Free Republic

NEW YORK — Lawyers for the Newburgh Four have launched their appeal, arguing that a lying FBI informant used money, religion and even love to lure their clients into a terroristic scheme. The men were arrested in May 2009, minutes after they placed bombs outside a synagogue and Jewish community center in the Bronx. The explosives were fakes supplied by the FBI as part of an elaborate sting operation. The four men — James Cromitie, David Williams, Laguerre Payen and Onta Williams — were convicted of terrorism charges in 2010 after a two-month trial and sentenced to 25 years in...

Good news this week: Four Muslim converts who plotted to bomb a pair of Riverdale synagogues and shoot down military planes were convicted. The bad news: Activists are turning the "Newburgh 4" into a cause célébre -- a supposedly hapless squad of dimwits armed with fake explosives, arrested by the feds before they did any harm. Dimwits we'll buy, but that doesn't make them innocent. Even idiots can detonate explosives -- and this dangerous crew showed an unseemly eagerness to enlist in jihad. And they're not alone. Far from it: * A 2004 sting netted Albany pizza-shop owner Mohammed Hossain...

Until last year, Hassan Diab was leading the quiet life of a Canadian sociology professor. Prof. Diab was teaching at both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, was said to be a popular colleague and teacher. After leaving the violence of his native Lebanon and earning his doctorate in the United States, Prof. Diab, 54, received his Canadian citizenship and appeared to settle into Ottawa. There, friends said he was a secular man with an interest in sociology and Middle East studies, and was not without a warm side. "He has a great rapport with students," said Carleton professor...

Nov. 16, 2003 'There is nothing left' By TOVAH LAZAROFF Two months ago Vicky Angel celebrated her cousin's wedding in the Neveh Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul. On Sunday, she stood in its ruins, having arrived from Israel the night before as part of an eight person assistance delegation from the Jewish Agency. "It is so sad, there is nothing left," said Angel explaining that 80 percent of the building was destroyed in the blast, that disrupted a bar-mitzvah prayer service on Shabbat morning. The twin blasts outside both Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel Synagogue about three miles away, killed 23,...

Diplomatic Contacts ©GPO/Moshe Milner FM Silvan Shalom lays a wreath in memory of the victims at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Instanbul (Nov 16, 2003) Nov 16: FM Silvan Shalom arrived in Istanbul on Sunday morning to visit the scenes of Saturday's bomb attacks on two synagogues and to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul and leaders of the Istanbul Jewish community. He will continue to Brussels and Vienna to meet with foreign ministers of the EU-member states to discuss anti-Semitism and recent events in Europe. The site then links to this Ha'aretz article:Last Update: 16/11/2003 16:24 Shalom says...

Nov. 15, 2003 Jewish Agency sends relief to Istanbul By JENNY HAZAN The Jewish Agency for Israel sent a delegation of seven Turkish-speakers - among them two psychologists who are terror specialists and two youth leaders who are familiar with the Istanbul Jewish community – to Istanbul on Saturday night, after hearing of the simultaneous bombings of two Istanbul synagogues, that took the lives of at least 20 and wounded over 260. "In the case of the Istanbul community, they called us to request post-trauma assistance to children, as well as educational activities for young people," said Director General Giora...