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Living With Osama bin Laden: First Wife Tells of Husband's Bid To Train His Sons As Suicide Bombers Daily Mail Reporter 12th October 2009 Osama bin Laden was a tyrant who trained his own children to be suicide bombers and murdered their pets, his first wife has revealed. In a new book about her time living with bin Laden, Najwa Ghanem has told how she gave birth to 11 of his 14 children because bin Laden said that Islam needed many warriors. And millionaire bin Laden would not allow any modern appliances in his home, even refusing his son medicine...

A French physicist with the European atomic research centre near Geneva was charged with terrorism offences by a Paris judge last night after investigators said that he offered to work with the North African branch of al-Qaeda. Adlène Hicheur, 32, who is of Algerian origin, was arrested last week with his younger brother after intelligence agents intercepted his alleged internet contacts with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The physicist, who works at the giant atomic collider at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), which straddles Swiss and French territory, told the Islamic group that he was interested in committing an...

Algeria cancels weapons deal over Israeli parts Algerian newspaper quotes senior source as saying air force called off major weapons deal with France when manufacturers failed to guarantee equipment does not include components made in Israel Doron Peskin Published: 10.12.09, 12:17 An Algerian newspaper claimed that the North African nation's air force cancelled a major weapons deal with France after the French manufacturers were unwilling to guarantee that the equipment to be provided does not include any components made in Israel. The el-Khabar newspaper quoted a senior Algerian source as saying the deal would not be executed due to the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Major Executive Speeches Robert S. Mueller, III Director Federal Bureau of Investigation International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference Denver, Colorado October 5, 2009 Good morning. As always, it is good to be here. I have been coming to the IACP since 2001. Year after year, I look out at all of you, and I ask myself the same question. Could I handle the challenges you face, day after day? Could I do the jobs you do with the same success? And the answer is no, for one simple reason: I could...

Sweden’s Aftonbladet started it. The fact that both the article’s author and the paper’s editor already admitted they had no corroborating evidence meant little to “antiZionists”. Now the libel is spreading, like wildfire, throughout Islamic lands. The Bangladeshi Weekly Blitz reports: The anti-Semitic blogosphere as well as many Arab and Muslim media outlets are abuzz these days with accusations of an international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap Algerian children and harvest their organs. Unlike the multiple conspiracy theories about Jews circulating among radical fringe organizations online, this one seems to be gaining momentum on mainstream Arab and Muslim Web sites. According...

Algiers tense after clashes with Chinese traders by Abdellah Cheballah Wed Aug 5, 10:02 pm ET ALGIERS (AFP) – The streets of Algiers are deserted following clashes between Chinese and Algerian traders, but the tension is palpable despite comments by Beijing's envoy describing the unrest as an isolated incident. "I thought I was going to die," said Abdelkrim Salaouda, sitting on a chair in front of his shop selling household electrical goods in the city's Bab Ezzouar quarter, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city centre. According to Salaouda, the clashes broke out over a dispute on Monday afternoon between...

Middle East navies eye new submarines TEHRAN, July 17 (UPI) -- Submarine warfare seems to be in vogue in the Middle East these days, with Israel leading the way. Iran, Algeria and Egypt are also planning to acquire new submarines that could operate in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Israel's surprise deployment of one of its German-built Dolphin boats, the 1,500-ton Leviathan, in the Red Sea in late June underscored the regional trend. The Type-800 boat's highly visible transit from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea was widely seen...

URUMQI, China (AP) — China's embassy in Algeria has warned Chinese companies and workers to be on guard for attacks after an Islamist Web site called for retaliation for Beijing's response to unrest in its predominantly Muslim western province. A notice posted late Tuesday on the embassy's Web site follows a torrent of ethnic clashes this month that left at least 184 dead in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi. Riots by Muslim Uighurs and subsequent fighting between Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority were the worst ethnic violence China has seen in decades. "In light of the (riots), the...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: Police dismantle Algiers terror cell 12/07/2009 Algerian anti-terror units on Saturday (July 11th) dismantled a terror cell and arrested nine people, including several women, in the eastern Algiers suburbs of Bordj El Kiffan and Kouba, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. A suspect arrested as part of the investigation into al-Qaeda's El Fateh brigade in Algiers provided key information. According to security sources, the network had being submitting information to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on the movement and the organisation of security services in Algiers.

Algeria has created its first official Jewish association, which will be headed by a prominent Algerian Jewish lawyer. The establishment of the association is in accordance with a 2006 law on non-Muslim religions, which mandated that all non-Muslim religions should have representation from accredited associations. Mohamed Fellahi, the Algerian minister for Religious Affairs, appointed Roger Saïd, a lawyer from the Bilda region, to act as the representative of the Jewish community in a religious and cultural capacity. In Algeria, Jews are scarce and difficult to account for. There are no official records on the number of Jews living in the...

SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON: The family of an Algerian national held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo for seven years is delighted he is due to arrive in France next week to start a new life. Lakhdar Boumediene, 42, would be the first non-French citizen from Guantanamo to be taken in by France since President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the prison camp when he took office in January. “I cannot hide the fact I am really happy. Soon, he is going to be freed,” his wife Abassia Bouadjimi told AFP Wednesday from Algeria. “He really is keen to be...

Former terror chiefs have called on Al Qaeda-linked insurgents battling Algerian authorities to lay down their arms and benefit from a pardon, media reported Saturday. Authorities are trying to persuade an estimated 500 active militants linked to Al Qaeda to lay down their arms. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hinted repeatedly during his re-election campaign last month that he would consider a general amnesty for those renouncing violence. The three were formerly members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, one of the armed factions that battled Algerian authorities in the 1990s. Up to an estimated 200,000 people have...

Moshe Hassan's father knew the process of aliya inside and out. "My father tried to come here from Tunis in 1946, but was caught by the British and sent to Cyprus," Hassan told The Jerusalem Post by telephone on Sunday. "He was put in a camp there, and that's where he met my mother. They immigrated to Israel in 1948." They settled in Beit Hagadi, a religious moshav next to Netivot, but the elder Hassan would spend little time in his new country. Asked by the Jewish Agency to help bring Moroccan Jews on aliya, Ya'acov Hassan returned to North...

The following news brief is a quote: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/news/awi/newsbriefs/general/2009/04/26/newsbrief-02 Algerian, Moroccan stowaways arrested in Canada 26/04/2009 Authorities in the Canadian port of Halifax found five Moroccan and two Algerian illegal immigrants hiding on a Swedish cargo ship arriving from Antwerp, Belgium, Echorouk reported on Saturday (April 25th). The stowaways, all young men in their twenties, were taken into custody on Thursday night. Border officials are conducting interviews to determine whether to deport them or allow them to begin a refugee claim process, Canadian press reported.

Al-Qaeda’s North African arm has threatened to kill a British hostage within 20 days unless Britain releases the extremist cleric Abu Qatada from a maximum security jail. In a message posted on a well-known jihadist website, the group demanded the release of the Palestinian preacher in return for that of a British hostage captured this year.

The locals in the mountain village of Ait Hidja still speak of the night six months ago when members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) decapitated a prison warden and set fire to his car. “The night they cut his head there was such terror in the village,” says Ahcene Idja, an unemployed university graduate. “Then they kidnapped a man and held him hostage until his family paid ransom.” The now-abandoned stone cottage where the killing took place stands on a country road rising from the valley to the village. The burnt hulk of the car lies in the...

Algeria, The north African nation already has more than 10, 000 women police officers and is swelling the ranks even more. Another 177 women officers have just graduated to a force where they make up almost eight per cent, the largest female police contingent in the Arab world. Category: Pets & Animals

Here, in the courtyard of an ancient convent, the Wall of the Disappeared lists the names of some 2,700 “pieds noirs” — black feet, as the white French former colonists in Algeria were called. Pieds noirs (the term’s origins are obscure, but perhaps had something to do with black boots) mostly emigrated originally from Spain, Italy, Germany, Malta and other European countries, often as laborers and farmers. They became French citizens during the 130-odd years Algeria was under France’s thumb. Then during the chaotic weeks and months after France, under Charles de Gaulle, ended its colonial war with Algerian nationalists...

Al-Qaida's North Africa branch claimed Wednesday it is holding hostage a senior U.N. peace envoy, his aide and four tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert in recent weeks. "We announce to the general public that the mujahideen (holy warriors) reserve the right to deal with the six kidnapped according to Islamic Shariah law," the al-Qaida group said in a statement posted Wednesday ...

Double drug-rape disgrace of CIA’s top agent in Algeria Matthew Campbell A CIA station chief in Algeria, who was accused of drugging and raping two Algerian women, filmed the attacks and stored images on his computer, an official investigation has discovered. Andrew Warren, 41, seemed to have all the right qualifications as an undercover agent in the Middle East. An African-American schooled in martial arts, he is a convert to Islam who speaks six Arabic dialects. His disgrace, however, has served only to inflame resentment of America at a time when President Barack Obama is trying to improve his country’s...

