Free Republic

Congratulations, David Westin. You've replaced serious, competent, respected Ted Koppel with the oily, obsequious Martin Bashir on "Nightline." My only question is, was Jerry Springer not available? Perhaps Westin, the head of ABC News, has not seen the "outtakes" of Bashir's interviews with Michael Jackson from his original "documentary." But I've seen it and so have the many other journalists who were in the Santa Maria courtroom where Jackson was tried for child molestation last spring. I have no doubt most of them had the same reaction as I when they heard today that Bashir had been given a co-hosting...

Bali bombings were Allah's warning, says jailed terror leader By Sebastien Berger in Denpasar (Filed: 05/10/2005) The spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terror group blamed for the weekend's suicide bombings in Bali, condemned the attacks yesterday from his prison cell. A multi-faith blessing is held near one of the bomb sites But Abu Bakar Bashir, who is serving a 30-month sentence for conspiracy linked to the 2002 Bali bombs, also said victims of Saturday's outrage should "accept this fate from Allah". Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, seeks to establish a caliphate across...

Bashir's term to be cut further JAILED extremist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is set to have his sentence further reduced, despite his call for jihadists to embrace nuclear weapons in the lead-up to the weekend's Bali bombings. As Indonesian police continued their investigations into the suicide attacks that killed at least 22 people, including four Australians, prison officials confirmed that the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah was likely to receive a further cut to his 30-month sentence for conspiracy in connection with the October 2002 Bali bombings. Australia has lobbied hard to keep Bashir in prison, but it now seems...

Indonesia: Bashir gets 6 Months for Terrorism;Women get 3 Years for "Christianization" Dr. Rebecca Laonita, Mrs Ratna Mala Bangun and Mrs Ety Pangesti, of the Christian Church of David's Camp; were involved in a children's holiday project called ‘Happy Week’. Murderous threats were made by Islamic extremists inside and outside the courtroom. One was reported to have brought a coffin to bury the defendant if they were found innocent. Stay Angry Large map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan         Large Map of the Philippines         Large Map of Kashmir Taliban Commander Killed in Afghanistan by NOOR...

Jemaah Islamiyah "Cleric" Abu Bakar Bashir to Get Early Release from Prison Kill 202 people, get 5 months in jail. Another 18 people involved in the Bali bombings will be released as well. Stay AngryLarge map of Iraq         Large map of Afghanistan         Large Map of Pakistan Al-Qaeda death confirmed (Abu Zubair) By Maxim Kniazkov A TOP aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaeda operation in Iraq and accused of masterminding high-profile suicide bombings in the country, has been killed by Iraqi security forces, defence officials have confirmed. But the battlefield success hardly impressed two leading US senators, who...

Australia will raise with Indonesia its concerns over a possible reduction in the sentence of one of the Bali bombing ringleaders as part of independence celebrations. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia did not want to see the 30-month sentence of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir further reduced. Bashir is in jail for his role in instigating the October 2002 bombings in which 202 people died, including 88 Australians. "We wouldn't want to see his already rather short sentence reduced and our ambassador is taking this matter up with the Indonesians," Mr Downer told reporters. "We will get a report...

About Sudan - What can be done about this evil regime? National ReviewThursday, May 12, 2005    By: Jay Nordlinger ...It was last September 9 that the United States — in the person of then-secretary of state Colin Powell — declared that genocide was taking place in Darfur. There is now some debate across the government about whether genocide continues, although there is no doubt that extensive murder and other terror are ongoing. Is the U.S. doing everything it possibly can? The answer is no, if the possibilities include the dispatch of American troops to the region. But this is not...

The leniency of Bali bombing mastermind Abu Bakar Bashir's sentence -- 30 months for the murder of 202 people -- has shocked the Australian public, not in the least because after long labor the mountain has brought forth a mouse. Former magistrate Brian Deegan, who lost his son Josh, 22, in the Bali bombing, said Bashir's sentence was outrageous. "It equates to a bit over a week (in jail) per man, woman and child that were hurt," Mr Deegan said today. "You get no closure out of this, it's absolutely insulting." Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty is warning that...

The United States said yesterday that it was "disappointed" and "disturbed" by the 2-1/2-year prison sentence a five-judge panel in Indonesia handed a Muslim cleric for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 persons, including seven Americans. Abu Bakar Bashir, who is thought to be the leader of the al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, also was cleared of charges that he planned the 2003 suicide attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. +snip+ Bashir had faced the death penalty over the Marriott bombing, in which 12 persons died. He also was accused of inciting his followers...

The Federal Government wants the prosecution to appeal against the jail sentence handed down to an Indonesian cleric convicted over the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been described as the spiritual leader of terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), has been given a two-and-a-half year jail term. The chief Judge said Bashir had conspired with key bomber Amrozi over the attack. But the court found him not guilty of organising or inciting the Marriott Hotel bombings in Jakarta. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the prosecution had hoped Bashir would serve...

