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Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Usually, when a journalist is censored in a Western nation, American news organizations respond with collective outrage. But as a major attack on press freedom unfolds in Canada, America’s mainstream media are silent. Neither the TV networks nor the major newspapers have reported on hearings last week at what amounts to a Stalinesque show trial in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mark Steyn, a Canadian journalist who now lives in New Hampshire and whose column appears in National Review magazine as well as several U.S. and Canadian newspapers, is facing charges before British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal. His crime? Spreading “hatred.” The...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

After months of quiet diplomacy, the Norwegian government has given up on efforts to send former terrorist-group leader Mullah Krekar back to his homeland. Krekar, who has been under an expulsion order after being determined a threat to Norway's national security, initially came to Norway as a refugee from Iraq in the early 1990s. It later emerged that he was the head of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam and he repeatedly violated the terms of his asylum by travelling back to northern Iraq to lead guerrilla activities. Krekar is the only person in Norway ever to have been sentenced to deportation...

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

U.S. to Offer Turkey Help on PKK The U.S. is to offer Turkey a package of measures to dissuade Ankara from mounting a large-scale military incursion into Iraq to attack PKK Kurdish guerrillas, who have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in recent weeks. Ahead of a meeting in Washington on Monday between President George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, U.S. officials said Ankara would have to get concrete American help to combat the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq from where it frequently launches attacks into Turkey. “Erdogan has to go back with the...

Mullah Krekar is designated as an international terrorist with links to Al Qaeda. Yet in Norway, European politically correct legal principles protect his 'safety' while he continues to use the internet to urge killing and war. Discuss Mullah Krekar is designated as an international terrorist with links to Al Qaeda. Yet in Norway, European politically correct legal principles protect his "safety" while he continues to use the internet to urge killing and war. Mullah Krekar was born as Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad in the village of Olaqloo Sharbajer, Sulaimania in Kurdish northern Iraq on July 7, 1956. He has been living...

Mullah Krekar linked to pro al-Qaida sites The web site Dorbeen.com, which is linked to pro al-Qaida web sites, is registered in the name of the wife of controversial mullah Krekar. A photo of mullah Krekar is accompanied by an email address and his wife's phone number on the web site. Dorbeen.com is an Islamist news portal that reports on American setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as linking to sympathizers of the al-Qaida terrorist organization. Despite Dorbeen.com being registered in his wife's name, Krekar told an Oslo court last month that he "in the name of God, did...

Mullah Krekar wore out his welcome in Norway long ago, but the former leader of a suspected terrorist organization is still fighting to remain in the country after first coming here as a refugee 16 years ago. And now he thinks he deserves an apology from the Norwegian state for ill treatment. Mullah Krekar, who led what the US claims is a terrorist organization, feels he's been badly treated by Norway. Krekar appeared in an Oslo city court on Wednesday to describe his current life in virtual house arrest. He claimed that he never goes out, with the exception of...

Insight News Television presents a film on Ansar al-Islam - the radical Islamic militia named by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in his speach to the UN. He said it was one of the missing links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Our reporter, Jonathan Miller, spent two days with Ansar's leader, Mullah Krekar. Krekar's an Iraqi Kurd, but is today living in Norway, which granted his family political asylum ten years ago. Refugee status hasn't stopped him from returning regularly to Northern Iraq to wage jihad and commit human rights abuses against his own people. Krekar set...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Three undercover CIA officers arrived in Norway in the spring of 2003 as part of a possible secret operation targeting for rendition an Islamic militant living in Oslo known as Mullah Krekar, The Washington Post reported. Citing lawyers and unnamed European investigators, the newspaper said shortly after the agents arrived, Krekar received a warning from an anonymous Norwegian official that Krekar, then head of a Kurdish insurgent group, was a CIA target and should watch his back. The spies left Norway by the end of the summer, the report said. If the CIA was planning to abduct...

Two of the CIA agents wanted in the Schengen area, suspected of abductions, were in Norway three years ago, allegedly to get mullah Krekar. Newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad recently reported ostensible links between the secret CIA operation and the removal of Krekar, a former Kurdish guerrilla leader, from Norway. Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling contacted Norwegian authorities at the relevant time, in 2003, warning he had learned of rumors that his client risked abduction. New information has come to light in the wake of an intensive investigation by Italian authorities into the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also called Abu Omar,...

