Free Republic

Private Bergdahl - assuming he's still alive - is spending Christmas as a captive of the Taliban. His captors spent the last day or two uploading a video showing Private Bergdahl reading a statement. The video was divided into four segments and uploaded to YouTube on 25 December 2009. The YouTube account is:

A Salafi group called the "Popular Egyptian Islamic Association" has warned Muslims against eating tomatoes on the grounds that the fruit is a "Christian food," NowLebanon.com has reported. The group based its claim on the fact that a shape resembling a cross is revealed when one cuts a tomato in half. The association published the warning on its Facebook page with a photo of a tomato cut in half, revealing a cross-shaped interior. A message posted on the page read, "Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah...

Barack Obama issued a statement today on the bloodbath in Egypt. Over 400 people have been killed, Christian churches have been torched, and thousands were injured in clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military government. Obama compared the Egyptian bloodbath with Sharia-supporting thugs to the United States. “Countries that are transitioned out of a military government towards a democratic government and it did not always go in a straight line and the process went smooth. Um. There are going to be false starts. There will be difficult days. America’s democratic journey took us through some mighty struggles to perfect...

Two Republican senators said Tuesday that they´ve personally urged the Egyptian government to release Muslim Brotherhood prisoners, after hosting meetings with top officials in Cairo as part of an Obama administration-sanctioned visit. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is in Cairo along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-.S.C., made clear that the two U.S. lawmakers are representing the views of Congress and "do not speak for the White House." Still, they are among the most prominent U.S. representatives in the country this week, as a wave of international mediators tries to nudge the country´s military-backed government to resolve the standoff

Egyptian army chief in interview says Defense Secretary Hagel calls him almost every day, but Obama has not called. US President Barack Obama appears to have angered supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, as well as supporters of the army coup that toppled him on July 3. Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is at the vanguard of the street protests against Morsi’s ouster, claim the US supported the coup. Those opposed to the Brotherhood claim Washington has been and still is supporting the Islamists.

Egypt's temporary President Adli Mansour announced the establishment of a commission of inquiry which will investigate the events surrounding the deaths of at least 51 people Monday in clashes outside a military building in Cairo. At least 435 people were wounded as well in the incident. Most of those killed were Muslim Brotherhood members, and the chain of events leading to the deaths were being hotly contested by the Brotherhood and the Egyptian Army. The Brotherhood claimed that those killed were innocent, doing nothing more than holding a sit-in against the ousting of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in what they...

Curators at the U.K.’s Manchester Museum were a bit perturbed when they noticed an ancient Egyptian statue changing position over time without any employees claiming to have moved it. So, they set up a camera to capture what might be happening. What they saw was just as unnerving. When viewing the footage taken over a week in time-lapse, they saw the statue of Neb-Sanu, which is only 11 inches tall, turning around on its own.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the Obama Administration to publicly pressure the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-backed regime of Mohammed Morsi to cancel the broadcast of a viciously anti-Semitic television series that is due to air in July during Ramadan and to cancel its distribution in the Arab world. The television series, Khayber, celebrates the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim army over the Jewish tribes living in northern Arabia in the battle of Khaybar in 629 C.E. According to most Islamic sources, the Khayber story ends with the slaughter of thousands of Jewish men, women and children. The vanquished...

Vid at link

Seattle — Omar Abdelbadie, a 22-year-old neurobiology major and member of the dean's list, was arrested by Seattle police Monday night for investigation of raping a 12-year-old girl at his apartment near campus Sunday. According to court documents, Abdelbadie first saw the girl walking on “The Ave” in the University District. “He thought she was dressed provocatively," according to the police report. The victim told investigators she told Abdelbadie that she was 12 years old. Abdelbadie then allegedly bought the girl marijuana, and according to court documents, they smoked it together at his apartment. After smoking the joint, they engaged...

Translation: by Brett Gasper "Ah,Here it is, kita'ab Allah (Book of Allah), this is the root of all disaster: Book of Allah. I'm not certain what day it is of this reviled month of Ramadan! You are making the tearing of the Quran such a big and dangerous thing.. It is only natural to want to tear this book! Those sons of kelba (dogs) think they can threaten me and dare me to tear the Quran - but I want to prove to them that they are nothing... and what is the big deal in tearing this book? Here the...

<p>But they also say young people were told to chant against an anti-Islam film as a cover for the assault.</p> <p>TRIPOLI, Libya - It began around nightfall on Sept. 11 with about 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up roadblocks with pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, according to witnesses.</p>

Lawmakers have seized upon a domestic spending bill as a chance to tighten controls on how Egypt's Islamist government can use well over $1 billion in military and other aid that Washington sends to Cairo each year.[snip]Washington provides $1.3 billion per year in military aid to Egypt. The United States also said early this month it would give the country $250 million in budget aid after Mursi promised to make the painful economic reforms necessary to secure an International Monetary Fund loan. The senators - Rubio, fellow Republicans John McCain, James Inhofe, and Rand Paul, and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy,...

Video at link.

Four more F-16 fighter jets left the U.S. on Thursday headed for Egypt as part of a foreign aid package that has generated controversy given the political upheaval in the Mideast country. Critics say the military aid should stop because the president Egyptians elected last year has led the Muslim Brotherhood, called President Obama liar and urged that hatred of Jews be instilled in children. A source who works on the naval air base in Fort Worth, Texas, confirmed to FoxNews.com the departure of the state-of-the-art fighter planes. The new shipment brings the total number of F-16 jets given to...

The Obama administration is postponing an award for an Egyptian activist who was subjected to a "virginity test" after protesting in Cairo´s Tahrir Square. The State Department had said Samira Ibrahim would be among recipients of an International Women of Courage award presented by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama on Friday. Now the State Department says she won´t be honored Friday because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments on her Twitter account. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday officials will first study the tweets, which include support for attacks against U.S. diplomatic

Libyan Islamists detained 48 Egyptian Christians in Benghazi last week, torturing them and using acid to burn off tattoos of the cross, according to family members. The Christians, who are peddlers, were arrested by Islamist Salafists in Benghazi, who said they had Christian icons at their marketplace stalls ... Benghazi residents have expressed outrage at the hardcore Salafists, who are believed to have been behind the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Repression of Christians living in Libya is on the rise ... Kamel’s uncle, Khalaf Naguib Salib, said the Copts...

<p>WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies have launched a worldwide manhunt for al Qaeda's master bombmaker, who may be building a "dirty" bomb and other new devices for terror attacks inside the United States, sources said.</p> <p>U.S. counterterrorism officials told The Post it was new information about the activities of Egyptian-born bomb maker Midhat Mursi, in part, that led the Bush administration to secretly dispatch Department of Energy radiological detection teams to New York and four other cities over New Year's Eve.</p>

Officials: Al Qaeda's Mad Scientist Killed One of al Qaeda's top chemical and biological weapons experts was killed in an air strike by a CIA pilotless drone in a remote Pakistani border region, senior Pakistani intelligence officials told CBS News Tuesday morning. Intelligence officials investigating the Sunday night missile attack confirmed that Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri was one of six men killed and his remains had been positively identified. "We now have a positive ID on the body. I can confirm to you that Al-Masri has been killed,"

Obscure al-Qaida Chemist Worries Experts By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 7 minutes ago He's a mystery in a red beard, with a strange alias and a degree in chemical engineering. In the hands of this alleged al-Qaida operative, it's a specialty that summons visions of poison gas and mass terror. Al-Qaida is "wedded to the spectacular," notes U.S. counterterrorism analyst Donald Van Duyn, and elusive Egyptian chemist Midhat Mursi was said to be exploring such possibilities when last seen, brewing up deadly compounds and gassing dogs in Afghanistan. Van Duyn's FBI and other U.S. agencies are interested enough...

