Free Republic

AL-QAEDA’S leadership secretly directed the Islamic militants whose armed revolt at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended last week with more than 100 deaths after it was stormed by the Pakistan army. According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah. Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters � including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans � had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to...

Snippet: "Iran and its terrorist proxy groups’ influence in Latin America remains a troubling security threat to the region and world, experts said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday."

A militant Pakistani cleric and about 50 of his supporters have been killed after troops stormed a mosque in Islamabad, government officials say. Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the Red Mosque basement. Officials said he had been caught in the cross-fire. The army says eight soldiers were also killed in the military operation, and about 50 women and children rescued. Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law. Public anger in the capital had been mounting after they kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A radical cleric whose besieged mosque sought to impose strict Islamic morality on the Pakistani capital was killed Tuesday after refusing to respond to troops who demanded his surrender, officials said. About 50 militants and eight soldiers died when the military stormed the sprawling Red Mosque compound. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the public face of the pro-Taliban mosque that challenged the government's writ in Islamabad, had vowed to die rather than give himself up. An army official said Ghazi had received bullet wounds and when he was told to surrender, he gave no reply. Commandos then fired another...

Like some secretive, sinister army they march on their target. With only eyes visible behind black burkhas, scores of women wielding bamboo poles descend on a police checkpoint in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad. Backed by armed male students, they snatched weapons and took four officials hostage, triggering a gun battle that left at least nine people dead and 140 wounded. As the bullets flew, many of the women took to rooftops to shout anti- Government slogans. Students set fire to two government offices and torched dozens of cars outside. There were even loudspeaker calls for suicide attacks on the...

If the Oklahoma City bombers refused to participate in a U.S. election, would the final results be considered “illegitimate?” What if the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, the Communist Party USA, or the Southern Indiana Regional Militia refused to vote in American elections? Would it matter and, really, who gives a damn? The Left-Wing, e.g. the New York Times, has been trying to hold the Iraqi elections to this type of ridiculous standard regarding Sunni participation. Granted: Sunnis make up 32-37% of Iraq’s population. While their representation is important, the majority of terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing Iraq have...

A series of truces agreed on last month, encompassing Mr Sadr's stronghold in al-Thoura, Baghdad's eastern slum, as well as the Shia holy cities and other towns further south, are still holding. His own home turf in the capital has been more peaceful than it has been for months. Former fighters are now being paid to collect rubbish, plant trees, direct traffic and help the Iraqi police. The new government has promised to pay for a new sewage system so that the slum detritus will no longer flow past Baghdad's grimmest tenements. Outside the city, the clergy behind Mr...

Shouting "Long live the king," some 1,500 Iraqi tribal sheiks and monarchists welcomed Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a cousin of Iraq's last king who returned to the country Tuesday after spending 45 years in exile. The London investment banker, whose family fled Iraq in 1958 when he was two, flew in by chartered jet and then drove to his family mausoleum that still cradles the remains of two of Iraq's previous kings, Faisal I and Ghazi, AP reported. After visiting the interior of the mausoleum, he spoke to those gathered in the garden behind the mosque-like building crowned by an...