Free Republic

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

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...

A little traveling, like a little learning, can be a dangerous thing. Barack Obama on the loose in a foreign land is enough to frighten protocol officers and embarrass the rest of us. He went off to Asia to tell the Chinese a thing or two about world trade, to prepare the world for a treaty to make the sun change its spots, and of course to pay his respects to assorted heads of state, with particular attention to any royal head (perhaps even including Miss Universe) who crosses his path. So far it's a memorable trip. He established a...

KABUL – President Hamid Karzai's challenger withdrew Sunday from next weekend's runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the government's credibility at a time when the U.S. is seeking an effective partner in the war against the Taliban.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Two men sought by the FBI and linked to a Detroit Muslim leader killed by U.S. authorities were arrested in Windsor, Ontario on Saturday, Canadian police said. Mohammad Al-Sahli, 33, and Yassir Ali Kahn, 30, both from the Windsor, Ontario area, were apprehended without incident on Saturday morning and will appear before an Ontario Superior Court judge on Monday to face extradition to the United States, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The statement said the two Ontario men were wanted by the FBI for conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An RCMP spokesman...

Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah plans to boycott next week's runoff against incumbent Hamid Karzai following a breakdown in talks on how to fix the country's electoral crisis, two people familiar with the discussions said. A boycott would severely undermine a vote intended to affirm the Afghan government's credibility. However, an Abdullah spokesman said no final decision had been made on the candidate's pullout. It was possible that word of the boycott was a negotiating tactic by the Abdullah camp. The political stalemate in Kabul comes as President Barack Obama has been meeting with his advisers to try to determine...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his election opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, have broken down, a Western source close to the Afghan leadership told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Friday. According to the source, Abdullah will likely announce this weekend that he will boycott the runoff presidential election slated for November 7, a runoff that had been scheduled after intense diplomatic arm twisting by the United States.

The fugitive son of an Imam shot dead by U.S. federal agents Wednesday was arrested Thursday in downtown Windsor and in the custody Canadian border authorities, the FBI said in a statement. Mujahid Carswell, 30, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, was arrested by RCMP officers at about 1 p.m. Thursday without incident after police blocked off a downtown street and surrounded a house with a tactical team. He was witnessed being whisked away in a prisoner transport van and is currently in the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency on immigration violations. Mr. Carswell is the oldest son of...

FBI agents hoping to break up an alleged interstate crime ring dealing in arson, fraud and possibly stolen vehicles, ended up in a gunfight at a Detroit-area warehouse, after which a suspect lay dead. The FBI sought to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a. Christopher Thomas, 53, who a criminal complaint said was the imam of a radical fundamentalist Sunni group called Masjid Al-Haqq that seeks to establish a sovereign Islamic state inside the United States... Abdullah and 10 others were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and theft of interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of...

DETROIT–A man described as a leader of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S. was fatally shot this afternoon while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire with federal agents, authorities said. Agents at a warehouse in Dearborn were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Ten followers listed in a criminal complaint were also being rounded up in the area. Three – Mujahid Carswell, 30, Mohammad Alsahi, 33, and Yassir Ali Khan, 30 – are Ontario residents, the FBI said in a release. Abdullah...

October 28, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Eleven Members/Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations One Subject Fatally Shot During Arrest United States Attorney Terrence Berg, Eastern District of Michigan, Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI), Detroit, Michigan, and Police Chief Warren Evans, Detroit Police Department (DPD), Detroit, Michigan announced a federal complaint was unsealed today charging Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a.Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of...

DETROIT – Federal authorities say a leader of what they describe as a nationwide radical Sunni Islam group has been fatally shot during an FBI raid in the Detroit area. The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit says Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah refused to surrender during an FBI raid Wednesday and was killed in an exchange of gunfire. ..conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments.