Egyptian democracy activist Michael Meunier says President Barack Obama needs to stand up to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Meunier, a Coptic Christian, is head of the Al Haya Party in Egypt and leader of the U.S. Copts Association. After spending many years studying and working in the United States, Meunier returned to Egypt in 2007 and ultimately participated in the Tahrir Square protests that brought down the regime of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. On Dec. 19, in between round one and two of voting on Egypt’s recently passed constitution, Meunier visited The Daily Caller to discuss what he sees...

(Reuters) - Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, two presidential sources said. Police fired teargas at demonstrators angered by Mursi's drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. Some broke through police lines around his palace and protested next to the perimeter wall. Several thousand people had gathered nearby in what they dubbed "last warning" protests against Mursi, who infuriated opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers. "The people want the downfall of the regime," the...

(Reuters) - Thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Mursi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the Islamist leader's newly expanded powers.

An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,” drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week. Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such “idols.” “All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” he said on Saturday during a television interview on an Egyptian private channel, widely watched by...

He's not a Jew. At least, that's the latest on the man behind the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," that has fueled attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, leaving the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, dead. The filmmaker appears to be an Egyptian Christian rather than an Israeli Jew, as he had claimed in interviews. The Associated Press tracked down an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California who admitted to involvement with the film's logistics, and whose middle name and a known alias closely resemble the apparently fake name - Sam Bacile -...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gkIBVaTTnTDT_lg8TWBbbawpW0cQ “Terror suspects lose extradition case in Britain” (AFP) – 5 days ago SNIPPET: “LONDON — Two alleged leading conspirators of Osama bin Laden on Friday lost their latest battle to escape extradition from Britain over the 1998 US embassy bombings in east Africa. Khalid al Fawwaz, a 46-year-old Saudi businessman, and Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian, are wanted by the United States over their alleged role in the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.” SNIPPET: “Al Fawwaz was living with his wife and three children in London before his arrest on a New York court indictment...

As the new school year begins next week in Egypt, school girls and their families are preparing to face yet another year of sexual harassment, this time waiting for the children outside their schools. Egyptian mothers worry about their young daughters, who are subjected to sexual harassment outside their gated schools and daughters only pray to go home safely after the day has ended. The phenomena of men waiting outside girls only schools to sneak a view, harass and self-expose themselves has made even school a difficult trip to take on a daily basis. Egyptian girls must join girls-only schools...

International terrorist groups with roots in Libya, Sudan and Iraq are working to take over the Sinai Peninsula, according to a report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Efforts to turn the region into a major launching point for attacks are being encouraged by Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, it stated. The report noted a recent attack near the border as evidence of terrorists’ attempts to take advantage of the anarchy and growing anger in Sinai. Gaza terrorist groups are heavily involved, it noted. “Palestinian terrorist groups active in the Gaza strip are accessible to local Bedouin organizations...

IDF forces foiled an attempted inflitration by Gaza terrorists Sunday evening in the Kerem Shalom area. The IDF reportedly hit one vehicle from the air and the terrorists in it were killed. Initial reports from Gaza said that members of an extremist Islamic group attacked two Egyptian army posts in the Egyptian part of Rafiah with anti-tank rockets and gunfire, killing 15 Egyptian officers and soldiers. Al Jazeera later put the number of Egyptian soldiers dead at 20. They then commandeered an Egyptian military armored personnel carrier (APC) and tried to use it to cross into Israeli territory. Some reports...

Egyptian actor freaks when he thinks that he is being broadcast on an Israeli channel.

Wealthy tourists from the Persian Gulf are paying to marry under-age Egyptian girls just for the summer, according to a report. These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The tourists pay a 'dowry' to poor families through intermediaries with prices ranging from £320 to £3,200. The young victims - some under 18 - suffer sexual slavery and are forced to be servants to their 'husbands', claims the U.S. State Department report 'Trafficking in Persons'. BRIDE, 17, WHO WAS SOLD FOR £2,120 The...

