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An al Qaida-linked suspect who allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic plane is studying at a UK university, it has been reported. The Nigerian is accused of trying to detonate a powdery substance on a plane from Amsterdam as it prepared to land at Detroit with 278 people on board. US sources said he was subdued by passengers and has since claimed to have been acting for al Qaida. He has been named by ABC News as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, an engineering student at University College London, with the broadcaster citing US government documents. The suspect, who has...

A White House official said the incident was an attempted act of terrorism. The FBI is investigating and President Obama, celebrating Christmas in Hawaii, was told of the incident about three hours after the plane landed, officials said. Obama has told White House officials that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel, a spokesman said. Nevertheless, officials said, they are not prepared to raise the terrorism alert level, currently at orange -- or the second-highest of five levels -- for domestic and international air travel.

Romulus, Mich. - A senior U.S. counterterror official says a passenger aboard a Delta Air Lines flight in Detroit was planning to blow up the plane but the explosive device failed. The official said the passenger was being questioned Friday evening. It was not immediately clear why the passenger wanted to attack the flight that was arriving from Amsterdam

Two sentences contained in an ABC News article published today stand as proof that the network and its faux reporters are in denial when it comes to identifying terrorism and terrorists:

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit. And a White House official called the Christmas incident an attempted act of terrorism. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit. One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it. The passenger...

A guy who was not supposed to be on an airplane tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight today on its way to Detroit. A 23-year-old Nigerian man tried to light a powdery substance aboard a Northwest Airlines flight before landing in Detroit on Friday. According to ABC News sources, the man claimed he was directed by al Qaeda to set off an explosion on the plane. Two people noticed the attempt ignite the device and a third person jumped on the man and subdued him. The man is being treated at the burn unit of the University of...

A 23-year-old Nigerian man tried to light a powdery substance aboard a Northwest Airlines flight before landing in Detroit on Friday, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News. Two people noticed the attempt and a third person jumped on the man and subdued him, an airline official told NBC News. The man is being treated at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, officials said. The man told investigators that he wanted to set off a bomb over the United States, and the incident is being handled as a possibile terrorism attack by...

SAN'A, Yemen – Yemen's military hit suspected al-Qaida hideouts Thursday and targeted a gathering of top militant leaders, possibly killing a radical cleric linked to the U.S. Army major accused of the Fort Hood mass shooting, in strikes carried out with U.S. intelligence help, officials said. At least 30 militants were believed to be killed in the second such strike in a week. Pentagon officials could not confirm Thursday whether U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed in the strike. Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, before moving in 2002 to...

Raw video of scene on the ground inside al-Qaeda operational and training center in Yemen, blasted to smithereens by US and Yemeni forces in the last number of hours. (LINK)al-Jazeera video of al-Qaeda leader (unmasked) giving a rabid speech in response regarding the ramping up of the obliteration of a number of key al-Qaeda in Yemen, including the former Northern Virginia radical Islamist cleric "spiritual" handler of Major Nidal Hasan, Anwar al-Alauqi (apparantly)(LINK)

DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart and United States Attorney Preet Bharara announced today the arrests of three individuals for drug and terrorism charges. OUMAR ISSA, HAROUNA TOURÉ, and IDRISS ABELRAHMAN arrived in the Southern District of New York early this morning to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco‑terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The charges stem from the defendants' alleged agreement to transport cocaine through West and North Africa with the intent to support three terrorist organizations ‑‑ Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb ("AQIM"), and the Fuerzas Armadas...

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an attack Thursday on a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives where a Yemeni American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood attacks might have been present, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The strike on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen killed at least 30 suspected militants and was the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. One of the possible meeting participants was Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and extremist preacher who exchanged e-mails with the Army psychiatrist suspected...

