Free Republic

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is “looking into” the possibility of removing embattled attorney Scott Rothstein from the state’s Judicial Nominating Committee. Rothstein has offered to surrender his license to practice law. But, he may remain a member of JNC unless, or until, he’s charged with a felony crime. Gov. Charlie Crist named Rothstein to the JNC in August 2008. “Typically, the governor would only step in when felony charges are filed against a public official,” said Sterling Ivey, Crist’s spokesman. “Whether we will act before that point in this case is not clear yet. Our legal office is looking into...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- An attorney who was a major fundraiser for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist allegedly conducted an investment scam that cost investors millions, a lawsuit alleges. A group of investors said in a suit filed against Scott Rothstein that the co-partner of the Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler law firm took part in a scheme that cost the plaintiffs more than $100 million, The Miami Herald reported Friday.

mother-of-six who today admitted hiding an explosives manual in her burka wrote a note suggesting she was willing to blow up herself and her children, a police source said. Houria Chahed Chentouf, 41, from Manchester, was sentenced to two years in prison for the terror-related offence but walked free from court after serving her time on remand. Officers found the chilling note written by Moroccan-born Chentouf at her home in Holland.

"Moroccan police arrest 24 from network coordinating with jihadists "in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone"" SNIPPET: "The security services in Morocco have arrested 24 members of a "terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for suicide bombings in Iraq, the interior ministry said Wednesday. In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, it said the network -- coordinating "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone" -- also sought recruits for Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia. The suspects -- now being questioned by police -- were arrested in several cities in Morocco, said...

An Israeli Arab man has been indicted for allegedly working on behalf of Hezbollah in a plot to assassinate Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, a gag order lifted on Monday revealed. Tira resident Rawi Fuad Sultani, 23, was arrested by Shin Bet and Israel Police forces earlier this month and indicted at the Haifa District Court. According to the charge sheet, Sultani first made contact with Hezbollah agents at a multi-national Arab summer camp in Morocco organized by the Israeli Arab political party Balad. Lebanese Hezbollah agent Salman Harev, who also took part in the camp, spent...

New details are emerging about the arrest in Kenya of three Dutch nationals and a Moroccan with Dutch residence status Monday near the Somali border. The men are accused of trying to aid Somalia's al-Qaida-linked extremist group, al-Shabab. Kenyan police say four 21-year-old men, three born in Morocco and the fourth in Somalia, were detained by authorities in the coastal town of Lamu, as they tried to reach the Kiunga area, about 15 kilometers from the border with Somalia. The men identified themselves as Dutch tourists. But police said there were no tourist sites where the men were found and...

RABAT, Morocco - From the western edge of the Muslim world, the king of Morocco has dared to tackle one of the most inflammatory issues in the Middle East conflict — the Holocaust. At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the Holocaust has made the biggest headlines, King Mohammed VI has called the Nazi destruction of the Jews "one of the most tragic chapters of modern history," and has endorsed a Paris-based program aimed at spreading the word among fellow Muslims. Many in the Islamic world still ignore or know little about the Nazi attempt to annihilate...

WASHINGTON -- Carol Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be his climate czarina, served until last summer as a member of a socialist organization whose mission is to enact progressive government policies, including toward environmental concerns like climate change. Browner's name and biography have been scrubbed from the Web site of Socialist International, the umbrella group for 170 "social democratic, socialist and labor parties" in 55 countries. But a photo of Browner speaking in Greece to the group's Congress on June 30 remained in the site's archives. Browner, formerly the longest serving administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, having served...

August 14, 2005 -- LONDON — The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal. The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed. However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal. A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan...

Tunisian authorities have reportedly arrested nine soldiers for allegedly planning attacks on visiting American military officers. The arrests were made under the Tunisian anti-terrorism law, lawyers said. The detainees, two of whom are officers in the Tunisian Air Force, planned to assassinate American military officers who visit the country periodically for military training and joint exercises with the Tunisian army, the German Deutsche Press Agency (DPA) reported. Dr. Jack Kalpakian, a political expert at Morocco’s Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, said he was not surprised to hear news of the terror sweep. “Tunisia’s government has followed a very secularist policy and...

