Free Republic

EXCLUSIVEKill Bin Laden 'plot' rumbled  TERROR leader Osama bin Laden has escaped a US plot to bomb him in his hideout, it was claimed yesterday. Supporter Abu al-Fatah claimed the al-Qaeda chief had foiled a US mission to track him in his lair.He claimed a computer memory stick containing interview questions sent to Bin Laden contained a tiny tracking beacon.Its signals would have helped America target his location with an accurate unmanned drone attack.Al-Fatah says the chip was discovered when Bin Laden's security scanned the USB stick. He said: "The US forces used a device that could transmit signals to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is acknowledging that the hardline Muslim Brotherhood may play a role in Egypt's transition from autocracy if it agrees to a peaceful, democratic process.

The Egyptian government has information a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Cairo secretly met yesterday with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation's major Islamist opposition group, WND has learned. The topic of the meeting was the future of Egypt following the "fall" of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian intelligence official told WND.

Counter terrorism officials in the United States, and the West in general, have not yet understood that there is a political, non-combatant wing of the global Salafi-Jihad movement. It acts as an international production line, routinely manufacturing thousands of Muslims with a Salafi religious orientation, a Salafi worldview, and the belief that they are part of an international movement designed to reform the world community of Muslims, bringing them back to what they consider “true” Islam, and bringing Islam back to global leadership. While the majority of the members of this movement do not commit acts of violence, they totally...

An Al Qaeda leader, the head of a designated terror organization and a confessed jihadist-in-training are among a "Who's Who" of controversial figures who have participated in weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill since the 2001 terror attacks, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals. The Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA) has held weekly Friday Jummah prayers for more than a decade, and guest preachers are often invited to lead the service. The group held prayers informally for about eight years before gaining official status in 2006 under the sponsorship of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims currently serving in...

Federal agents arrested a man Wednesday for plotting to bomb the Washington, D.C., subway system, the Justice Department announced. It was the second arrest in as many days involving Americans hoping to wage violence for al-Qaida or the Taliban, and federal law enforcement officials believe it is part of a wider attempt to launch terrorist attacks. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., was indicted Wednesday for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings...

On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari’s story was “implausible” and “not credible.” In particular, Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that al Kandari was overly evasive for a man who claimed to be innocent. Both during his interrogations at Guantanamo, and...

Recently declassified documents focusing on the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. September 11, 2001, taught us that it is too costly to allow a leader with a history of aggression and stated intent to harm the U.S. to maintain links to terrorist groups and acquire weapons capabilities to act upon that sentiment. Newly declassified documents about the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. Contradicting Saddam HusseinÂ’s testimony where he claimed he actually wanted...

On the morning of Jan. 26, Sharif Mobley stepped out of his apartment in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to buy some cereal for his sleeping 3-year-old daughter. The young American from New Jersey was surrounded by eight black-clad, masked operatives from the country's secret police. Mobley turned to run, but he was shot in the leg and bundled into the back of a white van. When Mobley shouted "I'm an American," he was hit in the face. As the van sped away, Mobley later told his lawyers, one of his Yemeni captors made a call.... Eight months later, the...

As America fights two wars overseas -- another one is raging, much closer to home. Mexico's drug war is every bit as violent. On Friday 43 people were indicted in San Diego for murder and kidnapping, including a Mexican government official. Outside Monterrey, Mexico, 23 bodies were found Thursday at a dump site used by drug gangs Mexico's drug war takes a dramatic and frightening turn. For the first time, drug gangsters used a car bomb as a weapon. The wounded man was a decoy dressed in a uniform to lure police to the bomb. An officer, a paramedic and...

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's U.S.-born spokesman warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones.

TTP Leader Hakimullah Mehsud Declares: 'From Now On, the Main Targets of Our Fidaeen [Suicide Bombers] Are American Cities' The first, which the YouTube page titled "Hakeemullah Mehsud is Alive and Healthy and Delivering news about Attacks on USA," is 2:17 long, and shows a still satellite image of North America with a still image of Hakimullah Mehsud. Speaking in Urdu, he states that the date is April 19, 2010 and threatens bombings in U.S. "states & cities"; as he speaks, explosions are shown taking place across the map. (To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2463.htm. NOTE: You...

*snip* New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said the device was found after a mounted policeman spotted a box smoking in the back of a sport utility vehicle about 6:30 p.m. "This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "We do not know the motive."

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden had no idea the U.S. would hit al-Qaida as hard as it has since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a former bin Laden associate tells WTOP in an exclusive interview. "I'm 100 percent sure they had no clue about what was going to happen," says Noman Benotman, who was head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the summer of 2000. "What happened after the 11th of September was beyond their imagination, " says Benotman, who adds that al-Qaida thought the U.S. was a "paper tiger." Sitting on the floor at bin Laden's compound in...

What’s the price of defending freedom? 15 years in prison for one Army Ranger. First Lieutenant Michael Behenna was sentenced to 15 years in prison for doing just that, defending freedom. Behenna was prosecuted for shooting al-Qaeda operative Ali Mansur while escorting the terrorist home.

Huge attack is top strategic goal, not ‘empty rhetoric,’ ex-CIA official saysWhen al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York's subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for "something better," Zawahiri said in a message intercepted by U.S. eavesdroppers. The meaning of Zawahiri's cryptic threat remains unclear more than six years later, but a new report warns that al-Qaeda has not abandoned its goal of attacking the United States with a chemical, biological or even nuclear weapon. The report,...

Suspect in GI killing claims al-Qaida ties Letter to judge seeks plea shift to guilty JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Memphis man accused in a deadly attack at a Little Rock military recruiting office claims in a recent letter to the presiding judge in the case that he wants to plead guilty to capital murder and that he is a member of a Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaida. Defense attorney Claiborne Ferguson called the letter by 24-year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad “inappropriate,” saying the writing complicates Muhammad’s defense. “I feel like I’m the only one with Mr. Muhammad’s best interests at heart,”...

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula issued fresh threats Monday against the U.S. and its Mideast allies, promising to retaliate against a surge of strikes launched in the past month against its leaders and safe havens in Yemen. The terrorist group also denied statements made by Yemeni authorities late last week that six of al Qaeda's senior leaders in the country, including the man identified as the leader of the group's military operations, had been killed in an air strike. "The Yemeni government has been making many false claims ... against the Mujahedeen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula. The latest...

SHABWA – Yemeni officials told Okaz that the field commander of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Qassim Al-Rimi and five other senior Al-Qaeda members killed in an airstrike Friday, while continuing its crackdown on the group by arresting three suspected militants. According to the Yemeni officials, the airstrike targeted two cars carrying eight people in Alajasher border area between Saada and Al-Jouf governorates. “Al-Rimi and his companions including Ammar Al-Waili were attempting to infiltrate into Saudi territories,” the officials said, noting Yemeni authorities received intelligence hours before the air force’s strike that killed the six men. However, two of their associates managed...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has tossed out most of the government’s evidence against a terrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.