Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Muslim convert Richard Dart declared “judging is only for Allah” and refused to stand in the dock as he was jailed for six years for terrorism yesterday." SNIPPET: "Mr Justice Simon said the three held “radical Islamist beliefs” and showed they were “committed to acts of terrorism”. Dart, 30, of Ealing, west London, was jailed for six years; Mahmood, 22, from Northolt, west London for nine years and nine months, and Alom, 26, of Stratford, east London, for four years and six months." SNIPPET: "Dart and Alom travelled to Pakistan to try to get terrorist training, and took advice...

An anti-terrorist judge in France has thrown weight behind claims that the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and the bombing of French engineers in Karachi both had their roots in murky arms deals with Pakistani officials. By FRANCE 24 (text) In 2002, two brutal terrorist attacks targeting westerners in the Pakistani city of Karachi shocked the world. In January that year, the American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped before being beheaded in cold blood by his captors. A video was later released showing his execution. Three months later, on May 8, a bomber targeted a bus carrying French n

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was investigating the man who allegedly planned the Sept. 11 airplane hijackings and attacks on New York and Washington when he was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, according to two former Central Intelligence Agency officials. Bob Baer, a former case officer in the agency's Directorate of Operations, said he provided Pearl with unpublished information about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has since been accused by American officials of being one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a top aide to Osama bin Laden. Mohammed is...

Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world, home to 17-million people, give or take a million. It is the economic engine of Pakistan, responsible for three-quarters of its economy. It is the bellwether for a precarious nation -- as Karachi goes, so goes Pakistan, they like to say here. It's also, according to a recent report from global human resources consulting firm Mercer, South Asia's lowest-ranking city for personal safety and the sixth most dangerous city in the world. It has had no elected government for more than 18 months, after the last one dissolved in bickering...

Karachi Woman Murders, Seeks to Cook Husband Pakistani police say a woman tried to cook her husband after murdering him for planning to take a second wife. By Gavriel Queenann Pakistani police on Thursday arrested a woman they say killed her husband and was attempting to cook his body parts, after he planned to take a second wife without her permission. According to family law in Islamic Pakistan, a man must get permission from his first wife before his second marriage, but the law is rarely observed. Police arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in the Shah...

excerpt- St. Peter's of Karachi, which opened its doors this month and can fit around 5,000 people, is a sign of the resilience of a faith that has long suffered from state discrimination and attacks by extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In Karachi, jihadists plot war against Mumbai Praveen Swami Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley's testimony could cast light on who carried out the bombings in the city — and why. Four weeks after a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone ended his life on May 21, 2010, Said al-Masri's spoke to his followers from the grave, through a posthumous audio tape his followers posted online. “I bring you the good tidings,” al-Qaeda's third-in-command declared, “that last February's India operation was against a Jewish locale in the west of the Indian capital [sic., throughout], in the area of the German bakeries...

Taliban gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed a major naval air base in the heart of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, destroying two US-made surveillance aircraft and killing 12 personnel. It was the worst assault on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, piling further embarrassment on the armed forces three weeks after US troops killed Osama bin Laden under their noses. Up to 20 militants crept into the base in the teeming port city of Karachi from three sides under the cover of night late Sunday, officials said, triggering gunbattles and a series of...

Dr. John C. Drew, a grant writing consultant in Laguna Niguel, Calif., tells Newsmax he met Obama in 1980 when Obama was a sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Drew had just graduated from Occidental and was attending graduate school at Cornell University. Drew’s then girlfriend, Caroline Boss — now Grauman-Boss — knew Obama because she shared classes with him at Occidental.... During Christmas break, Drew says he was at Grauman-Boss’ home in Palo Alto when Obama came over with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo, his roommate from Pakistan. “Barack and Hasan showed up at the house in a BMW, and...

Sarkozy is asked to explain Pakistan bomb mystery By Thierry Leveque PARIS | Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:30pm IST PARIS (Reuters) - Victims' families on Thursday demanded that President Nicolas Sarkozy be called for questioning about a 2002 bomb attack in Pakistan that killed 11 French people. A new line of inquiry into the bombing has brought up possible links to a murky affair of commissions paid for a Pakistani submarine order when Sarkozy was budget minister. Presidential immunity means Sarkozy can refuse to be questioned while in office, and he has already publicly dismissed any link between the attack...

