Free Republic

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he's managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren't buying their makeover. Last November, his crony Faisal M. Gill lost a bid for a seat in the Virginia state legislature. Now another protege, Kamal M. Nawash, has lost his third political race in seven years....

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the strategy of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist in his wicked project to dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government. While he’s managed to get some of his Muslim proteges jobs in the Bush administration, getting them elected to public office has been another story. Voters aren’t buying their makeover.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Authorities arrested a suspect early Friday in a series of highway shootings after storming a farm and firing at a man who met them with a handgun, police said. Slade Allen Woodson, 19, of Afton was charged in separate shootings at a home and a credit union early Thursday, police said. He was not charged with firing shots along a rural stretch of Interstate 64, but authorities said he was considered a suspect and more charges were possible. "We've taken some mighty big steps toward the resolution of this," State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty said at a...

He's an underdog candidate for President who needs all the help he can get against bigger-named, better-financed rivals. For former U.S. Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina), that has meant embracing the leader of a the American Muslim Council (AMC), an organization with a history of defending Palestinian terrorists and whose founder is in prison after pleading guilty to violating anti-terror legislation. M. Ali Khan, a Chicago investment banker, has been the AMC's national director since 2003. Khan has helped organize at least two fundraisers for Edwards and, in a series of internet postings, described how he has reached the inner...

Former Sen. John Edward has been embracing the leader of the American Muslim Council (AMC), an organization with a history of defending Palestinian terrorists and whose founder is in prison after pleading guilty to violating anti-terror legislation. M. Ali Khan has helped organize at least two fundraisers for Edwards and, in a series of internet postings, described how he reached the inner sanctum of the former senator's campaign adviseors. Khan is listed by the Edwards campaign as a fundraising solicitor and he helped host at least two campaign fundraisers. AMC was founded in 1990 by Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi was arrested...

Movie Theatre Chain, AMC, gives student discounts, but none to our military members.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three relatives of a man accused of belonging to an al-Qaida terror cell in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna were arrested Tuesday and charged with illegally operating a money transferring business. Investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities, said U.S. Attorney Michael Battle. Mohamed Albanna, 51, a leader in the area's Yemeni community and an uncle of a man still being hunted by U.S. authorities, was seized by Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration agents in the doorway of his Buffalo store, the Queen City Cigarettes and Candy Co. His younger brother,...

Sought-after al-Qaida suspect leaves traces in Lackawanna By LOU MICHEL and JERRY ZREMSKI News Staff Reporters 9/22/2002 Kamal Derwish cut a mysterious figure on his travels through Lackawanna. People remember little about the plump, pious visitor from the Middle East who prayed with young people in the local mosque. And he's more mysterious than ever, now that he's believed to be on the run in Yemen, a fugitive from U.S. justice and alleged to be the ringleader of what federal officials describe as al-Qaida's "Buffalo cell." Derwish, a 29-year-old Buffalo native of Yemeni descent, served as the link between the...

Queen City Cigarettes & Candy, a Clinton Street warehouse owned by food broker Mohamed T. Albanna, is one element of investigators' picture of a money-transmitting business that sent large sums to Yemen. A leader of Lackawanna's Yemeni-American community and two other men were in custody today on charges they operated an illegal money-transmitting business that sent funds from Western New York to Yemen. Mohamed T. Albanna, vice president of the American Muslim Council of Western New York and a frequent spokesman for the defendants known as the "Lackawanna Six," appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott on Tuesday after...

Man of the people - arrested By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 12/18/2002 Mohamed T. Albanna, photographed in his Clinton Street store last July, is considered outspoken on issues crucial to Lackawanna. Business owner Andrea Haxton saw Mohamed T. Albanna several days a week. He was her main cigarette distributor and regularly dropped off boxes at her A&E Goods store on Ridge Road and Ingham Avenue on his way home from work. "He delivers them, we pay him, chit-chat, and he goes home," the Lackawanna business owner said. "We talk about politics all the time." Albanna came by Monday night...

Alec "the Bloviator" Baldwin has a new bosom buddy: Beltway Republican strategist Grover Norquist. The Bush-bashing actor-turned-activist and the Muslim vote-courting political organizer joined together at a Washington, D.C.-area conference last weekend to perpetuate bald lies about the Patriot Act and to oppose the "repressive" War on Terror (repressing terrorist suspects apparently being a bad thing). Baldwin and Norquist's panel, titled "Strange Bedfellows," was sponsored by the ultraliberal group People For the American Way. When PFAW head and panel participant Ralph Neas ranted about the lack of judicial and congressional oversight of the Justice Department's terror investigations, the audience...