A Norwegian newspaper is reporting that several agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been present and operating in Norway, in an effort to spirit Mullah Krekar out of the country. US officials have long suspected Krekar of having terrorist links. As the former head of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam, Krekar also is accused of murders back in Iraq, and he has voiced support for Islamic terrorists on Arabic television. Newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad has reported that the US government tried to spirit Krekar out of Norway three years ago. The newspaper said it had information showing that several...

Immigration officials in Norway have granted temporary residence permission to the mother-in-law of Mullah Krekar, the country's most controversial refugee who faces deportation himself. Mullah Krekar is considered a threat to Norway's national security, yet his mother-in-law was just granted residence permission last fall The case, reported in newspaper VG on Tuesday, has stunned and angered politicians, and bewildered many other would-be immigrants who've struggled with their own efforts to secure residence permission for themselves or their families. For them, the permission won by Krekar's family seems to defy logic, and all the rules. Officials at immigration agency UDI (Utlendingsdirektoratet)...

ALBANY -- The spiritual leader of an Albany mosque repeatedly called a phone number in Syria that an FBI report indicates had been used to gather terrorist intelligence for Osama bin Laden, according to classified documents unsealed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The FBI report, which was based on information from a confidential informant, was among several once-secret documents that federal authorities say raise questions about Yassin Aref's connections to terrorist organizations across the Middle East. Aref, 35, a Kurdish refugee who moved to Albany with his family in 1999, is in jail without bond while awaiting trial on...

Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims. "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes," Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4...

Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims. "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes," Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4...

Brescia and Naples, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. In their tapped phone conversations, Yamine Bouhrama, Mohamed...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Two Muslim men caught up in an anti-terrorism sting operation pleaded innocent Friday as details emerged about 10 new charges against them. Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain were accused Thursday of attempting to provide support to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group listed by the federal government as a terrorist organization. Aref, who leads a mosque, also was charged with lying to federal officials. The pair were initially charged in August 2004 with conspiring to launder money and promoting terrorism. They now face a total of 30 charges. Entered as new evidence against Aref were entries in his personal...

Iraq's Justice Minister is seeking Mullah Krekar's extradition, claiming he's wanted for alleged crimes committed in Iraq. Justice Minister Abdel Hussein Shandal told TV 2 Nettavisen on Friday that Mullah Krekar "is an Iraqi citizen and should appear in court" for alleged crimes in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. "We're building a democratic state, and he will have the right to defend himself and have an attorney," Shandal said. Shandal also claimed that Krekar wouldn't face the death penalty if he's sent to Iraq. He also promised that Krekar would not be extradited to any other countries if he...

Former Ansar Al-Islam leader mullah Krekar compared his goal for Kurds with the establishment of the state of Israel as he testified in his trial to overturn a decision to expel him from Norway. Laywer Brynjar Meling (right) and mullah Krekar during a pause in proceedings at Oslo's Court of Appeals. On Thursday morning mullah Krekar began his explanation of why he should not be sent out of the country. Before beginning his testimony the mullah kissed the Koran and said that Norwegian authorities were justified in their investigation but explained that he felt a victim of religious persecution. "I...

The accused terrorist and former leader of Ansar-Al Islam Mullah Krekar is in these days trying to prevent being expelled from Norway by sueing the Norwegian Goverment. Norwegian Minister Erna Solberg (Conservative)has decided that Krekar is a threat to the Norwegians and there for signed his deportation order on the grounds that he has broken the terms of his assylum by traveling back to North Iraq and that he posses a threat to national security. Krekars laywer, Meling claims that Krekar will not be safe if expelled and therefore can not be forced out. Nor is the country stable enough...

Mullah Krekar to be expelled Controversial mullah Krekar, former leader of Ansar al-Islam, will be expelled from Norway, on the instructions of Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Erna Solberg. Solberg instructed the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE) to uphold the decision to expel Krekar on the grounds of national security. "This is something we have been waiting for for some time. For my client and me it is neither new nor surprising that the UNE has received instructions from the ministry," said Krekar's legal counsel, Brynjar Meling. The ruling means that Krekar now loses his asylum status, travel documents,...

