Free Republic

CLEVELAND -- A federal judge made a decision today involving convicted Islamic leader Imam Fawaz Damra's U.S. citizenship.Judge James Gwin ordered that Damra's citizenship be revoked, with the understanding from the government that he will not be detained while pending appeal.Damra was sentenced Monday to two months in federal prison and four months of house arrest for lying about his connections to terrorist groups when he applied for U.S. citizenship.Damra is expected to begin serving his sentence after the Muslim holiday of Ramadan ends in November.Damra is the leader of Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma.

Washington- Cleveland Islamic leader Fawaz Damra has been linked to a Florida man who was indicted yesterday as the leader of an alleged terrorist group responsi ble for more than 100 deaths in the Middle East. A 50-count federal indict ment accuses Sami Amin Al- Arian, 45, a University of South Florida engineering professor, and seven other al leged Palestin ian Islamic Ji had members of criminal racketeering, money laundering, conspiring to kill and maim people abroad, extortion, visa fraud, perjury and other charges. The defendants all face life in prison if they're convicted. "We will bring justice to the...

ROME (AP) - An Italian prosecutor is investigating whether U.S. agents played a role in the alleged abduction from Milan of a suspected Islamic militant, according to news reports. The 41-year-old imam, identified as Abu Omar, disappeared in the northern Italian city in February 2003. Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro is looking at whether he was seized in a CIA operation and flown to Egypt for interrogation, the Corriere della Sera and other newspapers have reported. Last week, the prosecutor visited a joint U.S.-Italian air base in Aviano to find documents on air and vehicle traffic that might shed light on...

Italy orders arrest of CIA agents over Imams abduction 6/24/2005 10:45:00 PM GMT Italian authorities ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim leader Italian authorities ordered the arrest of 13 agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) accused of kidnapping a Muslim leader in northern Italy, an Italian newspaper reported on Friday. The arrest warrants were issued by Italian Judge Chiara Nobili at the request of the anti-terrorist division of the state prosecutor's office, the Corriere della Sera said. The 13 agents are suspected of kidnapping Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar,...

A new Islamic advocacy group in Boca Raton is under scrutiny for its ties to William W. Baker, a former chairman of the neo-Nazi political party of presidential candidate David Duke who was run out of town last year when he attempted to speak at Florida Atlantic University. Local Jewish and civic leaders said Friday they were alarmed that the Assadiq Islamic Education Foundation, whose headquarters are listed at 831 E. Palmetto Park Road in Boca, had invited Baker back to Boca as featured speaker at an April 30 banquet at the Boca Marriott. Invited by Muslim students to speak...

<p>October 15, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Pentagon investigators will question a Muslim chaplain who arranged a trip to Mecca for Islamic U.S. servicemen that was paid for by a Saudi charity linked to al Qaeda, a top Defense Department official said yesterday. In March 2001, Capt. Rasheed Muhammad led a "Haj tour" for about 60 Muslim service people that was paid for by the Muslim World League, which is dedicated to the spread of an extreme form of Islam embraced by Osama bin Laden.</p>

Two held over US fears of radical cell in forces By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 24/09/2003) The United States military is urgently investigating a potential radical Muslim cell among its own servicemen at the Guantanamo Bay prison as it emerged yesterday that two more members of the garrison are in custody. Senior Airman Ahmad I al-Halabi, an Arabic language translator, was secretly arrested a month ago, Pentagon officials said last night. He is being held at an air base in California and is charged with more than 30 counts of espionage, aiding the enemy, disobeying a lawful order and...

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant who set himself on fire in front of the White House played a role in at least three terror investigations, court documents show. Defense attorneys said Wednesday they are re-examining Mohamed Alanssi's role in the cases against their clients, who are accused of helping fund Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and the Palestinian group Hamas. "Ultimately what I'm heading for is a motion for dismissal," said Frank Hancock, the lawyer for Abad Elfgeeh, a Yemeni-born man accused of illegally sending millions of dollars overseas. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, who filed the...

ROME - Anti-terrorism police arrested the Algerian cleric of a mosque and four Tunisians Sunday in a crackdown authorities said was aimed at preventing an al-Qaida-linked cell from sending suicide attackers to Iraq (news - web sites). The suspects were seized in pre-dawn raids in three cities in the northern Tuscany region, Genoa's Police Chief Oscar Fiorolli said. Genoa, a northern port city, began the investigations that led to the arrests. The suspects allegedly belonged to a cell of Ansar al-Islam, an organization based in northern Iraq with links to al-Qaida, Fiorolli told the Associated Press in Rome in a...

NEW YORK -- A judge on Tuesday threw out the guilty plea of an ice cream shop owner in Brooklyn whom prosecutors linked to funneling tens of thousands of dollars to al-Qaida and other terrorist networks. Judge Charles P. Sifton said the Yemeni proprietor, Abad Elfgeeh, had not understood the consequences of his guilty plea to illegally transferring money to bank accounts in Yemen, Switzerland, Thailand and China. FBI agents arrested Elfgeeh last year after learning that $20 million had passed through the bank accounts of his Brooklyn-based business from 1997 and 2003. He pleaded guilty in October. Elfgeeh, a...

CANBERRA, Australia, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A former baggage handler for Qantas Airways has been identified by the CIA as an al-Qaida member. Government officials told The Australian newspaper they are aware of claims that Bilal Khazal of Sydney and Melbourne cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran have been linked to an al-Qaida detainee known as Abu Dahdah. The allegations, made public this week by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., reportedly stem from telephone intercepts revealed recently in a Spanish court. The newspaper said the intercepts suggest repeated contact between the two Australians and the Spaniard. The Australian said, among other things, Abu...