Free Republic

NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW FLOTILLA/CONVOY/"HUMANITARIAN AID"/"HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS" THREAD. SNIPPET: "While the debate over mosque development in New York continues to dominate the news cycle, opposing sides in the Israeli blockade on Gaza are gearing up for a new round of confrontations that could take place as soon as next month. Although the list of items restricted from entering Gaza has been dramatically reduced, George Galloway, the ex-British MP who runs the group Viva Palestina, promises a new land convoy leaving from London, Casablanca and Doha September 18. Galloway has made it clear his mission has more to do...

Casablanca, Play it Sam...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Casablanca - Nine convicted terrorists have escaped from a Moroccan jail through a tunnel they dug out under their cells. The nine fundamentalists were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for their involvement in suicide attacks in Casablanca five years ago. Forty-five people, including 12 suicide bombers, were killed in Morocco's deadliest bombings ever. The Moroccan authorities have launched a large-scale manhunt for the nine convicts.

It is one of the greatest films of Hollywood's golden era, a triple Oscar-winning classic with electrifyingly charismatic stars and a script bursting with memorable lines. But now Madonna has stunned the movie industry with plans to remake Casablanca – and this time set it in Iraq. The singer, whose previous film career has been littered with critical and commercial turkeys, is also planning to take the lead role of Ilsa Lund, which originally made a star of Ingrid Bergman.

PARIS, June 19, 2007 (AFP) - French prosecutors on Tuesday sought sentences of up to 10 years in jail for eight men accused of helping the perpetrators of bomb attacks in Morocco in 2003 that left 45 dead. The eight men -- a Turkish national and seven Moroccans or French nationals of Moroccan origin -- went on trial on June 4 on charges of criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist undertaking. Prosecutors argued that the eight were members of a cell with ties to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), which is believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda. Alleged...

Moroccan police say they have arrested the leader of a militant cell suspected of responsibility for Tuesday's deadly explosions in Casablanca and another a month ago. The suspect has not been named. The man was arrested in a raid on the outskirts of Casablanca. Police also discovered a hiding place being used to make explosives. Police say all the members of the group have now been identified and are still at large. Earlier today, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in attacks targeting United States diplomatic offices in Casablanca. Last Tuesday, three suicide bombers killed themselves in Casablanca when police...

Excerpt - CASABLANCA, Morocco, April 14 (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers killed themselves in an attack on U.S. diplomatic offices in Morocco's commercial hub Casablanca on Saturday, the scene of three suicide blasts four days ago, witnesses said. "Only the two bombers were killed," a police source said of the mid-morning attack in the port city. Witnesses said the first blast happened about six metres (yards) from the U.S. cultural centre and the second went off about 60 metres away from the nearby U.S. consulate. Police cordoned off the area and were hunting for a third man seen running from...

Bombers blow themselves upFrom correspondents in Casablanca April 11, 2007 07:45amDeadly raid ... police look for evidence on the body of one of the bombers / AFP Three men blow themselves up to avoid capture Fourth gunned down after brandishing sabre Police and civilians killed and hurt in blasts THREE bombing suspects have blown themselves up after a police raid on a house in a Casablanca slum in which a fourth man was shot dead. The carnage began when police launched a dawn operation in the el Fida district of the Moroccan city looking for suspects involved in a bomb...

Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.Sun Tzu Wednesday, May 25th 2005 “The Moroccan Services Had Information about 3/11”ALI LMRABET. Special for EL MUNDO. KENITRA (MOROCCO) – From the Central Prison in Kenitra, the Moroccan Islamist Jihadist Salahedin Benyaich, also known as ‘Abu Mughen’ or ‘The One-Eyed’, has conceded an interview to EL MUNDO to tell his truth on 3/11, 9/11 and the Casablanca attacks. One of the masterminds of this massacre, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for belonging to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). He has fought...

Bomber wounds three in Casablanca A suicide bomber has wounded three people in an internet cafe in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.The attack, which took place on Sunday evening in the Sidi Moumen district of the city, left the bomber dead. The blast happened after the man began a dispute with the cafe's owner, who refused him access to jihadist sites. Another man, with the bomber at the time of the blast, fled after the explosion but has now been arrested by police, reports say. "The man used to come to view jihadist websites and the dispute was prompted...

RABAT, Morocco - Little would seem to connect a soldier, a shopkeeper, airline pilots' wives and a woman known for helping people in need. But all have been named as suspects in a purported Islamic terrorist plot, suggesting extremism may be leaping Morocco's class divides. In all, Moroccan authorities arrested 56 people last month for allegedly being part of a network that was planning attacks on military and tourist sites in hopes of bringing down the government of this North African monarchy. Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and suicide bombings two years later that killed 33...

An ultra-radical Islamic ideology mixing zealot-like devotion and holy war creed is drawing more scrutiny in anti-terrorist probes from the Middle East to Europe — with increasing indications that its base on the fringes of Islamic extremism could be widening. In existence since the 1960s, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra has offered intellectual inspiration to al-Qaida and other militant groups. But authorities now worry about followers becoming more aggressive with recruitment and retaliation against perceived foes of Islam, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Officials in the Netherlands say the Dutch-Moroccan suspect — accused of killing Van Gogh on a busy...

Jacko is shocko at his associate's gay porno BY MICHELLE CARUSO DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF SANTA MONICA, Calif. - A wide-eyed Michael Jackson testified he "was shocked" when he saw a video of his ex-associate actively directing a gay porn film, according to videotaped deposition shown in court yesterday. The no-show singer's ghostly image was projected on a 4-foot-by-4-foot screen in the trial of a $1.5 million breach-ofcontact suit filed by his former video producer Marc Schaffel in Santa Monica Superior Court. In the sworn testimony, which was taped in London's Dorchester Hotel on Sept. 23, 2005, and...

<p>RABAT (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed in four bomb attacks -- three of them car bombs -- in Morocco's commercial capital Casablanca on Friday night, the official MAP news agency said.</p> <p>The car bomb attacks targeted the Belgian consulate, a Jewish community center and the Hotel Safir, located in the old heart of the city center.</p>

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Felix Rohatyn knew that he and a handful of relatives had been lucky to get out of Nazi-occupied France in the early-1940's, when he was 12 years old. But there were details about the harrowing escape that have only recently come to light. Mr. Rohatyn, now 76, is the financier who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970's and later served as ambassador to France during the Clinton administration. His family was Jewish, and originally from Poland. In the fall of 1940 the dark night of the Holocaust was spreading across France with terrifying speed....

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation. By Douglas Frantz, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes...

Michael Curtiz (December 24, 1886 - April 10, 1962) was a film director, whose films include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, and White Christmas.

Some time ago, in my eternal quest to set the record straight, I suggested that the true hero of the motion picture industry wasn’t Thomas Edison or D.W. Griffith, not Chaplin or Keaton, not Jack Warner or Louis B. Mayer, but the anonymous fellow who first came up with the notion of putting salt on popcorn, thus turning packing material into a concession stand bonanza that costs more per-pound than lox and caviar put together. But there are others who, more often than not, get overlooked while far too much praise is lavished on actors and directors. I refer to...