[stockpirate]

"The men have ties to a [terror] group called Ansar al-Islam "

This is the same group that had a training base on northern Iraq before the war.

The article should note that it is a terror group, not just a group. What a singing group?

[Lady GOP]

This is the same group that had a training base on northern Iraq before the war.

Interesting.

[Lady GOP]

Ansar al-Islam, the group connected to the mosque raided in Albany, N.Y., is a radical extremist group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs formed in September 2001. The group vowed to set up a conservative Islamic state in northern Iraq, and its members have trained in Afghanistan and provided safe haven to al-Qaida members fleeing after the U.S. invasion there.

Last March, the State Department declared the group a foreign terrorist organization. The label carries legal consequences: People in the United States cannot provide money or other material support to the group, members cannot receive U.S. visas, and U.S. financial institutions must block the group's funds. U.S. officials have said Ansar's members are thought to be linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network is considered one of the most dangerous groups fighting U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq.