Free Republic

With the hostage situation resolved — hopefully with no innocent lives lost (reports just coming in) — and the release of the name of the hostage taker, Iranian-born Islamic cleric Man Monis aka Shiekh Haron, this seems to be yet another case of what I termed here at PJ Media several weeks ago as “Known Wolf Syndrome.”In that article, following two separate terror attacks in Canada in which the suspects were already well-known to authorities, I noted that in the U.S. too, in many of the domestic terrorism cases the culprits have already been identified to law enforcement as...

We don't know how the Sydney siege is going to end yet but of one thing we can be pretty sure: the main concern of Australia's national broadcaster ABC will not be the suffering and fear experienced by those innocent people who have been held hostage; rather it will be that there might be some anti-Muslim backlash. How do we know this? First, because ABC is so left wing it makes the BBC look like Fox News. Second, because this is how sensitive, progressive types always respond to incidents of this kind. (One of the BBC's first reactions after the...

The details are still sketchy, but this is what is apparently confirmed as of this writing (8PM EST Sunday night): as many as 50 people have been taken hostage in the Lindt Chocolat Café in Sydney, Australia’s central pedestrian mall, Martin Place. Some of the hostages have been forced at gunpoint to hold up the black flag of Islamic jihad against a window of the café.

In the aftermath of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report focused on Bush-era techniques, the Obama administration's own counterterrorism practices are coming under increased scrutiny. Gruesome details of forced rectal feedings without medical necessity, waterboarding, and sleep deprivation were chronicled in the report's executive summary, dredging up harsh practices employed during the George W. Bush administration. But on Capitol Hill, Republicans charge that the Central Intelligence Agency's approach to counterterrorism has not grown more humane—it's merely shifted. "Obviously, we don't interrogate prisoners anymore," says Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who chaired the Intelligence Committee during the Bush administration....

Radical Muslim cleric Sheik Man Haron Monis has been revealed to be the ringleader in the Sydney cafe siege that has seen up to 30 people held hostage for more than 10 hours. Monis was born Manteghi Bourjerdi and fled from Iran to Australia in 1996 where he changed his name to Man Haron Monis and assuming the title of Sheik Haron. He has gained media attention in the past for a "hate mail" campaign, protesting the presence of Australian troops in Afghanistan. The campaign saw him and his partner Amirah Droudis post hate-filled letters to the families of dead...

The suspected jihadist holding up to 15 people hostage in a Sydney cafe is an Iranian murder and sex assault suspect known for sending hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers killed overseas, police confirmed. As the standoff entered its 15th hour, with police and news crews surrounding the shop as frightened hostages looked out through the front window, police identified Man Haron Monis as the gunman holding captives inside Lindt Chocolat Cafe. His identity was known early on to police and media alike, but was only released for the record by police sources as night fell on Sydney...

Western Indifference to the Palestinian Culture of HatePosted By Ari Lieberman On December 15, 2014 @ 12:09 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments A shockingly, disturbing video has recently surfaced exposing the true and pernicious face of Palestinian extremism and xenophobia. The video, made available by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) shows a bearded sheikh giving what appears to be an impromptu sermon on the Jews. (After all, what else is there to talk about?) The venue is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, considered by those who practice the “religion of peace” to be their third holiest site after Mecca and...

SYDNEY (AP) — Five people escaped from a Sydney cafe where a gunman took an unknown number of hostages during Monday morning rush hour. Two people inside the cafe earlier held up a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith that has often been used by extremists, raising fears that a terrorist incident was playing out in the heart of Australia's biggest city. The first three people ran out of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in downtown Sydney six hours into the hostage crisis, and two women sprinted from a fire exit into the arms of waiting police shortly afterward. Both...

he unidentified gunman has forced hostages to call him "The Brother" and demanded a flag of the Islamic State terror group in return for the release of a hostage. He has also demanded to speak directly with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

A federal appeals court will reconsider a decision to order YouTube to take down an anti-Muslim film clip that sparked violence in the Middle East and death threats to the actors from those who considered it blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad. An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena will hear arguments Monday by Google, which owns YouTube, disputing the court’s decision to remove “Innocence of Muslims” from the popular video sharing service. A divided three-judge panel ruled in February that actress Cindy Lee Garcia had a copyright claim to the 2012 video because she...

The Department of Defense says an Army sergeant from New York City has been killed in Afghanistan. A soldier from Arizona was also killed. Military officials say Sgt. Ramon Morris, 37, and Spc. Wyatt Martin, 22, died Dec. 12 in Parwan province. The men died from wounds suffered when their vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device.

Relying on allies that aren’t allies is yet another consequence of the Washington establishment’s determined refusal to face the realities of the jihad, and to formulate policy based on those realities. “Qatar ‘broke promise to US over Guantanamo detainee,'” by David Blair, the Telegraph, December 12, 2014 (thanks to Lookmann): Qatar broke an “explicit” promise by allowing a former Guantánamo detainee who had trained with al-Qaeda to leave the country and visit Britain, a new report has found. Jarallah al-Marri, who attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks on September 11, was freed from Guantánamo in...

This story is breaking now. Live stream here. “A man is holding several people hostage at Martin Place cafe,” News.com.au, December 15, 2014 (thanks to Jill): AT LEAST one armed man is holding several people hostage at a cafe in Martin Place in Sydney. There are hostages standing with their hands up at the windows in the popular Lindt chocolate shop, which has two or three entrances. There is also a black and white flag being held up in a window. It is believed to be the Black Standard, a jihadist flag. Staff in shop aprons can be seen with...

<p>The cafe in Sydney's central business district has been surrounded by armed police.</p>

A hostage has been forced to hold up an Islamic State flag in the window of a shop in Martin Place that is currently under siege. It is believed there are 12 hostages in the store and an ISIS flag has been placed in the window. Martin Place is the main financial area of the Sydney CBD.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Sunday that the draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that would set a two-year deadline for Israel to “end its occupation” will be submitted on Wednesday. "The Palestinian leadership took a decision to go to the Security Council next Wednesday to vote on their project to end the occupation," senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member Wassel Abu Yussef told AFP after a meeting in Ramallah. The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment ahead of Monday's meeting in Rome between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry...

Turkish police on Sunday arrested the editor of Turkey's biggest-selling newspaper and 26 others in lightning raids on supporters of a US-based cleric who has become President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top foe.

The head of the Teachers Association, Ran Erez, on Sunday sent a letter to members of the organization in which he instructed them to stop serving as chaperones on school trips after Chanukah. Erez claimed that despite the commitment of the Ministry of Education, no steps have been taking to regulate the criminal liability imposed on teachers in the event that a student is ...

In an impromptu sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheik Omar Abu Sara called to slaughter the Jews, whom he called "the most evil of Allah's creations." The sermon was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014. Transcript is pending. Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Palestinian preacher Sheik Omar Abu Sara at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014: Omar Abu Sara: Let me start by saying that talking about the traits of the Jews requires one to get into a special mode, because we are dealing with people to...

This week, oil fell through the price floor of $60 a barrel and gas at my local filling station was $2.26 a gallon. That’s great news for commuters and almost every business, but wonderfully bad news for our ugliest enemies. If oil prices remain low through next year, the effect on rogue governments, from the Russian Federation to Venezuela, will go from damaging to devastating. But Western economies (and China’s) stand to benefit, with cheap oil possibly tickling Europe’s snoozing markets awake. Even most underdeveloped states will get a welcome break.