Free Republic

"Seven smuggled forged 'eye scan pass' seals into UAE Seven Uzbeks, including a woman, brought 60 seals through Abu Dhabi and Sharjah airports" SNIPPET: "Seven Uzbeks, including a woman, allegedly smuggled 60 forged eye scan seals into the UAE through Abu Dhabi and Sharjah airports and used them, the Dubai Criminal Court heard."

 SNIPPET: "We also confiscated in his car some forged stamps. He confessed to getting the stamps from MJA who in turn had got them from MYY,” he testified. 

Searching his two flats in Al Nahda area, police confiscated ten other eye scan pass seals in addition to...

KATHMANDU SNIPPET: The Annapurna Post vernacular daily reported on Sunday that the arrest was made on April 13. Identified as Mohsin Khosravian, the suspect is currently in police custody.

 The security officials at the Embassy speculated that the suspect was scouting the facility with a harmful intention "for he carried a tourist map of the Lazimpat area" where the Israeli mission is located. 

He had stayed in a Thamel-based hotel. After his arrest, the suspect told police that he had ventured out to find out a shop to repair his laptop.

 According to the report, the Nepal Police's Central Bureau...

The Muslim terrorist group Qa’adat el-Jihad claimed responsibility Saturday for a terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bombing in Bulgaria last week killed five Israelis, one a pregnant woman. The Lebanese paper El-Nashra reported that the group, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility in an email to the Arab press.

Link "Pakistan told Indian officials to look into all aspects, including an LTTE or Al-Qaeda connection. Pakistan also informed India that some of the terrorists appeared to be South Indians and looked like LTTE cadres. India investigated every angle," the official said. London's Pakistani High Commissioner in an interview told BBC over the weekend that some of the terrorists looked very much like South Indians. From Sir Lanka Ministry of Defence ....... A little known terror outfit "Deccan Mujahideen" has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Anti-terrorist operations are continuing as Indian security forces take on the formidable mission to...

SNIPPET: "So there I was, doing that thing I do - targeted collection, and triage based on a range of frequently changing criteria - when I happened to notice this image:" SNIPPET: "georgi.ir: sometimes what isn't there is still interesting"

The U.S. State Department’s policy on dealing with transgendered people will allow Americans who are anatomically male but identify themselves as female to secure U.S. passports that match their gender “identity” rather than their anatomy. The policy also allows records for births abroad to be changed to reflect the “new” gender of an individual. … Sex-change surgery is not required to get a passport with an individual’s preferred gender. …

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—A former Guantanamo detainee has been arrested in Denmark on suspicion of withdrawing $18,900 from other people's accounts using stolen debit cards and PIN codes, police said Thursday. Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a Danish citizen, was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in 2004 after nearly two years in captivity. Abderrahmane, 34, was arrested Wednesday and ordered held in jail for two weeks on preliminary fraud and theft charges, police said. He is suspected of stealing three debit cards—two corporate cards and one personal—and the corresponding PIN codes. Police did not say how he stole them. They said Abderrahmane,...

Reports that the Venezuelan intelligence agency is targeting and spying on the Venezuelan Jewish community as well as on Venezuelan companies and organizations with ties to Israel is deeply troubling, asserted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “We are deeply troubled by a recent news report alleging that the Venezuelan Intelligence Service (SEBIN) is spying on the Venezuelan Jewish community,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. “Venezuela under the regime of Hugo Chavez has a history of harassing the Jewish community in that country,” he said. “It is chilling to read reports that the SEBIN received instructions to carry out clandestine...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Alabama Men Arrested on Terrorism Charges U.S. Attorney’s Office December 11, 2012 Southern District of Alabama MOBILE, AL—U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown of the Southern District of Alabama and Stephen E. Richardson, Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile Division of the FBI, announced that Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, 25, and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, 25, both U.S. citizens living in Mobile, were arrested today on terrorism charges filed in the Southern District of Alabama. A criminal complaint signed on December 10, 2012, charges Abukhdair and Wilson with conspiring to...

