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...

As noted before, there is a wealth of information at New York jihad bomb plotter Muhammad Yusuf's website, including several collections of ahadith about jihad. Here is one segment of that collection. Muhammad Yusuf says at his website that he collected these together himself, but actually they are just long passages from the canonical hadith collection of Bukhari, the collection Muslims consider most reliable. It is noteworthy that none of the Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. will make any effort to show that these hadiths are false, or that Muhammad Yusuf is misunderstanding them. Yet it is on the assumption...

NEW YORK — A man who admitted plotting to bomb the city's subway system wanted to do so with the help of at least two other bombers during rush hour, when the most people could be killed, police said Tuesday. "This was particularly disturbing," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "It was his intention to be on trains during rush hour period and to kill New Yorkers. No question about it." The man, 25-year-old Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty Monday to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and supporting al-Qaida, which he said trained him in Pakistan.

A federal appeals court said Tuesday a 22-year prison sentence was too lenient for an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Day 2000. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Ahmed Ressam deserved a much longer prison term because he had reneged on a deal to cooperate with terrorism investigators around the world. U.S. prosecutors said Ressam's change-of-heart after two years of cooperation compromised at least two terrorist cases in the U.S., resulting in charges being dropped. The appeals court also took the rare step of...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in New York, Washington and Virginia are vying to try the accused plotters of the September 11 attacks if their cases are moved into U.S. civilian courts, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes court said. The Obama administration said last week it would decide by November 16 whether to try Guantanamo prisoners in a revised version of the much-maligned military tribunals or in regular civilian courts. Case files for self-described 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged al Qaeda co-conspirators are already under review by U.S. attorneys...

BUTTE, Mont. -- Two inmates, including one who was once accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son, escaped Friday in a truck while working at a state prison ranch. Kelly A. Frank, 45, and convicted burglar William J. Willcutt, 22, were assigned to a crew that moves irrigation pipe at the prison ranch, jail officials said. A supervisor noticed Willcutt and the 1965 truck were missing around 4:20 p.m., and the prison was locked down, a jail statement said. An inmate count showed Frank was also gone. The missing truck had been assigned to Frank, the statement said. Officers...

DIX 'PLOTTER': I'M OK GUYBy JEANE MACINTOSH May 18, 2007 -- He's charged with helping to arm five Muslim men plotting a bloodthirsty guerilla attack on a New Jersey military base, but Agron Abdullahu said yesterday, "I'm not really a bad guy." Abdullahu, 24, made the statement in front of U.S. Magistrate Joel Schneider during a bail hearing featuring a parade of family members speaking on the alleged terrorists' behalf. "I'm not really a bad guy," Abdullahu told the magistrate. "If I could leave, I would definitely go back to my old life . . . I would never do...

You guys are usually right, so here's a question:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- British authorities denied a U.S. request to apprehend a man believed to have ties to the July 7 London bombings weeks before the deadly attacks, sources familiar with the investigation said Thursday.Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, a British-born citizen of Indian heritage, is in custody in Zambia, U.S. and Zambian officials told CNN. U.S. authorities wanted to capture Aswat, who was then in South Africa, and question him about a 1999 plot to establish a "jihad training camp" in Bly, Oregon. According to the sources, U.S. officials had Aswat under surveillance in South Africa weeks before the July...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...