Free Republic

Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge. Speculation about the responsibility for last week's bombing plot and the earlier World Trade Center bombing has focused on Iran, Sudan, and the fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Much energy has been spent linking the terror to Islamic fundamentalism. Yet Saddam,...

A Minnesota man serving 20 years of supervised release for conspiring to join the Islamic State has been released from his federal halfway house. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis granted 21-year-old Abdullahi Mohamud Yusuf’s release to his family Thursday. While at the halfway house, Yusuf received counseling, mentoring and an award for being a role model to other residents. […] Yusuf was among nine Minnesota men sentenced last year for conspiring to join the militant group in Syria. …

Bangladesh bank offers loans to US poor By Daniel Pimlott in New York Published: February 15 2008 Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank has made its first loans in New York in an attempt to bring its pioneering microfinance techniques to the tens of millions of people in the world’s richest country who have no bank account. The bank’s entry into the US, its first in a developed market, comes as mainstream banks’ credibility has been hit by the mortgage meltdown and many people are turning to fringe financial institutions offering loans at exorbitant interest rates.

Interpol (The International Criminal Police Organization) has requested the arrest of the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and global Sunni Islamist diaspora, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose radical past includes praising suicide bombers against innocents as martyrs and describing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as Allah’s gift to the world. Interpol is charging the terror Sheikh with agreement, incitement, and assistance to commit premeditated murder, facilitating a prison escape, arson, vandalism, and theft. Qaradawi has been known to espouse horrifically anti-Semitic sentiments, often praising figures such as Adolf Hitler and his Holocaust of 6-million Jews. “he managed to put them [Jews]...

New Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Cat Stevens is taking the "Peace Train" back on the road. He announced yesterday that he'll do a six-city concert tour in North America this December, his first series of shows in the US since 1976. His conversion to Islam followed, putting his music career on hold for a quarter-century. Stevens, who also is releasing a blues album on Oct. 27 produced by Rick Rubin and titled Tell 'Em I'm Gone, is using that stage name along with Yusuf, the name he took when he converted. The performer of 1970s-era hits "Wild...

Full title: EXCLUSIVE: Deputy of banned suicide-bomb-endorsing cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi had White House meeting with National Security Council staff --------------------------------------- The UK and U.S. have banned Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who leads the anti-Israel International Union of Muslim Scholars. The Obama administration invited that group's VP, Abdallah bin Bayyah, to a private meeting on the day it announced support for Syria's rebelsThe organization ended its December 2012 board meeting by calling for the end of Israel and the return of its lands to the PalestiniansHours after MailOnline began inquiring with the National Security Council about its meeting with bin Bayyah, the cleric's...

Top Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, says the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization is the “Party of Satan.” In an interview with Al Arabiya aired on Sunday, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, slammed Lebanese Hezbollah group as “party of Satsan” that seeks to “sow discord” among Muslims.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) — Convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef filed a lawsuit seeking release from solitary confinement in a high-security U.S. prison. Yousef, 44, has been in solitary for 15 years and said keeping him there indefinitely despite his good behavior amounted to a violation of his due process. A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether the lawsuit can go to trial, the Los Angeles Times said Sunday. Yousef was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were...

JERSEY CITY - There's a gruesome double murder mystery in New Jersey. Police say who did it's not a mystery because someone is under arrest but the mystery is why the accused killer cut of two men's heads and hands. The victims are reportedly from Jersey City, but their remains were found buried in a town southwest of Philadelphia. ... police announced an arrest. 28-year-old Yusuf Ibrahim is in custody. Investigators say Ibrahim shot and killed the victims, severed their heads and hands, and buried the remains at a Buena Vista house. Back in Jersey City, friends of the victims...

Its hero and editor are dead, but the al-Qaida magazine, Inspire, continues to do just that. According to the complaint filed in federal district court in New York, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, a student from Bangladesh arrested Wednesday and charged with trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in ManhattanÂ’s Financial District, was the latest Islamist militant to try to follow the example of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and the English-language magazine, Inspire, created in his honor. Quazi Nafis, who came to the United States last January on a student visa, had big...