Here is the schedule: Wed., Jun. 6 at 8:00 PM / EST Red Dawn Thu., Jun. 7 at 12:15 AM / EST Red Dawn Thu., Jun. 7 at 5:30 PM / EST Red Dawn Sat., Jun. 16 at 3:30 PM / EST

In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman. The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday's episode of the daytime drama. There have been a handful of post-surgical transgender characters in television shows, including a college professor in the 2001 prime-time CBS series "The Education of Max Bickford" and a model in the...

Country music superstar Toby Keith greets Capt. Scott Leifker, a wounded warrior recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center, during a private pre-concert "meet and greet" at the AT&T Center in San Antonio Nov. 19. Leifker was one of 500 Soldiers who received tickets to the free concert for 14,000 Texas Ford truck owners. Photo by Cheryl Harrison More Images SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Army News Service, Nov. 21, 2006) - Country music superstar Toby Keith rocked the stage, and a few Soldiers' world, at a private concert Sunday for 14,000 Texas Ford truck owners and about 500 servicemembers at the...

An elite group of correction officers, cops and federal agents is closely monitoring suspected radicals at city jails to prevent them from recruiting angry and isolated prisoners into their fold. Authorities believe the jails, along with prisons across the nation, could become fertile recruiting grounds for homegrown jihadists who follow the teachings of Osama Bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists. Aware of the great risk, city correction bosses created the specialized intelligence unit on Rikers Island to stop fanatics before they can indoctrinate others. "We aggressively monitor all security risk groups," Martin Horn, who runs the city's Department of Correction,...

8/10/2006 - PHOENIX (AFPN) -- Nearly 90 Air Mobility Command Airmen participated in the 35th Annual Tuskegee Airmen National Convention here July 31 to Aug. 4, celebrating the history of the nation's first black combat pilots. The event was particularly memorable for one participant attending his first convention. "I found out after speaking to Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson that my great uncle, Lt. Vincent Mitchell, was a pilot with the 99th Pursuit Squadron," said Maj. Alex Cole, an Air Force Two pilot assigned to the 1st Airlift Squadron. Colonel Jefferson not only knew Lieutenant Mitchell, but also shared...

SAMI AL-ARIAN ADMITS CONSPIRACY IN PLEA AGREEMENT " There is no conspiracy to support terrorism ."  - Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for Tampa chapter of Council on American Islamic Relations From what I’ve been able to gather, there seems to be enough evidence to prove a web of conspiracy . Let’s have a look and see if that’s true! American Muslim Council (AMC)1. Former Spokesman: Faisal Gill.2. Founder: Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi.3. Former Director: Erik Vickers 1. Faisal Gill Former spokesman for the American Muslim Council (AMC) Former director of government affairs for the Islamic Free Market Institute (Islamic Institute) in Washington, D.C.,...

AMC: What makes a movie a 'classic'? You can actually sue a TV channel for sucking -- and win. That's the lesson of today's legal victory against AMC, in a breach of contract suit filed by Time Warner Cable (like EW.com, a division of Time Warner). Like some viewers who remember when AMC stood for ''American Movie Classics,'' the cable operator complained that AMC doesn't show classic movies much anymore. (These days, the channel just goes by the abbreviation ''AMC,'' as if to gloss over the word ''Classics,'' much like KFC, which doesn't want to remind anyone in our calorie-conscious...

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Air Mobility Command has moved thousands of military support people, civilian emergency responders and evacuees, and has delivered tons of emergency equipment and supplies supporting relief operations. To handle the increased air mobility operations into and out of the hurricane relief area, AMC has deployed three contingency response group elements to the region, each tailored to meet the needs of air mobility operations at several airfields in the Southern United States. CRGs are able to rapidly assess, open and sustain air mobility operations. Forty-six Airmen from the...

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- The Tanker Airlift Control Center here started generating missions Air Mobility Command aircrews will fly supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, through Northern Command and U.S. Transportation Command, asked for airlift support to fly relief supplies to the stricken region, said Col. Jeff Franklin, the center controller working hurricane relief mission taskings. “We’ve already tasked two aeromedical evacuation airlift missions to fly from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., to (Lackland AFB) in San Antonio,” he said. “In addition, AMC has been tasked to...

The judge has ruled: "Look Who's Talking, Too," starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, just isn't a classic. After it changed its programming in 2002 to include more contemporary films, including movies like "Staying Alive" and the "Look Who's Talking" movies, the American Movie Classics channel was sued by Time Warner Cable for veering too far from its original format of classic movies. A ruling on July 8 by Judge Bernard J. Fried of New York State Supreme Court gives the Time Warner unit, which has 11 million subscribers, the green light to drop the station. A spokesman for Time...