An Algerian-born man was sentenced to seven years in prison for firebombing two Montreal Jewish institutions. Omar Bulphred pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of arson and two of making threats in connection with the firebombing of a Jewish school in 2006 and a Jewish community center in 2007. The court heard that 23-year-old Bulphred also wrote letters claiming the crimes were committed in the name of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The news that Andrew Warren, the CIA station chief in Algeria, allegedly drugged and raped two local Muslim women at his U.S. embassy residence in North Africa would be shocking anywhere around the globe — at anytime. But the fact that this happened in Algeria, presently, could not be worse news for world security. If a CIA presence in Algeria was unwelcome before, no doubt Warren’s actions (Warren is a self-described convert to Islam) have greatly jeopardized the CIA’s legitimacy and credibility in a volatile nation that has become the newest laboratory for al-Qaeda’s deadly biological warfare program. According to...

The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News. Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September. The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department...

The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News. Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

War On Terror: President Obama steps into office with awesome responsibilities, not least of which is protecting the U.S. from its enemies, foreign and domestic. From Algeria, we get a reminder of how tough that job is.For those who think the global war on terror is just a bad memory from the Bush administration, you might be surprised to discover it isn't. The threat is real — even more so, given that so many people are convinced it no longer exists. An overlooked news item out of Algeria puts to rest that notion. The report says that an al-Qaida affiliate...

An Al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday. The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 Al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

Al Qaeda terrorists have been left fearing the Black Death plague after it wiped out at least 40 insurgents at an Algerian training camp, it was reported today. The horror disease, which killed 25 million people in medieval Europe, is understood to have been found in a militant’s body dumped at a roadside. Terror group AQLIM (al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb) was forced to turn its shelter in the Yakouren forests into mass graves and flee, it has been claimed. Now al Qaeda chiefs are said to fear the plague has been passed into other cells...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12449 IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 040-09 January 17, 2009 Detainee Transfer Announced The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of six detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Four detainees were transferred to Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan. These detainees were determined to be eligible for departure following a comprehensive series of review processes. The transfer is a demonstration of the United States’ desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. It also underscores the processes put in place to assess each individual and make a determination about their detention while...

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH. At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim...

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH. At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim...

December 29, 2008 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/December/08-nsd-1151.html Former Maryland Man Charged with Conspiracy to Act as an Iraqi Agent Defendant Allegedly Worked for the Government of Iraq and Assisted the Iraqi Intelligence Service WASHINGTON – A criminal complaint was filed today charging Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, age 47, formerly of Maryland, with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, specifically, as an agent of Iraq, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Patrick Rowan, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. Darwish is a Canadian citizen born in Iraq....

<p>GENEVA (AP) - Islamic proposals to ban criticism of religion, which have gathered strength since the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad two years ago, threaten to derail an already troubled U.N. anti-racism conference planned for next year. The European Union rejects suggestions by Algeria—backed by other Muslim and African countries—that limits on free speech are needed to stop the publication of offensive articles and images.</p>

Ahmed Ressam was resentenced this morning to 22 years in federal prison for conspiring to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport despite telling a judge that he recanted everything he has told the federal government about terrorist activities. Federal prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge John Coughenour to send Ressam to prison for life — a sentence Ressam said he would accept now that he had cleared his conscience about his cooperation, which ended in 2003. Prosecutors pointed out that Ressam's defiance has cost two high-profile terrorism prosecutions so far, and that Ressam has actively tried to help the cases...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.memriiwmp.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=501 Latest on Islamist Website Monitor Report: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Discussed Attack on Algerian Parliament, Army COS, Ministers The Algerian daily Ennahar El-Djadid reports that a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, referred to only by the initials M. A., has revealed the details of discussions between himself and other AQIM members regarding plans to attack government and military buildings, including the Algerian parliament. Posted at : 2008-12-03

(ANSA) - Milan, December 2 - Two Moroccans arrested on Tuesday were planning terrorist attacks on targets in northern Italy after failing to make the ``necessary contacts`` to be sent abroad as jihad fighters, police said. Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, are alleged to have been planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region. Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation`` despite wiretapped conversations...

In Sarcelles, a northern suburb, I walked through a crowd of black children yesterday who were arguing about which of them was "le plus Obama" -- the most like Obama. As it has done all over Europe, the election of a US president called Barack Hussein has given a lift to minorities who feel marooned outside the mainstream. This weekend, the imminent arrival in the White House of someone with an African Muslim name has prompted a new campaign for racial integration, supported by Carla Bruni, President Sarkozy's wife. Yazid Zabeg, an Algerian-born millionaire and the JDD Sunday newspaper have...