SNIPPET: "Google removed 640 videos from YouTube in the second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism. Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos."

After clearing the Senate on a 74 – 22 vote on March 14, SB 1813 is now headed for a vote in the House of Representatives, where it’s expected to encounter stiffer opposition among the GOP majority.

New Delhi An Israeli official said an explosion was hit an Israeli diplomat's car in New Delhi on Monday. He said one person was hurt in the blast, but did not identify the victim. Israeli Embassy spokesman David Goldfarb said the car was near the embassy when the blast went off. Indian police said only that a car was on fire on the street outside the embassy.

The idea of international diversification is a simple one– if you live, work, hold investments, own property, structure your business, store gold, etc. in the same country as your citizenship, then you truly have all of your eggs in one very fragile basket. If just one little thing goes wrong, whether it’s a court case, divorce settlement, political instability, government agency ‘administrative error’, or some noxious bureaucrat who’s out to get you, all of those aspects of your life can be put at extreme risk. The idea of ‘planting flags’, or diversifying internationally, involves spreading these aspects of your life...

Suspected Iranian Blew Off His Own Leg In A Botched Terror Attack In Bangkok Robert JohnsonFeburary 14, 2012 One day after bombs targeting Israeli embassy staff went off in India and Georgia, another botched attack played out this morning in Bangkok. Through several reports, the incident appears to have played out something like this: Saeib Morabi, a suspected Iranian, was fleeing an explosion that rocked through his rented home in central Bangkok. While he was on the road looking for transportation, another explosion went off "on a nearby road." When Morabi finally managed to flag down a cab, the driver...

NEW YORK — In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks. “The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to...

Australians have been given a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications, under new guidelines aimed at removing discrimination. Transgender people and those of ambiguous sex will be able to list their gender as indeterminate, which will be shown on passports as an X. People whose gender was different from that of their birth were previously required to have reassignment surgery before they could change their passport to their preferred sex. An Australian senator, Louise Pratt - whose partner was born female and is now identified as a man - said the reform was a huge step forward....

The TSA is once again on the hot seat after a passenger was able to fly cross-country from New York to Los Angeles without a valid passport. Officials say Olajide Noibe was also carrying an expired boarding pass. When they finally took Noibe into custody, he told authorities he planned to fly back to his native Nigeria next month, only to return to the US on September 9, just two days before the 10 year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

After tripping over my passport everyplace for about 6 years since I last needed it, I finally need it again for a trip the end of this month (july 31) and of course one week before I need it I can no longer find it anywhere. Is anyone here familiar with these websites that promise a replacement passport in 24-48 hours?

Somali officials confirmed today that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al Qaeda's leader in East Africa and a senior Shabaab commander, was killed at a Somali military checkpoint in Mogadishu earlier this week. Fazul is one of the most wanted terrorists in East Africa for his role in attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well as his role within Shabaab. Somalia's minister of information confirmed Fazul's death, according to The Associated Press. "We've compared the pictures of the body to his old pictures," he said. "They are the same. It is confirmed. He is the man and he is...

As of ( Friday June 3, 2011), we are processing routine applications in approximately 4-6 weeks from the time of application.

If you don’t want it to get even harder for a U.S. citizen to get a passport — now required for travel even to Canada or Mexico — you only have until Monday to let the State Department know. The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a...

NEW YORK (AFP) – A dual US-Lebanese citizen has been extradited from Paraguay and charged with supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah militant force, US officials said Friday. Moussa Ali Hamdan, 38, appeared in court in Philadelphia following his extradition and has been charged with providing "material support to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization," the federal prosecutor's office in Pennsylvania said in a statement. Hamdan was arrested by Paraguayan authorities June 15 on suspicion of supporting terrorism and was subsequently handed over to US custody. He is accused in the United States on 28 counts including conspiring to supply Hezbollah with proceeds...

