Cairo, Egypt - The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated Sunday that Egyptian officials are to meet with the two Egyptian students charged with transporting explosives in the United States. The students were arrested on August 4 in South Carolina. A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida has indicted them on charges of illegally transporting explosives over state lines.
"Officials from the Egyptian embassy in Washington will meet the two students at their place of detention on Wednesday," the ministry said Sunday. "The Foreign Ministry will spare no efforts in defending the interests of Egyptians abroad as long as they respect the laws of the countries they are in."
Excerpted
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008396509
In Bosnia, Former Fighters Face Expulsion
Many Foreign-Born Muslims Who Came During 1992-95 War Now Losing Citizenship
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
ZENICA, Bosnia -- They met in 1985 as Syrian immigrants in Croatia, two students in their 20s grappling with a language and a culture they didn't understand. Seven years later, when word spread of a nearby war being waged by fellow Muslims, Ayman Awad and Imad Al Husayn boarded a bus for Bosnia and joined the fight, they recounted. After peace came in 1995, they married local women, became Bosnian citizens and started families. They settled in ravaged rural villages and fostered a strict religious code that contrasted sharply with the more relaxed Islam endemic to this country's native Muslims.
Now, Awad, 42, and Husayn (who goes by the nickname Abu Hamza), 43, may again be on the move, this time not by choice. Earlier this year, the Bosnian government revoked the two men's citizenship as part of a broad review of foreign-born residents that was urged by the United States. It has led to the denationalization of at least 500 people, about 70 percent of whom arrived here from throughout the Muslim world during the three-year ethnic civil war.
Awad and Husayn have been given 60 days to appeal the decisions against them. If unsuccessful, they and a few dozen others who remain in the country and are embroiled in similar proceedings could be deported. Bosnian and international officials say the presence of the former fighters -- who, like predecessors in the war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan, are known as mujaheddin, Arabic for "strugglers" -- is illegal. The officials say some of them maintain links to terrorist groups, creating a security threat for Bosnia.
Excerpted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300996.html
Over 80,000 illegal weapons are believed to be in the hands of West Bank terrorists, according to the IDF's latest assessments of the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
The weapons are mostly held in private homes or hidden in caches throughout Judea and Samaria. According to the latest assessment, and contrary to earlier predictions, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post this week that Hamas was just as strong as Fatah in the West Bank and could pose a genuine threat to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's security forces.
On Monday, the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that Fatah security forces had recently thwarted an attempted coup in the PA by Hamas. Hamas had tried establishing a military force in the West Bank similar to its Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, which then planned to attack PA institutions and take over the government, according to the report. "They have weapons and explosives and, more importantly, they are highly motivated," a senior defense official said. According to the official, Hamas is currently in a "waiting period" and is trying to unite some of its splinter groups spread throughout the various West Bank cities, with terrorist hubs in the northern Samaria cities of Nablus and Jenin.
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392527431&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Spain: Man linked to Madrid bombings released from jail
4 Sept 2007
Madrid - A Spanish court on Tuesday released a man held in preventative custody for three years in connection with his alleged role in assisting those responsible for the 11 March 2004 bombings at several Madrid railway stations that killed 191 people.
The court also ruled that the man, Lebanese-born Mahmoud Slimane Aoun, 47, must report to a courthouse every 15 days, until judicial authorities decide to either acquit or sentence him. Aoun was accused of providing forged documents to the group of terrorists responsible for the attacks, and thus charged for having collaborated with a terrorist organisation. He was also accused of being linked to the bombings through several intercepted telephone conversations with one of the organisers of the attacks, Jamal Ahmidan.
Excerpted
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1271146898