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Two men being held in jail while awaiting trial for cigarette trafficking are accused of plotting to kill witnesses against them. In an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday, Basel Ramadan and Yousseff Odeh are charged with conspiracy to murder witnesses and with soliciting a potential hit man. The murder-for-hire plot was hatched from New York City's Rikers Island jail where the two have been held since their May arrest on the initial cigarette-trafficking and money laundering charges. The Staten Island Advance reports that Odeh was a supporter of blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual guide for the...

Note: Photo included with article. SNIPPET: "U.S. authorities have transferred Younis al-Mauritani, held in Afghanistan, to Mauritania, officials in the West African nation said on Saturday. Pakistan said in September 2011 it arrested al-Mauritani, better known in his homeland Mauritania as Youssouf Al Mauritani, during a joint operation with U.S. intelligence services." SNIPPET: "Pakistani military authorities said Al Mauritani was planning to attack U.S. economic interests including pipelines, hydro-electric dams and oil tankers when he was captured."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gkIBVaTTnTDT_lg8TWBbbawpW0cQ “Terror suspects lose extradition case in Britain” (AFP) – 5 days ago SNIPPET: “LONDON — Two alleged leading conspirators of Osama bin Laden on Friday lost their latest battle to escape extradition from Britain over the 1998 US embassy bombings in east Africa. Khalid al Fawwaz, a 46-year-old Saudi businessman, and Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian, are wanted by the United States over their alleged role in the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.” SNIPPET: “Al Fawwaz was living with his wife and three children in London before his arrest on a New York court indictment...

Four men including former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir were yesterday charged by United States law enforcement officials with allegedly conspiring to blow up the John F Kennedy International airport as well as tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines. Those charged with Kadir are former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad; and Guyanese Abdel Nur. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad, while Defreitas was held in New York. Up to press time, however, Nur had not been apprehended and was thought to be still at large in Trinidad....

(CNN) -- SNIPPET: "The charge centers around a one-way ticket that authorities allege Abdel Hameed Shehadeh purchased from Queens, New York, to Islamabad, Pakistan. Shehadeh originally told investigators that the purpose of his trip was to visit an Islamic university and attend a friend's engagement party. But he later admitted to FBI agents in Hawaii that he bought the ticket in order to join a fighting group such as the Taliban, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York Monday."

The search continued Wednesday for a man accused of murdering his two teenage daughters and leaving their bodies in his taxi cab. The Denton County Sheriff's SWAT team had surrounded a Lewisville home for hours Wednesday in search of Yaser Abdel Said, a 50-year-old cab driver, police said. Authorities entered the house about 4 p.m. to find it empty. The bodies of Sarah Yaser Said, 17, and her sister Amina Yaser Said, 18, were found Tuesday evening in Irving inside a Jet Taxi vehicle that Mr. Said drove, Irving police spokesman David Tull said.

SNIPPET: "Iranian parliament member Mahmoud Ahmadi Bigesh said Wednesday that Egypt has promised to issue entry permits for him and three of his fellow parliament members, who want to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing."

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese troops on Saturday killed two Islamist militants including a head of an Al-Qaeda-inspired group which fought a battle with the army in 2007 that cost hundreds of lives, a military spokesman said. "Abdel Rahman Awad, one of the key leaders of Fatah al-Islam," was killed along with another militant known as Abu Bakr during clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the spokesman told AFP. A judicial source said Abu Bakr was Awad's key deputy who provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda. In 2007, Fatah...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "Shin Bet arrests eight men from northern city of Nazareth, local council of Yafa an-Naseriyye over weapons offences, discussing possibility of murdering soldiers, Pope Benedict XVI" SNIPPET: "The eight indicted men were identified as Bader Salah, 33, of Yafa an-Naseriyye; Suhil Salah, 26, of Yafa an-Naseriyye; Misara Yaad, 28, of Yafa an-Naseriyye; Abdel Rahman Abu Salim, 19, of Nazareth; Ibrahim Muhammad Abu Aaqab, 27, of Nazareth; Bilal Ubeid, 29, of Yafa an-Naseriyye; and Sabri Narni, 29 of Yafa an-Naseriyye. The ninth defendant, who was a minor when he committed the alleged acts. was not named due...

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported: An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques. At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards...

Islamic activist Amir Abdel Malik Ali spoke at noon Thursday at UC Irvineas part of "Israeli Apartheid Week" presented by the Muslim Student Union. He said before a crowd of several hundred that a movement is occurring in which people aren't afraid of being called anti-Semitic for criticizing Zionism and calling attention to Palestine. Click here to watch his speech. Malik Ali has spoken at UCI in previous years and been among the more controversial speakers to talk at the university. UCI became a microcosm for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week as hundreds of students, faculty and visitors took...

SNIPPET: "Adel Ben Mabrouk, 39, and Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, 43, are suspected of being members of a terror group with ties to al-Qaida. They were immediately taken into custody upon arrival in Milan and will be interrogated, a prosecutor told The Associated Press.

Green Helmet Guy, the “rescue worker” who posed for photo ops with children’s bodies in Qana, is interviewed by Al Jazeera in Arabic, in a video clip at YouTube: UPDATE at 8/2/06 8:48:14 am: Watch in the background at around the 1:20 mark, as rescue workers carrying a stretcher pause and set it on the ground, to allow photographers to get in position and take pictures.

A federal court will soon sentence attorney Lynne Stewart to prison for "providing material support" to terrorists, among related charges.[1] The charges center upon her assistance to Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman who, from a federal prison cell in Minnesota, has continued his quest both to install an Islamist government in Egypt and to kill Americans and Jews around the world. Stewart's case is symbolic of a corollary battle in the war against terror and highlights the need not only to counter terrorism but also the ideology of Islamism. Her infatuation with her client's cause evolved into an example of...

A New York jury Thursday convicted a veteran defense lawyer of aiding terrorists by smuggling messages from an imprisoned Islamic radical to his followers. Lynne Stewart, 65, a leftist civil rights lawyer who has represented revolutionaries and other unpopular defendants for more than 30 years, was found guilty on all five counts against her in federal court.

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in Moderate Islam or Fata Morgana? and freemuslims.org Speaks Out.There is good news to report: The idea that "militant Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution" is finding greater acceptance over time. But there is also bad news, namely growing confusion over who really is a moderate Muslim. This means that the ideological side of the war on terror is making some, but only limited, progress.The good news: Anti-Islamist Muslims have found their voice since September 11. Their numbers include distinguished academics such as Azar Nafisi (Johns Hopkins), Ahmed al-Rahim (formerly...

Quotes by Hamas Leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi Sat Apr 17, 4:02 PM ET By The Associated Press Recent quotes from Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was assassinated Saturday by Israel. AFP Slideshow: Mideast Conflict "We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon. ... The war of God continues against them, and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas." — Last month, after the...

Golden Oldie The Saga of FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz January 18, 2004 The Saga of FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz. I wrote nearly a year ago about FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, documenting how he "could have a key role helping America's premier anti-terrorist force protect the United States from harm. But evidence from high-profile terrorism cases suggests that Abdel-Hafiz, an immigrant Muslim, twice refused on principle to tape-record his coreligionists, harming the investigations." The most notable piece of evidence was his statement, "A Muslim does not record another Muslim." The Dallas Morning News today carries a story by...