loyal voters about how to cast their ballots in the Nov. 7 election.

The bad information, in turn, created confusion that ultimately contributed to more than 19,000 ballots being thrown out.

"I don't even know if I voted correctly," said 75-year-old condo commando Sam Oser. "You're dealing with older folks who come in on crutches and in wheelchairs. They're used to voting a certain way all these years and it was switched."

WTC collapse due to environmentalism?

Nov. 20, 2001: The collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center shortly after being struck by airliners occurred because New York City banned the use of asbestos as a fire retardant during the buildings' construction, one industry expert has alleged.

"The Trade Tower design – the one referred to as able to resist the crash of a Boeing 707 – specified the use of asbestos insulation on the supporting columns," said chemistry professor Art Robinson.

"This was used on all columns up to the 64th floors. Then, however, in 1971 when the Trade Center Towers were still under construction, New York City banned this use of asbestos," Robinson, who is also a founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, said.

"Asbestos was an early victim of junk science and enviro-fear propaganda," Robinson said. Environmental activists "were joined by opportunistic lawyers and businessmen who reaped large profits from the anti-asbestos program. There was not a shred of evidence that insulating buildings with asbestos was harmful to human health," he added.

America not an actual place?

Nov. 19, 2006: President Bush believes America should be more of an idea than an actual place, a Republican congressman told WND in an exclusive interview.

"People have to understand what we're talking about here. The president of the United States is an internationalist," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that – it's an idea. It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going."

Tancredo lashed out at the White House's lack of action in securing U.S. borders, and said efforts to merge the U.S. with both Mexico and Canada is not a fantasy.

"I know this is dramatic – or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic – but I'm telling you, that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American Union, it's not something that just is written about by right-wing fringe kooks. It is something in the head of the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, I think the prime minister of Canada buys into it."

Linda Ronstadt laments 'new bunch of Hitlers'

Nov. 18, 2004: Singer Linda Ronstadt, who made headlines during the 2004 presidential campaign by expressing solidarity with filmmaker Michael Moore, kicked it up a notch and compared current U.S. political trends with events in Nazi Germany.

"People don't realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves," Ronstadt told USA Today regarding the race for the White House.

On the issue of the ongoing battle in Iraq, Ronstadt added, "I worry that some people are entertained by the idea of this war. They don't know anything about the Iraqis, but they're angry and frustrated in their own lives. It's like Germany, before Hitler took over. The economy was bad and people felt kicked around. They looked for a scapegoat. Now we've got a new bunch of Hitlers."

The great betrayal of Laos' Hmong tribesmen

Nov. 17, 1999: WND broke the international story of the betrayal of Laos' Hmong tribesmen, recruited as CIA Special Forces soldiers to fight side-by-side with Americans during the Vietnam war.

Until WND's roving international correspondent Anthony C. LoBaido spent a year traveling throughout Thailand and Laos, at considerable personal risk, documenting the plight of the Hmong, no other news organization worldwide has been willing or able to document this important story.

"In this age of global media, who wonders at how this final liquidation can be taking place? It is a symbol of the agenda of the United Nations, Clinton administration and U.S. State Department – hatred of Christians and anti-Communists," charged Dr. Michael Korpi, an award-winning filmmaker interviewed by LoBaido.

ABC apologizes for raunchy football opener

Nov. 16, 2004: ABC-TV was forced to apologize for a raunchy intro segment to a "Monday Night Football" broadcast.

The feature, meant to spoof the ABC's hit show "Desperate Housewives," shows Philadelphia Eagles' Terrell Owens in an empty locker room with Nicollette Sheridan, who stars in the show, wearing only a towel.

Sheridan provocatively asked Owens to skip the game for her. After she dropped her towel, he agreed to be late for the contest and hugged her.

"We have heard from many of our viewers about last night's MNF opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate," ABC said in a statement. "We apologize."

WND moves into top 1,000 sites

Nov. 15, 2002: Five years ago today, WND was ranked the 991st largest website in the world, according to Alexa, a Web monitoring firm.

The fast-growing newssite had move up 526 places over the previous six months.

"There are only a handful of U.S.-based newssites substantially larger than WorldNetDaily," explains Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer. "They include CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, ABC News, Fox News – all major corporate conglomerates. Only the DrudgeReport of those news-oriented enterprises designed explicitly for the Internet – is larger than WorldNetDaily."

Google: Veterans Day 'too solemn' for logo

Nov. 14, 2006: In response to e-mail generated by a WND story noting Google didn't mark Veterans Day for an eighth straight year, the search engine giant created a form letter explaining the non-commemoration of the holiday was deliberate and out of reverence.

"Thank you for your note," read the form response. "We understand your concern and interest in seeing a Veteran's (sic) Day Google logo. If we were to commemorate this holiday, we'd want to express reverence; however, as Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature, this would be a particularly challenging design. We wouldn't want to create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful in any way."

Perhaps WND's coverage of the issue finally made a difference, because in November 2007, WND broke the story that Google finally issued a special logo on Veterans Day, nine years after the company was founded.

Iran leader a '79 U.S. hostage taker?

Nov. 13, 2006: The Russian publication Kommersant published a newly located photograph of a U.S. hostage-taker in Iran circa 1979 bearing a striking resemblance to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian leader steadfastly denied he was involved in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the holding of 52 Americans for 444 days despite assertions to the contrary of some of those hostages and former Iranian President Abholhassan Bani-Sadr, who says he was a ringleader and the liaison with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Charges by the ex-hostages were made shortly after Ahmadinejad came to power June 24, 2005. But from the beginning, the White House and State Department made it clear they would rather not know the truth about Ahmadinejad because it would place the U.S. in a position of refusing to permit a head of government into the country to attend U.N. meetings.

Scott Peterson guilty of killing Laci

Nov. 12, 2004: In a case thrust to the national stage by cable news channels, a jury in Redwood City, Calif., found Scott Peterson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder for death of his unborn child.

A pregnant Laci Peterson, 27, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002 from her Modesto home. Her body and the body of her unborn son, named Conner, washed ashore four months later in San Francisco Bay, in the area where her husband said he was fishing.

Prosecutor Rick Distaso told the jury Scott Peterson could not stand the thought of being trapped in a "dull, boring, married life with kids."

"He wants to live the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life," Distaso said. "He can't do that when he's paying child support, alimony and everything else. He didn't want to be tied to this kid the rest of his life. He didn't want to be tied to Laci for the rest of his life. So he killed her."

Matt Lauer equates Founders with terrorists

Nov. 11, 2004: In an interview with second lady Lynne Cheney, the "Today Show's" Matt Lauer equated the Islamic radicals in Fallujah terrorizing Iraq with George Washington's Revolutionary War army.

When the vice president's wife rebuffed Lauer for equating Washington's troops with the radical Muslim terrorists then clarified his line of questioning, he came back: "I'm just saying, but the insurgents believe they're fighting for a cause as well. They don't believe any less than we believe."

"Well, but Matt, you're being awfully relativistic here, "Cheney answered. "I mean, the insurgents are killing Iraqis by the hundreds, Iraqis by the thousands. It's not as though this is a matter between just 'on the one hand on the other hand.' We are on the side of freedom. I think that idea is so powerful and does give us wind at our back."

Wal-Mart faces boycott for 'banning' Christmas

Nov. 10, 2005: When a Wal-Mart customer complained to the retailer that the store was replacing its "Merry Christmas" greeting with "Happy Holidays," she received a response from customer service that prompted calls by the Catholic League for a nationwide boycott.

"Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this," the Wal-Mart representative replied. "The majority of the world still has different practices other than 'christmas' which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with 'christmas' red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue pointed out that when using the company's online search engine, if the word "Hanukkah" is entered, 200 items for sale are returned. The term "Kwanzaa" yields 77. But when "Christmas" is entered, the message returned says: "We've brought you to our 'Holiday' page based on your search."

Airports at mercy of Muslims

Nov. 9, 2001: The private company that contracted for security services at Dulles and Newark International Airport in New Jersey, where Islamic terrorists hijacked two of the four jumbo jets on Sept. 11, 2001, was under fire for hiring foreigners as screeners, but the same firm had been pressured by the federal government two-and-a-half years before to rehire Arab non-citizens after they filed a religion-bias complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Airport security experts said the EEOC settlement – which also mandated Muslim-sensitivity training for all Argenbright Security Inc. employees – went a long way toward explaining why 87 percent of the checkpoint screeners at Dulles were not U.S. citizens. All seven Muslim complainants worked as Dulles screeners at the time.

"If I were Argenbright and being investigated, I'd tell them, 'You want to sue us? Go talk to the damn EEOC. They're the ones who forced these people on us,'" said Steve Elson, a former Federal Aviation Administration airport-security inspector.

'Miracles happen – I'm a miracle'

Nov. 8, 2003: WND broke the story of a young woman in need of a double lung transplant saying she had been betrayed by Duke University Medical Center after doctors had her move near the college to prepare her for a transplant, only to tell her "out of the blue" she wouldn't be getting new organs and she should go back home.

Two months later, WND also broke the story that the woman was finally breathing on her own with a new set of lungs courtesy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Don't always believe what people tell you," Lauren Averitt said from her hospital bed where she was recuperating from surgery. "[Duke] told me to go home and die, and instead I'm a few miles down the road with new lungs.

"It's a miracle – I'm a miracle."

'God hit me' through WND report

Nov. 7, 2006: A second worker upset over Wal-Mart's newly-contrived "gay" agenda quit the retail chain to take a stand for Christianity, and cited a report from WND about another woman who also decided she'd had enough.

Karin Laginess, of Auberndale, Fla., told WND it was as if "God hit me" when she saw the earlier WND report about Janet Baird.

Baird, of Ohio, heard the shocking new plans that WND had reported directly from the mega-corporation's international headquarters: that the company is, in fact, contributing to the financial and moral agenda of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

"It broke my heart to see them choose to side themselves with what I call such an immoral organization. I just sat and cried," said Laginess.

Voter fraud, again!

Nov. 6, 2000: In his column, "Voter fraud, again!," WND Editor Joseph Farah revealed that election mailers sent out by the California Democratic Party and signed by President Bill Clinton, urging newly registered Hispanic voters to vote for Democrats, was apparently intended for a target group that included non-registered non-citizens.

Furthermore, as detailed in Farah's column and subsequent news stories by reporter Julie Foster, the mailers contained an unofficial "voter identification card" – the "Clinton card" – which the president urged recipients to take to the polls.

It's believed that with California's lax election laws (which prohibit poll workers from checking voters' ID), non-registered non-citizens presenting such a card at a California polling place could have voted in the Nov. 7 election.

The Plame Game

Nov. 5, 2005: Ambassador Joseph Wilson's attorney demanded Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely retract a statement he made to WND that the man at the center of the CIA leak case "outed" his own wife as a CIA employee in conversations more than a year before her identity was revealed in a syndicated column.

A demand letter was sent by Christopher Wolf to both Vallely and WND.

It disputed Vallely's claim that Wilson mentioned Valerie Plame's status with the CIA in conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington as they waited to appear as analysts.

"As you know, that assertion and the claim that Ambassador Wilson revealed to you or to anyone that his wife worked for the CIA is patently false, and subjects you and anyone publishing your statements to legal liability," stated the letter.

It continued: "We are writing to demand that you immediately retract the assertion attributed to you and to insist that you stop making the false allegation. In addition, we request that you identify all persons or entitites (sic) to whom you made any claim that Ambassador Wilson revealed his wife's employment at the CIA to you."

Military missing absentee ballots

Nov. 4, 2000: One of the defining issues – and perhaps the most strongly felt – in the 2000 presidential election was first brought to light by WorldNetDaily.

Three days before the Nov. 7 election, Jon Dougherty reported that many members of the United States military were unable to vote for their next commander in chief. The issue was one that could affect the election's outcome.

"The military has a much higher participation [of overall voters] in the voting process" than does the general voting public, a Defense Department spokesman told WND. In the 1996 election, he said 64 percent of service members participated; 40 percent of those were absentee ballots.

After the election, Dougherty continued to probe allegations from service personnel and their families that they either never received asked-for absentee ballots, or got them too late to vote.

Palestinian kids raised for war

Nov. 3, 2000: A year before the Western world woke up to the reality of suicide bombers with the 9/11 attacks on America, WND exposed the training of Palestinian children in the ways of jihad, with Palestinian television featuring macabre "Sesame Street"-type TV shows teaching toddlers to sing jihad songs about murdering Jews.

In one song on the "Children's Club," very young children are shown singing songs about wanting to become "suicide warriors" and to take up "a machine gun" to direct "violence, anger, anger, anger" against Israelis.

During the show, which features children aged 4-10, one young boy sings, "When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber." Afterward, other children stand to call for "Jihad! Holy war to the end against the Zionist enemy."

"It's very scary - it's a state-run educational system that teaches its children to be martyrs," said Meyrav Wurmser, Ph.D., an expert in Middle East politics. "Children are taught to idealize death, to view it as a positive. In many cases, they are told that death is not death at all, but rather the beginning of a new life."

Saddam's female assassin squads

Nov. 2, 2000: In an amazing and previously unreported story filed from Copenhagen, Denmark, WND international correspondent Anthony LoBaido revealed that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had sent hordes of female assassins to Denmark as well as other European destinations to wipe out Kurdish refugees and defectors fleeing Iraq, and even had installed spies on the Danish Refugee Council, according to the Danish Red Cross.

The assassins infiltrated Iraqi opposition circles to kill and maim leading Kurdish and Iraqi opposition leaders by means ranging from poisonings to car crashes. Graduates of a two-month training course held outside Baghdad, these "Mata Hari" hit squads were code-named Operation Falcon. According to British intelligence, they were staffed by belly dancers, actresses and artists who claim to be seeking asylum.

"The regime is using women because they would raise less suspicion," said Dr. Ayad Allawi, secretary general of the London-based Iraqi National Accord and a former ally of Saddam. "In our culture, we don't expect women to spy or kill. This is the most substantial operation we have seen for years."

Christmas stamp called 'offensive'

Nov. 1, 2005: A holy war of sorts broke out in Britain over a Christmas stamp which some said was offensive to members of the Hindu faith, purportedly showing Hindus worshipping Jesus Christ.

The stamp featured a man and woman with Hindu markings adoring the baby Jesus, and was one of six mother-and-child stamps making their debut.

"Would the worldwide Christian community feel comfortable if the government of India issued a Diwali stamp with a Christian priest offering worship to baby Krishna?" asked Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain.

The stamp designer, Anglican priest Irene Von Treskow, chose the picture for Royal Mail, saying it was so interesting to see a Mughal painting with a Christian subject, adding the image is not offensive.

"How can it be?" she asked. "It is 17th century art."

'We R Stuck Hear N Irak'

Oct. 31, 2006: Democratic Sen. John Kerry warned students in a campaign speech that if they don't study hard and get a good education, they might "get stuck in Iraq."

The remark was interpreted by many veterans – including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. – as a slam at military service, suggesting it's a last refuge for the lazy and uneducated.

Within a day, a photo circulating the Internet showed soldiers holding a banner with intentional misspellings reading: "Halp Us Jon Carry – We R Stuck Hear N Irak."

'Naked' PETA tigerlady: Halloween too sexy

Oct. 30, 2006: An animal-rights activist who stripped nearly nude before striping herself to look like a tiger ironically told women not to dress sexily for Halloween.

Jabeen Akhtar of Raleigh, N.C., an employee of the U.S. EPA, took part in an anti-circus protest in Charlotte, N.C., where she painted tiger stripes on her skin and sat in a cage on a public street, wearing only "panties and pasties."

But despite the flaunting of her body for ogling passers-by, Akhtar told other people they should avoid sexy costumes for Halloween.

"They will be pretty hard to miss, because they will be everywhere – in thigh-high boots and mini-dresses, with toy accoutrements such as handcuffs, stethoscopes and whips. And lots of cleavage. The most popular creature for a woman to dress up as on Halloween this year: the tramp," she said.

Altered states

Oct. 29, 2005: On the heels of USA Today's doctored photograph of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a WND inquiry into an altered photo of a gun-toting Ward Churchill prompted a Seattle-area college to remove the image from its website.

Shoreline Community College had electronically erased an AK-47 rifle from the image of the controversial University of Colorado professor.

But shortly after WND interviewed school officials about the doctored photo, Churchill's image was completely removed from the page promoting his appearance.

"I think we're going to take the photograph off," Scott Saunders, director of student programs at Shoreline, told WND when asked about the display of Churchill, newly disarmed in both weapon and right limb.

U.S. voting-machine shocker: Does Hugo Chavez own 'em?

Oct. 28, 2006: Just 10 days before Americans voted in last year's midterm congressional elections that could result in a historic shift of power, the federal government was investigating whether anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez controlled the company that operates electronic voting machines in 17 states.

Many questions had already been raised about the reliability of the new machines, which leave no paper trails for the purposes of recounts. But federal officials were investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Sequoia Voting Systems, was secretly controlled by the Castroite revolutionary leader of Venezuela who denounced President Bush as Satan in a 2006 United Nations address.

A Smartmatic spokesman admitted the company is 97 percent owned by the four Venezuelan founders – two of them dual citizens. The remainder of the company is owned "by employees of Smartmatic (past and present) and family and acquaintances of the founders."

Al-Qaida planned U.S. forest fires

Oct. 27, 2003: As wildfires were destroying Southern California homes four years ago – as they are now – WND revealed a June 25, 2003, FBI memo to United States law enforcement agencies detailing a senior al-Qaida detainee's claim to have developed a plan to start midsummer forest fires in the U.S.

The memo said an unidentified detainee revealed he hoped to create several large, catastrophic wildfires at once.

"The detainee believed that significant damage to the U.S. economy would result and once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies," the memo said.

Clinton linked to 'international trafficking in women'

Oct. 26, 1999: Before mysterious Chnese dishwashers and Norman Hsu made large donations to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, husband Bill was taking money from kingpins of international prostitution operations located in Asia.

Much of the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated by Arkansas restaurant owner Charlie Trie to Bill Clinton and the Democrat party came directly following visits to the White House by others linked to Asian organized crime syndicates, including Macau millionaire Ng Lapseng, whose main business was his Fortuna hotel and hostess service of brothels. Ng was invited to visit the White House living quarters by the Clintons.

The brochure advertising Ng's Fortuna hotel boasts, "attractive and attentive hostesses from China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Burma together with erotic girls from Europe and Russia offer you an exciting and unforgettable evening with friends or business associates."

Clinton's link to trafficking of women even caused one National Organization for Women chapter to endorse Republicans in 1992

Communist museum removes Kerry photo

Oct. 25, 2004: Vietnamese communist officials repaid a 23-year-old debt to John Kerry for his anti-war activities when they removed a controversial picture of the 2004 presidential candidate from a war museum in Ho Chi Minh City that had been featured in "Unfit for Command," the best-seller challenging the senator's version of his military service and his antiwar activities.

An angry Vietnam vet who learned of the picture from "Unfit" traveled from Hawaii to Vietnam to see the evidence for himself. At the museum, he was told by the director the picture had been ordered removed a month before.

"The communists don't want to do anything that would be detrimental to him being elected,"Unfit" co-author Jerome Corsi told WND. "If he wants foreign leaders to support him, he can certainly count on Vietnam's communist regime."

Kodak fires man over anti-'gay' stance

Oct. 24, 2004: WND reported how a 23-year veteran of the Eastman Kodak Co. was fired after objecting to a pro-homosexual memo from the film giant.

"Please do not send this type of information to me anymore, as I find it disgusting and offensive," said Rolf Szabo.

Kodak responded with its own memo, stating, "Rolf's comments are hurtful to our employees, friends and family members who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. This behavior is not aligned with the Kodak Values and, therefore, is not acceptable."

A spokesman for Kodak told WND: "Every possible definition of diversity is embraced by Kodak. This is a company that does not take these matters lightly."

WND gets tough with Chuck Norris

Oct. 23, 2006: Exclusive columnist Chuck Norris, world-renowned actor, martial arts champion and subject of the wildly popular Chuck Norris facts on the Internet wrote his first commentary for WND.

Titled, "On Chuck Norris 'mania' sweeping the Net," the American icon discussed the so-called "facts" that have put him into the category of cultural legend.

Some of his favorites included:

"When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris."

"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."

"Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris."

4th-graders 'celebrate' the dead

Oct. 22, 2002: Fourth-graders at McNear Elementary in Petaluma, Calif. celebrated the dead in a week-long classroom ritual designed to simulate the Mexican holiday "El Dia de los Muertos," or Day of the Dead.