RABAT -- If you want an antidote to the photographs of police officers beating demonstrators and girls dying on the streets of the Iranian capital, take a drive through the streets of the Moroccan capital. You might see demonstrators, but not under attack: On the day I visited, a group of people politely waving signs stood outside the parliament. You might see girls, but they will not be sniper targets... Welcome to the kingdom of Morocco, a place which, in the light of the past two week's events in Iran, merits a few minutes of reflection. Unlike Turkey, Morocco is...

As our rundown Mercedes puttered past the olive groves and wheat fields of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, our taxi driver, Mohammed, pulled off the dirt road to ask a shepherd for directions. “Do you know how to find David Dra’a?” I was skeptical that the Arab shepherd would be able to lead us to the tomb of an obscure kabbalist rabbi, but he knowingly pointed us forward, higher into the peaks. Rabbi David Halevy, from the Dra’a area 60 miles northeast of Marrakech, is one of more than 600 tzadikim (righteous men) buried in Morocco who are recognized by local Jews...

In Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Egypt, he spoke at great length about the importance of America's role in reaching peace in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The sentiment is no doubt genuine, but it's unclear to many Americans and Muslims alike just how he plans to get there. Whatever road his administration plans to take, it should go through Morocco. While Obama was in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, I was traveling in Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat and the Western Sahara with the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, meeting with Muslim and Moroccan...

RABAT (AFP) — A group of alleged Islamists recently arrested in Morocco planned to attack Jewish interests in the country, a court source said Thursday, citing the charges against them. The suspects, alleged to be members of a cell that was part of the radical Islamist movement Salafia Jihadia, were also preparing attacks against Moroccan security services, the source said. Details of the alleged attack plans were not available.

Nawal El Kahlaoui grew up near Paris as the daughter of a mechanic who left Morocco to seek a better life in France. But after finishing her university studies here, Ms. Kahlaoui moved back to Morocco to find work. "I love Morocco, as the country gave me a chance," says the 35-year-old retail consultant in Casablanca. "It's a land of opportunity." A growing number of well-educated French people of immigrant backgrounds are returning to their parents' homelands. There are no official figures on the number of "returnees," and government officials, scholars and employment agencies say the number is small. Still,...

Security forces in Morocco announced on Tuesday (May 12th) that they had successfully dismantled a "nascent terrorist organisation planning to carry out attacks" in the country. This cell, which comprised eight people, operated in at least three towns – Laâyoune, Guelmim, and Boujdour – as part of the radical Islamist Salafia Jihadia movement. "These terrorists have been monitored for months and inquiries showed that the people we detained were a threat," said one interior ministry source wishing to remain anonymous. PJD Secretary-General Abdellah Benkirane said Tuesday in a televised interview that one of the people arrested is a member of...

Moshe Hassan's father knew the process of aliya inside and out. "My father tried to come here from Tunis in 1946, but was caught by the British and sent to Cyprus," Hassan told The Jerusalem Post by telephone on Sunday. "He was put in a camp there, and that's where he met my mother. They immigrated to Israel in 1948." They settled in Beit Hagadi, a religious moshav next to Netivot, but the elder Hassan would spend little time in his new country. Asked by the Jewish Agency to help bring Moroccan Jews on aliya, Ya'acov Hassan returned to North...

The following news brief is a quote: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/news/awi/newsbriefs/general/2009/04/26/newsbrief-02 Algerian, Moroccan stowaways arrested in Canada 26/04/2009 Authorities in the Canadian port of Halifax found five Moroccan and two Algerian illegal immigrants hiding on a Swedish cargo ship arriving from Antwerp, Belgium, Echorouk reported on Saturday (April 25th). The stowaways, all young men in their twenties, were taken into custody on Thursday night. Border officials are conducting interviews to determine whether to deport them or allow them to begin a refugee claim process, Canadian press reported.

