Free Republic

A controversial Minnesota congresswoman known for racially inflammatory anti-Semitic views has publicly declared her support for a terrorist organization in her native Somalia. Democrat Ilhan Omar is demanding that a telecommunications company founded and operated by a renowned terrorist financier, receive protection from that country’s government and peacekeeping forces. An Israeli-based newspaper broke the story a few days ago, but the American mainstream media has been notably silent on the matter. The company, Hormuud Telecommunications, was created and is operated by Ahmed Nur Ali Jim’ale, a chief financier of al–Shabaab, an east African-based jihadist group that serves as Al Qaeda’s...

Coalition forces acting on a tip by Iraqis captured a known associate of Izzat Ibrahim al-Dhouri, Coalition Provisional Authority officials announced today. During a briefing today from Baghdad, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, said that Ayed Hameed Nouri was arrested Feb. 23 at the Niwan Hotel in central Mosul. He was apprehended without incident. Kimmitt reported that in a separate raid Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces captured Shahab Al-Hawas, a suspected financier of coalition attacks and a cousin of al-Dhouri. Over the past 48 hours, coalition forces conducted seven offensive operations...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2010 – Iraqi security forces arrested two men affiliated with al-Qaida and detained two suspects in operations over the past two days in Iraq. Forces arrested a suspected weapons and explosives operator in addition to two suspected criminal accomplices during a security operation yesterday north of Baghdad. Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors searched a home for a suspected al-Qaida member believed to have acquired weapons for the terrorist group in addition to facilitating explosive attacks within the region. After preliminary questioning and assessing the evidence at the scene, forces identified and arrested the wanted man and two...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces detained eight suspected militants, including two wanted men, during operations in Afghanistan’s Khost and Kandahar provinces Jan. 9, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan reported. Afghan National Police and coalition forces detained three militants in the first operation, including a wanted Haqqani militant. In Sabari district, about 140 miles southeast of Kabul City, the combined force targeted the Haqqani foreign fighter network netting a militant known to coordinate and facilitate the movement of Arab fighters into the region. The militant also is believed to be in contact with senior Haqqani leaders, planning...

A Somali man from Minneapolis being held in a Dutch jail on suspicion of bankrolling terrorist activities has been identified by sources in the Twin Cities Somali community as Mohamud Said Omar, 43. Government officials in Amsterdam and federal authorities in Minneapolis would not confirm the identity of the man being held in the Netherlands. But several sources there and here say Omar, who is known by the nickname "Shariif," is the man in custody. Dutch authorities said in a statement that U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 – Iraqi forces, with U.S. advisors, in recent days have arrested an alleged terrorist financier and recruiter, as well as five suspects in a roadside bomb network, military officials reported. In Balad, the Iraqi army’s emergency response brigade arrested alleged Khitab Hezbollah financier and recruiter Khalid Masur Ismail in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. Ismail, who also is known as Abu Mustafa, was arrested on a court-issued warrant when he identified himself upon contact and admitted to working as a manager for a security firm alleged to be a front for Khitab Hezbollah. During the operation, Iraqi...

NEW YORK (AFP) – A prominent Democratic fundraiser charged with defrauding Citibank to the tune of 74 million dollars and quickly returning his ill-gotten gains, engaged in yet another fraud to do so, prosecutors said Wednesday. New York financier Hassan Nemazee was charged August 25 with using fake documents to secure a 74 million dollar loan from Citibank. At the time, the authorities said that Nemazee, 59, promptly returned the funds. But in a letter to federal Judge Michael Dolinger in New York, prosecutors say his apparent contrition was faked, alleging that he all he really did was scam a...

A New York financier was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in federal prison for laundering bribes to former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. A tearful Thomas Kontogiannis apologized and pleaded for leniency, but District Judge Larry Burns ordered him to serve eight years and one month in prison. Prosecutors wanted the maximum 10-year sentence. "You caused people to think ... this (system) doesn't work," Burns told Kontogiannis. "I just hope the opportunity is given to me to make good to the people that I let down," Kontogiannis said. Kontogiannis, 59, pleaded guilty one count of money laundering in...

HAVANA - Robert Vesco, the American fugitive who cooked up moneymaking schemes that allegedly involved everyone from Colombian drug lords to the families of U.S. presidents, died in Cuba and was buried almost six months ago, according to an official document. A burial record at Havana's Colon Cemetery shows that a man with the same name and birthdate — Dec. 4, 1935 — died on Nov. 23 from lung cancer and was buried the next day in a private plot. He was 71, less than two weeks shy of his 72nd birthday. In his lifetime, Vesco was accused of looting...