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

Summary Norwegian authorities are dropping charges against Mullah Krekar, the founder of Ansar al-Islam, who had been charged with conspiracy to murder his political foes in Iraq. He is to be deported to Iraq after the government is handed over to the Iraqis on June 30. Analysis A Norwegian court threw out charges against Mullah Krekar, the founder of militant Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, on June 15, citing insufficient evidence. Krekar had faced charges of conspiring to murder political rivals in Iraq. He has lived in Norway since 2003, despite an expulsion order. Now that he no longer faces trial,...

OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian prosecutor dropped all charges against the founder of Ansar al-Islam, a suspected terror group, citing a lack of evidence and fears that witness testimony in Iraq was coerced. Mullah Krekar, 47, a refugee in Norway since 1991, had been in and out of custody on numerous charges, including financing terror and allegations that he plotted to kill political rivals in northern Iraq between 2000 and 2001. Prosecutor Tor-Aksel Bush said Tuesday that he was dropping the case after more than two years of investigation. "The prosecutor has not found grounds to charge Krekar for any...

Female comedian outrages Muslim cleric By Associated Press Friday, April 30, 2004 OSLO, Norway - The founder of suspected terror group Ansar al-Islam, normally cool under pressure, lost his temper when a female Muslim comedian jokingly lifted him off the ground before an audience. Mullah Krekar, the former leader of a fundamentalist Islamic group of Kurds in northern Iraq, was participating in a debate over his new biography Tuesday evening. Krekar, a refugee in Norway since 1991, has become the country's highest profile Muslim after his repeated arrests, court cases, television appearances and now his book "My Own Words." Comedian...

ARIS, April 29 - How much weight does a bearded mullah carry in a freewheeling liberal society like Norway's? The country's well-known Muslim comic, Shabana Rehman, decided to find out Tuesday when she lifted the founder of Iraq's Ansar al-Islam terrorist group off the ground before a startled audience. "If a small woman like me can lift him up, he can't be dangerous," Ms. Rehman said Thursday by telephone from northern Norway. The cleric, known as Mullah Krekar, did not find the stunt funny. He went up smiling but was sputtering with rage by the time Ms. Rehman set him...

Eight of the ten surveyed claimed that people have become more sceptic towards immigrants due to the Mullah Krekar case. The negative attitude is evident nation wide. (Scanpix)The national survey was conducted by telephone interviews in the end of March by Opinion AS on behalf of Nordiske TV Dager in connection with this year’s media festival opening in Bergen in May. According to a press release sent out by the media festival, the answers are so overwhelmingly negative that there is no longer any doubt that people in Norway believe the Krekar case has created fear of immigrants and increased...

A Norwegian court has ordered the founder of an Islamic militant group to remain in custody for another four weeks. Mullah Krekar, head of the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam, was charged last December with plotting the murder of his political rivals in northern Iraq. "The accused, with reasonable grounds, can still be suspected of illegal acts," a court statement said. US officials say Ansar al-Islam may be behind Sunday's suicide bombings in northern Iraq, which killed 56 people. The US also suspects the group has links to the al-Qaeda network. The Iraqi Kurdish mullah has repeatedly claimed he is no...

Krekar contradicts his own defense Mullah Krekar, under arrest in Norway for suspected terror links, represented himself in an Al-Jazeera TV program as leader of the suspected terrorist group Ansar al-Islam just last month. He also confirmed the group was behind a suicide bombing in Northern Iraq last year. This is how mullah Krekar appeared on the Al-Jazeera program last month. RELATED ARTICLES Debate rages over Krekar in Norway - 09.01.04 Court orders Mullah Krekar's release - 05.01.04 Prosecutor wants Krekar jailed - 05.01.04 Mullah Krekar arrested - 02.01.04 Arabs recruited from Norway to fight in Iraq - 18.12.03 Mullah...

An Oslo city court ordered the release on Monday of Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam. State prosecutors had arrested him Friday on charges tied to at least two suicide bombings. Krekar was charged under several paragraphs of Norway's criminal code linked to alleged murder attempts in Northern Iraq in the spring of 2002. Prosecutors had sought to keep Krekar in custody for at least four weeks, but the Oslo court claimed they lacked sufficient evidence. Prosecutors earlier vowed they'd appeal any release, and Krekar remained in jail Monday evening pending that appeal. They...

