Free Republic

We're bombarded with bad news -- the credit markets could freeze, millions more could lose their jobs, and today's recession could turn into a depression. But the danger we aren't hearing about could outweigh them all: the increased risk of a catastrophic terrorist attack. A careful study of Osama bin Laden's videos, letters and Internet statements makes clear that Al Qaeda's goal is more than to terrorize Americans or to drive us out of the Middle East. Bin Laden believes that Al Qaeda can bring about the economic collapse of the United States -- and to achieve this goal, he...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A boy masquerading as a flower seller blew himself up last September before the house of Sheikh Imad Jassem, the joint-leader of the Sons of Iraq in Tarmiya, 25 km north of Baghdad. The boy, as young as 10 years old, had been stalking Jassem for three days before tripping on his flip-flops several meters away from his target. The bomb exploded prematurely, seriously wounding the leader. The innocent and immature young have been recruited and trained to be suicide bombers of the al-Qaida network in Iraq to attack Iraqi high-profile officials as well as...

How to fight Al-Qaeda? See what the US military is doing to fight the war on terror in the Information Domain - Iraq and Afghanistan - US Army Part. 1 (counter insurgent warfare on asymetric battlefield) http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=mP29xZGIC38 How to fight Al-Qaeda? See what the US military is doing to fight the war on terror in the Information Domain - Iraq and Afghanistan - US Army Part. 2 (counter insurgent warfare on asymetric battlefield) http://au.youtube.com/watch? v=IGnxtnlKgkU&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_573945

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2008 – U.S. soldiers detained four suspected criminals yesterday during Thanksgiving Day operations in southern Baghdad’s Rashid district, military officials said. Some of the detainees allegedly conducted attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces while others are suspected of weapons-trafficking activities. "Our soldiers continue to support our Iraqi security forces partners as we assist them in providing a safe and secure environment for the Iraqi people,” said Army Maj. Dave Olson, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. In Nov. 26 operations: Eighteen women in northern Iraq who were associated with al-Qaida in Iraq suicide...

For over a year, there have been U.S. attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda personnel inside Pakistan, typically just across the border from Afghanistan. Pakistan has protested, and pro-Taliban Pakistani border guards have been reported shooting at U.S. troops and helicopters on the border, often inside Afghanistan. But Pakistan has done little beyond protesting, and ordering its troops to fire on "invading" U.S. forces. Not much has changed on the border as a result of that. Pakistan's lack of real action is apparently due to U.S. officials (some quite senior ) holding several meetings with Pakistani leaders. These were described...

Officials: Al Qaeda's Mad Scientist Killed One of al Qaeda's top chemical and biological weapons experts was killed in an air strike by a CIA pilotless drone in a remote Pakistani border region, senior Pakistani intelligence officials told CBS News Tuesday morning. Intelligence officials investigating the Sunday night missile attack confirmed that Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri was one of six men killed and his remains had been positively identified. "We now have a positive ID on the body. I can confirm to you that Al-Masri has been killed,"

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabian police have arrested 28 men for allegedly planning to attack holy sites around Mecca and Medina during the recently finished Muslim hajj pilgrimage, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said Sunday. The announcement comes two days after the ministry said it arrested an unknown number of men after security forces foiled a plot to carry out a terror attack on holy sites outside Mecca. But Sunday's statement did not say whether the two were arrests were related. The ministry said 27 of the men were Saudi nationals and one was a foreign resident. "Thanks to God,...

It’s one thing to be embroiled in the recent media circus surrounding my reporting from Lebanon; it’s quite another to learn that in the midst of that circus – though having nothing to do with it – one of my strongest sources while I was in Lebanon, Gen. Francois Hajj, was assassinated yesterday. Hajj, 55, a Maronite Catholic and the director of operations for the Lebanese Army, was killed in a car-bomb attack Wednesday, on the route between his home and his office at the Ministry of Defense in Beirut. It’s been reported that he “was considered a leading candidate...

Did you hear the one about the two journalists that walked into a Romanian airport wearing Al Qaeda Airline uniforms and put fake bombs on planes? …No, it’s not the setup for a joke, it really did happen. An investigation has been launched after the pair entered Baneasa Airport in Bucharest wearing hats and overalls marked “Al Qaeda Airlines”. Alexandru Cautis and Catalin Prisacaru, from the Academia Catavencu newspaper, drove into a supposedly secure parking area, reserved for airport staff, unchallenged. Once inside, they were able to place fake bombs on passenger planes without being questioned. They were also able...