ELEANOR HALL: While authorities in Indonesia deal with the tsunami disaster, the threat of terrorism continues, with bomb squads and anti-terror units in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, last night reinforcing the Thai and British embassies after receiving phone calls warning of an attack. The terrorism alert comes amid new revelations about the Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, who is alleged to have been behind the Bali bombings. At the trial of the cleric, it's been alleged that the United States asked the Indonesian Government if it could secretly arrest Mr Bashir and take him to a US prison for questioning....

John Kerry is showing us that he would have been a Jimmy Carter-like President, had he been elected. Playing kissy-face with Batthist dictator Bashir Assad in Damascus, Kerry said: >>>"I think we found a great deal of areas of mutual interest, some common concerns and some possibilities for initiatives that could be taken in the future to strengthening relationship between the U.S. and Syria," Kerry told reporters after meeting with al-Sharaa. "I can assure you that I leave here with a sense that we can improve our relationship. There are significant possibilities, particularly with the elections in Iraq and the...

EXTREMIST cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told a key Jemaah Islamiah operative that he had visited Osama bin Laden in his cave hideout in Afghanistan, a Jakarta court heard yesterday. In the first evidence of a direct link between the two men, the key prosecution witness, Nasir Abbas, told the court he had been with Bashir at a passing-out ceremony at a JI training camp in the southern Philippines, an event that is a central plank in the prosecution's case against Bashir. Abbas said he complained to Bashir about living conditions in the camp, where Bashir was visiting for 2-3 days...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A key witness in the trial of Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has told a court that the ageing firebrand preacher was head of Jemaah Islamiah, a militant group seen as the Southeast Asian arm of al Qaeda. The 66-year old cleric dismissed the testimony, saying the group did not exist and he had never met the witness, Nasir Abbas, a Malaysian who claims to have been a Jemaah Islamiah instructor at a camp in the southern Philippines. Abbas said Bashir had given him funds for the "Udaibiyah" training camp and visited the facility in April 2000,...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden once invited Indonesian preacher Abu Bakar Bashir to live in Afghanistan, a young militant jailed over the bombing of a Jakarta hotel has told the cleric's terrorism trial. Witness Mohamad Rais said he gave a message to Bashir from bin Laden in 2001 after returning to Indonesia from two years of military training in Afghan militant camps. "If Bashir feels no longer comfortable here (in Indonesia), Osama asked Bashir to go there," Rais told the court on Thursday when asked by a judge what was the content of the message....

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The relatives of Indonesians killed in last year's bombing of a Jakarta hotel have recounted tales of horror as the trial of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading al Qaeda's Asian arm, resumed. They were the first batch of witnesses called on Tuesday in a trial in which prosecutors are seeking to prove Bashir incited deadly attacks, including the suicide bombing of Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel in 2003 that killed 12 people, and nightclub bombings in Bali in 2002 that left 202 dead, mostly foreign tourists. Sri Lestari described how her husband, a Marriott hotel...

JAKARTA - An Islamic cleric on trial in Indonesia on terrorist charges including over the Bali bombings on Thursday warned President George W. Bush’s reelection victory spelled “disaster” for the United States. Abu Bakar Bashir, who is accused of being a figurehead for the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional group accused Bush of meddling in Indonesian affairs and warned of retribution unless he stopped. “Bush’s victory will bring another disaster for America unless he changes his actions,” Bashir told reporters as he arrived for a second day of his trial in which he faces a possible death penalty if convicted....

Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir could face the death penalty if convicted on charges over the Bali bombings that killed 88 Australians. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said Bashir was the central figure responsible for training terrorists who carried out the Bali attacks two years ago and was the person who gave the all-clear for the bombings to go ahead. He said Bashir was also behind the failed attempt to bomb Australia's High Commission in Singapore in 2001 and the bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel last year, which killed 12 people. Mr Keelty said he would be surprised...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been charged with involvement in the nightclub bombings in the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, an official said on Saturday. "He is charged for having a part in the Bali incident," state prosecutor Andi Herman told Reuters. Bashir was charged under the criminal law Number 187 for his involvement in the Bali bombing, Herman said, the maximum penalty under which law is life sentence. The accused leader of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network was charged on Friday with involvement in a suicide bombing attack at...

The Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir will be indicted on charges of terrorism after Indonesian prosecutors today passed their file on the extremist leader to a Jakarta court. Prosecutors lodging the indictment confirmed that Bashir would face charges related to the bombing of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel last year. Prosecutor Andi Herman says the indictment lodged with South Jakarta District Court today contains allegations that Abu Bakar Bashir ordered or motivated other people to take part in a terrorist attack on the Marriott Hotel, which killed 12 people. Abu Bakar Bashir's defence team has consistently ridiculed suggestions that the cleric was...