KABUL (AFP) – Taliban gunmen stormed a UN guesthouse in Kabul Wednesday, killing at least eight people in a suicide attack as the Islamist militia signalled a bloody countdown to new Afghan elections next week. President Hamid Karzai ordered an urgent security upgrade for international organisations after the rampage, which left at least five expatriate UN staff dead in the worst assault on the world body's Afghanistan mission since 2001. The Obama administration and UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, which the Afghan defence ministry said was the work of Pakistani Taliban dressed as police who struck the UN-approved...

No one will ever know how Afghans voted in their country's presidential elections on Aug. 20, 2009. Seven weeks after the polling, the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission ... is still trying to separate fraudulent tallies from ballots. In some provinces, many more votes were counted than were cast. E.U. election monitors characterize 1.5 million votes as suspect, which would include up to one-third of the votes cast for incumbent President Hamid Karzai. Once fraud occurs on the scale of what took place in Afghanistan, it is impossible to untangle. Afghanistan's fraudulent elections complicate President Obama's job as he weighs a...

Note: Video included. SNIPPET: "UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - Twelve local people are under federal indictment for allegedly defrauding the government out of more than $2 million in a food stamp scheme." SNIPPET: "The following, all of Utica, have been indicted: *Muteea Alfahdd, 41 *Najeeb Abdullah, 44 *Hamoud Yafal, 60 *Ali Hamoud Yafal, 21 *Yaser Saet, 27 *Bakri Ali Samet, 33 *Setha Samnang, 42 *Rina Samnang, 36 The following four have been indicted, but are still being sought by police. *Nageeb Alghaheim, 24 *Mohamed Alshuja, 30 *Hassan Mohamed Nagi Alshegaa, 23 *Ali Mulhi Abdullah, 36"

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was joined by world leaders and nearly 3,000 guests as he delivered the keynote address to inaugurate the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Other speakers during the ceremony included the KAUST Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, His Excellency Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Higher Education, His Excellency Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari, and the President of KAUST, Professor Choon Fong Shih.

SNIPPET: "Indonesian police confirmed that DNA tests proved that wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammed Top was not killed during last week's raid on a farmhouse in Java in Indonesia." SNIPPET: "DNA tests confirmed that the body of the person killed was that of another wanted terrorist named Amir Ibrohim. Ibrohim, who is also known as Amir Abdullah, worked as a contractor for the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels and is said to have aided in the July 17 attacks. He was reportedly seen on tape escorting one of the suicide bombers during the July 17 attacks. Ibrohim is also believed...

BOOK REVIEW The Mother of Mohammed by Sally Neighbour Reviewed by David Wilson What drives a blonde Australian beach bunny to go on jihad? That extraordinary question serves as the premise for one of the most absorbing non-fiction titles to surface this year. The Mother of Mohammed (MUP) by Australian journalist Sally Neighbour, 48, digs into the background of the beach bunny in question, Rabiah - born Robyn - Hutchinson, with flair, wit and candor. This book pulls no punches. "She was a scrawny, pale-skinned runt, with a shock of frizzy white-blonde hair and an eye-patch she wore from the...

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger appealed to Jordan's King Abdullah II in a letter sent this week to stop his country's policy of preventing Israeli tourists from crossing the border with religious items such as tefillin, talitot, prayer books, Bibles or the Talmud. "As a person for whom religion is important and dear, I cannot imagine the possibility that the state of Israel would order a Muslim tourist to refrain from wearing his or her traditional dress or to refrain from entering Israel with religious items such as the Koran," wrote Metzger, according to a press release issued by the...

We recall several condemnations of our articles here that praised Henry Ford's industrial and business methods because Ford published anti-Semitic material and accepted the Order of the German Eagle from Nazi Germany. The latter was in honor of his business and industrial achievements, and did not cite The International Jew (which he had retracted and repudiated many years earlier). The truth is that Ford's My Life and Work, minus two or so pages of unsavory anti-Semitic material, is probably the best business book that has ever been written and, had General Motors' executives and union bothered to read it, they...

King Abdullah, who is putting Obama up at his lavish desert horse farm, showered Obama with compliments as he handed him the jewellery, which he said carries special meaning. It is understood to be an award called the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, the country's highest honour. Though no one confirm, it appeared to be the same gift given to then-President George W. Bush during a stop in Saudi Arabia in January 2008.

