Free Republic

The family of the British terrorist who was shot dead after taking four people hostage inside a Texas synagogue have tonight condemned his actions as they admitted to 'liasing' with the shooter during his 10-hour stand-off with police. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead by the FBI after holding four hostages for more than 10 hours at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday. His 'devastated' brother Gulbar Akram shared a message on social media in which he revealed he had been working with the FBI and 'liasing' with his sibling throughout the stand-off. He also apologised...

WASHINGTON, Aug 3: Five years after her mysterious disappearance in Karachi, the FBI has finally conceded that an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist is alive and is in US custody in Afghanistan. Aafia Siddiqui, 36, disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents’ home in Karachi in March 2003, around the same time the FBI announced that it wanted to question her over her alleged links to Al Qaeda. Her family’s lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp said she believed recent media reports about Mrs Siddiqui’s incarceration increased pressure on the US and Pakistani authorities to divulge more information. “I don’t believe that...

Hostage-taker at Texas synagogue calls for the release of Pakistani national from US prison, authorities say By Alaa Elassar and Michelle Watson, CNN Updated 8:40 PM EST, Sat January 15, 2022 article video (CNN)The FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety are assisting a hostage situation at a synagogue in Texas, where authorities say the suspect may be motivated by the desire to free a Pakistani scientist who was convicted of attempting to kill US officers in Afghanistan. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN there were believed to be four hostages, including a rabbi, at Congregation...

But in one sense, it doesn’t matter. Any complaint he has about the U.S. government, the case in question or even Israel doesn’t involve the individuals whose lives he has violated. Throughout the tense hours, the priority was the safe rescue of the hostages. Officers heroically stormed in and rescued them late Saturday, for which we should all be grateful. Now, it’s important to reflect with righteous anger, to acknowledge the evil done, name it and identify where it comes from. The innocent Colleyville congregants have nothing to do with the case of Aafia Siddiqui, whom the hostage-taker reportedly mentioned....

If you disagree with the Democrats, you’re a “domestic terrorist.”As the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, Joe Biden has made it clear that he doesn’t intend to fight Al Qaeda. Instead he’s going to fight other Americans. The Biden administration’s newly released National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism mentions Al Qaeda only once in its 30 pages. Even though the FBI continues to break up Islamic terrorist plots against America, the document only defines Muslims as victims. Just last month a Seattle Muslim convert was arrested. The convert had discussed driving a "semi-truck" through "the gay pride...

BuzzFeed News drew criticism Sunday for publishing an article claiming conservative political pundit Ben Shapiro radicalized a white nationalist who pleaded guilty to defacing a synagogue with Nazi symbolism. “Yes, if there’s one thing I’m known for — as one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews, targets of the alt-right, and critics of the alt-right in America — it’s directing Nazis to attack synagogues,” Shapiro responded to BuzzFeed News. “What garbage.” Nolan Brewer, 21, was sentenced to three years in prison on May 22 for conspiring to violate the civil rights of a synagogue in Indiana, according to the U.S....

Today Hasher Jallal Taheb, 23, of Cumming, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to destroy, by fire or an explosive, a building owned by or leased to the United States. Taleb had planned an attack on the White House using weapons and explosives.  As part of the plea agreement, the defendant and the government agreed that the defendant should receive a 15-year sentence of imprisonment.“Taheb planned to conduct a terrorist attack on the White House as part of what he claimed was his obligation to engage in jihad,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John...

Federal authorities arrested a 27-year-old accused white supremacist who allegedly planned to bomb a synagogue in Colorado over the weekend. Richard Holzer had brought a knife and a mask to a motel room and was examining inert pipe bombs prepared by undercover agents moments before he was arrested late Friday night, according to a criminal complaint. He also said he paid a "witch doctor" $70 to put arsenic in the water pipes of the synagogue and "hex" the place last year, according to the complaint.

... The attack took place on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur when there were about 80 people in the synagogue. German media named the killer as 27-year-old far-right activist Stephan Balliet and online streaming site Twitch said it was ‘working urgently’ to remove video of the rampage which he broadcast live on its platform. It showed him taking a bomb from his car and trying to blow up a gate at the side of the building. When a woman confronts him, asking if his behaviour was ‘really necessary’, he shoots her dead.

The accused gunman in the deadly shooting at a San Diego-area synagogue pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder. In addition to entering pleas on Thursday in a San Diego court for firing an assault rifle inside the Chabad of Poway synagogue, John Earnest, 20, also pleaded not guilty to arson charges for a fire a month earlier at a nearby mosque, the ABC affiliate in San Diego, 10 News reported. One woman, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed and three people were wounded, including an 8-year-old girl and the synagogue’s rabbi, who lost a finger, in the...

