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The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage. Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

The Russian defense minister proposed on Friday that Russia and the U.S.-led coalition launch joint action against al-Qaida's branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said no agreement on such action has been made with Russia. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow had proposed to Washington that the coalition call on all factions eager to abide by a cease-fire in Syria to leave the areas where the al-Qaida branch is active by May 25. Then Russia and the U.S.-led coalition could conduct joint strikes against the Nusra Front and any other...

t has been learned that one week prior to the Benghazi attacks that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, CIA Director David Petraeus met with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. This finding, reported by Hurrieyt at the time, further bolsters brand new claims by Seymour M. Hersh, the man who broke the Abu Ghraib prison scandal story in 2004. In early 2012, the Obama administration, along with the administration of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reached an agreement that would have Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia provide funding for an operation run by then CIA Director David Petraeus (the Petraeus...

The terrorism threat against the United States is increasing and Americans aren't as safe as they were a year or two ago, the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said there are more terrorist groups than ever, with more sophisticated and hard-to-detect bombs. The California Democrat said "there is huge malevolence out there." Rep. Mike Rogers said there's enormous pressure on U.S. intelligence services "to get it right, to prevent an attack." The Michigan Republican said that job is getting more difficult because al-Qaida is changing, with more affiliates around the world. He said...

Like Watergate, Benghazi has several layers. But the most revealing one is the active collusion between this administration and Al Qaida. Al Qaida is a Saudi-inspired and Saudi-funded terror gang. Almost all of the terrorists on 9/11 were Saudis. Those facts are always covered up, but they are crucial to understanding the Jihad War. In Benghazi we ran arms from Libya to Al Qaida rebels in Syria. The Saudis are funding that rebellion. There's that Saudi link again. In Egypt we backed the Muslim Brotherhood against Hosni Mubarak, who kept the peace treaty with Israel for 30 years. Thirty years...

Tension is mounting as Israel comes to grips with the new reality of Islamist Egypt. On Thursday, a team of 15 to 20 armed al-Qaeda terrorists (members of the Palestinian Popular Committees, an al-Qaeda affiliate) snaked through tunnels from Gaza to Sinai. From there, they hiked 200 kilometers over land, either ignored or facilitated by Egyptian army forces. They were thus able to sneak into Israel through the porous border at Eilat — porous because Israel has not needed to worry much about its Egyptian border for the last 30 years. At around noon, the terrorists took up positions along...

US and Western European political leaders have begun to focus on Yemen as a source of projected instability and as a haven for jihadist terrorism against the West. This simplistic and overly narrow view has largely been a reaction to media reporting of the links of alleged (and unsuccessful) Nigerian-born terrorist bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to a radical Yemeni group, and to intense ongoing fighting between insurgents and Yemeni and Saudi government forces on the Yemen-Saudi border. The reality is far more complex and far-reaching. The situation has a long history which has been ignored — or which has lacked...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan's political future and appears inclined to send only as many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep al-Qaida at bay, a senior administration official said Thursday. The sharpened focus by Obama's team on fighting al-Qaida above all other goals, and downgrading the emphasis on the Taliban, comes as the administration is engaged in a methodical but intensely debated review of how to overhaul the increasingly unpopular eight-year-old war.

SNIPPET: "The leader of the al Qaeda-linked Chinese terror group has threatened to attack Chinese interests around the world to avenge the death of Uighurs in the eastern province of Xianjiang. Abdul Haq al Turkistani, the leader of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, threatened to attack Chinese embassies worldwide as well as targets within the country. Haq made his threats on a video that was released on an Islamist Internet site." SNIPPET: "Haq, who is also known as Maimaitiming Maimaiti, became the leader of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party in late 2003 after Hassan Mahsum, the group’s previous leader, was...

MIAMI (AP) -- An uncooperative juror has been replaced on the panel in Miami deliberating the case of six men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and attack FBI offices. . . . U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said Tuesday the juror had violated her duty by refusing to deliberate and casting doubt on the law.