BANGKOK: Two Pakistanis and a Thai woman arrested on suspicion of making fake passports for al Qaeda linked groups were part of criminal networks tied to “many terrorist attacks”, Thai police said Thursday. The arrests in Thailand formed part of an international operation to stamp out a huge cell that has been linked to the 2008 attacks in Mumbai and the Madrid train bombings in 2004. Pakistanis Muhammad Athar Butt, 39, and Zeeshan Ehsan Butt, 29, and Thai national Sirikanlaya Kijbumrung, 25, were arrested in Thailand on Tuesday as they attempted to flee into Laos. “They are suspected of being...

"Alert over wanted al-Qaeda suspect who may be heading to Britain" SNIPPET: "An international alert has been issued warning that one of Britain’s most wanted al-Qaeda suspects has been trying to secure a passport and may be trying to return to Britain. Passport photographs of Ibrahim Adam, 23, who has been on the run for three years, have been discovered after British intelligence began unraveling one of the biggest terrorist networks discovered since September 11. Security sources told the Daily Telegraph they believe Adam is currently in Pakistan but is trying to get a passport. They fear that he may...

(07-29) 12:33 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Posing as someone else and using fake birth certificates and driver's licenses to get a U.S. passport can still work. For the second time in two years, government investigators exposed a gaping hole in the country's security by deliberately using fraudulent material to obtain passports. The investigation by the Government Accountability Office, detailed on Capitol Hill Thursday, demonstrates that despite security overhauls since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the State Department's system for issuing passports remains vulnerable to fraud. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/29/national/w110604D49.DTL#ixzz0vLAGykYR

Possible Illegal Aliens getting U.S. Passport?. This afternoon I witnessed three groups of non-English speaking people in line at post office (KS side of metro Kansas City, Mo area). As there were only two agents serving many people in line. As I was waiting, I noted that one group of three people and one toddler, were with one postal employee. I did note that it was taking an unusually long time for the group, I didn't pay lots of attention as a couple of us were grousing about the time and especially hot post office.As I got closer to front...

Snips from Excerpt Only website. Despite repeated assurances they would move production to the U.S., a key government contractor has continued to assemble an electronic component of the nation's new, more sophisticated passport in Thailand.The factory is near the same Bangkok suburb where a notorious terrorist extremist was captured in 2003. There have been bursts of violence in the industrial city, Ayutthaya, as recently as last month.Both the inspector general at the Government Printing Office and the agency's own security chief have warned specifically against producing the computer chip assembly in the Thai facility. One internal report obtained by ABC...

Note: Video included at link. SNIPPET: "Now, law enforcement officials appear increasingly concerned Al-Shabaab members are trying to come back to America. But these members aren't disenchanted young men like Hassan, seeking to escape the terrorists' hold. Rather, the concern is that they are returning either to recruit more members or perhaps to plot attacks here." SNIPPET: "Al-Shabaab represents a "threat to the whole nation, all of the world," Ahmed told the IPT. "Everywhere they could recruit somebody they will try – Europe, North America, Australia, Africa…And they want to disrupt world peace." Ahmed warned that Al-Shabaab's main focus in...

SEATTLE -- There are more questions than answers in the case of a suspected international arms dealer caught in Washington state with a stockpile of sniper rifles. Oliver King is an Iranian citizen who, in the past, has been a licensed gun dealer. King appeared in court in Seattle on Wednesday, accused of keeping a stash of guns and ammunition hidden in a storage unit near the U.S.-Canada border. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, King lied to enter the U.S. near Blaine last week. Agents with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement became suspicious of King when he showed up...

TOKYO, May 19 (AFP) - SNIPPET: "The pilot of the Boeing 747-400 with 407 passengers and crew bound for Minneapolis turned around late Monday about three hours into the flight from Tokyo's Narita airport after crew found the two men who refused to leave the cabin bathroom. Reports said the pair, who identified themselves as Chinese citizens aged in their 20s, had boarded the flight during an earlier stop in Shanghai. Japanese immigration officials were questioning the men, who said they did not have passports."

