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The Armenian Massacres in 1894-1896 were the first near-genocidal series of atrocities committed against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. They were carried out during the reign of Abdul Hamid (Abdulhamit) II (1876-1909), the last sultan effectively to rule over the Turkish state. The massacres broke out in the summer of 1894 in the remote region of Sasun in southern Armenia, where the government relied on the excuse of Armenian resistance to Kurdish encroachment into the last recesses of the mountains to order the sacking of the alpine hamlets. The incident resulted in strong Armenian protests against the sultan's...

Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center. Hamid, an employee at a mall kiosk near Starbucks, has been charged with battery, terrorist threats and grand theft. According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Christian comments, said police. Lt. Mike Elerick of the Pleasanton Police Department said the man was not provoked and didn't threaten violence,...

CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has been arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said Thursday. Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connections with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York. "This alleged plot drives home...

A 20-year-old American who fought with the Taliban and survived a bloody prison uprising near Mazar-i-Sharif last week has been taken into custody by U.S. special forces troops, Newsweek magazine said on its Web site on Sunday. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which is running the military campaign on Afghanistan , confirmed that a man claiming to be an American was in the control of U.S. military forces. ``Military forces in Afghanistan do have in their control a man who calls himself a U.S. citizen,'' Marine Maj. Brad Lowell, a Central Command spokesman, said. ``He was among the al ...

American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has asked President Bush again to reduce his 20-year prison sentence by an unspecified amount, Lindh's attorney said Tuesday. Lindh, now in his early 20s, wrote a first-person account to the Justice Department's pardon attorneys arguing why he believes Bush should reduce his sentence. Lindh's attorney said the document could not be publicly released under U.S. government restrictions intended to prevent Lindh from disclosing national secrets. Lindh, a native of Marin County, Calif., who is now imprisoned in southern California, was captured in Afghanistan weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He pleaded...

Last week, John Walker Lindh  petitioned the president to commute his 20-year sentence for fighting with the Taliban, imposed in 2002.  It’s a shame that this pampered child of Marin County is sitting in a cell for something as trivial as treason. Under a plea bargain, Walker Lindh (AKA: Abdul Hamid, AKA: Sulayman Al-Lindh) pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban regime and carrying explosives for  Afghanistan’s former rulers.Which is like to saying that Benedict Arnold supplied services to George III. Johnny Jihad trained in an al-Qaeda camp – where he learned to fire an AK-47 and rubbed elbows...

BAGHDAD, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. troops arrested the leader of one of Iraq's main Sunni Arab political parties at his house in Baghdad on Monday, party officials said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the arrest of Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party. The party officials said it was not clear why he was arrested. The party boycotted Iraq's Jan. 30 elections but was among several Sunni Arab groups that signalled this month that they were ready to take a greater role in the country's politics. Iraq's parliament, dominated by Shi'ites and Kurds, has...

(excerpted) Spann [to Walker]: Hey you. Right here with your head down. Look at me. I know you speak English. Look at me. Where did you get the British military sweater? (excerpted) Spann: Where are you from? Where are you from? You believe in what you’re doing here that much, you’re willing to be killed here? How were you recruited to come here? Who brought you here? Hey! [He snaps his fingers in front of Walker’s face. Walker is unresponsive] (excerpted) Spann: What, are you puzzled? (Excerpted) Spann: You got to talk to me. All I want to do is...

U.S. detains, kicks out two Canadian Muslims By COLIN FREEZE From Saturday's Globe and Mail UPDATED AT 2:39 AM EDT Saturday, Sep. 13, 2003 Two moderate Islamic scholars were kicked out of the United States and sent back to Canada last night, after U.S. authorities detained them as suspected terrorists when they landed in Florida on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Ahmad Kutty, 59, and Abdool Hamid, 37, are Canadian citizens affiliated with the Islamic Centre of Canada in Mississauga, Ont. They were flying to Orlando to lead an Islamic prayer service, but were intercepted by immigration agents...

American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh sentenced to 20 years in prison. Details coming.

Tale of an American Taliban In an exclusive, a U.S. citizen on the horror at Kala Jangi By Colin Soloway NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Dec. 1 — Abdul Hamid is tall, thin and barefoot in a filthy black tunic. A prisoner of the Northern Alliance, he sits with his elbows bound behind his back with a strip of cloth, his right leg and left foot bandaged for gunshot wounds. Hamid’s face is almost entirely covered in dirt and black soot, but it is quickly apparent that he is not just another beaten and frightened Taliban warrior. Abdul Hamid, age 20, ...

Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, the American who fought with the Taliban, claim he was systematically brutalised and threatened with 'torture and death' after US troops seized him. The claims come as his lawyers prepare to argue that he was a soldier of the Taliban, not an anti-US terrorist. At the centre of his defence will be his claim that the witness statement he provided to his FBI interrogators was given under duress and in the hope of ending his mistreatment. Lindh is being tried in an ordinary court and will not face the death penalty, unlike foreign prisoners, who...