The American Movie Classics channel runs too many films that are not classic enough, violating its contract with Time Warner Cable, a State Supreme Court justice has ruled. As a result, Justice Bernard Fried of State Supreme Court in Manhattan said Time Warner Cable, the second-biggest cable operator in the nation with 11 million subscribers, has the right to cancel its contract to carry AMC, which is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp. Under that 1993 contract, extended in 2000, AMC is largely limited to running films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. But in 2000 AMC announced it was adding...

One year ago, I wrote a piece exposing radical Islam within Florida Atlantic University (FAU). My goal was twofold: [1] to bring awareness concerning a growing problem within FAU [2] to push the university to take action so that this problem ceases to exist. Unfortunately, only the first part of my goal was accomplished, as FAU is continuing to allow radicals on its campus, the latest being this Saturday'S (Jan.22, 2005) return engagement of potential co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Siraj Wahhaj. The Enemy Thrives at FAU In recent times, a fairly large list of...

Accused Terrorist Wrote Public School Guidelines with ACLU [over 23 references linked below] Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" with the ACLU which holds the copyright. Launched by Clinton in 1995, these "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. School districts are pressured to utilize Clinton’s guidelines which he sold to...

How many Muslims live in the United States? Until now, basically, no one has had any idea. By law, the U.S. Census cannot ask questions about religion. There are also plenty of other difficulties in coming up with a number, starting with the problem of defining who is a Muslim: Does one include non-standard believers like Louis Farrakhan and the Druze? Uncertainty has generated some wildly divergent numbers. A large 1990 demographic survey counted 1.3 million Muslims. In 1998, a Pakistani newspaper put the number at 12 million. Even the usually authoritative Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches found 527,000...

ABDURAHMAN ALAMOUDI SENTENCED TO 23 YEARS IN PRISON IN TERROR FINANCING CASE-- Sentencing Follows ICE, IRS, FBI Investigation in Northern Virginia -- WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A U.S. citizen has been sentenced to 23 years in jail on charges related to his activities in the United States and abroad with nations and organizations that have ties to terrorism, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security announced today. Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Eritrea, was sentenced to 276 months in jail by District Judge Claude M. Hilton in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A prominent Muslim activist who once was invited to the White House was sentenced Friday to the maximum 23 years in prison for illegal business dealings with Libya. Abdurahman Alamoudi pleaded guilty in July to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from high-ranking Libyan officials while serving as a go-between for them and Saudi Arabian dissidents. Alamoudi also admitted participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Abdullah. And though he was not charged in connection with that, prosecutors cited the plot as reason for him to receive the maximum sentence. "This conduct...

What did you think? IMHO this was a bold piece by AMC. It gave me hope that things might be swinging back to the good side, the side of light, in Hollywood. Synopsis Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand and Martin Sheen are just a few of the liberal celebrities whose activism -- for progressive causes and Democratic candidates -- has given Hollywood its left-wing reputation. But could Hollywood be more conservative than we think? And is La-La-Land ripe for a right-wing resurgence? In this special AMC Project, award-winning documentary filmmaker and former Democratic speechwriter Jesse Moss examines Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger's election...

THE AMC PROJECT: RATED R: REPUBLICANS IN HOLLYWOOD Deserved or not, Hollywood has a left-wing reputation. But could Hollywood be more conservative than we think? This is the question award-winning documentary filmmaker and former Democratic speechwriter Jesse Moss tries to answer in this special AMC Project. He examines recent phenomena, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger's election to California's highest office, Mel Gibson's unapologetically Christian hit The Passion of The Christ, and the debates over "patriotism" spawned by the war in Iraq. Tune in and find out if Hollywood is primed for a right-wing resurgence. Tuesday, September 14 at 10PM ET/PT.

THE AMC PROJECT: RATED R: REPUBLICANS IN HOLLYWOOD Deserved or not, Hollywood has a left-wing reputation. But could Hollywood be more conservative than we think? This is the question award-winning documentary filmmaker and former Democratic speechwriter Jesse Moss tries to answer in this special AMC Project. He examines recent phenomena, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger's election to California's highest office, Mel Gibson's unapologetically Christian hit The Passion of The Christ, and the debates over "patriotism" spawned by the war in Iraq. Tune in and find out if Hollywood is primed for a right-wing resurgence. Tuesday, September 14 at 10PM ET/PT. Susan...