Most Americans usually do not think of Latin America in terms of Islamic terrorism, but counterterrorism expert and former FBI Special Agent James Conway tells Newsmax TV’s Kathleen Walter the region could be the nation’s “Achilles' Heel” in its struggle against terrorism. In recent years, these groups have established bases of operations throughout Latin America, which they have used to move people and materials. See Video: Terrorism expert James Conway talks about the Islamic terror threat in Latin America - Click Here Now “There is a growing presence of Islamic activism and fundraising in Latin America,” Conway told Newsmax. “There...

Yemeni authorities announced an air strike against a meeting of senior Qaeda officials on Thursday morning and raised the possibility that a radical cleric tied to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings was among those killed. A statement by the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said the strike targeted a gathering of “scores” of Qaeda operatives from Yemen and other countries held in a remote corner southern Yemen, and said the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, was “presumed” to have been present. It could take days for investigators to sift through the rubble to identify the dead, and intelligence officials in the...

The secretive U.S. air strike against suspected al-Qaida in Yemen last week is the latest in what has been a fast-growing campaign to better equip and fund Yemeni forces so they can eliminate the expanding al-Qaida safe havens there. The Pentagon has poured nearly $70 million in military aid to Yemen this year, a massive financial infusion compared to nothing in 2008. Much like the effort with Pakistan's Frontier Corps, the military has boosted its counterterrorism training for Yemeni forces, and is providing more intelligence, which probably includes surveillance by unmanned drones, according to U.S.. officials and analysts. The heightened...

Yemeni forces killed at least 30 suspected militants in an air strike early Thursday on an alleged al-Qaeda hide-out in southeastern Yemen, the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. The dead may include Anwar al-Aulaqi, the extremist Yemeni-American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in last month's deadly Fort Hood attack, a Yemeni government official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the apparent target of the strike was Aulaqi's house, where al-Qaeda leaders were believed to have gathered. It was unknown whether Aulaqi was present at the meeting and,...

The radical Muslim imam linked to the rampage at Fort Hood is believed to have been killed in a Yemen airstrike that may have also taken out the region's top Al Qaeda leader and 30 other militants, a security official told Reuters on Thursday. The raid in Yemen's east targeted an Al Qaeda leadership meeting held to organize terror attacks. It is believed to have killed Anwar al-Awlaki and at least two senior members in the organization, including the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

mam tied to Fort Hood shooter "killed" in Yemen raid Thu Dec 24, 3:39 am ET SANAA (Reuters) – A radical Muslim preacher linked by U.S. intelligence to a gunman who killed 13 people at a U.S. Army base is believed to have died in a Yemen airstrike on al Qaeda militants, a security official said on Thursday. "Anwar al Awlaki is suspected to be dead (in the air raid)," said the Yemeni official, who asked not to be identified. Yemen said 30 militants were killed in the strike in the eastern province of Shabwa.

Members of Osama bin Laden’s family have been living in a secret, high-security compound near Tehran, according to Omar Ossama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader’s fourth oldest son. This story was reported by The Times of London Wednesday and was carried by newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2009 – Iraqi security forces working with U.S. advisors arrested seven terrorism suspects today during two security operations, military officials reported. Four suspects were arrested in Rashidiyah, north of Mosul, during an operation conducted to arrest a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member believed responsible for suicide-vest attacks in Balad and Muqdadiyah. Evidence collected at the scene led Iraqi forces to arrest four suspected criminal associates of the al-Qaida in Iraq member without incident. In southern Baghdad, Iraqi forces arrested a suspected member of a Kataib Hezbollah explosives cell believed to be responsible for mortar attacks conducted in...

“Absurd, if not obscene” is how former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey characterized the recent claim by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that relocating terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois will create new jobs in the surrounding area. In an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS yesterday, Mukasey replied to claims by Durbin, in both remarks outside the White House and in an article in The Hill, that the move of nearly 100 Guantanamo prisoners to the Illinois-based facility “will have a tremendously positive impact on the local economy -- creating more than...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2009 – Iraq security forces, working with U.S. advisors, arrested 15 terrorism suspects, some of them cell leaders, in Iraq in recent days, military officials reported. Iraqi forces arrested eight suspected terrorists today in three combined operations conducted to arrest terrorism suspects wanted on warrants in northern Iraq. In western Mosul, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors searched a home for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member who coordinates funding, weapons and equipment for a bombing cell in the region. After examining evidence at the scene, Iraqi forces arrested three suspected criminal associates of the warranted al-Qaida in...

