Free Republic

April 14, 1999, Wednesday COMMITTEE HEARING SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTH U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) HOLDS HEARING ON THE CRISIS IN AFGANISTAN  WASHINGTON, D.C. SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS), CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN ASHCROFT (R-MO) U.S. SENATOR GORDON H. SMITH (R-OR) U.S. SENATOR ROD GRAMS (R-MN) U.S. SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS (R-WY) U.S. SENATOR PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE (D-MN), RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR ROBERT G. TORRICELLI (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD) U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD (D-CT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA) THE HONORABLE KARL F. INDERFURTH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH ...

STORYMIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (WSVN) -- A man has been arrested after, officials said, he caused a security scare at a South Florida airport. On Jan. 11, Miami-Dade Police officers stopped Oluwole Aboyade in the Dolphin parking garage at MIA after he reportedly began taking pictures of sensitive areas at the airport. According to a Miami-Dade Police report, an officer said he became alarmed when he saw Aboyade taking pictures of buildings, surveillance cameras, airport runways and restricted areas. When the police approached the Nigerian national, he said he would remain silent. The police report read, "Mr. Aboyade was observed walking...

Why, hire private investigators to take surveillance photos of CIA agents and hand them off to other latter day Adamses, who then showed them to top members of al Qaeda — thereby identifying for the terrorists the agency's interrogators and, potentially, tipping the terrorists off to the locations where the agents' families live. And while the lawyers are at it, why not call the whole enterprise the "John Adams Project." Actually, I would call the enterprise — just for starters — a wartime felony violation of the federal law barring disclosure of the identities of U.S. intelligence officers (Title 50,...

In F.B.I., Innocent Detainee Found Unlikely Ally By NINA BERNSTEIN t took no more than a week for James P. Wynne, a veteran F.B.I. investigator, to confirm the harmless truth that only now, more than two years later, he is ready to talk about. The small foreign man he helped arrest for videotaping outside an office building in Queens on Oct. 25, 2001, was no terrorist. He was a Buddhist from Nepal planning to return there after five years of odd jobs at places like a Queens pizzeria and a Manhattan flower shop. He was taping New York street scenes...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - 0302DV-Grand-Central A sketch of New York's Grand Central Terminal was found a year ago in the home of a suspect in the Madrid train bombings, Spanish and U.S. officials said Wednesday. The sketch and data were on a computer disk seized about two weeks after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people last year, the newspaper El Mundo said. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the FBI had informed the Police Department about the existence of the data on the computer and the city responded by tightening security at transit centers....

Yes, the rumor’s true. Greg Palast is facing a criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security stemming from his filming the Hurricane Katrina investigation for Link TV and Democracy Now. The film’s producer, Matt Pascarella, is also facing the legal wrath of Big Brother. It appears the complaint is about filming a sensitive national security site owned by Exxon petroleum. It seems that photographing major Bush donors is now a federal offense. Reached at an undisclosed location, Palast says, “Let’s not get over-excited. They haven’t measured us for our orange suits yet.” During questioning by Homeland Security, Palast asked,...

Terrorist suspect arrested on Danish ferry Danish-Moroccan terrorist suspect Said Mansour was arrested last week after being observed photographing security installations and emergency exits on a DFDS (The United Steamship Company) passenger ferry to Oslo, Danish newspapers report. Shipping line DFDS confirmed to Danish newspaper Politiken that Mansour was aboard the ferry and that the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) had been contacted about the incident. Neither Danish police nor their intelligence service PET would comment about the reason for Mansour's arrest. He was released on Monday. During a search of Mansour's home police found photographic and computer equipment worth...

Two men seen taking pictures of the George Washington Bridge from an inflatable raft in the Hudson River yesterday afternoon were taken into custody by the police when they came ashore. The police said last night that no arrests had been made, but Sgt. Brian Mullen of the 34th Precinct said that charges against the men, who were not identified, were pending. One possible charge was unauthorized use of the raft in the wrong place, he said.

A man described as a high-ranking operative of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was arrested last week as he videotaped the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia, and he then was held as a material witness in an unrelated case, authorities said. Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Virginia, long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian extremist group, was taken into custody Friday, the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland said Monday. He was held as a material witness in a Chicago terrorism case. Elbarasse made an initial appearance in Baltimore's federal courthouse Monday before U.S. District Magistrate...

Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former high school valedictorian in Virginia was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and conspiracy to support the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified coconspirator...