"They're crossing the line. This is a religious ritual," one outraged parent told WorldNetDaily. "They can teach about it, but they're not supposed to be celebrating." The Christian parent who does not wish to be named plans to keep her daughter out of school all week to avoid the event.

"I have the right to send my daughter to school to learn math, reading and writing without having a religious ritual shoved down her throat," she said.

Schools ban Halloween to not offend witches

Oct. 21, 2004: A Seattle-area school district banned Halloween activities partly because the celebrations and costumes might be offensive to real witches.

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion, and so we want to be respectful of that," said Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen.

Students brought home a letter to their parents stating there'd be no observance of Halloween in the entire school district.

Hansen explained the district supertintendent made the decision for three primary reasons. Along with the concern about hurting Wiccans, the parties are regarded as a waste of valuable classroom time, and some families can't afford costumes.

"We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," she said.

McCain sings Streisand on 'Saturday Night Live'

Oct. 20, 2002: Sen. John McCain couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle.

And that was part of his comedy shtick as the Arizona Republican butchered a number of Barbra Streisand songs and slammed her politics as he hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

In a spoof commercial hawking an album called "McCain Sings Streisand," the senator portrayed himself as a man who "has served his country in the military, the Congress, and the Senate," said the announcer. "Now he serves America with song."

That's when McCain jumped into a brutal rendition of Streisand's "Evergreen":

"Love, soft as an easy chair; love, fresh as the morning air," struggled McCain as his monotone voice fought to find to find the right pitch and key.

"I've been in politics for over 20 years, and for over 20 years, I've had Barbra Streisand trying to do my job," said McCain during the spot. "So I decided to try my hand at her job."

Pledge to Mexican flag captured on video

Oct.19, 2006: A radio station in Houston posted on its website two video clips of a Texas elementary school "diversity" assembly where a volunteer led students in saying a pledge of allegiance to the Mexican flag.

One parent of a third-grader told the station he was at the event and students were indeed saying the pledge.

"I was telling them you don't have to stand for the pledge of allegiance to the Mexican flag."

"That's treason ... you're not supposed to say the pledge of allegiance to any flag other than the American and Texas flags," the father said. "It broke my heart to see the kids doing that."

WND gets death threats, advertisers targeted

Oct. 18, 2001: In response to its reporting on Islamic terrorism, WND became the target of death threats, lawsuit threats, and an ongoing campaign of intimidation against its advertisers and business partners.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, WorldNetDaily.com and its monthly print magazine, Whistleblower, featured in-depth coverage of the militant Islamic threat to America, including the presence within the United States of radical Muslim individuals and organizations with ties to known terror groups.

Some choice comments received by the news site included:

"Maybe we could grind up your filthy, pathetic body and feed it to the pigs before we send them to the Muslims."

"You should watch your back from now on. Maybe these 'Islamic fundamentalists' could come after you and your family."

"Since you are a swine, we will cut you open and drain you of blood, and then the U.S. military can use that if they wish."

"I'm surprised that such an anti-Muslim lives. Now you know what needs to be done to anti-Muslims. They deserve to die."

"No Muslim would mind to kill a bastard like you."

Ahoy! Ted Kennedy tries water rescue

Oct. 17, 2005: U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has been dogged by criticism since a 1969 car accident in which his passenger drowned, tried to come to the aid of six men trapped by high tide on a jetty off Hyannisport, Mass., though he eventually left the rescue to Hyannis firefighters.

The Massachusetts Democrat was walking his two Portuguese waterdogs on the beach when he spotted the men cut off from the shore by rising waters.

Hyannis Fire Capt. Craig Farrenkopf said Kennedy and a friend tried to retrieve the men in a 13-foot Whaler before they were forced back by rough waters.

Shortly after the attempt, a crew from the fire department was able to pick up the men in their 20s in three trips and bring them back to shore.

Syrian flight students arrive after 9-11

Oct. 16, 2001: One month after the 9-11 terror attacks, 14 Syrian men entered the U.S. through Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on student visas to attend flight schools at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, WND learned and reported exclusively.

The State Department lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Syrian men, whose M-1 visas expire April 2002, flew in from London aboard two British Airways flights the day before the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its post-attack ban on novice pilots flying private planes solo in airspace around major metropolitan areas.

Within two days, Paul Sperry's exclusive story had been picked up by Fox News Channel, United Press International and the Dallas Morning News, all without any credit to WND.

Pat Boone joins WND team

Oct. 15, 2005: Entertainment legend Pat Boone began writing a weekly, exclusive column for WorldNetDaily.

Boone has been a top-selling recording artist, the star of his own hit TV series, a movie star, a Broadway headliner and a best-selling author in a career that has spanned half a century. During the classic rock 'n' roll era of the 1950s, he sold more records than any artist except Elvis Presley.

Pat's debut column took on the ACLU, titled, "Keep the Boy Scouts from ACLU's grasp!"

WND founders to receive 'New Media' award

Oct. 14, 1999: As early as 1999, WND's leading role in the New Media revolution was attracting attention.

Eight years ago today, Judicial Watch announced Editor Joseph Farah and Associate Editor Elizabeth Farah, founders of WorldNetDaily, would be honored for excellence in New Media journalism at the legal watchdog's upcoming national conference.

The Farahs were joined by others whose names are well known today: Matt Drudge, Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes of the Fox News Network and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Commenting specifically about the Farahs' award, Klayman said, "We're giving Joseph and Elizabeth Farah an award because they are not only extremely fine journalists, but they are visionaries – having created the successful WorldNetDaily Internet news service. They are also people of the highest integrity," Klayman added.

If you want to learn who won the revolution, read Joseph Farah's "Stop the Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution."

Guaranteed: Miers to withdraw

Oct. 13, 2005: WND Editor Joseph Farah spared no detail in explaining why Bush nominee Harriet Miers would soon be looking for the nearest exit – anywhere – to avoid tough questioning by the Senate.

Why? Because, even though Democrats in the Senate seemed more pleased with the choice of Miers than did Republicans, the questions that must be asked of the nominee for Sandra Day O'Connor's Supreme Court seat would have bee among the most embarrassing ever raised about her boss, President Bush.

Most of the attention on the nomination thus far had focused on her lack of experience, her track record, her opinions on abortion, etc.

But the silver bullet that would do in the nominee was her cozy relationship with Bush – one that likely placed her in a position of covering up scandals in the Texas Lottery to keep secret the preferential treatment the president received as a young man to enter the Texas Air National Guard.

Farah was right. Two weeks later Miers withdrew her name.

Oct. 12, 2003: We can't make up this stuff.

A special seminar entitled "Bondage 101" to teach participants how to use ropes safely in a sexual context was hosted by the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

For $15, curious couples, who supplied their own ropes, received "hands on" instruction in the finer points of safe "knotty" sex from UVIC Pride, a group dedicated to "representing queer, trans and intersex people and allies on campus."

"You will be learning the way of the rope and rope safety skills. Come prepared to participate!!" read the UVIC website.

For those successfully learning the ropes, "Bondage 102" was offered.

Myths of the Middle East

Oct. 11, 2000: WND Editor Joseph Farah wrote a column entitled "Myths of the Middle East," which had an immeasurable impact worldwide for its clear, concise explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If there is man-made solution to the violence in Israel, it needs to begin with truth, wrote Farah. Pretending will only lead to more chaos.

So, what's the truth?

The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. "Palestine" has never existed -- before or since -- as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There are no Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. None. The Quran never mentions the city.

Meanwhile, Jews have a 5,000-year-old birthright backed by overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence.

Simple.

Rush: I'm addicted to pain-killing drugs

Oct. 10, 2003: Talk-radio star Rush Limbaugh announced at the end of his daily broadcast he would check into a rehab clinic to treat an addiction to pain-killing drugs.

Responding to a story published by the National Enquirer, he told his millions of listeners "part of what you've heard and read in the past week is correct."

"I am addicted to prescription pain medication," he said in his statement.

Limbaugh explained he began taking prescription painkillers about five or six years ago to ease pain following spinal surgery.

"Unfortunately the surgery was unsuccessful, and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck now, due to two hernated disks – pain which I'm experiencing because of that," he said.

Pat Robertson: Disasters point to 2nd Coming

Oct. 9, 2005: The catastrophic earthquake in South Asia in the wake of recent U.S. hurricanes and December's tsunami caught the eye of televangelist Pat Robertson, who said we "might be" in the End Times described in the Bible.

"These things are starting to hit with amazing regularity," Robertson said.

Robertson, a former GOP presidential candidate and host of the "700 Club" daily Christian TV show, noted, "If you read back in the Bible, the letter of the apostle Paul to the church of Thessalonia, he said that in the latter days before the end of the age that the Earth would be caught up in what he called the birth pangs of a new order. And for anybody who knows what it's like to have a wife going into labor, you know how these labor pains begin to hit. I don't have any special word that says this is that, but it could be suspiciously like that."

"What was called the blessed hope of the Bible is that one day Jesus Christ would come back again, start a whole new era, that this world order that we know would change into something that would be wonderful that we'd call the millennium," he continued. "And before that good time comes there will be some difficult days and there will be likened to what a woman goes through in labor just before she brings forth a child."

When asked if the world was approaching that moment, Robertson said, "It's possible. I don't have any special revelation to say it is but the Bible does indicate such a time will happen in the end of time. And could this be it? It might be."

White House intervened in Travelgate hearings

Oct. 8, 1998: In an unprecedented effort to control the direction of questioning and flow of testimony during Travelgate hearings, White House counsel went so far as to prepare special scripts for Democrats on a congressional investigative committee -- enabling members to ask friendly witnesses approved questions and to fend off potentially embarrassing ones, WND learned.

"Extensively detailed briefing papers and a series of questions ... were prepared to script the Democrat members of the [House] Committee on Government Reform and Oversight" -- the Oversight Committee said in its 186-page report: Investigation of the White House Travel Office Firings and Related Matters.

"Such meticulous executive branch scripting for congressional hearings is something even the Nixon White House did not dare to undertake," the committee observed.

"This is a huge issue," researcher Ray Morton told WND. "The public and the press are talking about Bill and Monica -- but here's Clinton and his cronies taking over Congress -- intervening in its affairs and investigative work."

Saudis host Hamas command center

Oct. 7, 2005: Saudi Arabia, U.S. ally, maintains an operations command center in Saudi Arabia that finances suicide bombings and important Hamas campaigns, security sources told WND.

A senior Hamas operative, arrested in Jerusalem, received large sums of money from Hamas in Saudi Arabia. He told interrogators he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas' Saudi headquarters to Hamas institutions in the West Bank, where he said the money was used to provide financial support for the families of suicide bombers and imprisoned operatives, and to finance Hamas attacks.

Matthew Levitt, director of the Terrorism Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, commented, "Neither the fact that individual Hamas operatives are active in Saudi Arabia nor the fact that Hamas receives significant funding from within the kingdom is news. ... [But] the revelation that Hamas operates a command center in Saudi Arabia with close ties to Hamas militants executing attacks and the movement's political and social-welfare operations is remarkable."

Al Gore's uncle a 'phony soldier'?

Oct. 6, 2000: When Vice President Al Gore claimed, during the first presidential debate of the 2000 campaign, his uncle had been gassed in World War I while serving in Bosnia, skeptical fact checkers went to work – and they, like the campaign itself, came up empty.

"And when the conflict came up in Bosnia," said Gore, "I saw a genocide in the heart of Europe, with the most violent war on the continent of Europe since World War II. Look, that's where World War I started, in the Balkans. My uncle was a victim of poison gas there. Millions of Americans saw the results of that conflict."

World War I started in the Balkans, true. Millions of Americans saw the results of that conflict, true. But if anyone was gassed in the Balkans, it wasn't any of our American troops, who served in Western Europe, and it certainly wasn't Al Gore's uncle. An exhaustive records search raised doubts he even served in the military during the "Great War."

The National Archives had no record of Gore's uncle in the service and the best the campaign could do was provide a 1959 newspaper obituary saying he had been gassed as a soldier in France, information most likely provided by the family.

Mr. Gore, it's Mr. Limbaugh on line 1 ...

Court pick in middle of Bush National Guard scandal?

Oct. 5, 2005: A year after overcoming charges he had been able to avoid combat in Vietnam because his father used political connections to get him into the Texas Air National Guard, President George Bush was in danger of stirring up the issue again with his nomination of Harriett Miers as associate Supreme Court justice.

It's a complicated story of Texas politics ... an ex-lieutenant governor who secures a lucrative contract for a client to run the Texas Lottery ... allegations of political kickbacks, payoffs and overcharges ... a contract bought out for $23 million ... a director of the Lottery Commission fired after launching an investigation of apparent corruption and calling for open bidding on contracts ... a $300,000 payoff that included a stipulation that all records and depositions be destroyed ... and that ex-lieutenant governor telling CBS' Dan Rather that George H.W. Bush approached him to secure a National Guard appointment for his son.

In the middle of it all was Harriet Miers, chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and close confidant of George W. Bush.

Scientists: Relic authenticates Shroud of Turin

Oct. 4, 2000: WND reported on the gathering of scientists and forensic specialists in Oviedo, Spain, to examine an obscure relic that many have claimed authenticates the Shroud of Turin – believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

The Sudarium of Oviedo is reportedly the other linen cloth found in the tomb of Christ, as described in the Gospel of John. The relic, whose dramatic history is intertwined with the Knights Templar, Moors, El Cid, saints and bishops, has been in Spain since A.D. 631.

The efforts to authenticate the claims made about the cloth are fascinating – like an episode of CSI Jerusalem A.D. 30.

"The only reasonable conclusion," says Mark Guscin, author of "The Oviedo Cloth," "is that the Sudarium of Oviedo covered the same head as that found on the Shroud of Turin." Guscin, a British scholar whose study is the only English language book on the Sudarium, told WorldNetDaily, "This can be uncomfortable for scientists with a predetermined viewpoint; I mean, the evidence grows that this cloth and the Shroud covered the same tortured man."

Muslim rips down tribute to 9/11 hero

Oct. 3, 2006: A 26-year-old Muslim man tore down a portion of a memorial in New York City to a fallen hero of 9/11, screaming "This is political."

Turkish-born Adnan Emre was charged with destroying the tribute to New York City police officer Paul Talty, who was one of the first responders to the 9/11 attack, rushing into the south tower of the World Trade Center as it fell.

The memorial to Talty – who at age 40 left behind two children and a pregnant wife – consisted of his picture, a cross, a plaque and crossed American and Irish flags. The plaque is inscribed, "Rest in Peace, Paul. We miss you. God Bless."

The vandalism was witnessed by a passing booth clerk for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, who contacted police.

Kerry would still supply Iran with nuclear fuel

Oct. 2, 2004: Even as top Iranian officials called for development of nuclear weapons within the next four months, Sen. John Kerry insisted as president he would provide Tehran with the nuclear fuel it wanted in return for a pledge to use it for peaceful purposes only.

"I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes," Kerry said in a critique of the Bush administration's handling of Tehran's nuclear program, which the Iranians claim is only for civilian purposes.

"If they weren't willing to work a deal, then we could have put sanctions together," Kerry said of Tehran. "The president did nothing."

World's 'No. 1 website' goes for-profit

Oct. 1, 1999: Beginning 8-years-ago today, WorldNetDaily.com officially became a for-profit corporation, completing its transition from being an operation of the non-profit Western Journalism Center.

"We believe WorldNetDaily.com could only truly reach its potential as one of the leading news providers on the Internet and in other media through this process," explained Farah, the founder of both Western Journalism Center and WorldNetDaily.com. "That could not happen while WND was operating as part of a non-profit entity and in the tax-exempt, charitable realm."

The most immediate and visible change on the website resulting from the corporate reorganization was a new WorldNetDaily.com storefront.

"There will be many other exciting innovations coming to readers of WorldNetDaily.com in the weeks and months ahead," said Farah.

Make that years ahead.

Dutch 'marriage': 1 man, 2 women

Sept. 30, 2005: It's was a whole new take on "Dutch treat" when Victor de Bruijn, 46, "married" both Bianca, 31, and Mirjam, 35, in the Netherlands' first three-way civil union.

"I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I am marrying them both," said de Bruijn who previously was married to only Bianca.

The couple met Mirjam Geven two and a half years ago through an Internet chatroom, and eight weeks later Mirjam left her husband to live with Victor and Bianca.

After Mirjam's divorce the threesome decided to marry.

De Bruijn explained: "A marriage between three persons is not possible in the Netherlands, but a civil union is. We went to the notary in our marriage costume and exchanged rings. We consider this to be just an ordinary marriage."

Maritime mayhem: Al-Qaida's 15-ship mystery navy

Sept. 29, 2003: Among all the thousands of cargo ships and superfreighters plying the seas, with their millions of containers filled with the goods fueling the growth of globalization, is a small "navy" of at least 15 ships purchased by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, reported Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Lloyds of London reportedly helped Britain's MI6 and the U.S. CIA trace the sales made through a Greek shipping agent suspected of having direct contacts with bin Laden, the online intelligence newsletter reported.

The ships fly the flags of Yemen and Somalia – where they are registered – and are capable of carrying cargoes of lethal chemicals, a "dirty bomb" or even a nuclear weapon, according to G2 Bulletin's sources. British and U.S. officials worry that one or more of these ships could hit civilian ports on a suicide mission.

G2 Bulletin sources say other potential targets of the al-Qaida armada, besides civilian ports, include oil rigs. Another threat is the ramming of a cruise liner.

Boys told no standing to urinate

Sept. 28, 2006: A Norwegian school was blasted for "fiddling with God's work" by the chief of one of the nation's political parties after boys were told they would no longer be allowed to stand while urinating.

"When boys are not allowed to pee in the natural way, the way boys have done for generations, it is meddling with God's work," said Vidar Kleppe, the chief of the Democrats Party.

"It is a human right not to have to sit down like a girl," he said.

The principal told reporters the restrooms are used by both boys and girls, and the young boys are not "good enough at aiming" in order to have "a pleasant toilet."

Cyberporn scandal hits Commerce Department

Sept. 27, 2000: Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry disclosed that the White House porn scandal – first revealed by WND – had spread to the Commerce Department, where the security official in charge of investigating the private backgrounds of Commerce employees was suspended for downloading and storing pornography on his government computer.

The suspended Commerce official was escorted out of the main building here Aug. 14, after investigators found a "monolithic" stash of porn files on his computer. The scandal was supposed to be kept secret.

Reportedly, a Commerce employee decided to blow the whistle after reading the report of White House cyberporn abuses on WND's newssite.

The pornography on the official's office computer was described as 'monolithic."

"He had files with names on them, and in those files were certain pictures and graphics that he was maintaining of all these women that he had working for him," WND's source added. And he allegedly juxtaposed them with pornographic material he pulled off the Internet of naked women posing in sexual positions and performing sex acts.

Amazon.com accused of aiding molesters

Sept. 26, 2002: Amazon.com was accused by a nonprofit legal group of "contributing to the potential rape and molestation of children."

The online retailer's sale and promotion of the book "Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers," was called an unfair and unethical business practice, according to a letter sent to Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos by the U.S. Justice Foundation.

The USJF was given Amazon 30 days to pull the book or face "protracted litigation."

The introduction to the book, released in 2000 by SafeHaven Foundation Press, says men who become involved in sexual relationships with boys "are sincere, concerned, loving human beings who simply have – and were probably born with – a sexual orientation that is neither understood nor accepted by most others."

The group screened represents only a tiny portion of the 6,000 Gulf Coast evacuees staying in South Carolina. Only those evacuated by federal officials were subjected to background checks upon their arrival.

Over 1/2 of Katrina evacuees to S.C. have records

Sept. 25, 2005: When South Carolina opened its arms to 547 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina's wrath, it got something it didn't bargain for – 301 new residents with criminal records.

More than half of those airlifted into the state have criminal backgrounds, with convictions ranging from petty theft to rape, authorities said.

That's what State Law Enforcement Division agents found to their dismay. Most had committed minor offenses and few of their crimes were recent, but the group also included people convicted of aggravated assault and rape.

Cemetery to bury all, Christians too, facing Mecca

Sept. 24, 2006: Despite the fact Muslims account for only five percent of the local population, Nottingham officials – yes, the Nottingham of Robin Hood fame – decided all burial plots in a new $4.7 million cemetery should be aligned with Mecca in the Muslim tradition.

All headstones at the 40-acre burial site will face northeast, enabling the dead to look over their shoulder toward Mecca, the manner prescribed for followers of Islam in the UK.

Not even the imam of the local mosque could fathom this latest accomodation to political correctness.

"It is part of our religion for the dead to be aligned with Mecca. It is very important. But for Christians, if they want to face somewhere else we support them," he said.