Terrorism arrests made on Texas border Insurgents connected to Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida detained By: Jeff Carlton (The Associated Press) Posted: 9/13/07 DALLAS - Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years. "Has there ever been anyone linked to terrorism arrested?" Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission. "Yes, there was." His remarks appear to be among the most specific on the topic of terrorism arrests along the Texas-Mexico border. Local and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2007 – Coalition troops detained 36 terrorists and killed nine others today during a series of raids in Baghdad and other areas in central and northern Iraq, officials reported. Individuals detained in the Baghdad raid are believed to be involved in the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq into Iran for terrorist training. Coalition forces also confiscated a number of documents, photographs and possible improvised explosive device components. Intelligence reports indicate one of the detainees is a “special groups” senior-level terrorist facilitator with possible Iranian...

Baghdad, 22 August (AKI) - The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat. "AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said. Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most...

  Is There A Liar In The House?July 19, 2007 Proof-positive that Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf was correct in having his military storm the “Red Mosque” and kill a bunch of Islamic militants is the resulting outcry from a bunch of: lying MSM types, lying Clerics and...lying Militants (if this isn’t being redundant). In fact, liars seem to be at the top of the Muslim world’s demographic base. As the Washington Post summed-up the after-battle... A day after Pakistani commandos killed the last Islamic militants barricaded inside the Red Mosque complex, the army guided journalists around the shattered masonry and blackened interiors Thursday amid...

On May 12, near the Sunni stronghold of Yusufiya, Iraq (about 15 miles south of Baghdad), al Qaeda fighters ambushed a coalition patrol, killing four soldiers and abducting three, all from the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (based at Fort Drum, New York). Despite warnings from al Qaeda “not to look for the soldiers if [they] wanted them back alive,” American and Iraqi forces mobilized almost 4,000 troops to conduct a search for the missing men. The force spent much of the next weeks searching the area around Mahmoudiya, in the...

We can defeat Al-Qaeda. We can blow up the Shining Path, kill the FARC, and wipe out the Taliban. We can eliminate their support that these terrorists enjoy, we can cut off their finances and watch them die. We can do this without firing a shot. We can repeal drug prohibition. Repealing drug prohibition is hard because it requires admitting we’ve made a mistake. That’s a very tough thing to do. It’s particularly hard when we’ve made a real stinker. And make no mistake: Prohibition is awful. It is lousy domestic policy, but it is horrible foreign policy. The drug...

In February 2004, Iraqi and coalition intelligence intercepted a message to al-Qaida's "senior leaders." Written by al-Qaida's Iraqi commander, the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the letter outlined al-Qaida's last ditch "surge" plan for defeating democracy in Iraq and avoiding what it saw as a looming, devastating defeat for its totalitarian theology. Zarqawi's letter lamented al-Qaida's "failure to enlist support" in Iraq and "to scare the Americans into leaving." After Iraqis run their own government, Zarqawi wrote, "the sons of this land will be the authority. ... This is the democracy. We will have no pretexts." Fearing an American and Iraqi...

About the Defense - 8 Points Why is this lawsuit so important? Why is the situation at McMaster University so alarming? And why must you give to fight the lawsuit against award-winning journalist/author Paul L. Williams? Consider the following:

Al Qaida?s leader in Iraq today vowed his fighters will never rest until they have blown up the White House and reached Jerusalem. In an audio tape made available on militant websites, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir claimed to be winning the war in Iraq and said the US President was ?stupid?. He praised the Republican defeat in the US midterm elections as ?reasonable?, and claimed the al Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq, ready to die for their cause. Also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Muhajir became the leader of al Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed...

In December 2001, as the investigation into the U.S. anthrax attacks was gathering steam, coalition soldiers in Afghanistan uncovered what appeared to be an important clue: a trail of documents chronicling an attempt by al-Qaeda to create its own anthrax weapon. The documents told of a singular mission by a scientist named Abdur Rauf, an obscure, middle-aged Pakistani with alleged al-Qaeda sympathies and an advanced degree in microbiology. Using his membership in a prestigious scientific organization to gain access, Rauf traveled through Europe on a quest, officials say, to obtain both anthrax spores and the equipment needed to turn them...

Captain A writes from Iraq October 4, 2006 to: Sergeant Sumner I don't know if you remember me or someone else at 911families, but your web-page had an article about me back in the beginning of the year. It was and I was a survivor of 9-11. I had been recalled out of the Inactive Reserves and off of disability. I used to be a Vice President with Morgan Stanley on the 73rd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. I was mobilized to FT Bragg in DEC 2005 and I have now been here in Iraq...