<p>DAYTON, Ohio (KDKA/AP) – An ex-girlfriend of the Ohio gunman who killed nine people says he showed her a video of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting on their first date.</p> <p>Adelia Johnson says in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that Connor Betts often joked about having dark thoughts. She says he told her that he had bipolar disorder and that his talk didn’t scare her because she thought it was a symptom of his mental illness.</p>

Harrowing reports of a shooter at a synagogue emerged as victims called 911 in Poway, California at roughly 11:30 am local time this morning. San Diego Police quickly responded to the scene where at least four injured were transported to local hospital. ABC10 reports that, "The incident was reported at the Congregation Chabad located at 16934 Chabad Way sometime before 11:30 a.m., the San Diego County Sheriff's Office twitter account reported. "Deputies investigate reports of a man with a gun. Please stay clear of the area and allow deputies to safely do their job. Thank you for your patience and cooperation,"...

Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a terrorist case against a metro Atlanta resident accused of plotting to destroy the White House and other Washington D.C. government buildings. Hasher Jallal Taheb, of Cumming, was arrested in Gwinnett County and appeared briefly in court in downtown Atlanta in the case brought the FBI.

Federal authorities have arrested a man in Georgia who is accused of plotting attacks on the White House and other landmarks and buildings in Washington, D.C., according to media reports. Hasher Jallal Taheb, of Cumming, Ga., appeared Wednesday in court in downtown Atlanta in a case brought by the FBI, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper reported that authorities believe Taheb was acting alone and that no other threats are imminent. Taheb had been under FBI investigation after authorities in Georgia reported concerns that he had been radicalized, ABC News reported, citing a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Taheb...

An Ohio woman, one of two people accused on Monday of planning mass murders, was in contact with the racist gunman who shot up a South Carolina church and killed nine people in 2015, authorities said. Elizabeth Lecron, 23, of Toledo, was one of two people arrested in domestic terrorism-related cases, the FBI announced. Lecron was arrested with 21-year-old Damon Joseph, of Holland... The FBI said investigators found an AK-47, shotgun, handguns, ammunition and hand-caps, which are used to make pipe bombs, in her apartment. Authorities said she planned to attack a bar in Toledo and meet up with other...

Robert Bowers allegedly said “all these Jews need to die” prior to his arrest following a massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The horror unfolded on the morning of October 27 in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of the city. There were close to 100 people inside of the synagogue at the time of the attack. Bowers is a 46-year-old resident of Pittsburgh. As many as 12 people were shot at the scene, including three police officers. Of that 12, eight are reported to have died. An hour before the shooting, Bowers wrote on a social media...

Turkey al-Qaida Leader Said Killed in Iraq Fri Sep 10, 2:52 PM ET By JAMES C. HELICKE, Associated Press Writer ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish television broadcast on Friday a video from militants saying that the suspected leader of a Turkish al-Qaida cell blamed for suicide bombings in Istanbul was killed by U.S. airstrikes in Iraq (news - web sites). The video showed a body of a bearded man with a bloody face said to be that of Habib Akdas. A man, apparently a Turkish militant, was heard in the video saying Akdas was killed in a bombing raid this week...

The removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored, says Tom Gross It is not surprising, given the sheer scale of the Holocaust and its sadism, that it has dominated contemporary discourse among Jews and others. But, while the extermination of European Jews has rightfully (though belatedly) generated a great deal of study and research, the removal of the Jews from the Arab world has been all but ignored. This ignorance extends to policy-makers at the highest level. Some journalists and politicians I have spoken to have expressed surprise when I even mentioned that Jews...

Istanbul, Turkey (AP) - Syria handed over 22 suspects to Turkey on Sunday in connection with four deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported. The suspects, all Turks, reportedly fled the country after the attacks, which targeted two synagogues in near-simultaneous bombings Nov. 15 and the British consulate and a British bank in twin attacks five days later. A total of 61 people were killed. Citing a statement from paramilitary police, Anatolia said the suspects included Hilmi Tuglaoglu, a close associate of Azat Ekinci, a central suspect in the blasts. News reports have named Ekinci as...

Alleged al-Qaida Operative Wanted for Bombings in Turkey Said to Elude Officials by Faking Death ISTANBUL, Turkey - An alleged al-Qaida operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. The Syrian...