Free Republic

The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday began representing a man accused of setting off bombs in New York and New Jersey and injuring more than 30 people. After judges in both states denied attempts by public defenders to represent Ahmed Khan Rahami, a lawyer for the organization’s New Jersey chapter entered a notice of appearance in his case in federal court in Newark on Monday. Rahami has been hospitalized since he was caught following a shootout with police in Linden last week. He has not made an initial court appearance. …

If the Chelsea bomber had packed his second pressure-cooker IED in a less eye-catching bag, two men might not have removed it—and it might have killed dozens at an open-air restaurant. Had the bomber chosen a simple black or solid hue wheeled suitcase, the two men who happened by might not have even noticed it sitting on a dimly lit patch of pavement on the uptown side of West 27th Street. “They might have just walked right on by,” a high-ranking cop said on Monday. But the wheelie bag the bomber left had an eye-catching pattern whose multi colors included...

ELIZABETH, N.J. – Authorities said they apprehended Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old wanted in connection with weekend bombings in Manhattan and Seaside Park, N.J., after a shootout Monday with police officers. The bloody incident capped off a frantic 72-hour period in this region and beyond, marked by the dual bombings, a stabbing spree in Minnesota and then, Sunday night, the discovery of still more explosive devices at a train station here. Even as the widening probe into the bombings continued across this region, authorities sought to reassure residents that the the bombings and additional explosives appeared to be the work...

Ahmad Khan Rahami 'Directly Linked' to NYC and NJ Bombings, Feds Say: UPDATES Rahami and two cops were wounded but alive after a shootout Monday. De Blasio: "We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror." By Marc Torrence (Patch National Staff) - September 19, 2016 3:22 pm ET NEW YORK, NY — Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, the lead suspect in this weekend's series of nonfatal bombings in New Jersey and New York City, was taken into custody Monday morning following a bloody shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. Two police officers were injured in the...

Donald Trump says there will be “more and more” bombings like those that occurred in New York and New Jersey over the weekend because the country’s “stupid” leaders have been “weak” on immigration. “It’s a mess, and it’s a shame,” the Republican nominee said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday. “I think this is something that maybe we’ll get — will happen perhaps more and more all over the country because we’ve been weak. Our country’s been weak. We’re letting people in by the thousands, the tens of thousands.” Trump pointed to President Obama’s recently announced goal to...

FIVE people have been detained after a bomb attack in New York while a New Jersey train station has been evacuated and a bomb went off at a charity run organised by the US marines.

President Obama’s motorcade passed through 23rd Street, the location of Saturday night’s bombing, and slept in Manhattan Sunday night — but he still hasn’t made any public remarks on the attack in Chelsea. Instead, Obama’s first stop in New York City Sunday night was at the Gramercy Park home of restaurateur Danny Meyer and actress Audrey Meyer to attend a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Obama talked about the importance of this election — “the most important election of our lifetime” — and discussed why he believes Clinton is failing to run away with it. “[T]his should not be...

UPDATE 1:30am – Explosion in New Jersey terminal while bomb squad robot was inspecting a backpack containing “numerous devices”. It was NOT a controlled detonation. Thankfully no-one was hurt, area previously evacuated. ... According to New York Senator Marty Golden, media and eye witnesses, five men dressed in Arab garb have been stopped, and detained, by the FBI. ♦ They were heavily armed in the SUV according to the FBI who also said they discovered bomb making equipment ♦ Police and FBI said that three pipe bombs and two smaller explosive devices were found in Elizabeth, NJ (5 devices) ♦...

The bomb that injured 29 people in central New York on Saturday and another device found nearby were both shrapnel-filled pressure cookers, US media report, as law enforcement probe for potential terrorist links. Twenty-nine people were injured when a bomb exploded in New York's upmarket Chelsea neighbourhood on Saturday night, damaging buildings, shattering glass and sending shrapnel flying across the street. A second bomb was uncovered by police four blocks away and defused safely, before being sent to the FBI in Virginia for forensic examination. Both bombs were filled with shrapnel and made with pressure cookers, flip phones, Christmas lights...

AN EXPLOSION has reportedly taken place at a New Jersey train station just a day after a huge blast ripped through New York, injuring 29.

<p>FBI agents stopped a car in Brooklyn carrying five men who may be connected to Saturday’s bombing in Chelsea, sources said.</p> <p>The men were heading over the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn when they were stopped Sunday night.</p>

The reason Bernie Sanders pointedly refuses to condemn his supporters for throwing chairs and making death threats against Democrat officials at and after the party’s Nevada convention is because he doesn’t actually object to their violent behavior. Sanders blew off pressure from Democrat leaders to disavow ugly tactics by his supporters at the event Saturday evening, calling the complaints “nonsense” and arguing that his supporters were not treated with "fairness and respect."

Saddam Hussein's son Uday planned to carry out an attack in London to assassinate the leader of an Iraqi opposition group in April 2000, it is being reported. According to the U.K.'s Times of London newspaper, a new Pentagon study based on documents seized during the Iraq war reveal an aborted plot by Uday Hussein's elite paramilitary group — the Fedayeen — to kill London-based Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress. Documents show that Fedayeen's orders were to carry out assassinations and bombings in London, the Times reported. While the study showed no link between Saddam Hussein's regime...

Convicted leftist terrorist Susan Rosenberg must be counted among the unlikeliest candidates ever to be awarded a university teaching post. Just four years ago, Rosenberg was serving out the 16th year of a 58-year sentence for the possession of more than 700 pounds of explosives and a stockpile of illicit weapons. Moreover, the onetime member of a leftist terrorist outfit called “The Family” was also a suspect in a 1981 robbery-gone-awry that left three people dead in Nyack, New York. However, next January students at Hamilton College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, will know Susan Rosenberg,...

.. but ISIS is 'No. 1 priority'         

BREAKING: At least 28 people were killed and dozens of others were injured after coordinated explosions rocked the Brussels airport and subway system Tuesday morning. The attacks came four days after the main suspect in the November Paris attacks was arrested in Brussels. After his arrest, Salah Abdeslam told authorities he had created a new network and was planning new attacks. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attacks.

SNIPPET: "The Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) name has come up before in connection with terrorism plots, including the October 2002 Portland Seven and the September 2002 Lackawanna Six cases in the United States, as well as the August 2006 plot to bomb airliners en route from London to the United States, the July 7, 2005, London Underground bombings and the July 2007 attempted bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland. Over the past several years we also have received several queries about TJ from U.S. law enforcement officials who are concerned about the group’s presence and activities in the United States. U.S....

1. They are a minuscule portion of the U.S. population. 2. They're better educated than most Americans. 3. They have more gender equality. 4. They've been here since the birth of the nation. 5. They're not just clustered in big cities. 6. They're as religious as Christians. 7. They're not as dogmatic as they are portrayed. 8. There have been Muslims involved in terrorism. 9. But they've also spoken out against it.

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Three girls staged suicide bombings in the Nigerian city of Damaturu, killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival at the end of Ramadan, police said. The attacks, in a northeastern area hard hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, came just days before Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari travels to Washington for talks with US counterpart Barack Obama.

The United Nations said Tuesday that Boko Haram is responsible for an “alarming spike” of suicide bombings in Nigeria that have been carried about by women and children. Girls between the ages of 7 and 17 years have been used for three-quarters of all such attacks in the region since 2014, the U.N. children’s agency reported. There have been 27 suicide bombings in the region over five months, compared to 26 in all of 2014. “Children are not instigating these suicide attacks; they are used intentionally by adults in the most horrific way.