Denne artikkelen er hentet fra www.aftenposten.no Adressen til artikkelen er http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=700469 Oppdatert: 02.01.2004, kl 14:49 Mullah Krekar arrested Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of the Kurdish guerilla group Ansar al-Islam based in Northern Iraq, was arrested on Friday afternoon in his apartment in Oslo's central Toeyen district. Krekar will be charged with complicity in a suicide attack according to newspaper VG's web site. Citing "centrally placed sources", VG reported that Oekokrim had expanded charges against Krekar to include a suicide attack carried out by Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq. Oekokrim has gathered information via electronic surveillance that they...

The Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, the spiritual leader of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, on Friday on charges of attempted murder in connection with two suicide bombings in northern Iraq two years ago. Norwegian law allows foreigners in Norway to be charged with certain crimes committed outside the country. But Mr. Krekar's lawyer said the timing of the arrest suggested that it was related to the recent terror alert in Hamburg, Germany. Officials there sealed off a military hospital on Tuesday after receiving information from American intelligence agencies, and the interior minister said Ansar al-Islam was suspected of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier, and attackers posing as journalists fired assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at American paratroopers guarding the burning aircraft, the military said. Elsewhere, Arab gunmen shot and killed a Kurd amid rising ethnic tensions in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and a minor Baath party official was assassinated in an apparent revenge killing. An American tanker was set ablaze in a rebel attack, and coalition forces raiding a Sunni Muslim mosque arrested 32 suspected non-Iraqi Arab insurgents and seized an arms...

OSLO, Norway (AP) - Mullah Krekar, the spiritual leader of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, was arrested Friday on charges of helping a plot to try to murder his rivals in northern Iraq in 2000-01, his lawyer told The Associated Press. The charges against Krekar weren't terror-related and a court hearing will take place Saturday, where authorities will ask that he be held for at least four weeks, said public prosecutor Erling Grimstad. Krekar was arrested at his apartment by agents with Oekokrim, Norway's elite police unit, and was being questioned, Grimstad said. The charges were based on an...

<p>OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Mullah Krekar, the spiritual leader of the Iraq-based Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, was arrested Friday, his brother told The Associated Press.</p> <p>Police went to Krekar's house in the morning and took him to a police station in Oslo, said Khalid Faraj Ahmad.</p>

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Norway on Monday rejected Jordan's extradition request for the suspected spiritual leader of an Iraq-based Islamic militant group allegedly linked to al-Qaida. Norway said the documentation did not provide sufficient grounds to open the case for Mullah Krekar. Krekar, a refugee in Norway, is considered the spiritual leader of Ansar al-Islam, a group of fundamentalist Islamic Kurds in northern Iraq listed by the United States and United Nations as a terrorist group. Jordan in January demanded Krekar's extradition on drug charges, immediately after the Netherlands rejected the same request and deported Krekar to Norway. The Norwegian...

<p>October 27, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The leader of an al Qaeda-linked terror group responsible for some of the biggest attacks on coalition forces in Iraq calls the shots from an apartment in Norway, U.S. counterterrorism officials say.</p> <p>The officials told The Post they are increasingly frustrated over Mullah Krekar, the founder and spiritual leader of Ansar al-Islam. Last week the Pentagon branded the group the "principal terrorist adversary" of U.S. forces in Iraq.</p>

She is young, glamorous and famous, he is an obscure bookseller from Kabul. She had a good idea - why not live with him for a few months and write his story, which would also be the story of one family's experience of surviving the tragedy of civil war? At the time, he thought it was a good idea, too. Asne Seierstad's book is now a world bestseller - but Mohammed Shah Rais is an angry man. 'It is defamation of me, my family and my nation,' he rages. So, just weeks after its publication in Britain, and in a...

ANSAR SPOKESMAN: - Ansar al-Islam behind UN bombing Sources in Ansar al-Islam tell TV 2 Nettavisen that former members of the organisation allegedly are responsible for the UN bombing in Baghdad. Ansar al-Islam is divided. A number of the former members of the organisation, who were active while Mullah Krekar was the leader, have given up and gone home. However, a small group has seized control and is still active, Mullah Krekar’s brother Khalid Faraj Ahmad tells TV 2 Nettavisen. He emphasizes that he has no knowledge of the persons responsible for the recent car bombings in Iraq. - Ansar...

