Free Republic

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July. The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. The intelligence report was supplied to the...

WASHINGTON — Fourteen U.S. citizens have been charged with attempting to join al-Shabab, a Somali-based terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The charges were due to be formally announced at a news conference at noon ET at the Justice Department, NBC reported. The 14 people include 12 from Minnesota, one from Alabama and one from California, the officials said. Al-Shabab is Somalia's most-feared militant group. The group recently claimed responsibility for bombing two sites in Uganda where people were watching a soccer World Cup game on television, killing 76 people. Al-Shabab said the blasts were...

(CNSNews.com) –The State Department has awarded 1,011 special “diversity visas” allowing Yemeni nationals to immigrate to the United States since 2000, the year 17 U.S. sailors were killed when the U.S.S. Cole was attacked by terrorists in the Yemeni port of Aden. The "diversity visas" are designed to encourage immigration from countries that do not otherwise send significant numbers of immigrants to the United States. The State Department roster of all countries whose nationals have received "diversity visas" to immigrate to the United States in 2010, for example, shows that 2 of these immigrants will be from Luxembourg, 3 from...

TOLEDO -- A Toledo man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in a terrorist plot intending to target American soldiers. Mohammad Amawi was sentenced Wednesday morning in federal court. He had faced up to life in prison. He is one of three defendants who were found guilty last year of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Another defendant, Marwan El-Hindi will begin his sentencing Wednesday. Wassim Mazloum was also found guilty of the terrorist plot...