Suspected al-Qaeda commanders have appeared at an anti-government rally in southern Yemen, held at the site of an air raid, reportedly backed by the US, that killed dozens of civilians.

Mauritania government has increased security for tourists in the country following the abductions last week of two Italian tourists near the border with Mali. Sergio Cicala and his wife Philomene Kabouree were kidnapped in an area of Mauritania where armed groups with links to Al-Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said. There are suspicions the couple may have been smuggled into neighbouring Mali. "After these new kidnappings, it has been decided to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the personal security of foreigners in our country," the government said, quoted on Monday by pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi. It was the...

To watch the video, you have to click on the link to NRB. Despite his earlier rhetoric about ending the conflicts initiated by George W. Bush, and just a couple of weeks after collecting his Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama gave the order for a military strike which was carried out against al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen yesterday, in a major escalation of his administration’s campaign against that group. This according to a report by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman. What the President is coming to realize after being in office for nearly a year, is that Islamic terrorists view him...

"I was close to Chavez, but now he wants me dead." The million dollars from Chavez to Al Qaeda is just the tip of the iceberg in a long series of connections between worldwide terrorist organizations and the Venezuelan strongman, according to one of those who knows most about Chavez and the inside of his presidential palace: His former personal pilot. Major Juan Diaz Castillo is the man who flew the equivalent of Air Force One. In this interview with Venezuela's weekly news-magazine Zeta, he reveals formerly unpublished details of the operations that Chavez had him organize. By Maria Angelica...

Singing the enemy’s song Rahman, many experts have long suspected, was allowed to enter the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency in an effort to infiltrate Al-Qaeda -- a high-stakes intelligence gamble that backfired spectacularly “We have an expression in Arabic”, the blind Egyptian cleric who ran al-Qaeda’s networks in the United States once told an interviewer, “everybody sings for those he loves”. On February 26, 1993, a fifteen hundred kilogramme improvised explosive device went off in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Centre in New York -- the very building that, eight years later, would be...

UBL was 17th of 24 sons and 31 daughters. UBL has stated that it was "not a Koranic union", that (his mother) A'alia was only Mohammed’s maid and concubine (she was referred to by the other wives as “the slave”).UBL became boyhood friends with the future Crown Prince Abdul Rahman (currently 2nd in line for King).In 1967 UBL inherited $300 million. By 15, UBL was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.UBL set up at least three terrorist training camps in North Sudan. UBL established training bases in northern Yemen. 11 children by Najwa: Abdullah (1976), Abdul Rahman (1978), Sa’ad (1979), Osman...

For the first time, three Al-Qaeda operatives have been arrested and charged with drug trafficking as a means of raising funds to support their terrorist activities. The international terror group has increasingly been turning to this form of activity, although its spread to Africa is a new twist in the pattern, according to evidence gathered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The agency has long been concerned about the group’s ties to the heroin trade in Afghanistan – but according to DEA director Michele Leonhart, the current case reveals a “direct link” between the terror group and drug traffickers...

Last spring, in an interview with 60 Minutes, Barack Obama criticized his predecessor over the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. That wasn't new. What was surprising was one of the arguments the president made. When Steve Kroft pointed out that some of those released had been working to recruit others to jihad, Obama agreed. Well, there's no doubt that we have not done a particularly effective job in sorting through who are truly dangerous individuals that we've got to make sure are not a threat to us, who are folks that we just swept up. A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report...

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime. Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support...