Compiling a list of suspicious incidents nationwide, including train derailments, chemical/oil refinery fires and or explosions, etc. Don't forget to include news link for source. Please send to my attention.

A new government intelligence bulletin describes in the greatest detail yet al-Qaida's techniques for assessing potential targets, extolling the lethal power of flying, shattered building glass and advising that kerosene and tires are effective for a deadly arson attack. "The focus is on maximizing the destructive and killing power of an attack," the bulletin says. The bulletin provides a fresh glimpse of terrorist reports found in computers and disks seized in Pakistan in July. The reports described the casing by terrorists of several buildings in the United States and prompted U.S. authorities to raise the terror threat level earlier this...

<p>At least three men reportedly were taken into federal custody in two Pensacola malls as the FBI and the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated a nationwide sweep Wednesday.</p> <p>Witnesses said plain-clothes agents closed Intrigue jewelry vendors at Cordova and University malls, Wild Things at University and possibly other shops.</p>

A Pakistani man who spent hours photographing the World Trade Center days before it was destroyed was sentenced to six months in jail for immigration violations exactly one year after suspicions over the pictures prompted his arrest. Ashar Butt, 22, acknowledged that he entered the country illegally last year using an altered British passport, but his lawyers said he only came to the United States to start a new life. "He was an innocent individual taking pictures," said his attorney, Anser Ahmad. He added that Butt has already spent a year in jail and is eligible for release within a...

INTELLIGENCEMan Is Held After Police Seize Tapes of Buildings and a DamBy ERIC LICHTBLAUPublished: August 11, 2004 ASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - The federal authorities, on heightened alert over the prospect of another Al Qaeda attack, are conducting a terrorism investigation into an illegal immigrant from Pakistan found with videotapes of downtown buildings and transit systems in four Southern states and of a dam in Texas, officials said on Tuesday.Officials acknowledged that they had no direct evidence linking the suspect, a former Queens resident named Kamran Shaikh, to terrorism. But they said they remained keenly interested in determining why he made...

http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/415877|top|07-19-2004::15:07|reuters.html Man Sought for Photographing Texas City Refineries Email this story Jul 19, 2:57 PM (ET) HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas. Texas City, located on the Texas Gulf coast about 30 miles south of Houston, has three refineries including the largest U.S. plant operated by BP Plc., which is the third-largest U.S. refinery, processing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The man, described as white with dark hair, was seen taking pictures outside the refineries, all located on the...

Pakistani in custody had film of Dallas, other cities 12:15 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Federal officials charged a Pakistani citizen with immigration violations and said Tuesday the man was detained last month after being spotted taking videotapes of downtown skyscrapers. A federal affidavit unsealed Tuesday said a review of the tape in Kamran Akhtar's camera and others in his possession showed film of the downtown Wachovia Bank and Bank of America headquarters buildings in Charlote, N.C., as well as film of other major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and...

August 11, 2004 -- A Pakistani who lives in Queens is being held in Charlotte, N.C., after videotaping skyscrapers in six major U.S. cities and making mysterious money transfers totaling $120,000, prosecutors said yesterday. Kamran Shaikh, 35, a father of three who lives in Elmhurst, also videotaped mass-transit systems in four of the cities and a dam in Texas, prosecutors said. Shaikh, who has lived in the United States for 13 years and has used the alias Kamran Akhtar, is being held without bail on immigration charges. He was busted in Charlotte on July 20 after Police Officer Anthony Maglione...

EAST COVENTRY - Federal authorities have determined four men found videotaping footage near the Limerick nuclear plant were not involved in terrorist activities.Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Philadelphia, said it appears the four men from Guatemala were making a "tourist video," highlighting portions of the area that happened to include footage of the Limerick Generating Station.Williams said authorities determined that three of the men were illegal aliens. They are currently being held by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Office in Philadelphia, she said.The fourth man is not an illegal alien and was released following...

Al-Qaeda spies in UK Threat ... Guards in London     By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence EditorAL-Qaeda agents are spying on UK military bases to plan a terror spectacular, military chiefs have warned. A leaked secret report — seen by The Sun — reveals men of Middle Eastern appearance have been seen near several sites in the past two months. Troops are on their second highest level of security alert amid fears of a revenge attack for Britain’s role in Iraq. Guards and cavalry barracks in Central London are thought to be at high risk. Suspect activity has also...