Swiss hold 8 over Saudi suicide bombs Alison Langley in Zurich, and Brian Whitaker Saturday January 10, 2004 The Guardian The Swiss authorities have arrested eight people in connection with suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia. The arrests on Thursday were part of a national operation by 100 police officers who raided homes in Geneva, Bern, Zurich, Vaud and Aargau and questioned about 20 suspects. Those arrested are suspected of providing logistical support for a series of attacks by Islamic militants on housing compounds in Riyadh last May which killed 35 people, including nine assailants. Officials said all the suspects were...

(MEMRI) — Yassir Al-Burhami: Appointing infidels to positions of authority over Muslims is prohibited. Allah said: “Never will Allah grant the infidels a way [to triumph] over the Believers.” We are not afraid of losing the elections or of not getting votes. We are not trying to ingratiate ourselves before the people. Can the Christians of Egypt be compared to the Jews of Al-Medina? The case of the Jews of Al-Medina is one example of the relations between the Muslims and the infidels. The Muslims can implement any form of conduct used by the Prophet Muhammad. When the Prophet Muhammad...

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer the Septuagint Third Edition By Metropolitan Ephraim Preface All told, there are some 300 textual differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint texts, some of them important and some of them insignificant. These articles will explain why Orthodox Christians prefer the Septuagint, despite some admittedly beautiful and eloquent passages found in the Masoretic text. The articles by Metropolitan Ephraim were originally published on the internet in the Spring of 2009, and they appear here in a slightly edited and augmented form. ONE - HONOR THE PHYSICIAN In the Wisdom of Sirach, it says: “Honor the physician...

This ought to make Obama proud that he played a part in getting rid of that evil tyrant Mubarak. Let's go to the videotape. Here's an explanation of what you just saw for those who, like me, are Arabic challenged. But first, a picture: A picture of a female Egyptian protester who was stripped from her black abaya and allegedly abused by army men has met with angry tweets criticizing the country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Saturday. The photos on social media shows a woman, clothed in just her denim pants, as army men hurl kicks...

Deputy Defense Minister MAtan vilna’I said this evening that north of Eilat the firefights over the Egyptian border continue.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Assailants armed with heavy weapons, guns and explosives launched three attacks in quick succession in southern Israel near the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding about a dozen more, officials said. (Related: Could the Sinai Peninsula be the next Al Qaeda stronghold?) The rare violence in that part of the country targeted a passenger bus, a military patrol and a private car, the officials said. Channel 10 TV reported a fourth attack, but there was no official confirmation or details. The military said a “large number” of assailants were...

Lately, a slew of video clips have been leaking that expose radically terrifying and offensive words coming from the mouths of Egypt’s Islamic leaders. Recently, we had Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, who said that the Holocaust was a lie and that the U.S. is responsible for 9/11. And who can forget Salafi Shaykh Muhammad Hassan’s statement that Islam prefers immoral men…or Shaykh Sa‘id ’Abd-al-’Azim’s belief that democracy is a “retarded” idea? Now, to add to our list of “Egyptian Leaders Behaving Badly,” we have Egyptian Shaykh Safwat Hegazy who can be seen, below, threatening Jews, Christians and the entire human race....

A mob of nearly 200 Muslims torched eight Christian homes on Saturday morning in the Upper Egyptian village of Awlad Khalaf. The attack was initiated by a rumor that a house which is being built by Wahib Halim Attia will be turned into a church. Two Christians and one Muslim were injured, no fatalities were reported.

This is the second Islamic spokesman to speak out in favor of sex slavery in recent days. And that should come as no surprise: taking women captive and enslaving them as concubines is sanctioned by the Qur'an: "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you." -- Qur'an 4:24 "Video: Shaykh al-Huwayni: 'When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her,'" from Translating Jihad, June 11: After Egyptian Shaykh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni's controversial comments...

A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities. The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks. At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."