The tragic story of Jesse Dirkhising

Sept. 23, 2002: WND wrote about the tragic murder of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising before anyone else in the national press.

On the third anniversary of his brutal death at the hands of two homosexual men who drugged the boy, raped him repeatedly and killed him by asphyxiation, WND shed new light on factors that led to the tragedy.

Even though the case had received a flurry of publicity after first being brought to the attention of the nation in WorldNetDaily, the number of articles written paled in comparison to those written about the murder of Matthew Shepherd – an adult homosexual brutally murdered in Wyoming by heterosexuals. In fact, a Nexis search showed a disparity in story counts of 18-1.

It's a heart-wrenching story, a graphic story and one not suitable for children.

WorldNetDaily hit by 'shrinkage'

Sept. 22, 1998: After WorldNetDaily had been publishing for a year or so, it became noticeable editors and others in the office were using the shorthand "WND" to refer to newssite. Even readers were using it.

It didn't take long to realize having the WND.com domain name would be a good idea. But by 1998, there weren't many three-letter domain names that hadn't already been snapped up by other users.

But we acquired it and registered it nine years ago today. Now WorldNetDaily.com readers have an easy three-letter alternative to find their favorite website online.

It's easier for friends to remember when you tell them where you get your news. It's easier to type – fewer cases of tunnel carpel syndrome. And it's just the right size for a bumpersticker on the tiny car Al Gore is planning for your future.

1st step in rebuilding Jerusalem Temple?

Sept. 21, 1998: From the beginning, WND's news coverage has focused on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Nine years ago today, members of a group called the Temple Mount Faithful, which seeks to rebuild the Third Temple, were planning to take the first dramatic step and lay the cornerstone for the reconstruction project.

The group planned to transport the cornerstone, covered with Tallith, or prayer shawl and accompanied by Levites, or Jewish priests, to anoint the stone according to biblical laws.

"We want to renew everything which belongs to the Temple and biblical tradition," says Gershon Salomon, the group's leader, who added he believes the Temple will be fully rebuilt and used for worship soon. "We know that we are living in a special exciting time of the redemption of the people and the land of Israel, the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. We feel and live the special significance of this time. The members of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement dedicated themselves to fulfill the wish of the God of Israel and the prophecies of the prophets of Israel for the end-times."

Nine years later, WND is reporting the Olmert government's proposals to give the Temple Mount and portions of the Old City to the Palestinian Authority, even as the Muslim Waqf is destroying Second Temple artifacts with its excavations and allowing the official radio station of the Islamic Jihad terror group to broadcast from the sacred site.

'Late Great Planet Earth' joins WorldNetDaily

Sept. 20, 2000: Hal Lindsey, the best-selling non-fiction author of the 1970s, joined WND as a weekly columnist, Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah announced.

Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and was translated into 54 languages. Lindsey has written some 20 books, many of which were best sellers – cutting across the dividing line between Christian and secular publishing.

"I have known Hal Lindsey as a friend and colleague for more than 20 years," said Farah. "I know his weekly WorldNetDaily column will be provocative, controversial and thought-provoking."

"I am pleased to have this weekly outlet for timely news analysis," said Lindsey. "WorldNetDaily is the standard by which every other online newssite should be judged. I'm honored to be a part of Joseph Farah's dazzling editorial lineup."

Read Lindsey's first column, "The Middle East peace paradox."

'Saint Bill Clinton' ignites religious rage

Sept. 19, 2004: While Americans have a wide range of views regarding former President Bill Clinton, a Kentucky artist's depiction of the former commander in chief as God himself or a Catholic-style saint raised those opinions to passionate levels across the nation.

The portrait, titled "Saint Clinton," was the creation of Scott Ritcher, a 34-year-old graphic designer who marketed T-shirts, posters, magnets, coffee cups, coasters and even lunchboxes with the picture reminiscent of the "Sacred Heart of Jesus" images.

"It was one of those creative moments where you're just like, 'Oh, wouldn't this be funny,'" Ritcher said. "It's intended to amuse and entertain people. It's not intended to offend anybody."

One critic noted: "Saint Clinton, patron saint of philanderers, weasels, McDonalds and stain removers. His feast day is celebrated only in Arkansas."

Parents kidnap daughter to force abortion on her

Sept. 18, 2006: The parents of a pregnant 19-year-old were arrested after the young woman told police they kidnapped, tied and gagged her, and were taking her to New York for a forced abortion.

Authorities in Maine said federal investigators may get involved in the case since it allegedly involved kidnapping someone to take them across a state line. According to a report in the Manchester Union-Leader, arrested were Nicholas Kampf, 54, and Lola Kampf, 53.

They were arrested by Salem, N.H., police after a 9-1-1 call came in to police from the couple's daughter, Katelyn, when she reported she had been kidnapped.

Police said Katelyn had convinced her parents to untie her and allow her to use a restroom at a shopping plaza, and she escaped, using her cell phone to call for help.

Katelyn was found by officers behind the shopping plaza, and her parents were arrested while driving around the parking lot, apparently looking for her. Police said they found duct tape, a .22-caliber rifle and rope in the couple's vehicle.

Sweden censures Oprah for bias

Sept. 17, 2003: While acknowledging that both sides were presented, Sweden's Broadcasting Commission determined an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show did not give a fair and balanced presentation of the arguments about whether to go to war with Iraq and issued a censure against the Swedish television network that broadcast it.

"Different views were expressed, but all longer remarks gave voice to the opinion that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States and should be the target of attack," the commission said.

The Swedish government strongly opposed the war, saying it lacked a U.N. Security Council mandate.

The censure carried no legal or financial penalties, but the network was required to publish the commission's decision.

The Oprah Winfrey show is one of Sweden's more popular day-time television programs.

Is Bush what he says he is?

Sept. 16, 1999: There may be some Republicans who wish they had read this WND story back in 1999.

Conservative activists in Texas were saying Gov. George W. Bush – the front-running candidate for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination – was masquerading as a leader for a smaller, more limited role for government in Americans' lives.

According to Texas Eagle Forum, Bush's state legislative priorities showed him to be anything but a political conservative.

The group blasted Bush for enlarging Texas government by "nearly 38 percent," increasing entitlements to public schools, supporting bilingual education, and federalizing education while calling it "local control."

He also had not spoken out against a small Texas border town's decision to adopt a "Spanish-only" policy for official government functions and instructed city officials not to talk to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

But a spokesman for Bush's presidential campaign told WorldNetDaily that the governor, should he become president, will "implement the core conservative principles of smaller government."

Black pastors announce march for unborn

Sept. 15, 1999: A group of black pastors in New Jersey announced plans for the Say So March – a march from Newark, N.J., to Washington, D.C., on behalf of the 1,452 black children aborted each day in the United States.

Leaders hoped to have 1,452 African-Americans participate in the march on each of the three days needed to cover the distance.

"We really hope to inspire people to love the children," said Johnny Hunter, a pastor and the national director for Life Education and Resource Network. "There's one simple message in this march: 'If you love the children, say so.'"

"This march is a civil rights march," said spokesman Damon Owens. "We're organizing this march to tell our black brothers and sisters we have been duped into destroying ourselves. Even though we make up 12 percent of the population, we supply 33 percent of the abortion industry's business. We have fallen prey to the Margaret Sangers of the world."

Owens stated, "In the three days of this march, more African-Americans will be murdered by abortion than were lynched from 1882-1968. It's time to stop the genocide."

Terrorists had shooting parties near D.C.

Sept. 14, 2001: Three days after the twin towers fell, WND tracked two of the terrorist hijackers to Vienna, Va., the leafy Washington, D.C., suburb where the pair once lived.

In hindsight, the rental home held clues that suggested it may have been a safehouse for terrorists. The interior had been divided into numerous small bedrooms – cubicles – where at least eight "Arab-looking" men lived. Neighbors suspected the house harbored drug dealers and noted the tenants seldom used the front door but, instead, parked and walked through a gate to the back yard to enter the home.

One neighbor said she and her husband observed a van parked outside the home at all hours of the day and night. A Middle-Eastern man appeared to be monitoring a scanner or radio inside the van.

Parking violations and loud parties – complete with gunfire – were reported and brought visits from the police. But no one suspected terrorism.

Vince Foster's real plans

Sept. 13, 2000: In "Foster planned date with wife," WND reported for the first time that, according to previously unreviewed files on the computer hard drive of a deceased White House attorney, Vincent Foster and his wife had plans for the night of July 20, 1993 – the day he was found dead.

"One of the files referred to an engagement to go out that evening with his wife," said former White House computer expert and whistleblower Sheryl Hall.

The discovery lent credence to complaints of a botched investigation, as former Special Counsel Robert Fiske never seized nor even tried to seize Foster's computer as evidence after the Clinton aide died unexpectedly.

'Path to 9/11' producer sees ABC 'victory'

Sept. 12, 2006: Despite unprecedented pressure from former President Clinton, his aides and top Democratic Party leaders that resulted in edits, ABC's airing of the "The Path to 9/11" was a success, said the writer of the miniseries.

In fact, with Clinton's lawyers pressing to cancel the five-hour docudrama, it wasn't until Sunday morning – the day scheduled for part one – that its airing was certain, according to Cyrus Nowrasteh.

Three scenes, totaling about 70 seconds, were altered in the $40 million production.

"To lose only a minute is a success, is a victory," Nowrasteh told WND. "I think ABC stood tall."

The scene that underwent the biggest cuts depicted CIA operatives waiting for permission from Washington to attack Osama bin Laden at his Afghanistan fortress. The version that aired left out National Security Adviser Sandy Berger hanging up on George Tenet as the CIA director sought permission to go ahead.

Controversy over "Path to 9/11" continued into September 2007, as the DVD version was months past due for release, and Nowrasteh said it was due to pressure from the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Faces of terror

Sept. 11, 2001: As the United States became victim of its worst terrorism attack in history, WND was first to report Osama bin Laden was the chief suspect, and that terrorists had slit the throats of two American Airlines flight attendants.

One Pentagon anti-terror official blamed the Clinton administration for not neutralizing bin Laden earlier.

"Frankly, they just let guys like bin Laden grow in strength to the point where they felt they could pull off things like they pulled off today," he said.

Regarding the flight attendants, one senior American Airlines employee, who worked at Logan Airport in Boston and said goodbye to the crew at the gate around 7:30 a.m. told WND: "That was just horrific to all of us when we heard about it at about 8:15 ... We were, like, 'Oh my God, these poor girls are trying to save their captain and their plane.'"

Neal Boortz joins WND

Sept. 10, 2002: Author and nationally syndicated libertarian radio talk-show host Neal Boortz teamed with WND to write a weekly column. Full disclosure compels Neal to reveal he's also a "reformed" attorney being paid massive amounts of money in exchange for his promise not to actually practice law any more.

In his debut commentary, "Why liberals are not on talk radio," Boortz explained:

"Liberals don't do well at talk radio because theirs is a political philosophy based on emotion and legalized plunder. Take enough listener phone calls, and your credibility is shot – along with your ratings."

Is Bloomberg new 'bully' on block?

Sept. 9, 2002: Irony can be ... well, ironic.

In 2002, WND's long battle for press credentials to cover Congress like 300 other daily news organizations was being stymied by a small group of gatekeepers known as the Standing Committee of Correspondents for the Senate Daily Press Gallery. The chairman of the committee keeping WND from bringing its readers the news was a correspondent for Bloomberg News.

Ironically – there's that word – Michael Bloomberg, founder of the news service bearing his name, had his own long battle for his reporters to be given credentials to cover Congress. Indeed, Bloomberg's experience, chronicled in a book he authored, was almost identical to WND's.

But after he got into the club and his people became the gatekeepers, the door was shut against WND with the same excuses used to stonewall him.

Ironic, isn't it?

Why Bill Clinton won't say he's sorry

Sept. 8, 1998: In the weeks following Bill Clinton's televised address to the nation after giving historic testimony to the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair, America was still waiting to here the simple words, "I'm sorry," but White House sources told WND no apology was coming – thanks to a group of legal eagles headed up by Hillary.

"Hillary has taken total control and no one moves without her say so," the source explained. Her group insisted Clinton must never directly apologize or say he's sorry for the Lewinsky affair. Political advisers argued he must apologize to end the criticism from the press.

"He's trying to sound like he's sorry to quiet the critics, but he's not sorry, won't say he's sorry, and the critics can see right through it," explained the source who added that tension among the White House staff is "so thick you can cut it with a knife."

"He's protecting himself from all sides," said the source when asked if Clinton is guarding his words to avoid contempt charges in the Jones case, which had been dismissed and was being appealed at the time.

AP mum on identity of falsifying reporter

Sept. 7, 2004: After falsely reporting that a crowd President Bush was speaking to booed after he wished President Clinton a speedy recovery from heart surgery, the Associated Press refused to identify the reporter who filed the story or say what punishment he or she might face.

The original report stated: "A crowd at a Bush rally in West Allis, Wis., booed when President Bush offered ex-President Clinton best wishes for a speedy recovery from coronary bypass surgery scheduled for next week. ... Bush did nothing to stop them."

Fortunately, a Milwaukee radio station had broadcast the event live and quickly debunked the story.

A WTMJ producer said, "We carried the President's speech live, which included the applause for his best wishes for Clinton's recovery. There was no booing and we had a large number of calls deploring what AP reported."

A day later, AP issued a correction, but refused to identify the reporter. "The Associated Press does not comment on personnel issues," was the only response.

Factor this! Bill O'Reilly joins WND

Sept. 6, 2000: Bill O'Reilly, host of the hugely successful "O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel, joined WND as a regular columnist.

"I had other offers to write columns for other newssites on the Internet," said O'Reilly. "I chose WorldNetDaily because of its commitment to independence and fearless investigative reporting."

Said WND Editor Joseph Farah, "We're thrilled to welcome Bill O'Reilly on board as a regular weekly columnist. I don't always agree with him, but he is a unique and forceful character in television journalism. O'Reilly, like WorldNetDaily, is fiercely independent -- another reason this is a great match."

At the time O'Reilly joined WND, his TV program on Fox was second in the ratings to CNN's "Larry King Live." But within several months of writing for WND, O'Reilly's ratings soared over King to become the No. 1 program on any cable news channel.

Read Bill O'Reilly's very first column on WND, "It's the education, stupid."

Katrina survivors urged to flash breasts

Sept. 5, 2005: British tourists recounted how female survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were urged by government rescuers to flash their breasts in order to receive help in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Ged Scott of Liverpool was on his annual vacation at New Orleans' Ramada Hotel with his wife, Sandra, and their 7-year-old son, Ronan.

"I could not describe how bad the authorities were, taking photographs of us as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own personal photo albums, little snapshot photographs," Scott said.

He said there was a group of girls standing on the lobby's roof, calling out to passing rescuers for help.

"[The authorities] said to them, 'Well, show us what you've got' – doing signs for them to lift their T-shirts up. The girls said no, and [the rescuers] said 'well fine,' and motored off down the road in their motorboat. That's the sort of help we had from the authorities," he said.

Celine Dion: Let 'em loot!

Sept. 4, 2005: WND reported how international singing star Celine Dion had little problem with the large amount of looting taking place in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, as she hammered the U.S. government for its perceived slow response to Katrina's impact.

"You know, some people are stealing and they're making a big deal out of it," Dion said," noting she'd donate $1 million toward relief.

"Oh, they're stealing 20 pair of jeans or they're stealing television sets. Who cares? They're not going to go too far with it. Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that they're so poor they've never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once."

Dion, a celebrity from Canada who now lives and performs in Las Vegas, took a double swipe at U.S. war policy while criticizing the recovery effort.

"How come it's so easy to send planes in another country to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives?" she asked.

"I open the television, there's people still there waiting to be rescued and for me it's not acceptable. I know there's reasons for it. I'm sorry to say I'm being rude but I don't want to hear those reasons."

WND Books rocking world for 5 years

Sept. 3, 2002: Five years ago, WorldNetDaily.com rocked the media world when it became the first Internet company to launch its own book-publishing division, WND Books.

The imprint has since sparked a long list of New York Times best-sellers, including two No. 1 titles, and is still going strong with a pair of imminent potential blockbusters.

The saga of WND Books began in 2002 with Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris' book about the court war that erupted over the contested 2000 presidential election, "Center of the Storm."

Now as it celebrates its 5th anniversary, the book-publishing arm of WND.com, the Internet's largest independent news site, pulls the plug on a government cover-up of North American merger plans with Jerome Corsi's "The Late Great USA," which is already is on the New York Times best-seller list and climbing.

Reaching the No. 1 position have been the second release from WND Books, Michael Savage's "The Savage Nation," as well as the radio talk show host's "The Enemy Within."

Other big hits include "The Marketing of Evil," "Stop the Presses!" "The Third Terrorist" and "Shooting Back."

Mel Gibson pushed for president

Sept. 2, 2004: Two months before the last presidential election, WND reported on an Arizona dentist's Internet write-in campaign to elect actor and director Mel Gibson to the nation's highest office.

Gibson, at the time, was riding high from "The Patriot," "Braveheart" and "The Passion of the Christ."

"It's not a joke, it's serious," said Dr. Bob Hurt, the Phoenix dentist responsible for the website behind the campaign.

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger could carry California, then Mel could carry the U.S. easily," he told WND.

But that was almost two years before Gibson's much-reported arrest for drunk driving. After that, he probably couldn't have been elected dog catcher.

Bush backs off 'Islamic fascists'

Sept. 1, 2006: President Bush toned down his war rhetoric in a speech to the American Legion after Muslim pressure groups complained his earlier description of the enemy as "Islamic fascists" unfairly equated Islam with terrorism.

While the White House declined to comment officially about the dropping of the term 'Islamic fascists,' a White House insider explained the president is sensitive to concerns raised by Muslim leaders.

"The president never meant to imply we're at war with Islam, but some took it that way," the official said. "It's not a climb-down as much as a recognition of the concerns of the Muslim community."

The pressure groups, led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, lobbied the president to stop using the term. Washington-based CAIR fired off a letter to Bush arguing that continued use of the "hot-button" term would only harm the image of America "in the Islamic world."

"We urge him and we urge other public officials to restrain themselves," said CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.

Katrina hits just before homosexual event – an act of God?

August 31, 2005: While stunned Americans were still trying to fathom the destruction Katrina brought to New Orleans, one Christian organization saw a silver lining – and a divine hand.

The hurricane walloped the city just two days before the annual homosexual "Southern Decadence" festival was to begin, forcing its cancellation – an act characterized by the Philadelphia Christian organization Repent America as God's work.

"Parades and non-stop parties aside, Southern Decadence may be most famous (or infamous) for the displays of naked flesh which characterize the event," read one description of the event that drew 125,000 the previous year.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage in a statement. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that opened its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same."

Kerry daughters booed at MTV Awards

Aug. 30, 2004: It should have been the ideal John Kerry audience – attendees at MTV's Music Video Awards – but the Massachusetts senator's daughters found themselves being booed when they came on stage to serve as presenters.

"From the moment Alexandra and Vanessa started speaking, the boos outweighed anything close to cheers," according to the Drudge Report.

Another website, juiceenewsdaily.com stated: "At one point one of the daughters even held her finger to her mouth in an effort to 'shush' the rowdy crowd. The boos only grew louder when the daughters suggested that the best choice for a president in the upcoming election should be their father."

Apparantly it was a case of like-father-like daughters.

John Kerry, himself, was booed in his hometown as he threw out the first pitch in Fenway Park before the start of a Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees game the month before.

Mexican flag flies at U.S. post office

Aug. 29, 2006: Backers of illegal immigration at a rally near Los Angeles took down an American flag at a U.S. post office, stamped on it and replaced it with a Mexican flag as police looked on, according to witnesses and a video of the event.

Police officers in Maywood, Calif., eventually came to the pole to remove the flag but had bottles and rocks thrown at them, a radio listener named Sandra reported.

The listener said when she arrived at the rally, she was rushed by counter-protesters who called out, "Death to the Minutemen."

"They pushed me around and told me if I was to take one step further, they would beat the s--- out of me," she said. "I looked to the back of me and there were about four police officers leaning on their vehicle just watching, doing nothing!"

Reno planned Waco assault with Delta Force

Aug. 28, 1999: Contrary to public statements, Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI officials planned the final deadly assault on the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas, with top officers of the U.S. Army's Delta Force, according to classified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and Special Forces sources.

The FBI actually requested that Special Forces Delta Force operatives consult with them, be present on the scene and maintain equipment in preparation for a resolution of the 1993 51-day standoff that resulted in a fire that killed 74 civilians including many children, according to the documents and a knowledgeable military source.