Saudi King Abdullah (R) greets U.S. President Barack Obama upon his arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh June 3, 2009. President Barack Obama receives a gift from Saudi King Abdullah at the start of their bilateral meeting at the King's Farm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, June 3, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah meet at the King's farm outside Riyadh in Saudi Arabia June 3, 2009.

At least 13 militants were killed in a clash with security forces following arrest of five burqa-clad Arabs, one Afghan national and a local man in Mohmand Agency on Tuesday. Four of the five Arabs are Saudi nationals — Ahmed, Ali, Mohammad and Obaidullah — and one Libyan national, Abdullah. The Afghan national has been identified as Habibullah and the local man as Shad Ali. They were detained at the Khapakh checkpost. The Afghan was living in Chakdara area of Lower Dir. When troops were taking the detained men to Ghalanai, about 60 militants attacked them in an area between...

SNIPPET: "NEW YORK — A jury convicted a Lebanese-born Swede on Tuesday of plotting to help Al Qaeda recruit by trying to set up a weapons-training post in Oregon and distributing terrorist training manuals over the Internet. The verdict against Oussama Kassir..."

A cynic might say, we’ve had the Annapolis peace conference, we’ve had the road map for peace, the Arab initiative, almost a decade with no results. What’s the difference now? Four or five decades!There are two major factors. We are sick and tired of the process. We are talking about direct negotiations. That is a major point. We are approaching this in a regional context. You could say through the Arab peace proposal. The Americans see this as we do and I think the Europeans. Britain is playing a very vital pro-active role, more than I have ever seen in...

There is a reason why the diminutive bigot who runs Jordan is pushing so hard for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs---he hates Palestinian Arabs. Here in the US, one of the most racist phrases is "Not in my neighborhood!" In November of 2006 Abdullah for all intents and purposes, used that phrase to refer to Palestinians in a speech to the Jordanian Parliament... ....Does he really forget that Jordan is a Palestinian state? Does he forget that until 1967 the west back of the Jordan River was part of HIS country? Or that the Jordanian Army acting on...

One picture is worth a thousand words: And here's the link to the video, so you can watch the whole thing over and over while screaming, "THIS IS YOUR IDEA OF RESTORING AMERICAN PRESTIGE?"It didn't take long before the official denial: "Barack Obama did not show subservient fealty to that king, Mr. Abdullah..." Barack Obama's handler's may be right. At least technically. From Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language: "Curtsy: a bow by women in recognition or respect, consisting of bending the knees and lowering the body." Let's see: bent knees - check. Lowered body - check. Woman?...

O'Reilly will cover the "Obama bow" next segment.

In a shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate, President Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah at the Group of 20 summit in London last week. Mr. Obama later said in Strasbourg, France, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect." Symbolism is important in world affairs. By bending over to show greater respect to Islam, the U.S. president belittled the power and independence of the United States. The bow was an extraordinary protocol violation. Such an act is a traditional obeisance befitting a king's subjects, not his peer. There is no precedent for...

Shortly before noon on September 12, 2001, a visitor stopped by the palace, looking for Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud, the Crown Prince. The man who now sits on the throne of Saudi Arabia was kneeling in shock and prayer. He had prayed there all night and had received news from Washington, but could still not believe that the hijackers who crashed their planes into New York and Washington were his countrymen. That experience is credited widely as part of the impetus behind King Abdullah’s attempts to reform his reactionary kingdom. But Saudi Arabia remains as he did...

King Abdullah, 85, is racing to reform Saudi Arabia. How much can he accomplish—and will it last? The night of September 11, 2001, had come and gone in Saudi Arabia, and the dawn prayers had been said in Jidda. But at midmorning, when a visitor to Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud found him in one of the vast rooms of his palace, the de facto ruler of the country was still bent on the floor. "He was alone," remembers the visitor, insisting on anonymity. "He prayed long, long, long—much longer than I have ever seen." At last the...