Washington, 24 April(AKI) - The Algerian-backed Polisario Front movement has been seeking independence for the Western Sahara since it was occupied by Morocco in the 1970s. Peace talks over the status of the region have been stalled since July 2003 and last year militants threatened to resume their armed struggle if there was no progress in a UN-brokered peace plan. This is the letter that US lawmakers recently sent to president Barack Obama. "Vital US interests in North Africa are increasingly challenged by growing regional instability. Terrorist incidents in the Maghreb have increased by more than 400 percent since September...

Hillary Clinton finds the piracy situation to be rather amusing...or she is drunk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_c3B5AasI

Muslim Morocco expels 5 Christian missionaries (03-29-2009)‎ RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Authorities have expelled five Christian missionaries from Morocco on the grounds that they were illegally inciting Muslims to convert ... http://www.dailyreligious.com/archives/26942

Rome - SNIPPET: "Moroccan Mohammed Essadek, 39, and Tunisian Sghaier Miri, 34, left Italy late on Saturday. Essadek had been living in the northern Treviso region. Miri, from the Udinese region in the northeast, was considered to be one of the leaders of the local Muslim community, the agency reported. Investigators alleged that Miri had links with members of Islamist fundamentalist groups active in Tunisia that were financed by al-Qaeda, said the agency report."

Morocco Cuts Off Diplomatic Relations with Iran, Accuses It of Spreading Shi'ism in the Country On Friday, March 6, 2009, Morocco announced that it was cutting off diplomatic relations with Iran. The decision followed weeks of escalating measures between the two sides. The two countries had been at odds in the past over Morocco's grant of asylum to the Shah after the Islamic Revolution and its support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, but the current rupture is the worst nadir in Moroccan-Iranian relations since these were normalized in 1991: [1] Undiplomatic Behavior The crisis between Morocco and Iran...

Morocco Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Iran Over Islam Controversy March 7, 2009 3:01 p.m. EST Melvin Baker - AHN Reporter Rabat, Morocco (AHN) - Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Friday, charging that Iran was interfering in the religious affairs of the country. The foreign ministry charged Iran's embassy with "intolerable interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom" by attempting to spread Shia Islam in the predominantly Sunni nation. Morocco has no official Shia population; 99 percent of the population is Sunni. The remaining are Jews and Christians. The allegations are "baseless," Iran' Foreign Minister Monouchehr Mottaki said...

Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran of trying to spread Shia Islam in the kingdom. The tensions were mounted by recent Iranian remarks toward Sunni-led Bahrain that have raised hackles in the Arab world, Morocco's Foreign Ministry said. According to the AP, the ministry accused largely Shiite Iran's Embassy in Rabat of trying to "alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom" and threaten Morocco's religious unity. The ministry, in a statement, called Iran's actions "intolerable interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom." The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in...

MEKNES, MOROCCO // Four years ago, frustrated by the hidebound viticulture of his native France, the winemaker Stephane Mariot decamped to make his name on the free horizons of Morocco. “In France, the big wine firms are reluctant to experiment,” said Mr Mariot, 35, today the chief winemaker at Celliers de Meknes, Morocco’s largest winery. “Here, every year I can try out new techniques.” With 55 million bottles produced yearly and more than a dozen new appellations created in recent decades, the Moroccan wine trade is dynamic and growing fast. That is good news for Mr Mariot and others employed...

SNIPPET: "In an open letter to the president coinciding with his inauguration, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) attributed terrorism to “deprivation, poverty, despair and, most importantly, political injustice.” “The decades-long suffering of the Palestinian people provides only the most recent and potent illustration of the link between oppression, injustice, and violence,” said the OIC, calling for “an urgent and just remedy.” Abdul Aziz al-Tuwaijri, head of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a Morocco-based body established by the OIC, wants Obama to take a new approach with regard to what he calls Islam’s “just causes.” “Will America...