Brief thoughts/quotes from the last 11 years. "Looking away, not caring, or hoping for the best are not viable options in fighting terrorism (in general) and the global jihad (specifically). Terrorism must be fought head on 24/7 and preventing terrorism is far better than just reacting to one terror-related event after another." -Cindy (July 1, 2011) ~ "WHAT DID I LEARN from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001? OPINION: I have learned that more Americans love America than the lame-stream media will ever let on. I have learned that America's military is the finest in the world. I have...

NOTE The following text is a quote: July 16, 2010 TG-779 Treasury Designates Anwar Al-Aulaqi, Key Leader of Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula Treasury Targets al-Qa'ida Leader with Ties to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated Anwar al-Aulaqi, a key leader for al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemen-based terrorist group. Aulaqi was designated pursuant to Executive Order 13224 for supporting acts of terrorism and for acting for or on behalf of AQAP. Since its inception in January 2009, AQAP has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks against Saudi, Korean, Yemeni and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was investigating the man who allegedly planned the Sept. 11 airplane hijackings and attacks on New York and Washington when he was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, according to two former Central Intelligence Agency officials. Bob Baer, a former case officer in the agency's Directorate of Operations, said he provided Pearl with unpublished information about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has since been accused by American officials of being one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a top aide to Osama bin Laden. Mohammed is...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/sandiego/press-releases/2011/san-diego-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-provide-material-support-to-al-shabaab San Diego Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab U.S. Attorney’s Office December 01, 2011 Southern District of California SAN DIEGO—Nima Yusuf, 25, a resident of San Diego, pleaded guilty today in federal court in San Diego to conspiring to provide material support to al Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy announced. Yusuf entered her plea before Magistrate Judge Ruben B. Brooks, and the plea is subject to final acceptance by U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz at or before sentencing. As part of...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

A Dominican with an anti-American grudge has been busted for building a bomb in his upper Manhattan apartment to blow up a police station, sources said Sunday night. -snip- The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

Quote: www.fbi.gov/stlouis/press-releases/2011/local-man-pleads-guilty-to-providing-material-support-to-terrorist-organization Local Man Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to Terrorist Organization U.S. Attorney’s Office November 03, 2011 Eastern District of Missouri ST. LOUIS—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, 31, pled guilty to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to court documents, from February 2008 through at least July 2009, Yusuf, conspired with others to provide money to al Shabaab, which was designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2008. Yusuf transferred money to al Shabaab under fictitious names and telephone numbers utilizing money remitting...

CAIRO — A Virginia man, stuck in Egypt for the last six weeks living in a cheap hotel and surviving on fast food, said Wednesday his name was placed on a U.S. no-fly list because of a trip to Yemen. Yahya Wehelie, 26, who was born in Fairfax, Virginia, to Somali parents was returning with his brother Yusuf from 18 months studying in Yemen, when Egyptian authorities stopped him from boarding his flight to New York saying the FBI wanted to speak with him. Wehelie said he was then told by FBI agents in Egypt that his name was on...

SNIPPET: "Al-Qaida's network in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) has released the audio-recorded wills of two mujahideen operatives who were recently "martyred" in clashes with local security forces -- including former Guantanamo Bay detainee #114 Yusuf Muhammad Mubarak al-Jebairy al-Shehri. The younger brother of a senior Al-Qaida member, al-Shehri first left his home in Saudi Arabia in mid-2001 in order to wage jihad alongside the Taliban because he "thought that participating in jihad with the Taliban was the right thing to do... the Taliban were good Muslims.” In the midst of fleeing the crumbling Taliban frontline in late 2001, Yusuf al-Shehri...

Revered British folk singer Yusuf Islam - once known as Cat Stevens - has been booed by fans at an eagerly-awaited comeback concert after he allowed another singer to perform some of his best-known songs on stage. 'Now I know what (Bob) Dylan felt like,' Stevens told his audience in Dublin at the weekend after some fans booed while others gave a standing ovation in his first concert tour in 33 years. They began walking out ... 'In London's West End, where it is due to open next year, 'Moonshadow' could go down a storm. In front of an audience...