Free Republic

A radical Islamic cleric facing a life sentence on charges of aiding an al Qaeda affiliate has been released on bail while his retrial continues, Lebanon's state news agency reported. A military court convicted Omar Bakri Mohammed in absentia two weeks ago of charges including membership in an armed group, possession of weapons and explosives, and committing crimes against the state, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported at the time. Bakri was arrested after a shootout two days later. Bakri is having a retrial because he was convicted the first time in absentia. At the start of the retrial Wednesday,...

SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said."

Infamous Islamic hate cleric Mullah Omar Bakri Mohammed has been following a strict diet so that he can breed more ‘jihadi’ recruits. The 50 year old cleric shunned his former wife, and married Lebanese beauty Ruba almost half of his age, and is now planning to start another family with her. “Inshallah (God willing), I will have more children. My wife is still young and we would like to start a family together,” The Daily Star quoted Mohammad, as saying. One of Mohammad’s friend said: “His dream is to produce more children, all committed to following his jihadi cause.” In...

An international lobby group for bankers is calling on the world's policymakers to put their taxpayers' funds to work to save the global financial system. In a policy letter sent Thursday from the Institute of International Finance Inc. to the finance ministers and central bank governors that are meeting in Washington D.C. next week at the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the group called for the passage of proposed U.S. bill to bailout troubled mortgage-backed securities. “Systemic, internationally co-ordinated responses by the authorities are essential at this stage to stabilize financial markets, requiring large if temporary use of government funds,”...

Every year, as we enter a New Year, my mind goes back to Daniel Pearl, the Mumbai-based American correspondent of Wall Street Journal, who met with a brutal end to his young life during a visit to Karachi in January 2002 to enquire, inter alia, into the suspected Pakistani links of international jihadi terrorists. In his keenness to find out the truth, Pearl fell into a treacherous trap laid by a mixed group of Pakistani terrorists belonging to different organisations and orchestrated by Omar Sheikh, a British resident of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the so-called jihad against the...

THAILAND & INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT by B.Raman Indicators available since March, 2002, that the International Islamic Front (IIF) formed by Osama bin Laden in 1998 has been trying to extend its activities to southern Thailand have now been strengthened by the recent recrudescence of acts of violence in southern Thailand. 2. These indicators spoke of a surprisingly large number of Muslims from Thailand studying in the madrasas of Pakistan, some of them run by the five Pakistani components of the IIF. These components are the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which has now been co-ordinating the activities of the IIF due to the...

THE US army is training more than 8,000 Iraqi troops to be at the forefront of the coalition’s threatened assault to wrest back control of the rebel stronghold of Falluja.A division made up of three brigades of special counterinsurgency troops from the new Iraqi army is being prepared to join an attack on the city of 300,000 people. America believes its most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind, is sheltering there. “The key to a successful capture of Falluja and holding it secure is the use of well trained Iraqi forces. The people there will never...

ARTICLE TOOLS Email This Article E-Mail This Article Printer Friendly Format Printer-Friendly Format Most E-mailed Articles Most E-Mailed Articles Reprints & Permissions Reprints & Permissions Single Page Format Single-Page Format The Reach of War Go to Complete Coverage TIMES NEWS TRACKER Topics Alerts Iraq Armament, Defense and Military Forces United States International Relations Lynsey Addario for The New York Times While on patrol last week, Iraqi soldiers paused to speak with an Iraqi woman south of Baghdad. BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 17 — Gradually, ever so imperceptibly, the ground is beginning to shift. The legions of American soldiers who not so...