GHANA CONNECTION.
The man accused of trying to blow up an airplane spent only 27 minutes in Nigeria during his travels that ended in Detroit, Nigerian officials said.
Al-Qaeda film clip warned of bomb on plane
In the al-Qaeda video, dated 21 December, a man identified as Mohammed al-Kalwi delivered a eulogy for militants killed in a Yemeni air strike on a militant training camp four days earlier. He said: "We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God. O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America."
No letup in flight bomb risk, 3 years after plot
We are still at risk," said security and aviation analyst Chris Yates, noting there is still no widely available system installed at international airports to detect explosives in liquid form, although several technologies are in trials.
Nor is there a widely-deployed technology to routinely guard against a bomber with explosives hidden in a body cavity -- a technique al Qaeda used in August in Saudi Arabia.
Yates said measures taken since September 11 had left air passengers generally no safer. He added: "We're still vulnerable on a whole bunch of levels, whether it be via something taken into the passenger cabin that we can't detect at an airport or something being secreted into the cargo hold."
Al Qaeda leader behind Northwest Flight 253 terror plot was released by US
Guantanamo prisoner prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari was sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody.
Muslim cleric deported from UK arrested in Kenya
A human rights official says a Jamaica-born Islamic cleric once deported from the UK has been arrested by Kenyan anti-terror police.
Abdullah el-Faisal was arrested Friday in Mombasa after he left a mosque, says Al-Amin Kimathi, executive coordinator of the Muslim Human Rights Forum.
Police told el-Faisal he had violated the terms of his tourist visa by preaching in mosques.
The cleric was sentenced to nine years in British jail in 2003 after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans.
JANUARY 3, 2006 FRI : (GHANA : FORMER AIDE TO DEMOCRAT REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CONYERS OF MICHIGAN, DEWAYNE BOYD, IS ARRESTED IN ACCRA) - A former aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers has been arrested in Africa after skipping his sentencing on a federal fraud conviction, federal authorities said. DeWayne Boyd, 49, formerly of Detroit, was arrested Friday in Accra, Ghana, said Daniel D. Roberts, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office. Boyd is a former aide to Willie Brown when he was the speaker of the California Assembly.
Boyd was arrested on a warrant for failing to appear at the April sentencing hearing on convictions of mail fraud, making false declarations under oath, making false statements to investigators, bankruptcy fraud and theft of government property.
The government said Boyd stole about $162,000 from four vendors and sponsors of a 1999 conference in New Orleans for black farmers. One sponsor was the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which gave $50,000 for the conference.
Boyd was convicted on Dec. 15, 2004. He was expected to be sentenced to 30 to 46 months in prison.
When Boyd failed to appear at his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland in Detroit issued the arrest warrant and canceled his $15,000 personal bond.
He was arrested by FBI agents and Accra [GHANA] police and escorted back to the United States, where he was being held by the U.S. Marshal Service, the FBI said. He appeared in U.S. District Court in New York on Tuesday and will be returned to Michigan for sentencing.
Boyd’s attorney, Martin E. Crandall, said he had not talked to his client and had no immediate comment.
Boyd created and was president of the National Organization of Black Farmers in 1997, when he was an aide to Brown, according to court documents. He was the only signer on its bank account, and the now-defunct organization essentially existed to put on annual conferences, he said in court papers.
Boyd was fired from the office of Conyers, D-Mich., in 2002.
—— Ex-Conyers aide who skipped fraud sentencing arrested in Africa
ap on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 1/3/06 | AP DETROIT (AP)
Posted on 01/03/2006 5:28:07 PM PST by NormsRevenge