The awful rush-hour bombings of trains in Mumbai raise an important and ominous question: How far can India be pushed? This question was asked by a former director for South Asia at the US National Security Council, Xenia Dormandy, Wednesday as the United States - from President George Bush to the mainstream American media - joined the rest of the world in condemning the terror attacks in India. Pakistan needs to respond to militants, she herself answered in an article in the Washington Post, noting that in December 2001 India and Pakistan almost went to war when a group of...

An increasingly powerful Islamic militia rolled through its newly captured territory and installed a religious court in one town Wednesday as the remnants of a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords desperately tried to regroup. The Islamic Courts Union, which has alleged links to al-Qaida, controls the Somali capital and surrounding areas after defeating the secular warlord alliance in weeks of battles that killed at least 330 people - many of them civilians caught in the crossfire. Militiamen toting heavy machine guns installed an Islamic court in Balad, about 20 miles from the capital. Chanting residents said that an Islamic state would...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 30, 2006 — As improvised explosive devices continue to ravage the area, officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. are responding by proposing an old remedy – cooperation. More than 70 leaders from the three nations and other coalition members attended the Counter IED Symposium from May 22 to May 24 at Bagram Airfield in an effort to neutralize the threat of improvised explosive devices in the area. “IEDs are the biggest threat to the Afghan people and the military effort in Afghanistan,” said Afghan National Army Col. Paiman, public affairs deputy for the Afghan Ministry...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces detained five suspects and killed an unknown number of terrorists May 5 in a series of raids at approximately 6 p.m. in the vicinity of Samarra. As the troops moved to intercept a vehicle occupied by three suspected al-Qaida associates, the assault force simultaneously took small arms fire from a nearby house. While the troops positioned to stop the car, armed men exited the house, two carrying shoulder-fired rocket launchers and one firing a light machine gun. The forces quickly neutralized the threat emanating from the structure, located approximately 20 kilometers southwest of Samarra, with...

Breaking on KDKA Radio News in Pittsburgh. A top Al Qeada fugitive is reported to have been captured by Pakistani forces. Reports claim he will be turned over to US authorities ASAP. Sorry I do't have more...I'm at work and trying to get the original sources...The story was delivered with a "wink, wink - nudge, nudge" Probably nothing but then again....prisoner6

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao added that Rabia's death was a "big blow to al Qaeda." The 'real' al Qaeda number three, Brown contends, is Saif al-Adel (also known as Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi), who was previously reported by numerous independent sources to have become al Qaeda's chief of the military committee (operational commander) following the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in March 2003. In March of 2005 Jordanian analyst Bassam al-Baddarin wrote of al Qaeda's "2020" plan, which outlined the vision of the "strategic brain" of the group -- Saif al-Adel. Al-Adel's Iranian connection Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan...

Does anyone know what happened with 42 pages of Arabic documents purported to have come from Iraq and leaked by a government official to CNS News? They contained information on ties between Iraq and international terrorist organizations and also shed some light on WMD programs. The Mainstream Media totally ignored them and did not deal with them at all, even to discredit them. They gave credence to the fake National Guard memos until they were proved to be forgeries but there was nothing about these documents which if authentic would be earth shattering. Why the silence? Why not an expose...

October 8, 2005 -- The al Qaeda member who triggered New York's subway alert told the anti-terror squad that arrested him they were "too late," it was reported yesterday. The insurgent, captured in an Iraqi "safe house," passed some lie-detector tests, and information found in the house led to another terrorist hideout. But the suspect's claims — of 19 al Qaeda operatives planning to plant bombs in subways, using baby strollers and other camouflage — have not been corroborated despite a massive U.S. intelligence effort, sources said. The alert that jolted the city began last week when an informant, whose...

By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press WriterWed Jul 13, 8:26 AM ET Pakistan's interior minister said Wednesday that a terror attack was thwarted in Britain before the May general elections in that country — and arrests were made in several countries — because of help from Pakistan's government. "Before the general elections in the U.K. we received reports that this sort of situation might arise, and attacks were aborted because of information provided by the government of Pakistan, and arrests were made in various countries and here," Interior Minster Aftab Khan Sherpao told a news conference in the capital. He gave...

Al-Zarqawi tape defends Iraq attacks The reputed leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has said the Iraqi army is as great an enemy as the Americans, brushing aside calls for him to abandon the uprising in favour of peace talks with the Iraqi government and the US. The speaker, purportedly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, spoke on an audiotape posted on the internet on Wednesday. "We announce that the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the Crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it."