The law enforcement and intelligence sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified Al-Hawsawi as the third man. Al-Hawsawi, 34, a native of Saudi Arabia, is described as a “supporting conspirator” in the indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. Federal prosecutors allege that Al-Hawsawi handled tens of thousands of dollars for the hijackers through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates. He fled the UAE for Pakistan on the day of the attacks, according to the indictment.

JERUSALEM - An Israeli university awarded an honorary doctorate Tuesday to billionaire Marc Rich, who was pardoned of tax evasion charges by President Clinton in 2001 and founded of an oil trading firm under investigation for dealings with Saddam Hussein. Bar-Ilan University, located outside Tel Aviv, conferred the degree in recognition of the financier's contributions to Israel and the university's research programs, it said in a statement. Officials declined to say how much Rich has given the university, but said his donations have supported research for treatments of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The university also cited Rich's financial aid in...

FRESNO, Calif. - A California man accused of trying to supply stolen U.S. military equipment and defense secrets to Yemen was denied bail Friday after a prosecutor said he had ties to a terrorist financier who plotted to help al-Qaida and Hamas. The allegations emerged at a hearing for Amen Ahmed Ali, 56. Defense attorney David A. Torres said his client was surprised by the charges. "But he's also strong. He looks forward to his day in court," Torres said. In pressing to keep Ali behind bars, prosecutors said that a search of Ali's house turned up contact information for...

TUNIS, Tunisia - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas denied Thursday that al-Qaida cells were operating in Gaza or the West Bank, and he dismissed U.S. and Israeli demands that the militant group Hamas should be barred from running in parliamentary elections. Abbas, speaking to AP Television News in what he said was his first interview in English since taking office a year ago, rejected claims made this week by Israeli President Moshe Katsav that "terror groups, including some al-Qaida cells, have formed" in the Gaza Strip since Israel's pullout in August. Katsav, who spoke in Italy, is the latest senior Israeli...

ROME (AP) - Italian authorities indicted four people Monday in the killing of Italian financier Roberto Calvi, a banker with close ties to the Vatican who was found hanging under a bridge in London in 1982, reports said. Businessman Flavio Carboni, his ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinzig and two men with alleged ties to the Mafia, Pippo Calo and Ernesto Diotallevi, will stand trial in October for Calvi's killing, the Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom said. Calvi was dubbed "God's banker" because of his ties with the Vatican's bank and its former top official, the American Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus. He...

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

AN accused terrorism financier arrested in the US last week had just returned from a trip to Australia where he is believed to have a child. But in a security blunder, the arrest took Australia's intelligence agencies, who were unaware the man was in Australia, by complete surprise. Omar Abdi Mohamed, 41, is being investigated after allegedly receiving $454,866 from a group accused by US authorities of direct links to al-Qaida. But Australian authorities were not told of any terrorist concerns surrounding Mr Mohamed before his most recent trip to Australia, which ended only last month. "Obviously this person would...

Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism WebBy Michael TremoglieFrontPageMagazine.com | March 19, 2003 In the run-up to this war, Not In Our Name became one of the major “peace” organizers and coalitions in the United States. Not In Our Name has spared no cost purchasing ads in newspapers around the world to publish its anti-American Statement of Conscience.  Its signatories include scores of Hate America bigwigs, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Kingsolver.  Hollywood icons (and many more has-beens) like Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, Tyne Daly, Martin Sheen and Ed Harris have...

Yasser Arafat's back. At least that's the conclusion of many Palestinians in light of the tragic events of last week and the renewed attempts to halt the violence. Last Wednesday, when the suicide bombing took place in Jerusalem, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was making his way from Ramallah to Jordan to have surgery to remove cataracts. As he approached the Allenby Bridge he received word of the attack but decided to go ahead with the trip. Some in the Palestinian leadership were angry at him as a result. It's a simple operation - eight minutes' work on each eye,...

BARCELONA: Spanish authorities arrested an Algerian suspected of organising funding in Spain for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, officials said on Sunday. Ahmed Brahim was arrested at his home in a Barcelona suburb and transferred to civil guard headquarters in Madrid in an operation coordinated with police from several other countries including the United States and France. "(Brahim) was involved in financial activities for the network such as buying and selling boats and computer equipment," a civil guard spokesman said. Spanish authorities have arrested nine suspected members of al-Qaeda since November as part of an ongoing investigation into the September...