In 2002, the spokesman for FBI director Robert Mueller memorably described the American Muslim Council (AMC) as the "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." A year later, the Catholic bishops called the AMC "the premier, mainstream Muslim group in Washington." Its founder and long-time chief, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a Washington fixture. He had many meetings with both Clintons in the White House and once joined George W. Bush at a prayer service. He arranged a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for congressional leaders. He six times lectured abroad for the State Department and founded an organization to provide Muslim...

In 2002, the spokesman for FBI director Robert Mueller memorably described the American Muslim Council (AMC) as the "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." A year later, the Catholic bishops called the AMC "the premier, mainstream Muslim group in Washington." Its founder and long-time chief, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a Washington fixture. He had many meetings with both Clintons in the White House and once joined George W. Bush at a prayer service dedicated to victims of the 9/11 attacks. Alamoudi arranged a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for congressional leaders. He six times lectured abroad for the State Department...

In 2002, the spokesman for FBI director Robert Mueller memorably described the American Muslim Council (AMC) as the "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." A year later, the Catholic bishops called the AMC "the premier, mainstream Muslim group in Washington." Its founder and long-time chief, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a Washington fixture. He had many meetings with both Clintons in the White House and once joined George W. Bush at a prayer service. He arranged a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for congressional leaders. He six times lectured abroad for the State Department and founded an organization to provide Muslim...

On Tuesday the federal authorities struck another serious blow against the toleration of Islamist terrorist activities on American soil, by arresting five former leaders of the so-called Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which, as I have previously argued, would be better called the Holy War Foundation.   HLF is, after all, a front for the Palestinian suicide terror gang Hamas, which is mainly funded by Saudi Arabia. < -snip- > HLF long functioned as the nerve center of the “Wahhabi lobby” in the U.S., headquartered in Texas, with branch offices in Paterson, N.J., Bridgeview, Ill., and San Diego.  Established...

If a Hollywood studio were to release a film resembling Abdurahman Alamoudi's life, it would likely be picketed as yet another example of the prejudice Muslims endure in post-9/11 America. Prominent Washington socialite and founder of the American Muslim Council (AMC) turned terrorist financier? Surely the story of such a double life must be relegated to the pages of pulp fiction spy novels, scarcely memorable and shipped to your local book store by the dozen. Yet, in the story told by a recent affidavit filed by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Brett Gentrup, Alamoudi resembles the very sort of...

What do the Clinton State Department, Republican activist Grover Norquist, Bush FBI director William Mueller, Senator Joseph Lieberman, the Washington Post, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops have in common? They all fell, in one way or another, for Abdurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim-American leader who turns out, according to a federal indictment, to have been in league with the terrorists. Call him the fifth-columnist who duped the Beltway establishment. Alamoudi was an invited guest at a 1998 State Department religious freedom event. He gave $10,000 in 1999 to an Islamic free-market institute on whose board Norquist sat. Mueller spoke...

WHAT SAY YOU NOW, GROVER NORQUIST? By Michelle Malkin   ·   July 30, 2004 08:46 AM The Washington Post reports that Abdurahman Alamoudi, once embraced as a "mainstream" and "moderate" Muslim activist who courted both the Clinton and Bush administrations, will plead guilty today to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Libya in violation of U.S. law and attempting to hide it from the government: Abdurahman Alamoudi has agreed to admit guilt to three counts, including one related to the mysterious movement of $340,000 he allegedly received in a London hotel room from a charity funded by the Libyan government,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An American Muslim leader is expected to admit being involved in an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's crown prince, CNN has learned. Abdurahman Alamoudi is not charged in the assassination plot, but government sources said he has agreed to fully cooperate in what one senior government official called "a real intelligence coup for the United States." Alamoudi has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty in federal court Friday to charges related to his dealings with Libya. "This guy was really well-connected and he knows who all the players...

Why is an associate of groups sympathetic to radical Islamists a policy director at the Department for Homeland Security? Readers of this e-zine may recall a troubling warning issued on these pages last November by David Horowitz and me (an editorial entitled “Why We Are Publishing This Article” that accompanied a long essay entitled “A Troubling Influence”). What made the warning so troubling was not just that its subject -- a political influence operation being mounted during wartime by Islamist organizations against the Bush Administration and U.S. government. Of particular concern was the help it documented that such entities have...

(Washington, D.C.): For over two years, the Center for Security Policy has been warning that organizations and individuals sympathetic to or otherwise supportive of the radical, intolerant and jihadist subset of the Muslim faith known as "Islamists" have mounted a sophisticated political influence operation against the Bush Administration. Today’s Washington Times contains a column by Center President Frank Gaffney entitled "Dubious Company</a href>" that describes a meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell held with representatives of four such groups just last Thursday. Unfortunately, it now seems clear that this influence operation has succeeded in getting more than meetings with senior...

