Free Republic

NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison in federal court in Manhattan Monday. She was convicted of providing support to terrorists by helping a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. Before sentencing, her lawyer told the judge that any prison sentence for Stewart would be a death sentence because of her serious health problems. Stewart pleaded with the judge to allow her to live out the rest of her life "productively, lovingly, righteously.'' Assistant US Attorney Andrew Dember rejected defense suggestions that Stewart's conduct was judged differently after9-11. "This case...

JERSEY CITY - Prosecutors will ask that two men charged with murdering a city family during a botched robbery last January be sentenced to death if found guilty, authorities said Friday. No date has been set for the trial of Edward McDonald, 25, and Hamilton Sanchez, 31, both of whom were formally arraigned on murder charges this month. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the violent slayings of Hossam Armanious, his wife, Amal Garas, and their two young daughters. "Both of them are designated as capital murder cases," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio. "We're seeking the death penalty."...

TRENTON - Muslims and Christians both say they will skip a meeting with state officials aimed at calming tensions between the two sides. The state Division of Criminal Justice's Office of Bias Crimes and Community Relations had scheduled a meeting for Monday. A rift between Coptic Christians and Muslims arose following the murder of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians who were tied up and stabbed in their Jersey City home. Although two non-Muslims -one an acquaintance of the victims - were later charged, authorities at first investigated the possibility that religious tensions might lie behind the crimes. "We want to...

Cops say McDonald murdered, then went on with life upstairs good worker, boss says Monday, March 07, 2005 By Brian Donohue Newhouse News Service Edward McDonald, 25, was questioned by investigators on Jan. 14, the morning police found his landlord, his wife and their two daughters stabbed to death in their Jersey City Heights home. After the interview, McDonald walked out of the prosecutor's office - and coolly past the brother of the slain woman, Ayman Garas, who was entering the building to meet with detectives. On Friday, McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez, 30, pleaded not guilty to four counts of...

Robbery, not religion, motive in Jersey City family slaying By WAYNE PARRY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Robbery, not religion, was the motive behind the savage slaying of a family of four in January, prosecutors said Friday. Two paroled drug dealers who were deeply in debt were charged with four counts of murder and held on $10 million bail in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians from Egypt who emigrated to the United States in 1997. Friends of the family had speculated that Hossam Armanious might have angered Muslims with postings he made in...

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ Published: March 5, 2005 or Egyptian-Americans in New Jersey, the nightmare seemed to come true in January. A Christian family of four was found slaughtered in their Jersey City home. It was rumored that the father had exchanged angry words with a Muslim on the Internet. Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Coptic Christians are at brutal odds with each other in their homeland, but those who had immigrated to the United States had nonetheless managed to live peacefully. Now they seemed as if they could be headed toward a Muslim-Christian face-off.. Yesterday, two suspects, both of them non-Egyptian...

FBI pick up a former tenant of the home. He used their ATM card.

March 5, 2005 -- The youngest member of the massacred Jersey City Coptic clan was butchered after recognizing a neighbor as one of the men who invaded her home. The sighting, which came as the girl made a desperate escape bid, sparked the slaughter of her entire family. Monica Armanious, 9, bravely struggled out of the duct-tape bonds that the two thieves wrapped around her wrists and eyes in the Jan. 14 robbery. But before she could make it to freedom, she saw accused attacker Edward McDonald, a 25-year-old father of two who rented the family's upstairs apartment, law-enforcement sources...

Two Charged in N.J. Family Slaying March 04, 2005 JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The upstairs tenant of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January and another man have been charged in the killings, and authorities said Friday the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism. Two men already on parole for drug offenses pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family (search), which had caused tension between Christians and Muslims in New Jersey. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above the Armanious family, and Hamilton Sanchez,...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The upstairs tenant of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January and another man have been charged in the killings, and authorities said Friday the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism. Two men already on parole for drug offenses pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in the Jan. 11 killing of the Armanious family, which had caused tension between Christians and Muslims in New Jersey. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above the Armanious family, and Hamilton Sanchez, 30, were ordered held on $10 million bail. "I didn't...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Two people have been arrested in the murder of an Egyptian Christian family, authorities said Friday. The suspects were to be arraigned Friday afternoon in state Superior Court. The Hudson County prosecutor's office would not release the identities of those arrested or the charges they face until they appear in court.