The documented information WND obtained reveals not only did Reno actively seek involvement by Delta Force, but she was warned at one meeting she attended with the FBI, Delta Force Colonel William "Jerry" Boykin and Webster Hubbell that the use of CS tear gas would have a variety of effects, one of which would be "Some people would panic, Quote: "mothers may run off and leave infants."

Just what is that in the sky?

Aug. 27, 2001: WND published a pair of articles focusing on a mysterious phenomenon in the sky: trails which some people believe are harmful to residents on the ground.

"I'm reporting to you that I think, possibly, the government has a covert operation on the American public and, possibly, beyond," said California's Paula Glick. "This may be an international thing. This might be a NATO group effort. Australia and Canada have also complained."

Freelance journalist Lance Lindsay not only outlined the theories of what the trails might be, he also wrote an article featuring the official response of government agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency, with the assistance of NASA Glenn Research Center's Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration, released a contrail fact sheet in response to public inquiries.

"Contrails have been a normal effect of jet aviation since its earliest days," the report stated. "Persistent contrails are composed of water naturally present along the aircraft flight path."

Teacher to class: 'F--- God'

August 26, 2004: A college professor with a reputation for pushing his students to think outside the box went too far when, on the first day of his sociology class, he revealed two blackboards at the front of his class, with the F-word written on the left one and "God" written on the right one.

Bob Stotler, a 30-year-old student at Black Hawk College, filed a complaint after his sociology teacher, Bruce LeBlanc, displayed the two-word statement.

Stotler says LeBlanc had confronted him about being Christian, conservative and Republican on his first day in class in January. "He's a lot liberal, and I'm a lot conservative," Stotler said. "He was preaching his leftist ideas like they were facts."

The college's advisory committee agreed, issuing a report saying LeBlanc's conduct violated the school's harassment policy and "shows hostility or aversion toward an individual because of his/her religion."

An apology to the student was recommended, but the professor said he was "challenging the action through the collective-bargaining agreement."

How open borders turn Americans into roadkill

August 25, 2006: The slaughter on America's highways caused by illegal alien drivers – many drunk and most unlicensed and uninsured – fell under the WND spotlight a year ago today.

There are no official statistics about highway carnage and illegal aliens. But there is an increasing awareness among law enforcement officials – and victims of traffic accidents – that illegal aliens are playing a disproportionate role in the road mayhem, particularly in those states where their large populations are large.

According to surveys conducted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Hispanics believe it takes 6-8 drinks to affect driving, while Americans, indoctrinated for years against drunk driving, believe it takes just 2-4 drinks.

In 2001, MADD reported 44.1 percent of California's drunk driving arrests were of Hispanics, while, officially, they made up just 31.3 percent of the population.

Read WND's roster of DUI illegals who are turning America's highways into killing fields.

Child molester leads 'gays' in Scout protest

August 24, 2000: A coalition of groups protesting Boy Scouts of America's policy of not accepting homosexual leaders and members chose an unlikely candidate to lead their demonstration – a convicted child molester who had served time for molesting a 10-year-old boy.

John Hemstreet – former Boy Scout leader, former priest and convicted child molester – told WND he is an example of the type of person who should be permitted to be a Boy Scout leader. Indeed, he said he was a great scoutmaster.

"The thing that I did seven years ago is a horrendous thing. I'm not denying that. Nor am I denying that I did it. I was arrested. I was arraigned. I did go to court. I was sentenced. I served my time and I am off probation," explained Hemstreet.

Indeed, Hemstreet told WND he saw his efforts to open leadership positions in scouting as his way of paying back the community and making restitution for his past crimes.

Cindy Sheehan: Terrorists 'freedom fighters'

Aug. 23, 2005: At the height of Cindy Sheehan's national notoriety for camping in a Texas ditch demanding to meet with President Bush, WND broke the stunning story of how Sheehan referred to the terrorists killing Americans in Iraq as "freedom fighters."

WND made the discovery by scouring through videos of Sheehan, who explained:

"You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded. I mean they're not even a threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not involved in 9-11, Iraq was not a terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [American troops] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country."

Sheehan actually was answering a question from a CBS News reporter, but no news agency reported the "freedom fighters" remark until it was unearthed by WND. It subsequently topped news headlines around the globe.

'Marketing of Evil' has massive launch

Aug. 22, 2005: WND Managing Editor David Kupelian's book, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom," published by WND Books, launched with Kupelian as guest on the Sean Hannity Radio Show and Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes."

According to the book, Americans have come to tolerate, embrace and even champion many things that would have horrified their parents' generation – from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion-on-demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade-schoolers.

"The Marketing of Evil" reveals how much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to them as though it had great value.

Two years after its debut, the book is in its ninth printing and remains among the Top 10 best-sellers every week at Shop.WND.com.

Farah thrashes Gary Condit

Aug. 21, 2001: At the height of the turmoil over missing congressional intern Chandra Levy, WND editor Joseph Farah published a scathing open letter to Rep. Gary Condit, the California Democrat for whom Levy worked.

Not holding back, Farah urged Condit to leave Congress.

"What keeps you in office?" asked Farah. "Is it the perks? Is it the pension? Is it the desire to avoid personal disgrace?

"You've blown it, and it's time to realize it. You chose a path of personal recklessness and it's time to pay the piper. If you have any vestige of character and conscience left, do the right thing now. Stop thinking of only yourself. Think of your supporters. Think of your district. Think of Chandra Levy and her family. Think of all the others you have hurt. Think, if you can, about your country and the precedent you are setting by your selfish grasp on power."

Swiftboat vets hammer Kerry

Aug. 20, 2004: One day after strong condemnation from John Kerry, the veterans group challenging the senator's war record launched another television ad, this time charging him with betrayal for accusing them of war crimes.

The ad was the second issued in August by Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, a group of 254 vets who served with Kerry and signed a letter contending he is unfit to be commander in chief.

The ad begins with audio and photographs from Kerry's dramatic testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971 in which he charged Americans serving in Vietnam "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."

Joe Ponder, who was wounded in November 1968, says, "The accusations that John Kerry made against the veterans who served in Vietnam were just devastating, and it hurt me more than any physical wounds I had."

1 in 6 base morality on Bible

Aug. 19, 2005: Just one in six American adults say they make moral decisions based on the Bible, according to a study by the evangelical Christian Barna Group.

When asked whether they believe moral truth is based on absolute standards or is relative to the circumstances, Americans are divided into roughly equal segments, the California-based group said.

About 35 percent contend that moral truth is absolute, or not dependent upon the circumstances. Thirty-two percent say that morality always is determined by the situation. The remaining one-third, 33 percent, indicate they don't know if moral truth is absolute or relative.

About 70 percent of evangelical Christians report believing that moral truth is absolute. Only 42 percent of non-evangelicals hold that view.

The research group's founder, George Barna, said "most born again Christians hold a confusing and inherently contradictory set of religious beliefs that go unchecked by the leaders and teachers of their faith community."

Controversial Muslim group gets VIP airport security tour

Aug. 18, 2006: The Department of Homeland Security took a Muslim group with known past ties to terror organizations on a VIP tour of security operations at the nation's busiest airport at the same time British authorities were working to break up a plot to blow up U.S. airlines.

During the airport tour, members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations were taken on a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger lookout system.

In a meeting, CBP's executive director of field operations assured CAIR officials agents do not single out Muslim passengers for special screening and that they must undergo a mandatory course in Muslim sensitivity training. The course teaches agents Muslims believe jihad is an "internal struggle against sin" and not holy warfare.

A CBP supervisor described the course, along with its companion training manual and video, as "politically correct drivel."

Keyes: Cancel tax bills for descendants of slaves

Aug. 17, 2004: Republican Alan Keyes came out in favor of giving descendants of black slaves an exemption from federal income tax in his run against Barack Obama for Illinois' Senate seat.

"When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time – a generation or two – they exempted the damaged city from taxation," he told reporters yesterday in Chicago.

Long an opponent of "reparations," Keyes said his proposal was different.

It "has the advantage of letting people help themselves, rather then pouring money into government bureaucracies that displace and discourage their own efforts," he said. "It takes no money from other citizens, while righting the historic imbalance that results from the truth that black slaves toiled for generations at a tax rate that was effectively 100 percent."

Bush kisses Cindy Sheehan

Aug. 16, 2005: While so-called "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan continued to seek a second meeting with President Bush in connection with the death in Iraq of her son, Casey, there was minimal coverage by the mainstream media of the first meeting between the pair, and no pictures.

But an online search by WND revealed a host of family photographs of the Sheehan family, including one showing President Bush kissing Mrs. Sheehan.

The photos were originally posted on a Sheehan family website featuring a large number of photos, but the images including President Bush posing with the family have since been removed from the original page.

Sheehan was less abrasive about the president after her first encounter with him, telling her local newspaper, "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

Elvis has left the cemetery?

Aug. 15, 2002: An FBI informant involved in a plot to steal Elvis Presley's body shortly after the rock idol died 25 years ago claimed the Presley family staged the grave-robbing to persuade Memphis officials to move him from the public cemetery to Graceland, now a $15 million-a-year tourist attraction, a veteran FBI agent told WND.

The late Vernon Presley, "the King's" father and executor of his estate at the time, wanted his son buried on the mansion grounds, but it was in an area not zoned for burials.

So three weeks after Elvis died of a heart attack, he had lawyers for the Presley estate petition the Memphis Shelby County Board of Adjustment for a zoning variance. They cited what they called an attempted theft of Presley's body several days earlier and the expense of round-the-clock security.

Three men were arrested Aug. 29, 1977, near the Forest Hill Cemetery mausoleum where Elvis was entombed in a 900-pound copper coffin.

'UFO cult' infiltrated

Aug. 14, 2005: A young filmmaker said he infiltrated the UFO cult known as the Raelians, and was looking to blow the lid off the secretive group with footage he shot while undercover.

The documentary was produced by Abdullah Hashem from Mooresville, Ind.

Hashem, along with colleague Joe McGowen, attended a recruiting session for the Raelians, an international group which believes the first human beings were cloned by aliens who visited the Earth in flying saucers 25,000 years ago. They contend these aliens, or Elohim – a Hebrew word referring to God – will return to Jerusalem when there is world peace and an embassy has been built for them.

"I'm not a religious nut, but according to my beliefs, when people wear shirts that say there is no God, I have to do something," Hashem said.

AP's strange ethics

Aug. 13, 2003: WND editor Joseph Farah thrashed the largest news-gathering operation in the world, the Associated Press, for unethically publishing WND's news as its own.

Farah, who has since authored an amazing exposé of the news media titled "Stop the Presses," wrote: "For the second time in a year, the AP has flagrantly misappropriated exclusive, copyright material published by WorldNetDaily. No attribution. No credit. No nothing. ...

"But there's even more to this story.

"While AP is lifting WorldNetDaily copyright content seemingly at will without attribution or credit, the very same news organization has the nerve to threaten WorldNetDaily for using AP information in stories with full credit! Last May, AP's legal department threatened a lawsuit against WND for copyright infringement for using fully attributed information in our stories. This is what we call in the business 'fair use.'"

Keyes' sweaty napkin gets own website

Aug. 12, 2004: An Alan Keyes fan exercised the kind of initiative and entrepreneurship that would have made his idol proud – he started his own website to sell a napkin used to wipe the sweaty brow of the then-Illinois U.S. Senate candidate after having been booted off the eBay auction site twice.

Jerry McGlothlin, aka "The Napkin Man," had daubed sweat from Keyes' brow immediately following the candidate's announcement he would replace Republican Jack Ryan to face Democrat Barack Obama in a long-shot bid for the Senate.

McGlothlin's napkin page on eBay had received 15,000 visitors and 100 bids before it was unceremoniously taken down because "bodily fluids" were not allowed to be auctioned. The bidding had reached about $700 before eBay stepped in. McGlothlin planned to give the proceeds to the Keyes campaign.

Then eBay welcomed him back, saying sweat wasn't a forbidden bodily fluid, but kicked him off again because Keyes' campaign wasn't an approved "charity."

That's when the SweatyNapkin.com site was born!

Justice Breyer: 'Not all our decisions are right'

Aug. 11, 2005: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer confirmed what many believe when he confessed to the annual conference of the American Bar Association not all rulings from America's highest court are correct, admitting judges don't have "some great special insight."

"We do our best, but not surprisingly a lot of those decisions create a lot of strong feeling in the country," he said.

During the conference, Breyer also defended the increasing practice of the U.S. Supreme Court examining laws and rulings in foreign nations to help come to conclusions here, admitting, "It has hit a political nerve."

"We're not bound by any foreign law," Breyer said, "but this is a world in which more and more countries have come to have democratic systems of government with documents like our Constitution that protect things like free expression. ... Maybe we can learn something. I mean they're human beings, too."

'SNIPERS WANTED'

Aug. 10, 2000: The Secret Service launched an investigation after Craig Kilborn, host of the CBS network's "The Late, Late Show" aired a photograph of GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush accepting his party's nomination at the Republican National Convention – with the words "SNIPERS WANTED" emblazoned across the bottom of the television screen.

The clip may have been aired as a news parody, "but we don't find such parodies very amusing," said Special Agent Jim Mackin, a spokesman for the Secret Service. The agency had been assigned to protect Bush and his running mate, Richard B. Cheney, throughout the campaign.

"Kilborn has made a statement that, for all intents and purposes, should mean his arrest," said one upset poster on the Free Republic chat and news website. "He may have meant it in jest, but it's not funny. He should make a public apology, he should apologize directly to [Bush] in person, and he should resign."

"If it was a Republican saying this, there would be protests in the streets," said another.

Web-porn scandal turns White House blue

Aug. 9, 2000: WorldNetDaily's Paul Sperry was first to uncover and report on the Internet pornography scandal in the Clinton White House, involving the downloading by White House staffers of massive amounts of hard-core porn video files.

One of the worst offenders was a senior White House computer-systems manager, who was reprimanded but allowed to stay in the White House after being treated for an "addiction" to porn. Sources said the porn abuser was so sensitive to the possibility of public exposure that he would likely have taken his own life if his name were disclosed by WND.

The story was subsequently picked by virtually all other major news media, including the Washington Post, Associated Press, MSNBC, USA Today and many others – all crediting WorldNetDaily with breaking the story on the latest White House scandal.

Woman prosecuted over 'stolen kisses'

Aug. 8, 2000: WND broke the story of a Florida woman facing prosecution for eating three pieces of chocolate without paying for them.

Nancy Vilanova, 74, was seized by security guards at a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Miami as she attempted to leave the store after paying for her groceries. Store officials said Vilanova allegedly "stole" three Hershey's Kisses from an open bag in an aisle.

Critics called the prosecution a "horrible waste of taxpayers' money" and wondered why she was offered no chance to make restitution or why the prosecuting attorney's office even bothered to pursue "such a petty charge."

"Let's face it, this case exudes a 'gimme a break' response," said Jose Vilanova, the woman's son.

Jose said his mother was "accosted" by security guards, forced into a back room and berated "to the point of tears" to sign a "confession." He said the guards tried to "physically force her" signature, but she refused to sign and the security team called police.

"At no time did they simply ask her to pay for the chocolates."

Dakota Fanning 'raped' in film

Aug. 7, 2006: Prosecutors in Wilmington, N.C., said they were "aware" of a scene for the movie "Hounddog" in which the character played by 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning was violently raped, and said if an investigation were launched, authorities could consider sexual exploitation charges.

"I am aware of that situation," district attorney Connie Jordan told WND. "The charge that would potentially apply to the scenario would be sexual exploitation of a minor."

She said statutory rape laws would require the actual assault, and her understanding was that any assault was simulated. Third-degree or second-degree sexual exploitation would involve having or trading child pornography.

In "Hounddog," the 12-year-old Fanning played 9-year-old Lewellen, who is told she must sing for concert tickets to hear Elvis Presley. The script graphically described her clothes dropping to the floor before she sings, and an assailant unzipping his jeans.

WND unveils new magazine

Aug. 6, 2001: WND's popular monthly magazine, previously named "WorldNet," received a new name – "Whistleblower" – and a new look.

The name change was necessary, explained editor and CEO Joseph Farah, because "with the rapid growth of both the website and the magazine, some confusion over names –WorldNetDaily.com and WorldNet – is occurring."

"A whistleblower – whether within a government agency, corporation or institution – has to summon the courage to stand up and tell the truth that his or her peers are just too afraid or too compromised to tell," said managing editor David Kupelian. "Whistleblowers often speak up and expose crucial and amazing information at great risk – to their popularity, their jobs and even their physical well-being. A true whistleblower is a modern-day hero, someone who makes truth more important than anything else."

The first issue was a groundbreaking look at "Guns in America."

'Yes, I am a terrorist'

Aug. 5, 2002: The Arabic-language "national weekly Arab-American newspaper" Al-Watan, published in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, featured two poems – "Yes I am a Terrorist," which extolled the virtues of mass murderers, and "The Ape," which portrayed President George W. Bush as a gorilla.

Al-Watan's stated mission is to provide Arab and Muslim Americans "with the most current, valuable, reliable, and informative news on political, economic, social, cultural, and educational issues, which concern the Arab-American community in their relations with the U.S. society at large ... through maintaining a positive relationship with the community ... coordinating efforts with Arab and Muslim American organizations to promote the achievements of the community as well as empower them through active involvement through political, media, social, and educational sectors."

Read both poems and see if you think Al-Watan lived up to its mission statement.

Homosexual-activist cop threatens Christians

Aug. 4, 2006: Pro-marriage activists collecting signatures on a petition at a Promise Keepers rally found themselves the target of a bullying police sergeant determined to stop their First Amendment activities.

"I have never in my life seen such unprofessional and bizarre behavior from a law enforcement officer," said John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council.

His group had rented a display table at a June Promise Keepers conference in the Fort Lauderdale area to publicize its effort to collect more than 611,000 signatures on petitions to call for a vote of Florida people. The goal was to protect traditional marriage – between one man and one woman – in the state constitution.

Sgt. Stephen Allen and other officers ordered them to stop accepting names and physically removed the petitions. Allen and another officer mocked the volunteers by kissing each other.

Even after Promise Keeper officials told the officers the petition gathering was authorized, Allen argued theology with the group, telling them he was the authority and "the Bible says that Christians should obey the authorities."

'Black' hurricane names brewing swirl of dissent

Aug. 3, 2003: Do devastating hurricanes need help from affirmative action?

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, apparently thought so and demanded the storms be given names that sound "black" and not so "lily white."

"All racial groups should be represented," Lee said, according to congressional newspaper the Hill. She hoped federal weather officials "would try to be inclusive of African-American names."

A sampling of popular names that could be used include Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn, according to the paper.

"There's discrimination and actually elected officials wandering around worried about the discrimination in the name of hurricanes," said talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh. "And hurricanes are destructive. You know nobody's very excited when a hurricane's heading their way, and yet here she is demanding that hurricanes be named after black people."

Which raises the question ... What if Hurricane Keisha, and not Hurricane Katrina, had leveled New Orleans?

U.S. psychologist group follows 'gay activists'' lead

Aug. 2, 2004: The American Psychological Association, which claims it is "the largest association of psychologists worldwide" with more than 150,000 members, followed the lead of its appointed seven-member "Working Group on Same-Sex Families and Relationships" and announced it was endorsing homosexual "marriage."

That "working group" was made up of "gay activists," one of which was Dr. Candace A. McCullough, a lesbian who successfully attempted in 2002 to produce, for the second time, a deaf child by artificial insemination, using sperm from a deaf donor. Both she and her lesbian partner, Sharon Duchesneau, are deaf.

"It would be nice to have a deaf child who is the same as us," Duchesneau, who carried the baby to term, told the Washington Post two months before the baby boy, named Gauvin, was born. "I think that would be a wonderful experience. You know, if we can have that chance, why not take it?"

Bill Maier, vice president of Focus on the Family and himself a clinical psychologist, told the Baptist Press: "Every responsible psychologist in the APA should be ashamed; the organization is obviously more concerned with appeasing its powerful gay lobby than it is with retaining any semblance of moral and ethical duty."

The Road Warrior: 'You a Jew?'

Aug. 1, 2006: Actor-director Mel Gibson issued an apology to Jews for anti-Semitic remarks made to an officer who arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving.

"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark," Gibson said in a statement. "I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge."

Gibson, driving a Lexus, had been arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Malibu, Calif.

The 50-year-old Oscar winner reportedly shouted: "All the wars in the world are caused by Jews," and then asked the officer, "You a Jew?"

In his statement, Gibson said he recognized the magnitude of his actions.

