Free Republic

A Saudi family who “fled” their Sarasota area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records. One partially declassified document, marked “secret,” lists three of those individuals and ties them to the Venice, Fla., flight school where suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi trained. Accomplice Ziad Jarrah took flying lessons at another school a block away. Atta and al-Shehhi were at the controls of the jetliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. Jarrah was the...

Osama bin Laden´s son-in-law has been captured and is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, two administration officials said on Thursday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was captured within the last week in Jordan, according to a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York. The lawmaker had been told of the capture by law enforcement officials. Congress was notified when Ghaith was taken into U.S. custody, the officials said.

Defense Secretary Panetta admits that CIA used the information from waterboarding to capture Osama Bin Laden • Controversial film Zero Dark Thirty has graphic waterboarding scene • Director Kathryn Bigelow says all information in the film was based on 'first hand accounts' of what happened but now Senator disputes theory Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that some of the information that was used to locate and kill Osama bin Laden was attained using torture. The admission comes after months of speculation about the role that waterboarding plays in CIA interrogations following its graphic depiction in the Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark...

June 07, 2010 I SUPPOSE IF I SUGGESTED SUMMARY EXECUTION I WOULD BE CALLED "HARSH"? SNIPPET: "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe Note that he didn't just lift a video and send it to Wikileaks. He also stole and released 260,000 classified US State Department diplomatic cables."

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...

Translation Synopsis: (Summary from Japanese): "Criticism is coming out over the airing by the US cable TV National Geographic, only two days before the US Presidential election where Obama seeks reelection, a docu-drama about the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden which puts Mr. Obama in a politically positive light. The criticisms say that essentially the documentary is a propaganda adjunct of the Obama Re-election effort itself. The 90-minute program was funded and directed by big supporters of Mr. Obama's re-election. In the depiction, actual news footage of President Obama is used, leading to complaints by news media that...

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: NEW YORK - A suspected terrorist parked a van packed with what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb next to the Federal Reserve building in Lower Manhattan and tried to detonate it Wednesday morning before he was arrested in a terror sting operation, authorities said. The suspect, 21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, is a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. on a student visa in January for the specific purpose of launching a terror attack here, authorities said. He allegedly told an undercover agent last month that he hoped the attack would disrupt...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

A Chicago teen was arrested in Chicago for trying to blow up a bar with a car bomb. News 9 reported: Undercover FBI agents arrested an 18-year-old American man who tried to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar, federal prosecutors said Saturday. Adel Daoud, a U.S. citizen from the Chicago suburb of Hillside, was arrested Friday night in an undercover operation in which agents pretending to be extremists provided him with a phony car bomb. The U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Chicago announced the arrest Saturday and said the device was inert and...

Brief thoughts/quotes from the last 11 years. "Looking away, not caring, or hoping for the best are not viable options in fighting terrorism (in general) and the global jihad (specifically). Terrorism must be fought head on 24/7 and preventing terrorism is far better than just reacting to one terror-related event after another." -Cindy (July 1, 2011) ~ "WHAT DID I LEARN from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001? OPINION: I have learned that more Americans love America than the lame-stream media will ever let on. I have learned that America's military is the finest in the world. I have...

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains ‘4 to 5 inch Stack’ of ‘Overlooked’ CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Filmmakers Obama Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications: Obama White House ‘trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DOD) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal in preparation for their film Zero Dark Thirty, which details the capture...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York SECURITY COUNCIL AL-QAIDA AND TALIBAN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE ADDS NAME OF ONE INDIVIDUAL TO CONSOLIDATED LIST On 27 May 2009, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the addition of the entry specified below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. C. Individuals associated with Al-Qaida QI.H.269.09....

Osama Bin Laden Compound Model on Display at Pentagon Turning a lot of heads today in a Pentagon hallway is the once-classified scale model of Osama bin Laden’s compound used to plan last year’s Special Operations raid. It marks the first public display of what was once America’s most secret scale model. Hundreds of civilian and military employees at the Pentagon have spent time today gawking at a temporary display that includes the tabletop model of the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan that bin Laden used as his hideout for five years. The compound itself no longer exists as the Pakistani...