THE HAGUE, 29/01/09 - Moroccans in the Netherlands are not allowed to give their children any Berber names any more. In this way, Islamic identity is being stressed, Trouw newspaper reported yesterday. By far the biggest group of Moroccans in the Netherlands are of Berber origin, a region in the mountainous north of Morocco. "They will now be forced to give their children a Moroccan-Islamic name," according to Trouw. "Morocco wants to secure the Moroccan identity of its nationals in this way, including the Moroccan Dutch." The Moroccan government in Rabat sent all embassies and consulates abroad a list of...

Germany has been threatened with attacks for its presence in Afghanistan in a video released yesterday by the US centre for surveillance of Islamist sites (SITE). In the 30 minute Video message, a man calling himself Abu Talha Al-Alamani and presumed to be a member of al Queda says the Germans are "gullible and naive" if they thought they could "escape unscathed when they are the third occupation force in Afghanistan." The man, whose face is hidden by a black turban in the video, adds: "Letting me blow myself up in the name of Allah has been my wish since...

"IT'S NOT SO MUCH THAT THE HAMAS OFFICER WAS KILLED... ...it's that he was killed operating a mortar that his subordinates were not firing, because they refused to come out of hiding."

Construction of a tunnel linking Europe and Africa could begin within five years after Spain and Morocco agreed to a major engineering study of the Strait of Gibraltar. The tunnel could be dug between Punta Paloma in southern Spain and Punta Malabata near Tangier in Morocco. It would run for 38.5 kilometres and would pass beneath the strait for 27 kilometres at a depth of about 300 metres. The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow and turbulent stretch of water connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The shortest distance across is just 19 kilometres. But the seabed is...

WASHINGTON -- Until recently Morocco was more likely to be associated with tourism, rather than terrorism. That trend however is slowly changing. That change began on May 16, 2003 when Morocco suffered its first experience at the hands of Islamist terrorism. That day, Casablanca was hit with four simultaneous terror attacks that left 45 people dead and hundreds injured. Al-Qaida style attacks were perpetrated by Moroccan citizens belonging to the GICM (Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, known by its French acronym), a group affiliated with Osama bin Laden's organization.

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...

(ANSA) - Milan, December 2 - Two Moroccans arrested on Tuesday were planning terrorist attacks on targets in northern Italy after failing to make the ``necessary contacts`` to be sent abroad as jihad fighters, police said. Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, are alleged to have been planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region. Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation`` despite wiretapped conversations...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023624.php November 24, 2008 Moroccan "youths" firebomb church in Netherlands High-spirited "youths" at it again in Europe. "Gouda: Church firebombed," from Islam in Europe, November 24 (thanks to John Doe): Four teenagers of Moroccan origin were arrested Saturday evening for setting fire to the Vaste Burcht Reformed church in Gouda. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the door of the church, according to the police. The bottom part of the door and the doormat were damaged. The four Gouda residents, three aged 14 and one aged 15, are suspected of arson. The fire...

The Wars of the Barbary PiratesEssential Histories #66Osprey Introduction Most Americans are unaware that, as a young republic, their nation fought a war with the Barbary pirates, the North African corsairs who plied the waters of the Mediterranean at the turn of the 19th century in search of ships to loot and men to enslave. This is perhaps not surprising, for the wars were conducted on a small scale, over a short period of time, and at a considerable distance from American shores. They were, moreover, the product of one of the most inglorious – even degrading – episodes in...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

He also reveals that The Tunisian talked to UCIE agents.Cartagena Identifies the Police Officer that Asked Him to Go into the Leganés Apartment in the Morning of April 3rd.The testimony as protected witness, asked by the State Attorney Olga Sánchez, of the Police informer nicknamed Cartagena has left a lot of question that might change drastically the trial. Some details had been already revealed by EL MUNDO, as the pressure from the Police to avoid mentioning ETA. According to his testimony, The Tunisian was also linked to UCIE Police Officers. Asked by the Accusation Attorney, he gave names: “Enrique, Rubio,...