The Taliban took credit for a deadly suicide assault on a police headquarters in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi today. Sixteen people were killed in the attack and more than 100 were wounded. A Taliban assault team attacked the Crime Investigation Department headquarters in a secured area of Karachi. Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles attack the building and battled with police before a massive truck bomb was detonated inside the CID compound. The truck bomb, which is estimated to have carried more than 2,000 pounds of explosives, destroyed the building. Police have confirmed that 18 people have been killed...

At least 15 people have been killed and 100 injured in a massive explosion that ripped through the centre of Pakistan's largest city. A local journalist has told Sky News that a police station close to the US consulate in Karachi was the prime target and has collapsed. The explosion struck in a high-security area of the city that is also home to two luxury hotels and the offices of government leaders. According to Sindh province home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, a gang of around six gunmen first opened fire on the office of the Crime Investigation Department before detonating a...

Clashes that killed at least 45 people overnight in Karachi scared residents off its streets on Tuesday as Pakistan's largest city was on alert for more violence after the shooting of a leader in a dominant political party. Officials said more than 100 people were wounded and dozens of vehicles and shops torched by mobs who took to the streets after Raza Haider, a member of the provincial Sindh Assembly from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was gunned down on Monday along with his bodyguard while attending a funeral. The government blamed the Taliban and the banned militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba...

''Human rights are gay rights," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently, "and gay rights are human rights, once and for all." That's a touchy-feely liberal talking point, but don't tell it to the Muslims. Eventually, the Obama administration might have to decide to which radical group it's most important to pander: homosexuals or Muslims. There is some friction between these two Obama constituencies.... Given the Obama administration's fawning outreach to Muslim majority states, this drive for homosexual equality seems something of a disconnect. The Democratic conundrum illustrates an aspect of the clash of civilizations Mr. Obama is willfully...

NEW DELHI: A Pakistan-bound cargo vessel carrying a "huge quantity" of explosives and other weapons has been detained by the authorities at a harbour in eastern India, police said on Saturday. The vessel was heading for the Pakistani port city of Karachi and was detained Friday on an intelligence tip-off at Diamond Harbour, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kolkata, capital of the West Bengal state, police said. "The Indian Coast Guard and navy personnel have found a huge quantity of explosives, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and some bombs in two large containers," West Bengal police director general Bhupinder Singh...

Pakistani officers arrested a man at Karachi airport after batteries and an electrical circuit were found in his shoes as he tried to board a plane for the Middle East, an official said. The 30-year-old civil engineer allegedly told interrogators he came from Pakistan's northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Taliban and Islamist militants have a presence, and had been scheduled to travel to Muscat by Thai Airways. Mohammad Munir, Airport Security Force spokesman, said the bearded man, whom he named as Faiz Mohammad, was arrested when a scanner sounded an alarm. The suspect was not found in possession of explosives,...

'Man Arrested' in Karachi Airport Security Alert A man has been held at Karachi airport after batteries and an electrical circuit were found in his shoes as he tried to board a plane, reports say. Mohammad Munir, spokesman for the airport security force, said the civil engineer was arrested when a scanner sounded an alarm at the airport. He was scheduled to travel to the Omani capital Muscat on Thai Airways. The suspect was not found in possession of explosives, but Mr Munir described the circuit discovery as "worrying". He told AFP news agency: "After the machine gave the alarm,...

Times Square Is Evacuated in Bomb Scare The scene at Times Square on Saturday night after police found a suspicious package inside a Pathfinder on West 45th Street. RAY RIVERA and KARIN HENRY May 1, 2010 A bomb in Times Square led to the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, the police said. There was no explosion. “It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The device, he said, contained “explosive...

Faisal Shahzad, Times Square bomb suspect in custody -- Live Updates 12:16 p.m. Two arrested in Pakistan ISLAMABAD -- An intelligence official who was not authorized to speak on the record said two arrests had been made in Karachi in connection with the bombing attempt. One arrested is named Tausif Ahmed, and he is believed to have traveled to the United States recently to meet with Shahzad, according to this official