Newsweek retracts story but the liberal media says it's probably true anyway and points the finger at the bullies in the administration. Newsweek has rejected the resignation of Michael Isikoff, which is probably the correct thing to do. Although the fabricated story was written by Isikoff, it was Newsweek that published the libel and it is Newsweek that is responsible for the deaths in Afghanistan. But all the big shots at Newsweek were innocent. In the case of the Koran item, Newsweek Managing Editor Whitaker said he did not see the final version because he was traveling on personal business....

BOSTON -- Two former officers of an Islamic charity were arrested on Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges of lying to authorities investigating the charity's alleged ties to terrorist organizations. Emadeddin Z. Muntasser, the former president of Care International, and Muhammed Mubayyid, the defunct charity's former treasurer, were arrested Wednesday on charges of concealing information from federal agencies, conspiring to defraud the United States, and making false statements to the FBI. "Organizations that conceal their true activities to abuse our tax laws, and in this case fund their support of the mujahideen and jihad, will be prosecuted to...

HAMBURG, Germany, Aug. 10 — A German court today began a retrial of Mounir el-Motassadeq, the only person convicted of involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with the disclosure that the United States will for the first time share evidence about the plot. Mr. Motassadeq's conviction was thrown out in March by an appeals court, which said that critical evidence had been withheld by American authorities. After having been sentenced to 15 years in prison, Mr. Motassadeq was freed in April. The decision by the United States to offer limited cooperation to the Germans introduces a combustible element to...

A notorious London-based imam—described by U.S. officials as Osama bin Laden's principal "ambassador" in Europe—may soon be back on the streets because Britain's highest court has struck down an anti-terror law allowing him to be detained without trial. The preacher, known as Abu Qatada, has been held in a British prison for more than two years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has ordered an internal review into whether the Defense Department should run covert paramilitary operations traditionally mounted by the CIA, administration officials said on Tuesday. The presidential directive, signed by Bush last week, asks the CIA and the Departments of State, Defense and Justice to report back to him in 90 days on "whether or not the paramilitary operations, currently under the control of the CIA, should be transferred to the Department of Defense," a senior administration official said. The recommendation was first made by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as...

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant who set himself on fire in front of the White House played a role in at least three terror investigations, court documents show. Defense attorneys said Wednesday they are re-examining Mohamed Alanssi's role in the cases against their clients, who are accused of helping fund Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and the Palestinian group Hamas. "Ultimately what I'm heading for is a motion for dismissal," said Frank Hancock, the lawyer for Abad Elfgeeh, a Yemeni-born man accused of illegally sending millions of dollars overseas. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, who filed the...

ON SUNDAY, the Kerry campaign put out a statement accusing the Bush administration of "misleading" the country in claiming a "direct link" between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks.This is an appalling and, one assumes, deliberate distortion. No one--repeat no one--in the Bush administration has ever made such a claim. President Bush has twice explicitly rejected any suggestion that Saddam Hussein was behind those attacks. Condoleezza Rice has done the same on numerous occasions. Vice President Cheney, the subject of the Kerry campaign statement, has gone no further than to say that "we don't know" about potential Iraqi involvement in...

Pakistan nears endgame in al-Qaeda hunt By Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI - As Pakistan continues its relentless campaign against al-Qaeda, diplomatic circles in Islamabad and Washington believe that some "high-value" targets might already have been arrested to be produced at a later date. At the same time, the strongest-ever operation in the country against jihadi forces is seen as a preemptive strike against a backlash in the event of a high-value target being caught. On Monday, the Pakistani army said security forces had killed four suspected al-Qaeda members and captured two others in a raid in the tribal regions of...

Fakt - Al Qeada wanted to burn Swarzedz? 18.08. Warszawa (PAP) - "BP petrochemical site, nearby highway and train track. A city with a population of hundreds of thousands few kilometres from there. If it would explode, the results would be terrible. There, in Swarzedz there was arrested Michel N., 23. Did he spy for Al Qeada?" – Fakt asked. "Detention of French man taking pictures of huge BP petrochemical site is the most serious evidence of Al Qeda activity in Poland. Police and Agency of Interior Security do their best to find out connections of detained terrorist" - Fakt...

Found this.