RAWFORD, Texas (AFP) – Saudi King Abdullah told US President George W. Bush by telephone on Saturday that major countries must take action to halt Israel's attacks on Gaza, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe had said earlier that the king had called Bush, who was preparing to usher in 2009 on his Texas ranch, to discuss "the Middle East" and had declined to offer further details.

JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan yesterday congratulated US President-elect Barack Obama on his historic election victory, wishing him every success. “On behalf of the people and government of Saudi Arabia and myself, I extend hearty congratulations to you and wish you every success,” the king said in a message to Obama. King Abdullah reaffirmed the deep-rooted and historic relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States and the two countries’ efforts to achieve peace and justice as well as to reinforce security and stability in the Middle East and other parts of...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

The fiancée of one of the leaders of the failed July 21 suicide attacks has been sentenced to three years in jail for helping him escape by dressing in a burka as a Muslim woman. Fardosa Abdullahi, who was 17 at the time, gave Yassin Omar her mobile phone handset, provided a scarf and handbag for his disguise and accompanied him to Golders Green coach station where he fled to Birmingham in his feminine disguise. Omar's family persuaded her to contact police but she claimed she did not know where he was and it was not until six days after...

Dorset man smuggling parts to Iran, says US By Patrick Sawer A British pensioner is at the centre of a worldwide police hunt after being accused by United States authorities of smuggling military parts to Iran. Brian Woodford, 77, who owns a 17th century manor house and 100-acre estate in Dorset, has been charged in his absence with selling millions of pounds worth of US military and civilian aircraft parts to the Islamic regime in Tehran. His wife Laura was arrested after arriving at San Francisco on a flight from Hong Kong with two catalogues from a Chinese company that...

Unilateral measures taken by Israel main obstacle for peace, King Abdullah tells Rice during Amman meeting; stresses importance of increasing America's role in process Roee Nahmias and AP Published: 03.30.08, 23:24 / Israel News US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to Amman from Jerusalem on Sunday to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah. The king warned that failure to achieve progress toward (Israeli-Palestinian) peace would ''threaten the region's future'', according to a statement from his palace. During his meeting with Rice Abdullah accused Israel of taking unilateral measures, particularly regarding the expansion of the West Bank settlements. According to the...

ROME — The Vatican is negotiating with authorities in Saudi Arabia for permission to build the country's first Roman Catholic church, sources in the Holy See said yesterday. The move evidently heralds a major policy change toward the nearly 1 million Christians working in the unbendingly conservative Wahhabi kingdom. Riyadh and the Holy See have been holding discreet discussions on the sensitive issue for several weeks and the two sides are "locked together," said Archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, the papal nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, to the Persian Gulf states of Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. A source in...

41 Taliban killed in south Afghanistan By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago Afghan and international forces killed 41 Taliban militants in a battle in southern Afghanistan, and a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops left six Afghan civilians dead in Kabul, U.S. and Afghan officials said Thursday. None of the four American troops traveling in the two armored vehicles of the convoy was badly wounded in the Thursday attack, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces. The troops were traveling in one SUV and one truck, he said. Six Afghan...

BRIGHTON, England - British police thwarted a suspected plot to kill the Saudi crown prince in 2003, a top counterterrorism officer said Wednesday. Officers caught a man as he tried to smuggle more than $330,000 in cash through Heathrow Airport on a flight from the United States to Syria in August 2003, said Detective Superintendent Mark Holmes, head of Britain's National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit. Holmes said police confiscated the money but freed the man, later identified as naturalized American citizen Abdurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim activist. They said they later learned he intended to give the cash to Saudi dissidents...

Pope Benedict XVI is to meet King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia next week in the first talks between a Saudi monarch and a Pope. The Vatican said the uprecedented meeting would take place at the Vatican on Tuesday. King Abdullah has been paying a visit to Britain as part of a European tour. The Pope has sought to promote Christian-Muslim dialogue, and last month October opened a three day inter faith conference at Naples which included Muslim representatives. The Vatican does not have formal diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, and relations have been strained, with the Holy See demanding "reciprocity"...