The scandalFMR Attorney General Mukasey: 'Highly Lawyered' Memo Would Have Blamed Failed OBL Raid on Navy Admiral... McRaven would have been the fall guy The Blaze - May 7, 2012Gutsy call? - The memo puts all control in the hands of Admiral McRaven... even if this was some sort of attempt to make McRaven a fall guy. HotAir Apr 29, 2012

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- South Asia Analysis Group -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paper no. 439 08. 04. 2002 AL QAEDA'S SHADOWS ON INDIA & S.E. ASIA by B.Raman There are indications that to avoid detection of their presence in Pakistani territory by the US intelligence agencies and possible cross border (Pakistan-Afghan border) punitive strikes by the US forces operating in Afghanistan, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has started shifting important elements of the Al Qaeda, including surviving leaders of its brains trust, to Pakistani Punjab and the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), including the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan). Since December, 2001, sections of the Pakistani media...

LONDON (AP) - A British judge Friday imposed a 13-year prison sentence on a man who admitted conspiring with shoe-bomber Richard Reid to blow up a U.S.-bound trans-Atlantic jet in 2001. Prosecutors said they believe British-born Saajid Badat, 25, may have backed out of an alleged plot with Reid, who was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001. ``Turning away from crime in circumstances such as these constitutes a powerful mitigating factor,'' Judge Adrian Fulford said. ``It can take considerable courage to plead guilty...

Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic preacher once described as Osama bin Laden’s “right hand man in Europe”, will be back on the streets within days after being granted bail. A senior immigration judge said yesterday that Qatada could be released despite even his own defence team suggesting that he posed a “grave risk” to Britain’s national security. Qatada was granted bail by Mr Justice Mitting after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that he could not be deported to his native Jordan. The bail conditions will be similar to those set in 2008, with the cleric confined...

We May Get to See Some of Bin Laden's Death Photos After All The American public may finally bear witness to some, but probably not all, of the postmortem images of Osama bin Laden taken on the night he was killed in Pakistan. That's the conclusion of Dan Metcalfe, the former director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy, after reading the government's response in a lawsuit from activist group Judicial Watch seeking "all photographs and/or video recordings" taken during the raid in Pakistan. “If you look closely at one small segment of the government's brief, it in...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/press-release.asp?id=2915 Birmingham man sentenced to three years for terrorism offences 12 December 2011 Updated: 13 December 2011 A bookshop owner from Birmingham has been sentenced to three years in prison for possessing and distributing terrorist publications, following a nine-week trial at Kingston Crown Court. A jury yesterday (Monday 12) found the 32-year-old Ahmed Faraz guilty of seven counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and four counts of possession of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism. Seven other similar charges will lie on...

SNIPPET: "MANILA, Philippines—A group of suspected Filipino hackers allegedly financed by a Saudi-based terrorist cell was arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) disclosed on Thursday." SNIPPET: "The group was allegedly behind attacks on the US telecommunication firm AT&T that resulted in $2 million in losses to the company in 2009. In a statement, the CIDG said the group also had links to the Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)." SNIPPET: "ATCCD chief Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa identified the suspects as Macnell Gracilla,...

SNIPPET: "British Jihadi Anjem Choudary Tweets On March 19, 2011, British jihadi Anjem Choudary, spokesman for the banned Islam4UK organization, co-founder of Al-Muhajiroun, and spiritual advisor to the UK Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades (MAC),[18] launched a Twitter account and began tweeting. MAC made headlines last week for threatening a British MP who subsequently called on their activities to be closely monitored by law enforcement.[19] According to his Twitter account, Choudary is "a Muslim who believes that Islam is something we must believe in (Tawheed), live by (Shari'ah) and struggle and sacrifice for (by way of Daw'ah and Jihad)."[20] In...

BALI bomber Umar Patek was seeking a meeting with Osama bin Laden when he was arrested a few kilometres from the al-Qa'ida chief's hideout. The arrest in Abbottabad of Patek, the last major figure who was still at large for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, has raised a critical question: did Patek give vital information to the mission to kill bin Laden, or did his arrest by Pakistani intelligence risk upsetting the American operation? Patek was arrested on January 25, nine days after stopping in the mountain garrison town on his way to meet...

GOVERNORS at Britain’s top terror jail believe al-Qaeda extremists are planning a major attack as payback for Osama bin Laden’s death. Security has been stepped up to “unprecedented” levels at Belmarsh prison after warnings that the Muslim Boys gang is plotting a revenge mission. A 15-strong riot squad in stab-proof vests has hidden around the jail’s chapel during Muslim prayers on Fridays in case of an attack... Prisoners on House Block One, which includes 39 terror suspects, added to the tension by staging a mass show of defiance on Friday. Inmates refused to return to their cells and a source...

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON – Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound indicates al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack. As of February 2010, the terror organization was considering plans to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified U.S. rail track so that a train would fall...

Sources told ABC News a backpack in Melaku's possession contained a package labeled ammonium nitrate as well as spent firearm ammunition. Ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, can be used in explosives. The FBI later said despite the label, the backpack presented no immediate threat. A search of Melaku's nearby car also found no potential devices. Law enforcement sources said Melaku does not appear to have known ties to any terror organization. In addition to his arrest today, Melaku already faces pending charges in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a rash of vehicle break-ins, police said.

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

Based on Huge Porn Stash Recovered, CIA Believes Bin Laden Acted Alone Filth Disrupted Terror Plots, Spy Agency Says WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – After seizing an enormous cache of porn from his compound in Pakistan, the CIA said today that it now has a new theory about fallen al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. “It’s clear that Osama bin Laden acted alone,” said CIA director Leon Panetta. “And he spent most of his waking hours doing just that.” Mr. Panetta siad there were still many unanswered questions about Mr. Bin Laden’s porn stash, “like how he kept it hidden with...

Rosie O’Donnell is making some waves suggesting America may have become the type of “monsters” we loathe with our targeted killing of Osama bin Laden. Uncomfortable with the wild celebrations last week of “drunken fraternity boys” celebrating Bin Laden’s death in New York and Washington, Rosie also reveals that she expects America to be an example for how we want other countries to act and was disappointed we were not the leader of morality and fairness here. Rosie explains: “You can also be upset about the fact that he didn’t have due process, that he didn’t get tried, that he...

Yes! His administration accomplished what the Bush White House couldn't. No! Credit should go completely to intelligence and military officials. There's plenty of credit to go around for many people.

ISLAMABAD - Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons. The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters. None of the men looked like bin Laden. U.S. President Barack...

Less than 48 hours after President Barack Obama announced the death of the man who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, one new poll shows the president’s approval rating has jumped up by nine points, with Americans’ opinions of his handling of terrorism reaching the highest point during Obama’s presidency. The overnight poll, conducted by The Washington Post and the Pew Research Center, found that 56 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s performance as president, up nine points from similar polls last month. That boost includes a substantial bump of 10 points among independents. The poll, conducted Monday night, offers a first...

The recent terror case of a "gentle" third-grade teacher from the D.C. suburbs shows the danger is at once closer and harder to ID than you think. The enemy is hiding not in the shadows, but in plain sight, and may even wear a smile. Hundreds of Muslims last week flocked to a federal courtroom to show their support for the affable and soft-spoken Ali Asad Chandia of Maryland as he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting terrorists. Friends say anti-Muslim prosecutors railroaded a "law-abiding" and "peaceful" brother. "He is a dedicated teacher," said one. "A great...

Analysis: Al-Qaida ideologue’s arrest blow to ME jihadis By YAAKOV LAPPIN  11/15/2010 03:47 Bakri Muhammad has been linked to Mike’s Place bombers; recently claimed he would "not spend one day in prison."   The arrest on Sunday of al-Qaida ideologue Omar Bakri Muhammad by Lebanese security forces in Tripoli is a blow to the al-Qaida network in the Middle East. Should Bakri Muhammad’s appeal against his life sentence fail, the Lebanese state could succeed in doing what Britain could not in the two decades the cleric lived in the UK, and place the al-Qaida recruiter behind bars. RELATED:Inside the head...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said. "Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave," said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved. Rather, al Qaeda's top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said.

It was an odd call for compassion from a terrorist who has proudly claimed responsibility for mass murder and who Western intelligence agencies say is still active in plotting terrorist attacks. But two new audio recordings from Osama bin Laden released on Friday and Saturday, urging help for victims of floods he said were produced by climate change, were only the latest of his wide-ranging, idiosyncratic commentaries on current events...

Intelligence officials and people familiar with an unfolding terrorist plot to target Europe tell NPR that Osama bin Laden is involved. Several months ago, sources say, bin Laden used couriers to send a message to al-Qaida's affiliates and partners: He told them that he would like to see a Mumbai-style attack on at least three strategic targets — the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Osama bin Laden's directive is meaningful because it suggests that the core leadership of al-Qaida still has influence over its followers and that the group has added a new style of attack to its repertoire. SNIP...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

Note: Video included. "Bin Laden's Son Is Hospitalized After He Hears His Father's Voice Omar Bin Laden Is Treated for Schizophrenia, Wife Asks for Divorce" July 9, 2010 SNIPPET: ""It's true that he was put on medication but released himself early," said a spokesman for Zeina Al Sabah, Omar's wife. The spokesman confirmed that Omar had bipolar disorder and was on anti-depressants." SNIPPET: ""Omar loves and hates Osama at the same time," she said." SNIPPET: "Omar, 29, has denounced his father's terrorist tactics and ideology. But he still maintains an emotional bond..." SNIPPET: "Much of Osama Bin Laden's family, comprising...