Authorities have made a major break in the case of the slain Jersey City family, with two suspects scheduled to be arraigned today. Although the Hudson County prosecutor's office isn't releasing the names of the two people or saying what the charges are, local press reports one of them is a former tenant of the building where the Coptic Christian family lived and was found murdered Jan. 14. As WorldNetDaily reported, Hossam Armanious, was found in his home with his wife and two daughters -- Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8 -- bound and gagged with their throats slashed.

By WAYNE PARRY The Associated Press JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The upstairs neighbor of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January was charged Friday, along with another man, in the murders. Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above Hossam Armanious and his family, pleaded not guilty to four counts of felony murder. Hamilton Sanchez, 30, faces the same charges and also pleaded not guilty. Sanchez during a court hearing began crying as he stood before a judge, his hands cuffed behind his back. "I didn't kill nobody. I didn't kill nobody, man. I didn't...

March 4, 2005 -- An ex-con and former upstairs neighbor reportedly was being grilled last night in the savage stabbing deaths of a Jersey City family of four

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday that it appears unlikely investigators will be able to decipher the license plate of the car used by a man who made ATM withdrawals from the account of a slain Jersey City Heights family. An image caught on a security camera at a Central Avenue drive-through ATM showing the man using the family's bank card is not clear enough to read the plate, even after being digitally enhanced, DeFazio said. DeFazio said the angle the video was taken from will likely make it impossible to read the car's plate number, but that identifying...

Here's my letter to Kenneth Chan of the Christian Post. They seem to be doing everything they can to pretend there is no religious angle to the New Jersey killings. Please write Mr. Chan (kenneth@christianpost.com) and encourage him to dig a bit deeper: Dear Mr. Chan, Your article in the Christian post, published under the title "Christians, Muslims call for Unity in New Jersey," only included, that I could tell, a single comment from a single Episcopalian minister, but no updated response from Coptic clergy in the area. Did I miss something? Have you pressed federal and local authorities for...

Last month's grisly murder in Jersey City of Hossam Armanious, his wife, Amal, and two daughters, Sylvia and Monica, remains unsolved. But friends and relatives of the family are convinced the bloody crime is rooted in a growing wave of violence and oppression against Christians taking place in Arab countries. They may well be right. The Armanious family was devoutly Coptic Christian — an ancient orthodox Egyptian sect that has long suffered from discrimination and coercion in largely Muslim Egypt. Armanious did something in America that he wouldn't dare try in his native Egypt: He attempted to convert Muslims to...

Security video from a Central Avenue bank's drive-through ATM machine has captured images of the car used by a man to steal from the account of the slain Jersey City family of four whose bodies were found bound and gagged in their Heights home in January, officials said.Hudson County Prosecutor Edward Defazio said investigators have been able to determine the make, model and year of the car and are having the images enhanced with the hope of being able to read the license plate number."We have ascertained, by surveillance, time and observation, that the vehicle used at the drive-in by...

Security video from a Central Avenue bank's drive-through ATM machine has captured images of the car used by a man to steal from the account of the slain Jersey City family of four whose bodies were found bound and gagged in their Heights home in January, officials said. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said investigators have been able to determine the make, model and year of the car and are having the images enhanced with the hope of being able to read the license plate number. "We have ascertained, by surveillance, time and observation, that the vehicle was apparently used...

During the two-day period that a brutally slain Jersey City family of four lay dead in their bloody Oakland Avenue apartment, a man was already using their bank card to raid their accounts at nearby ATMs on Central Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard - and police have video of the withdrawals, officials said yesterday. "We don't know at this point where the person resides, but it could be someone from Jersey City," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. "The pattern of the ATM locations speaks for itself, and I don't think we need significant analysis of that." DeFazio said reviews of...

