Free Republic

Anyone who believes that NATO’s overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi is a “success” for President Obama’s foreign policy should listen to the speech of Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council, at the “liberation day” celebrations in Benghazi: “We are an Islamic country,” the de facto president of Libya proclaimed to the crowds shouting “Allahu Akbar.” “We take the Islamic religion as the core of our new government. The constitution will be based on our Islamic religion.”

... But he also warned that he could quit as head of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) if he loses control of the revolution, amid possible revenge acts by insurgents. ... "I hail the leaders of these groups and I trust their words but some actions of some of their followers worry me. This might be the reason or the cause of my resignation," he said. But he added: "My role after the fall (of Kadhafi) will continue unless I lose control of the goals and inspiration that I aim for ... But I expect that revolutionaries will be...

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — Assailants kidnapped the father of Honduras' acting defense minister Tuesday in a case that immediately took on political overtones amid a bitter, unresolved political crisis. The kidnapping of Alfredo Jalil, a wealthy businessman and father of acting deputy defense minister Gabo Jalil, followed by just days the murder of a nephew of the country's de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. No evidence has been presented linking either case to the rising political tensions over deadlocked diplomatic efforts to end the crisis set off by the June 28 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. But Jalil's wife, who witnessed her...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A senior al-Qaida operative lived in New Jersey and posed as a student while conducting surveillance of financial institutions as possible targets for a terror attack, according to a published report. The operative, identified by U.S. officials in Washington as Dhiren Barot, 32, entered the United States on a student visa, The Record of Bergen County reported in Thursday's editions.

The head chaplain for New York City jails has been suspended while the city investigates claims he made incendiary statements last year in Tucson, including a comment that the "greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House." The New York Post reported Thursday that Umar Abdul-Jalil made the remarks at a conference sponsored by the Muslim Students Association in Tucson. It said the Investigative Project, a Washington organization that tracks extremist Islamic groups, recorded the speech, in which he also allegedly said that Muslims jailed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were "tortured" in the Manhattan Correctional Center. Abdul-Jalil,...

<p>An Indianapolis family kept vigil Tuesday awaiting news of two brothers they say are wrongly being held in the Philippines for suspected ties to terrorists.</p> <p>"This is like a (bad) dream," said Pamela Stubbs Thornton, a sister of the detained men, Michael Ray Stubbs and Jamil Daud Mujahid.</p>

France colluded with the Iraqi secret service to undermine a Paris conference held by the prominent human rights group Indict, according to documents found in the foreign ministry in Baghdad. Various documents state that the Iraqis believed the French were doing their utmost to prevent the meeting from going ahead. Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP who chairs Indict, said last night that she would be demanding an apology from the French government for its behaviour, which she described as "atrocious". The files, retrieved from the looted and burned foreign ministry by The Telegraph last week, detail the warmth and strength...