The US military carried out cruise missile attacks against two al Qaeda camps in Yemen, killing several terrorist commanders and fighters as well as civilians. The attacks, which took place on Dec. 17, were carried out in conjunction with the Yemeni military, who targeted al Qaeda bases in the provinces of Sana'a and Abyan. The Yemeni government and the US launched the raids after intelligence indicated that al Qaeda was planning to conduct attacks against Yemeni and US installations in the region. Abyan is a known al Qaeda haven. The terror group opened a large training camp in Yemen this...

In an editorial column published on 18 December, the editors of The Toledo Blade point out that capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden would not defeat Al Qaeda and capturing or killing Mullah Omar would not defeat the Taliban. They are correct in this but their notions do not go far enough. The fact of the matter is, Al Qaeda and the Taliban could cease to exist tomorrow and the U.S. and Western civilization would still face a Jihadist threat...

<p>"NatWest handed Al Qaeda terrorist 100% mortgage to buy £93,000 home he turned into a bomb factory"</p> <p>SNIPPET: "A bank has sparked outrage by handing over a 100 per cent mortgage to an Al Qaeda terrorist who smuggled himself into Britain.</p>

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed narcotics and terrorism charges on Friday against three West Africans they identified as associates of Al Qaeda and a related terrorist group. While the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has long maintained that Al Qaeda has been involved in drug trafficking, officials at the agency said the case represented the first time such charges had been brought against people linked with the group. The three men — identified as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman — were arrested on Wednesday in Ghana and flown to the United States on Thursday night, law enforcement officials...

The U.S. has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration's fight against the terrorist organization. The politically sensitive strikes Thursday, first reported by ABC News, supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country, the officials told Fox News, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation. Such an operation is particularly sensitive in Yemen. "It's very difficult for Yemen to ask the U.S. for help given the nature of their...

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, has been a regular presence on Islamic web sites for years , releasing statements and videos via al-Qaeda's propaganda arm that blast the West and urge Muslims to wage holy war. Now his wife may have joined the family business. In what is thought to be her first public statement, Omaima Hassan published a statement on Islamic web sites Thursday that encouraged "Muslim sisters" to assist with jihad, but only in suitably feminine ways. She called supporting jihad "an obligation for all Muslims, men and women." ABC News could not independently confirm the authenticity...

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration's decision to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 18 months after the start of the surge has already begun to bear fruit, but perhaps not in a way that was intended. The strongest Taliban warrior in Afghanistan, Siraj Haqqani, whose fighters pose the biggest threat to U.S. forces, remains protected by Pakistan in a sanctuary in North Waziristan. Jane Perlez of The New York Times reports that requests by the United States to crack down on the Afghan Haqqani Taliban have been rebuffed because Pakistan views it as contrary to its long-term interests...

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed narcotics and terrorism charges on Friday against three West Africans they identified as associates of Al Qaeda and a related terrorist group. While the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has long maintained that Al Qaeda has been involved in drug trafficking, officials at the agency said the case represented the first time such charges had been brought against people linked with the group. The three men — identified as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman — were arrested on Wednesday in Ghana and flown to the United States on Thursday night, law enforcement officials...

The Obama administration is planning to repatriate six Yemenis held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a transfer that could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen, according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter. The release is a significant first step toward dealing with the largest group of detainees at the prison -- there are currently 97 Yemenis there -- and toward meeting President Obama's goal of closing the facility. But Yemen's security problems and lack of resources have spawned fears about its ability to monitor and rehabilitate returnees. Critics...

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...