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said. The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests. Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to...

Note: Video included. SNIPPET: "In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, al-Qaeda's third in command, gives a rare insight into the group's campaign. He even said al-Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the US should his group get hold of them."

In a disturbing revelation for a Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan took millions of dollars from the Saudis as dean of Harvard Law School and a chunk of it reportedly came from 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The bin Laden family has donated millions of dollars to the Ivy League university over the years, including generous endowments for the school’s Islamic law program and others to finance scholarships for students from Muslim countries. The family has a fondness for Harvard because Osama bin Laden’s brother, Abdullah, received a master’s degree from the school in the 1990s and a doctorate in...

Osama bin Laden's closest al-Qaeda lieutenant has been plotting a terrorist attack on the World Cup, Iraqi police said. According to investigators, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's number two, was conspiring with an al-Qaeda operative who was arrested in Baghdad two weeks ago. The operative, named as Abdullah Azzam Saleh Misfar al-Qahtani and said to be a former Saudi army colonel who had travelled to Iraq and become security chief for al-Qaeda's local branch, has been accused of organising suicide bombings in two cities south of Baghdad. Abdullah Azam al-Qahtani Major General Qassim Atta, head of security in Baghdad, said he...

Note: The following text is a quote: May 6, 2010 ICE deports Iraqi national with ties to Al Qaeda operatives SEATTLE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced that an Iraqi citizen, who had ties to an Al Qaeda leader and was deemed a national security risk by a federal immigration judge, an administrative appeals court and a federal appeals court, was recently removed to his native country. Sam Malkandi, 51, was living in Kirkland, Wash., in 1999 when he attempted to fraudulently obtain a U.S. visa for Tawfiq bin Attash to travel here and purportedly receive medical...

Osama bin Laden may be the most wanted man on the planet, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadsaid he has an idea where the terrorist leader is holed up: not a damp cave in the Middle East, but some far cozier setting in Washington, D.C. (snip) "I heard that Osama bin Laden is in Washington, D.C.," he added. (snip) "Rest assured that he's in Washington," Ahmadinejad said. "I think there's a high chance he's there."

A Chicago taxi driver who is a Pakistani native was arrested today on charges he provided material support to Al Qaeda by attempting to send money overseas, federal authorities said. Raja Lahrasib Khan, 56, claimed to be an acquaintance of terror leaders in Pakistan, authorities said. He is due in federal court in Chicago later this afternoon. Khan was arrested without incident this morning in downtown Chicago while working, authorities said.

The Return of Bin Laden’s Daughter 20/03/2010 By Tariq Alhomayed Finally, Iman Bin Laden is back with her mother who accompanied her daughter to Damascus after many difficult years spent in Iran where Iman lived in a residential compound in Tehran under tight security until she was able to escape and seek refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran in search of help. A new life has been ordained for Iman.

SNIPPET: "KARACHI: Pakistani security forces along with help of US intelligence arrested Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al- Adam, who is a close associate of Osama Bin Laden. Abu Yahya was arrested on Sunday from an area surrounding the super highway, on the outskirts of Karachi." SNIPPET: "Pennsylvania-born Abu Yahya is a US citizen and assumed to be a commander of foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan against the US. He was living with Osama Bin Ladin after 9/11 attacks in New York. His name is included in the top ten wanted on the CIA list. - DawnNews."

War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

SNIPPET: "Say hi to Abu Zubair's online home away from home. The man who's online writings were so convincing, that he changed Youssef al-Khattab's life. Or, if you want, just call him what I do: Hassan Khalid. How's Maryland, Hassan? Oh, wait, you mean you're NOT in London? ;-) In any event, he loves Osama bin Laden and thinks you should too."

Former President Bill Clinton came within minutes of being assassinated in the Philippines by terrorists controlled by Osama bin Laden, a new book has revealed. ...Marisa Porges, a former government counter-terrorism advisor and an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, said the assassination plot, if true, would suggest al Qaeda was more developed than some thought it was prior to 9/11”.