The ATM card of slain Jersey City Heights resident Hossam Armanious was used several times in the week after his death to withdraw thousands of dollars from his bank account, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward Defazio said yesterday.The withdrawls, made on several occasions from banks in the Jersey City Heights and in mid-town Manhattan, continued for up to a week after the bodies of Armanious, his wife, Amal Garas, and their daughters, Sylvia and Monica, were found inside their Oakland Avenue apartment on Jan. 14.

Shortly before nine o'clock one Monday evening earlier this month, Hatin Sürücü left her five-year-old son asleep in their small apartment in the Tempelhof district of Berlin and made her way to a bus stop in the main Oberlandgarten Strasse. Minutes later, a volley of pistol shots rang out but no one came to help Mrs Sürücü, 23, who was of Turkish origin. A bus driver discovered her body, with multiple wounds to the head and chest, about 40 minutes later and called the police. Last week, Mrs Sürücü's three brothers, aged 18 to 25, who were arrested six days...

Downplaying of radical Islamic ritual murder of Christian Egyptian in Jersey City, N.J. is part of a much wider problem --- one that's been ongoing for years Connecting the dots

The police seem to have no leads in the case of the Armanious family—husband, Hossam, 47, wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters Monica, 8, and Sylvia, 15— who were found murdered in their Jersey City home last month, but the family's Coptic-Christian co-religionists and their supporters have no doubts. They are certain it was the work of Muslim extremists. Some say the Islamist murderers received support from the Egyptian government. One pro-Israel leader of the Coptic community insists compromised Coptic clergymen bear their share of guilt, too. Each member of the family was bound and gagged before their throats...

'There are no suspects at the present time' Armanious family murders remain unsolved Ricardo Kaulessar Reporter staff writer MOURNING IN THE AFTERNOON - Relatives of the murdered Armanious family remember them at a vigil on Saturday afternoon. Last week, when Hudson County Prosecutor Edward J. DeFazio was asked about the status of the investigation into the Armanious family murders, he gave the same answer that he has given to all inquiries since the discovery of the murders on Jan. 14: "There are no suspects at the present time." The Armanious family - Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife Amal Garas, 37,...

On America's Most Wanted, spotlight tonight on: Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal and their daughters, Sylvia, 15 and Monica, 9 were found murdered in their Jersey City, New Jersey home. They had been tied up, gagged and stabbed to death. Police are trying to determine if this was a hate crime, as the family were devout Coptic Christians. Police believe that more than one person may have been involved in the four homicides.

Relatives Of Slain NJ Family Meet With FBI, Lawmakers Hudson County Prosecutors Office Leading Investigation Feb 15, 2005 6:31 pm US/Eastern NEW YORK (CBS) Relatives of a slain New Jersey family took their demands for justice to the capital on Tuesday. With the suspect or suspects still on the loose, family members came to ask federal authorities to play a major role in this investigation. "Up to this moment, we still suffer and we're going to suffer, especially on occasions when we get together," says Ayman Garas, the victim's brother. Their desperate search for justice brought them together on Tuesday...

One month ago today, Jersey City police walked into a blood bath and ended up in a case rife with international intrigue. The killings of Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas, and their two young daughters have spawned news stories across the globe, spurred religious tension in an American inner city and captured President Bush's attention. The case has taken investigators from Africa to cyberspace and inside the teachings of Islam. It's put them at the uncomfortable crossroads of a centuries-old ideological battle between Egyptian Christians and Egyptian Muslims. And it's left them at the core of a potential political...

Relatives of Slain N.J. Family of Four Speak Out for First Time in Washington, D.C. Press Conference Thu Feb 10, 1:35 PM ET Contact: U.S. Copts Association, 202-737-3660 or copts@copts.com, Web: http://www.copts.com Relatives of the slain Armanious family of four will speak at their first press conference since the brutal murders on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. at the National Press Club's Zenger Room in Washington, D.C. U.S. Copts Association president Michael Meunier will join the Armanious family's relatives in addressing the investigation's status and expressing the family's point of view on the horrific crime. The family will also...