King Abdullah, the first Saudi monarch to visit Britain in a generation, embarrassed his hosts even before his arrival this evening by suggesting the government had ignored a Saudi intelligence tip that might have prevented a wave of transit bombings two years ago. The explosions killed 52 passengers and four bombers, who targeted three underground trains and a double-decker bus in the British capital during the busy morning of July 7, 2005. Hours before his jetliner was due to land in London, Abdullah told the British Broadcasting Corp. in a rare interview that “we have sent information to Britain before...

<p>The king of Jordan roared into Carmel on his Harley-Davidson on Wednesday, stopping for a pancake breakfast before taking off with about 10 other bikers for a ride down the Big Sur coast.</p> <p>The king's visit was meant to be low-profile, said a Jordanian consulate official, though it's rather difficult to remain incognito in the small city of Carmel when your entourage includes a host of Secret Service agents, members of the royal guard, a California Highway Patrol escort and a lineup of black SUVs.</p>

Last update - PM Olmert invites Jordan's Abdullah II to visit Israel By Shahar Ilan and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has invited Jordan's King Abdullah II to visit the Jewish state as Israel and Arab governments edge toward new discussion of an Arab peace proposal, officials said on Friday. No date has been set for the visit by the monarch, Israeli and Jordanian officials said. "His Majesty is ready to engage in any effort that helps to bring about the success of the Arab initiative and the setting up of a Palestinian state,"...

Jordan's king urges Israel to adopt Arab peace plan In meeting with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, King Abdullah calls on Israel to abandon unilateral moves, enter peace negotiations based on Arab peace initiative. 'Israel must recognize all Palestinian rights, including establishment of Palestinian state,' he says Amnon Meranda, Amman Published: 04.19.07, 16:23 / Israel News Jordan's King Abdullah on Thursday called on Israel to abandon the unilateral moves "which have failed" and enter negotiations with the Palestinians. In a meeting with Knesset Speaker and Acting President Dalia Itzik in Amman, the king urged Israel to adopt the Arab peace initiative....

In his recent address to Congress, King Abdullah II of Jordan dramatically quoted FDR's famous "four freedoms speech" as a means to describe American foreign policy as freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. The goal of the speech was to call for greater US involvement in facilitating an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. What is significant about this call is the Palestinian conundrum that Adbullah himself faces in Jordan. Unlike the Palestinian cause in the West Bank, Lebanon, or Syria, the cause in Jordanian refugee camps is not as plastered all over the place as...

Last update - 16:05 14/04/2007 Jordan's Abdullah invites Israeli, Palestinian, American delegates to talks By Haaretz Service and Agencies Jordan's King Abdullah II has invited politicians and peace activists from Israel, the United States and the Palestinian territories for discussions in Amman as part of an effort to push forward the stalled Middle East peace process, officials said Saturday. Among Israeli politicians due to visit Jordan next week is Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. She will visit Amman on Thursday for a few hours to discuss efforts to revive peace talks, Jordanian officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah denounced the American military presence in Iraq on Wednesday as an "illegitimate foreign occupation" and called on the West to end its financial embargo against the Palestinians. The Saudi monarch's speech was a strongly worded lecture to Arab leaders that their divisions had helped fuel turmoil across the Middle East, and he urged them to show unity. But in opening the Arab summit, Abdullah also nodded to hardliners by criticizing the U.S. presence in Iraq. "In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism...

Israeli officials and army chiefs were taken aback by an intelligence report summing up two years of research, which exposed Jordan's King Abdullah, Israel's partner in peace and the war on terror, as being secretly inn league with the Damascus-based radical Khaled Meshaal. A high-placed Israeli source commented: "All these years Israel was guided by the knowledge that Meshaal was sponsored by Damascus and more recently Tehran. We now learn the entire Hamas leadership also enjoyed the patronage of the Hashemite court in Jordan. It has been a real shock." The Jordanian-Hamas connection came to light during Israel's information-gathering on...