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Two Brooklyn Men with Conspiring to Provide Material Support to al Qaeda PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the indictment of U.S. citizens WESAM EL-HANAFI and SABIRHAN HASANOFF for allegedly conspiring to provide material support, including computer advice and assistance, to al Qaeda. EL-HANAFI and HASANOFF are expected to be presented...

Excessive taxation blamed - The National Center for Policy Analysis is reporting today that the number of U.S. expatriates turning in their U.S. Passports is rising dramatically. According to U.S. government records, 502 expatriates renounced their U.S. citizenship (or permanent residency) in the fourth quarter of 2009. This is more than double the number of expatriates renouncing U.S. citizenship in all of 2008.

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose, and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

Aug. 4, 2004 21:16 | Updated Aug. 4, 2004 22:01 New Zealand passport scam takes Canadian twist By HERB KEINON The New Zealand passport flap is thickening, with Canada trying to determine whether one of the Israelis allegedly involved in the scam who managed to leave New Zealand is traveling on a stolen Canadian passport. Canadian Foreign Ministry spokesman Reynald Doiron confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that the Canadian police and other federal agencies are investigating whether Ze'ev Barkan, one of the men New Zealand suspects of involvement in the scandal but who has reportedly left the country, is traveling...

Two Passports A Minute Are Given To Foreigners As 1.5M Issued Since Labour Elected By JAMES SLACK 26th February 2010 Passports were given to foreigners at the rate of two a minute last year. Officials approved a record 203,865 citizenship applications, 58 per cent more than in 2008. Another 190,000 immigrants were given the right to settle in the UK in 2009 – a rise of 30 per cent on the year before. Citizenship pledge: The number of foreign nationals applying to be British jumped by 30 per cent in the final quarter of last year Home Office figures show...

UK denies report MI6 was told about use of UK passports before Mabhouh's death. The British MI6 intelligence agency was tipped off by Mossad that Israeli agents were going to carry out an 'overseas operation' using fake UK passports, the Daily Mail reported Friday morning. The report came several hours after a 20-minute meeting in London between Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and a senior British diplomat on Thursday, over the fake British passports apparently used in the assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. According to the UK newspaper, a British security source quoted a Mossad agent as...

Snips: At least six people on the no-fly list were denied boarding in a 48-hour period between Saturday and Monday this week, according to the officials. Two of the six were stopped at London's Heathrow Airport.M. On Saturday, an Egyptian man on the no-fly list was stopped from flying on American Airlines flight 113 from London to Miami. The next day, Sunday, a Saudi Arabian passenger was stopped from boarding United Airlines flight 929 to Chicago. Officials said the man was sent back to Saudi Arabia by the British. In two other overseas cases involving people on the no-fly list,...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

A State Department filing clerk pleaded guilty Friday to illegally viewing passport files of celebrities, the ninth current or former employee of the agency to admit to snooping. Debra Sue Brown, 47, of Oxon Hill, Md., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola to one count of illegally accessing the files. Brown is scheduled to be sentenced March 23. Brown has worked full-time for the State Department since September 1995 as a file clerk and a file assistant in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, according to court documents. Brown admitted that between Mar. 25, 2005, and Feb. 7,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Eighteen Charged Following Multi-Year Fraud Investigation Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that a federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment charging 18 defendants with violating federal laws following a multi-year investigation into fraud relating to identification documents. Named in the Indictment are the following individuals: Vitaly Fedorchuk, 30 , of Parma, OH; Pavlo Mostranskyy aka Pasha, 45, of North Royalton, OH Sonya Hilaszek, 45, of Cleveland, OH Azamjon Asadov, 34, of Cincinnati, OH; Martynas Bojarcius, 29, of Palatine, IL; Jaroslav Wladyka aka Bohdan Borsuk,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, November 23, 2009 Arrests Made in Case Involving Conspiracy to Procure Weapons, Including Anti-Aircraft Missiles Arrests were made today in a case involving a conspiracy to procure weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines). In addition, Tarraf and other defendants — including Douri Nemr Tarraf, Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, and Hussein Ali Asfour — were charged with conspiring to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Man Admits Using Alias for Immigration Status COLUMBIA, SC—United States Attorney W. Walter Wilkins stated today that Sohail Feroz Ali Dossani, a/k/a Sohail Muhammad Jamal, age 29, a Pakistani national located in Florence, pled guilty to filing false statements to gain entry and citizenship, a violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1306(c). United States Magistrate Judge Thomas E. Rogers, III, accepted the plea and will impose sentence after he has reviewed the presentence report which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. Evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing established...

