Off Topic...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/MNGUBL4RG110.DTL
"S.F. State prof stranded in Canada gets his visa"
Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "(09-13) 10:40 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco State Arabic professor who has been stranded in Canada for three months while waiting for the U.S. State Department to give him security clearance and issue him a visa can now return home.
Assistant professor Mohammad Ramadan Hassan Salama, who traveled to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on June 20 and was stuck there after the consulate canceled his scholar visa, was called by the consulate in Toronto, Canada, today and told that he could pick up a new visa on Thursday, his attorney Clark M. Trevor said.
"We have an immense burden removed," said Paul Sherwin, dean of the College of Humanities at San Francisco State. "He is somebody who is very dear to me and he has worked so hard, and for somebody to have to undergo such an ordeal is awful. We are most concerned about him, but clearly we are also concerned about the students and how this has impacted them."
His classes at San Francisco State University have been covered by a temporary replacement.
"My client is ecstatic after 90 days in Canada," Trevor said. "He can get on a plane and come back here and resume teaching his classes. He is the kind of person this country needs in these tumultuous times. He is doing great service in advancing knowledge about Islam.""
Note: The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1700911/posts
NYPD BOOM: BOMB SHOCK (Bought components for Okla City bomb, drove around city raised no eyebrows)
NY Post ^ | 09/13/06 | GEOFF EARLE and MURRAY WEISS
Posted on 09/13/2006 1:20:23 PM PDT by presidio9
Two undercover NYPD cops in a sting operation used $7,000 and the Internet to build a truck bomb big enough to blow up a skyscraper, officials revealed yesterday. In what was dubbed "Operation Kaboom," every purchase the cops made was legal - and aroused little suspicion - even driving their simulated truck bomb throughout the city.
Although the two cops had no specialized knowledge of bomb-making, they were able manufacture an explosive more powerful than the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
"We did it with no difficulty whatsoever," said James Falkenrath, the NYPD's top anti-terror cop, who testified at a congressional hearing yesterday and disclosed the making of the bomb.
When the operation was complete, the officers drove the simulated bomb around the city's bridges and tunnels, sources said. They were not detected and the bomb was not functional.
Key components were intentionally left out to minimize danger. The bomb was put together and later detonated at the NYPD's firing range at Rodman's Neck in The Bronx, The Bronx, just to prove that it could have been deadly, police officials said.
The cops - part of a group in the NYPD's counterterrorism division - were assigned the task in September 2004, three years after the 9/11 attacks and 11 years after the first attack on the Twin Towers.
But the main model they used was the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
After setting up a mail drop in Brooklyn, the agents went shopping. Their main purchase: 2,450 pounds of ammonium nitrate, bought from distributors upstate in Rensselaer County in the town of Schaghticoke and in Yardley, Pa., sources told The Post.
The bargain basement price: only $700. They rented a storage facility in The Bronx for $339 a month for a period of two months, and
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...