Free Republic

Homegrown terrorist Jeffrey Leon Battle considered America the “land of the kaffirs,” or unbelievers, and the American people “pigs.” He once lamented to an acquaintance—who happened to be a government informant—that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks did not sufficiently damage the U.S. economy. “This is the land of the enemy,” he said of his own country in a May 8, 2002, conversation secretly recorded by the government. He explained to a friend how his “burning desire” to become an Islamic martyr had inspired his aborted quest to join forces with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where he could kill American...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two American Muslims who tried to join the Taliban were sentenced to 18 years in prison Monday during a hearing in which they denounced the Bush administration and pleaded in song for freedom. Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, and Jeffrey Leon Battle, 33, had pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to levy war against the United States. Both said that in trying to reach Afghanistan, they were fulfilling their Islamic duty to defend fellow Muslims. "The attack on Afghanistan killed and maimed thousands of people without achieving its objective," said Ford, who had traveled to China...

<p>September 29, 2003 -- THE news last week that two Muslim military personnel, James Yee and Ahmad al-Halabi, had been arrested on suspicion of aiding Al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantnamo Bay (with another three Muslim servicemen under watch) seemed to prompt much surprise. It should not have.</p>

Lawyers, law officers debate whether a terror cell took root among us -- A ‘sexy script,’ a suspect castBY JIM REDDEN Is the Portland area a breeding ground for radical Muslim terrorism? Or are law enforcement officials seeing a threat where none exists? The Portland FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has spearheaded the arrest of seven Portland Muslims since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City and Washington, D.C. An eighth Muslim suspect is still at large. The task force targets include the leader of a conservative local mosque, a mosque member trained in firearms and six...