Free Republic

Alton Nolen, the man who beheaded a co-worker in Oklahoma, was an evangelizing Muslim, had the phrase, "As-Salaamu Ataikum" tattooed on his body, and had a lengthy arrest and conviction record. Sgt. Jeremy Lewis of the Moore Police Department stated, "After conducting interviews with co-workers of Nolen's, information was obtained that he recently started trying to convert some of his coworkers to the Muslim religion." ...Nolen also has a lengthy arrest record. Some of his worst offenses were recently suspended. According to Oklahoma State's "Offender Lookup," Nolen was arrested for a number of felonies, including assault and battery, possession and...

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday that six-power talks with Iran being held at the United Nations had failed to yield progress on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. “At this time as I speak, there is no significant progress,” Fabius told journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. “We were due to have a meeting this morning of the P5+1 on one side and the Iranians on the other but because of a lack of progress, this meeting (had) to be called off,” Reuters quoted him saying. Israel, meanwhile, voiced vociferous objections to a reported American proposal to...

MOORE, Okla. – Officials with the Moore Police Department say the FBI is now involved in the investigation related to a brutal attack of workers at a food distribution plant. Sgt. Jeremy Lewis says the alleged suspect, 30-year-old Alton Nolen had just been fired when he drove to the front of the business, hit a vehicle and walked inside. He walked into the front office area where he met 54-year-old Colleen Hufford and began attacking her with a knife. Sgt. Lewis confirms the type of knife used in the attack is the same kind used at the plant. Lewis confirms...

Why prospects for cooperation with the Islamic Republic look dimmer than ever. On Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the United Nations in a replete with anti-Western sentiments, anti-Semitism, tiresome tropes regarding the genesis of terror, and promises to continue pursuing his nation’s nuclear program. While acknowledging that terror had become a global issue, Rouhani sought to put the blame everywhere else. “Today’s anti-Westernism is the offspring of yesterday’s colonialism,” Rouhani insisted, proceeding to take a none-too-subtle shot at America, noting that “certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hands of madmen, who now spare no one.”

A fired Oklahoma food processing plant employee who proselytized for Islam beheaded one co-worker and seriously injured another before the owner of the plant shot him, police said Friday. Moments after Alton Nolen, 30, was let go from Vaughan Foods in Moore, he drove to another part of the facility and walked into a front office where he attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford, police said. He used a “standard” knife — similar to the ones found at the facility — to allegedly behead Hufford. Then, he used the same knife to repeatedly stab Tracy Johnson, 43, who suffered numerous wounds and...

Naturally the first reaction of the authorities is there was no link to terrorism. Of course. A knife-wielding man barged into an Oklahoma food distribution plant and stabbed two workers — one fatally — before an off-duty cop took down the attacker. Alton Nolen beheaded a woman at Moore’s Vaughan Foods, CNN reported,and tried to kill another during the Thursday afternoon attack. Moore police would not immediately confirm the attack as a beheading. Officials told CNN there was no immediate link to terrorism. Police said the 30-year-old drove to the warehouse around 4:30 p.m. and attacked the first two people...

The number of Europeans joining Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq has risen to more than 3,000, the EU's anti-terrorism chief has told the BBC. Gilles de Kerchove also warned that Western air strikes would increase the risk of retaliatory attacks in Europe. US-led forces have launched nearly 200 air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq since August and on Monday began targeting IS in Syria. The UK parliament is due to vote on possible air strikes in Iraq on Friday. IS has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months. Mr de Kerchove said the...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday sought to leverage the crisis in the Middle East to ease sanctions on his country as part of nuclear talks, suggesting during a United Nations address that security cooperation between Iran and other nations could only occur if they struck a favorable nuclear deal. The Iranian president, meanwhile, sought to lay the blame for raging violence in the Middle East at the feet of western nations. He strongly condemned terrorism and described it as a serious threat, but also said the West’s “blunders” in the region have created a “haven for terrorists and extremists.”...

“Second, it is time for the world – especially Muslim communities – to explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.” As if they knew he would say this today (did they?), an international group of Muslim scholars today issued a purported refutation of the Islamic State’s understanding of Islam. Unfortunately, it is yet another farrago of detours, deceptions, half-truths and outright falsehoods. Will Muslim communities ever really reject the ideology of al Qaeda and the Islamic State? They haven’t yet in any way that would make even one jihadist lay down his arms and become...

Published September 24, 2014 Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia – A terror suspect shot dead after he stabbed two Australian counterterrorism police officers had his passport canceled recently on national security grounds, top police officials said Wednesday. Some experts suspect Tuesday's attack was inspired by the Islamic State group's call to supporters to wage terror in their home countries.An Australian Federal Police officer and a Victoria state police officer who were part of a Joint Counter Terrorism Team had asked the 18-year-old man to come to a police station in southeast Melbourne on Tuesday night to answer questions after first drawing...

LONDON (AFP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold talks on Wednesday with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani over unrest in Iraq and Syria, officials said, announcing the first meeting between the countries’ leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The talks will occur on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. They come as Western powers seek to build support for the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which holds swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and which has beheaded two US journalists and a British aid worker. Britain has had tense ties with...

ISIS Spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani Calls on Muslims in the West to Kill Americans, Europeans, Australians, Canadians

The Iranian president left Tehran for New York on September 22 to attend the 69th Annual Meeting of the UN General Assembly. Hassan Rouhani is expected to deliver his speech at the meeting on September 25, IRNA news agency reported. It will be Rouhani's second visit to New York since he took the office last year. Rouhani paid his first visit to New York to attend the 68th session of the UN General Assembly. Prior to his departure to New York, Rouhani met with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on September 21. Iranian officials earlier said any possible meeting...

Three Afghan soldiers went missing in Cape Cod during a training exercise over the weekend, and police and military officials are scrambling to find any clues that will help bring the men back. There were no details to report on the search, Lt. Col. James Sahady of the Massachusetts National Guard told The Associated Press Monday. U.S. military officials said the Afghanistan National Army officers had been participating in a U.S. Central Command Regional Cooperation training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod. They arrived at Camp Edwards on Sept. 11 and were last seen Saturday at the Cape Cod Mall...

Turkey refused on Thursday US permission for combat missions against the Takfiri group operating in neighboring Iraq and Syria. A government official said Ankara will not allow a US-led coalition to attack ISIL from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against the Takfiri militants.

During an answer to another lawmaker about how to prevent terrorists from going undetected inside the United States, Johnson made the absurd argument that a "legal process" for citizenship would prevent terror infiltration and encourage terrorists to come forward and turn themselves in. That suggestion is not only unhelpful but politically motivated garbage. Second, if Johnson got out of his cushy D.C. office once in awhile to actually talk to Border Patrol agents on the ground, he would know that radical Islamists crossing the southern border into the United States from Mexico is nothing new. Unfortunately, a lack of enforcement...

MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) – Belgian authorities have detained two people, who planned a terrorist attack in European Commission Headquarters in Brussels, Agence France-Presse has reported citing the local media. According to Belgian daily L'Echo, the country’s authorities have been conducting a number of preventive operations in recent months against the extremism in the region and have arrested several people suspected of links with jihadists. A source told L'Echo that about 400 Belgian citizens are involved in the Syrian conflict fighting on the side of the extremists, and approximately 90 people have returned home. The Dutch NOS Media Company...

Dave Clark, AFPSeptember 19, 2014 A dramatic change of tone in the latest hostage video released by the Islamic State has convinced experts that the jihadist group is isolated and fearful of a US assault. Where three previous clips ended with a masked militant slitting the throat of a kneeling hostage, the new release Thursday -- a teaser trailer for a promised series of documentaries -- takes a different tack. The hostage, British photojournalist John Cantlie, sits behind a desk and in a measured tone makes the case for Western powers to drop the threat of military intervention against his...

Brett LoGiuratoSeptember 19, 2014France's military conducted its first airstrike in Iraq, becoming the first foreign country in addition to the US to strike the extremist group calling itself the Islamic State (also ISIS or ISIL) in the country. French President Francois Hollande said in a statement the strike, which was conducted around 9:40 a.m. local time Friday, destroyed a logistics depot held by ISIS in northeastern Iraq. He promised more operations would continue "in the coming days." Rafale fighter jets "conducted a first strike against a supply depot terrorist organization Daech in north-eastern Iraq. The goal was reached and destroyed,"...

The Institute for the Study of War September. 18, 2014 On September 18, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) launched a complex attack likely targeting the Adala Prison in Baghdad’s Kadhmiyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad. According to the Baghdad Operations Command, the attack was intended to break into the prison but was foiled. ISIS also launched another attack in Baghdad’s Iskan neighborhood that likely targeted the offices of the Iraqi Shi’a political group and militia, the Badr Organization.Institute for the Study of War The Attack ISIS’s attack included mortar rounds, Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs), and Suicide Borne...