As an increasing number of suicide attacks rock Pakistan's major cities, concerns for the country's security are rising. In recent years, many new terrorist groups have emerged, several existing groups have reconstituted themselves, and a new crop of militants has emerged, more violent and less conducive to political solutions than their predecessors. Links between many of these new and existing groups have strengthened, say experts, giving rise to fresh concerns for stability. Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups based on their soil that largely focused their efforts in Afghanistan and India. But with Pakistan joining the United...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 17, 2009 – Iraqi security forces with U.S. advisors arrested a suspected leader of a terrorist group operating in southern Baghdad yesterday and followed up overnight with four more operations targeting the Baghdad al-Qaida in Iraq network. All of the operations were conducted with warrants issued by Iraqi courts for the arrest of suspected terrorists. Acting on intelligence gathered by Iraqi and U.S. sources, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors stopped an alleged Aisha Battalion cell leader as he was driving on a public roadway west of Baghdad. Aisha Battalion is an al-Qaida in Iraq proxy group. The driver...

UZBEEN VALLEY, Afghanistan (AFP) – More than 1,100 soldiers, including 800 French legionnaires as well as US and Afghan commandos, launched a major operation Thursday east of the Afghan capital, military officials said. Military officials said five US special forces were wounded in the fighting in the Uzbeen Valley, a Taliban stronghold where 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush in August 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Parts of the Pakistani military and intelligence services are mounting what American officials here describe as a campaign to harass American diplomats, fraying relations at a critical moment when the Obama administration is demanding more help to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The campaign includes the refusal to extend or approve visas for more than 100 American officials and the frequent searches of American diplomatic vehicles in major cities, said an American official briefed on the cases.

(Chicago-based terrorist causes India to revise its visa rules with U.S.) India is taking some precautionary measures after the arrest of Chicagoan David Coleman Headley as a terror suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The Asian country has revised its tourist-visa regulations, affecting those with long-term tourist visas, the India Times reports. “Americans with five- or ten-year tourist visas will no longer be allowed to enter India within two months of their last departure from India if their last visit was longer than 90 days or if they have stayed longer than 180 days during the past year,” an advisory...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – Iraqi security forces arrested nine suspected terrorists in four operations today, military officials reported. In a rural area north of Baghdad, an Iraqi emergency response unit and U.S. advisors searched a home for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member who is believed to make and distribute bombs for use in attacks throughout the Tarmiyah and Baghdad region. Preliminary questioning and evidence collected at the scene led Iraqi police to identify and arrest the warranted man and a suspected criminal associate. During a second security operation near Beiji in Salahuddin province, police and U.S. advisors searched...

If neither Maj. Hasan, the murderous doctor that slaughtered his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood, nor the five Jihadist-wannabe’s that traveled from Washington to Pakistan, had no real ties to Al Qaeda, just a desire to join them, then we have to ask what is fertilizing these homegrown useful idiots? Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, asked guest Irshad Manji, author and professor at New York University, what her initial reaction was when she heard about the five “young people” trying to join our enemies. Manji: “Chris I have to say I’m not surprised…I know, from having done the research...

HELSINKI, Finland, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- In testimony before the U.S. Senate, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal said: "To pursue our core goal of defeating al-Qaida and preventing their return to Afghanistan, we must disrupt and degrade the Taliban's capacity, deny their access to the Afghan population, and strengthen the Afghan security forces." To succeed, McChrystal and his warriors must fully understand the character, motivations, ambitions and, in particular, the methods of the enemy. Approaches that may have worked earlier in Afghanistan or even recently in Iraq may fail to turn around the present situation. Saeen Dilawar, from Pakistan's central...

Note: The following text is a quote: Some Guantanamo Detainees to Move to Illinois Prison By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s administration plans to transfer a limited number of detainees held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in rural western Illinois, senior administration officials said here today. The federal government plans to acquire Thomson Correctional Center, a 10-year-old maximum security prison in Thomson, Ill., a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago, officials said in a background briefing. The administration would need to work...

If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is clever he will turn his trial into an Obama birth certificate circus. The New York Post has an excellent piece by attorney Michael Schwartz, pointing out the difficulty of predicting a jury's verdict in the pending Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial in New York City. His article is entitled "Why the gov't could lose this case." But there is a complex, two-part possibility that Attorney Schwartz did not consider. KSM has said he wants to put the US government on trial and will probably bring up the Bush administration and mention waterboarding as torture in the...