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BERLIN- A Syrian-born businessman who knew Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and has been accused of operating an al-Qaida front lashed out at President Bush on Thursday and denied any connection to terrorism. Mamoun Darkazanli, described by the FBI as a well-connected agent of Osama bin Laden, was questioned by German police shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But he was freed for lack of evidence and continues to live in Hamburg, Germany, where Atta and two other hijackers had lived. Speaking to The Associated Press in a telephone interview, Darkazanli bristled when...

Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European Union for close to two decades. Long active in al-Qaeda circles, Darkazanli first surfaced on the radar of Western intelligence agencies when he purportedly helped procure a cargo ship named “Jennifer” for Osama bin Laden as early as 1993 (Hamburger Abendblatt, October 16, 2004). Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA- Federal Criminal Police Office) admitted that it had been...

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

SNIPPET: "U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday. Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks."

The whiff of evil still lingers in a nondescript apartment off Hollywood's Young Circle. There, a second-floor walk-up in a doomed and crumbling building, is where terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi briefly shared lodgings before their Sept. 11, 2001, odyssey of destruction. Now, the building at 1818 Jackson St. is facing the wrecking ball. Hollywood's unhappy connection to the nation's worst terrorist attack soon will be transformed into a parking lot and pool. "I feel like no one will be upset about that, considering who used to be a tenant there," says Bryan Grosman, the investor who recently bought...

Mohammed Atta and his federal loan officer No matter how dumb he was, officialdom was always dumber When last in this space, 10 days ago, I was writing about whether political correctness kills. This was apropos the 9/11 nutters: "Everything they did stuck out. But it didn't matter. Because the more they stuck out, the more everyone who mattered was trained to look the other way." I didn't know the half of it. The other day, Johnelle Bryant, an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gave an interview to ABC News in which she revealed that Mohammed Atta and...

SHAWANGAI, Pakistan -- An alleged member of the Hamburg, Germany, terror cell linked to the Sept. 11 attacks is believed to be among al Qaeda leaders helping the Taliban fight Pakistani forces in South Waziristan, Pakistani authorities said Thursday. A German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a close associate of Sept. 11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the 2001 attacks, was among documents recovered this week by Pakistani troops from an abandoned militant compound in Shawangai. The mountain village in South Waziristan was used as an al Qaeda and Taliban command base until as recently as this week, a military...

SNIPPET: "Whatever the number is, at some point you must assume that the people admitting online that they wish to emulate the 9/11 conspirators represent a larger pool of people who not only wish this, but who are at some stage of the process leading to "martyrdom". I'm not saying Google's lax policies in policing this kind of file filth will lead directly to another 9/11 style attack. But it is clear that one of the common denominators between all -- and I mean all -- homegrown jihadis is that they like to spend their free time watching these types...

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. Brian Ross reports on the undercover agent in al Qaeda. In an exclusive interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early...

The subject of the thesis is a section of Aleppo, Syria's second city. Atta describes decades of meddling by Western urban planners, who rammed highways through the neighborhood's historic urban fabric and replaced many of its once ubiquitous courtyard houses with modernist high-rises. Atta calls for rebuilding the area along traditional lines, all tiny shops and odd-angled cul-de-sacs. The highways and high-rises are to be removed—in the meticulous color-coded maps, they are all slated for demolition. Traditional courtyard homes and market stalls are to be rebuilt. For Atta, the rebuilding of Aleppo's traditional cityscape was part of a larger project...

IT sounds like parody, but it's not: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week an nounced a four-year program of US scholarships and "opportunity grants" for "disadvantaged young Palestinians" to attend universities. What next? Mortgage-refinancing seminars for Somali warlords? Universal health-care for at-risk children of homeless (caveless?) al Qaeda refugees?

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- A University of Idaho graduate student who is under investigation for suspected terrorism ties obtained unauthorized access to a campus lab containing radioactive material, court documents allege. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national working on his computer science doctoral degree, quietly moved his student office from the Computer Science Department into the school's engineering isotope lab, apparently without his adviser's knowledge, according to the documents. "The investigation of Sami Al-Hussayen has, from its outset, been focused on suspected material support to terrorism, particularly to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network," FBI agent Michael Gnecknow said in the...

War On Terror: The question above, assuming we had 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta in custody on 9/10, is what those grilling the director of the CIA on interrogation techniques ought to be required to answer.One of the ironies of the Senate inquiry into the destruction of the CIA tapes showing the waterboarding of captured jihadists is that the point is essentially moot. Thanks to the enhanced scrutiny of enhanced interrogation techniques, those who'd kill us all know first of all that nobody has died from waterboarding or ever will. And it's unlikely to ever be used again. Democrats have created...

The prime suspect in the alleged German terror plot to blow up hundreds of people may have had contact with Mohammed Atta, the suicide pilot who smashed a hijacked plane into the Twin Towers. German police reports are vague about the encounter, but it has helped investigators to trace Fritz Gelowicz’s path from average Bavarian schoolboy to Islamic radical. His case has also highlighted the curious and sinister role of Neu-Ulm — a small township in the Roman Catholic heart of southern Germany — as a cradle of Islamic extremism. The connection between Gelowicz, 28, who was arrested this week,...

the 9/11 plot with testimonies of experts and pictures of the terrorists. How they looked like Westerners (watch their original clothes) and worked with Iraq to do 9/11. How they were trained in Salman Pak, Iraq. And how Ahmed Al Haznawi was treated in Holy Cross Hospital in June 2001 for sknin infection by anthrax. The first anthrax attacks happened in September 18 2001, with a letter which stated: "Death to America, Allah is great." Experts link Iraq before both 9/11 and the anthrax attacks which remained unsolved. Watch the video. The enemy is stronger than we thought.

THE CLINTONS TARGET CURT WELDONPUT SELF-INTEREST ABOVE NATIONAL INTEREST... AGAIN Clinton targets Weldon in Fox tirade Posted: September 28, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Jack Cashill   Last week, I wrote on these pages that the Clinton shadow government, or CSG, has set its sights on Curt Weldon, a veteran Republican congressman from Pennsylvania's Democrat-leaning 7th District. I mentioned Sandy Berger's role in launching the campaign of his opponent, Joe Sestak, as well as the active financial support of Sestak by people like Madeleine Albright, Anthony Lake, John Deutch and Richard Clarke. On Sunday, during former president Bill Clinton's...

Agents raid homes of Rep. Curt Weldon’s daughter, close friend By John Shiffman, Mitch Lipka and Patrick Kerkstra INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Federal agents raided the home of the daughter of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) and his longtime friend Charlie Sexton this morning. The agents departed Karen Weldon's three-story brick home on Queen Street in Philadelphia with arms loaded with boxes. A government car pulled into the alley to the back door of the house and loaded boxes into it. Three agents standing in an alley declined to identify themselves. "I can confirm that we conducted a number of...

The FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday. The inquiry focuses on lobbying contracts worth $1 million that Weldon's daughter, Karen Weldon, obtained from foreign clients and whether they were assisted by the congressman, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the criminal investigation. Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation. "I think...

WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday.

MEDIA, Pa. - The FBI raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record)'s daughter and a close friend Monday as it investigates whether the congressman improperly helped the pair win lobbying and consulting contracts. Agents searched four locations in the Philadelphia area and two in Jacksonville, Fla., said Debbie Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman in Washington. The congressman's home and his offices were not among the locations searched, she said. Earlier Monday, Weldon called the investigation politically motivated and called the timing suspect. The Republican, who is locked in a tight re-election bid and has clashed with the...