Free Republic

For years, it was thought that Israel had destroyed Syria’s nuclear weapons capability with its 2007 raid on the Kibar complex. Not so. New intelligence suggests that Bashar al-Assad is still trying to built the bomb. And he may be getting help from North Korea and Iran. […] Analysts say that the Syrian atomic weapon program has continued in a secret, underground location. According to information they have obtained, approximately 8,000 fuel rods are stored there. Furthermore, a new reactor or an enrichment facility has very likely been built at the site—a development of incalculable geopolitical consequences. Some of the...

Iran, and not just Russia and Syria, is taking advantage of President Barack Obama's decision to refrain from military force against Syria to collect a shower of diplomatic and political dividends. The new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced Tuesday that the coming meeting of the General Assembly opening in New York later this month "may prove the perfect setting to reignite talks about the nation's nuclear program." The US Treasury Department accordingly lifted a string of sanctions restricting humanitarian and athletic exchanges between US and Iranian NGOs and environmental projects, as a counter-gesture of good will. Washington was not put...

Sunday's Der Spiegel had a massive expose on the continuing efforts of Bashar al-Assad to build a nuclear weapons plant, which included evidence that Iran is constructing such a plant for Syria in Qusayr, less than two kilometers from Syria's border with Lebanon. The issue came up in the State Department's Monday daily briefing. Disturbingly, spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the United States did not plan to raise the issue in the Iranian nuclear talks, claiming that those talks only deal with Iran's nuclear capabilities and not with Syria's. According to findings of Western intelligence agencies, however, the situation...

ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani court charged five young Americans on Wednesday with planning terrorist attacks in the South Asian country and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with Pakistan, their defense lawyer said.

<p>No info at link yet, just came across the TV. Investigators believe that the poisoners where Arabic translators! ROP strikes again???</p>

By MARTHA IRVINE and NAFEESA SYEED (AP) – 1 hour ago ALEXANDRIA, Va. — There was a book left in a Pakistani hotel room where several young men from Virginia suspected of trying to join Taliban forces stayed. Called "The Pact," that book tells the true story of three boys from a rough neighborhood and broken homes who bond and eventually help one another through medical and dental school. "This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds," reads one snippet on the back of the book. It is also a story with...

“Arrested Americans show no remorse about their terror plans” PTI Monday, December 21, 2009 14:44 IST SNIPPET: “Lahore: Five American Muslim youth arrested by Pakistani authorities on suspicion of terror links have shown no remorse about their plans to commit terrorist acts and one has even said they should be hanged so that they could become martyrs, a senior police official said today.” SNIPPET: “Zamzam, Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, 20, Iman Hasan Yemer, 17 and Omar Farooq, 24, were arrested in Sargodha, located 200km from Islamabad, on charges of planning terror attacks in Pakistan and abroad.” SNIPPET:...

Americans are now learning what citizens of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other foreign countries have long known: that some of our own can and will go to great lengths to kill their fellow citizens. Ramy Zamzam and four friends from the Washington, D.C., suburbs were detained in Pakistan in a police raid on a house allegedly tied to a militant group earlier this week. One of the men had recorded a video filled with images of war and declarations that young Muslims must act. The five Americans, students in their 20s, are now being questioned by...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - The five young Americans detained in Pakistan as part of a terrorism investigation were wholesome kids who never exhibited any signs of religious extremism, according to the youth director at a mosque where they worshipped. "I never observed any extreme behavior with them," said Mustafa Abu Maryam, who served as a volunteer youth director at the Islamic Circle of North America's small chapter mosque. It's in a converted single-family home in a residential neighborhood a few miles south of the Capital Beltway.

The speaker at Friday prayer services at Howard University's dental school stressed to worshipers that Islam is a religion of moderation. Ramy Zamzam, a student at the dental school, is among five men detained in Pakistan after they allegedly sought to join up with terrorist groups. In a brief sermon, Sultan Chaudhry, who serves as president of the dentistry school's student council, said: "Muslims have to follow the middle path with no extremes on either side." Chaudhry also said Islam promotes "human dignity and honor" and has a set of universal values that are "positive and life-affirming.".. At a Virginia...

Police conducted a search operation in Tehsil Bhalwal, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Kotmomen and Shahpur and arrested 64 persons, including five foreigners, from hotels and other places.The police said most of the arrested persons belonged to Afghanistan. Our correspondent adds from Washington: The arrest of US-born Pakistanis of banned militant organisation Jaish-e-Muhammad in Sargodha has apparently solved the case of mysterious missing of at least three Pakistani-American students from the DC metro area.Earlier, it was reported here that the US federal investigators were searching for a Howard University dental student and four other Muslim men reportedly missing from the Washington, DC area....

Yesterday, the Investigative Project on Terrorism led with the story of five DC Area students who disappeared and were believed to be heading for terrorist training. December 8: Federal investigators are searching for a Howard University dental student and four other missing Muslim men reported missing from the Washington, D.C. area, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has learned. There is concern they may have been sent abroad to train for jihad. The five were last seen November 29.The identities of two of the missing men, Howard student Ramy Zamzam and Waqar Khan, have been mentioned in online postings, including...

Breaking News: Pakistan Reportedly Detains Five D.C.-Area Muslims on Suspicion of Terror IPT News December 8, 2009 **Updated December 9, 9:00 a.m. EST A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five foreign nationals after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The raid took place at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001. According to the report, "The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of...

Bottled water said to come from Mecca has been found to contain high levels of cancer-causing chemicals. People have been told not to buy Zam Zam water after tests showed three times the permitted level of arsenic. The water is advertised as coming from the sacred well of Zam Zam in Mecca, which is the most holy city in Islam, and demand increases during Ramadan.

Click to enlarge photo RIYADH (Reuters) - An Iranian soft drinks firm is cashing in on a popular boycott of American products in Saudi Arabia by offering an "Islamic alternative" to U.S. brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. The Saudi distributor of Zamzam Cola, named after a sacred water well near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, said on Wednesday that demand was three times higher than forecast in the first week the drink went on sale in the east of the kingdom. "The campaign of boycotting American products and the good quality of Zamzam Cola have given us...