"I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena. As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words."

All the lies fit to print

July 31, 2003: A report examining problems at the New York Times blasted the newspaper for a lack of communication, but downplayed the push for racial diversity as a leading factor in its Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal.

The 94-page report said it's "simplistic" to believe promotion of minority reporters like Blair was the essential cause of the calamity.

"The fraud Jayson Blair committed on us and our readers was not a consequence of our diversity program, which has been designed to apply the same rigorous standards of performance we demand of all our staff," Bill Keller wrote on his first official day as executive editor.

"The problem is, in the Blair case, we failed to measure up to those standards at numerous steps along the way."

Judge kills family-friendly flicks

July 30, 2006: Numerous legal battles took a devastating toll on CleanFilms, Family Flix and other companies that edit scenes containing sex, nudity, profanity and excessive violence from mainstream movies to provide a viewing alternative for families concerned over explicit video content.

In a letter to customers, CleanFilms Chief Executive Officer Ken Roberts regretfully announced that a Colorado ruling has forced the company to close the business. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado sided with major film studios July 6, contending that the "mechanical editing parties" violated copyright law.

"After three long years of legal struggles, a judge in Colorado has ruled that we cannot sell or rent edited DVDs anymore," Roberts said.

"While we thought very strongly about appealing the decision, the potential costs and risks to the company, its customers and shareholders was just too great. Accordingly, we have agreed to close our doors after a brief winding-up period."

Man waits 6 hours with knife in brain

July 29, 2003: A fully conscious New Zealand man waited six hours – in pain – while surgeons debated the best course of action to remove a knife that had been imbedded deep into his brain.

Stabbed in an altercation at 4:00 a.m., the unnamed victim waited until 10:00 a.m. before being admitted to surgery. Though it had to be done quickly, such a delicate surgery needed some planning prior to the operation to remove the knife.

"It's not the kind of operation we wanted to do at the end of the night," said Martin Hunn, a Wellington Hospital neurosurgeon.

Whatever foolishness the man might have been involved in leading up to his injury, Hunn said he was smart not have tried to remove the knife himself.

Nuke-lab workers using bomb parts as 'candy dishes'

July 28, 2000: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, indeed!

In an Energy Department audit that would make Dr. Strangelove blush, security at Colorado's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site was found to be so lax that workers were using components of nuclear weapons as "candy dishes and paperweights."

At least one worker at the government facility responsible for storing about 200,000 completed weapons parts had even taken a weapons part home.

"Prior to the audit, management did not know that the parts were missing or that the employees had taken some parts as souvenirs," Energy Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman said. "Rocky Flats could not account for its weapons parts."

From 1952 to 1989, the Rocky Flats site made parts for the nation's nuclear bomb arsenal.

Does Kerry as spaceman equal Dukakis in tank?

July 27, 2004: On second thought, perhaps presidential candidate John Kerry should have stuck with kissing babies.

Instead, the Democrat from Massachusetts donned one of NASA's head-to-toe protective suits to tour the Discovery space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and, in the process, found himself being compared to the unflattering image that helped tank another Massachusetts Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, Michael Dukakis.

Late-night comedians had fun with the picture and Republicans e-mailed it to thousands of supporters under the caption "Earth to Kerry." The headline on the front page of the Boston Herald read, "Bubble Boy."

"My hunch is that the brilliant Republicans who put George Bush in a flight suit to strut around an aircraft carrier won't get very far giving advice to NASA and John Glenn about the kinds of coveralls to wear on the Discovery," a Kerry spokesman said.

Sharon targeted with 'death curse'

July 26, 2005: Fringe activists held a midnight kabbalistic ritual in an ancient cemetery calling for angels of death to kill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and thwart his Gaza withdrawal plan, participants in the ceremony told WND.

The same individuals used the ritual against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin one month before his assassination in 1995.

The activists said they performed a "Pulsa Dinura" – a kabbalistic ceremony in which God is asked to curse a sinner, usually an enemy of the Jewish people – and prayed for a death curse to be placed on Sharon.

Rabbi Yosef Dayan, one of the leaders of the ceremony, told WND, "I said 10 months ago that I am willing do the Pulsa Dinura if rabbis are going to instruct me to do that. We decided now it is time. Sharon is endangering the entire Jewish population. He is giving land to the enemies who will use it to attack us. He has let them fire on us with bullets and rockets without retaliation because it serves his purposes. He is going to expel my mother-in-law from Gush Katif [Gaza's Jewish communities]."

Less than six months later, Sharon suffered a massive stroke that has left him in a persistent vegetative state to this day.

Why we missed Sept. 11

July 25, 2002: The Clinton administration "de-emphasized" fighting Arab international terrorism to focus on domestic terrorism – namely, white "right-wing" militia groups – which led to the FBI ignoring Arab nationals flocking to U.S. flight schools, veteran FBI agents told WND.

They said the shift was so dramatic at the FBI that dozens of boxes of evidence that agents gathered in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case were never analyzed – until it was too late. The evidence held valuable clues to al-Qaida's network and operations, they said.

Some 40 boxes of material left over from the WTC investigation, which lasted through the late '90s, "were never gone through," said one Washington-based agent familiar with the probe. Another seven to eight boxes of evidence from the Manila, Philippines, side of the investigation also were never looked at, he added.

Sandy 'Burglar' took Mideast peace papers, too?

July 24, 2004: Ex-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who admitted to taking classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, also was found in possession of a small number of classified papers containing his handwritten notes from Middle East peace talks during the Clinton administration, according to a source.

Although the Mideast notes were not the main focus of the criminal probe, the source said their removal could shed further light on Berger's intentions. The Mideast notes were allegedly taken from the National Archives along with classified documents that officials say may paint the Clinton administration's handling of the al-Qaida threat in a negative way.

Berger told reporters he was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing.

"Last year, when I was in the archives reviewing documents, I made an honest mistake. It's one that I deeply regret,'' Berger said. ''I dealt with this issue in October 2003 fully and completely. Everything that I have done all along in this process has been for the purpose of aiding and supporting the work of the 9/11 commission, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply, absolutely wrong."

NBC gets 'gay' for Miss Universe

July 23, 2006: With some of the world's most beautiful women on display at the Miss Universe Pageant in Los Angeles, viewers of the NBC broadcast were exposed to a celebration of homosexuality with continuous "gay" jokes and innuendo.

Providing commentary for the program were Carson Kressley, a homosexual who stars on the Bravo network's "Queer Eye," and 2004 Miss USA Shandi Finnessey.

At one point in the program, when Finnessey was promoting a beauty guide viewers could order, Kressley said, "It'll tell you how to be a true queen. A beauty queen."

Regarding some of the contestants' ability to speak more than one language, Kressley also clowned he was ready to become "bi-," but then jokingly clarified he meant "bi-lingual."

"I'm ready to switch teams for [Miss] Puerto Rico," Kressley swooned.

Family movies best, Hollywood realizes

July 22, 2006: Statistics compiled by the Christian Film & Television Commission confirmed what Ted Baehr, publisher of the Movieguide website and MOVIEGUIDE magazine, had been telling moviemakers for years: "Movies with a strong Christian content year after year do better at the box office."

Over the years those movies have turned in average income of about $160 million, he said. Movies with less significant levels of moral leadership have averaged $60 million, and those at the opposite end of the scale from Christian values have averaged $12 million.

"We've hammered away at that for the last 14 years with our economic analysis of the box office," he said.

And proving once again that money talks, the trend in Hollywood is toward family-oriented films – up from 6 percent in 1985 to 45 percent in 2002. And in 1985, 81 percent of the movies were rated R, but fewer than 45 percent of the movies released since 2001 have been R.

'Electric chair' popular in Italy

July 21, 2000: The Vatican warned Italians the popularity of a new virtual reality game, appearing in the nation's amusement halls and called "The Electric Chair Game," could result in "highly dangerous confusion between fiction and reality."

"[The player] sits on a wooden chair, identical to the one used in capital punishment in [some parts of] the United States and, after inserting a few coins, undergoes the chilling experience of the electric chair," the paper L'Osservatore Romano said.

Vatican officials blamed the "superficial culture" of the Western world for tolerating such a game. Officials also said they were especially concerned because the game seemed to target youth.

"Whole families wait in line. Hundreds of children, adolescents and adults fill the hall to see 'who can last the longest,' to see who makes it to the end. The winner is the one who 'lets himself be killed,' those who give up before the end are 'chicken,'" the paper said.

"Do we want our youth to understand this, or will we calmly continue to line up with our children to 'play the electric chair' game?" said a Vatican statement.

Documents tie Clinton to audit of journalists

July 20, 1999: In 1996, it was just a hunch – informed by years of news experience – when Joseph Farah alleged in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that his non-profit news organization, the Western Journalism Center, the parent company of WorldNetDaily.com, had been targeted for an Internal Revenue Service audit because of its investigative reporting into Clinton administration scandal and cover-up.

But the hunch paid off when a heavily redacted 1997 Treasury Department report titled, "Questionable Exempt Organization Examination Activity," was released July 6, 1999, to Farah's news organization following three years of FOIA filings and appeals for such information. Contradicting IRS officials and their Justice Department lawyers in two pending suits against the agency by the center and its legal counsel, the Treasury report stated unequivocally and repeatedly that the audit began with a letter forwarded from the White House to the IRS.

"The documents we now have in our possession, at long last, prove the White House did just that in our case and that his administration has engaged in a massive cover-up of the facts behind this abuse of power," said Farah.

"That letter was forwarded just the way it was to convey a message to officials and underlings at the IRS," he said. "The message was the White House has a special interest in this case. See what you can do to help him out. You don't have to be a genius to figure that out."

Cheeks-in-2-seats violation sparks subway bust

July 19, 2003: If Stephen Lamarch's early-morning subway commute to his 4 a.m. landscaping job at Rockerfeller Center makes you tired just thinking about it, you'll sympathize with the 21-year-old man's decision to stretch his 5-foot-6 frame over two seats – after all, at 2:30 a.m. there was only one other person in the train car.

Well, two plain-clothes cops had no sympathy for the drowsey commuter who they saw as a scofflaw caught in the act of violating the ban on taking up more than one seat per posterior.

"NYPD. You're coming with us," Lamarch reported the officers saying before he was ordered off the Manhattan-bound subway, detained for about 15 minutes and grilled about his identity and destination before being issued a summons for taking up more than one subway-car seat.

A police spokesman backed the two cops, saying they did the right thing.

"The New York City Police Department credits the enforcement of petty offenses with a 14.5 percent decline in major crimes in the transit system in 2003," the spokesman said.

McCain: 'I work with boobs every day'

July 18, 2005: Arizona Sen. John McCain defended his cameo appearance in "Wedding Crashers," the sexy comedy the Drudge Report called a "boob raunch fest."

"In Washington, I work with boobs every day," joked McCain during an appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Drudge had reported that McCain, "who once held hearings chastising Hollywood studios for producing R-rated films and marketing them to teens – is now playing a part in one!"

Leno asked McCain about the controversy, saying "suddenly you're in a porno movie."

"In Washington, D.C., there's a lot of qualities," responded McCain. "A sense of humor is not one of them."

Global run for the border

July 17, 2005: Did Taco Bell have some kind of beef with the United Nations?

Or did a vandal play a prank to promote an anti-U.N. message?

A franchise of the Mexican-style fast-food chain had some people wondering, as the marquee sign in front of a Taco Bell on U.S. Highway 1 in Jensen Beach, Fla., proclaimed a slight twist to its "Think outside the bun" slogan.

The message read, "Think outside the UN."

WND's foreign relations

July 16, 2002: A story from the official news agency of the Beijing government charged the Western news media have been painting "a sinister picture of China," emphasizing its threat to peace.

Chief among the screed's complaints was a story appearing three days earlier in WND.

"Yes," wrote editor Joseph Farah, "WorldNetDaily, an upstart, independent online news source dwarfed in budget and resources by all the other press institutions cited by the report, is making an impact – an impact even felt across the globe.

"The totalitarian government of China, ruling over 1.2 billion subjects, considers WorldNetDaily its most severe – and effective – critic in the Western media. For that I am proud."

Allstate on list of top 10 pro-'gay' firms

July 15, 2005: Allstate, the insurance company that fired one of its managers after he wrote a column critical of homosexuality, is one of the top 10 U.S. firms supporting the "gay" lifestyle.

The list, compiled by Diversity Inc., includes, in ranked order: Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor Company, Citigroup, D&T USA, PepsiCo, Merck & Company, Kaiser Permanente, Visteon Corporation, Allstate Insurance and The Coca-Cola Company.

As WorldNetDaily reported, a former manager at Allstate's headquarters sued the company, claiming the insurance giant, which financially supports homosexual advocacy groups, fired him solely because he wrote a column posted on several websites that was critical of same-sex marriage and espoused his Christian beliefs.

Scripture yanked from Grand Canyon

July 14, 2003: National Park Service officials, under pressure from the ACLU, decided three 40-year-old plaques containing quotes from the Bible were a threat to the Grand Canyon – millions of years old, according to some – and ordered them removed from their South Rim locations.

"The Department of Interior determined that the plaques were not appropriate for federal public facilities. The First Amendment prohibits the government from supporting a particular religion," Maureen Oltrogge, spokeswoman for the Grand Canyon National Park, said. "It's a difficult issue, but it is supported by numerous court decisions."

No word on whether the ACLU planned to demand name changes for such famed Grand Canyon features as Brahma Temple, Isis Temple, Zoroaster Temple, Vishnu Temple, Holy Grail Temple or Mormon Flat.

U.S. taxpayers to fund Mexican development?

July 13, 2006: For the second time in two years, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, quietly introduced a bill to create a "North American Investment Fund" that would tap U.S. and Canadian taxpayers for the development of public works projects in Mexico.

"Currently, a significant development gap exists between Mexico and the United States and Canada," said Cornyn, one of the president's loyal supporters in the Senate. "I believe it is in our best interests to find creative ways to bridge this development gap."

"The purpose of this fund is to reinforce efforts already underway in Mexico to ensure their (sic) own economic development," Cornyn said. "The funding would make grants available for projects to construct roads in Mexico, to facilitate trade, to develop and expand their education programs, to build infrastructure for the deployment of communications services and to improve job training and workforce development for high-growth industries."

NARAL hosts 'Screw Abstinence Party'

July 12, 2005: Some left-leaning citizens of the Washington were left "cringing" when the state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America announced a "Screw Abstinence Party" to raise funds while taking a hard-edged swipe at cultural conservatives.

"Does this strike anyone else as a cringe-worthy and counterproductive theme for a pro-choice fundraiser," asked one reader of Seattle's "The Stranger," who expressed his concern the event undermined "NARAL's credibility as an organization that is seriously concerned with unwanted pregnancies by playing into the right's stereotypes about the left as a promiscuous bunch of libertines."

"It seems politically idiotic for the preeminent pro-choice group in the country to be sponsoring this pandering, pseudo-hipster 'sex positive' event."

A promo for the event said: "Tired of Bush & Co. spending your tax dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage initiatives that promote dangerous misinformation? Throw your hands up and say it loud: 'Screw Abstinence!'"

WND exposes N.Y. Times, Ron Brown's Body

July 11, 2003: The New York Times' Jayson Blair scandal wasn't the first journalistic fraud perpetrated by the paper, but rather the culmination of years of often subtle, insidious distortion of reality for political purposes, charged a new book published by WND Books.

In "Journalistic Fraud," author Bob Kohn shows how the original founding vision of the Times was hijacked by those with a political agenda who used the prestigious paper to spread a dangerous form of propaganda.

"Once you've read this book, you'll never read the Times – or any newspaper – the same way again," said Joseph Farah, co-founder of WND Books. "This book could spell the beginning of the end of the Times' reign as America's newspaper of record."

On July 11, 2004, another WND Book, "Ron Brown's Body: How One Man's Death Saved the Clinton Presidency and Hillary's Future," the book about the mysterious death of the former Commerce secretary. was the No. 4 non-fiction best-seller at Amazon.com

Jack Cashill makes a powerful case that in the run-up to the 1996 election, the media reflexively overlooked the mysterious circumstances of Brown's death and TWA Flight 800's demise – the subject of his previous book, with James Sanders, "First Strike" – lest their investigations jeopardize Bill Clinton's re-election.

Army lab managers accused of plagiarism

July 10, 2000: Amid charges of corruption, waste and fraud leveled by at least a dozen whistleblowers within the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md., came the allegation that plagiarism had become something of an accepted norm there, despite years of complaints by concerned scientists.

In a previous story, WND's David Bresnahan reported on allegations that unauthorized use of supercomputers may have been given to foreign nationals by Army lab personnel. Officials at the Army lab denied the existence of any investigations, despite considerable documentary evidence to the contrary.

Shepard Smith escapes jail time

July 9, 2001: Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith, the anchor of cable TV's highest-rated evening newscast, went unpunished for what police say was aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.

In November 2000, during the Florida presidential election fiasco, Smith had been arrested for allegedly driving his car into another reporter who was standing in a parking space she attempted to save for a friend. The victim, freelance journalist Maureen Walsh of Tallahassee, was hospitalized and released later the same day with bruises on her knees and legs.

According to police, Walsh was standing across the street from the state capitol when Smith drove up and "shouted some profanities at her and basically just struck her, striking her at the knees, which threw her up on the car."

After a few case-management hearings between attorneys and the court, the charges against Smith were dropped.

FBI cancels leaves for Y2K

July 8, 1999: While some scoffed and others fretted over the possible chaos that might occur when the calendar rolled over to a new millennium, FBI agents across the country got hit with the bad news they wouldn't be able to take time off over the coming Christmas holiday.

WND reported on an internal FBI memo stating all end-of-the-year leaves had been canceled for three to four weeks between the middle of December and the middle of January.

Commenting on the infrequency of such a move by the FBI, WND's source said, "To my knowledge, even during the Iranian crisis in 1980 and the war with Iraq, I don't think the entire FBI had been on alert and all annual leave canceled."

"It's a mess," he concluded, concerning the FBI's Y2K preparation. "They're very much behind. If it was a 72 hour 'snowstorm,' you wouldn't bring out 12,000 FBI agents on stand-by and, for the first time maybe in FBI history, cancel everybody's annual leave for a 20-30 day time frame. That's very significant. In my line of work, that's called a clue." Sign up now for free e-mail alerts on all the WND 10th Anniversary highlights.

'Slumlord': Gore's tenant calls it quits

July 7, 2000: A Tennessee woman and her family pulled up stakes and, with help from the Tennessee Republican Party, moved her belongings out of a home she rented from then-Vice President Al Gore, saying inaction on promised repairs gave her no other choice.

Tracy Mayberry had been pleading for months with her "slumlord" – as she referred to Gore – but the sinks remained clogged and the toilets still overflowed.

Initially, Gore's property management company, Gore Realty, tried to evict the Mayberrys rather than fix the problems. But Mayberry turned to a local news station to air her complaint. Subsequent national attention resulted in a call from Gore and promises to make repairs and find a place for the family to stay while renovations were made on the house. But nothing ever happened, said Mayberry.

"How can he take care of the nation when he can't take care of one house," she said.

Red-staters challenge Michael Moore film fest

July 6, 2005: Michigan may be a red state but when Michael Moore announced he would be holding a film festival in Traverse City, Genie Aldrich, who lives in nearby Suttons Bay, contacted American Film Renaissance, which sponsored what it called the "first ever conservative film festival" in 2004, to help stage a competing event.

"Traverse County went 60 percent for Bush," Renaissance's Jim Hubbard told WND. "That whole area is pretty much Republican."

Some of the local townspeople were "just a little bit nervous" about the Moore event, he said. "They don't really share Michael Moore's worldview."

Aldrich said when Moore announced his festival, she knew the filmmaker, whom she refers to as "Mr. Deception," had a political agenda.

"The movies he is showing represent the minority, extreme, radical left view," Aldrich told WND. "Even the moderate Democrats are running for the tall grass." Local business people supporting the counter-film festival "want to show the world that this is Heartland region, and we are pro-family, pro-faith and pro-freedom."

NASCAR track lifts ban on American flags

July 5, 2004: A NASCAR racetrack under fire for banning all flags from its infield just before Independence Day pulled a U-turn and lifted the rule.

The reversal by Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va., followed national exposure of the issue in a WND story two days earlier.

Track ownership had claimed the ban was instituted to ensure a clear view of racing action for fans, and had nothing to do with the American flag itself. But some drivers and track employees felt it was an assault on Old Glory, and eight employees quit their jobs over the controversy.

"I apologize to all of you and take full responsibility for the entire stage of events that took place," said speedway general manager Brink Nelms. "I am saddened from the fact that I have been called unpatriotic. This could not be further from the truth."

