Free Republic

Jordanian authorities have arrested the spiritual mentor of Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Jazeera television said. The Arabic channel quoted its correspondent as saying authorities arrested Issam Barqawi, better known as Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, as the television was broadcasting an interview with him. Islamist and security sources have said the 43-year-old Muslim cleric -- who molded the militant Islamic views of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- was released on June 28 after a six-month detention at intelligence headquarters following his acquittal at a trial of Jordanian and Saudi sympathizers of al Qaeda. He had been under close...

AMMAN -- The former mentor of Iraq's most-wanted man, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, bitterly criticized the deadly attacks against civilians and other Muslims in Iraq claimed by his one-time protégé. "I warned in the past against actions which kill dozens of innocents from among the Iraqi people," Abu Mohammed Al Maqdissi, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, told Al Ghad newspaper in an interview on Tuesday, adding that he has "no links" with such acts. Maqdissi, whose real name is Issam Al Barqawi, was released from Jordanian custody last week, six months after he was acquitted of plotting attacks against the...