Free Republic

Police in Austin say "similarities" between two deadly package explosions in Texas' capital city this month lead them to believe the incidents are related. The latest incident, reported Monday morning, killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a woman, Austin police chief Brian Manley said. The boy died at the scene and the woman in her 40s was taken to the hospital with potentially life threatening injuries after the explosion at the East Austin home before 7 a.m. In an earlier incident March 2, Anthony Stephan House, 39, was killed when a package exploded at his northeast Austin home, CBS affiliate...

Remember Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, one half of the Muslim duo caught driving on an obscure highway near Goose Creek, South Carolina in the middle of the night, with pipe bombs, laptops, and Korans, back in August of last year? The claimed it was "just fireworks" and that they were going to spend a weekend grilling or something. Yup, "grilling" Americans. They were driving near a military installation which stores nuclear weapons and held terrorist enemy combatants. With the Yemeni Mohamed was Yousef Megahed, an Egyptian. They both smiled in their mugshots and in court proceedings. "Just Fireworks" Terrorist Ahmed...

Oct. 16, 2003 Palestinians: Israel behind Gaza attack By KHALED ABU TOAMEH In a series of articles, interviews, and cartoons, the Palestinian Authority media on Thursday claimed that Israel was behind the attack on the American convoy in the northern Gaza Strip in which three US guards were killed. The allegations come even as the Palestinian Authority announced that its security forces have arrested a number of Palestinians from Jabalya refugee camp on suspicion of involvement in the attack (see related story). PA Chairman Yasser Arafat named Saeb Al Ajez, a commander of the northern Gaza Strip district in the...

Oct. 16, 2003 Whodunit? By MATTHEW GUTMAN The "whodunit" atmosphere surrounding Wednesday's attack on a US convoy in the Gaza Strip could easily cloud over into what the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Matthew Levitt likes to call "specubabble." That occurs when analysts and pundits construct scenarios based entirely on speculation. What is clear so far, however, is that its architects have a sincere interest either in driving the Americans out of the region or linking and punishing the Middle East's two occupiers: Israel and now the US. They also feel immune to the consequences of the first fatal...