Free Republic

TAXI 'FEAR' HIKE STRIKE CABBIES: GPS TARGETS MUSLIMS By JEREMY OLSHAN Transit Reporter STREET FARE: Be prepared to walk, as some taxi drivers plan to strike for two days beginning tomorrow in an unusual ethnic dispute.September 4, 2007 -- Fear and paranoia are driving the taxi strike planned for tomorrow and Thursday, industry sources said yesterday. The global-positioning systems being installed in all 13,000 cabs will be used to target and spy on Muslims, according to pro-strike literature being distributed by members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, the group behind the two-day walkout. "This is where deep racial,...

A search warrant filed in Hennepin County connects a shooting investigation to a possible terror plot. According to court documents, four Somali teenage males were riding in a cab on June 24 the same night a man was shot in the chest around 9:00 p.m. Video surveillance at the Glendale Housing Projects captured the cab fleeing near the scene of the shooting. Police were able to identify the taxicab and located the vehicle at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport four days later. Inside the cab, police found a handwritten note describing acts of terrorism and bombings. Police questioned an 18-year-old relative...

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials say too many cabdrivers are refusing to carry airport travelers, apparently due to religious beliefs. So during a Wednesday meeting of the Metropolitan Airports Commission's management and operations committee, officials suggested a heavy-fisted solution — drivers who refused such fares would have their airport licenses suspended. Airport director Steve Wareham asked the committee to suggest to the full commission that they slate public hearings on whether to revise its taxi ordinance. The revision would suspend the airport license of any cabdriver refusing a passenger who is not life-threatening or intoxicated. Suspension would last 30 days...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Concern is growing among U.S. and Canadian counter-terrorism specialists that Somali-Canadians are joining Islamic militias in their homeland linked to al-Qaida. Former senior Canadian Intelligence official David Harris told United Press International there was concern that returning militia veterans with "the kind of skills that ... could make them very dangerous," might try to stage terror attacks. "We're seeing the possibility of a tragic future unfold," he said. Harris -- a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who now directs a terrorism intelligence program for a private sector consultancy --...

The party of the people wants to rip off Boston cabdrivers. BY Sunday, 12:01 a.m. EDT With John Kerry's fund-raising going so well, you'd think the Democratic National Committee wouldn't need to hustle Boston cabbies for a cheap ride--or illegal campaign contributions. But that's pretty much the effect of the DNC's misguided plan to provide subsidized cab rides for delegates at their Boston convention. At issue are the taxi vouchers the DNC wants to give to delegates arriving at Boston's Logan Airport. Under the DNC's proposal, taxi drivers would be required to accept the vouchers, worth $12 per passenger, in...

NEW YORK — Two Bronx livery cab drivers were shot dead by a gunman who was under the delusion that he was going to visit his girlfriend in Alaska, police said Monday. Roberto Carlos Mayen's deadly trip to see the apparently nonexistent woman ended Sunday morning after he entered Canada in a stolen car, lost his bearings and turned back into Maine, where he was arrested, said Joseph Reznick, the chief of Bronx detectives. Mayen, 26, was charged Monday with transporting a stolen car across state lines. He remained in federal custody in Maine awaiting possible extradition to New York...

Minister to cabbies: you cheat, you die August 27 2002 Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's tourism minister has called for tourist-cheating taxi drivers to be shot dead, likening them to "traitors and communists", reports said today. In an outburst against cabbies who are found to over-charge or mistreat their customers, Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said they were the "new enemies of our country, the same as communists" and should be shot. "I am not joking. This is a serious matter. If they can be shot, all the better," he was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Berita Harian daily. "I will suggest...