Free Republic

A group of Taliban sustained casualties as they were busy manufacturing an improvised explosive device, roadside bomb, in a mosque in North of Afghanistan. The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the incident took place in a mosque in Chahabar Bolak district of Balkh. The statement further added that a group of 8 Taliban IED experts were busy manufacturing a bomb inside a mosque in Sikandar Khel Village. The premature explosion caused by IED killed four Taliban militants and wounded at least four others, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement. According to Shaheen Corps, the explosion killed...

Five suspected terrorists were reportedly killed during police raids at two different locations in Bali late on Sunday. Police have yet to issue an official statement on the nature of the raids and details on the casualties. The first raid took place at around 10:15 p.m. in a budget hotel, Laksmi, on Jl. Danau Poso 99X, Sanur. The area is known as one of the most famous red-light districts in Bali, where people can easily obtain a cheap room from staff at budget hotels who rarely ask for valid identification from their guests. Neighbors said that they heard a burst...

INDONESIAN cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told a court Thursday that Muslims have a religious duty to take up arms against non-believers, as he offered his first defence against terrorism charges. The cleric who is regarded as a spiritual leader of Islamist militants around the region is accused of leading an Al-Qaeda-style militant group that was discovered training recruits in Aceh province last year. Police jostled with about 200 of the frail 72-year-old's radical supporters as he arrived under tight guard amid shouts of "Allahu akbar" ... The cleric is an alleged co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror organisation blamed...

SNIPPET: "The police arrested two terrorist suspects at the house: Fahri Tanjung, also known as Hilmi, and Hamzah. The police also found chemicals they believed were to be used to make explosives and an activated hand-made high-explosive bomb inside the house. West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said the police detonated the high-explosive bomb on location after failing to defuse it. Books and VCDs on jihad, as well as an air rifle were seized as evidence. One of the VCDs was titled Afghanistan jihad: The journey of the oppressed. Sutarman said the suspects had been involved in acts of...

Hi everyone – apologies for the hiatus. I’ve been underwater lately with work and hitting the media circuit so the blog drew the short end of the stick. I’m back in the saddle and have some exciting things in the pipeline that should break soon. While you wait, here’s a long-overdue round-up of my recent antics:

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong direction on this whole NSA issue. I can’t help but think that for the Dems to go to such lengths, there has to be some campaign money in it for them. Just like they pander to the far left whackos I.E. Moveon.org, maybe they also have to protect themselves as well as pander to some of their big money supporters who may not want their overseas calls monitored by the Bush administration. This is just a first attempt to connect some dots, but it is interesting. Let’s start with Judge Robertson and the Clintons....

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested Wan Min Wan Mat, a key leader of Kumpulan Militant Malaysia (KMM) during an operation in Kota Baru Friday morning. Inspector-general of police Tan Sri Norian Mai said the 42-year-old former Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer was arrested at about 9.30am. Police are looking for eight suspects who are key KMM members and are offering a RM50,000 reward for information on each leader.

KUALA LUMPUR, November 10 (IslamOnline) - The Muslim leader accused of terror links with the al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Abu Bakar Bashir risks deportation to Malaysia, Singapore or the U.S. if he is stripped of his Indonesian nationality, sources said Sunday, November 10. Singapore and Malaysia have in the past urged Indonesia to arrest Bashir for his alleged role in terror activities on their soil. Basyir is accused by Singapore of being the spiritual leader of the JI while Malaysia has him high on the terror list allegedly for connections with the Malaysian Mujahidin Movement (KMM). The U.S....

A leader of a Minneapolis mosque today criticized testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing that indirectly linked it to a terrorist group's recruitment of young Somali men from the city. Farhan Hurre, director of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in south Minneapolis rebuffed what he called "finger-pointing and false allegations" at the hearing held Wednesday by the Senate's homeland security committee. Mosque leaders have repeatedly pushed back against rumors and news reports that have drawn a connection between it and the disappearance of as many as 20 Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities. During the hearing, a representative of the local...