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...

Rabat - Authorities in Morocco have shut down about 60 Qur'anic schools belonging to a Muslim theologian who argues that girls as young as nine can marry, officials said on Thursday. The authorities also plan to close down the internet site on which Sheikh Mohamed Ben Abderrahman Al-Maghraoui decreed earlier this month that the marriage of nine-year-old girls is allowed by Islam. The sheikh said his decree was based on the fact that the Prophet Mohammad consummated his marriage to his favourite wife when she was that age.

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

AMSTERDAM, 19/09/08 - MPs and local council members of Moroccan origin are routinely approached by the Moroccan secret service to defend the interests of Morocco. So says Fouad el Haji, a Labour (PvdA) council member in Rotterdam. The Lower House is shocked and has demanded an explanation from the cabinet. El Haji said on n TV programme Pauw&Witteman that Moroccan-Dutch MPs, local politicians, entrepreneurs and police officers are enticed by the Moroccan secret service to serve the interests of Morocco. Rabat wants to bind them to it financially, culturally and politically, he stated. El Haji suggested that within the PvdA,...

Shortly after 9-11, Robert Satloff and his family went to live in Rabat, Morocco. Mr. Satloff was on a mission to uncover the roles Arabs played in helping or hindering Nazi Germany and its allies with the expansion of the Final Solution into North Africa. “It was challenging to be an American living in an Arab capital several months after 9-11 and after the start of the war in the Gulf,” Mr. Satloff said by telephone from his office in Washington, D.C. “It was a challenge being a Jewish American at a time when, in May 2003, there were a...

The President returned from Camp David on Saturday and hosted a Tee Ball game on Sunday. The Vice President concluded his overseas trip with meetings in Italy on Saturday and Sunday and has now boarded AF2 for what I presume is the flight back to the US. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended on Sunday a three-day visit to North Africa, including Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco Pray for President Bush - Day - 2916 & McCain/Palin - Day - 10 Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Britain's 200-year jihadOn my travels for the past few days, I have been reading a book which tells the story of a quite astonishing part of British history of which I was previously unaware. In 'White Gold', Giles Milton records the appalling details -- gleaned,it appears, from a wealth of historical documents including diaries and letters -- of a seaborne Islamic jihad against Britain which lasted for no less than two centuries. From the early seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, thousands of British men women and children were kidnapped by Arab corsairs and sold into slavery in Morocco where they...

Bread and circuses versus the clash of ignorance Moroccan state's promotion of cultural festivals hangs from a political skeleton CASABLANCA: If you were under the impression that Muslims have something against music, the sheer number of summer music festivals around the Middle East and North Africa might come as something of a surprise. Morocco provides a case in point. The Casablanca Festival turns Morocco's commercial capital into an urban Woodstock, with masses of young people clogging the mosque-filled streets and partying to the pulse of hip-hop, rock, pop and Arab music. An estimated 2 million people attend free concerts at...

CASABLANCA: If you were under the impression that Muslims have something against music, the sheer number of summer music festivals around the Middle East and North Africa might come as something of a surprise. Morocco provides a case in point. The Casablanca Festival turns Morocco's commercial capital into an urban Woodstock, with masses of young people clogging the mosque-filled streets and partying to the pulse of hip-hop, rock, pop and Arab music. An estimated 2 million people attend free concerts at a dozen venues, many snapping up the action on their cell phones. Casablanca's is only one of about 400...

If any evil forces were lurking Friday night along the Bangor waterfront, Hassan Hakmoun drove them away and called down healing spirits that blanketed the American Folk Festival crowd at the Railroad Stage. “Feel the spirit,” he told the crowd, “and pray for the world to become one.”

Italy: 5 arrested on suspicion of planning attacks ROME - Police broke up a suspected terror cell Saturday and arrested five North Africans, including the alleged leader who Italian officials said recruited Islamic extremists for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...