“Two people showed up saying they are responsible for making the consular changes demanded by Mrs. Patricia Rhodes, that of Marta Zuniga and Fernando Espinosa,” said David Hernandez, minister counselor of the consulate of Honduras in Washington. “They came in and locksmiths changed the locks without saying why.” The consulate is now run by people appointed by former Chancellor Rhodes, Hernandez said. Mario Fortin explained that Mrs. Marta Zuniga was named to the consular office by the former president Manuel Zelaya. The actions of former Foreign Minister Patricia Rhodes affects thousands of Hondurans living in the U.S., who now cannot...

DALLAS - An investigation has been launched into a passport scheme involving the Mexican consul in Dallas. Mexico's foreign minister has reassigned Consul General Enrique Hubbard while the investigation continues. While working at the Dallas Mexican consulate, Hubbard allegedly allowed staff members to personally profit from selling passport-size photos and permitted employees to skim money from passport fees. The irregularities in the fees charged were detected by internal controls.

Has Obama ever held a UK, Kenyan or Indonesian passport? Specifically, the issue of whether Obama held a UK passport is absolutely relevant to determine whether he is currently a British citizen. (I will be publishing comprehensive research on this issue soon.) What passport did Obama travel to Indonesia with at the age of 6 years old? Even if you believe Obama is eligible to be President, the question of what passports he held and what nations he was a citizen of should be of paramount importance to all US citizens. But more important than knowing the answer to this...

Well, surely this will settle finally once and for all that Barack Hussein Obama was really, actually and factually born in the United States and, therefore, is fully qualified according to the U.S. Constitution to be the president that he has been since he took the oath of office on Jan. 20 and a second time shortly after, just to make sure. Not! In yet another quite possibly futile attempt to silence the zombie birther controversy that won't die,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vocal group of conspiracy theorists known as "birthers" are riling the White House with their persistent claim that Barack Obama is not an American citizen and therefore ineligible to be president. The claim that the United States' first African-American president was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, first emerged during his presidential campaign, but it has garnered more media attention in the summer "silly season," a traditionally slow news period when many Americans are on vacation. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs looked exasperated at his briefing on Monday when a reporter asked him, "Is there anything you...

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today admitted that the questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president simply won't go away, even though he contends there are 10,000 things "more important" for Americans to worry about. Gibbs appeared exasperated by the issue, even when it was raised by left-leaning pundit Bill Press, who phrased his interest this way: "Robert, I hate to bring this up but somebody has to … Is there anything you can say that will make the birthers go away?" "No," said Gibbs. "I mean, the God's honest truth is no. I mean, Bill, let's understand...

Editors Note: In December ‘08 a retired CIA officer commissioned an investigator to look into the Barack Obama birth certificate and eligibility issue. On July 21, 2009 westernjournalism.com obtained a copy of the investigator’s report. Here is an unedited version of the report. The Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in the 1955 Revised Laws of Hawaii I think that I now understand the legal background to the question of where Obama was born. Let’s begin with the statement that Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health released on October 31, 2008. The television and print media...

Researching the Obama birth certificate conspiracy has yielded many theories and wild speculations. Despite the likelihood that most of them are without merit, the one haunting theme i: what is Obama hiding? The forged birth certificate that appeared on Obama’s campaign site has spawned new curiosities, theories and demands to know where in the world is Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Is it in Kenya, Hawaii, Chicago, and Indonesia? We believe the Certification of Live Birth is authentic, but that is not that part where it gets tricky with parsing of words and comparing apples to oranges. The document provided by...