Free Republic

The name of Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani has been little-known in California, except to a small number of African-American Muslims who follow his teachings, and to law enforcement authorities who have tracked their movements across the state. But two other names are prominent in the history of Gilani's followers here. Abdullah Baqi was once described by law enforcement authorities as the West Coast leader of a dangerous group they called Ul-Fuqra. And an analysis of public records indicates that Baqi was married to the woman now called Khadijah Ghafur, who later founded the community outside Fresno known as Baladullah. ...

KABUL - The arrest of Al-Qaeda commander Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, who worked with Afghanistan's Taliban, is a major success and will be a blow to terror networks, the Afghan defence ministry said Friday. "Al-Iraqi was very important for the terrorists' networks. His arrest is a major success," ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. "It will help to get to the high-ranking terrorist network figures and it will have deeply negative effect on the network," he said. A Pentagon spokesman said the militant, on a US "most wanted" list, had been taken into US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba...