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Hope. Change. Jihad. Iyman Faris, 49, was sentenced in 2003 for aiding and abetting al-Qaida by scoping out the iconic New York bridge as a part of a plot to cut through the cables supporting the structure. He had met with Osam bin Laden in Afghanistan and worked with 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Faris is set to be released on Dec. 23, 2020, but a court filing last year in a U.S. District Court argued that Faris lied on immigration papers and that his terrorist affiliations demonstrated a lack of commitment to the Constitution.

Jihad: Amid fresh terror strikes in Paris and Beirut, and the FBI arrest of an Ohio Islamic State operative who sought to kill U.S. soldiers and American shoppers and students, President Obama downplays the IS threat. 'ISIS is gaining strength, aren't they?" ABC's Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos asked the president Friday, citing this month's suicide bombings in Beirut and the bombing of a Russian commercial jetliner by the Islamic State, which killed 40 and 244, respectively. "I don't think they're gaining strength," Obama asserted. "We have contained them." This may go down as one of the most irresponsible...

Finally, some good may come from the Valerie Plame kerfuffle -- if President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez have the stones to do what's right. A grave crime was exposed Dec. 16th when New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a story revealing President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to listen in on conversations between al Qaida suspects abroad and people in the United States without first obtaining a warrant. "We're seeing clearly now that (President) Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. But the scandal was...

Just as the Obama administration continues to reel from three major scandals, Republicans are zeroing in on yet one more — this one involving Obamacare as it nears implementation. GOP legislators are targeting Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the solicitations she made to some of the nation’s top insurance companies and other groups for donations to Enroll America, the nonprofit group charged with selling Obamacare to the public. “Our guys on the Hill think this is the fourth scandal,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Reuters this week. “It fits into that narrative Republicans are building not only about incompetence...

Treasury Department officials have yet to say whether they will appeal on Ohio judge's ruling that their 2006 asset freeze against an Islamic charity violated the group's due process rights. Treasury officials accuse KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development of taking over fundraising for Hamas in the United States after the government forced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) to shut down in 2001. That action was upheld by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. HLF and five officials subsequently were indicted and convicted of illegally funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. The freeze of KindHearts bore...

Rifqa Bary is an Ohio teenager who recently fled to Florida claiming that her father seeks to murder her in an “honor killing.” While the media seeks to report the matter as a he said, she said story, there are some very disturbing details that back up her story. For starters, Rifqa’s parents are members of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. The Center was home to resident scholar Salah Sultan, who calls himself a ‘friend and pupil’ of avowed terror supporter and advocate of suicide bombings Yusuf Qaradawi. Qaradawi is designated by the United States as a ‘Specially Designated Global...

The recent convert to Islam who allegedly shot and killed a U.S. soldier at a Little Rock, Ark., recruiting booth had ties to a number of global locations linked to extremists, including Yemen, Somalia and Columbus, Ohio, ABC News has learned. Yemen and Somali are known hotbeds for terrorism. Columbus, Ohio, has been an area of domestic concern for authorities who have observed a number of Somali Americans traveling from there to Somali to wage jihad. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, upon his arrest Monday shortly after the fatal shooting, allegedly confessed and told authorities he acted alone, according to court...

  Kent man connected to al-Qaida, agent says 10/23/03Karen R. Long Plain Dealer Reporter York, Pa.- Using freshly declassified evidence, an Akron FBI agent testified yesterday that the bureau believes a Kent man is an al-Qaida operative as potentially lethal as the terrorists who flew the hijacked planes Sept. 11, 2001. Ashraf Al-Jailani, a Yemen- born geochemist arrested a year ago in Akron, sat mute as FBI Special Agent Roger Charnesky described him as an al-Qaida "first-stringer, highly educated, highly trained and highly motivated." Charnesky, his forehead glistening with perspiration, asserted that if Al-Jailani "is who the evidence suggests...

A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Nuradin Abdi, 35, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley a week before his trial had been expected to start Aug. 6. "In this climate an American jury, we felt, could potentially find him guilty because of all this negative stuff that's coming in, and if they found him guilty he was looking at spending the rest of his life in custody," said Abdi's attorney, Mahir Sherif. "The government came back with another...

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...

MARIETTA, Ohio - Two men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints in their car. Deputies stopped Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of Dearborn, Mich., on a traffic violation Tuesday. They found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in the car, said Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks.