Yet it looks as if that is what is happening. I tried to tell you. "Christians worry Egypt being hijacked by Islamists," by Sami Aboudi for Reuters, May 26 (thanks to Kamala): CAIRO (Reuters) - Last January, Nazih Moussa Gerges locked up his downtown Cairo law office and joined hundreds of thousands of fellow Egyptians to demand that President Hosni Mubarak step down. The 33-year-old Christian lawyer was back on the streets this month to press military rulers who took over after Mubarak stepped down to end a spate of sectarian attacks that have killed at least 28 people and...

Cairo - Clashes between Christians and Muslims escalated on Tuesday with thousands of people burning tires, smashing parked cars and cutting off a main road despite military moves to control a day of violent protests in Egypt's capital. Tensions have been simmering between Egypt's minority Christian community and its Muslim majority after a Muslim mob burned a church in a Cairo suburb. Egypt's military rulers have since pledged to rebuild the church and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met Monday with the protesters outside the state-television building.

A key U.S. official landed in Cairo on Monday to meet with military leaders and discuss the extra aid promised by Washington to help Egypt with its democratic transition. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns arrived days after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Egypt would be receiving an extra $150 million to help with the political transition. The $1.5 billion in foreign aid the U.S. gives annually to Egypt, which is unchanged in the State Department's budget.

25 injured when taxi plows into crowd leaving Gaslamp club By Susan Shroder Originally published February 12, 2011 at 5:22 a.m., updated February 12, 2011 at 6:27 a.m. An injured woman on the street. An injured woman on the street. If you witnessed this incident, give our breaking news team a call at 619-293-1010. An injured woman on the street. Photos courtesy Maurice Luque, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department The taxi outside Stingaree nightclub. SAN DIEGO — Twenty-five people were injured early Saturday, six critically, when a taxi driver veered off a busy street onto a sidewalk and plowed into patrons...

Cairo's envoy to US: Treaty is a main element of Egypt’s foreign policy; Supreme Council dissolves parliament, suspends constitution. An influential Egyptian opposition figure and likely presidential candidate called Sunday for Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel to be reassessed, the first sign since former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster Friday that the 32-year-old agreement may be in jeopardy. Ayman Nour, a former lawmaker and chairman of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, told an Egyptian radio station that the 1978 Camp David Accords were no longer relevant, and said the country’s leadership should at least rethink the terms of the framework agreements that...

National Journal has the transcript. I was expecting praise for the protesters tempered by warnings about “gradual” change, the importance of “stability,” and so on. Nope. This was a love letter to democracy, little different from what Bush would have said at his most glowing moment of neoconservative idealism. The strategy over the past few weeks, I thought, was to hedge between support for liberal reform and support for Mubarak as a U.S. ally in order to reassure Jordan, Yemen, and the Saudis that we won’t dump them too the minute they run into trouble. Are we now telling them...

WASHINGTON – Bristling with impatience, President Barack Obama on Thursday openly and sharply questioned whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's pledge to shift power to his vice president is an "immediate, meaningful or sufficient" sign of reform for a country in upheaval. Without naming Mubarak, Obama issued a written statement that criticized the leader for not offering clarity to his people or a concrete path to democracy. He called on Egyptian government leaders to do so, declaring: "They have not yet seized that opportunity."

Originally posted Sept. 29, 2003; reposted June 18, 2004 Senior investigators and analysts in the U.S. government have concluded that Iraq acted as a state sponsor of terrorism against Americans and logistically supported the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States - confirming news reports that until now have emerged only in bits and pieces. A senior government official responsible for investigating terrorism tells Insight that while Saddam Hussein may not have had details of the Sept. 11 attacks in advance, he "gave assistance for whatever al-Qaeda came up with." That assistance, confirmed independently, came in a variety of...

Authorities Conclude Switzerland Likely Used as Base for Financing, Logistical Support for 9/11 Attacks by Al-Qaida By Daniela Sigrist Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 24, 2004 BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Investigators have concluded that Switzerland was likely used as a base for financing and logistical support for the Sept. 11 attacks by al-Qaida, the country's attorney general said Thursday. Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said authorities plan to begin court proceedings in the coming weeks in three terror cases, capping investigations started four days after the 2001 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington. A special task force initially was charged...