The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 32.26 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in October, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials just released. This is a 210,000 b/d decline from the September level of 32.47 million b/d. Excluding Iraq, production from the 12 members hitherto bound by output agreements fell by 220,000 b/d, to 29.96 million b/d from 30.18 million b/d, the survey showed. When Indonesia, which will leave OPEC at year end is also excluded, the survey shows a 210,000 b/d drop in...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

The European Union, increasingly anxious to reduce its dependence on Russian gas following the conflict in Georgia, has offered Nigeria financial and political backing for a €15bn ($21bn, £12bn) trans-Saharan pipeline to pump its gas directly to Europe. Renewed European interest in the project comes against a backdrop of mounting fears that Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, is intent on winning access to Nigeria's vast gas reserves as part of a strategy to tighten its grip on energy supplies to Europe. Gazprom, which has also offered to back the planned 4,300km pipeline, appeared to steal a march on its European...

IN GENERAL Tears of Jihad These figures area rough estimate of the death of non-Muslims by the political act of jihad.AfricaThomas Sowell [Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture, BasicBooks, 1994, p. 188] estimates that 11 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic and 14 million were sent to the Islamic nations of North Africa and the Middle East. For every slave captured many others died. Estimates of this collateral damage vary. The renowned missionary David Livingstone estimated that for every slave who reached a plantation, five others were killed in the initial raid or died of illness and privation on the...

The President returned from Camp David on Saturday and hosted a Tee Ball game on Sunday. The Vice President concluded his overseas trip with meetings in Italy on Saturday and Sunday and has now boarded AF2 for what I presume is the flight back to the US. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended on Sunday a three-day visit to North Africa, including Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco Pray for President Bush - Day - 2916 & McCain/Palin - Day - 10 Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

ALGIERS, Algeria - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held meetings Saturday with terrorism-fighting allies in North Africa, a region of growing strategic importance. After talks with Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci in this vital oil- and gas-producing nation, Rice planned to see President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Her visit comes as Algeria has experienced a surge in terrorist attacks, most claimed by a local extremist group that has linked with al-Qaida.

Britain's 200-year jihadOn my travels for the past few days, I have been reading a book which tells the story of a quite astonishing part of British history of which I was previously unaware. In 'White Gold', Giles Milton records the appalling details -- gleaned,it appears, from a wealth of historical documents including diaries and letters -- of a seaborne Islamic jihad against Britain which lasted for no less than two centuries. From the early seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, thousands of British men women and children were kidnapped by Arab corsairs and sold into slavery in Morocco where they...

ALGIERS (AFP) - An Algerian man has spurned his wife for fantasising about an affair with the star of a Turkish soap opera which has riveted audiences here all summer, the Arab daily Ech-chourrouk reported Saturday. The 40-year-old man reportedly demanded a divorce after his wife confided in a neighbour that she would like to have an affair "if only in her dreams" with Mohannad, hero of the soap "Nour." The serial, which is dubbed into Arabic and broadcast by the Saudi satellite television MBC, has attracted a huge following, to the extent that Algerian women refuse to leave their...

The Algerian military killed 10 suspected Islamist militants in a gunbattle Sunday in western Algeria, the government said. The army sweep followed a week of bombings claimed by the local branch of al-Qaida that killed at least 60 people in this North African country. "The 10 terrorists were shot down during an operation by the national army," said a brief statement from the Interior Ministry carried by the official APS news agency. The clash occurred near Tarek Ibn Ziad, 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of Algiers, the capital, it said.

12 killed in new Algeria bomb attacks AFP ALGIERS (AFP) — Two car bomb attacks in eastern Algeria killed at least 12 people, state radio and a Canadian employer reported Wednesday with the country ... afp...

Suicide Attack in Algeria Kills Dozens By Ricci Shryock Dakar 19 August 2008 Shryock report - Download (MP3) Shryock report - Listen (MP3) Algeria's Interior Ministry says a suicide car bombing in front of a police school near Algiers has killed more than 40 people and injured dozens more. Ricci Shryock has more from our West Africa regional bureau in Dakar. Gendarmes stand at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Issers, 60 kms east of Algiers, 19 Aug 2008 Young Algerians were waiting in line to register at the local police academy when a suicide car bomb exploded...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

MOSCOW - Russian strategic bombers may soon be deployed at airbases in Cuba, Venezuela and Algeria as a response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe and NATO's expansion, Russian daily Izvestia said on Thursday. Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the U.S. of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an accompanying tracking radar in the Czech RFepublic as a treat to its national security. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter a possible strike from Iran, or other "rogue" states...

After being yanked from a bus just outside of her hometown in Algeria, 35-year-old Habiba Kouider was searched and questioned about her faith. When police found several Bibles and books about Christianity, they detained the Christian convert for 24 hours and brought her before a state prosecutor. The official gave her two options: Convert back to Islam or face charges. Kouider now faces three years in prison for "practicing non-Muslim religious rites without a license." She is one among dozens of believers arrested this year on religious grounds. Many Christians fear ominous times are ahead for Christians in Algeria, a...