Proud to be an American?

July 4, 2003: A Gallup Poll in the days leading up to Independence Day revealed a wide "patriotism gap" between the political right and left in America.

Eighty percent of conservatives said they were extremely proud of the country, while only 56 percent of liberals responded that way.

Some 68 percent of moderates said they were extremely proud of America.

Whites and non-whites showed a similar difference, with 73 percent of white Americans saying they were extremely proud of the country and 59 percent of non-whites responding that way.

NASCAR track bans American flags

July 3, 2004: Patriotic rage was fueled near the nation's birthplace after a local NASCAR racetrack in Virginia banned the flying of flags in the track infield, prompting at least eight employees to quit their jobs.

"This is the Fourth of July weekend, and we're at war!" said Bryan Bowyer, who resigned his position as chief steward and race director at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.

"The whole basis of our society is our flag and what this weekend represents. The ban just pushed me over the edge."

The track's owner, Dwight Schaubach, denied there was a total ban on the American flag, but explained there was a new preclusion against flying any sort of banner, flag or windsock in the track's infield, potentially obstructing the view of race fans.

"It has nothing to do with the American flag," Schaubach told WND. "I have not abandoned any particular flag. I'm just as much a Southerner and an American as anyone. I have flags on my personal cars. I just don't want them flying in the infield."

All the national secrets fit to print

July 2, 2006: The top editor of the New York Times remained unrepentant about publishing stories exposing national security intelligence programs, saying he would do it again.

"I think it's useful for us to discuss, to know about how our government is waging this war to protect us," said Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times.

"This was a case where clearly the terrorists or the people who finance terrorism know quite well, because the Treasury Department and the White House have talked openly about it, that they monitor international banking transactions. It's not news to the terrorists."

The story exposed how the CIA and Treasury Department accesses millions of money-transfer records from SWIFT, the international group that acts as a clearinghouse for interbank transactions.

President Bush called the disclosure "disgraceful."

Gumbel fumbles

July 1, 2000: CBS's Early Show anchor Bryant Gumbel found himself the target of traditional values activists after his microphone – which he thought was turned off – broadcast him calling a Boy Scouts of America supporter a "f***ing idiot" on live television.

Gumbel had completed an interview with the Family Research Council's Robert Knight over a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the Boy Scouts of America's right to exclude homosexual leaders. Knight had articulated a very traditional religious viewpoint regarding homosexuality and had just left the set when Gumbel made the comment.

"In this day of tolerance and diversity, Mr. Gumbel's obvious intolerance and bigotry is unacceptable," said AFA President Donald E. Wildmon. "CBS should fire him immediately. There should be no place at CBS for such intolerance and bigotry." Sign up now for free e-mail alerts on all the WND 10th Anniversary highlights.

Team believes it found Noah's Ark

June 30, 2006: A 14-man crew that included evangelical apologist Josh McDowell says it returned from a trek to a mountain in Iran with possible evidence of the remains of Noah's Ark.

The expedition returned with video footage of a large black formation, about 400 feet long – the length of the ark, according to the Bible – that looks like rock but bears the image of hundreds of massive, wooden, hand-hewn beams.

"These beams not only look like petrified wood, they are so impressive that they look like real wood – this is an amazing discovery that may be the oldest shipwreck in recorded history," said one of the team members.

The team said one piece of the blackened rock is "cut" at 90-degree angle. Even more intriguing, they said, some of the wood-like rocks they tested proved to be petrified wood.

Baby's 1st steps ... at 12 weeks in the womb

June 29, 2004: Vivid 3D images, produced by new ultrasound technology, go far beyond the grainy pictures shown to proud parents-to-be in the doctor's office.

Scans pioneered by a London professor reveal complex behavior in unborn children from an early stage of development – some of which was thought only to occur much later.

The advanced imagery has captured a 12-week-old fetus "walking" in the womb and others apparently yawning and rubbing their eyes.

A whole range of typical baby behavior and moods can be observed beginning at 26 weeks, including scratching, smiling, crying, hiccuping and sucking.

Smiling was believed to not start until six weeks after birth.

Holy aya-toadah! Iranian woman 'gives birth to a frog'

June 28, 2004: According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, an unnamed woman from the southeastern city of Iranshahr delivered a live gray frog after what was called "a bizarre labor."

The animal's birth followed severe bleeding and was reportedly covered by mud.

According to an Iranian gynecologist, the frog larve entered the woman's body – possibly while she swam in dirty water – where it grew to adult size.

Some medical experts, however, commented on the frog's similarity to a human.

No comment was available from the surprised father.

Rush gets rise out of Viagra stop

June 27, 2006: Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh was joking about his police detainment at the airport the previous day for carrying Viagra in his luggage.

"I've been racking my brain. I'm trying to figure out how Bob Dole's luggage got on my airplane," Limbaugh clowned. "I told the doctor, I said, 'Look, I'm worried about the next election, not ... .'"

He added: "The people at Customs were as nice as they could be. They just didn't believe me when I told them that I got those pills at the Clinton Library gift shop, and they told me at the Clinton Library gift shop that it was just blue M&Ms. ... I know a lot of people who don't even need Viagra. [They] just look at themselves in the mirror and the problem's taken [care of] – many of them in Washington, many of them Republicans, too."

America 'In Mortal Danger'

June 26, 2006: Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the undisputed heavyweight champion of the border security issue in the nation's capital, officially launched his sensational new book, "In Mortal Danger," on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes."

In his book – subtitled "The Battle for America's Border and Security," and published by WND Books – Tancredo warns that America is on a course to the dustbin of history. Like the great and mighty empires of the past, he writes, superpowers that once stretched from horizon to horizon, America is heading down the road to ruin.

Tancredo, now running for president, says America is following in the tragic footsteps of Rome.

Living up to his reputation for candor, Tancredo explains how the economic success and historical military prowess of the United States has transformed a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles of right and wrong into an overindulgent, self-deprecating, immoral cesspool of depravity.

Showering with 'Jesus'

June 25, 2005: Did the Son of God make guest appearances in homes across North America?

Photos of items for sale on eBay had some wondering, as purported images of Jesus were used as a marketing tool.

"Shower Jesus has been freed from the wall!" exclaimed Jeff Rigo of Pittsburgh, who offered "a section of plaster wall bearing the apparent face of the Son of God. No other items, promises, tidings, or guarantees are included."

Rigo was able to sell the holy water stain for $1,999, purchased by Internet casino GoldenPalace.com, the same company which cashed out $28,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich with an alleged image of the Virgin Mary.

'Army halts medallions due to Bible reference'

June 24, 2004: The U.S. Army is returning private-sector medallions designed to memorialize fallen American soldiers due to a Bible verse on the back of the items. .

According to WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tenn., Bob Parker of the non-profit group "Fallen Friend" has been sending the special medallions to the survivors of soldiers and police officers killed in the line of duty since 1996.

But while the front side of the medallions features an image of the Liberty Bell and two quotations: "Liberty Rings For All Nations" and "United We Stand, Divided We Fall," the back side says "John 15:13" and "A Fallen Friend," and it includes a space for the name of the person who was killed.

"That is Jesus' word, John 15:13," Parker told the NBC affiliate. The verse states: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Parker had been getting names of servicemen and women from the military, but the Army now is refusing to cooperate.

"I break down and cry when I know that I have had a positive effect on speeding up the healing process of these families," Parker said.

'We distort, you comply'

June 23, 2005: A Los Angeles artist with a history of mocking the Bush administration and conservatives including Rush Limbaugh went after the Fox News Channel with a billboard and related website called ShoxNews.com.

The billboard in Santa Monica, Calif., featured a shadowy Uncle Sam figure controlling a handpuppet, as it proclaims in giant lettering, "Shox News Channel, We Distort, You Comply," an obvious send-up of the cable news channel's "We report, you decide" slogan.

The campaign was created by Karen Fiorito, a self-described propagandist and culture jammer who said, "My art plays a subversive role in society, offering an alternative narrative to the dominant culture. I hope to initiate a dialogue in the community, not only about political issues, but also about the assumption that art and politics do not mix."

270 people saw plane shot out of sky

June 22, 2006: Just before the 10th anniversary of the destruction of TWA Flight 800, investigative reporter Jack Cashill wrote an astounding column documenting the people who witnessed a missile soar into the sky to bring down the airliner, despite the official explanation of a fuel-tank mishap from the U.S. government.

Cashill wrote: Dwight Brumley put down the book he was reading and glanced out the window of US Air 217. He noticed "what appeared to be some kind of a flare," but he realized quickly that this bright, burning object ascending off the ocean was no flare. "It was definitely moving pretty much parallel to the US Air flight, and it was moving at least as fast, perhaps even faster." ...

By the FBI's own count, 270 eyewitnesses saw a flaming object ascend towards TWA Flight 800. Scores of those tracked it from the horizon all the way to the doomed airplane. The New York Times would not interview one of them.

To rationalize what the witnesses saw, the FBI and the CIA conspired to create an alternate scenario, the notorious 3,300-foot zoom-climb of the crippled 747.

Cashill's book, "First Strike," documents the TWA 800 disaster, and its connections to terrorism.

Chariots found in Red Sea?

June 21, 2003: WND stunned the world with the exclusive story and photographs of what many believe to be chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea.

The discovery could provide clues as to the route the ancient Israelites took as they crossed the sea, according to the Bible.

"I believe I actually sat in an ancient chariot cab," Peter Elmer of England told WND, referring to his time exploring a submerged item in what he describes as an underwater scrapyard. "Without question, it is most definitely the remains of the Egyptian army."

Paris Hilton gets super-sized

June 20, 2005: Suds soak the sauntering, scantily clad model, showering water is hosed over a car, glamorous jewelry is flashed and a juicy hamburger is being devoured to the tune "I love Paris."

Think you've seen this ad? Think again.

Less than a month after Paris Hilton created a national beef over a sexy commercial for fast-food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, a new ad with a lot more "weight" was created making fun of the original.

Accolo, Inc., a recruitment company based in Larkspur, Calif., was responsible for the spot, which follows the same storyline as the ad for the restaurants, with one super-sized exception.

Playing the role of Hilton is what some would plainly call a "fat slob."

Census worker: 'Constitution is stupid'

June 19, 2000: When Michigan resident Kim Carey refused to answer questions about her neighbor posed by a Census Bureau employee making follow-up visits, she cited her belief that the questions are "unconstitutional," to which the enumerator retorted, "The Constitution is stupid."

"I was appalled at his belligerence. I felt as if I were under attack," Carey told WND. "It's sad and scary that an apparently educated young American representing our government could show such contempt for our Constitution. Think of the countless men who died defending those ideals. It's sick."

An official apologized for the employee's actions, noting the majority of census workers are "there for the money."

Gestapo shots for baby

June 18, 2003: What was supposed to be a joyous occasion – the birth of their first child – turned out to be an Orwellian nightmare for a young Colorado couple whose newborn was vaccinated for hepatitis B over their religious and philosophical objections, while armed guards stood by to prevent them from intervening.

"It makes me feel like the country I live in is no better than communist China or the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, and that's a very sobering and scary outlook," the father told WND.

"We believe in God, and that God has created us in his image. In being created in God's image, we are given his perfect immune system. We are bestowed with His gift, the immune system. We believe it is sacrilegious and a violation of our sacred religious beliefs to violate what God has given us by showing a lack of faith in God. Immunizations are a lack of faith in God and His protection, the immune system," he maintained.

'Martyrdom' graduation sashes incite violence?

June 17, 2004: When it came to members of the University of California, Irvine, Muslim Students Association – a group that had expressed support for the terror group Hamas and displayed posters on campus equating the Star of David with the swastika – wearing "shahada" sashes to graduation ceremonies, university officials preferred to see no evil, despite some saying the displays were an incitement to violence.

Sally Peterson, dean of students at UCI, admitted the word "shahada," besides being a reference to Islam, "has also taken on many other meanings depending on where you sit. For some it is seen as 'kill all Jews' or it is seen as a reference to suicide bombers," she said.

"It's clearly a violation of free speech if we do not permit it," Peterson said. "There has been significant case law to back this up."

Census Bureau asks thy neighbor

June 16, 2000: For some Americans, "limited government" means limited – especially when the government's census takers are asking question that go beyond what the Constitution requires to determine representation in Congress.

WND reported on a Pennsylvania woman named Eileen who refused to cooperate.

"We were perfectly happy to give them the count for our household," Eileen told WND. "We found the remaining questions to be intrusive and not the intent as defined in the Constitution. We're trying to figure out how knowing the names and birthdays of our children helps determine how many congressmen we have and how our taxes should be appropriated."

No propblem. The census takers are authorized to ask neighbors for personal information that citizens would rather not share. For some Americans, that smacks too much of Big Brother.

Simpson, eh? Homer voted greatest American

June 15, 2003: A BBC poll to identify the "greatest American," run in advance of a program promising to "confront the critical question ... what does the world think of America?", awarded the honor to Homer Simpson, the beer-drinking, donut-scarfing, bumbling nuclear-power plant technician of the Fox cartoon "The Simpsons."

The animated buffoon ranked ahead of real-life heroes including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

Ironically, not only is Homer Simpson a fictional character, he apparently is also not an American.

His creator, cartoonist Matt Groening, told an audience in Montreal that Homer was named for Groening's real-life own father, Homer Groening, who hails from Canada.

Southerners not whistling Dixie over flag flap

June 14, 2001: Any doubts Southern pride still beats in the breasts of the great-great-grandsons of the Confederacy were put to rest when heritage groups came to the defense of a Florida man told he could not park his pick-up truck in the parking lot of a public utility because it had a Confederate flag license plate.

Officials with the Orlando Utilities Commission reportedly told Randy Jones, a former OUC employee of 28 years and now a subcontractor for a private firm doing business with OUC, that he had to either remove the plate, cover it up or park his truck across the street. If he failed to take any of those steps, reports said, OUC officials threatened to have his truck towed.

"Jones has had the Confederate flag plate on the front of his pick-up truck for 13 years. It was a Father's Day gift from his son," said Ron Holland, editor of the Dixie Daily News. "Southerners are outraged about this attack on Southern heritage, free speech and the First Amendment."

"We're behind this case a thousand percent," added a spokesman for the Southern Legal Resource Center.

Ban Ann

June 13, 2006: Best-sellers were once made by being banned in Boston.

But a pair of New Jersey state legislators tried to ban a book already atop the best-sellers list.

The book stirring all the controversy was "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" by WND columnist Ann Coulter.

Two Democrats – Assemblywomen Joan Quigley and Linda Stender – pushed to ban "Godless" from all bookstores in the Garden State because of Coulter's biting criticism of four 9-11 widows known as "the Jersey Girls," who demanded investigations into President Bush's role in allowing the terrorist attacks.

"No one in New Jersey should buy this book and allow Ann Coulter to profit from her hate-mongering," the two said in a joint statement. "We are asking New Jersey retailers statewide to stand with us and express their outrage by refusing to carry or sell copies of Coulter's book. Her hate-filled attacks on our 9-11 widows has no place on New Jersey bookshelves."

CNN's deceitful Vietnam report

June 12, 1998: WorldNetDaily was first to expose fundamental journalistic flaws in CNN-Time's "Tailwind" story, which alleged American soldiers had used chemical weapons during the Vietnam War.

Ultimately, CNN and Time apologized for the documentary and fired the producers.

Disabled unwelcome on California beaches?

June 11, 2000: With the stroke of a pen, federal officials closed off half the beach access for many disabled people by shutting down to motorized vehicles a long-used, 3-mile stretch of beach in remote Northern California.

Bureau of Land Management officials were clear that the closure had nothing to do with protecting endangered species or near misses with pedestrians by wreckless drivers. The decision essentially came down to aesthetics – hikers wanted a primitive experience and didn't want to see vehicles on the beach.

With the exception of 3 miles of beach in Pismo Beach on California's central coast, hikers have 1,100 miles of sand where vehicles are excluded in the state.

"The BLM has effectively told everyone with a physical disability that they're excluded from a public beach," said one of the lawyers who unsuccessfully fought the closure. "For some people, the only way they can get out there is with a motorized vehicle. They've been excluded. That's the bottom line."

Another WND leap forward – Farah syndicated

June 10, 2002: Five years ago today, WND announced the next leap forward for WorldNetDaily – the syndication of WND founder and editor Joseph Farah's "Between the Lines" column.

The deal with Creators Syndicate puts Farah's columns in newspapers across the U.S. and around the world.

Creators is the same syndication partner that launched Bill O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" column for WorldNetDaily into the fastest-growing opinion page feature in the country. Creators also took on the marketing of Ilana Mercer's weekly WorldNetDaily column. David Limbaugh's weekly column, originating in WorldNetDaily, was the first commentary developed for the Internet to achieve newspaper syndication status through Creators.

Interested in seeing Farah's column in your hometown paper? Contact your local newspaper editor.

When the Gipper got his gun

June 9, 2004: It was inevitable the passing of Ronald Reagan would stir memories of those knew him.

One of those memories that came to light was shared by long-time Iowa resident Melba King who told of the hot, humid autumn night in 1933, when a mugger slipped behind her and shoved a gun into her back, demanding her money, as she strolled home in downtown Des Moines.

The next thing she heard came from the window of a second-story room facing the street: "Leave her alone or I'll shoot you right between the shoulders."

It was a young Des Moines radio sportscaster named Ronald Wilson Reagan who had overheard the confrontation and was now pointing a .45-caliber revolver at the would-be robber.

It worked. The mugger fled, not knowing the secret Reagan waited 50 years to reveal.

2004: Reaganites in Soviet gulags

June 8, 2004: While the certainty with which Ronald Reagan distilled the complexities of the Cold War down to a matter of good versus evil embarrassed and infuriated U.S. liberals, the former president had one group of fans in the evil empire who were "ecstatic" over his willingness to tell the truth – Russian dissidents locked away in the USSR's gulags.

Natan Sharansky, once a Jewish Russian prisoner and later an Israeli cabinet member, recalled the thrill of reading in his prison cell Reagan's 1983 "evil empire" speech.

"We dissidents were ecstatic," he said. "Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth – a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us."

"Reagan may have confused names and dates, but his moral compass was always good," Sharansky said.

Scientology shifts into NASCAR

June 7, 2006: When most people think of NASCAR, they think of fast, flashy cars highly decorated with the markings of their sponsors.

The kinds of sponsors have varied greatly over the years, from cigarette and beer companies, to food products and even Viagra. But a new entrant to the circuit raised a few eyebrows: Scientology.

Driver Kenton Gray, of La Verne, Calif., piloted the No. 27 "DIANETICS" car, featuring the erupting volcano from the cover the 1950 book by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

Gray says he's proud to have Dianetics as a sponsor, saying techniques he's learned from Scientology have helped him.

"It's markedly improved my focus and my consistency," he said. "Through Dianetics I've handled stress and increased my performance and ability to compete – both on the track and in life."

Saudi executioner has knack for whack

June 6, 2003: Muhammad Saad al-Beshi is every employer's dream employee – a guy who loves his job.

That job? Executing murderers, rapists, robbers, drug traffickers, repeat drug users and apostates for the Saudi kingdom – as well as amputating limbs to order for lesser offenders.

Like most new employees, al-Beshi admitted, he was nervous when he started his job in 1998, but after a few beheadings, he got into the swing of things, so to speak.

"The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled meters away," he said.

The "contented" father of seven said his unusual occupation causes "no drawbacks" for his social life."

"It doesn't matter to me," he said. "Two, four, 10 – as long as I'm doing God's will, it doesn't matter how many people I execute."

Mourning in America

June 5, 2004: At the age of 93, Ronald Wilson Reagan, America's 40th president and the nation's longest-living ex-president, died.

One of the most beloved presidents in American history, Reagan passed away at his home in California.

Nancy Reagan told reporters the end was near when she said, poignantly, "This is it."

President George W. Bush said of "the Gipper":

"He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him."

Malibu Babs, the eco-hypocrite

June 4, 2003: People who live in 10,000-square-foot oceanfront mansions shouldn't throw stones.

That reminder came from WND columnist Michelle Malkin in a strange case involving singer/actress Barbra Streisand.

Wrote Malkin of Barbra: This multiple home-owning, custom-built SUV-riding, California coastline-hogging diva has lobbed a $50 million lawsuit at an eco-activist who posted photos of her massive estate on the Internet.

Malibu Babs says the litigation is about protecting her privacy. She claims that the aerial pictures ... violate anti-paparazzi laws and "provide a road map into her residence."

Was Jesus Christ really a woman?