- Al-Qaida threats against the Dakar Rally and an attack in Mauritania forced organizers to cancel the annual race on Friday, the eve of the 5,760-mile trek across North African desert scrubland and savannah. It was the first time the automobile, motorbike and truck rally has been called off in its 30-year history. In a statement, organizers blamed "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations." the Dec. 24 killings of a French family and international tensions. The race's central appeal—its course through African deserts, scrubland and savannas—is also its weak point, making it difficult to protect thousands of...

BAGHDAD - Blood-splotches on walls, chains hanging from a ceiling and swords on the killing floor — the artifacts left a disturbing tale of brutalities inside a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq torture chamber. But there was yet another chilling fact outside the dirt-floor dungeon. Villagers say they knew about the torment but were too intimidated by extremists to tell authorities until now. Stories such as these — claims of insurgent abuses and the silence of frightened Iraqis — have emerged with increasing frequency and clarity recently as U.S.-led forces push deeper into former extremist fiefdoms and forge alliances with tribes...

A SENIOR leader of al-Qaeda operating in executed dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq and accused of killing 20 policemen has been arrested, police said. A police officer from Tikrit said Hussein al-Ajeeli, also known as Abu al-Ajeeli, was arrested in a raid yesterday in the village of Albo Ajeel near Tikrit. "The police raided his house after local villagers gave information about him," the officer said on condition of anonymity. Ajeeli is accused of plotting a suicide attack against a police building in Tikrit two months ago which killed 17 policemen, the officer said. Ajeeli is...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — Eight operations carried out in the Iraqi province of Diyala in the last week by U.S. and Iraqi forces resulted in the deaths of 33 members of al-Qaida, with at least 14 others being detained, military officials said on Saturday. The missions, divided between two battalion-level operations and six company-level assignments, also uncovered eight weapons-storage sites, safely detonated five roadside bombs and destroyed two homes rigged with explosives. The operations come in the wake of June and July’s Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which drove hundreds to thousands of insurgents from the provincial capital, Baqouba, and...

When Crockumentarian Michael Moore sang his hosannas to socialized medicine, I don’t think he quite expected the revelations of the past week in Great Britain. His movie, Sicko, openly suggests that socialized medicine would greatly improve American healthcare. It just doesn’t seem to address the issue of where these physicians would actually come from. Osama Bin Ladin, the resourceful guy that he is, has offered up the services of his organization to the NHS. It seems that the chronic shortage of doctors willing to put up with the bureaucratic NHS has given the master terrorist an easy way to smuggle...

"A Swedish citizen has been reported killed in Somalia following an American air attack against alleged Islamic extremists in the rebel Puntland region. The governor of the Barri Region, Mussa Jelle Yusuf, told news agency AFP that the Americans were targeting "an al-Qaeda hideout." The dead Swede was said to be among a number of citizens of western countries killed in the attack."

A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said. Elsewhere, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said. The U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded. The American military also reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and one who...

CAIRO, Egypt -- An Islamic militant Web site announced Monday that Osama bin Laden's second-in-command would soon release a new message addressing the conflict between Muslims and infidels. The Internet advertisement banner for Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2, did not specify when the message would be released or whether it would be a video, an audiotape or text. The announcement, displayed on a site frequently used by militants, carried the logo of al-Qaida's media production wing -- al-Sahaba -- which usually releases videos.

We’ve all waited 4 years to see a good report on what happened to Saddam’s WMD and September 8, 2006 the last investigative report was released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The only problem is…I searched the entire 400 pages of this “Phase II report” (or rather both reports that make up the Phase II report) and I couldn’t find those two words: “Bush lied.” I can’t even find, “Bush mislead” in those 400 pages. What I did find was 400 pages of evidence showing that the intelligence community used small amounts of weak intelligence from a decrepit...

This is my line in the sand. This is where I have decided that I will no longer allow lies about the war in Iraq, the global war on terror, or the decay of America's intelligence services. I will make my stand here, now, on this issue. No more will their lies go unchecked. The Senate Phase II report has been marketed as some sort of evidence that Al Queda and Iraq are not related. They are. I examined the report, stomached it's political lies (lies it admits to having within its own text!), and I have taken my action....