Nigeria VP Charged With Corruption(AP) NEW YORK Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar was charged Tuesday at a special anti-graft court with more than a dozen counts of corruption stemming from the alleged diversion of $125 million of public funds to private interests. Charges filed by prosecutors before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in the Nigerian capital against Abubakar also include allegations he received more than $4.6 million in bribes. Abubakar, who is feuding with President Olusegun Obasanjo, has in the past dismissed the allegations as part of a plot to stop him from running for Nigeria's top office in April's...

Nigeria: He Abused His Office - ObjDaily Champion (Lagos) September 13, 2006 Posted to the web September 13, 2006 David Idonor Abuja PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday rose in stout defence of his decision to send the report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which investigated Vice President Atiku Abubakar to the National Assembly, insisting that the V-P abused his office. In a press statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, Obasanjo advised Atiku to "address pertinent issues at hand, rather than alleging it was a case of political persecution". The...

GREENBELT, Md. - Nigeria's vice president sought up to $500,000 and a stake in a technology venture in his country, according to statements Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) made to an FBI informant that were detailed in court documents filed in a bribery probe of the congressman. Jefferson allegedly told the FBI informant that he had delivered "African art," which authorities believe was code for cash, to the Potomac, Md., home of the wife of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar at midnight last July 31. Details of the alleged deal were included in an affidavit filed in U.S....

The United States said yesterday that it was "disappointed" and "disturbed" by the 2-1/2-year prison sentence a five-judge panel in Indonesia handed a Muslim cleric for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 persons, including seven Americans. Abu Bakar Bashir, who is thought to be the leader of the al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, also was cleared of charges that he planned the 2003 suicide attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. +snip+ Bashir had faced the death penalty over the Marriott bombing, in which 12 persons died. He also was accused of inciting his followers...

INGAPORE, Jan. 25 — Shortly after the United States began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7, a 30-year- old Indonesian traveling on a false Filipino passport slipped into this tightly controlled city-state carrying a plan to strike back at America. His mission, investigators say, was to activate a "sleeper cell" of Islamic militants who had long been waiting for a call from Al Qaeda's leaders in Afghanistan. This group, which had been loosely organized for eight years, began planning to blow up the embassies of the United States, Israel, Australia and Britain, the investigators say. The plot was foiled when 13 ...

JAKARTA (AP): A former U.S. State Department interpreter testified on Thursday that one month before the 2002 Bali bombings, Washington urged Indonesia to arrest and send to America the Islamic cleric accused of inspiring his followers to carry out the attack. The witness, Fred Burks, told a court that a U.S. envoy made the appeal in a meeting with former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who took a breath and thought for a moment before saying, "I cannot fulfill the request of the U.S. president." Burks said the envoy, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, later warned that if the cleric,...

JAKARTA - Indonesian prosecutors on Friday formally charged militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir with involvement in a suicide bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel. His trial is expected to begin in about two weeks, Yunda Hasbi, an official at the South Jakarta district court told reporters. If found guilty, Abu Bakar could face the death penalty under Indonesia's anti-terrorism law. Prosecutors are expected to focus on his alleged leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah, an extremist group authorities say has ties to Al-Qaeda.

Johannesbnurg - The government was urged on Tuesday to help two South Africans being detained in Pakistan on suspicion of being recruits of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. A Pakistani official said Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail had told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg. Last week, the foreign affairs ministry named the two men as Feroze Ganchi, a medical doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismail, from Laudium, Pretoria. The Media Review Network, an advocacy group which aims to dispel myths and stereotypes about Islam, urged the government and human rights organisations to...

A cleric of the extremist Islamic group labelled the prime suspect for last weekend's Bali bombings has warned Australia against becoming involved in any attack on Iraq. Considered to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir said he thought the blasts were the work of the US. When questioned whether he, or his group, had anything to do with the bombing, Abu Bakar replied: "No, indeed I condemn the bombing and I'm sure this is nothing to do with the Indonesians. I'm certain that it was engineered by foreign intelligence - which means I deeply suspect the...