According to Knight-Ridder, the mysterious Iraqi was "employed with the aid of an Iraqi intelligence officer" and later "accompanied two Sept. 11 hijackers from the airport to a hotel where the pair met with Ramzi Binalshibh, a key planner of the attacks, and Tawfiz al Atash, who masterminded al Qaida's strike on the USS Cole in October 2000." Interesting, no?THE WASHINGTON POST reported yesterday morning that an Iraqi present at a key al Qaeda summit may not be the same Iraqi listed on lists of officers of the Saddam Fedayeen captured in postwar Iraq. In Al Qaeda Link to Iraq...

What we know about the terrorist leader who murdered Nicholas Berg. WHO KILLED NICHOLAS BERG? His grief-stricken family blames the U.S. government for the appalling videotaped beheading of their son in Iraq. A more fitting object of outrage is the executioner. For the terrorist who claims credit for the killing of the Jewish-American civilian is no walk-on, no lackey or even lieutenant of Osama bin Laden. Instead, he is an independent operator with a long history in global jihad--sometimes coordinated with al Qaeda, sometimes not--who may be challenging bin Laden for the leadership of global Sunni terrorism.Abu Musab al Zarqawi...

CRAWFORD, Texas - On the defensive, President Bush said Monday there was no warning in a pre-Sept. 11 intelligence memo that "something is about to happen in America" before the nation's worst terrorism attack. He said U.S. intelligence services may be due for reforms. "There was nothing in there that said, you know, `There is an imminent attack,'" Bush told reporters. "That wasn't what the report said. The report was kind of a history of Osama's (bin Laden's) intentions." Democrats have suggested there was more to the memo, the center of an election-year skirmish over the president's anti-terrorism policies before...

Sen. Bob Graham was just on c-span washington journal and mentioned both International Terrorism and Al Qeada, my question is... is Al Qaeda part of International Terrorism or is Al Qeada the umbrella organization for all Organized Terrorist Organizations that make up International Terrorism? ...rto

N.J. native faced danger regularly Killed in Afghanistan, the Navy SEAL was part of the Iraq team that rescued POW Jessica Lynch. By Maureen Graham and Troy Graham, Inquirer Staff Writers By all accounts, Atco native David M. Tapper's SEAL team was an elite unit, even for the rarified world of military special operations. Often called upon to conduct the most harrowing missions, Tapper took part in the April rescue of wounded POW Jessica Lynch, then helped recover the bodies of nine American soldiers buried near the Iraqi hospital where she was held, according to friends and the Tapper family....

A bomb has wounded several people at a court in Yemen where a suspected al-Qaeda member was sentenced to death five days ago. The explosion ripped through the courtroom in Jibla, some 160 kms south of the capital Sanaa. Yemeni police said they had arrested a man in connection with the explosion, adding a judge was among the injured. Witnesses said they saw victims being taken away in ambulances. It was not immediately clear if anybody was killed. The blast was believed to have been caused by a hand grenade, Reuters reported. Security officials surrounded the court building Wednesday and...

According to the papers, an Al Qaeda envoy met with Baghdad in March 1998 to create a relationship based upon a mutual hate of the United States and Saudi Arabia.An unidenfiied Western Intelligence Source describes the find of intelligence (linking Saddam and Al Qaeda) as 'sensational.'

NEWSPAPERS: DOCS SHOW IRAQ/AL-QAIDA LINK XXXXX FRANCE BRIEFED SADDAM ON PRIVATE MEETINGS WITH U.S. The SUNDAY TELEGRAPH is reporting that papers found by reporters at Iraq's bombed out intelligence service building provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida... An unidentified Western intelligence official describes the find as 'sensational' According to the papers, an al-Qaida envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998 to create a relationship based upon a mutual hate of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. MORE///

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) on Thursday issued an alert seeking the public's assistance in locating a Saudi-born man who is it said may be connected to possible threats against the United States. The FBI issued a "be on the lookout" alert for Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, 27, who was born in Saudi Arabia and who it said may try to enter the United States with a Saudi, Canadian or Trinidad passport as well. "El Shukrijumah is possibly involved with al Qaeda terrorist activities and, if true, poses a serious threat to U.S. citizens and interests...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Islamists leading the new parliament in Pakistan's northwest border province vowed Tuesday to block the manhunt for Al Qaeda in their rugged tribal-dominated region, where the US military believe hundreds of the extremists are hiding. "We have opposed the government's pro-US policies, particularly operations aided by (the US) and we shall maintain our opposition," Akram Durrani, the likely chief minister of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), told AFP in an interview. "We will neither allow our land to be used for terrorist activities, nor will we allow any operation particularly involving FBI agents. People who voted...