Free Republic

The right-wing extremist who federal authorities say led the failed plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has been sentenced to 16 years in prison — dodging what could have been a life sentence that federal authorities had sought in the rare domestic terrorism case. Adam Fox, 39, was convicted in August on two conspiracy charges relating to the kidnapping scheme and another to obtain and use a weapon of mass destruction related to a side plot to blow up a bridge in order to distract authorities. Federal prosecutors identified Fox as...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The prosecution rested Thursday, Aug. 18 in the trial of two men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The prosecution rested after testimony from an undercover FBI agent with supposed access to explosives. Barry Croft Jr., 46, of Bear, Delaware, and Adam Fox, 38 of Wyoming, Michigan, are on trial in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. Special agent Tim Bates, known as “Red,” said he joined alleged conspirators – in three vehicles - in a night-time reconnaissance mission in September 2020 to the governor’s place in Elk Rapids. He said Fox took photos...

Italy probes possible CIA role in abduction By John Crewdson (Chicago) Tribune senior correspondent An Italian prosecutor investigating the apparent kidnapping of a suspected Islamic militant in the streets of Milan served military authorities this week with a demand for records of flights into and out of a joint U.S.-Italian air base in northern Italy. Italian newspapers have reported that the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, is investigating the possible role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the disappearance of Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, better known as Abu Omar, a popular figure in Milan's Islamic community who vanished Feb. 17, 2003....

A Muslim cleric has claimed to have been tortured with electric shocks, left in a cell where rats crawled on him and threatened with rape after he was allegedly kidnapped from a Milan street by CIA agents three years ago.The claims of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, appeared in an affidavit provided to Milan prosecutors investigating his alleged abduction in February 2003, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported yesterday. Prosecutors say that the cleric, who was formerly suspected of links to terrorism, was driven to the Aviano military air base and flown via Germany to...

BANGUI (Reuters) - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appealed from exile in Africa on Monday for peaceful resistance to what he called the "occupation" of Haiti and insisted he had been abducted by U.S. forces. Appearing for the first time in public since his arrival in the Central African Republic a week ago as a rebellion plunged his homeland into chaos, Aristide said he still regarded himself as Haiti's legitimate leader. "I am the elected president and I remain the elected president," Aristide told a news conference, looking composed in a dark blue suit with his wife seated at his...