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While Americans were focused on a Chinese spy balloon making its way across the country, the Biden administration quietly released an al Qaeda terrorist radicalized by the September 11 attacks from Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon announced on Thursday that Majid Khan, 42, was moved to Belize after spending 16 years in CIA custody. Authorities have maintained he was a close personal ally of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who helped deliver money and transport other senior terrorists. And under Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plans, Khan would have attacked US gas stations and water reservoirs.

A South African company in the spotlight for paying $100,000 in speaking fees to White House adviser David Plouffe is also in business with a Liberian official under U.N. sanctions for his ties to convicted war criminal and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. That's among the latest details to emerge on the connections involving MTN Group, a subsidiary of which paid President Obama's former campaign manager for engagements in late 2010, shortly before he joined the White House. The ties to Liberia's bloody Taylor era center on Benoni Urey, who was commissioner of maritime affairs in Liberia during Taylor's reign....

SNIPPET: "Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg is among four people who have been arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, police have said. Mr Begg, 45, who was held by the US authorities for almost three years, was arrested earlier with two other men and a woman in the West Midlands. He was detained on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas." SNIPPET: "Mr Begg was arrested in Hall Green in Birmingham. The other people arrested - a 36-year-old man from Shirley, a 44-year-old woman and her son, 20, both from Sparkhill - are being...

She even tried to toss a handwritten note to prosecutors requesting time each day to pray. Berman said time would be set aside... Prosecutors argue she screamed, "Allah Akbar" and vowed to kill Americans before she was wrestled to the ground. She allegedly had two pounds of poisonous sodium cyanide and hundreds of pages of notes and documents on how to build chemical and biological weapons. The terror guides featured targets including the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, prosecutors said.

The FBI identified the suspect who took four people hostage Saturday at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue as Malik Faisal Akram, 44. Authorities said Saturday night that Akram had died, while all four hostages made it out alive. Akram was a British citizen, the FBI said. It's unclear when he came to the U.S Four hostages were held inside the synagogue for hours, with one male hostage being released around 7:30 p.m. ET. Shortly after 10:30 p.m., Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the remaining three hostages were "out alive and safe." Authorities said shortly afterward that the suspect was dead. Authorities...

There is growing outrage and demand for answers as to how the British terrorist gunman who took four hostages at a Texas synagogue on Saturday was even able to enter the US on a tourist visa when he was known to intelligence agencies in the UK. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, flew to New York City from the UK on January 22, despite being known to MI5.

The Texas rabbi who was held hostage with three of his congregants for hours at his synagogue Saturday said he’s “grateful to be alive” following the tense standoff.Cytron-Walker and the others were held captive around 11 a.m. on Sunday during a Shabbat morning service by Malik Faisal Akram — who was shot dead in the ordeal.

A top House Republican revealed Sunday the investigation into the man who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue on Saturday has gone international. What are the details? Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN host Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" there is "something more" to the case than a lone actor. In fact, McCaul disclosed that the FBI's investigation now extends to London and Tel Aviv. "I know the FBI has now fanned their investigation out to London and Tel Aviv. So this has now turned into an...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

Police in Britain said they have detained two teenagers in relation to the hostages being taken at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville on Saturday. Greater Manchester Police tweeted the information on Sunday that two teenagers were detained in South Manchester by Counter Terrorism Policing North West. They remain in custody for questioning. No further details were released about the suspects.

Authorities on Sunday identified a 44-year-old British national as the man who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue for 10 hours before an FBI SWAT team stormed the building, ending a tense standoff that President Joe Biden called “an act of terror." Malik Faisal Akram was shot and killed after the last of the hostages got out at around 9 p.m. Saturday at Congregation Beth Israel near Fort Worth. In a statement, the FBI said there was no indication that anyone else was involved, but it didn't provide a possible motive. Akram could be heard ranting on a...

President Biden on Sunday called the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday an "act of terror." "This was an act of terror," Biden told reporters. "This was an act of terror [that was not only related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years."

The FBI is facing backlash on social media after an official said that the Texas synagogue hostage taker’s demands were "not specifically related to the Jewish community." "The FBI is now an organization solely focused on destroying the domestic enemies of the Democratic Party," conservative talk radio show Jesse Kelly tweeted Sunday morning. "Any Republican Congress or Presidential candidate who doesn’t loudly proclaim his intention to massively reform or disband this organization should not be considered. Kelly’s tweet came in response to the Associated Press reporting that FBI officials said "the Texas synagogue hostage taker's demands were specifically focused on...

Just last month, CAIR’s Dallas-Fort-Worth chapter held an event called "In Pursuit of Freedom" at the East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas, calling for Siddiqui’s release, claiming she had been "kidnapped, ripped apart from her children, shot at, renditioned to the U.S., and is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for a crime she did not commit." On Nov. 18, the CAIR chapter held an online fundraiser for Siddiqui’s defense team. Days earlier, multiple Muslim advocacy groups, including CAIR, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice (ICNA-CSJ), and the Muslim American...

The family of the British terrorist who was shot dead after taking four people hostage inside a Texas synagogue have tonight condemned his actions as they admitted to 'liasing' with the shooter during his 10-hour stand-off with police. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead by the FBI after holding four hostages for more than 10 hours at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday. His 'devastated' brother Gulbar Akram shared a message on social media in which he revealed he had been working with the FBI and 'liasing' with his sibling throughout the stand-off. He also apologised...

The Chinese coronavirus pandemic has once again delayed the long-awaited death penalty trial of the self-professed 9/11 mastermind and his four co-conspirators held at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the judge handling the cases revealed recently. Justice remains elusive nearly two decades after the jihadis executed the attack that left about 3,000 people dead and over 6,000 injured, marking the deadliest assault on U.S. soil. U.S. officials charged the late Osama bin Laden’s close ally Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) alongside his nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi, accused hijacking trainer Walid bin Attash, facilitator Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and al-Qaeda money...

The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage. Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

A man entered the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, a suburb of 26,000 people about 17 miles northeast of Fort Worth, on Saturday morning during services. He took four people inside the synagogue hostage and claimed to have bombs in unknown locations; one, a man, was released around 5 p.m. Around 9:15 p.m., Star-Telegram reporters at the scene heard a bang and what sounded like gunfire at the scene. Witnesses reported seeing increased police activity around the synagogue. At 9:30 p.m., Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted, “All hostages are out alive and safe.” The hostage-taker is dead, Rep. Beth Van Duyne...

But in one sense, it doesn’t matter. Any complaint he has about the U.S. government, the case in question or even Israel doesn’t involve the individuals whose lives he has violated. Throughout the tense hours, the priority was the safe rescue of the hostages. Officers heroically stormed in and rescued them late Saturday, for which we should all be grateful. Now, it’s important to reflect with righteous anger, to acknowledge the evil done, name it and identify where it comes from. The innocent Colleyville congregants have nothing to do with the case of Aafia Siddiqui, whom the hostage-taker reportedly mentioned....

'Lady Al Qaeda' the woman Texas synagogue hostage-taker wants freed: She planned chemical attacks on Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge and demanded juror at her trial be DNA tested to see if they were Jewish