The gruesome murder of a Coptic Egyptian family in New Jersey last month has fueled a whirlwind of accusations, with some hawkish commentators blaming Islamist radicals and some locals seeing the Egyptian government’s hand.Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife and their two daughters were found bound and gagged at their home in Jersey City on January 14 with their throats slit and with several stab wounds. Law enforcement authorities say they have found no evidence that religion motivated the killings and that they are considering robbery or a vendetta as a more likely cause. The results of the autopsy are expected...

Bishop leads Coptics amid slay probe Wednesday, February 09, 2005 BY JEFF DIAMANT Star-Ledger Staff After the bishop's weekly class on Coptic Christian doctrine was over, the children in the audience ran up to greet him and get the candy he was doling out. With a wide smile emerging through his beard, Bishop David, the 37-year-old head of the Coptic church, sat comfortably in a small chair at St. Mark's Church in Cedar Grove as he talked to the kids and handed out the chocolates. Advertisement "We love the children very much, and we believe we have to look after...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in New Jersey: An Islamic Murder of Coptic Christians?.Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that "no facts at this point" substantiate a religious motive for the murders.Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this...

Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.  The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that “no facts at this point” substantiate a religious motive for the murders.Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this quiet family were savagely executed in the ritualistic Islamist way (multiple knife attacks and...

The New Jersey man brutally murdered with his family was just one of a number of Christians systematically tracked by a radical Islamic website because they debate Muslims on the popular Internet chat service PalTalk.com.

Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site An explosive New York Sun article reprinted at the Counterterrorism blog. As you can see, I was consulted on this story, and I will be posting more about it momentarily: A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk....

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest Why is this Story Buried? Terror - IslamTuesday, February 01, 2005Jan MarkellA few weeks ago a New Jersey Coptic Christian family was slaughtered in their home. They had fled from Egypt due to Islamic persecution, hardly suspecting jihad to come to their front door in America. But in all likelihood, it did. The Armanious’ family made the mistake of dialoguing with Muslims in person and on line. It seemed like they actually “converted” a few to the Coptic faith, but now some are wondering if the new “converts” were practicing “taqiyya” or religious deception....

The distinctive way in which a New Jersey Coptic Christian and his family were murdered resembled executions by radical Islamists shown on the Arab sattelite channel al-Jazeera, according to relatives and a close friend. Hossam Armanious, an immigrant from Egypt, was found Jan. 14 with his wife Amal Garas and two daughters, bound and gagged with their throats slashed. Authorities have not determined whether the murders are tied to Islamic radicals, but they say Armanious received a death threat from a Muslim through an Internet chat service.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The FBI is trying to determine whether an Islamic Web site that tracked users of an online chat room had anything to do with the killings of a Christian Egyptian family. The site, barsomyat.com, is no longer online. But before it was shut down by its Minnesota hosting company, it reportedly featured photos of Hossam Armanious and his wife, Amal Garas, referring to him as a "filthy dog" and "his filthy wife," according to the New York Sun.

The New Jersey man brutally murdered with his family was just one of a number of Christians systematically tracked by a radical Islamic website because they debate Muslims on the popular Internet chat service PalTalk.com. The password-protected Arabic website www.barsomyat.com, includes the kind of death threat received by Hossam Armanious, a Coptic Christian from Jersey City, N.J., who was found Jan. 14 with his wife and two daughters, bound and gagged with their throats slashed, the New York Sun reports. Two months before his murder, according to authorities, Armanious received a death threat from a Muslim PalTalk user: "You'd better...

Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross Special to the Sun A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk. One page from barsomyat.com features a group of photographs of a Syrian Christian, "Joseph," who now lives in Canada. Barsomyat.com's users have posted...

COPTIC KILLINGS Christians stalked on Islamic website Murdered New Jersey man among several tracked by Muslims The New Jersey man brutally murdered with his family was just one of a number of Christians systematically tracked by a radical Islamic website because they debate Muslims on the popular Internet chat service PalTalk.com. The password-protected Arabic website www.barsomyat.com, includes the kind of death threat received by Hossam Armanious, a Coptic Christian from Jersey City, N.J., who was found Jan. 14 with his wife and two daughters, bound and gagged with their throats slashed, the New York Sun reports. Two months before his...