Three charged in conspiracy against US troops Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:09 PM ET By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal grand jury in Ohio indicted three men with plotting to kill people overseas, including U.S. troops in Iraq, and one was charged with threatening President George W. Bush, court documents showed on Tuesday. The indictment said the three men -- Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, Marwan Othman el-Hindi, 42, and Wassim Mazloum, 24 -- were part of a conspiracy that began in November 2004. "It was part of the conspiracy that one or more conspirators would recruit others to...

<p>CINCINNATI -- A local money-laundering operation that allegedly shipped millions of dollars to the Middle East has been stopped with the arrest of the group's alleged ringleader and more than 20 other people, officials announced Thursday.</p> <p>Omran Saleh (pictured, below) was among 23 people arrested, most of whom are of Palestinian descent, Thursday, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Brian Hamrick reported.</p>

AKRON, Ohio - The leader of Ohio’s largest mosque has been stripped of his citizenship as punishment for a terrorism-related conviction but can’t be deported until a federal court hears his appeal, which could take 18 months. Imam Fawaz Damra had his citizenship revoked Thursday by U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin for being found guilty of lying about connections to terrorist groups when he applied in 1994 to become a citizen. Gwin on Monday sentenced the Palestinian-born Damra to two months in prison and four months of home detention. He said Damra, who remained free on bond, could start...

Large Gathering Prays With Convicted Imam Friday June 18, 2004 11:46 PM By M.R. KROPKO Associated Press Writer PARMA, Ohio (AP) - The leader of Ohio's largest mosque encouraged worshippers Friday to keep the faith in times of stress, a day after he was convicted of gaining U.S. citizenship by concealing past associations with terrorist organizations. Fawaz Damra, 41, did not discuss his trial or conviction, but spoke of the Quran's teachings about justice and faith, members of the mosque said following the closed service. Deem Alawan, a member of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, said nearly 1,500 people prayed...

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Testimony in the trial of an Islamic cleric accused of lying on his application for U.S. citizenship ended Wednesday after federal prosecutors showed video footage of the defendant raising money for a suspected terrorist group. Fawaz Damra, the Palestinian-born imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is charged with lying about his connections to terrorist organizations when he applied for citizenship in 1994. Damra, 41, has pleaded innocent. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, stripped of his citizenship and deported. Jurors watched a 1991 video of Damra speaking at...

Bin Laden cannot be named in Damra trial Judge fears mention would inflame jurors Tuesday, June 15, 2004 John Caniglia Plain Dealer Reporter A federal judge, fearing the mention of Osama bin Laden would prejudice jurors, barred prosecutors from bringing up the terrorist's name during imam Fawaz Damra's trial, which begins today in Akron. Damra, the leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is accused of concealing his ties to terrorism on immigration forms in 1994. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and deported. U.S. District Judge James Gwin's decision helped Damra, 41,...

Muslims in Cleveland have, by calling for the removal of Fawaz Damra, demonstrated that they have had enough of the politicization of their faith, and deserve the support of all Americans. Their action may mark a necessary turning point in our country's recent history. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An historic series of events is taking place in the largely-hidden world of Islam in America, and in a place many people would consider unlikely: Cleveland, Ohio. The incidents in question involve Imam Fawaz Damra, 41, a Palestinian-born religious officer of the Islamic Center of Cleveland -- described as the biggest mosque in...

Imam Fawaz Damra helped lay the groundwork for an organization that ultimately merged into al-Qaida in the late 1980s. He was an unindicted co-conspirator of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. And he passionately raised money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which killed dozens of Jews in Israel during the 1990s. Yet Damra, spiritual leader to thousands of Muslims in Northeast Ohio, seemed to fly comfortably beneath the radar of U.S. terror investigators - until Tuesday. FBI agents swooped in on the Palestinian cleric at his Strongsville home, arresting him on a relatively minor - and...

A federal grand jury has indicted three Ohio men on terrorism charges alleging they plotted to kill U.S. and coalition military personnel in Iraq and other countries. The three men were arrested over the weekend and were to be arraigned in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo on Tuesday afternoon, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer. According to the indictment unsealed Monday, the three suspects recruited others to train for a violent holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq. The indictment says they traveled together to a shooting range to practice shooting guns and studied how...