Federal agents are peeling away the layers of an extensive domestic terrorist support nexus, and some of America’s most politically active Muslim groups have been implicated in the process. On August 22nd, President Bush designated five charities and six senior Hamas officials as Special Designated Global Terrorist Entities (SDGTs), freezing their assets and barring financial transactions with US nationals. The move was in response to the August 19 suicide bombing that killed 21 Israelis, for which Hamas claimed responsibility. As US Treasury Secretary John Snow said, “Hamas’ leaders and those who provide their funding again have the blood of innocents...

Issue Date: January 7, 2002 Keep an Eye on the American Muslim Council Posted Dec. 17, 2001 By John Berlau Less than three weeks before President George W. Bush froze the U.S. assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) — a group suspected of being the largest American fund-raiser for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — one of the most prominent Muslim advocacy groups was soliciting contributions on its behalf, Insight has learned. On Nov. 14, in an e-mail and in an "Action Alert" still on the group's Website, the American Muslim Council (AMC) urged American ...

<p>Just a few days ago, Democrats on Capitol Hill seemed quite eager to make political hay out of news reports suggesting that President Bush might have known in advance about the September 11 attacks. Prominent Democrats like Sens. Tom Daschle, Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt have loudly demanded investigations into what the administration knew about the possibility that terrorists were preparing to attack the United States.</p>

U.S. allows Muslim 'fox in the henhouse' Guest panelist threatened America, openly supported terror groups Posted: March 20, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By Kenneth R. Timmerman © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. The congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace hosted an event yesterday in Washington on reforming Islam, with a guest panelist who has threatened the United States and openly supported...

<p>WASHINGTON — A Muslim activist whose Virginia home was searched as part of a federal investigation of terrorist financing was arrested shortly after arriving back in the United States, law enforcement officials said.</p> <p>Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi (search) was taken into custody at Dulles International Airport on Sunday after a flight from London, officials said. The charges against al-Amoudi were expected to be unsealed following an initial court appearance Monday.</p>

Special ReportSaffuri's Ties to Terror Suspects Posted Feb. 23, 2004 By Kenneth R. Timmerman Saffuri (above) has formed relationships with several questionable allies, including Sami al-Arian, who was arrested last year. The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism. A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both...

Rep. Bob Dornan says Rohrabacher's views on Israel and terrorism are the reason he's running to unseat him. Congressman's Disturbing Turn on the Middle EastBy Dena BunisOrange County Register | February 9, 2004 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says he always knew that if ever he got involved in Middle East politics, his views would get him in trouble. He was right.Rohrabacher is facing a primary challenge next month from former Rep. Robert K. Dornan. These two Republicans were once comrades in arms in promoting conservative principles. But the Middle East is the one major issue on which Dornan stayed with mainstream...

Fear, anger and deceit will replace torture, murder and adultery on a 30-second screen ad produced by the Baptist General Convention of Texas -- wording changes that prompted AMC Theatres to drop its objections to the ad Wednesday. The 2-million-member convention produced the ad to coincide with the Feb. 25 opening of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. However, AMC had refused to accept it, saying it violated the company's screen advertising guidelines. "We're pretty serious about keeping our pre-feature materials G-rated, so to speak," AMC Entertainment Inc. spokesman Rick King said Wednesday. "The guideline conflict that we had...

AMC Theatres is refusing to accept a 30-second ad produced by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and timed to coincide with the Ash Wednesday opening of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." Like many evangelical Christian groups throughout the nation, the 2 million-member Baptist convention hopes to take advantage of the publicity generated by Gibson's R-rated epic about the last hours of Jesus. Rick King, spokesman for AMC Entertainment Inc., based in Kansas City, Mo., said he couldn't address the specific situation. In general, King said, "Screen advertising is a pretty sensitive area and we have a pretty...

Is the California Republican the victim of a sophisticated influence operation by Muslim extremists, or is he showing his true colors? Top Jewish Republicans who have supported Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) for decades said in interviews that they have “serious concerns” with the California Republican’s ties to radical Muslim groups and their foreign backers, and his outspoken efforts to champion their cause in Congress. “Before 9-11, Dana’s views seemed idiosyncratic,” said Arnold Steinberg, a political consultant whose ties to Rohrabacher go back to Youth for Goldwater in 1964. “We rationalized that he wasn’t fully informed or had a blind spot”...