A close friend of Hossam Armanious and relatives of the family murdered in New Jersey have revealed the following: Shortly after the murders, members of the Egyptian consulate went to visit the family to encourage them to keep quiet. And many family members have obeyed, saying nothing to reporters or anyone else. However, two family members and another Copt viewed the bodies at the funeral home. One of these eyewitnesses said that he clearly saw that the family members had not suffered “stab wounds to the throat,” as the prosecutor’s report states, but rather the following: A. Both adults, Hossam...

January 31, 2005 Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site An explosive New York Sun article reprinted at the Counterterrorism blog. As you can see, I was consulted on this story, and I will be posting more about it momentarily: A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating...

Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site BY DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS - Special to the Sun January 31, 2005 A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk. One page from barsomyat.com features a group of photographs of a Syrian Christian, "Joseph," who now lives in Canada....

<p>When a family of Egyptian immigrants was murdered in Jersey City recently, the media’s response was to wring its hands about anti-Muslim bias. But the truth is more complicated, and reveals the media’s own bias--against America.</p> <p>Anti-Muslim bias had nothing to do the killing of the Armanious family; they were Coptic Christians. It wasn’t the religion of the victims that concerned the press; it was the religion of the suspected murderers.</p>

A week ago, Jersey City police, responding to calls from anxious friends and relatives, came upon a horrific scene: a family of four stabbed to death. What made this murder even more disturbing was its possible motive and the authorities’ attempts to downplay that motive. The victims were Hossam and Amal Armanious and their daughters, Sylvia and Monica. They were Coptic Christians who had emigrated from Egypt“in part to escape religious persecution.” As the wife’s uncle told the Bergen Record (NJ), Hossam Armanious “had sensed a rise in anti-Christian extremism” in their native land. After their arrival, the family, especially...

We are becoming paralyzed to do what self-preservation demands By Rabbi Aryeh Spero Radical Islam has shown that they are going to do in America to "infidels" what they do back home. Will the A.C.L.U., Human Rights Watch, and Center For Constitutional Rights attempt to thwart necessary police efforts by claiming it constitutes "racial profiling" and "group harassment"? http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It appears that the binding and throat-slashing of an entire Christian family in Jersey City was a Koran-instructed " ritual murder" by American jihadists against someone who dared to express an opinion about the Koran unacceptable to home-grown Islamic cell-operatives...

Murder is most often performed in secret and only partially brought to light; some portion of the "evil lurking in the hearts of men" remains forever obscured. Though public fascination for high-profile murder cases may include sordid voyeurism, it is also motivated by a need to pierce the mystery, understand the motivations, and judge fairly. Murderers show no mercy for their victims, but civilized society is horrified at the thought of convicting the innocent or letting the guilty run loose. Vendetta short-circuits the painstaking efforts to get to the truth. Or does it? Isn't the infinite ping-pong of vendetta a...

By Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | January 26, 2005 At Jihad Watch we have received a large number of inquiries, both sober and frenzied, about the Coptic family found murdered in Jersey City last week. As is well known, the Copts in Jersey City and elsewhere have many suspicions about this crime. But when they have voiced these suspicions, they have been frequently denounced as “Islamophobes” – an all-purpose term of abuse used to silence criticism of Islam and of Muslims. And Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio is dismissive of the idea that the killings were religiously motivated: “Is it possible?...

On the popular Internet chat room service PalTalk.com, people from all corners of the globe gather to discuss everything from salsa music to life after divorce. But what has been true at dinner parties is proving true also in Internet chat rooms: When the topic turns to religion, things can get ugly. Amateur theologians in several of PalTalk's religion chat rooms can be heard denouncing each others' faiths and swapping insults. There are Muslims calling Jews murderers, Christians calling Islam a disease and everything in between. Three to four times a week, Hossam Armanious, 47, an Egyptian Coptic immigrant, logged...