June 3, 2005: A publisher of a new version of the Gospels, based on Thomas Jefferson's selective editing of the New Testament, went one step further and changed the gender of the Messiah to female and named her Judith Christ.

The new version, according to the publisher, revised familiar stories, tranforming the "Prodigal Son" into the "Prodigal Daughter" and the "Lord's Prayer" into the "Lady's Prayer." The familiar passage on the crucifixion, from John 19:17-18, was changed to read: "And She bearing her cross went forth. There they crucified Judith."

Amazon.com readers, posting their reviews of the new Gospel, were not amused. One read:

"A friend with a Hebrew doctorate noted to me: 'There is no feminine form of the name Jesus (or Joshua). Judith is the feminine form of the name Juda - or Judas.' How perfectly fitting!"

Kerry, 'Lurch' – twins separated at birth?

June 2, 2004: On this day 3 years ago, the John Kerry for President campaign took a giant 'lurch' backwards.

Howell Raines, former editor of the New York Times, expressed his doubts about the Democratic candidate in a Guardian newspaper commentary, comparing Kerry to Lurch from television's "Addams Family."

"The TV camera is an X-ray for picking up attitudinal truths, and Kerry's lantern jaw and 'Addams Family' face somehow reinforce the message that this guy has passed from ponderous to pompous and is so accustomed to privilege that he doesn't have to worry about looking goofy. It's as if Lurch had gone to Choate."

"I personally find him easier to talk to than Al Gore," wrote Raines, "but there's no denying that he's ponderous. And he's pompous in a way that Gore is not. With Gore, you feel that if he could choose, he would have been born poor and cool. Kerry radiates the feeling that he is entitled to his sense of entitlement. Probably that comes from spending too much time with Teddy Kennedy, but it's a problem."

Gun background checks exclude known terrorists

June 1, 2003: While nine out of 10 gun purchases are now subject to instant FBI criminal checks to filter out convicted felons, fugitives and a handful of others, the State Department's list of known foreign terrorists – used by airport security personnel and border patrols – is not included in the database used by dealers to check a buyer's eligibility.

Even the names of suspected al-Qaida cell members in the U.S. would not show up in a background check by a gun store.

"As long as they have evaded detection by law enforcement authorities and are not identified as prohibited persons, they could purchase firearms from licensed dealers," a report prepared by the Congressional Research Service said. "They could also purchase firearms at gun shows from either licensed or unlicensed persons."

Clinton-rape accuser fights IRS audit

May 31, 2000: Maybe it was just coincidence.

You go on national television and tell a secret you've kept for 22 years – that you were raped by the most-powerful man in the world, the current president of the United States – and you get a notice form the IRS that your business is going to be audited.

Maybe. But Juanita Broaddrick wasn't buying it and she decided to fight back by suing the Clinton White House and the Justice Department for conducting a campaign to "smear and destroy her reputation."

She was not alone – other Clinton critics had found themselves targeted by the IRS.

Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, former White House Travel Office Director Billy Dale and Elizabeth Ward Gracen have all accused the president of assault or harassment and were audited following their complaints. Dozens of Clinton's political "enemies" also were audited during the 1990s, including the National Rifle Association, Citizens Against Government Waste, the Heritage Foundation, American Spectator, National Review and the Western Journalism Center, founded by WorldNetDaily Editor and CEO Joseph Farah.

Student refuses to change art

May 30, 2005: When Napa High School senior Kyle Trudelle began his art project – a mural depicting steps leading to a castle in the clouds – he didn't imagine some students would start a petition to stop him for violating the separation of church and state or school officials would order him to put down his brush while district lawyers reviewed the matter – particularly since there was already an adjacent mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, an important religious figure to Catholics and the large portion of the student body of Mexican decent.

He initially responded to critics who said his mural looked too much like heaven and blurred the boundary between church and state by agreeing to change it. However, he decided that wasn't the right course. His lawyer told the school he should be allowed to finish the work, because requiring a change would constitute discrimination, given the existing painting of the Virgin Mary already on the same wall.

"Kyle is incapable of violating the Establishment Clause because he is not an employee or agent of Napa High School," the attorney wrote.

Kyle hopes he gets to add the finishing touches before graduation.

CBS thrusts 'married gays' on public

May 29, 2003: CBS Television promoted its debut of "The Amazing Race 4" by proudly proclaiming a male homosexual couple on the show to be married to each other, at a time when homosexual marriage was not legal anywhere in the U.S.

"Yes, they are a married, gay couple," a CBS spokeswoman said. "They're married and they're gay. Is there an issue?"

The online write-up on the "married" male couple included:

Twenty-eight-year-old Reichen is a pilot and teaches at a flight school in Los Angeles. A former U.S. Air Force officer and a graduate of the U.S. Air Force academy, he is married to his teammate Chip. He loves skiing and flying and is very into being physically fit. He describes himself as "detail-oriented, caring and thrill-seeking." He speaks French and has traveled internationally quite a bit. Reichen's views on relationships are much more liberal than Chip's – He enjoys flirting with other guys, but that makes Chip upset.

Christians look to form 'new nation'

May 28, 2004: In the wake of a WND exclusive report, hundreds of American citizens contacted a group of Christian activists looking to secede from the United States to form a republic based on Christian principles.

"It's unleashed a barrage," said Cory Burnell, president of Texas-based ChristianExodus.org. "It's been an incredible response, it's nothing I'm used to and is fairly gut-wrenching for me."

Burnell and like-minded believers were looking to encourage thousands of U.S. citizens to migrate to South Carolina, run for state office, and eventually prompt South Carolina to peacefully secede from the union to create a new country where "government derives its power from the consent of the governed."

He said since WND's story was first posted, the number of those actively interested has jumped from a few dozen people to hundreds.

"We had to expand our website's bandwidth due to so much traffic," he said. "We're gonna need some kind of respite."

Fumbling abortionist jailed for killing patient

May 27, 2000: Despite a long record of injuring women – resulting in his being placed on probation for eight years before finally losing his license – the sentencing of one of Northern California's most notorious abortionists to a year in the county jail for killing one of his patients came as a shock to his supporters.

Dr. Bruce Steir, 68, was immediately taken into custody for the involuntary manslaughter of Sharon Hamptlon, a 27-year-old Medi-Cal patient who bled to death in front of her three-year-old son while being driven home by her mother after an abortion in December 1996.

According to the prosecutor, Steir knew he had punctured Hamptlon's uterus during the procedure, but failed to call emergency personnel because his medical license was already on probation for previous allegations of negligence.

"We're devastated," said Shauna Heckert, executive director of the Feminist Women's Health Center in Chico.

Rosie, get your gun

May 26, 2000: Comedienne Rosie O'Donnell gave gun-rights advocates ammo with which to criticize her staunch opposition to the National Rifle Association when it was revealed her personal bodyguard had applied for a concealed gun permit, possibly to allow him to carry a weapon when accompanying one of her children to public school.

O'Donnell said that because of threats – which she attributed ironically to her tough gun-control rhetoric – she and her family needed protection.

While it was denied that the bodyguard would carry a gun to school – a prospect that upset many parents – a superintendent confirmed that the school's principal had been approached about whether an armed guard for O'Donnell's son would be welcome at the school when he entered kindergarten the following September.

"I don't personally own a gun," said O'Donnell, who had earlier berated actor Tom Selleck on her TV show over his appearances in NRA-sponsored commercials and promotions. "But if you are qualified, licensed and registered, I have no problem."

Newsweek clams up on U.S. flag in trash

May 25, 2005: While Newsweek was featuring Hollywood actors on its Feb. 2, 2005, cover and hyping the upcoming Oscars, readers of the Japanese edition were treated to a cover showing the U.S. flag in a garbage can and a headline reading "Dream On, America."

The feature on "the world's rejection of the American way of life" didn't appear in U.S. editions and, despite multiple calls from WND, did not appear to be something Newsweek was anxious to explain.

According to a translation on a blog site, a precede to the story read: "Although Bush calls for an 'expansion of freedom,' the world is not yearning after the 'country of freedom,' the United States, any longer. New evidence of a decline of the United States in every sphere has been confirmed."

"It's one thing for Newsweek to actively promote the notion that America is a 'dead,' 'rotting' country overseas," wrote another blogsite. "But it's quite another thing indeed to hide those efforts from its American readers. If Newsweek really think America is dead, and our flag belongs in the trash, why won't it tell us?"

Catholics threaten to 'wage war' over Antichrist sign

May 24, 2002: Catholics opposed to a controversial billboard proclaiming the pope is the Antichrist were angry to discover the sign's owner – Outdoor Media Dimensions – failed to remove it after an Oregon man's yearlong contract ended.

The New York-based Catholic League said it was told by a company spokesman the sign would be taken down upon expiration of the contract.

"He's double-crossed us," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. "I'm going to give him an ultimatum – one more month [that the sign remains] and we'll wage war on him. The jig is up!"

Larry Weathers, the Oregon barber behind the placard reading, "The POPE Is The ANTICHRIST, Free Proof," wasn't backing down and hoped to continue broadcasting his message to those driving along Interstate 5 near Medford, Ore., for a few months longer.

"The only way that it's coming down is if it's forced down," Weathers said. "Rome is gonna get enflamed again."

That's hot! Paris Hilton ad crashes server

May 23, 2005: Burger chain Carl's Jr. said its commercial featuring TV sex kitten Paris Hilton was so hot, its Web servers suffered a meltdown.

"It was a mixed blessing," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr. "We wanted to create a Paris Hilton site that would attract visitors, and we certainly achieved that objective. Unfortunately, we just weren't prepared for the influx of traffic, and disappointed a number of visitors. It turned out that Paris was too hot for our servers."

As WND previously reported, Hilton was shown in the 30-second spot eating a spicy burger while washing a Bentley in a revealing swimsuit, prompting concerns of indecency on broadcast airwaves.

"This commercial is basically soft-core porn," said Melissa Caldwell, research director for the Parents Television Council. "It's inappropriate for television."

Illegals making U.S. a leper colony?

May 22, 2005: Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and medieval times, was making its mark in the United States, and many believed the influx of illegal aliens was a main factor.

"Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country – tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example – and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. "For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented."

"This emerging crisis exposes the upside-down thinking of federal immigration policy," he continued. "While legal immigrants must undergo health screening prior to entering the U.S., illegal immigrants far more likely to be carrying contagious diseases are crawling under that safeguard and going undetected until they infect extraordinary numbers of American residents."

"It's creeping into the U.S.," said Dr. William Levis, head of the New York Hansen's Disease Clinic. "This is a real phenomenon. It's a public health threat. New York is endemic now, and nobody's noticed."

'Noah's Ark' tours

May 21, 2006: A new travel website promoted summer tours to a Turkish location near Mount Ararat believed by many to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark.

Noah's Ark Holidays, which bills itself as an "ethical travel referral website" was behind the offer, with a pitch for the location in Dogubayazit, Turkey, reading:

You will be awe-inspired, whether you have a personal faith or not, when you visit the National Park of Noah's Ark. Many experts have examined, tested, researched, taken radar scans and recorded lengths of this incredible boat-shaped object that many people, both non-experts and scientists, believe to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark. Read what others have said about it and make your own mind up. It really is a mind boggling story! If it is not Noah's Ark, then what are, what look like the fossilized remains of a boat, the same lengths as the lengths detailed in the Book of Genesis for Noah's Ark doing in the "Mountains of Ararat"?

"You can literally stand and smell the history around you in your nostrils," the site maintained.

Pepsi president likens U.S. to middle finger

May 20, 2005: University commencement speeches have a way of becoming notoriously newsworthy, and the one delivered two years ago to graduates at Columbia Business School by Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo's chief financial officer, was no exception.

In an analogy-gone-bad, Nooyi, compared the major continents to the fingers on a hand, equating the U.S. with the middle one.

"The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively," she said. "This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg up in global business since the end of World War I.

"However, if used inappropriately – just like the U.S. itself, the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble," she said.

The Pespi Syndrome, indeed. Nooyi spent the next week issuing apologies as the blogosphere went into meltdown.

'A' is for 'agenda'

May 19, 2005: Diversity, it seems, has its limits.

While welcoming a pro-homosexual activist organization – even inviting it to present a workshop – the National PTA rejected an application from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays to be an exhibitor at its annual convention.

The leading pro-"gay" group was OK'd to distribute a 'how-to' guide for improving the school environment for LGBT students, and the homosexual-affirming video for schoolchildren, "It's Elementary," was scheduled to be exhibited at the conference.

"As we indicated on the application, our purpose at the National PTA exhibit is to distribute educational publications promoting inclusive school environments for ex-gay students and educators," said Regina Griggs, PFOX's executive director. "We fit right in because one of the themes of this year's National PTA convention is diversity. Ex-gays are people, too."

Great grandma's tattoo: 'Do Not Resuscitate'

May 18, 2006: It's not that Mary Wohlford, an 80-year-old retired Texas nurse, had never heard of living wills – she had one hung on the side of her refrigerator – it's that she just wasn't taking any chances.

That's why she had the phrase "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest – to make it absolutely clear where she stood in the event she ever become incapacitated.

"People might think I'm crazy, but that's OK," Wohlford said. "Sometimes the nuttiest ideas are the most advanced."

"This is a modern day and age," she said. "You have to advance with the times. We never even had a living will 20 years ago. Now I think we've got to go to the next step."

Stripper mom: I'm following the Bible

May 17, 2002: The mother of a 5-year-old California girl who was facing expulsion from a Christian school because the woman worked as a stripper just couldn't understand why her chosen profession was a problem.

Christina Silvas, a 24-year-old single mom, argued that since her job took her away for only three days a week – the days her daughter, Abby, was with her father – she was therefore available to be "the one to teach [her daughter] the Bible at home," thus upholding the commitment she made with the school to partner in her daughter's education.

"The Bible calls on parents to be hands-on," Silvas said.

School officials offered to cover the girl's last month's tuition of $400 if Silvas would change jobs. They also offered to support Silvas both financially and spiritually, and to help her find a different job that was in keeping with the school's values. Silvas declined the offer and later appeared in Playboy Magazine.

MySpace hosts wannabe terrorists

May 16, 2006: While concerns about MySpace.com often focus on its use by sexual predators, the popular youth networking website may also pose a risk to the nation's security.

An investigation found the website to be fertile ground for inspiring and recruiting a new generation of Islamic terrorists, according to independent analyst Laura Mansfield.

A young man from Seattle, for example, who gave his name as Amin Al-Mujaahid As-Salafi – or "Salafi Jihaadi – has a blog that features images of al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, British jihadist Abu Hamza, and the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, referring to them as the "Magnificent 19."

'The Matrix Rewhited'

May 15, 2003: The movie studio that released "The Matrix Reloaded" fired back at suggestions the science-fiction thriller somehow portrayed albinos in a bad light.

Part two of the trilogy introduced two new enemies: twins with pale skin and light-colored hair.

"There are even dreadlocked albinos who look like a vanilla Milli Vanilli," is the way movie critic Carrie Rickey termed them.

"For the last 40 years filmmakers have used albino characters as villains, and they're almost always vicious, inhuman characters, depicted as freaks," dermatologist and self-proclaimed film buff Dr. Vail Reese added.

Warner Bros. did not taking the issue lightly.

"They're not albinos!" a studio spokeswoman stressed to WND regarding the new villains. "They're not even human. They're vampires, 15th century vampires. ... These characters do not possess the qualities that albinos possess. They don't have red eyes. They become invisible. Clearly, they're not real people."

Cabbie bounces barfing baby boy

May 14, 2003: A single mom says she and her vomiting baby in need of medical attention were left stranded in the cold by a cab driver who feared his taxi might get soiled.

Catherine Soldan, 25, said she called a counselor at the hospital after her 6-month-old baby, Corbitt, threw up twice. The counselor told her the service would contact a cab and pay for them to be transported to the hospital.

The taxi picked them up, and during the trip the boy began vomiting again. That's when, according to Soldan, the driver told the two to get out.

"He said, 'Is he getting sick?' And I said, 'Yes.' He said to get out. I said, 'He's a baby.' He said, 'I don't care what he is,'" said Soldan.

Soldan said she yelled at the driver, and he then left them. She said she was stunned by the driver's behavior.

"It's not like this was somebody who'd been out drinking all night or something and was throwing up in his car," Soldan said. "It was a little bit of baby spit."

Anti-Clinton church loses tax-exempt status

May 13, 2000: A Binghamton, N.Y., church found itself on the wrong side of the line dividing what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar, a federal appeals court ruled.

On Oct. 30, 1992, just four days before the presidential election, the Landmark Church placed full-page ads in USA Today and the Washington Times warning Christians that Clinton's positions concerning abortion, homosexuality and the distribution of condoms to teen-agers in schools violate biblical principals.

A notice at the bottom of the ad appealed for "tax-exempt donations" to pay for placing the ad.

Bad move, said the IRS, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and finally, the court. Sign up now for free e-mail alerts on all the WND 10th Anniversary highlights.

Infrared picks up invisible UFOs

May 12, 2004: Mexico received a taste of what it's like to be invaded by aliens when 11 unidentified flying objects reportedly flew around a military surveillance plane that was looking for drug traffickers.

Jamie Maussan, a journalist and UFO enthusiast, told reporters the objects, seen on infrared video footage released by the Mexican air force, seemed "intelligent" because at one point they changed direction and surrounded the plane that was chasing them.

"They were invisible to the eye but they were there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," Maussan said after showing the 15-minute footage.

"We are not alone! This is so weird," one of the pilots can be heard yelling. The plane's crew had just switched on the infrared camera after first picking up the objects by radar.

'Runaway bride' action doll for sale

May 11, 2005: Never underestimate the ability of the entrepreneurial spirit to turn tragedy into entertainment.

Even as Jennifer Wilbanks, the Georgia woman who disappeared days before her wedding date and ended up in New Mexico by way of Las Vegas, was entering a medical treatment program "to address physical and mental issues," a company known for marketing culturally relevant action figures was introducing a limited-edition 'runaway bride' doll.

Sporting Wilbanks' shoulder-length dark hair and pearly-white smile, the new doll joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Hillary Clinton in the "Female Heroes" section.

Zogby: Kerry will win in 2004

May 10, 2004: Six months out from the 2004 election, pollster John Zogby took a leap of faith and predicted a winner in November.

"I have made a career of taking bungee jumps in my election calls," Zogby wrote in a column. "Sometimes I haven't had a helmet and I have gotten a little scratched. But here is my jump for 2004: John Kerry will win the election."

Zogby cited four reasons for his prediction: Bush's lackluster poll numbers, very few undecided voters, Kerry's lead on the top three issues on voters' minds and Kerry's reputation as a "good closer."

Concluded Zogby: " We are unlikely to see any big bumps for either candidate because opinion is so polarized and, I believe, frozen in place. There are still six months to go and anything can still happen. But as of today, this race is John Kerry's to lose."

And he did.

Book 'em, WND

May 9, 2002: WorldNetDaily and Thomas Nelson Publishers, a top-10 company worldwide in its field, created a new book-publishing joint venture, WND Books.

The new imprint debuted with a wide variety of titles, including a book authored by radio talk-show sensation Michael Savage, one by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and another by Jack Cashill and James Sanders on the downing of TWA Flight 800.

"Beginning in 2003, we'll have our own titles to sell – books developed specifically with our readership in mind," explained WND Editor Joseph Farah. "We believe this will mean significantly higher sales and a major breakthrough in publishing edgy titles that might scare away the major players in the publishing industry establishment."

"WorldNetDaily is first and foremost an innovative news agency, and our titles will reflect that focus – they will be timely, newsworthy and often examining topics the establishment publishing industry ignores," said WND Senior Editor and Co-founder Elizabeth Farah.

Five years after its creation, WND Books is still going strong with a new partner, World Ahead Publishing.

666 wrong number of 'the Beast'?

May 8, 2005: For centuries, people have been intrigued by the number 666, the "number of the beast" from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.

Not only is it mentioned in the Bible, it has been associated with the Satanism, universal price codes and the game of roulette.

WND reported how the legendary number is getting a fresh look, as researchers are re-examining evidence the number may actually be 616.

Abortion bracelet as Mother's Day gift

May 7, 2005: A gift promoting abortion might be the last thing someone searching for a Mother's Day present might have in mind, but the National Organization for Women offered jewelry that does just that.

On its website with the banner headline "Mother's Day Gift Ideas from NOW," the group listed as its first item a bracelet carrying the message "Keep Abortion Legal."

The sale is prompting some negative reaction, including comments from Kimberly Fletcher, the founder and president of Homemakers for America.