AMSTERDAM — Military police arrested a Dutch terrorist suspect at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on request of the Turkish authorities on Saturday. The suspect has been identified as S B and his lawyer, Victor Koppe, said the man has already appeared in court. The man has been remanded in custody and Turkey is expected to submit an extradition request. The arrested man is a Dutch national and works as a journalist. He lives in Amsterdam and "is politically active", Koppe said. The lawyer added that B is a member of the TDP, a communist-socialist movement, Dutch associated press ANP reported....

HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan on trial for allegedly supporting a cell of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers was easy to get along with until he fell under the influence of a fellow countryman, who later was convicted on terrorism charges, their former landlord testified Thursday. Reinhard Martens, who rented defendant Abdelghani Mzoudi a room in his house in late 1996, remembered him as a "very good" tenant until another Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq, moved in at the start of 1997. "Mzoudi was quieter than before, he seemed like he could not make his own decisions," Martens testified. "Mounir was...

OSLO (Reuters) - The founder of a radical Iraqi Islamist organisation has distanced himself from the group after a report a breakaway faction was behind last month's bombing of a U.N. compound in Baghdad. "Mullah Krekar denies any links to Ansar al-Islam or the Baghdad bombing," Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling told Reuters in Oslo on Thursday, where Krekar has lived as a refugee with his family since the 1991 Gulf War. Meling said Ansar al-Islam, a north Iraq-based militia founded by Krekar, contained extremist factions who may have gained power since Krekar was removed as leader. Krekar has not been...

Ashcroft pleads his case in Norway US Attorney General John Ashcroft was granted a half-hour early Monday to discuss the war on terrorism with Norway's foreign minister. The fate of terror suspect Mullah Krekar was high on the agenda, even though Ashcroft refused to publicly mention Krekar by name. US Attorney General John Ashcroft (left) met briefly with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen in Oslo early Monday. PHOTO: JON HAUGE "The Americans are very, very concerned with Mullah Krekar," claimed Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen after his meeting with Ashcroft ended. While Norway supports anti-terrorist efforts, clear differences exist over...

Norway charges Kurdish Islamist with terrorism OSLO, March 21 (Reuters) - The Iraqi Kurdish leader of Ansar al-Islam, accused by Washington of having ties to al Qaeda, was charged with terrorist offences on Friday in Norway, his lawyer said. Mullah Krekar was detained late on Thursday on the grounds he might flee the country while under police investigation into his links to Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam), which Washington labels a terrorist group. "He has been charged with terrorism," his attorney Brynjar Meling told Reuters outside an Oslo courtroom where judges were considering whether there were sufficient grounds to keep...

Norway should have been included in a threat attributed to the al-Qaeda network broadcast on Al-Jazeera television on Wednesday. The hope of the authorities was that al-Qaeda simply got their geography wrong and did not mean to threaten Norway at all The threat from what is said to be the al-Qaeda network has baffled authorities and people here alike. Analysts are struggling to come up with any reasons why Norwegian embassies and interests abroad should be singled out for attacks from Muslim fundamentalists. Norway has traditionally been seen as a peacemaker in the Middle East and the country protested against...

Norwegian Court Releases Ansar Al-Islam Founder Wed April 2, 2003 03:30 PM ET OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian appeals court freed an Iraqi Kurdish founder of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam on Wednesday, overturning an earlier ruling to keep him jailed during an anti-terror investigation, police said. Mullah Krekar, who has had refugee status in Norway since 1991 and denies any terror links, had been detained for almost two weeks since a lower court ruled that police could keep him jailed for a month. "He has been released by the court," a spokeswoman for Norway's Economic Crime Unit said after...

<p>Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.</p> <p>A former Canadian resident is a key commander and ideologue with Ansar al-Islam, a group the United States considers to be the terrorist link between Al Qaeda and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, says a captured Ansar member.</p> <p>Ali and another Ansar prisoner interviewed by the Star, 20-year-old Didar Khaled Khedr, said two former Iraqi intelligence agents are among Ansar's leaders - Abu Zurbeh and Abu Wahil.</p>

I am not sure if anyone is interested, but Mullah Krekar the founder and (former)spiritual leader of Ansar Al Islam, the Kurdish group supposedly linking Iraq and al Qaeda is answering questions live at the nettavisen website.... So far the most notable thing he has said is that George Bush reminds him of a drunk bus driver of a doubledecker bus driving over across a rotten bridge.. If your interested I could post it if he comes up with anything interesting... Cheers.