"Imagine going to mom and saying, 'Happy Mother's Day, mom. Thanks for giving life. Here's your Keep Abortion Alive bracelet.' NOW is seriously out of touch with the mothers of America," Fletcher said. "I think I'll stick with flowers."

Bible literalism 'pagan superstition'?

May 6, 2006: Galileo must be spinning in his grave.

Official Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno told a Scottish newspaper science is needed to protect religion from creationism.

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism – it's turning God into a nature god," he said. "And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."

Consolmagno stated that the Christian God is a supernatural god. In the past, the belief in God being supernatural led the clergy to become involved in science to find natural explanations for things like thunder and lightning. Pagans often attribute thunder and lightning to vengeful gods.

"Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance," he said. "That's why science and religion need to talk to each other."

Old soldiers do die

May 5, 2005: On this day, two years ago, WND reported the sad news of the death of an American hero, retired Army Col. David Hackworth.

One of the most decorated veterans in U.S. history, Hackworth had been a vocal advocate for military reform in the years since he returned from Vietnam.

He had written a weekly column for WorldNetDaily for seven years before succumbing to bladder cancer.

"Hack never lost his focus," said Roger Charles, president of Soldiers for the Truth, a California-based veterans group for which Hackworth served as chairman. "That focus was on the young kids that our country sends to bleed and die on our behalf. Everything he did in his retirement was to try to give them a better chance to win and to come home. That's one hell of a legacy."

Swift-boat vets fire 1st round across Kerry's bow

May 4, 2004: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that played such a decisive role in the 2004 presidential campaign, launched its first attack on John Kerry on this day three years ago, with 200 members releasing a letter sent to the Democrat candidate asking him to authorize the Department of the Navy to release all of his military records, including health documents.

Kerry "arrived in country with a strong anti-Vietnam War bias and a self-serving determination to build a foundation for his political future," said Retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman. "He was aggressive, but vain and prone to impulsive judgment, often with disregard to specific tactical assignments. He was a loose cannon."

Kerry reportedly spent 45 minutes on the phone with Hoffman trying to discourage the group from going forward. It was to no avail – the group kept up the pressure until Election Day.

Kill a rattlesnake, go to jail

May 3, 2003: When James Galloway spotted a hissing rattlesnake on the trail and grabbed a stick to pin it to the ground so it could not strike a 3-year-old girl and her parents walking down the path toward him, most people likely considered him a hero.

When he transported the snake to a nearby parking lot, intending to scoop it up with a shovel so he could release it into the woods, some might have considered him tender hearted. And when the ungrateful snake turned and came at him, resulting in Galloway striking it with the shovel, most would have said he was lucky.

But the state of Michigan did not consider him a lucky, tender-hearted hero. It called him a criminal and convicted him for killing a protected species without a permit – an offense worth $500 and 90 days in jail.

Old Glory covers 'Mexico'

May 2, 2005: WND continued its exclusive coverage of a Los Angeles billboard that became a flashpoint over illegal immigration.

A protester of the Los Angeles area placard that had "CA" crossed out and "Mexico" added draped a U.S. flag over the word "Mexico."

The billboard advertising a local Spanish-language news station drew the ire of immigration activists a week earlier. The ad had the "CA" abbreviation after "Los Angeles" crossed out and the word "Mexico" added in its place in bold red letters.

Gore v. Doll

May 1, 2000: Candidates in the 2000 presidential election suddenly faced an unexpected rival.

The "Barbie for President" campaign was announced and included the launch of an official campaign website that outlines her position on various topics -- including education, the environment and gender equality.

An examination of policy positions found Barbie closely resembling then-candidate Al Gore.

On the environment, Gore said, "Because of its importance to our air, our water, and the fabric of life itself, I believe that we have an obligation to protect the environment for future generations."

Barbie noted "it's time we take a stand to care for Mother Earth. Clean air, clean water, and a clean environment are vital to our health. Barbie knows our playgrounds, our parks and our neighborhoods will be more kid-safe and kid-friendly if we keep them clean."

Casino becomes no-Bible zone

April 30, 2003: "Thou shalt not place Bibles in our casino hotel rooms."

Such was the commandment from the flashy, new Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, home of the Borgata Babe cocktail waitress and shower-stall-for-two.

The $1.1 billion resort broke ranks with all other casinos, refusing to allow the Gideons to place a Bible in any of its 2,002 hotel rooms.

"What we've found is there's such a diversity of gaming customers that visit Atlantic City, by putting one generic publication in there you're not fulfilling the needs of everybody," Borgata spokesman Michael Facenda said.

"You could do the Mormon Bible, the Quran, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Greek New Testament. ... Where we ended up is we're not going to put anything in there," he said.

Concealed guns prevent mass shootings

April 29, 1999: Before Virginia Tech – before Columbine – the research data revealed what's only become clearer with each tragic mass shooting – allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns reduces options for killers and saves the innocent.

WND reported on a recently released study by John R. Lott, Jr. and William M. Landes of the Chicago University School of Law that concluded "shall-issue laws" for concealed carry weapons had a "significant impact on multiple shootings." Indeed, the authors wrote, "It is the only law-related variable that appears to have a significant impact."

"We also find that shall-issue laws deter both the number of multiple shootings and the amount of harm per shooting," said the study. In addition, the authors discovered that shooting deaths were steadily increasing before a number of states began passing "shall-issue" or "concealed-carry" laws several years before.

Hasta la vista, billboard!

April 28, 2005: Arnold Schwarzenegger was not amused.

A controversial billboard promoting Spanish-language television station KRCA in L.A. that placed the city of angels in Mexico was "divisive" and "unnecessary" and should come down, the governor said.

On the controversial billboard, the "CA" state abbreviation after "Los Angeles" was crossed out and the word "Mexico" added in its place. In the center of the billboard, placed within the L.A. skyline, was an image of the Angel of Independence, a well-known monument in Mexico City, further suggesting the merging of Los Angeles and Mexico. It also said, "Tu Ciudad. Tu Equipo," or "Your City. Your Team."

"If they want to be responsible, they will take it down," the governor added. "Those mistakes are made. Maybe some marketing person said, 'Do that and it will create a lot of media attention and we'll get great free publicity.' And maybe they didn't think it all the way through. I think it is time to take it down now and say it's a mistake and move on."

Oxymoron? Fed chairman supports gold standard!

April 27, 2001: Then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's own words – written in 1966 and supporting a gold-backed U.S. economy – were dredged up in a lawsuit charging that agency with manipulating and suppressing the price of gold.

"... Under the gold standard, a free banking system stands as the protector of an economy's stability and balanced growth," he wrote. "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value" for the dollar.

"This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold," he wrote. "Deficit [government] spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights."

Despite his role as head of the very Fed his earlier analysis condemned, a congressional source told WorldNetDaily that Greenspan still agrees with the premise of his article in 2001.

An ounce of gold on April 27, 2001 was valued at $264. On April 27, 2007, the price of gold is about $685.

Radio talker Laura Ingraham diagnosed with cancer

April 26, 2005: Breast cancer – two of the scarier words in the English language.

On this day in 2005, WND readers learned popular radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham had been diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine exam. The author of the best-selling book, "Shut Up & Sing: How the Elites in Hollywood, Politics and the U.N. are Subverting America," called into her own show from the hospital to say she was 'blessed to be surrounded by people who love' her and to ask listeners to pray for her.

"I am absolutely blown away by how helpful and kind everyone has been – including total strangers who have experienced the same roller coaster of emotions," she said. I will have an operation and within a few days will know more about the future. I am hopeful for a bright future and a "normal" life (well, scratch the "normal" part). And remember, I'll be back sooner than you think.

Indeed. Ingraham is still going strong today.

Ashleigh Banfield slams war news coverage

April 25, 2003: NBC reporter Ashleigh Banfield slammed her colleagues in television news over coverage of the war in Iraq, saying the realities of the conflict never reached American viewers.

Banfield, in a speech at Kansas State University, lashed out at "cable news operators who wrap themselves in the American flag and go after a certain target demographic."

The dig was a veiled swipe at Fox News Channel, whose war coverage included a patriotic tinge. Canadian-born Banfield hosted "MSNBC Investigates" on the No. 3 cable news network, MSNBC. While MSNBC's ratings improved during the war, the network still came up short in the ratings game behind No. 1 Fox and CNN.

Bird-brain pitcher

April 24, 2003: A minor-league pitcher in the Chicago Cubs organization was booted from his Florida nest and faced criminal charges after knocking a bird from its perch with a baseball.

"Jae-kuk Ryu is no longer a Daytona Cub," said Buck Rogers, the team's general manager.

The 19-year-old South Korean, who throws a 96-mph fastball, was demoted to the Lansing Lugnuts in Michigan.

Before a spring-training game against the Port St. Lucie Mets, Ryu took several tries to aim for and successfully knock an osprey from its nest.

After WND gave the story national exposure, the Daytona Cubs were flooded with hundreds of angry e-mails, including this one:

"Jae-kuk Ryu is cruel, a monster, has no regard for life and has no place in baseball, minor or major leagues. This is an outrage and if you don't do something to remove this player, you are just as liable as this vicious a-- of a human. Send him back to wherever he came from, after he finishes his jail term, pays fines and all cost associated with treating this semi-endangered species of regal bird. Furthermore, we will boycott all games until he is removed – permanently."

Airport forces girl to remove fake leg

April 23, 2003: A year and a half after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a teen-age athlete and her family were outraged after airport security officials forced the girl to remove her prosthetic limb in public.

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy, Australia's tallest female basketball player, said she was humiliated when forced to prove her right leg was a prosthesis in front of dozens of other horrified airline passengers.

"It is quite clear when I lift my pants that I wear a leg prosthesis," O'Kelly-Kennedy said.

"I had also given it a few whacks so there was no doubt that it sounded like a false leg. It was too much that security staff then chose to frisk me, from ankle to hip, in front of dozens of other passengers. I had already taken my shoes off, which made standing difficult, and I was not even offered a seat."

Fiddler on the spoof

April 22, 2006: An Israeli cartoon competition to find the "best, sharpest, most offensive Jew-hating cartoons ever published," launched in response to an Iranian daily newspaper's international cartoon contest focusing on the Holocaust, picked for its winner a "fiddler on the roof" takeoff on September 11.

All the hoopla over the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammed – and the subsequent decision by Iran to sponsor a cartoon contest on the Holocaust – inspired Israelis Eyal Zusman, actor and playwright, and Amitai Sandy, graphic artist and publisher of Dimona Comix Publishing in Tel-Aviv, "to fight the fire with humor."

"You should only poke fun at your own kind. We'll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!" Sandy promised when the contest went online. "No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!"

Gender-bender bill lets employees choose

April 21, 2003: California Democrats, lead by a San Francisco lawmaker, passed a bill on this day mandating fines of up to $150,000 against business owners – including Bible bookstores and nonprofit organizations such as the Boy Scouts – for refusing to hire cross-dressing and transsexual job applicants.

The bill's subjective definition of "gender" was "identity, appearance, or behavior, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the victim's sex at birth."

"If I have a Christian bookstore, how could I possibly follow this law?" one Republican assemblyman asked. "How could I possibly have an employee that's here today in a dress, tomorrow may come in a suit, and then stay in a dress? How can I possibly employ this employee and still have the Christian bookstore and live by my faith?"

"You are messing with people's perception of their souls and their afterlife," said another.

Uncle Osama wants you

April 20, 2000: Sixteen months before Osama bin Laden sent 19 of his followers to destroy the World Trade Center and attack the Pentegon, WND reported on the terror master's efforts to recruit volunteers from among Muslim youths in Pakistan to engage in war against the United States.

The call to arms against Washington came in the form of small, glossy, poster-sized messages depicting burning U.S., Indian and Israeli flags, as well as a "locked and loaded" image of an AK-47 rifle.

The messages circulated in Pakistan's staunchly conservative Northwest Frontier Province said, "The youth should contact us as soon as possible. Territorial boundaries have no importance in our eyes. All land belongs to God."

The solicitation, attributed to bin Laden, concluded, "No one can stop me."

Elian doctor worked for Hillary

April 19, 2000: The pediatrician who advised the U.S. government on how best to handle Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez – who told the press the 6-year-old Cuban refugee is being "horrendously exploited" and should be "immediately" removed from Miami relatives' home – was a member of then-first lady Hillary Clinton's secretive health care task force.

"Elian Gonzalez is now in a state of imminent danger to his physical and emotional well-being in a home that I consider to be psychologically abusive," Redlener wrote in his letter to federal officials.

He added: "I believe there is no justification whatsoever to wait any longer in carrying out actions that I believe are legally appropriate and, more importantly, clearly in the best interest of this child who continues to be horrendously exploited in this bizarre and destructive ambiance."

Redlener based his analysis on a videotape showing the boy saying he didn't want to go back to Cuba. Three days later, Gonzalez was taken by force.

In the beginning ...

April 18, 1997: WorldNetDaily.com was first registered as a domain name. Less than a month later, May 4, 1997, it launched as a website.

Several other names were considered, including DailyPlanet.com.

"But I didn't want anyone to think I had a Superman complex," said co-founder Joseph Farah. "Besides, it was already taken."

The predecessor to WorldNetDaily – Farah's first website – was actually called etruth.com.

"But I wanted a name that would instantly get across that this new creation was 'a daily newspaper online' – a daily newspaper without the paper," Farah added.

Illegals vs. Dobbs' job

April 17, 2006: Illegal-alien activists who pulled off major rallies in several cities shifted part of their focus by targeting a newsman they saw hurting their cause.

An "Ax AOL" campaign was organized to coincide with a national action by various groups defending illegal immigration, but the real target of their wrath was Lou Dobbs of CNN.

But why Lou Dobbs?

According to the organizers: "Lou Dobbs has become the champion zealot of bashing 'illegal immigration' each night at CNN promoting HR 4437 as the only way of dealing with 'Broken Borders' to protect the USA. The only way to stop Lou Dobbs, the raving populist xenophobe, is to invoke 'The Achilles heel: AOL.'"

Quack in the USSR

April 16, 2003: Actor and anti-war activist Tim Robbins said the United States is now viewed by much of the world as the Soviet Union once was, "as a rogue state."

"In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred," Robbins said in a speech to the National Press Club.

"Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state."

"A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio ... and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications."

Librarian attacked for promoting 'Marketing of Evil'

April 15, 2006: Librarians recommend books, right? It's their job.

Well, one Ohio State University librarian who recommended "The Marketing of Evil" by WND's David Kupelian for the school's required freshman-reading list found himself under "investigation" after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment, saying Kupelian's book made them feel "unsafe."

Scott Savage, his accusers charged, was "anti-gay" and his suggestions "homophobic tripe."

Professor J.F. Buckley let Savage know what he thought of his book pick an e-mail: "Rather than waste your time with the paucity of intellectual rigor that Kupelian brings to the table, I encourage you to visit his website, and see for yourself his unmitigated homophobia and xenophobia. In short, he is a pontificating, phobic, cultural atavism bemoaning the loss of an (Anglo) America that only existed on such shows as "The Lone Ranger."

Inquiring minds don't want to know

April 14, 2000: A biology professor who brought critical thinking to his subject – evolution – discovered administrators at Central Oregon Community College didn't appreciate his tinkering with Darwin's theory.

Kevin Haley's contract to teach was not renewed following a four-month investigation that saw him accused of teaching "creationism" – a charge he denied.

"There's a philosophy behind [evolution]," said Haley. "The only reason we say life comes from non-life is because the naturalistic philosophy demands it. That's fine. The thing that must be understood, though, is that it's a philosophy. If the assumption is 'no god,' and you work within those parameters, you end up with evolution."

'Kill Bush' T-shirt for sale

April 13, 2005: An online store that boasts of giving online-selling opportunities to "individuals, organizations and businesses to create, buy and sell customized merchandise online" decided it wasn't going to give any more opportunity to the marketer of a T-shirt with the words "Kill Bush" and a phony bloodstain.

The shirt's black and red lettering on yellow said:

For God's Sake ...
KILL BUSH
Save the United States
and the Rest of the World

Eventually, the company put a message up on the former page, saying: "Hate related materials are in violation of our terms of service and are prohibited from being sold through CafePress.com."

No word on whether the Secret Service called.

Forget 'The Alamo'!

April 12, 2004: The rallying cry of "Remember the Alamo" was suddenly "Forget 'The Alamo'" – at least when it came to the Disney film which took in a meager $9.2 million in its opening weekend.

"I'm shocked, quite honestly, at the number," said Chuck Viane, Disney's head of distribution. "If I could only figure out what went wrong, you'd never let it happen again. The movie deserved better than it did."

The $100 million epic, which recounts the last stand of American heroes including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, finished in third place behind a resurrected "Passion of the Christ" and "Hellboy."

The poor box-office showing came on the heels of a WND report focusing on allegations the film was filled with revisionist history and political correctness.

Smoking gun in the e-mail?

April 11, 2000: A stash of unrecorded West Wing e-mail totaled close to 1 million, not the 100,000 first reported, and included messages from the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, WND learned.

Some estimates put the number of e-mails from intern Monica Lewinsky to White House officials at about 4,000. But a computer contractor familiar with the White House e-mail system claims it's closer to tens of thousands – the biggest chunk addressed to Ashley Raines, a former White House aide who's reportedly Clinton's goddaughter.

"When I heard the number, I couldn't believe they talked that much," the contractor said. "They must have been busy typing all day long. I don't know if they did any work."

Air Force One defenses, diagrams posted online

April 10, 2006: A government document posted to the website of an unnamed Air Force base containing "specific" information about the anti-missile defense system of Air Force One, the president's official airplane, raised an alarm with Air Force officials.

"It is not a good thing," said Lt. Col Bruce Alexander, director of public affairs for the Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, which operates the fleet of presidential airplanes. "We are concerned with how it got there and how we can get it out. This affects operational security."

The website document contained detailed maps of the two plane's interiors, including the location where Secret Service agents are stationed. The location of Air Force One's medical facility "where a terrorist armed with a high-caliber sniper rifle could detonate the tanks that supply oxygen" was also shown.

ACLU: Jail school officials for prayer

April 9, 2005: The ACLU sought to have officials at a New Orleans school district fined or jailed for not stopping prayer at a high school baseball game.

Public prayer at school-related functions is "un-American and immoral," contended ACLU of Louisiana's executive director, Joe Cook.

Cook said it's "time to put out the welcome mat to believers and non-believers alike at all public school functions across the state and the nation. Children and parents whose beliefs are different from the majority must not be made to feel like outsiders in their own schools."

Forget? No way, says southern heritage group

April 8, 2001: On this day six years ago – one day before the 136th anniversary of General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House – WND reported on efforts of a southern heritage group to petition Congress to conduct "a thorough, non-partisan" review of what it said were "neglected injustices" committed by Union troops and generals in the South during the 1861-65 War Between the States.

The group's request for Congress to examine its charges, along with consideration of a suit to force the payment of reparations to people of historic Southern ancestry, came alongside the issue of paying reparations to blacks for years of slavery, which was declared illegal by Lincoln in 1863.

"The shame of war crimes and acts of vengeance against southern Americans in action [is] perhaps best described by [Union] Gen. William T. Sherman, who said: '... about 20 percent of our effort (in Georgia and South Carolina) was against military objectives. The rest [80 percent] was sheer waste and destruction.'

"Sadly, such unconscionable depredations were all too common across the South during both the war and Reconstruction.

Nobody can explain Vince Foster inconsistencies

April 7, 1998: Americans skeptical of the official pronouncement of former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster's 1993 death as suicide were given further reason to question how the close associate of then-First Lady Hillary Clinton died when WND reported on a recently released FBI memo containing significant inconsistencies

Further, all the official investigators who might have been the source of the faulty observations pleaded ignorance and refused to accept responsibility.

WND contacted the FBI's Washington Field Office and a media representative said no information could be provided as to the author of the memo, particularly since she did not possess a copy of it. When asked if she would like a copy faxed to her, she responded, "No, I don't want to get involved in this."

A quick check on WND's Site Search page reveals years of coverage on this still-strange death and one that is likely to be re-examined in the press during the upcoming presidential-election cycle.

China clipped U.S. plane in 'electronic ambush'

April 6, 2001: Six years ago, it wasn't British military personnel captured by Iranians dominating the front page – it was the "well-laid electronic ambush" of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane clipped by a Chinese fighter and forced to land at a Chinese electronic-surveillance airbase.

An intelligence report cited Chinese sources who indicated the capture of the prized aircraft and its crew was payback.

"The operation – in addition to netting Beijing a sensational intelligence technology scoop – satisfied a thirst for vengeance" over a series of U.S. "affronts," the report said. "China ... chose its moment for exacting retribution for what it regarded as a series of